Tag Archives: cell phone

Mar 13

Phone on the way

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One of my fellow cast members in the play has just gotten a Droid, and I can’t wait to see it at rehearsal tonight.

As for me, I had just about decided to wait a few months, save up some money, and buy an iPhone, or else move to Sprint and get an Android phone from them.

HTC PureBut I follow the AT&T Wireless promotional Twitter account, @ATTDeals, and they had a really good one-day sale on the HTC Pure, a touch-screen Windows Mobile 6.5 phone. It was only a penny with contract renewal, and it was a touch-screen smartphone, and I decided to go for it. Yes, I know that HTC is moving on and will concentrate on Android phones from this point forward. And I know that Microsoft is just about to release a spiffy new version 7 of its mobile phone software. But I think the Pure will be great for my needs. The camera is 5MB.

I placed my order on Friday, and the phone should arrive Monday or Tuesday.

Even better, I think I am still eligible for HTC’s “trade-in-your-old-smartphone” rebate offer. I didn’t think I was eligible for any rebate from AT&T, because of the special sale price, but they sent me a rebate form e-mail, and so I don’t guess it hurts anything for me to fill that out and send it in. The worst they can say is “no.”

Jan 24

Phone envy

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In the past 24 hours, I’ve heard about two friends using Droid cell phones — one posted to her Facebook account, and the other’s husband was telling me about it this morning at church.

Right now, I’m watching and listening to Leo Laporte’s weekly This Week In Tech livestream, and Leo is talking about the fact that he’s completely switched from his iPhone to his Google Nexus, with no regrets.

I will soon have to make a decision about my cell phone. If I stay with AT&T, I can get a new cell phone the middle of next month; if I decide to take my business elsewhere, I will have to wait until my contract actually runs out in June.

I have a grudge against AT&T because I pay the same $30 per month for my data plan as someone in Murfreesboro or Nashville, even though they get 3G data service and I only get Edge service here in Shelbyville. But my grandfathered-in calling plan with AT&T is pretty cheap, and if I were to take my business elsewhere I would probably end up paying more each month in total.

I’m scared that my tax refund will not be as large as normal this year, because I’ll end up having to pay the tax on some honoraria I got from lay speaking in 2009 added to the (relatively-small) income from the novel. So I am probably going to end up looking at a “free” phone. There are some cheap touch-screen phones without PDA or application capabilities, but the really nice touch-screen smart phones are probably more than I need to spend right this moment. And I have to have PDA capabilities (that is, I need to synch my calendar and contacts between my computer and my phone). I also want a phone that works on international frequencies, which limits my choices even further, although the world phones seem to be more common now than in the past.

I may end up getting something in the same form factor as my Blackjack II.

I’ll take a look once we get to mid-February and see what AT&T is offering.