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**GreyGeek** · Sep 13, 2016, 03:29 PM

I used a flip phone from the time they were introduced until the last week of December, 2014. At that time I got an iPhone 6+ for myself (because of its 64GB capacity) and an iPhone 6 for my wife (longer battery life - she talks a lot to her friends and relatives, and LOVES to text.) My wife, who is a technophobe, can run her iPhone will little help from me. She just hits buttons until she sees something she recognizes.

Always leaves tons of apps running -- Safari, Maps, Text, Games, Weather ... If she starts it she'll never close it. Sometimes I have to bail her out. Even with only 32GB she hasn't run out of memory and the active app does not slow down.

I had been considering an Android because they have a battery compartment which allowed you to replace an exhausted battery. With iPhone you have to send your phone in, along with $138, to get the internal Lithium battery replaced. In the 18 months we've been using our phones, which we recharge every night, we have not lost any capacity ... battery life remains unchanged. Apple will only replace the battery if recharges to only 50% of its original capacity. With a $10 special tool kit you can open the Apple up yourself (if it is out of warranty) and replace the battery with an easily available replacement battery for a total cost of about $70. If you make a mistake you've bricked it. So, for Apple to do it you are paying a $70 insurance fee.

What ever smartphone you get, make sure it is the same make and model for both you and your wife. That way you'll know how to get her out of what ever predicament she finds herself in.

The iPhone is drop dead easy to use. My wife and I have ours connected by the "Friends" app to show each other where our phones (and us) are. If the phones are stolen we can bring the police along to the perp's location, to within 50 feet. The iPhone has a built in GPS which does not eat cell phone data and works even when you are out of range of a cell tower. Needless to say, my Garmin 350 hasn't been used since. Seri makes it easy to use. Hold the home button and speak to Seri: "call June", and it does. I have Seri triggered with "Hey Seri". It's a hands off operation, including textings. "Seri, send a text to June" "Ok, what do you want to say?" Tell Seri what you want to send. Seri says, "Ok, shall I send it?" "Yes". It's sent. Seri understands about 95-98% of what I ask it to do the first time I ask.

There are more apps and peripherals made for iPhone than for Android. The most important for us is AliveCor, an app (free) that, along with an ultrasound appliance that attaches to the back of the phone ($75) takes an EKG using one of the following leads: I, II, III and pericardial. My wife had open heart surgery 16 months ago and I've been monitoring her heart since I purchased this device a year ago. Last September it also confirmed that I had Atrial Fibrillation (first time in my life) which was treated by a doctor for about three months and went away. It attaches to the back of the phone and exposes to stainless steel pads which one uses in various ways to take an EKG. It is FDA approved and for $2 you can get a tech to evaluate your EKG and for $12 a board certified cardiologist will look at it and reply. Doctors accept the EKGs it makes and many recommend it. Here is what mine looks like, a little beat up:

I have plans to get an IR attachment in the future. $250. Maybe the distant future.

We also used Sleep Lab (free app) to see if she needed a C-PAK machine. She didn't. It picked up my snoring from the living room!

I can't speak to Androids but I love my iPhone and my wife can use it without any problems ... most of the time

With my iPhone I am more connected than I have ever been with any desktop or laptop. If it weren't for games with my grandsons I might not be running this laptop. The iPhone 6+screen is so big that my wife and I have used it to watch online movies instead of this laptop, like we used to.

**Qqmike** · Sep 13, 2016, 04:22 PM

Thanks, GG, for that detailed response. This would only be for my wife at this point; I'm happily [not]using my flip phone (and 2 desktops, a tablet, and a laptop she has but I never touch).

This smart phone business ... I can see that the name of the game is minimizing data usage. For example, I'm told that these pups will update themselves (in the background) while you have data turned on (and are not comfortably on WiFi). Also told you can turn data off. Also have learned that you can use WiFi when available to surf the Internet (or use Internet-using apps) without using data.

So, setting it up will be important -- setting it so it doesn't run tons of apps/updates in the background when not on WiFi or when not wanted.

**woodsmoke** · Sep 13, 2016, 06:02 PM

I have two Samsung III smartphones that are identical, even to the situation that I power the "spare one" up every few weeks and add or remove apps so that the two are identical (almost).

A) I do this because I literally "teach" from the smart phonek, when needed, using SKYPE or the college e-mail when SCUBA.
B) I actually TALK a lot of my documents into the phone as opposed to typing on the computer nowadays. I transfer the documents to the coputer by bulk offload from the simcard or using KdE Connect. Sometimes I print directlyfrom the phone to an HP Officejet 6600. I ONLY use HP multifunction printers because the drivers are readily available on the OS.
C) I respond to e-mails IMMEDIATELY if from a student or important contact by talking to the appropriate e-mail client, now yes, there are some words that just dont' work and I have to change them but that is not the fault of the phone it is the cloud translator..

