Neither. Get an HTC One. I adore mine.

What carrier?

Did you mean me, or classic? I'm on T-Mobile.

yup. I love it. And I've dropped mine serval times. The first time it only cracked the cover, the last time it was the actual gorilla glass. The lcd survived both. Never felt it getting hot.

The iphone looks tiny to me.

I was asking Classic about carrier, but it's a good question for everyone. Seems like T-Mo is on the rise unless you live in Griff country.

Yeah. I like t mobile just fine

I have AT&T on my work phone, and it's fine. Sucks in the subway, but good everywhere else. Verizon is apparently good in the subway.

Wife has Virgin Mobile no contract, and loves it. I think they use the Sprint system. She's thinking about upgrading her phone. Not enough memory for the apps she wants. She wants to stay with Virgin Mobile because of the low cost.

I have Virgin Mobile, and it's ok. There are some areas of thin coverage here in town. The price is right, $35/month, 300 minutes and unlimited 3G data, month to month, no contract (I really like that part). There was a limited number of phones available and I paid retail ($300) for mine, an HTC 3D EVO.

programming
 

Which cell phone is best for use during travel? I am little confused and I want to get some ideas from the above members who are having big knowledge about this. Basically I am a tourist and also I like to take best and important cell phones. However anyone has ideas for me then you must guide me soon.

Spammy Spammer is spamming

I got the Note 4 today. I am pleased. I use my phone mostly to read things. So why not get the biggest one that makes browsing and texting easier? besides, I have big ham hands, and this stylus is the shizznit . I'm writing this post. In my re tard hand writing and it converts it into tex+ . pretty accurate too !

I have yet to get all up in it's business, but l am optimistic about it.

http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...e96e333ccd.jpg


Lol, it's too fast for me to catch it with a screen shot. l'll try again. ..
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...8abfe8c8b5.jpg

Super cool!!! :D

I don't even get what that means.

I got a message today from Virgin Mobile saying that the 300 minutes included in my plan has been changed to unlimited minutes per month. woot.

The net effect is that I no longer ask my friends who call me on my mobile phone to call me back on the house phone.

Well, I got my new phone and am really happy with it. I ended up getting the new LG-G3 which is a bigger model phone, not quite the size of the iPhone 6+ but close. I got it from Amazon for 1 cent and renewing my 2 year contract; couldn't beat that deal!

It arrived Tuesday evening so I just charged the battery and sort of checked it out but waited until I had time on Wednesday to activate it and start migrating my settings and files over to it from the old phone. It all went pretty easy, the hardest thing was adding all my email accounts because I have several and they are all IMAP ones and I had to enter all the incoming and outgoing server settings, a real pain in the ass. The other thing is after I added the apps I like I had to go into several where I am registered and enter the user name or email and the password, sites like Pandora, TuneMeInRadio, Pinterest, etc. And I use LastPass to generate passwords so most are long and rather complex with lots of punctuation and a mix of upper and lower case letters and numbers.

Then I messed with ringtones and notification sounds. Some I really got used to from the Samsung phone and found I could just download them. I also added a bunch of ones I've collected like the one for when my wife calls me. It's the scene from the Alien movie where the Nostromo space ship is about to self destruct and the nice woman's voice keeps saying over all the sirens and bells "Danger, the emergency destruct sequence has now been activated. The ship will self-destruct in t-minus, ten minutes. The option to override automatic detonation will expire in t-minus, FIVE MINUTES. " :D

I should get that one for Ripley's ring tone

I get my notifications from Zedge.

RIght now my ring tone is the Sanford & Son song, my text alert is a Turkey Gobbling, and Email is the arrow thudding into Concord as he crosses the creek with Sir Lancelot. thwaaaaang.... thup! message for you sir!

Seems like this thread has good advice mojo. My turn?

I've been rocking an iphone 4s + prepaid non-contract (straight talk) for a few years.

Wifi on the phone seems to have kicked the bucket today, which kinda sucks -- I use this phone a lot on for on-the-go emails. I'm going to try and eke a few more months out of it, but I'm taking this as a sign to start looking for a new phone.

My main conundrum: I think phones are too large. I'm really reluctant to go physically larger than a 4s, which rules out newer Apple devices (see chart). I don't have anything ideologically against going Android, but the shopping experience is kind of overwhelming. Too many choices.

Secondary conundrum: I'm abusive to phones. It gets dropped a lot. Carried in a pocket with screws and saw dust. Carried in an uninsulated pocket in subzero weather. Used with greasy hands. I am honestly amazed this phone is not yet destroyed.

It looks like I can pick up another 4s on fleabay for $180-250 depending on how refurbished it is. I'd be willing to spend a few hundo more for something a few years newer/not refurbished, if it's an actual improvement. Thoughts?

It really depends on how you use it, what you want out of it, etc. What apps do you run? How long do you want your battery to run?

It sounds like an Otterbox Defender would be a good idea. Pricey, but if it saves you a phone,... here's the link

Otterbox Commuter and Defender series for 4s

I'm 6'2" and have big hands. The Note4 looks like a normal phone in my hand.

