Tikkabik

I remember growing up we had one phone -- one of those Ma Bell-issued square jobbers with the rotary dial. Eventually we replaced it with a similar phone that used a dial pad, once we got tone service. Those things were bulletproof and would probably survive anything short of a nuclear holocaust -- they were built to last. It had no features -- no programmable rings, no voice mail, no redial, nothing. But when someone called, it rang.

Nowadays I'm lucky if I can get 12-18 months out of the cheap pieces of crap I pick up at Best Buy or BJ's. Desk phones today, and for years, have been built to be thrown away. And while the manufacturers provide you with access to the rechargeable batteries of cordless phones, more often than not, it's more economical simply to replace the phone than it is to buy a replacement battery -- presuming you can actually find one that fits the proprietary or off-brand connector found within.

It irritates me, because for the most part, phones are poorly designed, poorly manufactured from cheap parts, and feature desperately awful user interfaces, especially the last two phones I've owned, made by Vtech and Panasonic.

What's worse is that they have feature bloat that makes Microsoft Office pale by comparison. Even $10 phones you pick up at the drug store are typically so feature-dense you'll be lucky to use 20, maybe 30 percent of their overall capabilities. Does anyone really use 100 preset numbers?

I understand completely that they're commodity electronic components made as cheaply as possible, but let's face it: We use our phones practically all the time, almost every day, and you'd think for all the exposure that they'd be better made and better designed. We deserve better, that's for damn sure.