Oh but I do love my phone
Well I did not want to be like all bragging about technology for many reasons, but I felt like it was important for me to finally upgrade and get worked into the phone world.
I mean I may be called upon to develop something for it
So first, I put in a program of delayed gratification. I said to myself, I said, just put up with your dumb Blackberry for another year. It doesn't run any great applications, and it feels like a piece of shit now, but maybe it'll save you money not having all that cool shit, who knows.
With all that delay I began to see what I was missing, and it became more painful over time
But the nice thing is, I was able to look over the phone market, research it, read about it and understand it well before *pouncing* on precisely the phone I wanted.
(The Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus on 4g LTE with Android 4.0 aka Ice Cream Sandwich)
With Xmas came a chunk of money that I could set aside for this item after all the regular bills were paid.
*pounce*
And I do not regret it, not one moment. The multiple techgasms I've had with this thing have made it worthwhile.
The display is a thing of beauty. I feel joy just looking at it.
There are no buttons at all on the phone. When the display is off, it's just a piece of black glass. That's very clean and beautiful, Apple-like attention to design. Buttons appear along the bottom row when the display is on, and they have figured out that a momentary vibration gives you "tactile feedback" that you have pressed a button. It feels great as well as looks great.
It's taken a month to learn everything about it, customize it just the way I like to use it, etc. That seems like a long time, and seems like it would be a pain in the ass. But no, it's been a true joy putting this thing through its paces. It's not the sort of learning where you have to read long PDF manuals to remind yourself how to get from point A to point B. It's more like play: if I push this button, what will it do?
At one point, every day I was finding amazing new things I could do, and I considered starting a thread and just calling it "the cool thing I did with my phone today". Then I thought that would just sound like so much bragging.
But you guys, sometimes it's just too cool. Sometimes you would want to know.
Yeah, go ahead and share. I'm still using a flip phone, so I will just sit here and enjoy a better phone vicariously through you.
It's not the sort of learning where you have to read long PDF manuals to remind yourself how to get from point A to point B. It's more like play: if I push this button, what will it do?
I LOVE that part when you get new techie stuff.
Samsung seems to have paid attention to clean lines and intuitive controls on everything from the antiquated a707 Synch flip phone I still carry to the remote control menu on my 46" HD LCD TV. For that reason, after I've identified the features I want in any given product, first I'll see if Samsung has it.
OK. Some ideas are not just limited to the phone.
Live wallpaper: imagine your wallpaper background, animated. On a desktop PC, this might be bad; movement attracts your eye's attention. But on a phone, a light ripple of movement makes everything look just a little more interesting.
I found the Beautiful Live Weather Wallpaper, and I love it. It looks something like this (this is not from my display):
What you don't see here is how the leaves of grass gently sway, and the clouds gently move across the screen; and it's all done very tastefully, very Japanese, if you know what I mean. It's subtle enough to be natural.
But the great thing? The scene changes to reflect your actual outside weather. Right now, at midnight, the moon is up; the display is a dark blue with stars, and the grass at the bottom is dark and colorless. It reflects real sunset and sunrise times.
And when it rains, drops of water land on your display and roll down it as if it were a window.
I can't wait for it to snow. Our mild winter has only enabled a few flurries. I need to see this wallpaper when it's snowing. I think I could convince it I live further north. But that wouldn't be zen. Best to let nature happen and I will see the different display when I see it.
I always imagine the cynics pointing out that, hey, you could just look at the window and get a real indicator of what is going on outside. That is SO not the point. The point is, having a tasteful, changing background is a really cool thing AND if it's going to be all that, having it reflect the actual weather is natural and human.
I'm so glad you're in love, UT :)
I worry that I'm so far behind on this that I'll never catch up.
I use a basic Nokia, no camera, no internet connection and not even a colour screen!
I didn't fully utilise my swishy phone, so I downgraded.
But that was 5 years ago now... The best I accomplished with it was sending and receiving photos and putting them in a slideshow.
By the time I have a good phone there will actually be a jetpack app, but I'll be too busy working our Call Waiting to use it.
Congrats on your sparkly new phone UT, you deserve it.
My phone's background has the grasses in the wind. It slowly gets darker or lighter depending on the time of day. But mine doesn't snow or rain or sunshine! I want.
Work gave me a new Blackberry Torch last year, and at the time, I was very thrilled to have it. It was (is) my first phone with a camera, and the camera is actually pretty decent. But I get so frustrated when I try to do things with it. Let's say I want to go to a website. Well, I click a link or something, and I want the phone to follow my command, but it seems to always have its own priorities. Like it wants to synch with e-mail at that particular time, or do some other crap. I wind up spending what seems like forever waiting for the phone to do its thing before it will do my thing. And it's not a connection speed problem. This will happen when I'm connected to FIOS via wifi. Stupid Blackberry.
