iPhone or droid

[Dar Lounsbury]

I have the Droid x and I like most of the ways it works. Too many functions and I get lost it trying to program something sometimes. Phone works well but I have no user knowledge of the others to make comments. Iphone is more bucks than most of the others. With upgrades every few years, it does not seem to make sense to buy the most expensive models regardless of the performance. Like cordless power tools, to each their own.

Dar

[Bryan Morgan]

I have neither & don't want one. I have $40 Verizon phone which is programmed to block texts & photos. The key issue is with network coverage. If you live in an area which has EXCELLENT AT&T, Verizon or Sprint coverage, pick your poison. Where I live in So West Colorado we have great Verizon coverage. If you want to use your AT&T phone of any kind its a 12 mile drive to town.

I spent 35 years in the IT business running large projects and have no interest in "keeping up to date"!!!!

The advantage of quick texts is you don't have to listen to people yack on and on about stuff you don't care about. I don't care that your cat developed a bald spot, just tell me the subnet of the ipsec tunnel I'm routing to...

[Curt Harms]

To further complicate things, HP's WebOS2 is very close to being released if it hasn't been already. This is a development of Palm's WebOS acquired when HP bought Palm. The PalmOS got very good reviews on the Palm Pre family, the hardware not so much. There may not be room for another mobile OS in the market but will being HP give it enterprise credibility?

[Matt Meiser]

I didn't used to "get" texts either but my wife and I text more and more for quick conversations during the day--stuff like quick, easy to answer questions or one-sided informational messages since it isn't disruptive if one of us is in a meeting, etc. I have Google Voice too, so I can send them right from my browser.

[Jason Roehl]

^^^ What Matt said. I use TextFree (a free app), which allows me to send free texts, or receive free texts if they're to either an email addy set up with them, or a separate phone number with them. Because of that, I don't have a text plan on my cell phone bill, I just pay for the handful of text messages I do get to my normal cell number.

[Jim Becker]

Professor Dr. SWMBO and I use texting and IM regularly, even in the house, often to deal with triangulation issues with our older daughter who has "issues". We also find it extremely useful in many other ways. We also use it with our kids for convenience to stay in touch when they or we are somewhere else. Same goes for work...the sales guy I support use it for back channel conversations and other immediate communication needs where a phone call just wouldn't work or be appropriate.

My beef with texting is that the carriers are milking folks in a major way for a service that essentially rides on top of the signaling channels of their networks...it costs them next to nothing to provide, so the markup is phenomenal for folks who pay a la carté. I pay the $20 a month for an unlimited family texting plan.

[Randy Klein]

Professor Dr. SWMBO and I use texting and IM regularly, even in the house, often to deal with triangulation issues with our older daughter who has "issues". We also find it extremely useful in many other ways. We also use it with our kids for convenience to stay in touch when they or we are somewhere else. Same goes for work...the sales guy I support use it for back channel conversations and other immediate communication needs where a phone call just wouldn't work or be appropriate.

My beef with texting is that the carriers are milking folks in a major way for a service that essentially rides on top of the signaling channels of their networks...it costs them next to nothing to provide, so the markup is phenomenal for folks who pay a la carté. I pay the $20 a month for an unlimited family texting plan.

With android, you can text for free through Google Voice.

[Bryan Morgan]

I didn't used to "get" texts either but my wife and I text more and more for quick conversations during the day--stuff like quick, easy to answer questions or one-sided informational messages since it isn't disruptive if one of us is in a meeting, etc. I have Google Voice too, so I can send them right from my browser.

Exactly! A quick little "grab milk on the way home" is much nicer than listening to her blabber on about nonsense while you are at work.

Don't tell her I said that.

[Bryan Morgan]

My beef with texting is that the carriers are milking folks in a major way for a service that essentially rides on top of the signaling channels of their networks...it costs them next to nothing to provide, so the markup is phenomenal for folks who pay a la carté. I pay the $20 a month for an unlimited family texting plan.

Not next to nothing, actually nothing! Texts ride along with other data that is going anyway. Just kind of tacked on to the backside of it. Thats what our Sprint tech told us anyway.

[Marty Paulus]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is a cost to the carriers for text messages. It was something like $0.002/text and, if I am not mistaken, they charge in the neighborhood of $0.20/text. Not a bad mark up eh? Wish I could mark up like that.

[Chris Rosenberger]

Wow!!!
Sorry for not replying sooner. Family matters kept me away. I have tried to keep up with reading this thread when I could. Thank you for all of the replies. You have given me a lot to think about.
I do remodeling & build & install custom cabinets & furniture. I mainly want internet access when I am on job sites, to be able to get information or order materials.
A calender for appointments would also be nice. The problem I have is the small screens on the phones. I have a notebook with an 18" screen & a desktop with a 24" screen. I cannot get it through my head how a web page can be viewed on a 4.3 or smaller screen.
We had to be in the city Monday evening. While there we stopped at a Verizon store and looked at phones, tablets & asked a lot of questions about information many of you gave me. They did not have any phones that I could see work. I did get to tryout an iPad. That is very nice, but costly. They also sell another tablet, although they did not have one in the store. I like the bigger screens of the tablets.
My Son in law has a iPod Touch that I am going to try out to get a feel for the internet on a small device.

[Jason Roehl]

Chris, many websites auto-detect that you are on a mobile device and optimize the content for it. That said, the iPhone has several features that help with web viewing. For one, if you double-tap a text box, it will bring that text box to screen width. Rotating the device horizontally helps. If that is still not enough, you can also use the pinch-zoom to enlarge the text/graphics even further (pinch-zoom means that you touch the screen with two fingers and bring them together or spread them and the picture zooms in or out accordingly).

[Matt Meiser]

My EVO does all those things as well, so I assume its pretty common. Unless you want to do a lot of typing, its very usable.

[Jim Becker]

With android, you can text for free through Google Voice.

You don't need Android for that... There are plenty of free texting applications available for almost any 'smart' device of your choosing. Android is just an operating system. A very good one and one with incredible growth in the marketplace, however.