Does any one here use them fancy cell phone thingy's?

I think I was the last one on this earth to own a computer. I just never saw a real "need" for one. However now I use it several hours a day and don't like being without it.

Cell phones have been the same for me. I think they are a real nice item to have however I have always considered them an expensive luxury item. Several years ago I came very close to being stranded out in the country side (out of gas). After that day I decided I could use a cell for emergency use. So I have owned a Tracfone (pay as you go) phone and it honestly has worked out quite well for me. I buy a one year plan for $99.00 and have never run out of minutes. So for about $8.00 a month I've had a cell phone for last 5 years or so.

Times are changing and I'm starting to think about getting one of those "smartphones". The thought of paying $150.00 or more every single month, is something that still bothers me but my wife says "$$$ I cant take it it with me $$$". So being the frugal person I am I want the most for my money without paying for something that I don't need. So I turn to you my friends to guide me. I'll trust you before I trust some salesperson trying to increase his sales commission. So I'm asking for opinions.

Let me tell you how I plan on using the phone. I actually do not make very many calls. Probably 300-500 or so minutes per year. However what I want to gain is the ability to recieve and send e-mail alerts on my new phone and text messaging. I also think I could use certain apps that are available. I want to be able to surf the web as well.

I think my wife and I have each decided to get "iphones". There are so many different variations of phones that makes it hard for a first timer to decide. Right now I'm trying to decide how much internal memory I will need. I wont store music, movies or games. I probably would store images on it.

iphones come in 8 GB,16 GB and 32GB. How much does the average person really need? I have asked two people with iphones in person. The first said he has never had more than the 8 GB version and the second told me that he has max out every phone he gets and now has the iphone 5 32 GB. How is a person suppose to decide these things?

We have iPhones. My wife uses hers heavily for everything from games to texting and even talks on it. I use mine much less. The texting is good to have and many of the other features are handy and fun.
But, I don't need all the extra features. When this contract runs out wifey is on her own with hers. I'm getting a basic talk and text phone at nearly $100.00 a month less cost.

I have a three year old iPhone - the 3GS model - with 16 gB of memory. With about forty apps and two or three hours worth of music on it, I've used up way less than half the memory, so I could've gotten away with 8 gB. I understand that some of the newer stuff uses more memory, though.

My calling is kinda like yours - I only use about twenty minutes a month, although my nieces do hit me with texts fairly often.

My wife has a 'dumb' phone, and we're on a shared-minutes plan for 550 minutes per month. Together we probably average less than 40 minutes, though. On AT&T, we have about 5000 'rollover' minutes available. Total cost on this plan, for both phones, and unlimited data, is about $82.00 per month.

I have a two year old Android by Samsung. I use it little as a phone, although I often exchange texts with my kids. I use the internet connectivity a lot. I've used it to find addresses, to find out what movies are on at the mall, and may just suddenly want to know what the Capital of Indiana is, or who sang "leavin' on a jet plane."

I technically don't have one yet, but I'm about to get an iPhone, if I can find one, a 4s, if not I'll go with an iPhone 5 16G. I already have an iPod Touch, and I'm right up against my 8 Gigs between the music and audio books I listen to plus my daily apps. I use Tapatalk for viewing here and photocamel, I have a couple of news feed apps I use frequently and audible for my audio books. as a New user you probably could 'get by' with 8G, but you might want to go middle of the road and get 16G just in case. My biggest storage hog is my audio books and the iTunes music I keep on there. However I use my iPod frequently for web access here at the house. My wife and kids text all the time, and I expect I'll be doing the same thing once I get the phone. I did when I had a 'semi smart' phone (Samsung with a slide out keyboard). You almost have to think of an iPhone less as a phone, more as a contact device, with email and text, plus web access.

I have the iPhone 4Gs. I rarely take pictures and I don't save them once downloaded. I don't pay for texting though some people insist on texting me, so every once in a while I get a dollar or two charge for texts. Once I got a warning that I 'only' had half my allotted minutes left. Less than $75 per month for one phone.