I do like the slide out keyboard. I have the touch screen when I want just a touch screen, and a keyboard when I want to feel keys. That's the only thing they got right, IMHO.
The reason I had to have a phone:
Spotify
As a dedicated music lover there are times in my life where I have bought one CD per week. That's about $600 a year to *own* a limited subset of all the music I would like to listen to at any given moment.
That's not to mention the various hauling around of crates of albums in various formats, and the buying/installation/hauling of shelving to stow it all.
Arrive the mp3 era and now it could be made portable! But converting all this into sound files took weeks of planning and execution, and at the end of it, I had 100GB of files. No portable player would load up the entire set. And now it was necessary to manage this collection, another pain in the ass. And if the hard drive takes a crap, it's all gone, unless you had the resources to entirely back it up.
Well, streaming music platforms make almost all of this suddenly unnecessary. Instead of owning all this stuff, you are renting it. Instead of $600 a year you pay $120. Instead of having access to only what you have bought, you have access to 99%[1] of everything[2]. Instead of having to sample it in tidbits over the net, you just hit play and have access to complete works.
Using Spotify has been a big personal boon to me, and I've posted about it before. This thing has opened up major sectors of music and brought back a lot of personal joy of music to me.
Now. Instead of owning a separate music playing device, one has just a phone, and Spotify streams the music to the phone. Instead of buying a shit ton of memory for a device, the files arrive as needed and are played, not permanently stored. Suddenly 99% of everything is portable[3] and cheap.
When the light went on in my head that streaming meant all of the above, that the phone could receive streams, and there was a Spotify app, well that was it; that was the moment I had to have a phone. Because I knew it would not just be a toy for me, but really improve my life, you know?
[1] 99% is a necessary oversimplification. My finding is that it is everything except Pink Floyd and the Beatles and other money-grubbing greedhead acts. I expect there is an economics reason why they are not there, such as their management still makes more money from old people buying CDs at a rate of $600 a year. But I have heard all the Floyd I will ever hear[1a], and I can play almost everything in my head from memory -- without incurring a charge for songwriting royalties. (YET. I'm sure they are working on that.)
[1a] No need for Floyd when there is Mogwai. Because Mogwai!
[2] I am not aware of the coverage of Spotify's Jazz/Classical music collection.
[3] As long as there is a data connection to your phone. People who live where cell towers are unavailable will not be happy with this new lifestyle. You may have to wait 6 months... or install Wi-Fi everywhere you need music.
I don't understand what the above means completely.
But listening to an interview with Sir Alan Ferguson last night, everyone seemed impressed that this 70 year old who doesn't "get" Twitter loves Spotify.
Personally I think it makes sense. He has no need for Twitter in his life - everything he needs to know will come to him immediately through his contacts. But he likes music. And things not really played on the radio these days.
I did find it hard to convey all the concepts involved.
But yes: the takeaway is that, phone in hand, I can play 99% of recorded music in seconds. And imagine how awesome that is for any lover of music.
Yeah. I'm a 44 year old who doesn't "get" twitter. I have a FB friend who sends his tweets to his FB wall, so I see those. He's a smart guy, but his tweets don't add much.
Cool UT. I, too, have a flip phone, a Pantech Breeze II. I'm just an old-fashioned girl in that I only want my phone to be a phone. I don't wear it on my belt, or hang it off my purse but I know where it is, assuming no one has moved it. I have yet to download ringtones, or play any of the preinstalled games or even use the alarm clock feature. I purposely turned off the data abilities because they cost an arm and a leg. I send, maybe two text messages a year, mostly because it takes me that long to TYPE THE THINGS OUT! I don't have texting in my plan so they cost me a dime each. I am eligible to upgrade to a newer phone like yours (that model would cost me tho) but I have to bump up my plan to include data and such at an additional charge that I cannot afford.
I will also live vicariously through you. Rock on!
Pam
i bought a case for a samsung galaxy S II for the kids to give to their mother for xmas. it didnt fit. she has some other derivative of that model. so i was to return it. i waited too long.
it was $40. would it fit your phone?
I'm disappointed in the music spotify contains for streaming. NO tool. NO white stripes. NO led Zeppelin.
