Entering the 20th century...

My phone bill finally dropped from $90 something a month to $45. I have a smartphone, but since most of the conversations I have on it are text, I hate actually talking on a phone even before cell phones came out. And I probably use my phone for about 15 - 2o% of the time I'm online, but most of that is on wi-fi since they're almost everywhere now my data usage stays around 400-600 megs a month. I was offered a $45 per month unlimited talk/text with 1 gig of data per month. I'm happy with price, which is something I've been wanting to cut down for the last 2 years at least. And I can add on another phone for $15 or so a month, the only thing is that the data becomes shared.

And another reason I absolutely loathe Apple products, you're buying a piece of equipment that you are told how to use, with what you can use it, and if it needs any service told you can only take it to certain places.

But, you can replace the battery yourself. I helped, well actually did the replacement for an iPhone battery for a friend's daughter. It took less than 20 minutes, he bought the battery online and it came with a little toolkit to do the battery replacement with.

But yeah, Apple products to me at least are overpriced crap that's made for people who need to be told how to use technology.

The battery thing I'm not a fan of. Replacing a battery is a pretty basic deal with most gadgets. That Apple makes you send it back to them for something so simple is idiotic.

No kidding, the cost is $79 for the iPhone battery. For a laptop the cost is anywhere from $129 - 199.

I got a phone from Republic Wireless over the winter, it's been great so far. $25 per month, unlimited, uses wifi to call when available.

That really depends upon where you get the battery from, and there are a number of companies who make extra batteries. For fuck's sake, however, do not get a battery from eBay. There's a good chance it will explode at some point. Pay the extra money and get it from Samsung.

Two free apps no one should be without: Shazam and SoundHound. They let you identify songs that are playing over the radio or whatever. Soundhound will even let you hum a tune and try to identify it.

You should also start listening to a podcast like All About Android, Android Central, or Android Buffet, as they'll tell you how to get the most out of your phone.

Very much this. I don't know why the marekt is so atrocious for this product specifically, but it is.

Goofing around with the "Paper camera" app.

4 x $20 = $80. You were overpaying.

Incidentally, I bought a rubber shock-resitant case for it (I drop things a lot), called an OtterBox.

Yeah. I found that the Defender was just to large and bulky. I'm happy with their Commuter series cases.

I can attest to the strength of those cases.

I have it on good authority that if you accidentally throw your phone against the trunk of a tree because you're pissed off at one of your coworkers, that case will protect the phone.


I've since switched to a Mophie and, while I like the extra battery power, the case isn't as protective. I'm on my second one and need to get another one.

Oh, and a lot of apps can drain your battery even when you're not using them. My phone's battery kept dying rapidly and I thought that the battery was on the way out. I deleted the Facebook Messenger app and my battery life shot back up.

In the "Okay, I won't do that again" category: I took some pics of the yard deer, plugged the phone into the PC and selected "download pictures" in the windows popup menu. I specified a folder for it to go to, and once I saw the pics in that folder, I deleted the pics from the phone's window on the PC screen. Apparently since the phone was still connected to the PC, the pics in the file folder were also deleted, and they're aw gone now.

Forbin, get Dropbox and tell it to sync all of your photos automatically. Then no more cords.

Well, "didn't feel a need for" rather than "resisted".

SELFIE!



This is actually our first "family walkie" all the way around the block with the dog since May's surgery. She's been working up the distance she can walk without getting exhausted, and she's up to two blocks now. This is our fist outing with all 3 of us.

Check out Forbin enjoying all the cool stuff the rest of the world has had for years!

Congratulations. What phone did you get?

Ahhh, Forbin discovers the joys of autocorrect.

Here's a piece of advice, Forbin: Always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS lock your phone before putting it in your pocket. You may think that garbled text messages or a butt-dial is the worst that can happen, but no. Today I put an unlocked "smart"phone in my pocket and when I pulled it out again it had undergone a full factory reset!

Actually, it's OFF if I'm not actually making a call. Same as with the TracPhone, this thing is for emergencies only. And photos of pretty flowers. I don't have any friends left to call or to call me, so there's no point in leaving it on!

I read that as "our fisting".....

Not yet, she's still healing down there...

Maybe we weren't talking about her........

I have guns, ya know.

You mean you did have guns. Being New Jersey, that's no guarantee you will have them five minutes from now.

What kind of rate of fire do you get out of those matchlocks anyway? Five minutes a round?

Go to the back of the arquebus, you.