Smart Phone

[backhertz]

I found an interesting You Tube link on Straight talk. It seems almost too good to be true. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzxLfkRFZMw I'm not sure if the reviewer is telling the truth or not.

I needed a battery for my car the other day. I checked on line at Advance Auto and found if I ordered on line and used a BAT code, I would get 25% off the battery. My battery was almost 10 years old and I was getting some random fault messages. The clerk in the store used a battery tester- unlike the old shunt testers I used years ago that would put a decent load on a battery. In 20 seconds or less, it printed out: 225 CCA vs 700 CCA & to replace the battery.

Well at the store, they do free installs but don't honor the special Internet promotion codes. So while the guy was changing my battery, I used my cell phone and ordered the battery with the promotion code. My $161 price came down to $125. Pretty cool.

I want a simple phone that I can talk with and send text messages. The camera feature is nice like just before I disassemble something, I take a pic and voila! There is no problem on where which wire went wear or how a serpentine belt is put on. The Internet is nice for checking my email and like the other night getting a nice chunk of money off a battery.

But to enjoy this, my wife & I use 2 smart phones on a Verizon family share plan which had unlimited data minutes. Seems that plan is no longer any good and we'll have to select less. But no biggie since we don't use that much. A friend of mine uses a Verizon pay as she goes plan. She buys $100 of minutes and it usually lasts her a year.

That almost sounds like the way to go. A friend has a TRAC phone, i believe and he just buys $100 in minutes each year and the balance of minutes carries over. He has almost 3000 minutes- he doesn't take incoming calls and only calls out to people when he's traveling to let us know if he got in okay.

It's so easy to get caught up in a phone scheme. For the $200 I shell out each month, I could be buying more Shopsmith stuff! <smile> Seriously, I'm looking to cut back on all unessential expenses like this almost umbilical cell phone & my cable TV bundle plan. TV should be free! How on Earth we ended up with so many channels is beyond me. I grew up with just a few and enjoyed playing outside with my friends or working at the auto garage across the street from where I lived. I learned so much. Nowadays, I only watch the History Channel or a few shows during the week.

What's wrong with KISS- keeping it simple…?

[baysidebob]

I had to make some changes to my home phone at the first of the year. It required that I get a new phone number for the land line. Wasn't real happy about that but didn't have an option on that one. Had had the previous number for 45 plus years, but no more.
Here at my residence there is basicaly not cell service. So because of alarm service they require some way to contact me. Left me no option but to change my number. Just have to tell everyone what new number is. I have noticed a drop in computer generated phone calls coming in. That is probably the only good part about it.

[spiderclimber]

If you are going to get a smart phone you need to have reasons why. Getting one just to have one doesn't make much sense. If all you want is a cell phone then just get a cell phone. You will find that most cell phone carriers now don't really sell a cell phone without a data plan. It can be done but is much harder. It is just the way things are going.

Myself, I have an iPhone5 that work bought and pays for. Had an android before that which was good but the network was horrible. I like my iPhone5 but could have survived with the android just fine.

My wife bought a new iPhone5 on a contract renewal with verizon. We pay 97 a month for a 2G plan and phone and text.

I use my phone daily for emails and it updates me when they come in. I need this for work. My wife on the other hand checks her emails once a week and it doesn't tell her when she gets them because she programmed it that way.

I love the Siri feature and being able to ask what the temperature is, weather for the day, where the closest Home depot is, When the Browns play, etc. Do I need it, no. But it is nice. Can't count how many times I tried to go somewhere and the directions were wrong so I asked Siri how to get there and it gave me a map. I drive alot to jobsites for work so getting lost isn't hard.

It is also nice to price check things using the phone, and you can scan items or take a picture of them and it will pull them up in a search. The features it has are great, but if I was just wanting to make a phone call and didn't care about the other things, then I would stick with a regular phone.

What are your needs in particular?

[Ed in Tampa]

If you are going to get a smart phone you need to have reasons why. Getting one just to have one doesn't make much sense. If all you want is a cell phone then just get a cell phone. You will find that most cell phone carriers now don't really sell a cell phone without a data plan. It can be done but is much harder. It is just the way things are going.

Myself, I have an iPhone5 that work bought and pays for. Had an android before that which was good but the network was horrible. I like my iPhone5 but could have survived with the android just fine.

My wife bought a new iPhone5 on a contract renewal with verizon. We pay 97 a month for a 2G plan and phone and text.

I use my phone daily for emails and it updates me when they come in. I need this for work. My wife on the other hand checks her emails once a week and it doesn't tell her when she gets them because she programmed it that way.

I love the Siri feature and being able to ask what the temperature is, weather for the day, where the closest Home depot is, When the Browns play, etc. Do I need it, no. But it is nice. Can't count how many times I tried to go somewhere and the directions were wrong so I asked Siri how to get there and it gave me a map. I drive alot to jobsites for work so getting lost isn't hard.

It is also nice to price check things using the phone, and you can scan items or take a picture of them and it will pull them up in a search. The features it has are great, but if I was just wanting to make a phone call and didn't care about the other things, then I would stick with a regular phone.

What are your needs in particular?