Audio Galaxy is pretty cool. have you checked that app out yet? a
No I hear their users are drummers
All legal streaming services are going to have greedhead bands that don't participate. Spotify lets you add your own mp3s into their interface and so if you need them, there they are... I think that's about all I need
Appreciate it, but this is a big-ass phone and that is one of the down sides... it doesn't fit much of anything.
There is no charging dock for it yet, in desk or mobile versions, which is weird.
No I hear their users are drummers
:lol:
Can you give me a simple breakdown of why Spotify might be superior to Pandora? I don't use either, I've just heard a lot more about Pandora, so I wondered.
Spotify is more oriented around listening to albums, or playlists that you construct. Pandora is more like a radio service that offers you things it thinks you probably like to listen to, based on what you say you like.
Grooveshark is a less interesting interface (IMO), supports album and playlist play like Spotify, but it is thought to be illegal and may not survive legal challenges.
Google, Amazon and Apple all offer ways to stream your own music to your own phone. These support the model where you buy your music first, and you send it to them so they can stream it back to you on demand. I have only tried the Google version. It sucks and remains one of the worst Google products.
This Alarm Clock Xtreme is the stuff. (This app is available for both Android and iPhone)
You figure, an alarm clock for a smartphone, that's no big deal.
Well I tell you they have thought of everything. Here is everything:
ALARMS
You can set as many different alarms, and each can repeat on as many different days of the week as you like. You can select a different ringtone for each alarm. You can set a different message for each alarm.
You can set the alarm to start at 0% volume, and slowly increase to 100% any volume level you like.
This 0-to-100 volume increase can happen over 60 seconds or even up to 20 minutes if you like. Imagine that, your alarm gently increasing in volume until you notice it and shut it off! I tell you, it is a fine thing, I tell you!
SNOOZE
You can allow snooze on your alarm, or not. The snooze can be set for any length of time, from 1 minute, to an hour. (If you set it for 9 minutes, I pity you.)
You can have the alarm display up two buttons on the screen when it goes off, one for dismiss and one for snooze. Or, you can tell it to snooze when you shake the phone, or press a side button.
DISMISS
You can also choose to dismiss the alarm when you shake the phone.
You can also have it require you to solve a math problem, or enter a CAPTCHA, to dismiss the alarm. I have not tried these features.
SAFETY
You can force it to play the alarm even if the phone is in quiet mode. You can force it to play the alarm through the phone speaker, even if headphones are plugged into the phone.
I tell you, they thought of everything!
Now. Instead of owning a separate music playing device, one has just a phone, and Spotify streams the music to the phone.
Ok, I've heard people say that before, mostly in commercials. :lol:
But you are a musician. You are also musically and technologically knowledgeable. So my question to you is, are you satisfied with the quality of sound you're getting from your phone/death star?
Lemme tell you, a few years ago I took my entire collection of about 800 CDs and ripped them to FLAC, which is exactly the CD in audio quality;
Then I converted the FLAC files to MP3 at various rates.
I A-B tested tons of different things, on speakers and different headphones.
Above a certain quality of mp3 (128 kpbs) I could not tell a dime's wortha difference between any of 'em.
Spotify has low and high quality streaming settings, so you can choose whether to save bandwidth or save your ears. IME the high-quality is CD-quality and the low quality is... kinda acceptable. I understand the high quality is 320kpbs OGG format. That's top notch.
Add: Spotify quality settings are documented here:
http://www.spotify.com/us/help/faq/tech/codec-quality/
320kbps high quality, 160 medium quality, 96 low quality. The first two are what they use for desktop, the last two are what they use for mobile.
I think that alarm clock was the amazon.com free app of the day a couple of months ago. I does rock. I actually like the feature that requires you to do increasingly complex math to prove you're awake enough to shut it off.
Add: Spotify quality settings are documented here:
http://www.spotify.com/us/help/faq/tech/codec-quality/
320kbps high quality, 160 medium quality, 96 low quality. The first two are what they use for desktop, the last two are what they use for mobile.
Yes, but it all depends on the quality of the device you're listening to them on. That's why I asked about the quality of the music you're hearing from the phone.
Most of the difference comes from the earbuds / speakers in my experience.
Oh, OK. I suppose the phone being all digital and shit, wouldn't affect the music much as log as it had the power to drive the buds.
By the way, did you see the hour long whyy show on Robert Trout?
Yea, it seems to me like the fine details of fidelity have been worked out at this point. I think all the ear buds are driven using rare earth magnets so it just takes a sip of power to make them go. Unlike driving a big loudspeaker where huge amounts of power are needed to make bass sounds (my personal specialty), because the speakers have to move a lot of air.
