So I have a virgin mobile cell phone that I plop 20 bucks on every three months that is for emergencies while not at home. Since I almost never use my 20 cent minutes, my cash balance was getting very big, so I bought a Optimus V with it intending to sell it on craiglist or something to recoup some of my money.
I do all my web surfing on this laptop using virgin’s broadband2go, and am not a facebook or twitter user, and I never text anyone. Is there something compelling I am missing that I should keep this new phone and start paying 25 bucks a month for phone plus data?
I’m not tech savvy when it comes to cell phones at all (I’m old) and honestly don’t know what all the fuss is about when it comes to smart phones. Am I missing out on something REALLY cool?
You say you do web stuff on your laptop, but I sure as heck don’t want to lug a laptop everywhere I am. And even if I do have a laptop on me, I don’t always want to bring it out of the case just to look up something simple on the web.
The navigation is incredibly convenient. If I’m driving into a city, I can have the phone navigate me to the destination, where of course I can’t quite get to because I have to park some blocks away. So I just hit another button and it gives me walking directions, as well as a picture of the destination (restaurant, etc.).
There are a zillion apps for almost any purpose. One that I like is Google Tracks, which logs your position and puts the data on the web (privately of course, unless you share it). You can then get stats like distance, speed, elevation gain, etc. Great if you do any kind of outdoor activity, like running, biking, hiking, etc.
A smart phone does a lot of the same things that your laptop does, but it fits in your pocket and you can take it anywhere. More detail than that will vary from person to person, of course.
Dr. Strangelove, is a smartphone practical and easy for web surfing? Do you read and post on the Straight Dope with yours? Will I have to do lots of typing using only my thumbs? I appreciate your reply. I do like the idea of GPS one can carry around. It’s the web searching and stuff I’m curious about. I have played angry birds online on my laptop and I like it…
If using the web is as practical on the phone as on my laptop, I’d go for getting the 20 dollar for a gig broadband from Walmart instead of the 40 dollar for unlimited (or actually 5 gig) that I get now and paying the 25 bucks on the phone for unlimited web instead. Would work out about the same money wise if I liked using the smartphone as much as the laptop for the web.
Oh - I am also concerned about my far-sightedness making a smartphone very difficult for me to read. I have my Firefox browser zoomed to 130 percent so I can read it without reading glasses.
Yes, definitely. The phone is good about adapting sites to the smaller screen. I may have an advantage in having good eyesight, but my 60+ mom also has a smartphone and she does just fine as well.
Read, yes; post, rarely. Typing long posts/emails is still a pain. And doing web research is a bit annoying compared to a desktop, and most of my posts require at least a small amount of research.
That said, a sentence or two is not a problem. I check my work email from my phone and some replies only require a few words (even if only “I’m not sure; gimme an hour and I’ll look it up on a real computer”).
It depends on what you do. As I said, I don’t do anything that’s too wordy on my phone. But most web surfing is read-only, and touchscreens work fine for navigating the web.
One exception: my phone (Motorola Atrix) has a “webtop” feature where I can hook it up to an HDTV, and use a full-size wireless keyboard and mouse. It’s nowhere near as good as a real laptop, but the keyboard works just fine and I can bang out long emails easily. It runs at 1280x720 resolution so I get a lot more pixels than on the phone screen.
For quick searches you can also use voice input. It works remarkably well, in my opinion. A while back I voice searched for “Thai restaurant”, and it actually inferred “Thai” instead of “tie” since only the former makes sense combined with “restaurant”.
I’ve had some success with dictating text message as well, but it’s not perfect.
I suspected this might be a concern, but as I said my mother does just fine (and she requires reading glasses as well). You can also zoom text on smartphones. Of course you fit much less text, but it should still be usable. Most smartphones have very bright and legible screens, so that helps.
I like my Virgin plan because I can see the train schedule and get emails. I was like you, not using my plan much and I still don’t, but I like being able to look stuff up at lunch and such. I also can search for my genealogical research with just my phone now. I don’t think it does anything better then a laptop, and I wouldn’t want to try and replace my laptop, but I have come to enjoy using it over the last 6 months.
I also use the texting a lot more now that I have unlimited texts. That may or may not help you out.
I’ve only used the navigation once or twice really. I’ve had a hard time getting it to work right so I just don’t use it.
I would say that the text and email make it worth while, for me anyway. At least with Virgin you can try it for a month or so and then switch back. I’d say try the new phone, if you don’t like it then go back to the old one and sell the new one.
I have some friends who text, so it’s good for that. I also have the Kindle app on it, and it works well for reading when I’m away from my kindle or books.
And hey, Angry Birds while pooping.
I have the aforementioned Optimus V and it’s decent. If I was willing to pay north of 70 USD a month, I would probably get an iPhone. The interface is smoother and word games seem to work better on it.
Having immediate access to the internet no matter where you are is as significant as the internet itself.
Also, I used to carry around a phone for calls, an MP3 player for music and audiobooks, a Nintendo DS for games and e-books, and a camera for taking pictures and video. Plus a laptop for internet, if I could find a wi-fi access point. I now have one device for all of that which can access the internet anywhere there’s a 3G connection. The actual phone part is frankly the least important.
For me it’s a great time killer. If I’m sitting at the doctors office, the DMV, or where ever else, I just whip out my phone and viola, I’m entertained.
Also, the other day I made a video of my cat and dog playing with each other (Very cute). Posted the video on youtube then sent the link to my mother and sister.
I use my Samsung Captivate (Android) for email quite a bit - I haven’t missed an email in quite some time, now that I can check it on my phone. I don’t send a lot of email from my phone, but to quickly reply to someone, it’s easy enough.
And the calendar is my lifeline - by default Android hooks into my Google Calendar, and lets me sync events across all my computers, and copy my work calendar, which has been a huge timesaver.
It also comes in quite handy when I think of something to look up online - a recipe, my bank balance, the name of that one guy who was in that one TV show. Instead of walking into my office to look it up, I pull out my phone, and have it in seconds
Mine also has a decent camera, and I’ve been using it more than my point and shoot lately, especially with the Vignette app, which offers some tasteful effects that have made my snapshots pop. And the videos at 720p are better than the last camcorder I owned.
And you’ll never write down another shopping list again - I don’t even use a notes app usually, I just have an iGoogle homepage, with a “sticky note” gadget that I can update from any device, and access on my phone wherever I have a data connection. So my wife can write my shopping list and I can see it in real time. Cool stuff.