Smartphones

[Arbutus]

Here are two questions I've been turning over in my mind recently:

1. Do any of you furs own a smartphone? If so, what do you have? How do you like it? What do you most often use it for? Would you recommend it? (that was five questions)

2. I'm considering getting a smartphone myself. In mulling over the idea, I came to realize that I actually don't use computers for anything except going online. (I'm well out of college, so I don't even really need a word processor anymore.) So... do you think it'd be theoretically possible for someone to sell their computer, sell their phone, sell their camera, sell their mp3 player, cancel their Internet and phone plans, and replace everything with a smartphone and a 3G connection? Do smartphones have enough functionality to make this feasible? (Bonus points if it's possible to break even financially in the process.)

I doubt I'd actually do this, but it's interesting to think about. Do smartphones have the potential to replace most of the devices we take for granted?

[furtopia02]

I love Smartphones.. I was a Blackberry user for years before I switched to a 32 gb iPhone 3GS last May.. never been happier! My iPhone has replaced my netbook and other laptop for mobile everything. I don't have to carry them anymore. I can browse the web anywhere pretty much the same as I can on my netbook (only thing I'm really missing that I use is flash, but Youtube is on iPhone anyway if you want to watch YT vids and it does it very well). I even logged in to IRC here on my iPhone last night with a free program I found. I love having all of my email (including attachments and HTML), websites and forums I frequent, chat programs (all of them, Skype, MSN, AIM, IRC, Facebook, etc) all at my finger tips whenever I want. So many great non-internet applications on the iPhone as well; more than I could talk about. If you got the new iPhone as well you'll get iMovie and stuff too for on the go video editing. It's quite a cool device and it works very, very well. My BlackBerry would get overwhelmed pretty easily when multitasking and freeze but the iPhone has never given me a problem and I'm a lot harder on it with multitasking and running more demanding software on it. I love the thing.

For webbrowsing and basic tasks the iPhone can definitely replace all of those other things. The new camera on the iPhone (and even the old one on the 3GS ones like mine) is quite good for any pictures that will be for web use, and there are image editing programs for download as well. It takes decent video and as I said the new one has iMovie for editing, but there are other applications you can download too (on even the older iPhones). I can open, edit, and create word processing documents as well, and open various other office attachments (which comes in handy when showing someone something on a paper I wrote for class or when wanting to read some downloaded fan fiction, etc). One thing you'd want access to a computer for to make the best use it though is ripping CDs to put on it. You can borrow use a friends computer for this to keep it simple - very likely they'd agree too since they'd get to listen to all of your music as well since it would be stored on their computer as well. You also do software and OS updates via the computer so it's needed for that, and to download some larger (over 25 mb) applications require you to use a regular computer and then sync to the device. You don't have to do that often though. I think I've only had mine actually hooked up less than a dozen times since I've had it since May. You could easily get away with just making use of a friends computer once in a while if they are willing to let you have your stuff stored there (I still think they would since they'd benefit from it too).

So yeah.. in my day to day life away from the house my iPhone has replaced everything else (iPod, Netbook, etc) I used to carry for the same uses. It also lets me use MY webbrowser, MY favourites, and MY own connection when doing things rather than using the wireless network at school which is unreliable in connectivity, and has some security issues that have plagued computers there. Such a great little device. Make sure to buy an Otter Box for it though. I drop mine a lot, lol. With that otter box though it hasn't been the least of a problem with moderate drops and bumps.

As far as BlackBerry goes.. its very limited compared to iPhone. Biggest difference is web browsing which is slow on the BlackBerry (due to hardware not 3G, its the same 3G just a slower device), and limited - the web browser it has does not display pages well and many functions on websites do not work as they should. Safari on iPhone displays them like Safari displays them on any other computer minus Flash (which came from a dispute between Adobe and Apple so support for it wasn't included in Safari). iPhone's touch screen and controls are very easy to use and learn as well. Typically when doing anything on it you just natural "do" the controls the first time without thinking about it because it makes since (like turning pages in a book, or scrolling, or moving something around). Zooming in and out on web pages with your fingers is super sweet. <3 BlackBerry's music player is obviously rather inferior to the iPod function of the iPhone (saw that one coming a mile away lol). There actually isn't anything at all my BlackBerry did better or that I like more than my iPhone.. it's got to be one of the best things I've ever purchased. I absolutely love it and am super addicted to it. Oh! Charging! Can charge via AC outlet or USB (same cord). On very long days where I know I'll be sitting around on my phone for much of the day I take cable for it with me in my bag and just charge it up when I need to anywhere I am pretty much - wall, computer, etc. It charges very fast and the battery life is quite good on it. You can buy extra battery things for it as well to extend the life, have a backup battery to hook in to etc as well as car adapters etc (I don't need one though because my truck has a USB port). I use my phone wirelessly in my truck as well with my stereo's systems built in hands free system for safe phone calls from my head unit, etc. It's quite nice. I could do that with my BlackBerry too. Homephone? Not even needed if you have good cell phone service with AT&T anyway.

