This is so cool - no maps!

HiTempguy wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Had a loaded up Blackberry

That's your problem right there. Blackberry's (for the most part) were "smart" in the early millennium. I do not consider a phone "smart" unless it has an actual web browser on it. The Blackberry is only good for enterprise solutions because a company can have complete control over it. Edit- JThw8 and I think alike lol

It did have a browser. I now have a LGCU920, but other than the aforementioned unceremonious deletion of naked men, I don't really want it to do anything other than make phone calls.

In reply to tuna55:

I thought chicks don't like porn.

yes BBs have a browser. Technically they have everything and iPhone or an android does but for some reason they just DONT work. I'm sitting here with both the Torch and the latest model Bold and they are just both terrible compared to my iPhone. Im NOT an apple fanboi...but dang they sure did get it right.

If you've spent time with one and still cant see the appeal I don't know what to tell you. I personally thought I'd never have a need for one, and I know I utilize mine for about 1/10th of what most people do but still its become an amazing tool. Heck, all of the measurements and alignment settings on the Wartburg were done via iPhone apps...

Im still a little frustrated that BABE rally caters to those without smart phones because the rally challenges and scoring could be so much more interactive with a smart phone based experience.

Otto Maddox wrote: In reply to tuna55: I thought chicks don't like porn.

My sisters friend was a dude. These were also pictures that HE took.

JThw8 wrote: yes BBs have a browser. Technically they have everything and iPhone or an android does but for some reason they just DONT work. I'm sitting here with both the Torch and the latest model Bold and they are just both terrible compared to my iPhone. Im NOT an apple fanboi...but dang they sure did get it right. If you've spent time with one and still cant see the appeal I don't know what to tell you. I personally thought I'd never have a need for one, and I know I utilize mine for about 1/10th of what most people do but still its become an amazing tool. Heck, all of the measurements and alignment settings on the Wartburg were done via iPhone apps... Im still a little frustrated that BABE rally caters to those without smart phones because the rally challenges and scoring could be so much more interactive with a smart phone based experience.

What does that mean? Seriously, I don't know what that means.

While the BB isn't exactly fast, it seems that it's more about the network than the browser. Is that wrong?

And I do see the appeal. What I can't do is figure out how to translate that appeal to really using and utilizing it.

Like I said I WANT to have one. I just can't get the need high enough to do it.

What apps are so great that make your life that much better? That is a serious question- not a smart alec response. I don't see the killer app that makes life so much better with than without.

alfadriver wrote: What apps are so great that make your life that much better? That is a serious question- not a smart alec response. I don't see the killer app that makes life so much better with than without.

I have one that I want to implement along with a co-operative website, but I have to figure that out yet. Just because I don't want a smartphone that is actually smart doesn't mean I can't profit from those that do.

Uhh.... ANGRY BIRDS.

Need i say more?

92CelicaHalfTrac wrote: Uhh.... ANGRY BIRDS. Need i say more?

I have seen T shirts and weird references. Now I have to assume it's an app of some sort.

I think the most used app when I am travelling is Yelp. It was a godsend when we were footing around DC looking for a place to eat. Choose type of food, price of food, and narrow it down via good reviews. Then it would map it out and give directions. Very important when you have a dissability and walking around DC in 90+ degree heat in 90%+ humidity.

Then you walk into a theater, restaurant, etc and "check-in". Now I get a free appetizer, popcorn, or some sort of discount.++

Picking someone up at the airport? No problem, just track the flight live while sitting at a nearby parking lot or restaurant via a tracking app.

As for revealing that your out of town or where your kids are via the interwebz. Well there are settings to only let friends and family see that. If you don't trust them, you got other problems

Sitting in a waiting room and have no interest in reading 6 month old Golfing magazines or Better Homes and Gardens? Just pull up GRM on your smartphone and be informed by useful information.

Kids driving you crazy on a long road trip or bouncing off the walls at a restaurant? Play a game and shut up!!+++

$30 per month for unlimited data and texting is well woth it.

alfadriver wrote: What does a "real" smartphone offer over a up to date blackberry?

That's hard to answer because it's like asking what a Porsche has over a Mustang, or what a fancy pants homemade hamburger has over the one from Wendy's. They do the same thing, so the difference is all in the design and details and performance. Aside from text entry and email management, everything is either subtly or incredibly better on an iPhone or Android device. Merely listing ways they're better doesn't really capture how much better they are.

It's also where innovation takes place these days, which doesn't float everyone's boat, but I love seeing all the new stuff people come up with. A touchscreen smartphone is a blank slate. It's a processor as powerful as a 10 year old computer, designed so the whole thing is a touch surface, with an incredible array of sensors and connectivity. There's innovative new stuff to do with them every day. So you've got stuff like apps you can point at the sky and it tells you what constellation you're looking at or what satellites you can see. You've got apps that act as data loggers for race cars. You've got apps that let you do augmented reality, overlaying restaurant reviews over a live video feed on the screen. No one app is critical but taken as a whole they feel like something out of the next century.

In reply to ppddppdd:

LOL- I was hoping the differenes were a lot less sublte than that. When they are that close, it does not help my hesitation to the purchase.