Hey but even that area is changing. I use rare earth neodymium speakers in my bass cabinets because they save weight.
And in the last decade it appears they have worked out how to make amps light too. I used to lug around a 45 lb amp in order to get 500 watts per channel, but now the power amps weigh like 15 pounds. I don't know where that difference appeared but my back is glad for it.
On the down side, last night my wife and I were out for dinner. The family at the next table was using their phone to play cheesy pop music, despite the fact that the restaurant had their own music system going.
It was very discordant, and I thought that there just might be an international incident.
Yes. It can only get worse: so many people have speakerphone capability on their phones, but don't even know it's there, or how to switch it on. The day they learn how... well it could be bad.
Google Maps + Google Navigation
All the phones have GPS in them now, and apps can retrieve your actual location on the planet. For Google Maps, this is a sudden blessing: hit the GPS button, and the map is instantly centered on you, with a "You Are Here" pinpoint.
Then, Google Navigation. Since the phone now has the same hardware that a dedicated GPS Nav unit has, the phone can now become a GPS unit, and that's what Google Navigation is.
thus no need to spend $200 on a GPS unit with a map update subscription. a smartphone is expensive, but it often saves you money...
Yesterday I suddenly got lost in a rather terrible section of town. The phone got me out of it, just like a dedicated GPS unit would. The difference: I was streaming Spotify at the time. When Google's Navigation voice came on to tell me to turn left, it politely turned the music down, gave the direction ("Turn Left onto Fox Street"), and then turned the music back up.
just like you would want it to
Oh and the phone's GPS unit gets your location really fast. I have an older Tomtom GPS that takes a few minutes to find the satellites when you first switch it on. I always curse at it at that point... "Come ON! In this day and age!" although of course I have no idea what it does and why it takes so long to receive and decode the signals from outer space.
Oh and the phone's GPS unit gets your location really fast. I have an older Tomtom GPS that takes a few minutes to find the satellites when you first switch it on. I always curse at it at that point... "Come ON! In this day and age!" although of course I have no idea what it does and why it takes so long to receive and decode the signals from outer space.
white people problems.
(nsfw language)
[YOUTUBE]KpUNA2nutbk&start=62[/YOUTUBE]
Actual screen shot; it's easy to take a screen shot with Ice Cream Sandwich, just just hit the power button and the volume down at the same time.
This is the fastest speed test I've gotten in Verizon 4G LTE territory. The numbers are astounding to me. (I'm not bragging, I'm just talking about the tech!) This is faster than my home internet service, and that's FIBER.
It's so fast that you could outrun your monthly data plan in an hour! (luckily I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan) (NOW I'm bragging)
When Google's Navigation voice came on to tell me to turn left, it politely turned the music down, gave the direction ("Turn Left onto Fox Street"), and then turned the music back up.
That is pretty good.
You can
control your car from your phone.
The day is coming when you lose your phone they just void your birth certificate, because the phone owns your life.;)
Yes. It can only get worse: so many people have speakerphone capability on their phones, but don't even know it's there, or how to switch it on. The day they learn how... well it could be bad.
People are being taught to use their speaker phone capability in CPR classes so they don't have to delay/interrupt lifesaving cardiac compressions while communicating with 911 operators to call for an ambulance. :cool:
That covers the good, the bad, and the ugly is waiting around the corner when people discover speakerphone karaoke! :eek:
(You can edit out that last paragraph if your afraid the idea will spread.) ;)
The day is coming when you lose your phone they just void your birth certificate, because the phone owns your life.;)
Whut he said.
It occurred to me today that this is not a phone; it's a portable computer that happens to take calls.
Or rather:
To people born before 1995, a "phone" is a device you use to make calls.
To people born after 1995, a "phone" is a highly portable computer, and one of its least interesting apps is the one that can be used to call people.
I describe my iPod touch to people as "an iPhone with everything but the phone".
I've installed the app "where's my droid"
If I lose the phone, I can TXT a certain password to my phone, and it will ring.
I can TXT a different password to my phone, and it will TXT back messages with its latitude and longitude, a Google map link to where it is, and the nearest address to the device.
I've installed the app "where's my droid"
If I lose the phone, I can TXT a certain password to my phone, and it will ring.
Even if set on vibrate?
I can TXT a different password to my phone, and it will TXT back messages with its latitude and longitude,
a Google map link to where it is, and the nearest address to the device.
That is awesome!
I set up face unlocking.
I don't usually lock the phone, because most of the time I'm just at home and nobody cares.