The iPhone is also a great GPS unit with maps (downloads via 3G no computer required) and other GPS features. Built in compass, maps, pin point locations, find things, etc. Very easy to read since its full colour with a wonderful display that is very clear.

It's got a lot more things too. Check out Apple's website.

[Yip]

1. Do any of you furs own a smartphone? If so, what do you have? How do you like it? What do you most often use it for? Would you recommend it?

I have an iPhone. I love it. I use it mostly for on the go web-browsing and easy access to google maps. My main complaint is that I don't always get a very good signal in my apartment. But that's not necessary a problem with the phone
itself.

So... do you think it'd be theoretically possible for someone to sell their computer, sell their phone, sell their camera, sell their mp3 player, cancel their Internet and phone plans, and replace everything with a smartphone and a 3G connection? Do smartphones have enough functionality to make this feasible? (Bonus points if it's possible to break even financially in the process.)

My experience is only with iPhone, but assuming others are similar, I'd say it would easily completely replace a non-smart phone (dumbphone?), digital camera (so long as you are not a professional photographer or something), and mp3 player.  I wouldn't say the same for the computer. While I like that I can take the phone with me easily, I wouldn't use it exclusively for several reasons.  The biggest being that even for just basic web-browsing, using a computer for that is so much better.

[Weisseman]

I've got and HTC HD2 with Windows Mobile 6.5. While the phone is great the OS isn't brilliant. I would have preferred Android but honestly I can't fault the HD2 too much. It does everything I need to and I frequently check the IRC and MSN with it if I'm out. I also use it to check prices and look up stuff on the net.

Overall I wouldn't say it can replace a proper internet connection. While phones can use full internet the experience is somewhat bad as most sites aren't designed with small screens in mind. This may change in the future of course. I definitely prefer having a PC/Laptop for my internet over using a phone but it still useful when out and about and only need to quickly check things.

I've used the iPhone 4 and it's pretty good at what it's designed to do. The addition of multitasking and group apps is a massive improvement for me. However the apps need to be able to multitask and I'm not sure how many apps could do that. I'd be amazed if dev's don't update to exploit this feature. I have used a few apps incapable of multitasking and this was a minor annoyance.

As for Android. I've heard nothing but good things about Android 2.1 and I'd imagine 3 will be just as good or better. It's certainly an OS worth checking out if you'd like to get a Smartphone. However you'll have to look around at getting a good phone. Because Android is on so many phones you have to do some research into getting the best phone for you and which get the best reviews.

Windows Phone 7 is MS's new mobile OS and I'm not sure what to think of it. The initial outlook for me is bad. So bad infact that my next phone could well be an Android phone. It's version of Multitasking is something I don't like and since I multitask a lot it just won't work for me.

I would recommend the HTC HD2 if you were going for a windows phone. While the OS is well known to be buggy I've never experienced a problem with it that couldn't be fixed by turning it off and on again.

I'd also recommend the iPhone. My brief experience with it has left a better impression than before. With iOS4 the phone have been given much need improvements that have swayed my view greatly of it when compared to other phones.

If you fancy Android than I've heard good things about the Samsung Galaxy S. But I recommend you try this phone and look into Android as an OS to make sure it can do what you need.

N.B The iPhone reception issue is very easy to replicate. I had some fun proving my friend it could be done with his iPhone x3 His counter arguement that it was the room was void because I have a phone mast viewable from my room and my phone had full coverage. Getting a phone case will sort this out though if it is a problem for you. My friend got a leather one and I couldn't make it lose reception when it was in the case.

[489109]

Wow the above posts were long and full of good and useful info. So, I'll just keep it simple:

I own a Droid Eris. I love it, its user friendly, takes a good beating, decent battery life, excellent Internet connection speeds, fast load times, and very practical for the cost. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a do-it-all phone. Only bad thing is that most businesses are making apps for iphone and Blackberry only still. The Droid doesn't have the main ones I'm looking for.

[Narei Mooncatt]

I'm gonna have to buck the trend here and say I don't care for today's smartphones. I was impressed by the Droids and they were the first ones that got me interested in that kind of  setup (Regardless of how good an iPhone may be, AT&T's 3G coverage is about the worst, for me at least), until I tried a few the other day. The advice in the posts above seemed to answer your specific questions rather well, so I'm gonna toss out a couple of things to be weary of.

All major cell providers cap their "unlimited" data plans at 5GB transfer per month. They claim it's because people were using things like their smartphones and aircards as internet replacements over hard lines so much that it was causing bandwidth problems with their towers and affecting calls. Basically if everyone tried to use their cell at the same time, they couldn't handle the capacity. That being said, they keep coming out with  more and more ways to blow through that 5GB faster and faster, which makes no sense to me if they have a cap considering I could blow through that in a week on my air card. If you plan to use the phone as your only source of internet, just keep that in mind if you do a lot of streaming and such. It's also more expensive than a regular hardline for what you get. At roughly $60/mo, 3G usually get's me about 500-800Kbs real download speeds with a good signal, but in areas without 3G you are basically going to get dial-up speeds. And if you would rather use it as a modem for your computer, they will charge you extra for "tethering". On the up side, the 5GB transfer limit doesn't apply when/if you use wifi access on your phone instead of the cell networks.

