OT: My new cell phone

[jerrod]

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Deepthroat would be rolling in his e-grave if he knew what kind of low priced cars I'm looking into.

my powerbook cost more money than my car did, beat that

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

my powerbook cost more money than my car did, beat that

My current car's trade in value will almost certainly be lower than the price of a macbook.

[BobbyLight]

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my powerbook cost more money than my car did, beat that

I bought a Honda with 194k miles on it and it was cheaper than my bargin bin dell from 2 years back. And the thing runs like it's new. Awesome purchase.

I am also thinking about getting an HTC, but I am looking at the T-Mobile Wing (made by HTC, very similar to GAD's phone). My contract is up in May so that is what I have to wait for.

And if you are looking to switch service provders check out Amazon.com for cell service. They have better deals than the mobile compaines themselves. Right now you can get a Blackberry Pealr w/ T-Mobile for a penny. But they have awesome deals for all the carriers.

[fam3381]

Deepthroat would be rolling in his e-grave if he knew what kind of low priced cars I'm looking into.

You like Priuses right? I assume you're not thinking that expensive though?

My parents got a Prius last summer and like it. I drive it when I am home and it's fine...does what everyone says it does. They've gotten about 45 mpg in the 10k miles since they bought it.

My sister would like one but her job doesn't require a car. So she wound up getting like a 1997 Geo Prism for next to nothing instead. I think it gets good gas mileage too.

[steger_3434]

Gad, how did you get that sweet deal. Nevermind the deal on the phone, I"m talking about all the features like browsing, texting, and minutes for ONLY $50? Was that some special that only you got and you can't tell us ala the Ruben Patterson story or is that their every day deal. I'd definately get a plan like that if I could.

[carmelbrownqueen]

Alright, so I've had to endure a bit of ribbing by people I've met on here who have seen my cell phone...

Well, no longer. I finally finalized ordering my new phone and plan on New Year's Eve, and much to my surprise it arrived already this afternoon.

Anyway, I've had the same exact Sprint PCS phone plan since 2001.
500 anytime minutes
Unlimited Night and Weekends starting at 8pm and going until 7am
Unlimited Wireless Web Access
Sprint PCS Voice Command
Sprint PCS Business Connections
A coverage area on Sprint;s network anywhere in the continental U.S.
and all the standard bells and whistles one got with their cell phone plan back then
I was paying $55/month for that

Here was my phone:
(picture)
I actually started off with a Samsung flip phone in 2001, but I didn't really care for it and liked the speakerphone feature my friend had on the phone he got that just came out in 2002, so I switched to one of those, the Sanyo SCP-4700 pictured above.
It was a good quality phone. Very durable. Excellent reception. Extremely long battery-life. One of the nicer displays at that time. A good speakerphone. Text-based web browser with limited image capability.

This past April though, the Wireless Web feature of the phone stopped working because Sprint was no longer supporting it (very annoying) and for the past three months it stopped being able to receive text messages. And the reception was no longer excellent. Sometimes my phone wouldn't ring, but yet I would have a voicemail. Or I would have a voicemail, but it wouldn't alert me until the next time I made an outgoing call. Frustrating things like that which started making the phone unreliable.
Oh, and on two separate occasions in the past 6 months, people made Zach Morris jokes when I would use my phone. People were especially bewildered by the antenna that you pull up when you use the thing.

I always said I would be getting a new phone and plan once I got around to finding the right phone and plan that suited my needs. That day has finally arrived.

I'm still with Sprint.
I went with the HTC Mogul PPC-6800
It is a PocketPC or Smartphone, PDA/Phone hybrid, etc.
(picture)

(picture)

I'm sure someone will point out that it isn't really any smaller than my old phone, it just has slightly different dimensions.
Screw you, I say
This is an awesome phone. I did an extensive amount of research on this (which is why it took me so long to get a new phone, I like to be thorough) and this is better than the iPhone in pretty much every way that would be significant to most people, or at least that would be significant to me. It really is not that big compared to some phones, and it is roughly the same size as an iPhone I believe (perhaps slightly smaller even, now I forget).

