<p>Just did facetime between my iphone and parent’s ipad! totally so cool! SO easy! My techno challenged parents (late 80’s) (who I know would never figure out how to skype–or rather didn’t really want to spend the time to learn) actually called ME! From their ipad! So much fun! We were all excited. Now I wish everyone in my family had a iphone. I’ll probably work on that.</p>
<p>My elderly father got an iPhone recently and he is struggling with it. I think an iPad would have been better. The iPhone requires a little more dexterity than he currently has, and he used a Blackberry for so long that the switch hasn’t been easy. I think if I lived closer and could work with him more, it would be better.</p>
<p>Out of those phones (for ATT), go either for the Samsung Infuse or HTC Inspire. The iPhone is easier to use than most smartphones and has the biggest app market, but I definitely would not call it the best smartphone. If you have some tech IQ, you’ll be happy with android. If not, go for an iphone. The people who have problems with the android phones are almost always people who just can’t figure out how to work them.</p>
<p>I;m going to get an HTC ReZound.</p>
<p>I consider myself only moderately tech savvy and don’t think Android is difficult to deal with. If you’ve ever used a flash drive to transfer files - that’s about how complicated it gets to get things on and off the phone.</p>
<p>When I make the switch to smartphone, it will have to be one with a keyboard. I’ve owned an Itouch for 3 years, and i’ve never gotten past frustration level with the on-screen keyboard, and I have small fingers–I don’t know how you all do it–maybe that’s because I’m a touch typist and rely on feel more than sight to find the right keys.</p>
<p>Go to phonescoop.com. Best reviews and comparisons.</p>
<p>I just switched to i-phone from BB. I tok an intro course atlocal Apple store. At 7:30 am the place was jumping.I’ve never seen a store with so many staff.</p>
<p>Do any of you have AppleCare? The instructor encouraged us to buy that or a plan from our carrier.</p>
<p>Just jumped into the world of smartphones myself, or as Lake Jr. says, I finally entered the 21st Century. Didn’t want to pay a premium for an i-gadget, since I’m a first time user, so I went with an Android from Motorola. I agree, there is a bit of a learning curve and you have to investigate which Android version is installed on your new phone. I purchased the MB502 Charm, a very Blackberry-like product from Motorola. All in all, I’m happy but this model has its limitations. The CNET and PCWorld reviews were accurate; it’s certainly an entry level smart phone. Limited but not bad at all. Oh yes, the short battery life is quite annoying.</p>
<p>[10</a> Ways to Boost Your Smartphone’s Battery Life | PCWorld Business Center](<a href=“http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229300/10_ways_to_boost_your_smartphones_battery_life.html]10”>http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/229300/10_ways_to_boost_your_smartphones_battery_life.html)</p>
<p>I didn’t realize that so many apps stayed open. Already I have noticed a improvement re:battery</p>
<p>Love my Droid Bionic! Others in my family have the iPhone but I’m more technically inclined than they are and find the Android phones less rigid, more open to customization, which i enjoy. Also, I’ve found that many apps that have a charge on the iPhone have a free alternative on my droid.</p>
<p>I have a Droid X by Motorola. I’m a Verizon customer and I chose it because it had the largest screen of all my choices–yes, I’m at that age. It’s almost 2 years old now and I still love it. Was originally put off by the touch screen typing, but I found it pretty easy to get used to. Even though I’m entitled to an upgrade I’m sticking with what I have.</p>
<p>I have had the samsung droid charge since this past summer and I really like it. Some don’t like it because of its size, but because of that web browsing and reading kindle books on it is really easy, and the 4G speed if you do any kind of data work makes a big,big difference, there is no comparison to 3G. </p>
<p>As far as being harder to use then the Iphone, I can’t see that personally, I am familiar with the IOS interface from my Ipod touch, and I don’t find it any easier or harder to be honest, and a lot is quite similar. </p>
<p>One obvious advantage to the Iphone is native support for Itunes, but I also have a program that allows me to synch an Itunes playlist with my android phone, so that isn’t a big deal. It also acts as a USB device, which means you can do a lot with it (one neat feature is using an android app, you can connect to a pc via USB and use the phone as a wireless hotspot without paying the idiotic 20 bucks extra they charge to do that with the phone)</p>
