What kind of phone should we get? We no longer have a landline (haven’t for a few years now — Ben and I got rid of ours circa 2007, I think) and Aaron and I both have pretty craptastic phones with contracts up so that we are free to do as we please! Aaron is leaning towards an iPhone, but I am scared of the costs of service (not so much the phone itself as a one-time fee is something I can deal with). I do want kind of a fancier phone as I’d like to be able to have a real calendar on it and all that. But maybe that’s silly. Of course, we also don’t have to do the same thing, but family plans seem cheaper and, of course, then there’s just one bill, which is nice.
Help! Peeps, please advise.
life and puppies 
don’t take any advice from me, I am the bonehead who switched to a Tracfone and is now adding minute bundles every other day because I drastically underestimated my cell phone usage. Now what?
But, I heart my iPod touch and wish it was a phone.
Ok, here’s what I have to say. It might be helpful, it might be totally useless.
I have the iphone and I pretty much love it. However, the things I love about it are things you can probably get with a lot of smartphone. It’s really great to have access to e-mail, getting directions to and from anywhere, to view traffic, etc., to be able to view pdf and word attachments, to have calendars and contacts that sync with my computer, and the ipod on the phone is perfection.
Now, I do deal with a lot of dropped calls. I”m not sure what the coverage situation is out there, but I don’t even think that’s the problem so much as too many peeps on the network. I’ve heard people complaining about the 3G internet being slow, but I think they’re crazy as I find it amazingly fast. Also, what’s nice, is if you’re in an area where the 3G isn’t covered, your phone will automatically switch to Edge (their old network).
Finally, the big draw to the iphone- Apps. There are a lot of fun apps. One I really like is called “Bump.” If you want to exchange your contact info with someone else who has an iphone, and you both have the “Bump” app, you can literally bump your phones together and the phones will exchange info. I also love Shazam. With that one, if a song is playing and you want to know what song it is, Shazam will “listen” to the song, and determine what the song is for you. Very very fun and handy.
Also, with AT&T, I never go over minutes because they give you rollover minutes, and mobile-t0-mobile.
So I say yes. Get iphones. I think you’ll love them.
I texted you this weekend Sara (about fantasy football). I didn’t really expect a response since you were never the world’s BEST texter (though certainly in the top 100 — hee hee), but now I’m wondering if a tracfone even has texting capabilities. A step like this is way outside the box. Kudos!
Shoot! That was from kateandgracie. I’m accidentally signed in as aaron. Sorry for the confusion. Awkward.
No advice — I hate having a cell phone (but need one so preschool/babysitter can reach me) and you already know I can’t text. But I do love the way some people can take really decent photos and then scroll through them with their fingers — very cool. And now I’m thinking that I totally need the “Bump” and “Shazam” apps . . . hee, hee . . .
Does anyone else find it disturbing that the “related” post is entitled “A Plea for Advice on How to Miscarry?”
Me Sara? I did not get a text, weird! But Tracfone does allow texting. I text my sister all the time, who most recently texted me to let me know that Daryl from Adventures in Babysitting was in the Rent show she had just seen. So it definitely works. 🙂 Of course, it costs you 0.3 minutes for each text sent and read. The Trac would be great for someone who really does only use the phone in emergencies or very occasionally.
This is so timely! I’m about to get dale an iphone for his birthday, and i’ll probably get myself one, too. but, i already have a blackberry, so maybe that’s a little much? how much are they and the service? for coverage, my verizon bberry sucks at my home, whereas my at&t cell phone works fine. do you have to have at&t for an iphone? dale says yes.
