Smartphones

Interesting. So $1 a month?

No, $1 per GB of data

Inque you do realize that with the math you gave vs Straight Talk your VZW numbers are worse, right? And with a $650 phone pretty much worst case. N5 would be badass with an even bigger tromping.

$650 down is equivalent to about $27/mo (off my head apologies if it's off a dollar or two) + $45/mo base is $72/mo without family plan or employer discount benefits at that. Take those away and that $3/mo lead multiplies, and of course no randomness in accidentally going over on data.

If you were trying to promote your brand there, you misfired. I'm in a position to maybe be swayed, although I'm giving Tarrant a shot to glance at things and you actually turned me off even more to your brand than I was before - slot of legwork and still worse than Straight Talk, ouch.

An iPhone 5s on Straight Talk is $650+$39 tax = $689/24mo = $28 per month + $48 (with 6% tax) = approx $76 a month; A family who does that x 4 = $304 per month. There are quite a bit of persons who average 4 devices on an account. An iPhone 5s x4 on EDGE with 10GB plan ($40-25 credit = $15 line access + $27 payment + $10 mobile protection = $42 per line; Multiply x 4 = $168; 10GB of data = $100 (assume no discount) you're spending around $320 per month w/ sales tax. $80 per device per month. So a difference of $4 except I didn't drop $650 for my device all at once like some people, I can switch it every 12 months (or sooner if I'm so inclined) once I get 50% of the device paid off at $325, my device is warrantied for manufacturer issues or worst case scenario and I don't have to worry about yelling at John in India for customer support. Yes, I will gladly pay the difference in that cost and so would a lot of customers.

Shrug depends on how savvy you are for support stuff, outside of billing stuff I've not contacted my phone carriers ever. But yea, for people using tech they don't fully understand that can be a large factor. As can protection plans for the careless.... cough, cough.

Agreed, Vac, and that's the situation we're in with customers because a LOT of them have zero clue what they're doing but want this cool device. They'll balk at the cost of a phone, which I'm not advocating is right to pay $650 for an iPhone either when I could go by a computer or a tablet for that much, but how many people do you know who can drop that much money up front? And the moment a customer says "I'll go to Straight Talk" I have no issue reinforcing that decision because I went there myself for about a month or so before switching back to my wireless carrier.

My typical single line customer pays $74.20 a month for a two year contract with 1GB of Data, Unlimited Talk and Text with the 4G phone of their choice without an EDGE agreement. For the persons going to EDGE on a single line the cost will run about $100 a month non-contract w/ the option to upgrade at 50% of the retail value on a $75, 2GB Unlimited Talk and Text plan and a $10 line credit per month on EDGE.

Eh, might be a bad person to ask the "who can" question - my circle either I don't know or have full bought in the past already. Most have full bought. (I'm on the fence about it, hate to touch the trust but $1300 one time from it is better than $55ish every month from fixed income - the joys of retirement math)

Oh that was a tease at myself to remind myself to readd it, started with it but got cheap down the line - think it was a month later my cat decided it was fun to push off the counter onto tile a few times... (it survived 3 or 4 without cracks though - still fully functional though but man the cracks bug me)

And I'd label all those things as carelessness to me though T. Easy mistakes to make though case in point for me having any friction under it would've probably prevented, wife's screen crack probably could've been prevented with less heavy cheap in the purse.

PS $7 protection plan still apply to EasyPay phones?

the future is free phones and no charges for data, it will take a few years but it will happen. my kids use ringplus and cheap $10 hydro phones I got at target, they run android 4.1. They get 500 SMS's a month, 50mb data (i turned it off and set it to wifi only mode though) and 200 or so minutes, but I've never actually seen them call anyone.

they of course want iphones and hate the ads that ringplus shoves down their throat, but i told those bitches if they want to buy their own phone setup they are welcome to spend their allowance, nobody wants that of course. I'm teaching them frugality! I will probably have to switch them to a monthly plan at some point when they text more or really need mobile data, but even those are dirt cheap on ringplus and others compared to the big carriers.

i salivate for the day when google and facebook have all their crazy ass ideas like balloons and drones that provide free high speed internet to all, so we can all be borg

I think he's musing the worldwide wifi plans some are working on. I think a few cities are close at this point, but that's s long way to nation or world.

Side question: Been thinking about trying to repair our old phones (digitizer is fine, screen cracks on both) and gifting them to my parents since my dad was eying my phone last time I was there, he loves gadgets (as well as the service for them, since they're AT&T ATM - easy way to get the Framily bigger, and only will effectively cost us $20 for both their lines since we'll save $10 each on the other 4 lines in exchange for paying their extra $30 each) - I see that there are screen replacements with the tools on Ebay for pretty damn cheap but how hard are they to actually do the install?

I've got steady hands most of the time (my disability stuff does give me bad days but they rarely sneak up on me - rest I'm rock steady) so that's not a worry, and quite dextrous when my health isn't acting up - but is the process actually anything difficult beyond the precise physical stuff? Like scale from 1-10 of how challenging Mentally and Physically?

Nexus S and GNex

On Sprint, not Verizon - no matter how much I want it, can't get it till next Wednesday/Thursday because Sprint doesn't get it til Mar 10/11 (Sprint Store/Best Buy Mobile - probably doing the latter so wife and I can get differing colors, Sprint's sticking to a single color - gunmetal, BBM will have the gold and gunmetal) - getting all my paperwork set up to preorder it and have the EasyPay stuff prepped for it though. [Well, unless Tarrant pulls me a favor, right? Kidding of course, although I am anxious to get it, I'm sure the odds without him breaking a big rule would be zero... not something I'd ever ask anyone to stick their neck out for...]

But from toying with it in store for Verizon, it's the best phone I've ever handled - but my experience is pretty limited when it comes to phones - GNexus and Nexus S for one's I've been involved in personal ownership and Galaxy S4, iPhone 3/4/5S that I've toyed with lightly borrowing from others for a few minutes at a time. It might be a bit big for a pocket though, they wouldn't let me put it in my pocket (linked display thing, might not have had the reach anyhow) but it's a LOOOOOONG phone but without having the 3DS with me to compare it FELT like it was the same length as the 3DS closed with about a third of the width, so some pants might be a bad fit for it if I'm driving because of it's size. They did NOT have the DotView case in stock nor for testing at the VZW store however, so no clue on how well the case works, I'm REALLY excited about the case though.

Oh and the bloatware doesn't seem too bad, they might add some bloat, but the power of it makes it inconsequential of an effect on it - feel was wonderful, the best of the iPhone (similar metal finish feel) and Samsung (perfectly rounded edges, no edges to the touch anywhere) when it comes to the tactile sense of it. Speakers I didn't mess with, but I'm sure they were up to snuff from how good the M7's were when I'd heard them demoed at CostCo months ago, and did snap a pic or two with the camera and it's at least an improvement to my G Nexus camera - but that is many generations back. (Also note, R/G colorblind so that's just overall picture quality, I'm not someone that can evaluate color properly)

Will give more hands on the end of next week though.

I just thought of something that I could get on Android, and not iOS, even with jailbreak, at least I don't think, and that is texting from a computer. Mightytext app would help with this, or PDA Net app would allow texting from a PC while connected.

Was freakin' pretty awesome stuff to just leave my phone somewhere in the house, and be able to still see and reply to messages while I was on the computer.