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Cellphone cluelessness

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 03 2008 10:30 AM

I've been enjoying cellphone free agency for nearly 2 years now but as my phone will shirley die soon, I am looking ahead. I would like to "upgrade" to a web-enabled phone that would allow me to do Internet shit anywhere*, and pay for this so-called upgrade by eliminating the redundancy of paying for both home and cell services. I currently use Vonage and am happy with that at around 30 bucks a month and I have the cheap-o cell plan from Sprint which is also in $35/monthly range, everything included. A little research led me to T-Mobile's "unlimited hotspot" thing which allows home/road service on the same device (home through a router & hi-speed Internet a la Vonage, then autoswitches to a cellie outside). I don't know why all cellphones aren't capable of this but whatever. To my knowledge its one of the few that actually do this. They offer a Blackberry Curve for this plan. They offer about 2 dozen monthly service plans startring at $39.99 that I find incomprehensible: I don't use the phone that much, I think I would use the 'net some but not allatime, and while I don't want to pay for service I don't use I also don't wanna be boned up the ass if I have to make too many phonecall or stupid internet posts in a given month (this has never happened then again I've never had a web phone). As I often wind up doing interviews, etc at home and could be forced into involuntary freelance at any moment in this shitty economy, a quality home home is essential, and so is saving $$. 1) Anyone here doing the just one line/number thing home/cell and how does it work? 2) Any opinions on T-Mobile, this plan, the Blackberry Curve and its capabilities 3) Should I just say F it and get a IPhone? * - I have zero experience with fancy cellphones. Can this actually be done? What else does a blackberry do? What the fuck is bluetooth? Thank you

A Boy Named Seo Sep 03 2008 02:20 PM

I've been wanting to do the same thing and haven't yet seen a blackberry with a browser that I'd be ready to kick my full-time internet aside for, except for the i-phone. I don't know nuthin' about no blackberry curve, but a friend of mine just bought a brand spankin' new blackberry from sprint and the web browsing was functional, but not anything I'd wanna use regularly. The iphone's browser is really, really slick. A guy I work with has one and I almost jacked him for it. Bluetooth is the wireless technology that lets you put one of those headsets with the blinking blue lights in your ear, enabling you to come off as some kinda dick standing in line with that thing on at the coffee shop. When I bought my Motorola Q (piece of shit), I checked out a bunch of reviews on YouTube. There's a bunch of stuff on the curve there. Good luck.

metirish Sep 03 2008 02:23 PM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Sep 03 2008 06:53 PM

If you at all think that you will use the phone for Internet purposes then get the iPhone , I am telling you from experience that the browsers on other phones are pure shite.I have had a few, the most recent was I got the missus the Tilt earlier this year and she didn't like it at all. Internet connectivity was one of it's big selling points. Now I do not as yet have the iPhone but I have the iPod Touch which has the same Internet capability and I have to say that it basically is a small computer , it looks the very same as what you see on your home PC. I have had AT&T for years and never had a problem with the service , still if you go iPhone expect a hefty bill monthly. LG with Sprint have some new phones that claim to have good Internet but I would be surprised if it came close to being as good as Apple.

John Cougar Lunchbucket Sep 03 2008 06:39 PM

Thanks for the help. Looks like I can get cell and VOIP through the same bill from Tmobile at around the same rate I am getting combined thru an old Sprint plan and Vonage. But a new phone will set me back and the charges for Internet phone will be another 20-30 monthly. Just finding out now that Tmobile introduces the Google phone later this month. Hmmmm