An other IMMEDIATELY, is that I give tests in groups a lot of times, and the students have to put the answers on the white board, I take a picture of the answer, and about ten minutes after class I have put the grade into blackboard, using portrait mode not landscape.

Same for lab work, I question the student standing at the experiment station, and record the answer, I don't do about HALF of the paperwork that other instructors do, I also post the grades a few minutes after class.
D) I DO NOT stream music, although I can, I just don't do it. I also do not watch embedded videow from a "site", I instead get the title and go to the You Tube app on the phone. .....no buffering....."most" of the "buffering" problem on phones is defaulting to watching the video in the newsfeed or whatever, I have not found a single video that was in a newsfeed that was not on You Tube except stuff from New Yawk Times, which is desperately wanting to force people to pay up for their news.

Also I do not play any games except maybe some kind of falling block game or chess, and yes I play a FANCY appearing chess, but a chess engine is a chess engine.
E) The phone fits in my pocket when it is not in my hand, and yes I know about the warning about "men shouldn't carry a phone in their front pocket".
F) I really do not think that ANYONE who has any knowledge at all is going to steal it if I happen to leave it laying around.

G) Samsung has an app called "noLED" which can be EASILY configured to provide a big visual notice, an icon, and a customizable sound, if desired, to notify the arri8val of a message, or whatever.
H) I use it as an alarm clock, however, I also have a real alarm clock that is set to about ten minutes after the phone is to go off in case the battery is not charged overnight for some reason, it has happened ONCE in five years.
I) I have never NOT had a signal, except in the Bahamas which has it's own little phone exchange, I skyped my last two class meetings on the Ocean Environment from the BAR in the old James Bod film hotel, the barkeep told everybody to be quiet and I bought a round of drinks! lol But this was using Video SKYPE. My lab assistant was in the lab and the college had set up one of those dinguses with a camera and mike that moves "it's head" toward the speaker.

THE CAMERAS, well............. the college purchased cameras for the instructors computers so that they could do a "biography" while sitting in the chairs that have glue to keep their derriers attached and.....most of the faculty DID NOT make the video.

Well.....I took my SIII to my dive center, which has a 16 foot deep pool and one of the workers videoed me in gear at the side of the pool talking for about five minutes and then "swiung" with me as I did a "giant stride" into the pool!

My video looked.....amazing.... and all with that supposedly outdated camera.

So....point being from all this...

That SIII will do just about ANYthing that the brand spanking new phones will do except......play games that require more horsepower or stream video with concurrent advertisings that clutter the site that is streaming.

There is an advert making the rounds about "working from your phone", well, I do exactly that and on a five year old phone.

And I do a LOT MORE than the "twenty somethings" with things like SKYPE, text production, etc,.....lin other words, all of the stuff that COUNTS as opposed to "wasting time'.

A LOT of what people worry about doing "with" the phone has been offloaded AWAY from the phone.

BTW I use Verizon with an unlimited data plan and 4G.

So, my recommendation:

A) Find a "phone repair company", I will provide one off this thread if desired, that has a nationwide "chain" presence and a lot of good word of mouth.
B) Purchase at least TWO identical USED phones which:
a) you like the looks of
b) "fits your hand"
c) "fits your clothing style".

Instead of spending HIGH monthly charges for a NEW phone, ...and....monthly charges....

get an older phone, 4G, and pay those LOWER monthly charges and use the rest of that money saved to go on a vacation with your better half!

ADDENDUM: the update thing. Immediately after installing an app, go to the bottom and right click and you will see that auto-update is ticked, ..just UNTICK IT and then close that, then go back and RE-open it to verify that it is, indeed un-ticked, sometimes it takes twice to do that. This includes an operating system upgrade. Yes, auto-update gets in the way but it needs to be done,

UNFORTUNATELY, a "lot" of the auto-updates are REALLY changing out the advert that scrolls at the bottom, but...you ARE getting it without having to pay for it.

I get a "bunch" of updates kiond of every few days. when the notification appears, just let it sit and click it at your convenience, you then just click through "allow
" and they update and done as done.

As to update on WIFI there is a thing to tick in updates in settings to do it only on wifi.

woodjustmythoughtssmoke

**Qqmike** · Sep 13, 2016, 07:33 PM

Thanks for that, Woodythoughabitverbose-y. Will distill the goodies from your post. Sounds like being on a budget is not yet your concern, with a 4G deal. I'm trying to prevent $150/month data bills generated either by accident or by FB-peeking or some-such equivalent.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 13, 2016, 08:45 PM

Originally posted by Qqmike View Post

Thanks, GG, for that detailed response. This would only be for my wife at this point; I'm happily [not]using my flip phone (and 2 desktops, a tablet, and a laptop she has but I never touch).

