iPhones and iPads

[WalshFan88]

I LOVE my iPad. It's a first gen and finally starting to show it's age, it can be slow with page loading at times. I am holding out for the iPad 3 to upgrade though. I think I'll be a every-other-version guy. There wasn't THAT much in the iPad 2 to convince me to upgrade. Mainly it was just a camera and a thinner device.

I would love to have an iPhone but where I live I only get US Cellular reception which means I'm stuck with Android. USCC gets the lowest end phones out there because they are so small compared to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, etc. I have an HTC Desire. The battery life is my main complaint with Android. I'm lucky if I get a half of a day with my phone. I don't think US Cellular will ever get the iPhone but if they do I will RUN to the store to get it.

As far as iPad apps, I mainly use:

Pandora Radio (personalized internet radio)
Facebook (for checking Facebook)
Twitter (for checking Twitter feed)
Dropbox (for sharing files and media between devices)
Evernote (for sharing text between devices for quick note taking)
Netflix (for streaming movies)

I can't wait for the iPad 3... I will definitely buy one and sell my iPad 1 to my grandpa who has been wanting one. The iPad 3 hopefully will have many new features.

[Brooke]

I guess I'm showing my age here because I don't find it necessary to have the internet on my phone and I definitely don't want to pay for it. I have it at work and at home. Why do I need it with me constantly! I'm sure I'm in the minority, but I guess I just don't get it.

I do have texting!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I'm old too, Brooke and feel the same way. I've always had the attitude that even the stuff I love to do, I don't want to do it all the time. I need a break. To show how old I am, I hardly ever even text. Not too long ago, my two nieces were sitting side-by-side on the sofa in my living room and they were texting each other. They are always complaining about about not seeing each other enough, so I told them to put those phones away for crying out loud, and TALK to one another. Leave the texting for when they're apart.

Technology is wonderful, but not so much when people can't even carry on a face-to-face conversation. I guess you can just call me 'Analog Woman'!

[Henley Honey]

I'm with you, Brooke & Dreamer. I have a Blackberry as it allows the freedom to work from a virtual office from anywhere in the world, but I find it intrusive when business associates expect me to therefore be available after regular business hours and on weekends. I have to draw the line and resist the urge to check my voicemail!!

[Brooke]

I have to say I'm really disturbed by people (my kids included) that are constantly doing something on their phone.

The other day I had gone to visit our daughter and we were eating lunch in a restaurant and she was playing some game on her phone the whole time. I mean, geez. I drove two hours to visit you and you can't even give me a few hours of your time without constantly checking the phone? She was talking to me the whole while, but distracted too.

And the public in general is very rude with cell phones. I work for a utility and people are always coming in to the office and trying to do business while taking calls. Can't they ignore the phone for a few minutes? It's very aggravating when you are trying to inform people about how, what, where, and when to do something important and you know they are not paying attention. It's way out of control!

I could go on, but I'd better stop!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I guess because I'm a software engineer, even being 50 I'm tied to electronic devices! When I have to go into the office, I use Google Maps on my phone to pull up instant traffic status. If my route is red, I get off and take a back route instead of sitting on the interstate and pulling my hair out.

When the brakes went out on my truck last month, and the place I took it to couldn't get it fixed by closing time, I posted on Facebook what happened. In less than five minutes, three friends offered to come and get me. When I got a flat tire on my truck three months ago (you can see this truck is becoming a problem), I pulled up the Geico app, hit a button for Roadside Assistance, it dialed the number and a tow truck was there in less than ten minutes.

I don't text a lot, nor do I use my phone if I'm around other people. If I'm waiting at the doctor's office, though, I'll read a book on Kindle to pass the time.

Oh, and the calculator app to figure out pricing or whatever while at a store is great. Same for the unit conversion app. The best was when I was trading my car in on a new one and the sales guy tried to tell me what the Blue Book value on the old car was. A few taps later I handed him my phone and he said, "I stand corrected." Saved me almost $1500.

I guess the secret is to figure out how to make them work for you without getting sucked in to living only in a virtual world.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I guess the secret is to figure out how to make them work for you without getting sucked in to living only in a virtual world.

