incre, that sounds so terrible that I really think you need to guide us into the mental space from which this brave machine appeared, as you put it, 'so promising'.
Specifically: what did it promise? How? And does it have any redeeming features?
It's promise lay in its minimalism, combined with its use of modern technologies. (it's also very cheap!)
It may be only able display six letters on screen at once, but it does so with an e-ink display, which is just, in fact, like one of those old-fashioned lcd displays (that is to say it's not based on pixels, but shapes that it can either make visible or not), only it's slightly crisper. Ideally it might have quite a good battery life as well, because it only takes power to *change* the display (this is why it's so good for e-books).
It doesn't have a camera. It allows me to phone people and make calls: that's it. I *really* appreciate that the phone only does these two things. In some senses, I wouldn't entirely regret purchasing the phone in that it might encourage more companies to make phones that are just phones.
It was also bought on impulse, along with a certain tshirt, another rather ill-advised decision:
(it hums rather loudly).
My phone ideals are either minimal, as indicated above, or iPhonish, only with a decent hard-disk. Neither, as of yet, exists.
