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Thread: Time to replace my flip phone

  1. #16
    My M-I-L upgraded her flip phone 2 weeks ago through her Verizon account. She was able to get an LG smartphone flip phone that works really well whether she has her hearing aids in or not. She's not intending on using any of the smartphone features, but with the upgrade and $5 more a month, she went from 700 monthly minutes to unlimited minutes & texting and 2 GB of data (if she chooses to use the smartphone features while doing errands). She doesn't talk to many people but she was limiting her conversations with family so she didn't go over her 700 minutes. At least now she has unlimited minutes to talk as long as she wants and is no longer charged for each text message she sent or received. She is still paying around $40 month including her discounts.
    I read recipes the same way I read science fiction. I get to the end and I think, "Well, that’s not going to happen."

  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Robert Engel View Post
    I wish someone would make a phone for calling, texting and gps and that's all.....
    What you describe is trivially easy to emulate by uninstalling or disabling the apps it will let you*, and hiding the icons for the ones it won't on one of the "back" screens...just pretend they aren't there.

    They probably don't make them that way because it wouldn't make the phone much smaller or cheaper. GPS without a display and GUI is kind of useless to the average consumer, and once you have enough smarts and display to run Google Maps or equivalent, you've got something about the same size/price as the current generic smartphones.

    *A bunch of the pre-installed apps are more-or-less built into Android and can't be uninstalled. I don't know if IOS does the same thing.
    Last edited by Lee DeRaud; 11-13-2017 at 6:55 PM.
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  3. #18
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    You won't be happy with a $150 phone. Old OS, slow, just plain outdated.

    The Android OS can be put in "Easy mode" for those less familiar with how they work. Still does the same things, just an easier to understand interface/desktop.
    Never, under any circumstances, consume a laxative and sleeping pill, on the same night

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerome Stanek View Post
    What carrier do you use. How many minutes do you need. I have a Tracfone that I use and really like but I don't use it as a primary phone and it works well for me. I ended up getting it from one of the shopping channels as it was way cheaper then going through Tracfone. I got the phone and 1200 minutes of talk 1200 text and 1200 data for less then Tracfone wanted just for the phone. The minutes last for a year and I get a new phone every year and transfer the remaining minutes to the new phone. Have been doing this for about 4 years now and always have a new phone.


    I'm too a tracfone user. I purchased my phone at Kroger for $10. Very happy with it. I does everything I want.
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  5. #20
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    I have an iPhone 6 SE, which is still the size the can fit in a shirt pocket, for that very reason.

  6. #21
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    the U.S. has two incompatible cell phone standards. CDMA which Verizon and Sprint (I think) use, GSM which AT&T, TMobile and the rest of the world use. GSM uses SIMs which as Jim says gives the phone its 'personality'. Other smaller carriers may use one of the big carriers' infrastructure. For instance, I use Airvoice Wireless which uses AT&T's GoPhone (or whatever it's called now) network. WalMart's straight talk uses AT&Ts network also believe. An unlocked phone can use any GSM network. There are phones that can work on either CDMA or GSM, I don't know if any are sold in the U.S.

    As I stated above I use Airvoice Wireless ($20/month unlimited talk & text) and it works fine with AT&T phones and an Airvoice SIM. Right now I have an LG phone that AT&T was selling as a GoPhone. It does talk and text just fine which is all I need. I don't see using a phone for financial transactions, there are too many security implications unless I were to limit the phone to an isolated low balance account.
    Last edited by Curt Harms; 11-14-2017 at 7:08 AM.

  7. #22
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    While VZ and Sprint historically have used CDMA (and still have it running for legacy support), it's been de-emphasized in favor of LTE and will eventually go away. 'GSM' is somewhat of a legacy protocol in effect, too...LTE and it's current and coming improvements have taken over nearly universally. In most cases, the same exact phones are sold and used by all of the major carriers. Carrier-specific devices are largely dying out.
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  8. #23
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    Julie, are you sure about the encryption issue? I used to work for Frontline Test Equipment, a maker of protocol analyzers (check out www.fte.com) . My job was to write the 'decoders' which was the part of the software the disassembled the packets into human readable fields. I did some work years ago for one of the mobile phone companies. It involved transitioning your phone call seamlessly between the cell system and a picocell in your basement or some other place around your house where the service was bad. So I saw the way the calls were set up, torn down and everything that happened in between.

    I can't speak to what happened in the cell network but I definately saw what happened over wifi (802.11).

    In the internet (ip) world there is something called IP Security, or IPSec. This is a procedure for exchanging lengthy encryption keys, verifying their receipt and then coordinating when you start and stop encryption. I was able to watch the key exchange and then track what happened because we were provided with special 'NULL Encrypted' phones where the keys were all 0s so even when they went into encryption, the data was sent unencrypted (we aren't the NSA). What was interesting is that when they initiated IPSEC encryption, the first thing they did was set up another IPSEC session within encrypted IPSEC.

    These guys took encryption very seriously.

    I would think that what happens between your phone and the cell towers is very secure against casual hackers. Of course the NSA is another matter but I don't worry about them. I'm just not very interesting.

  9. #24
    If the majority of people in your life use an iPhone I would get an iPhone. If they use android, get android. You will get the best support for how to use it.

    If you want to buy on price, ask around to see if any of your friends want to upgrade. Buy their phone from them.

    I wouldn't monkey with an unlocked phone unless you have a good friend who can evaluate its quality and usability.

  10. #25
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    There are phones for the elderly that are made intentionally simple.

  11. #26
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    Jitterbug.
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    Sister had Jitterbug and hated it no service and bad CS

  13. #28
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    I could write a book on this subject. $150 is not a bad price for a smartphone, but it also depends on the specific model. As with tools, cheaper is not necessarily better. Another low cost smart phone is the Samsung J3. It gets good reviews and is pretty popular.

    Having an unlocked phone is nice in some ways, but moving it from one carrier to another is not always as easy as it should be due to getting the device registered and activated on the carriers network. If i had a high end phone (Samsung S8, iPhone X, etc) I would be more concerned about having it unlocked so I could move around if desired as high end phones are not cheap.

    Once you have the phone, you also have to consider what type of service plan will you subscribe? Postpaid or prepaid. The cheapest route is Prepaid. These include Boost, Cricket, etc. You have to pay every month up front, and you have limited services. The biggest piece of limited is no roaming. Postpaid is the big carriers (Verizon, TMO, Sprint, ATT). Most of them want you to sign a contract for a device that commits you to service through a lease or a loan for purchasing the phones.

    If it were me in your specific situation I would start with a moderate to good quality phone on a prepaid plan. I would get the phone from that Carrier. I would get the best quality processor and battery life up to the price I am willing to spend, and I would buy my service from prepaid carrier that has the best coverage for my area. That way, you can decide if this smartphone thing is something you like, you are not under a contract, and there is no commitment. A lot of the prepaid brands even offer free phones.

    My .02 worth

  14. #29
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    I could write a book on this subject
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  15. #30
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    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Porter View Post
    I could write a book on this subject. $150 is not a bad price for a smartphone, but it also depends on the specific model. As with tools, cheaper is not necessarily better.
    Depending on the user's needs, it's not necessarily worse either. As with most things electronic, the value-to-price relationship is wildly nonlinear: if someone really needs (or just wants) the incremental benefits of the topline phones, they are going to pay for it dearly. That 5X jump from $150 to $900 is not going to net a 5X increase in functionality.
    Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
    "Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
    We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
    The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
    The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
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