new phone...

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

trying to decide on a phone to get, any suggestions?

most important thing is it has to be GSM/quad band so it'll work overseas, besides that I want more advanced features like internet and MP3 player. preferrably it should have decent battery life. GPS is also a good thing as I get lost driving often

I was going for the Blackberry Storm but that's had some not so great reviews, so need to find something else. the Droid also looks cool but as far as I know, it's not GSM. also, no iPhone.

anyway back to looking around, if anyone has ideas, they're welcome... we're with Verizon btw.

Edited November 6, 2009 by xforeverxmetalx

[marshac]

Verizon has this same phone, but i just got a HTC Touch Pro2 worldband phone from Sprint. It has much everything you asked for. :)

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

that one looks pretty cool, thanks :] I'll go with that one for now and see if I can find anything better.

[FunkyTown]

I have had the opportunity to use most devices in the BlackBerry range. I began several years ago using the 8700, which was my favourite device for a very long time. When I finally had to replace it, I was very sad as I am not a 'Bells and whistles' kind of guy. From there, we moved to the 8300, which was okay, and the Bold and the Storm. The Bold ended up being an old standby, but I still wished for the robustness of the 8700.

Then, I got my new favourite device: The 8520. This is a stripped down device that can run quad-band.

Don't get me wrong: This is a business-oriented device. It's robust, with solid programming and will get you where you want to go. If you want something with simple media playing capability without all the bells and whistles, this is what you want.

Otherwise, go for the 9700. It's got all the bells and whistles and, to its credit, is running a metal instead of plastic skeleton. If you want something with all the multi-media, a higher MP camera and such, the 9700 is the way to go.

But if you're looking for a tough, simple, well made phone, get the 8520.

[Mahone]

<snip>also, no iPhone <snip>

Any particular reason why?

[Bini]

I have a Blackberry Bold and I love it. My next choice would be an iPhone.

[Guest]

Any particular reason why?

Probably because it doesn't run on Verizon. Unfortunate. Because, I LOVE MY IPHONE! I have to be careful not to love it too much because if the house burns down I have to be able to save my husband first before I save my phone.

[Misshalfway]

It's all about the Iphone baby! Don't listen to all those false notions in the fallen PC world! Go to the Mac store and partake of the fruit!

[FunkyTown]

The iPhone is great. If you're a thirteen year old girl who wants style over substance.

[Guest]

The iPhone is great. If you're a thirteen year old girl who wants style over substance.

You're on my "bad people" list now FT! Boo!

[Misshalfway]

The iPhone is great. If you're a thirteen year old girl who wants style over substance.

Oh the blindness of the children of men!

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

I have had the opportunity to use most devices in the BlackBerry range. I began several years ago using the 8700, which was my favourite device for a very long time. When I finally had to replace it, I was very sad as I am not a 'Bells and whistles' kind of guy. From there, we moved to the 8300, which was okay, and the Bold and the Storm. The Bold ended up being an old standby, but I still wished for the robustness of the 8700.

Then, I got my new favourite device: The 8520. This is a stripped down device that can run quad-band.

Don't get me wrong: This is a business-oriented device. It's robust, with solid programming and will get you where you want to go. If you want something with simple media playing capability without all the bells and whistles, this is what you want.

Otherwise, go for the 9700. It's got all the bells and whistles and, to its credit, is running a metal instead of plastic skeleton. If you want something with all the multi-media, a higher MP camera and such, the 9700 is the way to go.

But if you're looking for a tough, simple, well made phone, get the 8520.

thanks, I'll look into those.

edit: doesn't look like either the 9700 or 8520 is available on Verizon, or else I'm missing something. though the Storm2 looks pretty good.

Any particular reason why?

it's from Apple. I'm pretty much sick of the craze behind most Apple products... particularly iPods [too many people call ALL MP3 players iPods] as well as the iPhone everyone seems to either have or want. not that they're necessarily bad products [though the iPod shuffle I had years ago quit working in a couple months]... and often they're more expensive than other similar brands. so I'll go with other brands, especially products people say are iPod killers I miss my Zune, 120GB and I lost it, after overturning the entire house multiple times it seems to have walked off /off topic rant

Edited November 6, 2009 by xforeverxmetalx

[Mahone]

I'm familiar with both blackberries and iphones. I personally much prefer the iphone. I'm not an apple fanboy by any definition of the phrase, however the iphone is definitely one of their better creations. It is one of the most useful devices I have ever purchased. Having said that, I jailbroke my iphone in order to get more functionality out of it, including the ability to unlock it to use other networks - jailbreaking an iphone is not illegal, but could possibly void the warranty if they find out you have done that.

