Just Send me a Telegram
November 25th, 2008Five Hundred Bucks for a Calendar
The cell phone search is going poorly.
I ran over to Radio Shack, because it seemed like they had the best prices. The techno-toddlers over there told me that any AT&T Blackberry I buy will come with a $20 monthly charge. So $480, for grown-ups who know how to multiply by 24 months. Uh…NO. Let’s not do that.
They said what I really need is a Samsung Blackjack II. So now I am looking that up.
Or maybe the Epix.
Geez.
November 25th, 2008 at 4:51 PM
I had a BlackJack for my old job. My wife has one. They SUCK. Windows Mobile, the OS they run, sucks. The battery life really sucks on the BlackJack, and I would assume is crummy on the BlackJack II.
I used to have a BlackBerry. FAR superior to the BlackJack or really any Windows Mobile-based “smartphone” I’ve gotten to toy around with. Really. You may want to suck it up and go for the BlackBerry Curve.
I’m mulling over an iPhone. But I’m a gadget guy and really like what I’ve seen of the thing.
And as for the data charges… You’ll get them with any smartphone that has a data plan. $30/month on AT&T for pretty much all of them.
Costco has some deals on phones through AT&T, just go check out their web site and see what you can discover.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:16 PM
Did you check prices at the cell phone kiosk at COSTCO?
Samsung Blackjack II is $79 after rebates. (thats the costco.com price)
November 25th, 2008 at 7:39 PM
I’ve decided it’s a stupid idea. Apparently, these things are worthless unless you cough up a minimum of $500 for data service, and I am not that pathetic yet.
For $20 per month, I can buy a fine PC-based organizer program, plus fifty pounds of wall calendars.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:13 PM
But you just won’t be as cool.
November 25th, 2008 at 10:16 PM
Pretty much any PDA phone requires a 20 to 30 dollar/month data plan if you want to have text/email/internet service on it.
I have an AT&T Tilt (made by HTC), Mt wife has the Blackberry Curve. My daughter has the iPhone. It is the same cost for unlimited text/email/internet service for each.
All 3 of us are fairly happy witho our choices.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:08 PM
I just made the same decision re: a new phone. My partner at work got a Blackberry and I envied him (the shame!). Then I found out about the data costs. Now he’d like to ditch the data plan, but can’t, It’s a prereq of the phone. I ended up getting a slide phone that’s similar to my Razer that finally went the way of all razers after 2 years (loss of display).
That said, I still carry my Palm TX and a phone, and I prefer it that way.
Plays my mp3s. Plays “Through the Bible” with J. Vernon McGee. Office compatible documents. I carry a library of Bible software in it (a concordance, two commentaries, etc.), the Constitution, the Declaration, all my Outlook stuff, alarms, memos, notes, and it’s wi-fi. I sit in a wi-fi zone and browse the net, including G-mail, in my pocket. No data fees. And I have a copy of ‘the Maltese Falcon” on it.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:38 AM
Oh.
For a second, I thought you said “five hundred dollars for a colander.“
November 26th, 2008 at 1:16 AM
If you could get Sprint, their data costs are significantly below the others, $10-12/month.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:26 AM
A phone is a phone is a phone.
November 26th, 2008 at 1:37 AM
I just bought a new phone…it’s also a wrist watch. It plays music, video and has a picture viewer.
It also has a still camera, a video camera and a voice recorder.
It has bluetooth and came with an included set of wireless stereo earphones and microphone. It also works with those in-ear headsets that you see people using to talk to themselves at the mall. You can also use it as a bluetooth modem for your laptop.
It has 5 alarms, an organizer, calendar, calculator, currency converter, metric to English converter, games and even a menstrual cycle tracker that shows what the risk of pregnancy is for any given day of the month for you or your wife.
You can plug it into your computer to recharge it and use it as a 4 gigabyte flash drive, too.
It’s unlocked, so you can use any cell provider you want by swapping out the SIM card
The display is a touchscreen that shows an analog or digital clock when you tap the screen.
It came with two batteries, a separate charger and a universal power plug. The battery seems to last a long time too between charges.
Best of all , the darn thing actually works!
$135.00 with free shipping from Honk Kong.
And no, I’m not selling them. this is not a spam post.
Here’s a poor quality video of the thing in action.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmDQJwNslHQ&feature=related
November 26th, 2008 at 7:25 AM
Go Prepaid.
T-Mobile has a deal with 1000 minutes for $100 or 400 minutes for $50. Minutes can be rolled over.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:52 AM
Isn’t the whole point of the Blackberries that you can get email on them?
From what I understand, you have to purchase the Blackberry server software to do this. Which is very pricey.
November 26th, 2008 at 8:54 AM
Please tell me you don’t seriously believe I have the answer to that question. I was amazed to learn I couldn’t buy a new PDA.
November 26th, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Cell phones are too easy to break. I just go in and buy the 30$ model and prepaid minutes.
When the phone inevitably breaks, I remove the card and buy another 30$ phone.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:39 PM
“I was amazed to learn I couldn’t buy a new PDA.”
What does this mean? I saw a TX at the store a few days ago.
Of course I bought mine refurbed full warranty for $100 less on the net.
November 26th, 2008 at 6:57 PM
It means I know even less than I said I did.
November 26th, 2008 at 7:09 PM
I’m with the “go prepaid” crowd, but I’m pretty low-tech. My wife & I both have Trac phones; we each use about 30 minutes/month average. Cost figures out to about $8.50/month/each, depending. Our old Sprint phone cost us over $30.00/month w/taxes & fees, so it figured out to a buck/minute.
If you’re the kind of person who runs around with the phone in your ear, these things are not for you, but for us people who only use a phone when we need to, they’re quite the bargain. My phone cost me $40.00 including 200 minutes; I could have thrown the thing away after 2 months and been ahead of my cost with Sprint. Coverage is as good as Sprint was, overall.
She’s used an electronic organizer since her days in I.T., but I’m not sure of the brand. I know that she has EVERYTHING on that device and she’s very happy with it.