Re: Speaking of phones ... need a recommendation

Post #351,690 by pwhysall 12/7/11 3:09:11 AM Reply	Re: Speaking of phones ... need a recommendation iOS: Great and most apps, best Mac integration, good email, best for games, slick and colourful UI WP7: Good apps, decent Mac integration, good email, best for social things, slick and modern UI Android: Lots of apps, poor Mac integration without 3rd-party software (e.g. iSyncr), colourful UI which can be niggly and fidgety, very tweakable BlackBerry: Piss-awful apps and selection, good Mac integration, good email, crap for games, crap for social, crap UI. But you can get one with a keyboard. Woot, I think. Don't be suckered into thinking that "I want to do email therefore I must consider a BlackBerry". Five years ago, all the hype about BB email was true. These days, the email client is no better and arguably worse than everyone else's. And the UI is grim.
Post #351,692 by drook 12/7/11 3:54:07 AM Reply	Answers the question, "Anyone care about non-smartphones?" There are only two features I want in a phone ... other than making calls, of course: 1. Access to maps. Google Maps is fine. GPS is a bonus. 2. Ability to sync my address book. I discovered with the company-provided BB that even when the device has a GPS receiver it is sometimes disabled by the provider. (Bastards.) But I'm good at reading a map, so that's a minor issue. And I discovered with the current phone that just because it has a USB port doesn't mean you can actually do anything with it. And it's damn hard to tell from the promotional materials -- and frequently even from the manual -- that the USB is power-only. I think tomorrow I'll be stopping at the local phone store to try some up-close and personal. I've been avoiding it because all five local outlets ... yes, five, without even going to the mall ... target the urban youth market. -- Drew
Post #351,693 by Another Scott 12/7/11 8:18:05 AM Reply	Verizon is infamous for disabling features. Witness the report yesterday that they're not supporting Google Wallet. Your choice may have more to do with your vendor than with the phone itself. I got my mom a Samsung Epic 4G about a year ago. Keyboard, Android, can do web stuff, etc. It was on Sprint. It seemed to work pretty well. (Past tense because it seems to have walked off somewhere.) I never tried 4G with it. http://wireless.amaz...nt/dp/B003ZDO2H6/ Sprint is pretty good in some areas, and did well in the recent Consumer Reports survey, but seems to have the slowest 3G at the moment. Verizon seems to have the best network, but is up to its old tricks. J is on a cheap Verizon plan that doesn't include text messages. She gets frequent SMS spam that she has to pay for because Verizon won't block them. :-/ AT&T is GSM (yay!) but has crap infrastructure and drops calls (boo!). Maybe Virgin or Cricket or some of the other tiny providers are better in some respects, but they piggyback on the big guys' networks, so they can't fix that. Maybe pick a provider, grab a recent phone off eBay, activate it on your existing plan (you should be able to do so without a new contract, I think), and see how you like it. If you don't like it, rinse and repeat. If you really like it, change your plan to enable the fancy features if necessary. HTH. Good luck! Cheers, Scott.
Post #351,697 by folkert 12/7/11 8:58:29 AM Reply	^^^ What he said. Though, if Google Wallet is a deal breaker for you for Verizon... then AT&T is also a deal breaker, since they have CRAP for service. Seriously you need to just goto the Store and look at the Android Phones. I've not noticed any "niggly/fidgety" stuff on it. My DroidX is getting to be 18 months old. My DroidX is very good at doing just about anything. GPS and Google Maps included. It has a "CARDOCK" mode, but can be manually activated with the CARDOCK app. It really works nice, used it on my motorcycle trip and paired it to my in-helmet headset. I could call from it and listen to GPS and music if I wanted. It was very pleasant. All these millions of apps, you just have to try them and use the ones you want.. eventually you'll stop playing the "games" of installing testing and removing and you'll find the ones you want. Personally: Amazon Kindle App, Google Authenticator, Google Books, Barcode Scanner, ConnectBot, GMail, Google Goggles, Google Maps, Picasa, Flickr, Navigation (from Cardock Mode), Google Earth, text messaging and the Web Browser are pretty much all I use... Facebook and Google+ integration in near automagic, so they don't really count as an app to me. I don't use twitter, period. My only problem is with the younger set, they always are seemingly going over the 5GB/month limit... glad we got our plan before the 5G limit went into place.
Post #351,702 by malraux 12/7/11 10:44:50 AM Reply	Android == malware The app quality is all over the place. Say what you like about a walled garden but there are definite benefits. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #351,725 by folkert 12/7/11 4:44:18 PM Reply	I can agree to some extent. Just as with any market in the real world, you just don;t by stuff willy nilly and use/consume it right? Just make sure you understand what you are looking for and what you want. My 2.3 android OS is stellar and works a treat for me. There are reports coming that Ice Cream Sandwich (v4) is coming to my phone in an over the air update. So... we shall see what comes of it.
Post #351,701 by malraux 12/7/11 10:44:00 AM Reply	I stayed away from Verizon for that reason Well, not Wallet per se, but the fact that I had to pay an extra fee to use Bluetooth with my Samsung. Uh, no. I have AT&T. Dropped calls almost invariably happen right at the start, or I get a failed call. Very annoying but not fatal. Verizon has better connectivity in the sticks (I have an iPad with Verizon service). AT&T has the worst customer service but to be honest I've never used it so I wouldn't know. The web site application is utter 100% ass. Seriously, it's fully of donkey juice. It will mostly get the job done but at the end you'd almost rather go back to Yahoo's new email interface. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #351,703 by malraux 12/7/11 10:49:16 AM Reply	You want GPS. You may just not know it. I'm really good with maps as well, but there's nothing quite like being able to carry around a map with a moving location marker when you're on foot. We did a lot of looking at colleges this year and GPS means campus walking made easy, particularly given how bad most campus maps are. I had a shite non-smart phone, work gave me a Blackberry. There was great joy, for sufficiently "woo, email on the go, and no more missing meetings" values of joy. Everything else was crap. Then I got an iPhone 2, missed the little keyboard for a few days, and never looked back. Visual voice mail was a game changer over "press 1 to hear your messages". Note: I had an old BB, I haven't used a touch or any of the other newfangled ones. Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
Post #351,712 by pwhysall 12/7/11 2:25:31 PM Reply	Re: You want GPS. You may just not know it. I've got an 8520 Curve for work. Every time I use it, it's like a little visit to 2005, when smartphones were ass.
Post #351,867 by Another Scott 12/11/11 9:26:27 AM Reply	Maybe this is the reason why RIM/BlackBerry is in trouble Do they hire drunken idiots as VPs? http://www.balloon-j...ose-your-rim-job/ (It's short - I won't spoil it.) WTF!?! Cheers, Scott.

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