Alvin's great N86 retro experiment

I'm not the only crazy N86 fan, it seems - the much respected Alvin Wong has just started a two week experiment using this three year old T9-based phone as his only device for two weeks. No touchscreens, no qwerty keypads, no 2012 cloud computing. Is he crazy? Yes, a little bit. Is this the sort of thing I do as then? Thoroughly. Here's part one of his report - we'll link again once the experiment's concluded!

This is in fact my 4th day owning the N86, however I’m only starting the experiment today. What have I managed to do to the N86 so far? Then I’ve taken it out of its box, got my microSIM adapter stuck in it, near destroyed the SIM tray trying to extract it, had it repaired in another second-hand phone shop and bought a new battery for it. I’ve as well managed to set it up to my liking; I’ve put on my preferred theme, altered several settings, configured the network destinations, switched on the always-on standby clock, transferred my contacts, set up my email and loaded up some music. I’ve as well installed a smattering of apps – Gravity, Opera Mobile, Whatsapp, Skype, Qik, Nimbuzz, Sports Tracker, Joikuspot, YouTube and ForecaWeather.