This smart phone business ... I can see that the name of the game is minimizing data usage. For example, I'm told that these pups will update themselves (in the background) while you have data turned on (and are not comfortably on WiFi). Also told you can turn data off. Also have learned that you can use WiFi when available to surf the Internet (or use Internet-using apps) without using data.

So, setting it up will be important -- setting it so it doesn't run tons of apps/updates in the background when not on WiFi or when not wanted.

Apps will update in the background, IF you allow them. You can turn off ALL backgroud refreshes or turn on only those you want to allow, the App Store included. I allow only 12 apps to refresh in the background. Local news, App Store, my credit card company (which I have set to send me an email when my card is used), FlightRadar24, GasBuddy, Amazon, Pharmacy, Weather Radar, Storm, TapTalk and a couple others. My wife has most of the same settings and they do not contribute much to any cellular data usage because she spends 99% of her time here at home.

I keep my Linksys E2500 wifi router running 7/24/365, as I think most folks do. My laptop is connected directly to the router, which is only two feet away, by a 3' cat5 cable. My wife and I's iPhones are ALWAYS connected to our wireless. This billing period, which cycles on 9/26, I've used 98MB of cellular data and my wife has used 4.95MB. On our wifi I've clocked 6.6GB. My wife 2.1GB. The wifi data is free. The cellular data costs. All this is only for using wifi and other internet connected apps. Using the telephone we have unlimited texting and calling, so its in our basic plan costs. The iPhone remembers past ESSID logons, unless you delete them. So, when we go to Panera's, or any other place that has free wifi for its customers using our iPhones doesn't cost us data money. This really came in handy during my wife's hospital and rehabilitation stays. Bryan Hospital has a campus wide wifi connection that is nearly seven times as fast downloading as my own cable connection, which is 2.1MB/s.

My 10 year old grandson, on the other hand, loves to play games and youtube fishing videos on his iPhone 6 while just about anywhere. So far this cycle he's racked up 1.7GB of data. His high has been 10GB.

I unplugged my phone 13 hours ago after recharging it during last night. It currently show 89% battery remaining. I've had a dozen text msgs, a handful of calls, and I surfed the web about systemd stuff which, if I find a good article, I email it to my laptop.

The iPhone 6 has a front and and a back facing camera. Very handy. iPhone 7 is supposed to have to TWO hires front facing cameras in order to create a 3D, stereoscopic view for photos and movies. Don't know what eye pieces would be necessary to see them in 3D but I supposed Apple's got that worked out. Don't plan on upgrading to iPhone 7 until this 6 dies.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 13, 2016, 08:55 PM

Woody wrote:

I instead get the title and go to the You Tube app on the phone. .....no buffering....."most" of the "buffering" problem on phones is defaulting to watching the video in the newsfeed or whatever, I have not found a single video that was in a newsfeed that was not on You Tube except stuff from New Yawk Times, which is desperately wanting to force people to pay up for their news.

EXACTLY!, and they are not censored or fuzzed up. Ya gotta be quick, though, because YouTube usually deletes a lot of them for DMCA "violations" or becaused of PC violations.

On iPhone we have FaceTime. I can install Skype but I prefer to leave MS apps out of my iPhone. FaceTime consumes a lot less power than Skype. My grandson and my son have FaceTimed me to show a thunderstorm or road conditions while driving to Florida. They are going down the Interstate 1,000 miles from here at 75mph and the FaceTIme image is crystal clear and sharp. THAT's 4G cellular data at work. My cell tower data connection downloads and uploads are faster than my 30MB bandwidth wifi router.

**GreyGeek** · Sep 14, 2016, 06:17 AM

The iOS 10 update ran into problems yesterday:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/9/13/12...ne-update-fail

I haven't tried it yet, although Apple says the problem has been resolved, and if it fails I'll have to go to the Apple Store to fix it because I don't have Win or a Mac.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**GreyGeek** · Sep 14, 2016, 07:39 AM

The iOS 10 update took 35 minutes from download to working display. The caution that the update could hang if it took more than 15 minutes to install was close. Mine took 16 minutes to install after the download

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

**Qqmike** · Sep 14, 2016, 07:44 AM

GG, re Post #6, that's the kind of detail I'm interested in. Thanks. Clears up the WiFi-is-free (data-wise) issue.