Now the thing I hate about today's smartphones is they are trying to force you to use either a touchscreen or slide out QWERTY keypad. I've yet to really see a durable slide out phone that doesn't break soon, and all the touchscreen keyboards for texting I tried only had about a 50% hit rate on which character I'm trying to input. I don't have overly large fingers, but I still couldn't help but overlap buttons. Only one I looked at had a traditional keypad/predictive text option and it was still virtual and had said accuracy issues. I also noticed a lot of the phones are getting wider but thiner, so one handed use will be a challenge if one of your hands are occupied.

My ideal phone would have to be something like a droid, but a clamshell/flip phone with a traditional physical key pad so I could do basic functions like texting without even looking at it. I don't think I'd really do a ton with said phone, but would be nice to have a good camera, 3G for the occational net use, and ability to add my own ringtones and backgrounds without jumping through hoops or buying through a service. For now, I'm gonna stick with my 4 year old military spec phone I got when Sprint first came out with them. It's not very advanced even for its time and starting to get a little slow, but looks nice, easy and comfortable to use, and durable as heck. I could throw it against a wall and be lucky if it even got a scratch when a lot of todays phones would be left in pieces.

[Itico]

I used an HTC Apache for years before most people figured out what all these smartphones were about.  It was nice.

Can you live on a smartphone?  For someone who just chats and sends emails, browses the web?  Oh, there is no doubt about it.

You can do much of that even on my LG Lotus Elite, which is what I got instead of the HTC EVO.

I love smartphones, but being visually impaired they don't quite work as well for me as they do some people.  Even though some phones, like the iPhone and Android 2.0+ phones now cal talk.

I like to read the reviews of phones on cenet.com and phonescoop.com.  Also, take into account the battery life, because if you're going to be livign on it, you're probably going to need more then one battery, a car charger, etc.

Some of the higher end phones can be connected to your HD television and then you can stream HD movies too.

Good hunting.

[Alsek]

I have a samsung SGH-i907 (Epix) it's a 3g compatable windows mobile phone with wifi capibilities.

I personaly started to love mine once i got Opera and a few other windows mobile programs on it.  I knew i had the right phone (a year or so ago now) when i caught myself up at 3 in the morning in bed doing my html/css homework and uploading it to the web with an FTP client.  I also can not stand on screen keyboards.


That being said,  they're not for everyone.  People have their own preferances.

[Weisseman]

I personaly started to love mine once i got Opera

Yay! I always use Opera on mine. I'm waiting for a Windows mobile Fennec release though as that could be good.

[Arbutus]

Thanks so much for all your great advice, everyone! It has taken me this long to process it all. But I've been doing my research, and I think I've narrowed it down to these three:

Apple iPhone 4 32GB (iOS 4, AT&T)
HTC Evo 4G (Android 2.1, Sprint)
Samsung Epic 4G (Android 2.1, Sprint)

I had a talk with Feathertail earlier tonight that swayed me quite persuasively in one direction. But I won't reveal which direction! Instead, I ask you: in choosing between these, what considerations should I take into account? Do you think I should avoid any of these three - or, alternately, do any of the three stand out head and shoulders above the rest? I'm having a particularly hard time distinguishing between the Evo and the Epic, so if you can help me there, more power to you.

(By the way, my entire metro area is swimming in 4G coverage, so that shouldn't be a problem.)

[Kishi]

Reliability of the cell phone provider and cost are some of the important things to consider. I would also look at reviews of each phone, which you can usually find on the site for the phone.

[Alsek]

Reliability of the cell phone provider and cost are some of the important things to consider. I would also look at reviews of each phone, which you can usually find on the site for the phone.

That being said,   AT&T should be avoided like the plague.   When i'm paying for my own cell coverage,  i'll be with Verizon.  ^.^

[Narei Mooncatt]

Well as I said before, I'd stay away from AT&T if broadband speeds are important, unless you live in an area with it and don't plan to need those speeds when you travel. I've never been with them personally (for that reason), so I can't comment on anything else about their service. I looked at both of those Sprint phones the other day when I had my "revelation" mentioned in my earlier post and it seems it's about a toss up in my very limited experience. I haven't actually been able to use a 4G device and speeds, but I hear it's supposed to be blazing fast. And I heard currently the 4G speeds aren't capped on the 5GB/month limit like everything else. If that interests you, Sprint 4G doesn't have a very large amount of coverage. I don't know where you live, so you may still only be able to get 3G at best. I also think a 4G phone like those two are still being capped on the 3G network. So just make sure you read the fine print.