But now I'm going into North Philly regularly, so I better get with the program.
So I set it up. You take a picture of your face using the front-facing camera, from a normal arm's reach away; and then when you want to unlock, you look at the phone, and it identifies your face as being the same as it pictured before, and unlocks the phone.
It works great.
Yes, "Where's My Droid" overrides any particular settings at the time, and rings at full volume. Also I have it set to use a "white noise siren" instead of a normal ringtone, so it's unique.
It will also turn on the GPS if you have that turned off. The only thing it can't do is make sure your battery hasn't run out so that it can do all these things.
Wow. Impressed I am - and all these apps are free?
Face Unlock comes with Ice Cream Sandwich.
"Where's My Droid" uses the approach that there's a free version, which is what I set up, and a Pro version for $3.99 that will let you lock the phone remotely, or even wipe all your data and settings from the lost phone.
So far I've spent less than $10 on apps. Most of the best ones are free or have free versions.
When I take pictures or videos with the phone, they are automatically uploaded right into Google+, in a private area called "Photos from your phone".
There, I can look at them, rotate them, download them, crop them, add decorations or text, delete them, look at the metadata (including a Gmap of where the photo was taken), or share them on G+.
There is also a "creative kit" where you can immediately do a lot of commonly needed things, such as cropping, rotating, fixing colors, sharpening, and re-sizing.
got that where's my droid thing, thanks. I'm going to make my kids install it on theirs too.
So I set it up. You take a picture of your face using the front-facing camera, from a normal arm's reach away; and then when you want to unlock, you look at the phone, and it identifies your face as being the same as it pictured before, and unlocks the phone.
It works great.
Can you shave your goatee and drastically cut your hair, and see if it still works? I mean, for science and all.
To people born after 1995, a "phone" is a highly portable computer, and one of its least interesting apps is the one that can be used to call people.
truth truth truth. I almost don't even hardly ever talk on my phone. my iPhone is a "phone" only because I carry it 24/7 and could in theory make a voice call over GSM instead of 3G and receive texts at a personal identifying code (a "fone num ber" whatever that means) regardless of what service or device the person trying to contact me uses.
my iPhone is not used in a way even remotely recognizable as a phone more than ten or fifteen years ago, except for the infrequent occasions I'm actually forced to resort to talking into it, when old people or businesses resort to demanding to hear my voice by making me talk into it in response to them talking into their computers.
Phones are a strange and confusing phenomenon. I don't understand the fascination some people have with demanding remote verbal conversations when instant options like email and SMS text messaging are available.
I almost don't even hardly ever talk on my phone
With phrases like that, I can't blame you. One phone call could take all day! ;)
I prefer text myself, I hate talking on the phone in part because my hearing is so bad but my desire not to be in uncontrolled social situations plays into it. The phone is a very recent phenomena here. The first system in the late thirties was orphaned due to low population and phones did not return until the mid-fifties. I think phones were just a temporary technology that did help the leap into the information age but could well be on their way out. I find the new tech fascinating but don't really want it in my life. I adopt what I have to to stay in touch with my kids.
You're like some kind of Austrian monk.
With phrases like that, I can't blame you. One phone call could take all day! ;)
HA!
I prefer text myself ~snip~ my hearing is so bad ...
I adopt what I have to to stay in touch with my kids.
Right there with ya
I have an Android tablet I use for work, so it only makes sense that I continue to own an iPhone, even though I love it anyway.
There is so little Internet to this house. But I am in Verizon 4G territory, and so the phone keeps me wired. I depend on it like a teddy bear. Today I TXTd, eMaild, and voice-called J, which helped get some things done as well as to have human moments with her. The Token 888 number emailed me a voice mail from a potential client; I called him back using the hands free earphones, the ones that came with the phone; they're pretty good, actually. I listened to the Adam Carolla podcast and now I'm listening to - what else - Mogwai, on Spotify.
Because Mogwai!
So it has been a tremendous boon, except for keeping it charged during all this. The big screen and 4G combination eats up the battery pretty fast. In the long run, this can be solved with an extended battery, or now they have special
external battery packs that you can use to charge your battery or run your phone.
Heh heh heh OMG
I connected this desktop computer to the Internet using the phone.
Using an app called easytether and 15 minutes of setup, I am browsing the Cellar via the Verizon 4G network. On a desktop computer.
OMG. OMG. We're not supposed to do this!!!
See, you're supposed to pay extra per month, and perhaps buy Verizon's tethering modem, if you want to connect something other than a phone to the Internet via 4G.
But people on forums are saying they are doing it without punishment, as long as they stay under 2GB of usage.
