So who is jumping on the iPhone 5?

[EvrClrx311]

Thanks. Then I am SURE that I am not getting an iPhone 5 any time soon. I don't use that much data, but I love not having to even think about data usage.

That's good, because I already bought a "toy" this month (the Nintendo 3DS XL video game console).

I've heard stories about Verizon allowing some users to upgrade without giving up their unlimited data. I'd recommend calling and saying you know someone at AT&T who is very happy because they got to keep their unlimited data. See what kind of response you get from them

 

[W2R]

I've heard stories about Verizon allowing some users to upgrade without giving up their unlimited data. I'd recommend calling and saying you know someone at AT&T who is very happy because they got to keep their unlimited data. See what kind of response you get from them

Good idea! Hmmmm!

 

[donheff]

I've heard stories about Verizon allowing some users to upgrade without giving up their unlimited data. I'd recommend calling and saying you know someone at AT&T who is very happy because they got to keep their unlimited data. See what kind of response you get from them

That may have been a few months ago. I upgraded to a 4G Razr Max in March or April and was able to keep unlimited data. I had problems with that phone and quickly cancelled it. When I returned in July to buy a different Android phone they explained that they changed their policies in late June and eliminated unlimited data on all new contracts (which is required to upgrade through them).

 

[explanade]

"BTW, regardless of where I travel in the world, I always know where it is (even left in a cafe in Venice - Italy, not the left coast) and can zap it's content if I'm somewhere else in the world, that day, along with being linked to my MS/Calendar from my desktop and reminding me of appointments along the way."

Find My iPhone. Works with iPads and Macs too. Probably PCs as well, if you set up an iCloud account, which is free.

 

[FUEGO]

A question for Virgin Mobile subscribers: how much do you pay in total fees and taxes for the unlimited talk / message / data plan? I'm looking to compare with my current Verizon plan, and fees + taxes are a fair amount.

I pay $26.50 per month. 300 minutes plus unlimited data/text. Paid for my own unsubsidized Android smartphone.

That is $25 for the service plus $1.50 in taxes. I think that is an old rate that I am grandfathered on, but they have a new $35/45/55 plan structure that includes the unlimited data/text and increasing amounts of minutes (to include unlimited at $55 or whatever the highest cost plan is.

Apparently you can still get the $25 rate plan if you buy certain phones, like the Optimus Elite.

They also have the Iphone on Virgin mobile. 4 or 4S or something, but it is $550 for the cheapest one (unless you snag one off ebay or somewhere on sale).

I am thinking TMobile has some sort of unlimited data plan as well that is around $30/month but apparently available only thru walmart??

 

[Bestwifeever]

A question for Virgin Mobile subscribers: how much do you pay in total fees and taxes for the unlimited talk / message / data plan? I'm looking to compare with my current Verizon plan, and fees + taxes are a fair amount.

My $35/mo Virgin mobile plan: unlimited data, texts, minutes: comes to $38.42 with all fees and taxes (about the same 10 percent in taxes and fees as DH's now-individual ATT plan).

 

[explanade]

How are the data speeds?

The MVNOs may be more interesting if they could lease some LTE bandwidth from the majors.

As it is, I think they're using spare capacity on Sprint, which isn't the best network.

 

[Bestwifeever]

How are the data speeds?

The MVNOs may be more interesting if they could lease some LTE bandwidth from the majors.

As it is, I think they're using spare capacity on Sprint, which isn't the best network.

"Speed" is the wrong term to use . My Virgin Mobile plan is an example of getting what you pay for, but it is fine for my purposes.

I think DH will get an iPhone5 and will switch to Verizon for the 4G LTE and the coverage.

 

[explanade]

Verizon is required a shared data plan called Share Everything. You are forced to get unlimited minutes and texts with a bucket of data.

The cheapest one is $40 for 300 MB. But you pay a $40 smart phone line charge on top.

So a minimum of $80 plus tax, if you want to get the subsidized price for the iPhone.

AT&T is doing something similar but supposedly will sell you plans with small buckets of voice minutes.

