I need a new cell phone

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:44 pm

You're all opinionated. What's the beef? I've had a crappy clamshell with a crappy interface and fortunately now the casing around the hinge broke so it's on the verge of truly falling apart.

I am on Verizon (family plan, etc. but would consider changing if there's a strong enough reason)

I would love a Treo, but the three people I know who have them say they're really quiet and in NYC the street noise renders them nearly worthless.

I don't want a camera (I have a camera for that)

I don't need it to play MP3s (I have an iPod for that)

I couldn't care less about ringtones (whatever. vibrate is more fun)

I would consider a Blackberry, but prefer a PDA phone that reads PDFs

Web access is nice but not for $40 more a month.

What thinks you all?

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 3:56 pm

Today, one of the cooks at Gameworks left his $300 phone on the hood of his car while pumping gas before work.

Lucky enough to call and get a female who found his phone. She agreed to drop it off at a police station.

(whole dealeo of going to wrong station and waiting for half hour for nothing ensues.)

(whole dealeo of finding phone numbers for other possible stations ensues..pretty much to no avail...excepting a partial address of a possible one)

Finally, his girlfriend drives down to a possible alternative police station to find that the phone is there and all is good.

whew.

'cept now the $300 phone doesn't work right because of the hard hit from the fall off of the car.

MORAL O' STORY: do not go all out on a device you are apt to lose or break. (or both) It's a phone for christ sakes.

get a phone and a side kick.

bz£ · Post by **bz£** » Wed Nov 02, 2005 9:15 pm

A PDA that reads PDF is Pretty Damn Nonuseful. Most PDF documents are just stored as big pictures: go take any 8.5x11 sheet of paper to kinkos and shrink it down to one inch square and see what you can read. Sure, you can enlarge, but then you're scrolling back and forth (slowly, painfully) at every line. Ain't worth it, in my opinion.

Now, if you have, or can get, plain text files, that's another story. I use the free dropbook converter from ereader to put all sorts of stuff on my PDA, and whenever I have a few minutes to kill, I always have something to read. It takes a minimal amount of editing to get chapter markers in place, and stuff, but that's mostly not even necessary.

A camera actually isn't a bad feature to have, unless you always carry your normal camera anyways. It's not something you'd want to use for normal photography, but I've used mine in a couple of emergencies.

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:27 am

don't buy a phone at all. you don't need it. buy something nice instead - like a nice potted plant.

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:35 am

Or perhaps a decorative mask.

Mogosagatai · Post by **Mogosagatai** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:56 am

You callin' him ugly?

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 3:51 am

I know, we've been a lot of help.

We are patting ourselves on the back.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Nov 03, 2005 4:49 am

bzl wrote:A PDA that reads PDF is Pretty Damn Nonuseful. Most PDF documents are just stored as big pictures: go take any 8.5x11 sheet of paper to kinkos and shrink it down to one inch square and see what you can read. Sure, you can enlarge, but then you're scrolling back and forth (slowly, painfully) at every line. Ain't worth it, in my opinion.

Now, if you have, or can get, plain text files, that's another story. I use the free dropbook converter from ereader to put all sorts of stuff on my PDA, and whenever I have a few minutes to kill, I always have something to read.

Same with loading PDFs onto a Palm. It's absolutely great. Have done it for years (but I broke my Palm last year and haven't replaced it). There's a quick conversion program you drop them on and wammo! it's all set for easy reading on a PDA. That's one of the great features of PDF, it can be reformated so easily. There are zillions of PDFs that I want to read (I read tons of the court rulings on copyright as well as standards documents and other crap). The auto scrolling, font sizing, full screen and rotated screen options on Palm make it quite accomodating.

The contact book of Palm has to be attached to aa phone. It's only right. I just am not impressed with the Treos.

Post by jb » Thu Nov 03, 2005 8:32 am

roymond wrote:I would love a Treo, but the three people I know who have them say they're really quiet and in NYC the street noise renders them nearly worthless.

I have a Treo, and I really dig it. I don't find it quiet, although I don't find it screamingly loud. It does have a "speakerphone", which I would assume would be pretty loud, although I haven't tried it.

It'll do all those other things you don't need it to do, although i would encourage you to let it do them, to unclutter your pockets. I got a 1GB SD card for mine.

So far the reception has been GREAT, and it's the single most well-connected phone I've ever had. I've only had the signal die once since I got it.

Battery life is also pretty good, although I charge it every night. It will easily last through a day of fairly heavy PDA use and moderate phone use.

