Help me decide about smart phones

[puglogic]

I am not an early adopter of new technology. It's not that I'm stodgy and set in my ways; I admire technology. I just live simply and so a new thing has to REALLY prove its value to me (not just its coolness) before I buy into it.

Take my cell phone, for example. It's just a regular phone that can also let me check email. I have stopped counting the number of people who have recommended I purchase a smart phone or PDA and sign up for a plan. It always has seemed like an unnecessary expense, with lots of features that are conveniences, but not worth the monthly cost to support it. But maybe there's something I'm not seeing completely.

Do you have an iPhone/Blackberry/device ? What kinds of important things do YOU use it for, speaking specifically of things that you don't get with a regular phone? I run a small business....anyone use theirs for that? Would love to have someone show me how a smart phone would somehow pay for the added monthly charges to own it.

[bunnys]

I have a Wal-Mart pay-as-you-go phone (bills monthly to my debit card) that costs me $30. per month for 1000 texts and 1000 minutes and I also get about 30 pages of internet but the screen is so small and it loads so slowly and it's only a limited graphics/options version of the webpage that I never use it for internet. I guess I could conceivably use it to check my email if I were patient enough. Wal-mart uses Verizon's cell phone towers.

For many years I had an account through Verizon that gave me 450 minutes per month and no texts for $45 per month plus all those taxes. Once I heard about the Wal-mart deal, I couldn't justify continuing with Verizon and so cancelled my service (shortly after I renewed my contract meaning I paid a fee of like $150--the savings has been well worth the cancellation fee.)

Admittedly, the connection on my Wal-Mart phone ain't that good. No dropped calls or anything but if I'm ever in heavily wooded or sunken areas (daily for me)--no service.

I, like you puglogic am also stuck in my ways and not interested in technology. I don't really understand what the smart phones do beyond getting onto the internet. I don't understand what "there's an app for that" actually means. I know people download apps for their phones but I don't know what those apps do and why people need them anyway beyond giving them a reason to keep their face in their phone screen.

I don't see the purpose of me getting a smart phone beyond an emergency where I'd need to look up some phone number for something. (I don't know if 411 even exists anymore.) But, if an emergency does arise it doesn't really matter as I live in an urban area and wouldn't have to walk that far to get help anyway.

[maribeth]

I particularly like:
GPS map service. A life changer, IMO.
Yelp, for finding good restaurants when out and about
Being able to take a picture of my daughter and e-mail/text it to her grandparents right away
Kindle for iPhone. I can even "borrow" Kindle books from the library. Far less book clutter!
Fruit Ninja. A guilty pleasure!

I admit that none of these things are, strictly speaking, NEEDS, but I do feel they enrich my life somewhat.

[Alan]

I kinda like smart phones, but I don't think I'd ever pay for it all. Maybe because I've never yet paid a cell phone bill, always having company provided phones, I'm just reluctant to ever cross that threshold.

Standard work issue for me now is a blackberry, although that will soon change to iPhone, and an iPad with 3G data package. Other than email, I seldom use the Blackberry's smart features, but that's not its fault, I just find it hard to read things on a screen that small. I'm sure those of you who are well over 40 will understand.

I do find that I'm using the iPad more. We just returned yesterday from 5 days at the Cumberland Gap National Park campground. With the iPad, I was able to check in here each morning and evening, deal with registration requests/issues, etc. I could have done it on the phone too, but I wouldn't have, too much trouble navigating.

I can use the iPad to remote into my home file/web server or VPN into my work desktop, from wherever I am. I find that pretty convenient. I can also view a couple of wireless cameras at my house from wherever I may be as well as read books, lots and lots of books (I've been building up an ePub library and currently have over 5000 titles on my home file server). There are apps to do the same things with your phone, but again, I probably wouldn't use the phone that same way.

