SoftBank’s XTC X01HTDo you keep your phone on vibrate?  How often do you feel it ring, then realize you’re not even wearing it?  If you said “never”, then you are a very lucky person.

It’s been a full three months since I was in a position that required high degrees of availability.  Servers would email me if there was a problem.  People would call, email or text message me for everything from resetting a database password to creating a complex SQL query for some critical custom report.  Because I can’t stand ring tones of any kind, I leave my phone on vibrate.  However, after years of feeling a little device vibrate at my side, I’m feeling a little disconnected from the world.  That said, it doesn’t stop my brain from thinking an email is coming in.

So to that end, I’m thinking a sexy little XTC mobile phone is in order.  My current PDA (an HP iPaq 2210) is over three years old and has long outlived its usefulness.  While I can still use it for writing blog entries (like I’m doing right now), reading eBooks and keeping schedules, it’s kind of useless without some type of internet connectivity.

A little while ago, Nick Ramsay over at LongCountdown let us know about the upcoming changes with Japanese cell phone plans and it’s making me look a little more at potential plans and phones.  I think that SoftBank would be my best bet, but I’m not too sure whether Reiko and I can get a decent couples plan with the phones we want.

Well … I guess we’ll just have to see and find out.