Although I think that I'm set on cellphones and all that jazz, I'd like to hear about others experiences.
Also, I'm kinda of learning nerd with this sort of deal. I like to talk and hear about them and other people's feedback. :0) I'm new to it, but past and future is always cool to hear and learn about from me!
Past whiles I had a Motorla KRZR on Telus. Broke it completely.
Then I had a Samsung Mysto! Water damaged the speaker and put it into storage.
Currently I have a Motorola ROKR on Rogers. Cute idea! But takes some getting used to!
I love data phones and how they are, hell, babbel about your Blackberry or iPhone. I don't like Apple that much, but they're great devices, I must say. :3
I love my flip phones, I'm using a model of Nokia I think that I've had for over a year now(the old Musique plus)
Now my question to the rest of you, what do you look for in a phone? The deal breaker for me is big buttons because I"m a thumb dialer and my thumbs are pretty large, so the buttons need to be large too... and I've heard of problems with dialing with Razer, etc phones.
im using the Blackberry Curve with Rogers , no problems so far, great phone, just need to get used to a mini keypad, works nicely i must admin, and alot faster than a flip phone lol , ya, it comes with all my fave apps like Yahoo and MSN messengers so i can keep in contact.
~Ravkamon
I tend to sneak into cellphone selling places and grubby up their phones with my moose-hooves. I type with my (slightly grown) nails so I have a horrible time with touch screens. Also tiny buttons. I like to stick with the nine-button phones for numbers and lettering but perhaps I'll try out a qwerty board or those ergonomic ones.
As for style of phones, I like nice and sleek ones that feel slippery and shine! I like shiny things.
Slide phones make me ADD. Flip phones make me flip them when I'm nervous.
My phone I've had now for about 2 years. My mom used it before more for quite a few more years than me. Its an old phone. I'm looking forward to September later this year though because that's when my plan ends and so I will be free to choose a new plan with a new phone of my choice. Chances are, I'm going with the google phone cause I've heard great things about their plan.
I've got an iPhone and have never regretted buying it for even a second - it's an amazing device. True, Apple's a total walled garden, but there are some great apps and a really slick interface to console me on that account.
: Silvermink April 02, 2009, 12:55:07 -06:00
I've got an iPhone and have never regretted buying it for even a second - it's an amazing device. True, Apple's a total walled garden, but there are some great apps and a really slick interface to console me on that account.
I have to agree that a lot of the apps and games look great and are a lot of fun but I'm still goina hold out for the google phone to see what its like and also because I was never a fan of apple stuff. -.-
: Kaji April 02, 2009, 01:10:16 -06:00
I have to agree that a lot of the apps and games look great and are a lot of fun but I'm still goina hold out for the google phone to see what its like and also because I was never a fan of apple stuff. -.-
I haven't classically been a big Apple fan myself. I find the thing with the gPhone is that the hardware seems a little so-so, at least physically speaking, because it's based on an existing HTC phone and they haven't done anything really new and slick yet.
I actually seriously considered getting an OpenMoko Freerunner, but decided I needed the basic functionality too much for me to want to spend a lot of time fighting with my phone. I'm hoping open-source phone offerings will be a little bit more robust when my contract comes up.
I love my G1. Hardware is not all that bad. Not really a viable option for most people in BC anyway though.
: beherit April 06, 2009, 01:10:55 -06:00
I love my G1. Hardware is not all that bad. Not really a viable option for most people in BC anyway though.
Yeah, I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't good quality/functionality-wise - more that it doesn't quite have the "slick factor" of the iPhone - but then Apple puts a frightening amount of effort into being on the cutting edge in terms of industrial and interface design (and God help you if you don't like the design decisions they've made, because they'll usually blithely ignore you for at least a couple of years - cut and paste, anyone? :) )
: Kaji March 28, 2009, 05:48:28 -06:00
My phone I've had now for about 2 years. My mom used it before more for quite a few more years than me. Its an old phone. I'm looking forward to September later this year though because that's when my plan ends and so I will be free to choose a new plan with a new phone of my choice. Chances are, I'm going with the google phone cause I've heard great things about their plan.
Ya lol, you use the same phone I used a few years ago xD
MY dad is the one who covers my phone, and he's a "little" insane, so he ends up switching our phones a lot. Currently I'm using an LG Shine, although for some reason it's really annoying to open. It works fine otherwise though, so I'm not really complaining.