<p>It also came with a lot of memory, the display is fantastic and the phone/video capture is more then decent and has front/rear cameras. </p>
<p>There are quirks to it, I have had the phone lock up, and have had some issues where the touch screen kind of went a bit futzy on me (usually just shutting the screen down and up again fixes that), and have had a few app crashes, but other then that it has worked fine.</p>
<p>It is really good with its batteries it has relatively long battery life which is a plus. </p>
<p>BTW, if you want to improve battery time, things like keeping the wi fi and mobile data disabled when you don’t need it, turn off GPS, turn off the screen when not using it, and also using task manager kill any apps that are running, which is quite easy in android, I never figured that out in IOS (when you hit the menu button when in an app, on IOS or Android, it generally is not killed)…</p>
<p>The Iphones are nice units but to me the inconveniences of using them made the Android a better choice, plus I am not thrilled with the control freak aspects that Apple generally does, including arbitrary decisions about what apps they allow or don’t allow and their idiotic ban on flash in the browser…</p>
<p>I have a Droid X as well and love it for the screen size. I love that if you hold the phone horizontally the “buttons” get really big and are MUCH easier to use. I make a lot of interesting errors if I text on DD’s Iphone :). We have 3 Droids in this house and they are all great, Droid 2, Droid X and I can’t remember which one DS’s is, I think HTC something??? WAY, WAY, WAY better than any of my blackberrys.</p>
<p>I have a droid bionic (personal) and a blackberry bold 9930 (work). My droid is nice and I love the dock that i purchased for it - turns it into an alarm clock that tells the time and weather when docked. The only issue I have with it is that it does occasionally lock up on me. Battery life is okay - better when I remember to kill things. If i turn off 4g, wireless searching and blackberry searching that tends to help the battery too. My blackberry is nice as well. I like that it has both a keyboard and a touch screen display. syncs up perfectly to my e-mail, gives meeting reminders, etc. Very nice phone. battery life is very good… It will last for several days however I don’t typically search the web on it.</p>
<p>Tagging on to this thread…</p>
<p>Believe it or not, I still have my original cell phone, a Samsung slide model. I think it is at least 7 years old. Anyway, in the last week or so I’ve noticed that the screen seems to be graying out in a couple of areas. I think this probably a sign that it is beginning to fail, so I am thinking about getting a new one. I am flirting with the idea of getting a smartphone.</p>
<p>My son has a Nokia Lumia 7something, which seems good. I don’t want to get one of the ostensibly “free” ones that Tmobile offers, wince they all have fees and lock you into plans, and we may want to exit ours in October. I’m thinking of getting a pay-as-you-go data plan, to see if I use enough to make a $30 plan worth while.</p>
<p>Any input?</p>
<p>Right now I would stay away from the Nokia Lumia - all models. Nokia is running Windows Mobile 7 operating system on them - and has announced that when MSFT ships Mobile 8 this fall, these phones will not be upgradable - but rather will be stuck at version 7.8. Why buy a phone that has already reached a dead end. </p>
<p>May not seem like a big deal - but developers will be focusing on 8 and little or no software will be built for these. </p>
<p>This is the biggest argument in Apple’s favor right now. They do a great job of keeping iPhones on the current release of iOS, generally supporting a phone for 2 or 3 years before it gets left behind.</p>
<p>I should have added that I need an unlocked phone into which I can put the sim card from my current phone. And it has to work with Tmobile. </p>
<p>And I want to be able to interface with my laptop, when I eventually get it back from the repair shop (drink accident, oy vey), and it is a Windows machine.</p>
<p>At the AT&T store they were able to transfer everything from a dead phone (the phone claimed there was no sim card in it) to my iphone wirelessly.</p>
<p>I am now looking at an HTC One, which I could get on ebay with a year warranty for $429. It sounds great, and I think that I could almost use it instead of a tablet, not just as a phone. My laptop, which is very powerful and has a gorgeous big true HD screen, is really more a desktop replacement.</p>
<p>I was hoping not to spend more than $200. This always happens to me.</p>
<p>One concern is that apparently t-mobile uses a different 4g technology than everyone else. (Not LTE.) I’m wondering if this would lock me into t-mobile for the life of the phone (which for me would be a LONG time 
)</p>