ITA with what you're say here VA. As I said earlier, technology can be wonderful and I don't mean for it to sound like I hate it. That's not the case at all - as a matter of fact, I make my living off of it. But, like Brooke said, it's really out of control when someone can't function in life without the internet.

[sodascouts]

I'm reviving this thread because I am finally considering getting an iPhone. As many of you know, I travel quite a bit (many times for various and sundry Eagles, lol), and I've been wishing more and more that I could access the internet from anywhere, not just from hotspots - or, in some cases, paying for it at a hotel.

Indeed, I had pretty much determined I would do it when I could get a free upgrade in October. I decided to investigate some plans.

To my shock and horror, in order to access the internet with any regularity, I would have to pay $135 per month! And, since I have AT&T, even that will only get me 4G of data per month and then I have to pay overage fees. It sounds like a lot, but if my goal is to access the internet, every time I access a webpage I'm using just a bit of it - every time I use an app, every time I use my email, every time I send a photo, ever time I stream a song or a video, even if I'm just watching it on YouTube.... it adds up.

So, I figure, I could just minimize my data usage... if I get a plan with just 200 MB data it won't cost any more than my current plan. However, that's not very much. I could hardly use the internet at all without incurring overage fees. If I have to keep it down to minimal usage, what's the point of getting an iPhone? Wasn't the whole reason I was doing it to get internet access?

So, I'm leaning towards NOT getting one now... but I'm still undecided.

Thoughts from iPhone users, or from those who choose not to get an iPhone?

[WalshFan88]

I really love Apple and iOS. I've used Apple stuff since I was little. My first computer I ever touched was a Mac, then all Macs at school, and then all Macs of my own. I'm an "Apple fanboy" as they are famously called.

I don't have an iPhone but only because US Cellular doesn't offer it and won't ever probably because they aren't big enough. I'm stuck with Android or Windows Phone or BlackBerry. BlackBerry and Windows Phone suck IMO. Android is alright but not a huge fan. I love the iOS and Mac OS. It just works best for me since I have grew up with an all Mac computer life. I do work on Windows PCs for people but all of my own personal computer usage is on my iMac or iPad. I love my iPad 3. It's so awesome. So I use Android since I refuse to use BB or WP. I like it alright but I'm not a fan of the way the operating system works as far as background apps and the fact there is no way to close open apps and since task managers are problematic on Android, you are stuck. Mind you I'm running 2.2 (Froyo). But still, app management and battery life is an issue for me....

I'm going to be getting a new phone in November when I can upgrade and will be getting a Galaxy S III with Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0 Android) and it should hopefully be better and also be a candidate for 4.1 (Jelly Bean) upgrade. I think they ARE getting better with every release and making it more faster and simple like iOS but it's not there yet IMO. It's in it's infancy still IMO. iOS is much more developed/mature I think. I'd get an iPhone in a heartbeat if my provider had the iPhone but I can't switch to Verizon or ATT because they don't offer service in my home area. That said I like what Google is doing with it and I do like their web applications and services a LOT. But Android has a way to go yet to be as easy to use as iOS. Just my experience.

That said a new iPhone is right around the corner - probably Fall (Oct). Probably worth waiting for since the last iPhone was an incremental upgrade.

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Soda, I'm grandfathered in with VW with unlimited data so I never pay attention to how it reall worksy, I've never really cared. However I noticed last week when Comcast went down that my phone wouldn't work, either. No internet, no Pirates app, no Facebook, nothing. When I went in and turned off Wifi, then it worked fine off the data signal.

So I'm thinking that if you have a wifi connection, it uses wifi and not the phone data signal. So that would be your house, any hotspot, hotels, etc. If you are out of range of wifi, then it would use the data signal and count towards your usage. I have a Motorola (Android) and how this works may be OS and manufacturer dependent.

I have friends who never go over their AT&T plan limit, but they have the most data allowance they have, and they never ever look at videos and such on YouTube unless they are connected to wifi. They also never use the GPS navigation on their phones, they use the separate Garmin.

You aren't looking at changing to Sprint because your contract isn't up? Sprint still offers unlimited data, I think.