: Raikon April 07, 2009, 07:12:49 -06:00
Ya lol, you use the same phone I used a few years ago xD
MY dad is the one who covers my phone, and he's a "little" insane, so he ends up switching our phones a lot. Currently I'm using an LG Shine, although for some reason it's really annoying to open. It works fine otherwise though, so I'm not really complaining.
I think I might run back to a slide phone for my next one... Got an LG Shine in my hooves once and couldn't stop raping it with slidings. Thing is that I'd probably kill the phone by sliding it too much. I usually kill my phone with physical damage. :03
First cellphone of my own was an AudioVox from Virgin Mobile.
Working at Zellers allowed me to get this thing cheaps.
Absolutely 100% frigging AWFUL. Terrible service, annoying call centers, and this particular model of phone was not only super quiet with the ringer, but also extremely primitive in its software. Web Browsers were still sort of new, but any other company usually elts you visit pages anywhere. Virgin only elt you go their own designated pages, and it still cost $0.25 a pageview.
Ditching this THING while i was living in Mission and commuting to Vancouver, i needed something a bit more modern and feature filled to help me with my planning.
Thus on March 26th 2007, i got me a Motorola RAZR v3b. Brand new at the time and signed in through Telus.
First mistake XD
The v3b was actually something of a forgotten model, as it was very quickly replaced with the v3c. The most common model EVERYONE had. The v3b was infinitely more primitive than the C, and Telus blocking all other fun features also made the experience far less enjoyable (such as, custom ringtones).
It served well, but the lame camera, foreign video recording format (with a solid 10 second timer i might add, only), and requiring proprietary software to extract photos and videos to and from your phone (phoneTools, which you have to BUY separately).
I loved the phone to bits, as it did what i needed it to do, but i always felt a little underwhelmed thanks to the Telus service.
That RAZR went through alot, at first it was a contract i couldn't maintain (resulted in Collections billing me for $900 straight up), and then Pay-As-U-Go, and then finally on a non-binding contract that just merely billed me each month.
Telus called me up asking if i wanted to exchange for a newer model well over a year ago this day. At this time i was interested in upgrading the technology to a Touch device. The iPhone came to mind but thanks to my for-whatever-reason undying loyalty to Telus, they dont deal in iPhones. BUT, they did mention to me the upcoming Samsung Instinct, whcih at the time hadn't been released and wasn't planned on for months.
Roughly 5-6 months ago, i finally ditched the RAZR and jumped into the Samsung Instinct. In order to afford the sunnovabitch i signed onto a 3 year contract.
But its worth it. With the 100% expected limitation from Telus of NO custom ringtones no-matter-what, all my previous woes have been erraticated.
Sure there isn't as many "apps" as the iPhone and i AM jealous of that, and sure maybe the Music Player has the least intuitive interface ive EVER seen for a phone (thanks Telus and your software development team), it does EVERYTHING ive ever wanted.
Touch Screen Interface with "throwing physics" interactive menus
Unlimited video recording
Pretty decent pictures with a "fuzzy picture" warning and post-processing (such as brightening filters)
Calendar with schedulable events
Multiple alarms and notifications
Notes
WebTV
Sirius/XM Satelite Radio
Standard 1/8" Jack for standard headphone types
Bluetooth
and my favorite feature: MicroSD Memory card.
Anytime i want to extract stuff or put extra crap on my phone, i can easily just take my MicroSD to SD Memory Card converter and plug it into my HP Tower, OR if i want to save everything jsut plug in a new one. The phones also got like 512MB of built in memory too.
If i dont a memory card slot on my computer, i can use Bluetooth to send all my crap to my computer + other devices, including contacts!
While applications like BitPim helped me get custom ringtones on my RAZR, unfortunately Samsung Instinct doenst have such liberties so im stuck te built ins unless i truely desire the latest shitty pop single as something that rings by accident during a meeting.
The Samsung Instinct is worth it, so long as your not with Telus. Thats the whole key.
: DJCoyote April 13, 2009, 12:33:58 -06:00While applications like BitPim helped me get custom ringtones on my RAZR, unfortunately Samsung Instinct doenst have such liberties so im stuck te built ins unless i truely desire the latest shitty pop single as something that rings by accident during a meeting.
Huh, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of workaround. The iPhone tries to limit you to buying ringtones, but it's easy to work around (basically create an AAC clip, rename it to .m4r so the phone thinks it's a ringtone, sync it - there's a little more to it than that, but not much). I used to get stuff onto my Razr by putting it on my webspace and then grabbing it off there with the browser, but I was on Rogers.