We have a Vietnamese guy here that is 104lbs. (I think my legs weigh that much each) He's maybe 5 ft tall. He has a new Samsung that he really likes. It's super light and about the size of an iphone. I have found the Samsung phones to be far superior to any of the motorola, nokia or LG phones I've had.

maybe have a look at that S5 mini.

CORRECTION

he has the Alpha

comparison

I adore my HTC One. It's smaller than my husband's Galaxy, and I find the buttons far more intuitive. I've dropped it repeatedly, and the kids have stood on it repeatedly, and it's never taken any damage. I don't remember what brand of case I have around it, but it's semi-soft plastic and extremely thin, so I can't imagine it's helping all that much.

I think the thing that makes me glaze over when it's phone-shopping time is that I just don't care enough relative to how much information is available. All the reviews/info sites go on and on about features that are either presumably important, but esoteric (some specific processor!); clearly not important but presented as though they are (heart rate sensor!); or presenting as positive things that I consider negatives (massive screen!) To be more fair to the phone industry: largely I just don't have the patience for decisions between subtle choices, especially when it appears that the subtle choices are in fact significant.

I want a phone that's reliable: it rings when someone calls me. Beyond that, I'm thrilled if I can do some basic math on it, check emails, read a PDF, search the web, and take a quick picture. I've been slowly gaining an appreciation for all the other smartphone perks (music, etc), but most of the time I'm at work or at home, where if I were less lazy I could have my laptop handy. If 2015 is the year that Peak Oil/Colony Collapse Disorder/etc ends the world as we know it, and I have to go back to a rudimentary flip phone, I'd be fine with that. I'd leave reading material in the bathroom and probably be completely fine with the rest, phone-usage-wise.

In terms of battery life, I'm happy to charge a phone nightly.

In terms of durability/cases, this 4s is more or less unscathed after ~2.25 years of steady (ab)use, notwithstanding the wifi dying (which I am concluding is a hardware problem, and altho there is an amazing guide on how to fix it I'm not going to go there.) I put it immediately into an Incipio case. Actually, that's a lie -- the cord port is a little funky, there's a specific angle that the cord has to be at to charge. But the occasional drop onto a sidewalk / concrete floor (once it came out of my pocket onto pavement while bicycling) has yet to crack the screen, which I'm lead to believe is the usual first failure.

I'll skip over the part where you didn't install Tapatalk to browse the Cellar -- because that will make you want a bigger phone.

You are Apple target market: make it so that it works, control the environment, remove choices if they are more bothersome than helpful.

The 4 generation iPhone was designed to shatter the screen on drops, but if you put it in a case, that design is lost.

Yeah, that sweet spot of an exhausted / overwhelmed consumer: "fuckit, I'll just buy this maybe it'll work."

Wasn't there a psych study involving bombarding people with questions and then asking them to resist eating cake, and if you bombard them with more questions they can't resist cake as well?

A phone is so central to life now. The stakes feel higher. But it's really just a piece of techno-consumer crap. I could probably stop answering the phone and do just fine for the next several months, conduct all business by email. Maybe "no phone" will be the next curmudgeonly small business trend, like the hip new bars/restaurants that are cash only.



Do you say "designed to shatter" as a sarcastic critique of the design, or is there some practical advantage, like crumple zones on a racecar?

If it shatters, you have to buy another

It's my critique of the design.

On the 4, the glass sticks up above the aluminum edge. This means a glass edge is almost always the first thing to hit the ground when the phone is dropped. Then they decided to use a harder glass to avoid scratching. Harder glass shatters instead of flexing a tiny amount.

They changed this for the 5, and now a drop is just a scuffed up corner.

Well, I've finally been dragged, kicking and screaming, into the age of the smart phone.

For years I've had a PAYG phone which was OK as far as it went, but calls were a crippling £0.40 per min.
That's about $0.60, so a twenty minute call would set me back the equivalent of $12.
Texts were £0.14 each. That was with Vodafone by the way.

Today an iPhone 4s arrived which I know is not the newest model but I got a pretty good deal, as these things go, so I'm quite happy with it.
There was no 'up front' cost for the phone and £15 ($22.50) per month on a two year contract, buys 500 mins talk time, 5000 texts and 500mb of data.
The network is Talkmobile which is a virtual operator and piggy backs on the Vodafone network.
It's better value than going direct to Vodafone on a similar contract.

I'm still getting to grips with all the settings although I made my first call to Sundae this evening and that went well.
The old phone will remain in service for a day or two until I get a protective wallet for the new one.
I tend to have all manner of detritus in the pockets of my outdoor clothing, usually dog biscuit shrapnel, so I need some method of protecting it.

I just hope it doesn't go wrong!

I also have the 4S and recently replaced the battery to give it new life. It's still an amazing phone, two years later.

I've got the Otterbox Commuter, and it's a really good protector.

My favorite App is the Smugmug Camera Awesome, which allows you to control the focus and exposure setting of the camera. It was free.

Thanks for that glatt. I've heard good things about Otterbox products. I'll investigate further.

