Smartphones
 

I am coming up on the end of my service contract with Verizon, and would like to move to a smartphone.

I was looking at the iPhone, but do not like the AT&T coverage map.

In fact, about the only carrier with good reception across this area is Verizon, and theirs is spotty at my home, even with 4 towers allegedly within 1/2 mile of the house.

I am not happy with the Verizon Smartphone choices though.

Anyone in the Bragg area have a smartphone and coverage that they like?

Anyone have any smartphone advice?

TIA.

TR

Sir!

PM in-bound hot!!!

molon labe:lifter

Sir,

You can keep your service, all you have to do is buy a unlocked phone http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...ampaignID=1126 this is where I get my phones from. Put in your sim card and your good to go.

V/r
Anevolution

A:

The Verizon system is CDMA and does not use a SIM card.

Thanks anyway.

TR

I just switched from a Dare to an HTC Eris (android operating system). I wouldn't go back for anything. The android operating system is FANTASTIC. Only thing right now is I can't sync my Outlook on Windows 7 but a fix should be out soon.

Tons of FREE apps, GPS etc etc.

EDIT: Forgot to add that it's a Verizon phone.

Also see if they can switch you to the AT&T towers in your area and you may get better reception at home. My daughter's dropped out all the time at home so she called them and they switched her to the AT&T towers and she has almost a full signal at home now.

Sir,

I'm not a real nerd when it comes to smartphones but I upgraded to one in November. I got the Droid with Verizon and love it. I didn't like the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone so opted for the Droid, has a slide out QWERTY one. Haven't had a problem - every now and then an app will stall but it usally recovers on its own if you hit the sleep button. If not, you simply do a power cycle. Also, had great coverage around Bragg.

YMMV, but with my Verizon plan - they gave me either a new phone or a discount on a new phone every two years. At the time, the Droid had a $100 rebate plus I got a $50 discount for the "new every two" deal. Personally, I think they shouldve given me the phone for free..

The digs I have seen on the Droid is that many of the apps are very buggy and cause frequent crashes, Verizon disables most of the functions and charges for everything, and that the battery life is terrible.

Do you have any experience with those issues?

TR

something to think about
 

Sir,
The droid also doesn't support flash player or pdf's. So some web site won't be available and you won't be able to watch video's out side of youtube. So if your getting it to do things like that you would be best served with the ipone. I have the g1 and it has the same software and I'm unhappy with it. Just my .02

V/r
Anevolution

iPhone does not support Flash either, it does however support Pdf files. Since you definitely want to stick with Verizon, how about a BlackBerry?

DB

I guess it depends on your bandwidth usage and what you really want in a phone. Simple calling options and you can save big money every month by getting a basic smart phone that has been out for a while. You won't have cool stuff.

I run a Motorola Q with Windows mobile. I don't do email on it since it gets expensive. I primarily use it for linking to my Outlook files. It'll sync my contact data and calendar entries so I have no need to carry a planner with me.

The bigger battery gives only about 20 hours of idle time, about 4 of heavy usage.

I have sausage fingers so typing out texts to the wife (who is a text machine :D ) is easier with this model. She has a crapberry with the LCD touchscreen and I hit anywhere from 4 to 9 characters with my index finger when I type on it.

Hers is GPS enabled and does directions. I have a GPS and make directions. I don't get lost, yet she does. ;)

TR, 3G iphone one of the most complete compact portable commo systems ever devised.

I used an old Blackberry Curve for two years and recently upgraded to the Bold 9700. However, it's a GSM-only phone so it's not offered by Verizon, but I love it enough to continue to put up with AT&T. The Bold 9700 gets the upgrades from the new Curve 8900, to include the same small form factor, a high-resolution screen, 3.2 MP camera, wi-fi and 3G service. It adds on top of that a trackpad, instead of the old trackball. The hi-res screen is gorgeous. After staring at the old Curve screen, I feel like I got a new pair of reading glasses looking at the new screen. The camera takes very nice pictures in good light (it wasn't that long ago that 3.2 MP cameras were the norm for point-and-shoot cameras). The best upgrade of all is the trackpad. It's fast and smooth, and no longer do BB users have to dismantle the trackball to blow away accumulated lint and fuzz which caused it to jam. My only complaint with the Bold 9700 is that the keys are positioned more closely adjacent to each other than they were on my old Curve, so it's easier to mistype, and less handy when wearing gloves.

If you use email a lot then BB is the way to go. The RIM service pushes emails to your device almost instantaneously (occasional service outages notwithstanding). I have about six different email accounts linked to my device, and sometimes it seems like emails arrive on the phone before they hit my inbox on the laptop. BB also comes with Blackberry Messenger, which is a slick chat application where you can connect with any other BB user, irrespective of carrier. It allows unlimited texting as long as you are on a BB data plan, whereas most carriers charge extra for simple text messaging. You can conference in other BBM contacts and carry on multi-party conversations. You can also send pictures and sound files to your BBM contacts. It is superior to text and email for carrying on a (non-voice) conversation, and I would have a hard time giving up this application.

