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Monday, March 11, 2013

Cell phone issues

My old cell phone was like a billion years old, would freeze up whenever it wanted to and ran really slow.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't a billion years old. More like three but in technology years that is like a billion.

I needed a new cell phone stat!

I can't begin to tell you how handy a smarty-pants phone is when you travel. It maps your drive/walking/transit tours. It can find you food, i.e. grocery stores and restaurants. It is my alarm clock. It helps decide what I'm going to pack/wear with the weather channel app.  It keeps me entertained with music, radio, video and audio books. It is my camera. And, last but not least it is my major form of communication. Phone, email and text messaging all rolled into one.

With all the various jobs a cell phone preforms for me it was imperative that it work and work well. The old one just wasn't cutting it.

Hence, the search began. What kind of smarty-pants phone did I want and the more important question...how much was I willing to spend? Obviously, one question informed the other, as they often do.

I determined that my top end dollar figure was $100. This limited the pool considerably. In fact, it took the iPhone right out of the running. Since, I wanted to get the most bang for my buck I did a little bit of comparison shopping. Did you know that there are websites that compare phone features? There are and they are fantastic! I popped on the old iPad to do a bunch of comparison shopping before leaving the house and knew just which phone I was going to get. And, who had the best prices.

The winner?
The Samsung Galaxy SIII.

Isn't she pretty? I got the white.

She came in at $99 from Radio Shack and the sales person, Isreal or Izzy for short, was amazing. I don't think I've ever left a store after purchasing a phone without having to make a stop at the Verizon store to get all the details fixed. Oh and that clap trap that Verizon likes to tell you about limited data when upgrading from S3 to S4? All a bunch of mularky. I retained my unlimited data. So whatever magic Izzy preformed I was one happy camper. He even put in a new sim card that I can swap out when/if I travel overseas, he swapped out the memory card from my old phone so all my photos and music are on the new phone and installed the screen protector so well that you would never know it is on there. If I hadn't watched him do it I'd say it wasn't.

Now, to start putting all my favorite apps on it.
Do you have a smart phone? I know I've asked this before but your answers may have changed since then, what are your favorite apps?

Love,
M

12 comments:

  1. I have one and I like it. I really find the Facebook app handy, maybe a bit too handy.

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    1. I installed the Facebook app right off. Like you probably not the best choice but oh well.

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  2. I have the same phone! I luv it.

    My favorite apps: Evernote, Out of Milk, Pinterest, Bump, SwiftKey, iCardio, GasBuddy, SoundHound, MyFitnessPal...

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    1. MyFitnessPal was the first one I installed. I use CardioTrainer, which I love. Out of Milk? Gasbuddy? I'm going to have to check those out.

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  3. I have a Droid Razr. I rarely talk on it, but it's a marvelous alarm clock, GPS and for playing Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled. I even have the Netflix and Kindle apps, although they tend to drain the battery in a hurry.

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    1. I rarely talk on my phone either. It is mostly for text messaging and finding my way around.

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  4. I almost got the Galaxy SIII, but went with the LG Optimus L9 instead (very very close to each other, but priced cheaper). :) I've not heard of Out of Milk (which I'll definitely have to check out) but definitely recommend Gas Buddy, especially if you're going to do any driving (you can easily find the cheapest gas in the area). :) Of course there's the time suck Where's My Water and Where's My Perry I can't live without. ;) Oh and definitely Sound Hound when you hear a song you need to know what it is and who the artist is. ;)

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  5. Welcome to the land of smart phones. It's fun, isn't it? I like Amazon price check so when I'm out shopping, I can compare before I buy.

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  6. I keep saying that most of the stuff a smart phone can do would be useless for me, but I still want one. Those new Samsung Galaxy phones are SWEEEEEEEEEEET!

    Jay

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  7. Be careful with that thing. It's tracking your eyes. Might even put 'em out.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100523360

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    1. Ha! That's the s4. I bought the S3. Not near as fancy.

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  8. Well, okay, maybe you can't scroll with your eyes, but the damn thing is STILL watching you:

    "The Galaxy S3 has a similar embedded technology, called Smart Stay, which watches the user to determine when they are looking at the screen so that the screen won't dim as long as it is being viewed."




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