IT FEELS GOOD TO BE A GANGSTA.
I did the same sort of thing last week with my mobile, a local sim-card and data bundle and my netbook in Uzbekistan. This meant I could Skype Best Beloved at home as much as I wanted instead of feeling a little, uh, constrained, by the £1.60/minute mobile phone roaming charges on my UK sim, or the hotel wifi available only in the lobby, or the hotel landline phone charges in my room. Instead I spent USD16 for the week, and even then bought way too much data. Could easily have got away with USD10. Technology is teh awesome.
For those human moments, BB and I have found that playing games over Skype is nice, it means you can relax and just chit chat instead of thinking you must say Important and Significant Things because you are Making a Phone Call (am I showing my age here?).
Yes, and mine.
Nice move, wtg.
So, UT, have you done any development? I'm working on a modest Android app. It's been an interesting experience, given my background as a casual perl kludger, to go all java.
Is your phone rooted? If so you may have even more options for the tethering.
I would like to develop for it, but I fear I won't be motivated without someone asking for it... although nobody will ask for it if I haven't developed something already... hmmm.
So far I've gotten everything I've ever needed without root and I imagine part of that is because this is a pure ICS experience. No vendor cruft.
Last year our daughter was playing in a softball league with no scoreboard. We were looking for a good scorekeeping app and didn't find one. So I wrote one. I'm refining a bit this year... going to throw it out and see if anybody bites.
UT, and others
I am on the edge of deciding to buy a new phone. The one I'm looking at is the HTC Evo V 4G, from Virgin Mobile. Because of Virgin Mobile. They have a pay as you go no contract minimum voice minutes, unlimited text and unlimited data plan starting at $35 per month. And that phone up there has Ice Cream Sandwich.
What do you think of the phone, the carrier, etc? I can make room in my budget for a fixed $35/month. And having a phone again would be nice, would make my life a bit easier and the lives of some of those dear to me easier.
It's a combination of things
-> Virgin Mobile is Sprint
-> The HTC Evo V 4G is the HTC EVO 3D, released a year ago
-> The HTC Evo V 4G uses the WiMax network for its 4G speed capability. It cannot do LTE.
-> Sprint first went with WiMax, but stopped as LTE is a better choice of 4G speed technology.
-> WiMax may not be available to Virgin Mobile beyond 2012. I don't know if they have a contract for it past that... and Sprint is running away from WiMax as fast as it possibly can. And the company that runs the WiMax network is expected to fail at some point.
Bottom line: they offer these prices and plans strategically. In this case it's because this phone will inevitably [strike]change back into a pumpkin[/strike] be a 3G phone only. So when the ads scream at you "4G!!!* ... [size=1]*where available[/size]", they mean 3G and a phone whose value will drop to zero in six months.
Does that really matter? Depends on what you want to do. No Apple phone can do 4G networking, at least for another few months. Sprint is only just now turning up its LTE network. If you find you like fast data you can then buy another phone. (!) On the other hand, new streaming services such as Spotify are the wave of the future. LTE is like having WiFi wherever you go and that is an awesome thing, but at the same time, you can have a pretty nice life without it... ask everybody.
I don't know anything about that phone, but my wife has that $35 Virgin Mobile plan and loves it.
The data is claimed to be unlimited, but I'm not sure if that's true. Perhaps it's unlimited, but you only get so much per month at the higher speeds, and then once you exceed that amount, you get dropped down to lower speeds for an unlimited amount.
In any event, my wife doesn't stream video or music on the phone, and she hasn't run into any problems with hitting any limits. She spends all day on her phone on FB and Words with Friends and texting and stuff like that. I think it's when you start streaming a lot that you might run into problems.
She has the LG Optimus Slider and it's pretty good, although the camera isn't anything special and the battery barely lasts a day. But the slide out keyboard kicks ass. Or you can type on the screen if you are so inclined.
thanks guys!
I have this phone now. Next step is to install/configure Google Voice so I can talk via data and conserve the strictly limited voice minutes. This phone does have some very nice features, including the ability to be a hotspot for up to five devices. Woot!
The personal hotspot thing is teh ossome! I've got that on my Nokia C8 (though I had to pay a little for the software). It'll transform my accommodations choices when I'm travelling to the 'stans as I'll no longer feel constrained to stay in the business hotels that say they offer wifi (and often don't)!
I am currently striving mightily to bend google voice and sipdroid to my will. I want to send and receive calls over my unlimited data connection, not over my limited "minutes" connection.
Gah.