[cattledog]

I haven't found a compelling reason to pay extra yet either, probably because most of the things people seem to do with their phone is something I can already do with my home computer (and I'm already paying for internet service). I've lived in my city long enough to never get lost, so I don't need GPS. If I'm ever traveling and can't find a major road, I guess it might come in handy. That's a lot to pay every month though. I can't get over the cost and I really dislike adding to my monthly expenses. I'd like for my DH to retire soon. We can't do that if we have lifestyle creep.

[catherine]

Here is my blog post on that subject. I do LOVE my smartphone.

http://silententry.wordpress.com/tag/iphone/

[lmerullo]

I can take the business part of this question!

Email - the ability to stay in touch when away from the computer. Response times can be instant. No longer will you miss out on an opportunity since the customer shopped you, got no answer and went on to the next source. Documentation - On such and such a date, our communication was X. No disputes.

Web services - if you are running a route, input the route into the gps application. No more backtracking, getting lost or missing a turn. Increases efficiency, which saves time and money, ultimately lowering your cost of operation. If you have a team of workers, you could purchase an app that shows where each worker is located - and can dispatch them to the next job based on who is closest. (fee based). I have heard that one month's worth of tracking saves many hundreds of dollars in wasted time. Nothing like telling a driver they are tracked to make them work more, and "disappear" less!

Calendar - never miss an appointment or meeting, you can send and share appointments. When someone says "where's pug?" there's an appointment on the calendar for all to see.

If you manage it with your computer, it's likely you can manage on the phone too! I use outlook for my contacts, and have a ton of info in the notes fields. this enables me to work remotely, without my computer, if necessary.

Apps - there are so many apps, and not knowing what you do, I couldn't recommend - but - if you think there should be something, then there probably is! My hubby has an app that projects a beam of light to an object to tell him distance. Also, a laser level.

[redfox]

Ditto all Imerullo said!

I have an iPhone, it's a year old. I use it non-stop for my consultancy practice. I'm a contract ED for a national non-profit organization. It's a non-brick n mortar org, so I run it out of my iPhone & iPad from my home.

I just wrapped a national conference. My staff, board & I were in constant text communication in the huge hotel where we held the event. I used it to research area restaurants for attendees, for directions, etc. I even used the free flashlight app to look at my throat as I felt a virus coming on to see how bad it was... :)

My iPhone is first & foremost a computer, and then a phone. I could not run my gig without it!

[lmerullo]

Flashlight app - so useful!

[SteveinMN]

I have a smartphone (Nokia). It is my phone (we don't have wireline phones at home), my address book, my calendar, my to-do list, my watch, my alarm clock, my portable calculator, my portable music player, my GPS, portable access to the Internet (yeah, Facebook/twitter/Yahoo, and other sites for comparison shopping or product details and such), and the camera in my pocket. It can record voice memos to myself or I can type in notes on the keyboard, it can remind me to do a specific task whenever I arrive at the location I associated with the to-do item, it can open PDFs and Microsoft Office documents (email attachments), it can play videos (though I've done that maybe twice; more to show off than anything), and it can play games (I don't do that on any computer). Mine can also function as a Wi-Fi hotspot in case I need access (like on the road) and there's no Wi-Fi but there is cell service. And many Nokias also have an LED that can be used as a flashlight.

I pay the monthly fee for that (about a dollar a day) happily.

[Gardenarian]

SteveinMN - $30 a month sounds reasonable; most of the plans I've seen are around $75. What do most people pay for service?

catherine - beautiful blog. I love your Simple Home posts.

[SteveinMN]

SteveinMN - $30 a month sounds reasonable; most of the plans I've seen are around $75.
Just to make sure everyone is comparing apples to apples (and not to oranges), the $30 a month is the extra I'm charged for having a smartphone, on top of our basic T-Mobile family plan. IOW, even if I had the dumbest phone on the planet, T-Mobile still would charge $35 or something a month; the $30 a month is above that. But I still am OK with the price. I use my phone daily (sometimes even to place or take calls! ;) ) so a low-use plan really wouldn't work well for me.

[catherine]

catherine - beautiful blog. I love your Simple Home posts.

Thanks so much!