New cell phone dilemma.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter .... When you talk about turning data off, are you talking about turning wireless off or cell phone data? ...

As I understand it, for a TMobil plan the data comes through the cell tower. I don't think the phone will automatically pick wifi instead according to the TMobil guy I talked to. If I'm wrong on this someone here will set me right.

There is a setting on Android phones to turn data off. Then it comes through your wifi if available. There is a simple widget you can install that brings this setting to your home screen so all you have to do is toggle it to go strictly wifi. Of course, calls and text still work over the phone even in wifi mode.

[Nodak]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kramer With KitKat Android the apps can still go on the SD memory card. It is just that the app has to be written to allow it and work this way. For instance, most games, Skype, etc allow themselves to be written onto the SD card. What you do is install the app normally. Then you go into settings and for that application you click move to SD card. The option will only be available for apps that allow it. I think as applications are updated, more and more allow this. And generally it is photos and videos that take up a lot of space, not applications. I have recently done a lot of research on smart phones. I can tell you that the Moto G or the updated Moto G LTE model is a great choice. The only major shortcoming compared to a much more expensive phone is a lesser camera. You can look on your current Moto G and see how much memory is used by each application. That will give you an idea.

This is how my Samsung works, I have quite a few apps written to the SD card.

[KingB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David1961 Can you give me some information on how you bought this phone and the $30 plan? I googled it and could not come up with anything specific. Looks like it uses T-Mobile. Did you just go in a T-Mobile store? Thanks.

I bought it at Walmart. But I did not get Walmart's plan - I just bought a $30 T-Mobile prepaid card from them and activated the phone on-line.

T-Mobile Pre-Paid Nokia Lumia 521 4G Smartphone: Prepaid Cell Phones : Walmart.com

[modhatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal As I understand it, for a TMobil plan the data comes through the cell tower. I don't think the phone will automatically pick wifi instead according to the TMobil guy I talked to. If I'm wrong on this someone here will set me right. There is a setting on Android phones to turn data off. Then it comes through your wifi if available. There is a simple widget you can install that brings this setting to your home screen so all you have to do is toggle it to go strictly wifi. Of course, calls and text still work over the phone even in wifi mode.

What's the widget called?

[Lsbcal]

I installed Data On-off. One installs and then makes it active.

[Bestwifeever]

I just switched from a HTC 3g phone using Virgin Mobile's $35/mo everything plan. The 3G was incredibly slow and I suspect dropped to 2G during peak periods. I doubt it was bigger than 8 gigs and that was plenty with the mini sim for photos. I kept it on wifi enabled and even though data was on, the phone never switched to data if our wifi was available.

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal I installed Data On-off. One installs and then makes it active.

Yes, that's the one I use also and it is very good, and it's free.

[JustMeUC]

I had a Nexus 4 which I DEARLY LOVED... but it only had 8GB and was not expandable. It was not even close to being enough. I use my phone as my MP3 player and I have over 8GB of songs I would like to put on it, it was passed on and now I have the Nexus 5 with 32GB and am MUCH happier!

When I am in the USA I use Straight Talk which gives you 3GB of data in their unlimited plan. I can't imagine using that much unless you want to stream a lot of something.

[ERD50]

This article has what looks like a good description of the problem.

KitKat and SD cards — what's fixed, what's broken and what's misunderstood | Android Central

Basically, sdcards are formatted in FAT format, for compatibility. But FAT does not support permissions/ownership, so any app could do anything it wanted with any data on the sdcard, whether that app was supposed to have access or not. A security nightmare.

The file system internal to an Android phone is ext3 (or maybe ext4?), which is a widely used Linux format that supports permissions/ownership. So, in the name of security, some changes were needed. From the little bit of further reading I've done, it sounds like the restrictions will be manageable for most people, and the sdcard will still be useful.

I'm very interested in that new Moto G with sdcard. DD and DW have the Samsung T679 Galaxy Exhibit II 4g, DW is using the 'Gold Plan' pre-pay/pay-as-you-go plan, DD is on that $30/month pre-pay 100 minute talk, unlimited text, 5GB hispeed, unlimited lower speed data (that's a mouthful!).

That T679 seemed to be the best low-cost Android back a few years ago, and it's pretty good. DD thinks it is slow, and I imagine this Moto G is a big step forward. I'll be watching the reviews.

-ERD50

[calmloki]

It is with deep regret that I must announce the passing of my Nokia 6230b. The faithful warhorse took massive abuse since 2/2004 and kept on working. Recently though the buildup of pocket lint and impacts resulted in loss of response in the upper corner buttons and, fatally, the #3.