I am currently researching phones and plans.
I have AT&T now and have for years. I am due for an upgrade on all three phones. My wife is looking at switching to Verizon.
They both offer a lot of phones and packages.
IMO, AT&T is in the lead right now. Decisions are on hold until I get home and see what kind of signal improvements have been made. I always use my phone but never seem to look at the signal bars.
We shall see. I may need to install a cell signal amplifier.
Phones are not chosen but I kind of like the Samsung Galaxy. My needs are quite different than hers.
More to follow, but I am rereading everything UT has posted.
Tonight I listen to
Holy Fuck on Spotify and it calms me, clarifies me.
I am for the last night, away from home. Holy Fuck provides me with a musical outlet that can bring me clarity. It is joyful. It is centering. It is home.
still don't have google voice and some SIP provider dialed in on my phone so I can make voip calls on my unlimited data plan. I am open to suggestions by any and all as to how to do this. I've read the threads in the android fora and it's not ... I'm doing something wrong. Or I'm doing many things wrong. But I could use some help. Anybody?
Between a Father's Day sale and a contract renewal, I ended up with a free HTC One S, my first new phone in probably 5 years.
I'm liking it way more than I thought I would.
I'm making the big switch from Apple to Android as soon as the phone I want becomes available. I've had an iPhone 3GS since they came out with AT&T and am eligible for an upgraded phone. So, after careful consideration and research I've decided to go with the new Samsung Galaxy sIII. Only problem is they still aren't available from my carrier, AT&T at least at the stores; I could preorder one and it might arrive before the stores get theirs but ordering on line is a hassle if you don't want your plan to change. I'm grandfathered in with the old unlimited data plan and a 200 text message/month for $5 which is all I need. So I guess I will just have to wait a week or 2 more. :right:
<--- Has a $10 cell phone that can be used as a phone, with NO hyper-expensive monthly plan (buys minutes as needed). Is happy. :cool:
chris you seem like a more of an Android sort.
Now not only do you have to hope that your carrier gets them on the market, you have to hope that Apple doesn't file an injunction to stop them from being sold in the US at all.
Which they have now done to my Galaxy Nexus and to a Samsung tablet.
Traded in my Iphone and bought the Galaxy III yesterday, I have to say that this is one awesome phone. I really like the way it syncs up with my Asus Tablet. The Kies media sync software that is free from Samsung is a bit easier to use than itunes was with the Iphone. All the apps that really meant anything to me are available on google play. The phone is so much more customizable, it's crazy. I think It will take me a long time to really learn the ins and outs. I like it a lot.
Steve Jobs is dead, and the iPhone inventor left Apple to make thermostats, so since Apple knows they don't have any more killer gadgets in the pipeline, they are turning to litigation for a profit. It's sad to see such a formerly innovative company going down the drain.
Buy those Androids while you still can, because if a jury in Apple's backyard decides that the Androids look like the iPods, it's over.
chris you seem like a more of an Android sort.
Now not only do you have to hope that your carrier gets them on the market, you have to hope that Apple doesn't file an injunction to stop them from being sold in the US at all. Which they have now done to my Galaxy Nexus and to a Samsung tablet.
My very first computer (after my Radio Shack Tandy model) was the little Mac that was the one piece unit with the floppy drive in the front. I think it was about 1986. I used until it died and in the mid 90's got an Apple Power Mac just before the G3 came out.
I eventually switched to Windows based PCs because I could build really fast and powerful machines to suite my needs much cheaper then with Apple and I could get copies of lots of software through my wife's company and their developers license. I just switched platforms on all of my Adobe products as I upgraded them.
I had wanted tablet and was leaning towards the Asus T200 series that was out after Christmas but it was backordered and there were issues with the GPS and wifi so I just waited for the TF700 to come out and love it. The phone was just in need of replacing and I figured I would go all Android. I'm still learning both devices but so far love them. I got the keyboard dock for the tablet and plan to take it when I go to Australia in September and leave the laptop at home.
Every time I research cell phones and cell phone plans, it makes me wish I could avoid paying any of the companies involved. But I still want to be a functioning member of society.
I've been happily contract free for a while, but I think I could pay substantially less with a smart phone and Line2 than I do now with two prepaid phones (work + pleasure.)
Anyone have experience using a smart phone on a prepaid plan? I don't really care about data -- I'd rather use a real computer. If those of you who are on top of such things were to buy a new phone next week, what would it be?
My wife has an LG Optimus slider on the Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan. It's pretty cheap for the phone, which does pretty much everything, and the service is good. (Although she encountered a lot of dead zones up in Maine along the coast.). Overall, she loves the phone and service. I do too, but think the camera is lame.
