Owness and Phones
At some point on Friday morning, I know not how(*), I pulled a muscle in my left shoulder, near the neck, towards the back. I now have that really annoying pulled-muscle-sore-ache throbbing sullenly in my upper left back, sort of parallel to my spine. It's also making the upper part of left arm hurt too. I can't really get comfortable unless I sit/stand with my back arched and my left arm sort of stretched out behind me, something I'm sure you'll appreciate is impractical. I had a little trouble sleeping last night as a result of this.
*grumble*
(*) No, it wasn't doing that.
In other news I'm approaching the end of my current mobile phone contract, which means I'm contemplating upgrade options. My current phone is a phone/PDA - an MDA Vario, to be precise (I'm on T-Mobile, and this is what they call it - other providers have different names for the same thing). It is OK. The primary reason I got it was because it has this slide-out keyboard, which makes using things like MSN and IRC quite straightforward, and I've used this feature quite a bit.
However. The phone itself is really quite bulky, and while using MSN and IRC is nice and also occasionally useful, it is hardly what you'd call pleasurable. So, I'm contemplating changing my phone for something that works better as a phone (ie, is smaller) and either doing without the ability to use IRC and MSN while on the move or finding an alternative solution for that problem.
So, looking at the options I have, the two standouts seem to be the Sony Ericsson W850i and W880i. Both are 3G so the lack of wireless networking should be less of an issue. They seem much of a muchness in feature set, but the W850i has an FM radio - but is also somewhat bulkier. However, I've read fairly uniform negative reviews of the W880i's keypad, and having played with one a little I can see why, although I'm not sure it's a showstopper issue.
If anyone here has any opinions about these phones, I'd be grateful.