Do Gooder Press

I have an old HTC G1 phone (known also as the HTC Dream, depending on where and when it was purchased). It’s an energy hog, and so it needed an extended battery to survive being able to receive phone calls without making the ringtone its dying gasp as it lapsed into an electron-deprived coma. I think it’s the phone I’ve held onto the longest, partly because it was (at the time of purchase) the costliest unit I’ve ever owned along with the fact it’s been rooted and ROM’ed (ask your kids) to my satisfaction.

The gizmo has served me well and survives being abused rather heavily (note the cracks in the faceplate, though not the screen). It inadvertently became a teething toy for my son when he was barely a year old. After his drool got into the circuitry, it made the phone type lines of identical gibberish when certain buttons/keys were pressed, so I thought the device was a lost cause. Thankfully, my sloth in getting it replaced allowed the unit to heal itself somehow (some say “miracle,” others “evaporation”) and I figure that my phone is an example of the Nietzschean ideal so lacking in most consumer electronics, which makes it worthy of continued life.

Anyway, I don’t play any games or run apps that require a newer OS (though Minecraft Pocket would be nice), so the actual hardware isn’t the biggest headache with the phone. It’s the battery door. The phone, with an extended battery and the most common type of door for said battery, looks like this:

…which is because the battery increases the phone’s mass thus:

Note the big empty spaces created at either end of the phone. This makes carrying this thing in one’s pocket a lot like carrying an eggshell. I’ve cracked, shattered, and destroyed many of these battery doors, requiring several cheapo replacements from eBay, which usually last about two weeks before giving out a plastic-shattering death rattle. What I really need is what’s called “the backpack” model of door (which looks like this) as it’s more form-fitting. However, those making what I was told years ago was the “ugly” door have probably realized the error consumers like me made, and now they want to charge exorbitant prices to those who chose vanity over functionality. They didn’t count on my unwillingness to give into their demands as well as my lack of personal vanity allowing me to tolerate using a phone far uglier than they could possibly imagine. More photos and driveling on after the jump.
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