Technological advancement can be a pain in the .....

I leave for my US trip tomorrow, and I have just found out that my mobile phone will be useless in America. Apparently they use a tri-band system and we use a dual-band. Its great to be at the forefront of new developments... but I just used that phone in about 10 other countries at Christmas, including the UK, without any difficulties, which seems to make the new technology kind of 'bleeding edge' to me. Especially, as apparently its not a time frame thing - they are still releasing phones even now that use dual-band. So its not just because mine is old and decrepit. I am hoping Jason's phone is suitable and I can steal that (he barely uses it anyway) as I have to coordinate with people while I'm there... Aah well, suppose it was too much to ask that there be no last minute panics at all......