There is a headset for it that lets you play music, and which will also interrupt the music if you get a call-- handy. Plus the phone call sounds in both ears with those headphones, which is so nice.

Bluetooth works well with it, both bluetooth headset and bluetooth connection with my iBook-- it syncs right through the Bluetooth, very slick and not difficult to set up.

I recommend the Treo heartily. So far.

JB

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:40 am

A new Treo 650 is synchronizing with Outlook as I type, after syncing with my Mac and installing Acrobat last night. Very cool. Yes, feature-wise this is perfect. A little big, but I'll find some skin thing to deal with that. Of course the Verizon ass slips in $50 of accessories after I made it very clear that I simply want the phone, and no change to any plans or whatnot. So then they had to back them out of the invoice. I hate agressive sales scripts. Verizon dips can be as bad as the spikey-haired dips in the "competition".

Anyways, thanks for the feedback, JB and others.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 8:57 am

Hoblit wrote:Today, one of the cooks at Gameworks left his $300 phone on the hood of his car while pumping gas before work.

MORAL O' STORY: do not go all out on a device you are apt to lose or break. (or both) It's a phone for christ sakes.

That's why I got replacement insurance. But what's a cook doing with a $300 phone? Hell with morals, what about priorities...? unless Gameworks has some kick ass menu.

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 9:58 am

I like my Virgin Mobile phone, mostly b/c I'm not on a plan and the service is great and I hardly talk on it. It's a bit expensive at $0.25 a minute, and I'm thinking about switching to one with $0.10 a minute rates, but I'm afraid the service won't be as good. Sure would be nice if you could try one out and return it if it didn't work in like, your house.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Nov 04, 2005 2:52 pm

roymond wrote:
Hoblit wrote:Today, one of the cooks at Gameworks left his $300 phone on the hood of his car while pumping gas before work.

MORAL O' STORY: do not go all out on a device you are apt to lose or break. (or both) It's a phone for christ sakes.
what's a cook doing with a $300 phone? Hell with morals, what about priorities...? unless Gameworks has some kick ass menu.

He's got a nice car too..I can't figure it out.

(actually, he gets paid pretty good ((FOR A COOK)) as well as myself...we aren't raking it in or anything...but I'm getting alot more this time around than I did 7 years ago)

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:09 am

Hoblit wrote:
roymond wrote:
Hoblit wrote:Today, one of the cooks at Gameworks left his $300 phone on the hood of his car while pumping gas before work.

MORAL O' STORY: do not go all out on a device you are apt to lose or break. (or both) It's a phone for christ sakes.
what's a cook doing with a $300 phone? Hell with morals, what about priorities...? unless Gameworks has some kick ass menu.
He's got a nice car too..I can't figure it out.

(actually, he gets paid pretty good ((FOR A COOK)) as well as myself...we aren't raking it in or anything...but I'm getting alot more this time around than I did 7 years ago)

Hoblit, are you a cook? I've been wanting to start a thread on this topic. Does anybody care to share some ggod recipes?

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Sat Nov 05, 2005 2:41 am

I make a meeeeeean vegetable stir fry. It's absolutely delicious.

starfinger · Post by **starfinger** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:18 am

i just started liking my cell phone a lot more:

http://google.com/glm

-craig

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 10:46 am

starfinger wrote:i just started liking my cell phone a lot more:

http://google.com/glm

That's awesome. Execpt I have a Treo on Verizon, neither of which is supported...yet. But yeah, this is how things should be.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Mon Nov 07, 2005 11:02 am

Dan-O from Five-O wrote: Hoblit, are you a cook? I've been wanting to start a thread on this topic. Does anybody care to share some ggod recipes?

Yes, I'm a cook. One could argue I've always been one too. I loved cooking even as a child. Then I started working in restaurants. There I learned to REALLY [strike]hate[/strike] love cooking. I eventually changed the course of my life by working in computers for about 6 years before recently getting back into cooking.

I am a cook. Not just because I can flip burgers at Gameworks but because I can make Hollandaise. (not from a can either) I mean to say that I do know how to make a great deal of food. I don't want to be confused with someone who can only flip burgers and make salads to spec.

Unfortunately I don't have any WRITTEN recipes...I'm like Rachel Ray...I don't generally measure much.

But what I want to really say is that I TOO HAD THE SAME IDEA (although, a long time ago) and it would simply be awesome to have a thread for this very thing.

(also, could we get the strike code back?)

I need a new cell phone

I need a new cell phone

Re: I need a new cell phone