Rechargeable batteries are always a bit of a worry, so if I manage to get two years of service out of the present one, I think I'll be reasonably happy with that.

I started getting annoyed with the battery after a year and a half. But you put up with these annoyances for a while before you do something about it. Replacing the battery was actually fairly easy. Ebay sells these inexpensive battery kits with jewelers screwdrivers included, and there are tons of videos on youtube showing how to do it. If I could go back in time, I would have replaced the battery after a year. File this in the back of your mind for future reference.

Keep an eye on that. Coming from a non-smart-phone, 500mb might seem like a lot, but the phone is going to make using that up very easy.

I'm not saying to buy more data, just keep in mind that there are apps that can use it very quickly.

Done!

Yes, I'm wary of coming a cropper on that front so my usage will be carefully monitored. No, make that very carefully monitored.

It's easy to just have it run on wifi when you are at a hot spot so you do your heavy lifting with that.

I've got it working on my wifi network OK. In the event of web access being required, and no available wifi network, does it default to the cell phone network and use up data that way?

Yes, and lots of apps do periodic network access which can use data, but well behaved ones ought not use too much.

But if you get in the habit of using a data-intensive app on your wifi, you might use it without thinking when you're away. I watched a couple of Youtube videos, and it ate into my data limit real fast.

You can usually set a "mobile data limit" which should alert you when you're getting close to your data allowance limit. I don't have a large limit and find that as long as I don't watch films (or moving images of any sort) or stream (download) music from I never have a problem.


Sent by thought transference

Thanks for that explanation. I don't think I shall have the need for net access when I'm on the move so I hope to dodge the data bullet.

Ah thanks for that insight, limey. I'm sure that there's the means to monitor and limit data use but I have yet to find it!

I have a Samsung, using Verizon, and both Samsung and Verizon provide data monitoring apps. The Verizon one even has a meter that shows how much you've used this month on the icon itself.

See if Apple and/or your provider have similar apps.

another consideration is how you're connecting to the internet.

earlier, up-thread, someone mentioned "wi-fi". in the context of the post, I think they meant internet access via phone while wandering around. strictly speaking, "wi-fi" is wireless internet via a wireless access point, like you might have in your home or at a coffee shop. At least, that's the way is it around here. the other way to reach the internet via your phone is via the cell phone network. It is that network, sometimes called "mobile data", that counts against the 500 MB / month data limit.

Where possible, connect to wi-fi (don't know what it looks like on an iphone, the terms/screen/etc), and save access to the internet via cell phone networks for when local, wireless networks are unavailable. this will help conserve your data usage.

Thanks, BigV.

Yes, I've configured the phone to my home wifi network but I until I become used to all the settings I remain a little concerned that I might be downloading huge wedges of data against my 500mb allocation.

I probably won't have too much cause to use the cell phone network for internet access as, due to domestic constraints, I don't wander too far from home.
On the other hand, when the stock market next tanks and my pension fund heads south at a rate of knots, I could have a ringside seat while taking the dog for a walk, courtesy of Bloomberg and Apple!

When you and the dog are out communing with nature, why would you want to watch a carnage? Sure, it would directly affect you, but you couldn't do anything about it. :confused:

Morbid curiosity!

I see, your living arrangement makes it difficult to practice your masochism. :haha:


Hmm, on second thought, maybe not.

Amanda gets her phone service paid by the new employer. So she had to choose a new phone through their plan. She got the new galaxy S8. For free. The bitch.

So, since her coming off my bill took $70/mo away, I ordered myself an S8+.

I take back calling her a bitch.

I still had to pay $130 upfront and $30/mo x 24, but my bill will still be $40 less than last month.

If my bill was $40 less, they'd be writing me a check.

Best part is that she will be on Verizon, so we might actually have a signal when we go anywhere else.

this phone is good. real good. It feels smaller in my hand than the Note4, but the screen is a god bit larger. and it's gorgeous. picture is tighter than my tv and blacks are blacker etc... amazing things, these phones today.

I'm used to Next Launcher from my old phone, and I still use it on here, but it seems like the phone does much of that stuff on it's own. super customizability. wicked fast and slick as hell.

go get you one, hear?

on June 26th 2013 (shortly after your suggestion above) Apple stock opened at $57. It closed today at $143.73

if you had acted on your own advice and purchased $2500 worth of stock, 43 shares would be worth $6180. 40% return.

Maybe I'll listen next time you talk about stocks.

That's 40% over 4 years, though. Dow Jones over that same time frame went from 14,910 to 21,310 = also basically 40%.

You find something that gets you 40% in one year, then you're talking.

But I only made 9% last year. :(

One should average 8% annually. Demonstrates why stock broker advice and mutual funds are for losers.

8% annually is 36% in four years. Double money in nine years.

No, its not. One would need to add into account the compounded interest.

tw was right; without compounding, it's 32%

Duh ... would one ignore the compounding? everyone here knows 4x8=32

Sorry; internet tone is hard to read. Are you being self-deprecating? tw said 36%, not 32%.

lol ... tone, yes.