It retails for $550.
Obviously no one ever pays retail for their phone, because they get a significant discount with a two-year service agreement. So you can get this phone for $400. Maybe $300 in some cases.
I guilted them into giving me this phone for $175. They do kind of owe me.

And here is my new $50/mo phone plan:
- 1250 Anytime Minutes
- Unlimited Text Messaging
- Sprint Vision or Power Vision Included Free
- Unlimited Web access
- Unlimited email and instant messaging - AOL, MSN and Yahoo
- Unlimited Sprint PCS Picture Mail(sm) with Video Mail
- Unlimited Night & Weekend Minutes Starting At 7PM
- Unlimited Mobile To Mobile Calling
- Nationwide Long Distance
- Voice Mail
- Caller ID
- Call Waiting
- Numeric Paging
- Three-Way Calling
- Call Forwarding ($0.20/min)
- Sprint PCS Directory Assistance ($1.40 per call, plus airtime)

I will do my best to get this thing set-up so I can bring it with me on Friday night. That has suddenly become my top priority between right now and tomorrow night

Does anyone have any pointers on how I should proceed? I have never set up either a PDA or Smartphone before, and I have also never switched cell phones myself before. I am very adept when it comes to computers and technology and I'm sure I can figure most of this stuff out eventually (especially with the assistance of the provided literature and website), but I thought I'd check to see if anyone here had any tips that I might not think of while setting this up.

For example, I do not believe there is a way to transfer my phone book from my old phone to my new phone, which is unfortunate because that would save me a significant amount of time (I have almost 200 entries in my phone book). So I'm going to have to do that manually. What would be the easiest way to input that data into my PC so I can then import it into my new phone? Outlook?

I've suddenly started to become a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of getting this thing up and running the way I want it to. I haven't even finished taking it out of the packaging!


So, any thoughts anyone might have on this will be greatly appreciated.

I will just have to make sure that I don't completely counteract all the increased productivity tools by spending too much time using this thing to go on RealGM wherever I happen to be
But I must say that I am looking forward to being able to post in the game thread from while sitting in my seats at the BC.

I love this phone. I received one two days after Christmas.. and I didn't have problems setting it up, with the phone numbers just put it all through Outlook.

[jerrod]

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I bought a Honda with 194k miles on it and it was cheaper than my bargin bin dell from 2 years back. And the thing runs like it's new. Awesome purchase.

i have a honda crx that only had 60,000 when i got it. i got really lucky with that.

[Siefer]

Congrats on the new phone GAD. HTC makes very good stuff.

If/when you feel comfortable twinking out the new phone, these are some pretty good places to start.

www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
www.pocketgear.com
www.ppcgeeks.com

[BobbyLight]

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i have a honda crx that only had 60,000 when i got it. i got really lucky with that.

Seems rare you hear people talk about how crappy their Honda was, even when purchased used with a ton of miles. They just seem to run forever.

[carmelbrownqueen]

Congrats on the new phone GAD. HTC makes very good stuff.

If/when you feel comfortable twinking out the new phone, these are some pretty good places to start.

www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
www.pocketgear.com
www.ppcgeeks.com

Thanks for posting these.. I will have to check them out.

[BlueJeep]

well GAD, im gonna have to call off our relationship because i was only in it for your old phone

[LISTEN2JAZZ]

You like Priuses right? I assume you're not thinking that expensive though?

I would love a Prius, but it would probably be financially irresponsible of me right now. The main challenge is trying to decide what is financially responsible, while at the same time ridding myself of the headache that is my current car (always having to take it in to get looked at).

I thought about doing a 2-year lease to get me through to the time when we'll have "real" jobs, but since we will be living in some other part of the country, it sounds like a real headache to eventually return the car when the lease expires.

