Smartphones for the Family, again

When this blog was about a month old, I documented my thinking when choosing our family's first Smartphone. Its been two years so our contract is finally up. My wife thrilled me with the announcement that a new phone for me, and also for her and my son, were to be my birthday present.

I have literally been shopping for this phone for over two years. Even when I bought the Instincts in December of 2008, I knew I ultimately wanted an Android phone. Then, only the G1 was out, and solely on T-Mobile. I knew our street didn't get good coverage on T-Mobile. I didn't want to stay with Verizon; the only company that could reach our street. Sprint had affordable service, and a Femtocell, the Airave. That would give me excellent coverage in the house.

Note: I spoke before the County Planning Council two weeks ago in support of a T-Mobile cell tower that will give us more options during the next contract renewal.

Having chosen Sprint back in 2008, I then looked at their Smartphones. There were not many, but the Instinct was then about six months old and affordable at $100 each.

You would think my exposure to the iPad, and to an iPod Touch this year would make me want an iPhone now. Being a gadget lover, I want to try something different. Also, I like the idea that I can develop for the Android much easier and affordably then for the iPhone. I might never do it, but I want the option. I am an old Visual Basic 3.0 and PHP programmer although I've lapsed somewhat in the last couple of years.

I decided to stay with Sprint. I love the idea of their EVO, but the $10 a month 4g tax would have come to $720 for our three phones over the life of the contract. When I chose the Instinct, the option was to go with the iPhone. When it comes to technology, I know that "best" and "pretty good" in quality are usually closer together than their costs. In other words, "pretty good" is usually a better value. That is true today with Sprint's selection of Android phones. I went with the LG Optimus S. At $49 per phone, all the reviews I have read indicate it is a good value.

I have gathered a few notes on Android together on a separate Android page on this blog. It will be a dynamic page, so if you are interested in Android, be sure to check it out periodically.

~~I just got off the phone with Sprint. The phones should be here next week.\~~

Cancelled the Sprint order. Best Buy has them for free with 2 year contract. I have them now.

Comments

Notes Folder : My new note taking system

I'm in the process of moving to a new way to keep my notes. It would be best to make a separate post on my long time notetaking app, Evernote, and how it now disappoints me. Bottom line, I no longer trust the company behind Evernote since it was acquired. My first inclination was to finally look at alternatives. like Notion, Joplin, Obsidian, etc. of I was not enamored with any of them, so I gritted my teeth and stayed with Evernote. TThe situation made me think about how I use Evernote. To keep up additional posts on this topic, search on the tag Notes Folder Updates : January 24, 2024 and in updates noted here. Most of the things I store are quick notes, lists, online receipts for online bills, that sort of thing. Kind of an online file cabinet if you will. If I were a doctoral student though I could see storing PDFs of papers and research materials. If were working on a large project, then plans, communications etc. would all be there. Back when I began using Evernote way b

Recording your own notes with Google Voice

Note : April 2016: Frankly I don't know if this works anymore. It is 7 years old. I stopped using this when Google Now became useful on my phone, and I could dictate reminders using it. I found a way a while ago to use Google Voice to record a personal note, transcribe it, and email it to me. A recent Lifehacker post "Five Things We'd Like to See in Google Voice" lists that need as their #5 request, so I realized what I'd figured out is not common knowledge. In GV's Contacts, create a Group "Special Transcription" To avoid listening to my standard voice mail when I call, I recorded a short voice mail greeting for this group simply saying "Record note now" I added a contact with my own cell phone number as the only number, and made it the sole member of this group. In GV's phone settings, I edited the settings for my cell phone. In the section "Direct access to voicemail when calling your Google number from th

Ten Years of Evernote

This blog post was set to publish exactly as the day begins on Tuesday, July 31, 2018. That is ten years to the day after my first Evernote post. With my second note, I was already getting down to business; recording the agreement I'd come to on the phone on a minor business matter. My affection for Evernote has not dimmed since that day ten years ago. Since then, I've accumulated about 7.8 new notes a day. Ironically, I have needed to pull up only a few notes a year. Yet, when I need them, I need them badly and am glad to have Evernote all over again. My philosophy of what to capture is simple : If you encounter something you might remotely want to see again, it goes into Evernote. from a blog post June 1, 2015 I've written here about Evernote than any other topic. Even wrote a now horribly out-of-date book. Don't get me wrong. If something better comes along that imports my Evernote notes well, I can be enticed to move. But in t

Ideas from Mark Stout

Search This Blog