There's actually more to my story. I'm certain of this: My wife is embarrassed to use her flip phone among "everyone" who has a smart phone [nowadays]! I'm certain that she mainly wants the smart phone to answer and make phone calls when amongst her friends. As for me, I'm proud of the fact that I still carry a flip phone ... and drive a Civic ... Thus, I figure if I can figure out this smart-phone-on-WiFi deal, this purchase will be relatively painless.

A tablet will do many things on a WiFi, but can be inconvenient (at 8.3" or so, unless you have a smaller Nexus or something). But there are occasions where I wish I had a smart phone. Out around town, wanting to find directions, order a pizza on the move; or while shopping, being able to check prices at Amazon or elsewhere; or traveling, sight-seeing.

Thanks for your input.

How about a case, does one need to buy a case for these pups? I don't see many people using such, as they carry their bare smart phones everywhere, even while doing housecleaning!

**wizard10000** · Sep 14, 2016, 08:13 AM

I am a huge fan of the old Motorola Razr flip phone - as a matter of fact I still have at least two of them. When my job no longer requires me to send or receive texts I'm going back to a stupidphone. My Razr has an extended battery that puts a little bump in the back of the case but the thing will run a week on a charge

I had a Samsung Galaxy S3 - I'd installed a 7000mah ZeroLemon battery in the thing and it'd run almost a week, but the phone was bulky and heavy. Rooted that phone, installed alternative firmware and eventually learned that although I am a computer geek I'm not a phone geek

I choose not to support Apple with my dollars and won't buy another Samsung phone because bloatware, so these days I'm using an HTC One M8 that's about a year and a half old. I love this phone - cameras could be a little better but the thing has a metal case and after 18 months of use still looks new. Next year's replacement will probably be an HTC 10,

But - when I retire I'm gonna dust off those flip phones and activate one of them

**oshunluvr** · Sep 14, 2016, 08:25 AM

If cost is a factor, look at Motorola G "Play". Only $149 out the door (unlocked, no contract, straight from Motorola). Solid Android phone - very little bloat.

**Feathers McGraw** · Sep 14, 2016, 09:31 AM

I was going to say Fairphone 2 with SailfishOS (proper Linux phone), but perhaps not it's for your other half!

**oshunluvr** · Sep 14, 2016, 09:35 AM

Originally posted by Feathers McGraw View Post

I was going to say Fairphone 2 with SailfishOS (proper Linux phone), but perhaps not it's for your other half!

Unfortunately, that's a no-go in the US.

I would LOVE a Jolla...

**GreyGeek** · Sep 14, 2016, 01:59 PM

Originally posted by Qqmike View Post

GG, re Post #6, that's the kind of detail I'm interested in. Thanks. Clears up the WiFi-is-free (data-wise) issue.

There's actually more to my story. I'm certain of this: My wife is embarrassed to use her flip phone among "everyone" who has a smart phone [nowadays]! I'm certain that she mainly wants the smart phone to answer and make phone calls when amongst her friends. As for me, I'm proud of the fact that I still carry a flip phone ... and drive a Civic ... Thus, I figure if I can figure out this smart-phone-on-WiFi deal, this purchase will be relatively painless.

A tablet will do many things on a WiFi, but can be inconvenient (at 8.3" or so, unless you have a smaller Nexus or something). But there are occasions where I wish I had a smart phone. Out around town, wanting to find directions, order a pizza on the move; or while shopping, being able to check prices at Amazon or elsewhere; or traveling, sight-seeing.

Thanks for your input.

How about a case, does one need to buy a case for these pups? I don't see many people using such, as they carry their bare smart phones everywhere, even while doing housecleaning!

I would still be using a flip-fone except that my son and his family, my daughter and her family and my three grandsons got tired of trying to connect by phone because they preferred text. I did not have text or web surfing on my flip-fone because it was extra and I'm cheap. But, back in late December of 2014 my wife was experiencing severe heart problems and I knew that another open heart surgery was in her future. I didn't want to restrict our communications to a flip-fone so I jumped all in and got the two iPhones so we could FaceTime and text, and and let web surfing keep her busy and her mind off of problems.

Based on my wife's pattern (on the flip fone with 2000 minutes of shared call time I'd use 100-200 and she'd use 1600-1800 minutes) and converting it to MB data we could get by with an unlimited text and a250 MB data plan if we didn't browse while on the tower too much. Because I want to be able to browse while away from a wifi at least 6GB is necessary, especially if a lot of YouTube videos (Minecraft and Fishing) are watched. My 10 year old grandson has already obtained two Master Angler Awards for Bass over 5 Lbs, and last weekend he caught a 6lb 5oz Catfish. I call him the fish whisperer.

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