I've got an old Dell X15V that whatever i get would replace. But at the moment, all I use it for is reading free books and playing games. It can do RaceChrono, but we've not gotten that far, yet.

But, I honestly have similar problems with new computers, too. Or issues, to be more correct.

There's this point at which a technology goes from being so clunky that you rarely use it, to being so smooth that you start to rely on it. That's what the iPhone did.

This is a no BS account of what I did with the last 24 hours ($1 of data access, $.50 worth of iPhone depreciation). It sounds like an advertisement, but this is just how integrated it is into my life:

Last night I walked home and listened to part of a 130+ episode long podcast on the history of Rome. When I got home, I kept playing it, but streamed it from the phone to the radio in my kitchen. While in the kitchen, I used it to look up a recipe and to figure out why my wife was late getting home with the kids. Then we headed out to the fair to watch the demolition derby and listened to more history of Rome on the radio in the car. Just before the derby began, it started to drizzle. Looked at the phone and saw it was time to pack it in and give up because the storm system I could see on my phone was getting bigger every time I looked at the weather map. Headed home. Handed it to screaming child to play with while driving to console him for having missed the demolition derby. Watched the same movie my wife was watching in the living room while I sat in the kids' room waiting for them to fall asleep. Used it as my alarm clock and it woke me up this morning. I checked the weather while still in bed before going out for my run so I could figure out what to wear. Used it as a flashlight to find my clothes without waking the wife. Went on the run and listened to NPR on the phone while using it to keep track of miles. Got home and checked to make sure there weren't going to be nasty surprises at work this morning. Went to Zingermans and read the NYT front page while the kids ate pastries. Also used it to take this photo of the stuffed koala my son has rotating custody of from school (we are supposed to document his adventures):

Got to work and pulled it out a few times to jot down notes. Listened to a podcast on my walk at lunch. Emailed that photo to Flickr to post here.

All that's doable on a BB, but you wouldn't. Most of it would be a time waster rather than being quick and easy enough to actually make life easier and more fun. I know some people find that amount of time spent with a phone kinda....creepy, but I love it. This is how I used to imagine people in the year 2311 would be living.

alfadriver wrote:

JThw8 wrote: yes BBs have a browser. Technically they have everything and iPhone or an android does but for some reason they just DONT work. I'm sitting here with both the Torch and the latest model Bold and they are just both terrible compared to my iPhone. Im NOT an apple fanboi...but dang they sure did get it right. If you've spent time with one and still cant see the appeal I don't know what to tell you. I personally thought I'd never have a need for one, and I know I utilize mine for about 1/10th of what most people do but still its become an amazing tool. Heck, all of the measurements and alignment settings on the Wartburg were done via iPhone apps... Im still a little frustrated that BABE rally caters to those without smart phones because the rally challenges and scoring could be so much more interactive with a smart phone based experience.

What does that mean? Seriously, I don't know what that means. While the BB isn't exactly fast, it seems that it's more about the network than the browser. Is that wrong? And I do *see* the appeal. What I can't do is figure out how to translate that appeal to really using and utilizing it. Like I said I *WANT* to have one. I just can't get the need high enough to do it. What apps are so great that make your life that much better? That is a serious question- not a smart alec response. I don't see the killer app that makes life so much better with than without.

Honestly I wish I could tell you. I want to like the BB, as a business user I like its "im not a toy" business design. I switched to the fully touch screen Torch hoping it would better replicate the iPhone experience. I'd love to get off the Apple teat and find another phone with a user experience as good.

But you must consider when it come to user experience its much like driver experience. You may love an S2000 and I love the Miata, different strokes for different folks.

As said before I probably don't utilize the capabilities of any smartphone above 10% of other users but damn its nice when I need it. On demand internet access, email wherever I go. Maps and searches and just never needing to say "I'll look that up when I get home"

I am going to try to transcribe this stuff into my life. I don;t have the time for running or demo derby's these days, so I just deleted some of it.

ppddppdd wrote: Last night I (drove) home and listened to part of a 130+ episode long podcast on the history of Rome (no aux input in car) . When I got home, I kept playing it, but streamed it from the phone to the radio in my kitchen (no such animal, and none of my radios know how to do that anyway) . While in the kitchen, I used it to look up a recipe (laptop and OneNote for recipes) and to figure out why my wife was late getting home with the kids (I would just call her) . Just before the derby began, it started to drizzle. Looked at the phone and saw it was time to pack it in and give up because the storm system I could see on my phone was getting bigger every time I looked at the weather map. (got me there, I can't do that) Headed home. Handed it to screaming child to play with while driving to console him for having missed the demolition derby. (I can definitely do that with mine) Watched the same movie my wife was watching in the living room while I sat in the kids' room waiting for them to fall asleep. (wife does school work at night and I do the housework, and I have no idea how to do that anyway, I suspect my TV cannot) Used it as my alarm clock and it woke me up this morning. I checked the weather while still in bed before going out (laptop) . Used it as a flashlight to find my clothes without waking the wife (mine can do that too) . Went to Zingermans and read the NYT front page while the kids ate pastries. (my kids require too much attention for that) Also used it to take this photo of the stuffed koala my son has rotating custody of from school (we are supposed to document his adventures): (took one of a Miata with a sidepipe (to replace the naked men stuff that I talked about earlier) for you guys but I have not figured out bluetooth yet and the gay voyeur did not give me a data cable) Got to work and pulled it out a few times to jot down notes. I use a piece of paperListened to a podcast on my walk at lunch. still don't get podcasts either Emailed that photo to Flickr to post here.got me here too, I cannot E-mail remotely

