goodrichard.com

Four years is clearly too long to keep a mobile phone. I’d been on the Orange ‘Everyday 50′ tariff for at least 10 years. So long in fact, that the company stopped offering it to new customers a long time ago. At the time I switched, it suited me fine – I could easily use the 50 free minutes per day, but as time has gone on, it’s become less and less relevant to the way I live my life.

So, I’d planned to get the necessary files off my old Nokia 3230 and then switch to something more modern and more reliable. One of the first ‘smartphones’, it was never the most relaible, and the advancing years and failing Symbian software didn’t add to its cause. It died spectacularly, though, last week, and in doing so, took all my files and contacts with it. Thankfully the photos are on a memory card, so I have them, but new contacts and texts, they’re gone. Game over.

Looking for a new mobile deal is never fun. I knew what I wanted though, so it wasn’t too difficult and didn’t take too long. I barely use a mobile these days, so a cheap tariff was a must (which ruled out the £30 and upwards iPhone plan), and in the end I settled for Orange once again, switching to its ‘Orange 10’ plan. I now have 100 minutes a month at no cost along with 300 texts, all with a free Nokia 6303 Classic (left) and even my old number, which I didn’t really relish losing.

The phone’s great. It would have been £80 on a pay as you go deal and even then you’d have to put at least £10’s worth of credit on it every month. The Nokia’s very smart, and still does more than I need. MP3/AAC player, radio, 3.2 megapixel camera with flash, microSD card slot, internet, maps and TFT screen technology. Of course, it does all the usual texting and calling stuff, too.

It was definitely worth the switch. Not that I’d want one at the moment, but I’ll even get a new handset after 18 months. I’ve now signed a three-year contract, but that’s not a problem – as I said, my mobile use is few and far between these days. But, who knows, this shiny steel new handset could make mobile use fun again…

It’s not only music that will be endearingly remembered from the 1980s. A late night discussion between the two of us this week concluded that most TV weather forecasts these days are nowhere near as good as the ones from over twenty years ago. It’s all about the graphics, you see.

While the BBC had a furore on its hands three years ago with its current map that sweeps under the forecaster’s arm when speaking about the weather for a particular UK region, the corporation’s slots have long been the best. On Wednesday night on the other hand, we decided that ITV’s are still the worst. Why? Both national and regional broadcasts are not detailed enough. But, most displeasing of all, they use cheap-looking, and outdated symbols and graphics.

Modern-day broadcasts are a long way from the weather forecasts on the Beeb from the late Seventies and early Eighties. There were no green or blue screen maps and no digital imagery back then, and the few-minute slots were all the better for it. Yes, they seem antiquated and outdated now, but will there ever be weather symbols more iconic than those of BBC Weather from thirty years ago?

Simple, stylish cloud-like outlines, with clear graphics attached to denote hail, rain, snow, or sun, the forecasters stuck the magnetic symbols onto the forecasting chart behind them, moving the pictures where necessary from one part of the country to another, to show changing conditions. Of course, as technology advanced, the boards were gradually disposed of, but even when computer graphics were first used, the symbols stayed.

In the older forecasts, the BBC’s presenters used to walk around the studio, too, from one board to the next, and the satellite pictures were no more than photocopy-looking grey and grainy scans. The blue outlined map on them looked like it was drawn with a felt-tipped pen, and with the absence of a hand-held clicker to change the picture, symbols and areas of the country were pointed at by big sticks and pencils.

All endearingly low-tech, and the like of which we’ll never see again. No doubt there’ll be many more  innovations and high-tech solutions to help the forecasters inform us of our changing weather patterns, but they’ll no doubt be cloudy and foggy compared to those bright and sunny forecasts of yesteryear.