I almost bought a lower-end new car via a 0% financing incentive (a Mazda3) but it's not really what I want - especially with the fuel efficiency coming in under 30 mpg. There are cheap new cars with better mpg like the Yaris, but it got beat up in safety tests and is sort of ugly.

I guess buying used is the obvious solution - all in all I wish I didn't have to own a car at all.

[SupremeHustle]

Congrats on the new phone GAD. HTC makes very good stuff.

If/when you feel comfortable twinking out the new phone, these are some pretty good places to start.

www.spbsoftwarehouse.com
www.pocketgear.com
www.ppcgeeks.com

He said "twinking".

www.howardforums.com is a good spot to check if you have any questions, too.

[BobbyLight]

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I would love a Prius, but it would probably be financially irresponsible of me right now. The main challenge is trying to decide what is financially responsible, while at the same time ridding myself of the headache that is my current car (always having to take it in to get looked at).

I thought about doing a 2-year lease to get me through to the time when we'll have "real" jobs, but since we will be living in some other part of the country, it sounds like a real headache to eventually return the car when the lease expires.

I almost bought a lower-end new car via a 0% financing incentive (a Mazda3) but it's not really what I want - especially with the fuel efficiency coming in under 30 mpg. There are cheap new cars with better mpg like the Yaris, but it got beat up in safety tests and is sort of ugly.

I guess buying used is the obvious solution - all in all I wish I didn't have to own a car at all.

Have you looked at a Scion? I have an xA (now replaced by the xD) and I love it. It was inexpensive, did OK in crash tests and has excellent fuel economy. I think the fuel economy has slighty dropped off for the current gen of Scions, but they are still better than a lot of cars.

[Chapter29]

I looked at the same phone. I decided to go with the Iphone. To each there own but you dont know what you are missing!

I have essentially had both. I just moved from the Verizon (HTC) XV6700 (broken screen) to a Blackberry Pearl and an iPhone. Kind of a long story, but I decided I wanted a personal cell phone, but of course bought more of a toy.

I liked my 6700 and could recommend some programs for it, but my main reason for not getting the upgraded 6800 was the size. It is larger than the iPhone, most notably the thickness and I just found it to be an ineffective business tool. I also like the prospect of not having to enable SSL VPN support on my firewall just for my phone. The slide out keyboard is second to none. Extremely effective, but at a cost. The 6800 is a very good, high end phone, there is no doubt there. It was a good purchase if you take advantage of the Windows Operating System. This is in fact a computer 1st and a phone 2nd.

The Blackberry which replaced my 6700 work phone is a very effective business tool. I love it. Can connect to devices inside the network and manage them. Real time email and calendaring, Just fabulous.

The iPhone is a sweet toy. If Apple knows only one thing, its how to interface. I am a geek and this is a geek gadget. Web surfing is somewhat difficult on a Windows based phone (not great on the BB either for what its worth), but on the iPhone it is nearly as easy as surfing at your PC. It is very smooth with its zoom features and ability to detect (or not detect as it were) Hyper link 'clicks'. The virtual keyboard is phenomenal. I am working on a typing tutor and I think I am just under 30 WPM. Not bad for a phone with a virtual keyboard. There are drawbacks to this phone, like limited security options on the wireless and the need to Jailbreak it to load applications to name a few.

So I have my work phone on my hip which is much much smaller than my bulky 6700 and my iPhone goes in a coat/pants pocket.

[Siefer]

Twink: In an MMORPG, a veteran player who makes a new character and gives a bunch of top-shelf equipment from their older, maxed-out characters to the new character.

I was unaware of the other definition.

Personally, I'm waiting to see what comes out of the Android project before I get a new phone. If an open source OS can be done right, I'd be ecstatic.

[Mateen Cleaves]

congrats on the pickup and man $50 for that phone plan? your lucky as hell. In my area it would be like 80 bucks for that plan.