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      03-12-2014, 04:34 AM   #1
tony20009
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Any Cell Phone junkies in here?

Time's coming for me to replace my cellphone. Right now, I have a Nokia Lumia 900. I like it just fine and my inclination is to just get whatever the current version is. All the apps I care to use are available for the Lumia.

I use my phone for business email, conference calls, and regular calls. I'll send a text from time to time, but I don't live to text. I don't do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all that stuff on my phone. The few times a month I even bother with any of it, I do it on a PC. I will use the web browser on my phone to do things like look up a phone number or address when I'm on the road.

My favorite feature on my phone is the voice-to-text capability and the all but unlimited quantity of things -- phone numbers, email addresses, birthdates, etc. that I can store in association with a name. I also like the contact grouping system on the Lumia. (I had an iPhone 4, but I don't even remember if it could do the grouping thing and it certainly didn't do voice-to-text.)

I'm sort of neutral re: the battery life of the Lumia. When I turn off the "location hunting" aspect of a lot of apps that have nothing to do with location, the battery lasts plenty long enough. With that location tracking feature enabled all over the place, the phone only makes it for a couple days, maybe three if it's the weekend.

There's one thing I don't like about the Lumia I have: you can't charge it and turn it off. I deal with that by muting it, but once in a while I forget and a string of emails rolling in in the middle of the night will wake me. The other thing that I wouldn't call "don't like" but that could be better is the basic font size, such is the way things are as we age.

I use AT&T. I don't absolutely require a carrier sponsored phone, but an unlocked phone would have to be very significantly better than anything AT&T sponsors for me to spend the extra money on it. My Lumia will be getting unlocked soon and once it is, I'll just start using it when I'm outside of the U.S.

About me:
I'm 55 and male. I have three kids. I like nice things, but there is zero "cache" in my mind about a phone. I only care about performance, tactile quality, and ease of use.

Do any of you have any useful input about the new and/or current smartphones that you care to share and that you think will be helpful?

All the best and thanks.
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      03-13-2014, 02:38 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by tony20009 View Post
My favorite feature on my phone is the voice-to-text capability and the all but unlimited quantity of things -- phone numbers, email addresses, birthdates, etc. that I can store in association with a name. I also like the contact grouping system on the Lumia. (I had an iPhone 4, but I don't even remember if it could do the grouping thing and it certainly didn't do voice-to-text.)

I'm sort of neutral re: the battery life of the Lumia. When I turn off the "location hunting" aspect of a lot of apps that have nothing to do with location, the battery lasts plenty long enough. With that location tracking feature enabled all over the place, the phone only makes it for a couple days, maybe three if it's the weekend.

There's one thing I don't like about the Lumia I have: you can't charge it and turn it off. I deal with that by muting it, but once in a while I forget and a string of emails rolling in in the middle of the night will wake me. The other thing that I wouldn't call "don't like" but that could be better is the basic font size, such is the way things are as we age.
I've worked in Telecom and Mobile is something I know a decent amount about. I've spent a good deal of time with Blackberry, Android and IOS. Much less time with Windows Mobile (never really cared for it or had to push it).

Most recently, my priorities have changed and I've mostly been on iPhone for the last three generations. Because of that, I'll speak mostly from an IOS perspective and let someone else speak more towards the Android who has a more current model (been almost 2 years since I "really" used one now).

I would suggest going with either IOS(iPhone) or Android. There's a number of reasons but it's essentially that life is easier when you dedicate to one environment. Phone upgrades (backup/restores), app purchases, familiarity are just some.

-Voice to Text
With the introduction of Siri, iPhones now have speech-to-text built in. You can either hold the home button and speak your "request" to Siri and have her walk you through different tasks or use the mic button on the keyboard to simply dictate text. I normally skip the Siri stuff and just do straight speech-to-text.

You'll notice that when the keyboard pops up for text entry, there's a mic icon to the left of the spacebar. You click that button and can start speaking your text. I send entire e-mails with it when I'm walking quickly and can't have both hands and my eyes tied up to type it out.

Android also does this very well. I have used theirs but not nearly as extensively.


-Contact Info
Everything you listed is available to add to a contact on IOS. Included a video that shows what you're looking for around 1:25


I can't confirm what fields different Android phones and builds will have available but I'm positive they'll be able to do that as well. That level of contact information should be old hat by now. Really elementary.

-Grouping contacts
I don't think there's an easy way to do this on IOS. I use my own version where I "tag" contacts with keywords.

For example, I have a dozen restaurants in my address book. I add a field (department) with the word "Restaurant" in it. Whenever I type "Rest", it pulls up them all up. This field isn't visible in the contact info, so it's like a hidden tag that allows me to quickly search a "group" I've created.

There's a way to create and manage groups using your icloud account (Basically via a webpage) but it seems pretty cumbersome.

This is an area where Android shines. It plain easy.

-Charging While Off/Do not disturb
Both iPhone and Android can charge while powered off. That said, iPhone has a feature called "Do Not Disturb" to solve the problem you mentioned. You can turn it on at any time or program it between certain hours. Here's a link with some info and a video: http://www.tuaw.com/2013/10/04/ios-7...on-the-iphone/

I don't believe Android has a built in Do Not Disturb but you could certainly download one from the store or use the built in scheduler to manually setup a time when your phone would do certain things (like go into silent mode).

-Battery Life
This is one area that you'll always be pushing it, especially if you're used to older phones where you could push a week out of them. With little use, a few days is not unheard of but most people get into the habit of charging them every night when they go to bed.

For me, I've always seemed to get better battery life with iPhones than with my Androids (one of the things that prompted my switch). Androids are a lot better with application managing now, so they don't just bleed battery anymore.

With either phone, there are aftermarket companies that make cases with built in batteries. If you're not the "charge it every night" kind of person, I highly recommend these.

here's an example of one:
http://www.mophie.com/shop/iphone-5/...-plus-iphone-5

I'm sure they make similar products for androids as well.

-Text Size
That shouldn't be an issue on either iPhone or Android. I know for certain you can increase the font size on iPhone (looking at it now) and I'm sure I could on my older Androids.
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      03-13-2014, 04:43 AM   #3
tony20009
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Devious21 View Post
[Lots of input on everything I wanted to know about.]
TYVM...excellent input and quite a lot that makes me feel more comfortable that I can feel comfortable with any of several choices. Appreciate it.

All the best.
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