My wife has an iPhone 3GS. It's a neat device, but I get frustrated trying to type fast with it. The lack of tactile feedback drives me nuts, and I have to deliberately type out my messages. In addition, Apple's email service pushes out messages at certain intervals, unless you manually check more often.

As for AT&T, I have a love-hate relationship with them, but it's the lesser of evils at this point. At least they are finally offering service in certain parts of Metro's tunnels and stations in DC. However, deep within buildings and parking garages around DC, Verizon still rules. 3G does not seem that much faster to me, since internet surfing is still painfully slow. I just connect to wi-fi any chance I get. Hope that helps, sir.

I presently have an old Palm (680 I think) on the AT&T network. AT&T network here is horrible, and I will be switching to Verizon very quickly. The old Palm phone has been bombproof, few crashes, good calendar, easy syncing.

My wife had an IPhone, and it was a heck of a phone, but we still had the AT&T problem. I believe that Verizon is going to offer the Iphone early summer.

My wife drank too much wine, and dropped her Iphone in a place where the tires of my pickup were destined to drive, ergo we bought her a new phone, a Droid. The Droid has been great, but have had it only two months.

Many of my friends have Blackberries, and are lukewarm on them. One worry I have is with security. As I have mentioned on other threads, the State of Missouri won't let us use Blackberries if we sync remotely to a state computer, as Blackberry sends their sync info through Canada(and somewhere in there is a security problem----I am re-telling only what the state techy guys told me).

I will be going with either a Droid or Palm Pre, as both are now offered by Verizon(Palm Pre just released a week ago). Am waiting to hear reviews on the Palm Pre, but if it is as bombproof as my old Palm, will be purchasing pretty quickly.

It is my understanding that both the Droid and Palm Pre were Motorola's and Palm's answers to the IPhone. Online reviews for the Palm have been pretty good from what I have read, but I don't know anybody who has personally owned one. Would love to hear a 1st person account.

Also, the ability to use an SD/micro-SD card is handy, especially if you have one of the newer game cameras(gives you the ability to pull the SD card out of the camera, put it in the phone, and use the phone as a viewer, as opposed to spending $150 for a separate viewer).

SE Paging
 

Go see the folks at SE Paging at the corner of McPherson and Morganton; in the strip mall behind the CVS or whatever that drug store is.

I told him what was important to me - email and the ability to fully collaborate and edit MS Office files and view graphics and pdf's. I walked out with a Samsung Blackjack running Windows Mobile with AT&T versus a Crackberry. I pay $148 a month for two phones - unlimited stateside data and calling with an international calling plan. I pay extra when I use the international data. The phone worked in the EU, Qatar and at a location in Bagram...sometimes I have to stand on one leg on the back deck facing North to get a signal in Linden, NC. Otherwise no complaints. Have a micro-SD card loaded with music for long flights.

The distributors like SE Paging can broker a dope deal compared to going to a corporate AT&T store which has zero flexibility. They'll kill you there.

I have an AT&T Tilt.

Everything works great on it, there are "tweaks" you can do to it, its a sim card phone. Uses every system out there so it doesn't really matter where you are. Has external connections for home/mobile use, and I have it slaved as our home phone through our GE CellFusion phone system... basically turns the 2 cordless phones in the house into handsets for my cell. Easier to just plug it in to charge on my desk and be able to answer the phone upstairs, least for us.

An extended battery is a good thing, but I wouldn't bother unless you get a used phone and the battery life is starting to wane. They're only like 30$.

The other nice thing is that it has a 3mp camera that actually takes rather nice photos/video, useful for informational purposes. I've used it to record pre-existing damage to properties when I've been running the loader plowing snow. CYA to the extreme. GPS onboard, with a data plan and google maps it is nice having civilian grade sat imagery accessible by your phone, plus decent directions. It has external connections for cellular, GPS and WiFi as well, so if you spent time as a road warrior, a bluetooth headset and a cellphone cradle with the antenna cables going to it means you have great reception anywhere you have reception. I haven't found a place I don't have full reception when hooked up to the antenna on the impala.

You also can use your data plan on the phone, and various applications, to turn your smartphone into a wifi router... because browsing the internet is meager with that tiny screen, and it's just easier to be able to do things on a computer.

It takes micro-SD cards, so my phone also functions as my MP3 player. I have motorola's bluetooth stereo headset for music listening. Although it's a small screen, if you desired watching movies on it you can do that as well.

The HTC phones are some of the best on the market in my eyes. They just put things that are actually useful on the electronic gizmos.

I prefer windows mobile to every other smartphone OS out there. I had a blackberry for a couple years and although it functioned great as a phone, the versatility of it otherwise left me wanting. This keeps me from having to haul around a PDA Plus a cellphone, as well.

No down sides on a tilt that I can find. They have newer ones out, but all that means is that you can pick up an original tilt for cheaper.