Ericsson T39 "Increasing" Ringtone (retro)

Buying my first cellphone was an ugly experience.  The year was about 2000 or maybe 2001 (I was pretty late to the party) and I *had* to have this baby -- the Ericsson T39.

Still today, I am still stunned by the design of this little Swedish beauty, with it's stubby little antenna and dot matrix LCD.

I purchased the phone on eBay for somewhere around $400, because it was no longer available at the cell carriers around here.  When I received the phone, I ran down to T-Mobile and activated my phone and got my first (and still current) cell number.

Things were great for about a month or so, and then one day the LCD simply displayed "NO NETWORK".  I tried everything to get the phone back into working order, including sending it to a company in California that flashed the latest and greatest firmware onto the phone for me, but to no avail.  From what I read on the interwebs at the time, the "NO NETWORK" bug was pretty common and it could be handled under warranty.  The problem was that, having purchased the phone on eBay, I could not prove that I was the original purchaser and thus I was not entitled to any warranty.

Well, that was that.  I ended up getting a crappy little Motorola candy-bar phone on eBay to replace this one, it worked fine enough for me though.

In the meantime, my favorite ringtone from the T39 was one called "Increasing".  Before I auctioned the phone on eBay as 'broken' for about $50, I recorded the ringtone as .wav and I still use it to this day on my Android smartphone.

Here it is.  Enjoy it.  It definitely would be considered 'retro' by today's standards, but you can hear this ringtone even when your phone is in your pocket.

Alternative Cell Phone Screen Adhesive

My wife dropped her Motorola Defy while pulling our kids in the wagon down a hill.  Two kids in the wagon (roughly 70 lbs total) plus the downhill momentum meant the poor Defy met its 'life-proof' match and lost the battle.  The Corning Gorilla Glass was totally shattered.

I bought the glass replacement on eBay for about $20.  One thing the seller failed to mention is that I'd need some special adhesive strips to actually install the screen.  From what I observed during disassembly, the adhesive is a thin, foam-like material with a strong adhesive on both sides.  A little research and I found that it is readily available from some online cellphone repair shops or, of course, on eBay.

Welp, I already had the phone apart so I ran down to my local hardware store to see what I could use in a pinch.  I had some contact cement in my hand and ready to purchase, but before checking out I asked one of the hardware store guys what was available in the way of double-sided tape.  Because there are so many options I told him what I was doing.  He thought for a moment and led me over to the aisle with all of the draft sealing stuff.  He tore open this box (see below) and said he thought that the tape included might be perfect.  I think it was a great suggestion and I bought this window insulating kit for $2.99 with the roll of tape included.  The included tape is thin, extremely sticky, and presumably can handle a wide temperature range (this is just a guess, however).  I am not sure if it will yellow or become brittle over time, but I decided to give it a shot.

Here's what I purchased:

 

The first stem was to cover all of the edges of the glass, being careful not to obscure any of the holes where there might be a light sensor or a hole for the earpiece. 

 

After application, I trimmed around the edges with a razor blade.  Here is the final assembly, after trimming, with the adhesive exposed and ready for installation:

 

And here it is, reinstalled into the plastic bezel:

 

Reassembled and working fine.  Of course, I doubt there is any sort of water resistance any longer, but it looks as good as new.