 

[Bikerdude]

Verizon is required a shared data plan called Share Everything. You are forced to get unlimited minutes and texts with a bucket of data.

The cheapest one is $40 for 300 MB. But you pay a $40 smart phone line charge on top.

So a minimum of $80 plus tax, if you want to get the subsidized price for the iPhone.

AT&T is doing something similar but supposedly will sell you plans with small buckets of voice minutes.

WOW! $1,000 bucks a yr. or $25,000 in assets @ 4% SWR for the "budget" plan.

 

[kumquat]

What's an Iphone5?

 

[MichaelB]

Thanks Fuego and Feever. I like the way Bikerdude sums up the Verizon plan.

 

[Mulligan]

"Speed" is the wrong term to use . My Virgin Mobile plan is an example of getting what you pay for, but it is fine for my purposes.

I think DH will get an iPhone5 and will switch to Verizon for the 4G LTE and the coverage.

Or, not paying for items you will not use. I could certainly afford an IPhone, but like you, I have a virgin mobile plan ($30, 1500 min and texts, 30 mb Internet ). Most months, I never even use Internet at all on my phone. I only have a few apps on my IPad. So for me, it would just be wasteful. My battery was getting weak, so instead of ordering a battery, I just ordered the exact phone new for $29, and just skipped getting a battery. I certainly don't fault people for having them, as I am probably more bothered by the fact I won't get with the times, instead of viewing it as a wasteful purchase.

 

[FUEGO]

How are the data speeds?

The MVNOs may be more interesting if they could lease some LTE bandwidth from the majors.

As it is, I think they're using spare capacity on Sprint, which isn't the best network.

I am usually able to get 400-700 kbps in both directions when I am inside a building, but within acceptable range of a tower (ie a few bars out of 5-6 bars on the voice bar indicator thingy). Obviously faster when clear line of sight to a tower out in the open (1+ Mbps), and slower when I am in bunker-like buildings or in low terrain with poor signal.

That is for 3G on an optimus (the original one). Needless to say I can't stream high def youtube on my phone with this signal, but I have no problem streaming music, or downloading and viewing pdfs, documents, or pics. I do this rather infrequently, so the speeds serve me well. I also use the phone as a free wifi hotspot and it still works fine, though the computer web surfing does seem a little slow at times. But it is still about 10x dial up. Good enough for my occasional mobile computing needs for work and for personal use (waiting rooms, hotels who charge $$$ for their wifi).

Probably another example of you get what you pay for. For me, I don't like looking at tiny screens for media consumption. Especially when I have 42-50" beautiful HDs scattered around the house, not to mention plenty of HD computer monitors and laptops. Never understood the obsession with watching more than a couple minutes of content on tiny screens (8-10" Ipad/tablets included).

 

[Beryl]

Happy with my 4S for now. Maybe when the 5S comes out I'll switch to it. I have unlimited data on Verizon so I need a lot of motivation.

 

[obgyn65]

Going to AT&T later today to get my iphone 5.

 

[Moscyn]

iphone does not appeal to me at all. Happy with my android.

 

[donheff]

Mine is on the Fedex truck scheduled to arrive today. As I type this I am watching a piece on Today showing people on line for days at Apple stores some paying as much as $1500 to line sitters. Absolutely ridiculous. Maybe I should sell my phone and pay for a year's service.

 

[Richard4444]

Remember when BlackBerrys were smart phones? I'm sticking with my T-Mo BlackBerry, and I do have an Ipad. BB has the few apps that I need, calendar syncs with Ipad as do Contacts. I don't watch video on phone (it is a phone) but do get news and travel use and a secure (I hope) Password Keeper. I ask my friends about their iPhone and they tell me what it can do, and I follow: What do you use it for, and I hear mostly e-mail, texts, two apps or so. I guess the younger you are, the more apps you would actually use.

 

[MBAustin]

Although I'm sticking with my 2-year old iPhone 4 for now (my ER present to myself!), DH has ordered an iPhone 5 to replace his 8 year old flip phone. He was a die-hard Palm person but when his last Palm Tungsten E2 died he couldn't find a replacement so he's been PDA-less for more than a year now. The big task for me will be helping him to move all of his data from Palm Desktop over to new apps to sync between his phone and PC. All the more difficult because I'm a Mac and he's a PC.