My needs really I have two.
One I have found that at my age when driving in a new area it takes me longer to process things like I need to be in this lane and make the next turn. I went through Atlanta with and without Onstar and while the I never got lost or had any real problem the trip using Onstar was actually relaxing. It told me way ahead of time what my next move would be and in what lane I needed to be in. Without Onstar the trip was a little white knuckle at times.

I have considered Onstar $25 per month can be turned on and off as needed by the month.
Garmin $118 initial cost
Smart phone that would also allow me to do things like checking my email or surf the web when I'm bored and on a mall trip with my wife.

Other than that most any phone will do everything else I want. I would rarely if ever use a smartphone (other than as Gps) on the cell network and not on WIFI.

I think I want a tablet to be able to download and read books and as a ready device to check the internet for things like who is that actor, or what is the longest river in the world.

[spiderclimber]

My needs really I have two.
One I have found that at my age when driving in a new area it takes me longer to process things like I need to be in this lane and make the next turn. I went through Atlanta with and without Onstar and while the I never got lost or had any real problem the trip using Onstar was actually relaxing. It told me way ahead of time what my next move would be and in what lane I needed to be in. Without Onstar the trip was a little white knuckle at times.

I have considered Onstar $25 per month can be turned on and off as needed by the month.
Garmin $118 initial cost
Smart phone that would also allow me to do things like checking my email or surf the web when I'm bored and on a mall trip with my wife.

Other than that most any phone will do everything else I want. I would rarely if ever use a smartphone (other than as Gps) on the cell network and not on WIFI.

I think I want a tablet to be able to download and read books and as a ready device to check the internet for things like who is that actor, or what is the longest river in the world.

I would say you want a smart phone and a kindle tablet. This way you can read the books you want and it stays charged for weeks, and if you want to look up an actor or find the river, you can use your phone to do such.

You will also be able to email and surf while waiting at the mall, and use the GPS as needed. I will say I have never used the phone as a GPS but rather have a Tomtom in my car and will look up the address and plug it in if needed. But having a map I can pull up through google is nice and it is pretty sweet to say where is the closest pizza place and have it come up with the 12 around you.

As a former android user and now an iPhone5 user, I like my iPhone better. I have a Mac at home and a PC at work. We have a kindle too. The best way I can explain the difference between the iPhone and Android is this. The iPhone is ready to use out of the box, but can be configured a bit if you want. The Android wants you to tell it what to do, how to do it, and when. it has menu after menu of customization. Apple likes to tell you what you should do instead and it is harder to customize but is very well put together.

The Siri feature seriously is really cool and it finds what you are looking for almost every time. From the standpoint of saving time and headache of searching, that thing is amazing.

As you will be on wifi for the most part, I would go with the 2G plan. it is enough to supply you with all the surfing you want at malls, the ability to download pictures of shopsmiths on sale, and you could email to your hearts content. It is usually 10 dollars a month more than a 1G plan but if you go over your data one month a year, it will more than pay for itself.

Good luck on your decision.

[wgander]

My grandkids bought my wife an IPad for Christmas 2011. If we had known we would have paid for the version that has wifi: this one can only access the internet through someone else's connection (like my computer modem/router).
My wife has a basic phone, I have a smart Windows phone.
We haven't had a home phone for 6 years. Since we travel, she has an area code from western PA and I have one for San Diego. We use Verizon for about $100 a month. For the months we're in PA, she calls the grandkids in CA almost daily. I use my phone for calls and the web.
Our new car has Bluetooth which is really nice for the phone: I'm getting a GPS with Bluetooth to use in our motor home and my van.
I still use a laptop, so we have an internet provider in each home for the time we're there.

[swampgator]

Ed, have you tried Assurance or one of those phone programs? Here's a link:

http://www.assurancewireless.com/Public ... lsrc=aw.ds

Geesh! What a link! Here's another.

https://www.safelinkwireless.com/Enroll ... wHome.html

These may not fit your criteria.

[letterk]

Many of the low cost plans limit you to one carriers network. Straight Talk is run by Tracfone with the Verizon and Sprint networks. In the world of MVNO (mobile virtual network operators) there are plenty of companies that are reselling others networks with only a single network coverage. The plus is you get cheap phone service, but the downside is you may occasionally have no coverage outside the network except for 911 service. Usually not an issue if you stay In a metro area.

Cheap options are Page Plus on the Verizon network and PlatinumTel on the Sprint network. Pay as you go gets you rates that are good for low to medium users. Phones are usually older models of what the major network used to offer. Finally some Android smarts phones are becoming available with these providers.

[dusty]

My wife and might upgrade if we could just get to the point of understanding what we might be buying. Phone service used to be a simple commodity. One now needs a degree to understand all the options that are available.:eek::eek::eek:

[tomsalwasser]

I spent a weekend doing some minor hacking (anyone can do it) and I now have an iphone on t-mobile with no data plan. I don't need no stinking data plan. All apps and functions of the iphone work but it is wifi only, no 3G data. I swap the sim card back and forth with my old and much beloved nokia 6010 dumb phone. Sorry baby I'm not calling you dumb don't die on me I can't replace you.