Post #394,398
9/10/14 2:48:53 PM
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Yes, WiFi is separate.
Some of the phones/plans will even let you make calls via WiFi, but it's not common.
There are plusses and minuses to each of the service provider. A lot depends on how strong a signal you get wherever you are (weaker signals eat batteries faster, too - the amplifiers have to work harder, etc.). Look around at what you can get in terms of "pre-paid" or "month-to-month" in your area. No discount on the phone that way, but much cheaper and more flexible in the long-run.
My T-Mobile month-to-month bill is $30.50 (including taxes) every month for 2 GB data/unlimited texts/100 minutes of calls. No contract.
Good luck.
Cheers, Scott.
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Post #394,403
9/10/14 5:00:15 PM
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Speaking of WiFi calling...
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Post #394,405
9/10/14 6:16:17 PM
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well, goddamnit...
I gone and done it. Reports to follow.
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Post #394,455
9/11/14 2:13:02 PM
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Re: well, goddamnit...
Now and again it will be convenient to have a mobile phone, I suspect. I doubt very much whether I'll be doing much thumb-typing. There is a nice little $3 app that permits me to aim the device at the night sky and see what star, planet or constellation I'm looking at. (It would have been gratifying to have this a month ago on a clear night in Sonoma when I pointed out the "Big Dipper" to the spousette and she vehemently maintained that this was in fact Ursa Minor. Well, I was an astronomy-obsessed child back when she was cantering around the school playground pretending to be a fucking horse, and I know from the goddamn Big Dipper.)
I'm abstractly impressed with the fact that I can hold in my hand a device considerably more powerful and out-of-the-box more functional than the behemothiacs that represented the state of the art when I was born in 1952, but I'm inclined to think that I will not warm to this piece of kit the way I did to the Mac (to which I brought not merely indifference but outright loathing for Apple Computer after two unhappy years using an Apple ][+), which was love at first hands-on encounter and since that time a comfortable long-term marriage. I see this one more as a business arrangement.
cordially,
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Post #394,457
9/11/14 2:18:13 PM
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Then you haven't played "Osmos" yet, I take it?
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Post #394,463
9/11/14 3:55:33 PM
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++
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Post #394,467
9/11/14 4:43:42 PM
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Metaphor for business
Small is easy to maneuver but vulnerable. Spends time avoiding getting run over, and taking small bites to grow.
Get bigger, you move slower but can swallow bigger prizes. Unfortunately you need bigger prizes just to maintain your current size while continuing to avoid even bigger players.
Get really big and you don't have many predators. You can't really move all that fast anyway, but it doesn't matter because everyone is avoiding you. And because you're just coasting you can maintain your size for a really long time.
And at all sizes, you much prefer swallowing something you know you can handle, rather than go for the big prize that just might be too big.
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Post #394,468
9/11/14 6:08:15 PM
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Indeed!
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Post #394,459
9/11/14 2:53:47 PM
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StarWalk is pretty amazing
If that's the one you're referencing.
I use my phone for email, Kindle, texts, G+, maps, finding restaurants when we're out and about, and occasionally reading web stuffs.
Regards, -scott Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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