Amazon is sending out a new Nokia 520, plus a case and a dash mount for navigation, for the grand sum of $69.45. If all works as planned I may add a 64Gb Sandisk micro SD card to store maps for offline use.

Went round and round over specs and dithered about before realizing this was a huge upgrade over what I've used the last ten years and pulled the trigger on this adequate model.

The Nokia is dead. Long live the Nokia!

[photoguy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter So my question is this. How restrictive do you think that 8 Gib internal drive is going to be. Your really only left with 5.2 after operating system and their applications. So any applications and data you want to download and use is going to have to go on that 5 gig remaining internal drive and not the SD card. I don't care about having music on it, but it would be nice to have a few audio books on it, and they take up some room and I don't think I will be able to put those on SD either.

The stuff that usually takes up a lot of memory are games (some but not all) and videos. If you don't have either, I think you should be good. Another application that might take up a lot of space are GPS apps if you download the entire map (e.g., say North America) at once.

Regarding audio files, if you actually have the files you can look to see how large they are (depends on the compression). But when I look at my files, an hour long podcast is only about 25MB.

That said, I would probably just go for a 16GB version if the cost difference is minimal.

[NoiseBoy]

I am paying $59 a month for 1GB of data and unlimited talk/text with T-Mobile. Data coverage is poor, much worse than when I had Sprint/Virgin. No data on major interstates! Text/talk coverage is good, so T-Mobile must rent that from AT&T. I recently came back from a trip to London and my phone did work as advertised; free text and data. In fact, data coverage (3G) in London was excellent.

I have a Moto X (love it) and using it without any issues in London was a plus. But, I'm not happy paying $59 a month and getting really crappy coverage. I'll have to check into this deal at Walmart. How can they sell more service for $30 than T-Mobile is selling for $59? Am I just a sucker?

FYI - 1GB of data is plenty for me. Never gone of 500Mb in fact.

[RE2Boys]

My son just left T-Mobile due to poor data coverage, not only in our home town but even worse when traveling between cities. After unlocking phone, switched to Consumer Cellular, a reseller of AT&T service but with a more flexible pricing plan.
www.consumercellular.com

[Lsbcal]

What part of the US had poor T-Mobile coverage?

[RE2Boys]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal What part of the US had poor T-Mobile coverage?

Live in NW PA, travel to Cleveland area and to western Iowa frequently. It's spotty within Erie, PA, along I90 and data coverage between any major cities is largely useless.

[modhatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoiseBoy I am paying $59 a month for 1GB of data and unlimited talk/text with T-Mobile. Data coverage is poor, much worse than when I had Sprint/Virgin. No data on major interstates! Text/talk coverage is good, so T-Mobile must rent that from AT&T. I recently came back from a trip to London and my phone did work as advertised; free text and data. In fact, data coverage (3G) in London was excellent. I have a Moto X (love it) and using it without any issues in London was a plus. But, I'm not happy paying $59 a month and getting really crappy coverage. I'll have to check into this deal at Walmart. How can they sell more service for $30 than T-Mobile is selling for $59? Am I just a sucker? FYI - 1GB of data is plenty for me. Never gone of 500Mb in fact.

I don't have enough experience with data usage yet. I only have experience with talk time, and as I know I don't use talk time very much, I am ok with the 100 minutes. (I have an Ooma phone for home phone use) But most people wouldn't be. After I have time to experience data use out on the road, I could better say that the 5 gig is an overkill. But if you want any kind of data combined with talk and messages, it is hard to find anything less than $30 a month. Previously I got by with an old fashioned flip phone with 1000 minutes for the year from T-Mobile, and it only cost me $100 for the year. But unless I go on the Sprint network, $30 a month is the cheapest I can find that allows 4G, with generous data.

I always have the option of changing plans if say I find that I don't need as much data, but could use more minutes. Then I could go to Straight Talk for the $45 a month plan.