In reply to JThw8:

shoot- i was hoping you would tell me that there's a massive flaw in the BB browser, and that using an touch screen X is so much better that I would be using the 'net more.

you're not helping.

You know the verison commercial where the kid walks in with a bunch of stuff attached to him? I'm bordering on that.

I have a Garmin running GPS, and it does that SO well. all of my running and HR info in a handy watch'ish gadget.

I also have a nook. love reading books with it.

Also have a BB that we use on vacations (even tether with it).

Have a small mp3 player that's easy to move around and use.

Have multiple phones (between personal and work cells).

And the PDA.

All of that could be done with a single tool. But it's too small as a book, too big as an mp3 player, too big as a GPS/HR device. Great replacement for the PDA, though.

Ugh. too many too's

And not enough too's.

In reply to Zomby woof:

oddly enough, I edited them out. before putting them back.

not great at english, at times.....

You know, it's funny, everyone I know has rotating emotions about their smartphones. They go from hating it to loving it in a matter of seconds.

I have this, Popular Mechanics struggled to break it, mine still works fantastically. I ran through 4 phones in the course of 2 years before I got this.

There is a smartphone version, I have no plans to get it, as my phone lives in my pocket, and my keys and knife would ruin the screen.

tuna55 wrote: Nice, but waaaaaaaaay too pricey for those data plans. Pass.

Not sure what you're paying now, but we thought this was a very good deal. Lots of plain old "minutes" plans that cost a lot more.

http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp

"With Virgin Mobile Get Unlimited Web, Data Messaging & Email, Plus Hundreds of Talk Minutes, All For Just $35/Month."

I get unlimited data with my Blackberry from work, but my wife uses Virgin pre-pay. Works great for us. Before the Blackberry, I had a $10 phone and a plan that cost me about $8 a month. I don't use my phone a lot, so didn't ever use enough minutes to worry about. So, compared to that, it's expensive. But most folks are paying at least that much just for phone service.

Grizz wrote: my phone lives in my pocket, and my keys and knife would ruin the screen.

I got a smartphone because I'm still on my parents plan and it came with, my emotions about it vary from second to second. Turns out you don't need keys and knives to scratch the screen, mine was scratched by a Mobil gas gift card that was in my pocket for about an hour.

I also have similar feelings about the GPS in my car. I found I only use it when I'm new to an area, and now I don't even bother. It finds stores and stuff when I need it, but it's a 50/50 shot I end up at the store or at a disused baseball diamond.

What I do like about the smartphone is that it has a map. Sure I could use a paper map, but the last guy I asked where to find a map looked at me like most salesmen do when I ask if they have a car with a manual on the lot.

tuna55 wrote: still don't get podcasts either

I really enjoy "Stuff You Should Know". Really interesting. Pick something and have a listen. I suspect most folks who hang out here would really like it.

Meh. I bought my smartphone for the BT connectivity (car stereo: music and phone). I like having the GPS+ for business trips (occasional), but I'll take a map anyday for pleasure trips. I don't WANT to know exactly what restaurant is where on the most efficient route. I want to see the lay of the land, pick roads that are off the beaten path, and eat at sole proprietorship restaurants that (gasp!) might not even have a website. To me, those things are crucial to a great roadtrip. YMMV. I like my cellphone, but I wouldn't say it "enriched my life".

The iPhone plus otterbox is unkillable. It has lasted way longer then any other phone I have owned including a couple of those basic phones people describe as "unkillable".

I will say I much prefer to use my regular GPS over my iPhone's GPS though. But I rarely use either.

I have my only internet access at my home through my droid. I hook it up using an app called PDAnet and then I can browse on my desktop. I like my phone, but you don't have too.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

tuna55 wrote: Nice, but waaaaaaaaay too pricey for those data plans. Pass.

Not sure what you're paying now, but we thought this was a very good deal. Lots of plain old "minutes" plans that cost a lot more. http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans.jsp "With Virgin Mobile Get Unlimited Web, Data Messaging & Email, Plus Hundreds of Talk Minutes, All For Just $35/Month." I get unlimited data with my Blackberry from work, but my wife uses Virgin pre-pay. Works great for us. Before the Blackberry, I had a $10 phone and a plan that cost me about $8 a month. I don't use my phone a lot, so didn't ever use enough minutes to worry about. So, compared to that, it's expensive. But most folks are paying at least that much just for phone service.

My wife and I together spent $59.01 per month (two phones) including everything for ATT. Your link is fairly close in price, but still more expensive by $10 or so