OT: A 72yo Journeys into the World of Smart Phones - W 7.5
 

I ordered a HTC Trophy with Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) today. It will be a (free) upgrade - along with paying for that 2 year contract and bigger data package.

I did a lot of reading on the Windows phone operating system, and this phone. Every consumer review I read was outstanding - 5 of 5 - and I read a lot of them.

Right now my current LG phone can not use aps, and only gets on the internet rather clumsily, as is the email program.

I will miss my real keyboard, but the choices for keyboard-equipped phones are quite limited, and the reviews of these phones are not that great.

So, hopefully, I can still learn and understand this new fangled Aps - I believe that W has only about 18,000 aps - about 17,990 too many for me :)

I have not yet made the plunge into "smart" phones. My Samsung "flip" phone gets dropped every other day, fits in a jersey pocket, and is cheaply replaced. Besides, watching my son walk through life staring at his palm (he can navigate busy sidewalks & narrow hallways without looking up) just doesn't seem so attractive to me. Somebody else will have to throw those angry birds! ;)

Good luck, I am about to do the same thing. My semi smart phone (Palm pre) is great, but looking for a sarger screen. Thinking about the Droid Incredible 2. We will see what happens.

If I can't use it or don't like it, I can always revert to my old phone, which still works great.

Last summer I saw a lady riding her comfort bike no hands on the sidewalk...while she was happily texting away.

I use the otterbox and beltline clip for it. I clip it on the backside of my waistband and run the earbuds line up my back it plays my favorite Pandora music stations. As a music lover, it really comes in handy for those long, hot stretches with no bends in sight, not to mention cranking up the blues when grinding out the hills.

I finally got smart (phone, that is) about a year ago. Given that I work in IT, I rationalized that I needed to know what they're about, since 80% of the folks I deal with in and out of IT have them... I got an Android phone: a Samsung Galaxy S (AT&T name Captivate). Just finally upgraded it to 2.2 the other evening. While I'm not a rabid texter, having the increased functionality of the smart phone is nice. Whether or not it's worth the price is harder to quantify.

When my barely a phone mobile broke I got an iphone. It totally rocks. I am thrilled. It works really well and is easy to use. Heck, you can even talk to it and it actually works like in a sci-fi movie. In one week I don't know how I did without it.

Wonderful, that means I can be cell phone free for another 22 years :D

Do you have a landline?

Why?

DnvrFox: It's App not aps :) All kidding a side smart phones are a wonderful thing. I'm a gadget geek and find my Android phone to be very useful. There are many uses for just on the bike alone that I think you will find after a couple of weeks there is no going back to a dumb phone. Because Google Maps is on my phone (I'm sure your phone will use Bing) along with the GPS I'm always pulling up the bike paths when I'm out exploring to see where I might want to head to next.

Have fun!

fasthair

To put this into perspective, Apple says the app count for the 4S is 500,000+, but that is only what is available through their Store. There are some other folks that work outside of the Store and are accessible if you Jailbreak your phone (at least I think that is the process).

I have an Iphone and it is a lot like having your computer and GPS everywhere you go. It will tell you about the weather. It lets me do my banking. I can load a ton of music. I can send and receicve pictures. I can even locate my wife or at least her phone by GPS. I don't even need to bring a book to the doctor office, I have kindle loaded and can retrieve my books. It has built in Navagation so if you ever get off track on a long ride just turn on the phone it will show me where I am and how to get where I want to go.:love:

Sometimes I think the phone is smarter than me. :lol:

Well, my current phone has navigation, weather, music (if I wanted to pay for it), email, some web access, can send and receive pictures - so maybe it won't be such a change after all.

One of the features I will appreciate is the ability to read and edit WORD docs - something I do a lot of, but can't do on my current phone.

Back in '04I got a Palm Treo that I kept for 3 yrs. I jumped to a Blackberry, which at the time was amazin. I needed a bigger screen, tho, and c_gallagh & I needed a way to sync our calendars, so in July of '10 we got Android smartphones. All was groovy.

Two weeks ago I won an iPad 2 in a raffle to support our local HS Robotics Club...and I get the Apple thing. Not enough to get an iPhone, but enough to think about it. Often.

I love how smartphones make me more productive, and how I can be connected when need be for my clients. No going back for this geek. ;)

Just yesterday I used my Droid smart phone to check the weather before my ride; tracked my 27.83 mile ride (including elevation, average speed, total moving time, etc.); stopped to take a phone call from my wife; looked up and gave her directions for the cheapest place to get gas; found a restaurant and made dinner reservations (we're on a short vacation); and, found my way back to the hotel (yes, there was a short stretch where I wasn't sure where I was).

Like most tools, used properly, smart phones can be very helpful things.

http://i180.photobucket.com/albums/x...A/a786501b.jpg

Are you sure you want to pursue this?

You'll have to keep us up to speed on battery life. Almost everyone I know who has Android or iPhone systems complains of battery life unless they turn off about half the functionality. Many of them tell me they can't even make it through a complete business day on one charge. On the other hand our Blackberry Torch phones(touch screen and keypad) can go two or three days between recharges and still using all the device's functions. Don't do a lot of Wi-Fi internet and the time between recharges gets longer.

When our contract expires we'll be looking for something and have considered Windows phone as a replacement. Unless Blackberry comes through on their promises that is.

:lol:

My sons are heading to Europe tomorrow for 26 days and have downloaded apps for the airlines they are flying, Europe's train system and many other stuff that will help them find their way (hopefully). It is truly remarkable how much is available.

I have Mango on my Samsung Focus. It is a 3G phone, but it is much better than my Wife's iPhone 4.

My battery life has been fine; I've gone three days without a need to charge. Of course I do turn off everything but what I'm currently using (on rides I keep the phone function on and the tracking program running). When I need to use the other functions, I simply turn them on. When job is completed I turn them off. It takes but a few seconds once you know how to do it. My youngest son jokes that "smart phone" really means you have to be very smart to figure it out. I don't know this to be true, but do know there is a learning curve, as with anything else. Now, he (my youngest son) must charge his in the middle of the day as well as at night. But he's using his to download music, watching streaming video, post photos to Facebook, etc. Those really do drain battery life.

Denver, remember that after Alice went down the rabbit hole she ultimately realized that the Queen screaming "Off with their heads!" was nothing more than one card in a deck of cards, and she woke up safe and sound in the same spot where her dream started. As with many things, the fears often seem bigger than the ultimate reality.

Android. The only way to go :)

That's what they want you to believe :lol:

Really the only major problem I've had with my iPhone is when I use a cycling app with it. It severely limits the battery life.

Otherwise they really are pretty cool.

I like to think of it as managing functionality. When I don't need WiFi I keep it off. I almost never use Bluetooth so it stay's off. GPS on occasion, but in all cases understanding what the phone is capable of and what it NEEDS on to be functional to the user is key. Many app's just don't need to be constantly sync'ing and accessing data, so disable that portion. As well, having an extra duty battery helps immensely and that alone is one of the advantages of some Android phones (among many disadvantages compared to iPhone, to head off a war). I have the extra life battery for my HTC Incredible and can go 3 days easily in moderate usage, though I am now trained, as it were, to charge overnight.

In my life, the improvements to many aspects of my daily routine more then make up for having been trained by the devices to care for it.

Does anyone use them to make phone calls?