: Silvermink April 13, 2009, 12:49:15 -06:00
: DJCoyote April 13, 2009, 12:33:58 -06:00While applications like BitPim helped me get custom ringtones on my RAZR, unfortunately Samsung Instinct doenst have such liberties so im stuck te built ins unless i truely desire the latest shitty pop single as something that rings by accident during a meeting.
Huh, I'm surprised there isn't some kind of workaround. The iPhone tries to limit you to buying ringtones, but it's easy to work around (basically create an AAC clip, rename it to .m4r so the phone thinks it's a ringtone, sync it - there's a little more to it than that, but not much). I used to get stuff onto my Razr by putting it on my webspace and then grabbing it off there with the browser, but I was on Rogers.
Yeah actually Telus has thought of that workaround which is what all the Custom Ringtone sender applications both Desktop and on the Web provide. Instead of providing a download link or prompt when you visit the sound file on the browser, it actually just makes a temporary page and embeds a Play button. You cannot download it.
Also, application like BitPim (which hacks the filesystem, with RAZRs case you delete the caches and itll refresh the ringtone repository to include all sound files haha) do work for the most part, but in the case of Telus Samsung Instinct, once it detects BitPim, it purposly formats the memory card and internal memory.
What a fun surprise. haha.
: DJCoyote April 13, 2009, 12:56:05 -06:00Yeah actually Telus has thought of that workaround which is what all the Custom Ringtone sender applications both Desktop and on the Web provide. Instead of providing a download link or prompt when you visit the sound file on the browser, it actually just makes a temporary page and embeds a Play button. You cannot download it.
Also, application like BitPim (which hacks the filesystem, with RAZRs case you delete the caches and itll refresh the ringtone repository to include all sound files haha) do work for the most part, but in the case of Telus Samsung Instinct, once it detects BitPim, it purposly formats the memory card and internal memory.
What a fun surprise. haha.
Ugh, that is severely lame. I can't believe (or, rather, I can believe, but it still disturbs me) that carriers are still going to those kinds of lengths to prevent people from using their own media on their own phones.
: Silvermink April 13, 2009, 01:15:35 -06:00
: DJCoyote April 13, 2009, 12:56:05 -06:00Yeah actually Telus has thought of that workaround which is what all the Custom Ringtone sender applications both Desktop and on the Web provide. Instead of providing a download link or prompt when you visit the sound file on the browser, it actually just makes a temporary page and embeds a Play button. You cannot download it.
Also, application like BitPim (which hacks the filesystem, with RAZRs case you delete the caches and itll refresh the ringtone repository to include all sound files haha) do work for the most part, but in the case of Telus Samsung Instinct, once it detects BitPim, it purposly formats the memory card and internal memory.
What a fun surprise. haha.
Ugh, that is severely lame. I can't believe (or, rather, I can believe, but it still disturbs me) that carriers are still going to those kinds of lengths to prevent people from using their own media on their own phones.
Yes! I purchased a ROKR from Rogers under their firmware where they had the custom ringtones locked, and even the default MP3 player in the phone.
This is especially severely lame because this phone's main feature is that you can make ANY sound file a ringtone by selecting 'options' while hovering on the track and set it as a ringtone. On the Roger's firmware, the option is there, but it's disabled and greyed out - being unselectable.
So I instantly flashed a new firmware onto my phone. Voiding the warranty, but increasing the phone's functionality!
My current cell phone is a Nokia 5610, I must say I am pretty pleased with the phone so far, it isn?t a really high tech phone. It play movies (320 x 240 @ 15FPS) and music (160 Kb/s) has great sound (Separate sound processing chip with eq). The only beef would be the Symbian OS that is a bit slow. Good 3.2 MP auto focus cam with 2 led flash also takes video (640 x 480 @ 15fps). Though there isn?t a flash light program. The reception is good all over the lower mainland. Nice slide and nice interface and easy to navigate.
My previous phone was a Nokia N-Gage, yeah that's right I had a N-Gage. It was the best phone for reception I have ever seen so far. Never have I had a doped call. Basically I got it for playing games like worms when I was board and had nothing else on me. There wasn't a cam, and the sounds wasn't great. The interface was easy to navigate. Though you really don't pick up style points having it. Especial when you pass your phone to a friend so they can talk, and they say to you "Where do I talk into it and where do I listen into it?". Also I almost forgot it is tough, I forgot how many times I have dropped it and still worked and looked perfect, one time it fell off my desk that is 31? off the ground and shattered the glass that I had bellow on the floor.
As for provider, well that?s Fido, there cheap what else can I say. If you want to get help with you phone and they send you to the downtown Fido store, be prepared to wait a while. Phoning tech support there pretty quick on getting a reprehensive and so far they were helpful and did solve my questions. No problems with them so far.