As a brief example of some of its useful features to me personally:

- The ability to remotely control your home or work computer via several different methods over 3G internet

- You can send documents from your iphone to your home printer over 3G internet

- Build in application for youtube videos to make it easier to stream them over 3G

- GPS. Great for when lost in the middle of no-where :)

- Immediate synchronization with several popular online calendars. I have a gmail account, and the iphone will automatically update itself with any appointments I add to that gmail calendar, and alert me when any appointments are due. It also has this ability with exchange servers.

- Push e-mail. I have both my work e-mail (exchange) and home email (gmail) being pushed to my phone. That means, as soon as I get an e-mail in either of my accounts, I immediately get a message about it on my phone. So, effectively, I can use e-mail instead of text messages. This is opposed to pull e-mail which most phones have, which will just check every half an hour or so for e-mails.

- Voice Over IP. This hasn't taken off so well yet because smart phones are not that popular yet. However, if two smart phone owners both have the same voip application installed on their phone, they can have free phone calls between each other. Also, phone calls are considerably cheaper on voip when calling none voip users.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg :).

[bytebear]

Two words: Palm Pre.

[Guest]

And that's just the tip of the iceberg :).

If it's not on the list, then chances are... there's an app for that.

On my phone (all free):

- Space Monkey - my kids love to play this!

- Toy Bot

- Who has the biggest brain

- Scramble

- Fingerpiano

- Zynga Live Poker

- Phonesaber (love this! - build your own lightsaber)

- Bubblewrap - quite an interesting boredom game - you know, when you're in-line at the ticket counter - just pop some bubblewrap to make the time move faster...

- Sudoko

- iPint - hah hah yeah, LDS beer.

Okay the ones that are not games:

- Pandora - love this one - tell it what your favorite song is and it will play all the songs that are "like it" like a radio - not only in genre but in "music genome". Quite awesome.

- Lose it! - tracks my caloric intake to help me maintain weight

- Flashlight - turns my phone into a flashlight for when I drop my keys inside the movie theater, etc.

- Fandango - movie listing

- G-Park - finds my car and gives me turn-by-turn directions on how to get to it.

- Shazam - identifies the title and artist of any song playing within the vicinity of the phone's mic

- Recorder - records voice messages - you can say your shopping list on the phone and it will play it back for you at the grocery store, etc.

- LDS Library - the entire scriptures plus the RS/PH manual (currently, JS Teachings) and the hymnbook.

- Steps - calculates distance and calories spent when you're walking/running.

- Facebook

- Yahoo Messenger

- Compass

And of course what came with the phone:

- Camera with video

- GPS enabled map

- YouTube

- Stocks

- Weather

- Calendar

- Clock

- Text Messages

- Voicemail (you can pick which voicemail to listen to instead of having to go through x messages to get to the one you wanted to hear)

- Note pad

- Calculator

- iTunes (I got several movies loaded on my phone - like Wuthering Heights and Transformers and Sky High in addition to my entire music collection)

- and the Apple Store where you can find an "app for that".

[Mahone]

To attempt to remain a little more neutral, I think I should point out my primary gripes with the iphone (there aren't many). Firstly, the way apple attempted to lock down the phones operating system was pretty bad. They attempted to restrict what could be done using the phone in order to maximise profits for themselves. However, as they probably expected, without hours of its release, methods to jailbreak the phone were released online.

The second gripe is the lack of being able to change the battery. This one is not so easy to resolve. There are methods of changing it via DIY, but the chances of breaking it are fairly high. But I've had my phone for over a year now and no major issues with the battery yet.

[Guest]

To attempt to remain a little more neutral, I think I should point out my primary gripes with the iphone (there aren't many). Firstly, the way apple attempted to lock down the phones operating system was pretty bad. They attempted to restrict what could be done using the phone in order to maximise profits for themselves. However, as they probably expected, without hours of its release, methods to jailbreak the phone were released online.

The second gripe is the lack of being able to change the battery. This one is not so easy to resolve. There are methods of changing it via DIY, but the chances of breaking it are fairly high. But I've had my phone for over a year now and no major issues with the battery yet.

Okay, since we're talking gripe... my biggest one is the inability to display Flash on websites. The interesting thing is, iPhone has such an impact on market-share that many websites have created non-flash versions to cater to the iPhone market.

I've had my previous phone for 2 years with no battery issues. I upgraded to the 3Gs last month. So, I guess I can say that I'm faster to upgrade my phone than the battery dying on me.

One last gripe - $30 extra for iPhone service. That is, you pay your regular cellphone minutes fee then add $30 if your phone is an iPhone. But it's unlimited data service, so it makes up for it. The $30 only gives you 200 free text messages. It's extra $ to get unlimited text as well.