You can get the iPhone now on the cheap Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan, but it's VERY expensive.
If you don't care about data, you don't care about a smart phone, because that's what it is. But you might care about data after all, once you realize all that you can do...
...last month I played out with the cover band for a private party, and we suddenly got thunderstorm'd on. I went to the My-Cast weather app, and showed everyone the moving radar screen that said we were currently in a thunderstorm but that it would be completely over in 30 minutes with no further storms behind it. The storm passed and we went back on with lightning in the distance, knowing it was headed the other way.
If you don't care about data, you don't care about a smart phone, ..
This is me. If I could dump my cell phone altogether I'd do it, but people (read wife and cow-orkers) think I need to be reached.
Keep forgetting to turn it on until they get used to the idea they can't reach you. They'll soon find out they really don't have a reason to most of the time.
Then dump the phone.
Or every time you answer snarl, spit, and swear, until they stop calling.
Then dump the phone.
;)
My wife has an LG Optimus slider on the Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan. It's pretty cheap for the phone, which does pretty much everything, and the service is good. (Although she encountered a lot of dead zones up in Maine along the coast.). Overall, she loves the phone and service. I do too, but think the camera is lame.
You can get the iPhone now on the cheap Virgin Mobile pre-paid plan, but it's VERY expensive.
Amanda needs a new phone, and is considering Virgin with that same phone.
Another problem with the phone is you need to keep an eye on the battery consumption.
You can turn a couple things off and extend the battery so it lasts a day, but if you have GPS constantly running and some other stuff it can drain in just 6 hours or so. You can Google the issue to see what you should turn off to extend battery life. Once she did that, it worked fine. I forget what exactly she disabled, but she doesn't miss it, whatever it was.
So those are my two complaints with the phone. Camera is lame and battery could be bigger. But everything else is good.
Finally have got my new phone up and running after it taking a fortnight to get a microSIM from my provider (hello Vodafone, crap service is your middle name!). And now, I likee! I finally abandoned Nokia and got a Samsung Galaxy SIII. Smooooooth.
Samsung Galaxy SIII. Smooooooth.
Nice. I want that one next.
The next Nexus phone is going to be an LG... consider that one as well
Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) is on my phone for the last month, and it gets better and better.
With full Google integration, if I look up a location on Maps in Chrome, a few minutes later the phone will have suggestions on what the traffic is like and how long it will take to get there.
The phone is trying to guess where I want to go and what my business is there. It has worked out that the Pawn Shop is a regular destination where I stay for a while, and it knows that The Pub is where I go for a half-hour. So it tells me the
traffic to the Pawn Shop, but it tells me the
hours for The Pub.
Google Now is the app bringing up this information. It gives you "cards" for places it thinks you are interested in. Right now there are cards for The Pub and Pawn Shop but also for Molly Macguire's. I haven't been to Molly's for a while, don't have a contact for them, but a friend txt'd me from there two weeks ago. Holy fuck!
Voice has caught up with Siri. "Navigate to the Colonial Theater in Phoenixville" -> one click later, the phone is in the Navigation app giving turn-by-turn directions to the correct destination. More and more voice stuff just works.
When will it be able to give me Tea. Earl Grey. Hot?
Also, I can now turn the phone into a mobile WiFi hotspot with one click. This has been enormously useful when taking the laptop on the road. Don't have WiFi? S'ok, the phone has it.
When will it be able to give me Tea. Earl Grey. Hot?
That was the 24th Century. Now ask it a question from the 21st Century. Open the pod bay door.
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.
I believe Watson (from Jeopary) could answer that. Can Siri?
Why is it called iPhone. But only called YouTube? Why not have a Uphone? Or is that not good English.
iphones are for narcissists. youtube promotes generosity of spirit. or something.
I want a mePhone. And a meTube. meNetwork. mePad. mePod. meTunes. meCloud.
Me me me!
I put an event for today at noon on my Google calendar and I specified an address. The event is 45 minutes away. My phone just notified me that, under current traffic conditions, I should leave now if I want to get there on time.
Google calendar is great. Gmail is teh suxxor.
Sent by thought transference.
I put an event for today at noon on my Google calendar and I specified an address. The event is 45 minutes away. My phone just notified me that, under current traffic conditions, I should leave now if I want to get there on time.
I'm torn. This
is clever, but it's kind of creeping me out.
Just synced a local (descriptional, rather than GPS based) address database via Google Drive with an app on my phone. CooOOOLio.