Actually, now im REALLY angry.
I just found a site called GetJar.com which is a HUGE repository for apps for various phones, including the Instinct.
I found the BOLT web browser, and tried downloading it to my phone.
FORBIDDEN.
*slams face against desk repeatedly* DAMN YOU TELUS! DAMN YOU!!!
I have an iPhone at the moment, and besides the retarded amount I pay each month to Fido to have it, I am in love and am never caught without the damn thing. XD
In the past, I've had the Nokia ...5300? The white 'push up' phone. That was neat but it really was poorly made and always reset on itself. Though, it was a big improvement to my previous phone - Motorola RAZR... I hated that phone with a passion. Poor reception, dust would get under the screen with no real way of cleaning it... the keys started to become unresponsive... ugh. When I was eligible for an upgrade from the Nokia, I got the Sony Ericsson k790 - the phone is great, and if it wasn't for the iPhone I probably would still be using that.
Well I am running a Bell Blackberry Curve 8330 and I've found that its insanely adjustable in terms of what I can do with it. I run custom ringtones and everything. In fact I am even running Opera Mini 4.2 without a complaint. Now if that isn't enough App World is getting bigger almost every week.
I have a Motorola slider phone.. it doesn't have a fancy name, like. SLDR or somethin'.
the back panel that is supposed to cover the battery doesn't close properly, so it sticks out.
The buttons kind of stick so texting can be a hassle (and it doesn't have a full keyboard either)
The piece on the front with the logo on it nearly fell off the 2nd day I had it, and is sticking there with crazy glue.
Sometimes it doesn't like to shut off the screen, it just stays lit and burns the battery.
It has dropped a lot of my calls...
Don't get it! :(
Well, having managed to break my iPhone 3G (stupid crappy belt case), I now have a 3GS, which is very nice. It's a lot faster and they finally replaced the shamefully-bad camera with something half-decent. The tap-for-arbitrary-focus-point thing is pretty cool.
Well yes I upgraded... from a Blackberry Curve 8330 to a Bold II 9700, what a difference! The Bold is fast, lag free and stable. I can be doing several things at once and it doesn't bog down the processor, like it did to the Curve. I still love the customizations that I've done and even the updated non carrier sanctioned OS versions.
O0 8)
OberonSnowcat
I'm using my lg pop right now to write my post on this thread. It is really cool - the unlimited mobile browsing is very fun on the pop. I had a moterolla back than, and had a lg rumor too, cept the moterolla broke.
I've got mixed feelings over my iphone 3gs. It's fast. It does what I want it to do. BUT, Apple just keeps locking it down and not allowing me to do what I want to do with it. Game of cat and mouse with the firmware really. It's got a great repository of apps... if you sift through the steaming pile of shit that the app store has become...
I'm going with an Android phone when this phone dies. I'm content enough to stay with Rogers after I threatened to leave them for Wind (They've set up in Edmonton already, and I'm still sort of debating it...) over the insane amount I was paying on my bill each month - now I've got free rogers to rogers, which is largely useless for me - though it is $15 a month normally, and a $15 credit towards my plan in general, without having to extend my contract any further.
I'd strongly suggest against signing any contract with Telus, especially a 3 year plan with data, especially with the newer carriers opening up... and maybe offering far better plans for cheaper, as the early termination fees for telus are insane - up to $820 + tax.
On my next phone refresh, I'll be buying the phone outright and unlocked, and ditch the contract.
I'm probably going to be switching to Android when my contract comes up, too. I'm tired of being locked into Apple's ecosystem, especially when Apple seems to care more about Jobs' ego than their customers. I just don't feel that I can support them anymore.
I have always loved Nokias. They are tough and have good functionality. My last one, still worked after being dropped in the bucket of water, run over by a car.. twice..., had a horse kick it.. then kick a another bucket of water on it.. Was a great phone, still works too, just got a new one with a new contract. As for the smart phones I like the Black Berry and iPhones, both are really cool however I'd want to get an unlocked smart phone.. so that pretty much means a BB. The BB Storms are pretty nifty.
The one thing that really gets me (besides the locked phones) is that the service/data plans we get in Canada are soooo damn expensive compared to the US and EU. Unfortunately unless the CRTC makes TELUS/Bell/Roger go cheaper we are hooped, because the reason is infrastructure. No one is going to spend the billions of dollars to put new towers in, over such a large area. So any new companies that pop up, will have to lease the Telus/Bell/Rogers towers and pay more so we have to pay more.. Sucks ass :(
Again, Wind Mobile is launching in Vancouver this summer. Along with Mobilicity.