i’m sorry i missed the healthcare debate post. i feel that health care is a right. and i agree that malpractice is not what is driving up the cost (although i don’t know about victims of malpractice having recourse 🙂 ). but our healthcare system is seriously f%$cked, and the obama plan is not going to help costs. i do think everyone needs coverage, but i think americans, including doctors, are just nuts. last week i ordered a procedure on a 97 yr-old that was essentially unnecessary. i tried to talk the family out of it, but in the end we all just can’t resist doing procedures (they also wanted to spend an extra day in the hospital to think about it, and didn’t understand why I said that was unreasonable and if they needed to think about it, they could go home–the patient was stable and did not need to be in the hospital). she had the procedure and guess what? it didn’t change our management at all. oh, and the gastroenterologist also threw in an extra CT scan, just for fun. and, after he found something on the CT scan, he wanted to do a colonoscopy and when I said that the family didn’t want that, and i thought it was unnecessary, too, he said that he would convince the family to get it (she didn’t get the colonoscopy). this happens all the time. for individual doctors and patients, there is no incentive not to do this type of thing.
as someone said, our healthcare system is like a bad movie. universal coverage just allows everyone access to a really bad movie. but, it is totally ridiculous that some americans do not have health insurance, so i hope this reform gets passed, and maybe then we can really work on the problems of our healthcare before it really bankrupts us?
Still Kate here.
One, yes, you Sara. Crap, though. I think I just realized I sent it to Sara, Aaron’s sister, not Sara you. Oops. Wonder why Sara Sister hasn’t said anything. Hee hee. I just asked you not to kick me out of fantasy football even though I’m playing like a dumb-ass.
Two, Heather — FASCINATING and I think just as we all suspected. What to do about that? I was thinking about that with regard to if it were someone I loved, how do you decide when it’s enough?
IPhones. Still sound so cool. Heather, what kind of iphone are you thinking? I was thinking maybe the 3GS. I think that’s the new one, but the 16G and not the 32G or whatever. I have no real idea what I’m talking about.
This just in: guy is here right now doing final measuring for kitchen. Are we really doing this?!?!
If you are, I am so jealous and am going to copy you, soon.
I was thinking the 16G new one, too, although I definitely don’t know what I’m talking about. I just glanced on-line the other day. are you going to order yours or go to a store? do you go to an apple store or a cell phone store?
I think you can go to an AT&T store. And I think that’s what well do because when I was looking at ordering online, Aaron was like, “Well, of course we won’t order online.” Oh right, of course not.
Wait, why not? No idea.
The only thing I can say about the iphone is that my sister got one about two months ago and the reception is horrible. On my end. She never hears the 10 decibel static going in and out that I hear on practically every call, but I know it’s her phone because we’ve been talking Verizon to Verizon for 10 years and that’s never happened before. Other than that I totally want one. Maybe when Verizon finally gets them, they are saying next year, fingers crossed.
They’re saying Verizon is getting the iPhone? Crazy. I was looking into the new Droid thing, which I thought was Verizon’s answer to the iphone. I read a review, which said it was pretty much better than the iphone except in two ways and now I can’t remember what they were. Oh! one was that in addition to the “virtual” keyboard it had an actual one that slid out and the dude thought it might be just one more thing that could go wrong and was unnecessary and the other one, I think, was one particular ap.
Yes the peeps at the Verizon store told me a couple months ago. Apparently it’s in the works.
Love my iphone… great apps, decent coverage, fun apps, cool to download shows movies for travel, ipod always with you…BUT hard to type on = greatly reduced texting for me. Fun to be lookng for a new phone!!
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/11/11/verizons-ad-spending-100-per-droid/
This is Kate. Why am I always signed in as Aaron?
Breaking news, iPhone for Verizon in late 2010, apparently. See Madison.com.
Yessss. Just in time for my two years to be up.
Eeks! Breaking news!!!!
Also, this just in: estimate for the cabinetry? $6500. Estimate for the installation (including tons of electrical work, demolition — hee hee — and plumbing)? $7500.
Hmm. Still would need countertops, appliances and backsplash. Thinking…
//choke//
Actually, that’s probably not bad. Just painful. 🙂
I know. Sinking feeling in stomach.