But, we shouldn't be going on and on about the iPhone when the OP has specifically stated "no iPhones".

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

But, we shouldn't be going on and on about the iPhone when the OP has specifically stated "no iPhones".

yes, thank you.

though I will admit being impressed one day at marching band practice when a guy "attacked" us with a toy lightsaber, and three other people attacked him back with the iPhone lightsaber, and he was like... "did you ALL just lightsaber me..."

anyway, so far going with that HTC one, though the Storm2 being a close second [Palm Pre apparently is only on Sprint]

[Mahone]

But, we shouldn't be going on and on about the iPhone when the OP has specifically stated "no iPhones".

I was attempting to convince the OP that the iPhone is not just a craze, neither is it just something which is nice eye candy, but does actually have many legitimate uses which are of value. This is as opposed to their iPods which were just glorified bog standard MP3 players and I'm not entirely sure why they were so popular.

[miztrniceguy]

i would like an iphone or blackberry bold without a data plan

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

I was attempting to convince the OP that the iPhone is not just a craze, neither is it just something which is nice eye candy, but does actually have many legitimate uses which are of value. This is as opposed to their iPods which were just glorified bog standard MP3 players and I'm not entirely sure why they were so popular.

I never said it wasn't useful or valuable, but it is a craze and that's why I don't want one.

[Guest]

I never said it wasn't useful or valuable, but it is a craze and that's why I don't want one.

X, I'm a programmer, so I've been through many "crazes" before. Back in 1981, I begged my dad to send me to BASIC programming class for the summer (very expensive at that time). He refused to do so because he said computers were just a "craze", the impression he deduced after the onset of the video games. I couldn't even ask him for my own computer! He would have had a coronary! I had to pay my way through programming classes until today, almost 20 years later, my dad can look back and realize, hey, she actually built a nice career out of it!

Then in the early-90's, I was a mainframe programmer at the time, I sent a request to my boss to pay for web-training because we might just start using internet technology to run our IT. He rejected the request because internet was just a "craze".

Now comes the iPhone. I have to tell you, I got into the iPhone big-time because of the developer's kit. And I will tell you, this is not a "craze". No sir. This is the future of information technology. You may not appreciate the inner workings of the iPhone, not being a techie - but for us techies, man, it is exciting. I'm back in college taking a master's degree. One of my classes is human-computer interaction - the biggest challenge of which is how to implement HCI rules (e.g. ergonomic standards, etc.) on an information-rich device less than 4.5 by 2.5 inches.

[Guest xforeverxmetalx]

X, I'm a programmer, so I've been through many "crazes" before. Back in 1981, I begged my dad to send me to BASIC programming class for the summer (very expensive at that time). He refused to do so because he said computers were just a "craze", the impression he deduced after the onset of the video games. I couldn't even ask him for my own computer! He would have had a coronary! I had to pay my way through programming classes until today, almost 20 years later, my dad can look back and realize, hey, she actually built a nice career out of it!

Then in the early-90's, I was a mainframe programmer at the time, I sent a request to my boss to pay for web-training because we might just start using internet technology to run our IT. He rejected the request because internet was just a "craze".

Now comes the iPhone. I have to tell you, I got into the iPhone big-time because of the developer's kit. And I will tell you, this is not a "craze". No sir. This is the future of information technology. You may not appreciate the inner workings of the iPhone, not being a techie - but for us techies, man, it is exciting. I'm back in college taking a master's degree. One of my classes is human-computer interaction - the biggest challenge of which is how to implement HCI rules (e.g. ergonomic standards, etc.) on an information-rich device less than 4.5 by 2.5 inches.

well... I meant a craze more in the sense of being extremely popular and something everyone wants. I'd definitely agree that similar technology is going to keep going and continue to get better. just saying... the iPhone isn't the only thing that can do what it can, generally, so I'll go with other brands.

[Bini]

I understand what you mean, xforeverxmetalx.

A friend of mine is an Apple junkie. Doesn't matter what it is, if it's made by Apple, it's a MUST have. Her whole family is hooked up with iPhones, macbooks and other Apple knickknacks. So, in that sense, yes there is a crazed frenzy for it. I don't have anything against Apple but for gaming I'm not interested in a Mac - I'll stick with PC :] I am debating in getting an iPod as a Christmas stocking stuffer for the hubby though.

[marshac]

I love the iPhone, but I hate how AT&T charges a bazillion dollars if you want one- $40+ for the voice, $30 for data, $5 for a few txt msgs- it adds up rapidly.