Wind Mobile might not be cheaper for everybody, but it throws in the stuff that the big 3 like to charge extra for (caller ID, missed call alerts, forwarding, incoming texts... some free texts on top of that to CAN/US...) for free. In their most basic package. Without any hidden fees. Without any contract.
They just ask you to buy your phone outright (70-450 up front, phone selection through them is a bit anemic)... or bring your phone to them (3G operating on AWS/1700 (ie, Google's Nexus One) - using 2G means you're roaming, as that's provided with a peering agreement with Rogers.)
So Wind is using Roger's network? Eh I heard about them, when they launched in Easter Canada. Sounded good at the time, but a few friends out there said they were not a huge difference from Rogers/Bell.
Wind uses Roger's 2G network, but provides their own 3G on the AWS/1700 band, which is not compatible with 90% of the phones out there.
The biggest difference is the lack of contracts.
Forget if I replied in here or not or if my post got moved or anything.. :p
I've got an HTC Dream through Rogers; I had to give my old iPhone back to my previous employer when I left, and decided to give an Android phone a whirl. I love the hardware keyboard, and the first thing I did was replace/update the stock firmware. :p
I actually just recently flashed it up to the latest experimental Cyanogenmod 5.0.7, which is a backport of the latest Android 2.1 from the Nexus One, minus some of the space-and-processor-hogging features like Live Wallpapers and the new Launcher. The previous 4.x series was a hybrid of 1.6 and 2.0 (the latest Rogers firmware is still based on the relatively ancient 1.5) and still decent, but this is faster and better. Since the Dream (G1 in most other countries) is relatively old hardware, it does suffer from a slower (528MHz) processor and lack of RAM and internal flash ROM, but since Cyanogenmod supports both swap and application installation direct to the microSD card, it's still very usable.
It's got your standard 3.5G data, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPS, compass, accelerometer/tilt sensor, Bluetooth (with A2DP), microSDHC support, etc. etc. and can run both Market and unsupported apps (i.e. the equivalent of a 'jailbroken' iPhone). The nice thing about it is that Google actually supports guys like Cyanogen in making their custom firmwares and tweaks (even if Rogers locks down the SPL bootloaders in newer Android phones in an attempt to prevent you from using them *fistshake*) - HTC and Rogers said they wouldn't be porting Android 2.1 back to the Dream because 'it wasn't capable'... Cyanogen did it himself and just axed the few intensive features that wouldn't fit.
I was initially set on the Nokia N900 w/ Maemo, but since they never released a version compatible with Rogers' 3G network, I went Android instead. While I wish my phone were a bit faster, hardware wise, the ecosystem is amazing and I'm eagerly awaiting whatever upgrade to the Nexus One comes out next, with a hardware keyboard. If they remake the Nexus One w/ said keyboard, even, I'd be all over it. :P Hate soft keyboards.
That, and I'm just waiting for Google to get their licensing/regulation/whatever in place to allow the new Navigation sub-app of Maps working in Canada. Mmn turn-by-turn GPS, for free (minus data charges for loading maps on the fly).
All in all, I love my phone so much more than the old iPhone, and can wholeheartedly recommend Android-based phones (especially the unlocked, unrestricted Google Nexus One if you can handle the software keyboard) over Apple's locked-in, censored ecosystem.
I'd love to see more Android phones with hardware keyboards. I like to pretend the software keyboard on my iPhone is sufficient, but... well, it drives me nuts a lot of the time, though their lousy spellchecker (seriously, it substitutes "it's" for "its". wtf?) doesn't help.
Yeah, I know. >.< "Its" is grammatically correct sometimes (possessive; "It's" = "it is"), so why would you autocorrect it the same way all the time? :/
Hell, autocorrect in general just pisses me off - especially if you're using a hardware keyboard, too! X.x My typing is not that bad.
I find autocorrect generally useful on the iPhone mostly because the keyboard doesn't lend itself well to especially-high accuracy, but it makes some really boneheaded correction decisions sometimes.
I'm also annoyed that it tries to correct my profanity. I can see not putting those words in the spelling dictionary such that other words might be corrected to them, but c'mon - I wasn't trying to type "ducking". :P
Or, as this (hilarious) video would have it, "sips off, you ducking yanker!"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hcoT6yxFoU)
HAHAHA. Thanks for the video, mink. :D
Heh heh that is a funny video.
LOOL, That video is win. XD
rofl, that was good.