[modhatter]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ERD50 This article has what looks like a good description of the problem. KitKat and SD cards — what's fixed, what's broken and what's misunderstood | Android Central Basically, sdcards are formatted in FAT format, for compatibility. But FAT does not support permissions/ownership, so any app could do anything it wanted with any data on the sdcard, whether that app was supposed to have access or not. A security nightmare. The file system internal to an Android phone is ext3 (or maybe ext4?), which is a widely used Linux format that supports permissions/ownership. So, in the name of security, some changes were needed. From the little bit of further reading I've done, it sounds like the restrictions will be manageable for most people, and the sdcard will still be useful. I'm very interested in that new Moto G with sdcard. DD and DW have the Samsung T679 Galaxy Exhibit II 4g, DW is using the 'Gold Plan' pre-pay/pay-as-you-go plan, DD is on that $30/month pre-pay 100 minute talk, unlimited text, 5GB hispeed, unlimited lower speed data (that's a mouthful!). That T679 seemed to be the best low-cost Android back a few years ago, and it's pretty good. DD thinks it is slow, and I imagine this Moto G is a big step forward. I'll be watching the reviews. -ERD50

I had read that post before, but it still leaves me confused as to what and how the SD card will be able to be used. It does say in the write up, that data on your SD card would be wiped out with any future KitKat updates. That doesn't sound good. Does it mean that nothing is going to be put on the SD card unless you transfer it over from your computer? Does it mean, when you take pictures that there going to go on the internal drive and not the SD card.

If so, can they be transferred over to the SD card later? I am totally confused by this.

[NoiseBoy]

My experience is largely for Illinois and like RE2Boys, I've found that data coverage on interstates between cities is non-existent. Big change from having Sprint/Virgin 3G coverage on these same roads. Why is that a big deal you may ask? Well, it means that you can't use a T-Mobile phone to navigate with, so that's kind of a drag. Keep your Garmin handy!

Even within cities of over 100k where I live and work, coverage is not nearly as good as it was on Sprint/Virgin. If you're wondering why I switched, it was b/c Sprint did not offer 4G coverage in my home area when it was time for a new phone and I didn't want to buy another 3G device. They offer it now, of course. I could put up with the poor coverage better, if the deal was better. But after paying full price for my phone (it is unlocked), and with a $59/month plan to get the "free" world coverage, I'm less than $10 a month under the price of an AT&T plan, which has much better coverage.

I will look into the Walmart and consumercellular options.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter I don't have enough experience with data usage yet. I only have experience with talk time, and as I know I don't use talk time very much, I am ok with the 100 minutes. (I have an Ooma phone for home phone use) But most people wouldn't be. After I have time to experience data use out on the road, I could better say that the 5 gig is an overkill. But if you want any kind of data combined with talk and messages, it is hard to find anything less than $30 a month. ...

One option, that I bring up from time to time because I learned about it here, is the T-Mobile 'Gold Plan'. It clearly won't work for everyone, but if you are a low talk-time user, it can be as low as $0.83 per month, after the first year of putting $100 on it - and those minutes roll over.

Now, there is no data at all under that plan, BUT, if you only use data for about < 10 days/month, you can switch to a $2-$3 per day plan with unlimited talk/text/data ($3). And switch back after a day or two, or a week, or whatever, and you never lose your minutes from your regular $10/year plan ( ~ 100 minutes). Remember, you can use wi-fi where available.

Quote:

Originally Posted by modhatter I had read that post before, but it still leaves me confused as to what and how the SD card will be able to be used. ...

I'm somewhat confused as well. I understand the security issue with FAT format not supporting ownership/permissions, but I have not read up enough to fully understand all the implications.

But I gather it is a bigger problem if you are trying to upgrade an existing phone from an older OS version to KitKat (which only somewhat technically inclined people would probably be doing anyhow). In that case, you would have a bunch of existing apps that don't 'know' about the new restrictions, and that could 'break' those old apps.

But if you buy a new phone with KitKat, those apps should be able to play withing the new restrictions, I would think. So nothing should 'break', but maybe less can get stored to the external SD? This is just a semi-educated guess on my part, but I would think that the Google authentication program could verify that apps could read/write to the SD-card only through a specific API (application interface) in the KitKat OS, so the OS would provide the security, and only allow writing to the folder that was created by that app. But that is just a guess.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoiseBoy My experience is largely for Illinois and like RE2Boys, I've found that data coverage on interstates between cities is non-existent. ...

DD lived in a small town in central IL for a year, and had to switch from T-Mobile to Verizon for voice coverage, they were the only game in that area. We've never had problems on the interstates though, but there were stretches we were limited to the slower speed network. I only know that as other DD was driving, and I was messing with her phone the whole way, downloading apps and such.

-ERD50

[gauss]

For data, I signed up with Ting and bought one of their refurbished Android smartphones for $80 unlocked. I spend about $10/month with Ting if I use data only (up to 100MB) and $13/month if I also use it as a phone (up to 100 minutes). I primarily "write" to the SD card by taking photographs with the phone. When the card fills up I copy the photos over to the computer.

I usually use a flip phone for voice however.

-gauss