 

[FinanceDude]

There reaches a point where all folks do is play on their Iphones. Human interaction is going the way of the wooly mammoth. DW got an Iphone 4S for work, and they pay for everything, which is what I like. While I agree it was amazing features, I am not close to going and getting one, or an Adroid. heck, I barely know how to send a text on mine. Also, it seems the monoploistic carriers like Verizon keep finding ways to screw people, pretty soon everyone will have a $150 phone bill like most have a $100+ cable bill..........

 

[donheff]

Although I'm sticking with my 2-year old iPhone 4 for now (my ER present to myself!), DH has ordered an iPhone 5 to replace his 8 year old flip phone. He was a die-hard Palm person but when his last Palm Tungsten E2 died he couldn't find a replacement so he's been PDA-less for more than a year now. The big task for me will be helping him to move all of his data from Palm Desktop over to new apps to sync between his phone and PC. All the more difficult because I'm a Mac and he's a PC.

My immediate reaction was, how about exporting the Palm contacts to Google which can then be directly accessed in the iPhone. I Googled that and it may take a bit of work. From the discussion I found:

Yeah, I completed this yesterday evening. It took a few tries, but I got it. Here is what worked best for me:

Step 1: Export from Palm Desktop into *.csv format.
Step 2: Open file in Microsoft Excel.
Step 3: Sort rows by category column.
Step 4: Add first row for Google heading names.
Step 5: Add/rearrange/combine Palm columns to create those used by Google.
Step 6: Delete extra columns.
Step 7: Save result back to *.csv format.
Step 8: Make one copy of resulting file for each category on Palm.
Step 9: Edit each of the resulting files by deleting all rows before and after that category. Of course, leave row 1 in place.
Step 10: Create a Group in Google contacts for each category on Palm.
Step 11: Import each of the files containing a Palm category one at a time, telling it to place the new imports into the appropriate Google group.

That's it! Here are some notes on the process:

1) Some data was lost/corrupted in this process. Palm is not consistent with order of phone numbers/emails and also has multiple notes fields. I plan to carry my Palm with me for some time until I can check/correct the critical ones.
2) Unbelievably Google has only a single field for name and also for address! Use the 'concatenate' function in Excel to combine the first and last names into a new column: 'concatenate(D2," ",C2)' or similar. Then convert that new column of formulas to values. I can't stand having no way to sort by last name!
3) I only used column heading up through the end of section 1 as listed in the previous post. I think Google uses the 'Section 1 - Description' column for Group, so I put Palm category here. I just decided than rather than make a whole bunch of difffernt sections, it was easier to make separate files, each only with section 1.
4) If you just clear (not delete) the extra columns, then you end up with a bunch of extra commas at the end of each line, which seemed to cause problems.
5) If you don't have any Google contacts to start with, then just delete and restart when you make a mistake, like I did a couple of times. If you DO have Google contacts to start, then export those FIRST before you start messing around!
6) I'm not convinced that Google will be usable with over 2800 contacts. I may get rid of some fat there. Probably can get it below 1000. It's funny, since my little old slow Palm Vx has NO problem handling all of these contacts and it has a TOTAL of 8 MB of RAM.

It took about 4 hours to figure out and complete all the steps. I will probably be months getting the data corruption corrected. We'll see if I don't just end up keeping the Palm...
​

 

[MBAustin]

Donheff - Awesome!! Thanks a BUNCH, I'm sure this will save us both some time!

 

[donheff]

Donheff - Awesome!! Thanks a BUNCH, I'm sure this will save us both some time!

Having just set up my new iPhone I discovered something odd. If you use the gmail icon in the account wizard to setup your mail it does not make use of gmail contacts. You need to setup an exchange account and use your gmail address and no domain. That works fine and my gmail contacts and calendar date work fine. Don't ask me why - a Verizon tech told me.

 

[FIREd]

Does anyone know how the Passbook app in iOS 6 works? How does one add coupons, gift cards, or whatever to it?