Walking, talking, taking pictures

I got a new cellphone last week. It's an LG enV with a good camera and a QWERTY keyboard. (Tess, age almost-11, recognized it immediately as the enV² ™.)
I've given up my BlackBerry, which I enjoyed, but it was old and the data plan was expensive. Now, with a camera in the phone, I have one less gadget carry when I go for a walk. I'm giving up on mobile email for now, but still want to be able to send text and Twitter messages easily.)



I like the phone, but it does bring forward a few thoughts:

• There's a special place in hell waiting for the engineers who design custom USB connectors. I have a bag full of 10-year's worth of USB cables, none of which fit this phone. I understand that Universal Serial Bus (USB) refers to a standardized way in which gadgets such as mice, keyboards, speakers, headsets, storage devices, and, yes, phones, connect to computers. The standardization is on the computer end of the cable. On the device end, there is a dizzying array of incompatible connectors.
• Related to the USB problem is the incompatibility of power supplies. I have another bag full of power adapters for home and car.
  
• Because I was changing from a Blackberry to a more conventional phone, we needed to change our calling plan. VerizonWireless presents a dizzying array of plans and options from relatively modest $70/month for two phones up to $200 (and maybe beyond) for all-you-can-eat.
  The New York Times recently ran an article about the complexity of cellphone plans and bills: What Do Your Minutes Cost? You Can’t Tell by the Cellphone Bill. Smart people studied their own and other people's cell phone bills and couldn't figure out how much they were paying per minute.
  In brief, the cell phone industry could make billing clearer, but a) they don't want to because b) they think that they won't like what we'll see.
  
  “There are a lot of things we can do better, for sure,” said John Walls, a spokesman for CTIA, the wireless industry’s trade association. “But I really think this is not one of them.”
  
  “It’d be extremely costly to put in the administrative procedures to break it down to that degree,” Mr. Walls said. “And most customers would find the necessary increase in price to be objectionable.”
  
  And because many customers now incur data charges on their monthly phone bills, Mr. Walls said it would be “virtually impossible” to separate a customer’s voice and data charges in a bucket billing plan, and account for those charges on a per-minute basis.
  
  A company named Validas will analyze your cell phone bill for you and tell you if you're paying too much for the plan or carrier you have. (A lot of folks would be better off with a pre-paid phone, for example.)

For the time being, I'll ignore the evil complexity that emanates from the pores of the cell phone industry. It's springtime here in New England and nice to be able put away our winter gear and go for a walk.