I find that I use it more as Yellow Pages when out and about. I don't use the GPS function as the screen is too small to see while driving. I just plug the address I found on the phone into my GPS. Great for finding the nearest whatever. Mostly I use it as a phone - imagine that! No apps loaded. Haven't seen any I thought would be useful. Unique, funny, cute, clever, but not useful.

These responces so far have been very good. I expected everyone to be somewhat different. The more I read about all this it keeps pointing me to the iphone 4S with 16GB memory. I think this is one of those things where the differences are so minor that I would be happy with what ever I have in my hand. I just watched a youtube video of a guy complaining how slow the iphone 4 was compared to the 4S. He had the two phones side by side and pushed buttons on them together. The difference was only a second or so in speed. My life is not so fast that I cant wait 2 extra seconds.

I had a droid but turned it in before my trial period was over. I convinced myself that I would use it for really important stuff but I only ended up playing a few games on it for $50.00 a month more.. No way. I went back to my old phone.

I have an iPhone 5 with just 8GB memory -- this is the 3rd iPhone and this is the best of the lot for me. -- I also have a couple of Pro Nikon Cameras and now just use the iPhones camera and let it push the photos to my Laptop. Each rendition of my iPhones have gone down in memory- I found that I did not fill the phones with apps. My wife also have had several iPhones now the 8GB iPhone 5 and she hates cell phones but sees the need for them - we have AT&T service (not by choice) really the only one here in the country.. we use their mobile share with unlimited talk and text and we share 4GB of data.

I think the only phone for someone like you is to start with a decent android "Straight Talk" phone from them or Wallmart. You can get unlimited everything for 50.00 every 30 days with no contract. The phone will cost you from 30-150 depending on how fancy you go. You can even use an I phone on the plan but to buy an unlocked one new will set you back about 5-6 hundred. A deal killer I would assume. I'd suggest getting a brand new Google Nexus 4 and finding a no contract 3rd party carrier. It is a GSM phone which means that it can be used on ATT or T mobile. In some areas you can get straight talk on ATT but most are on Verizon which is CDMA like Sprint and this means you can"t take phones from one carrier to another.

We are on Sprint with my daughter and pay an extra 20 dollars a month for each extra phone up to 5 over the basic 2 phone rate. 5 smart phones on the plan for about 210.0 or so. That is 1500 shared minutes and unlimited text and data and includes a micro cell payment of 5.00 a month. All cell to cell minutes are included and nights after 7:00 pm are free. Texting is probably one of the most efficient means of communication ever created. But if it takes more than 3 back and forts call!

And what can be done is simply amazing. Live radio crystal clear from literally all over the world. I can listen to my home town 1 kilo Watt AM station from around 1100 miles away crystal clear...

Lots of warys to go but as I say if your not sure start with a month to month an buy your phone..

I have an iPhone provided by work. To me it is a Game-Boy that has a phone function buried in there somewhere. I am a Network Engineer and have been in this field for 30 years; I am not unused to dealing with sophisticated gear. However, this thing is not primarily a phone and is not designed to be such. Email, texting, and so forth are workable. Websurfing is doable if you lose Safari and add the functional browser of your choice (JMHO, it really depends on what you use the web for ) . The phone function is usable but, can be awkward to get to, depending on the status of the device at the time you want to get to the phone feature.

There were a couple outfits providing more basic phones for people who just wanted phones but, I see that Jitter-Bug has abandoned its previous simple format device for more traditional cell phones as we think of them today. I would think there would be a market for a "phone" that was just that but, I and others like me are not numerous enough to drive a market segment, or so it would appear. I wish you good luck in your search and would like to hear how things end up.

This from a guy who worked with high technology equipment until he woke up deaf and was forced to retire.

While I had a corporate cell phone, I didn't have a personal cell phone until I retired.

As I was deaf, my wife and I got the then current Samsung Gallaxy II. As Sprint gave us a corporate discount at the time we went with them. My wife travels a lot more than I and we use the texting a lot as a result of my deafness. When traveling I enjoy using the Internet capabilities.....the mapping and GPS capabilities.

I was the one who didn't think we needed personal cell phones. In February 2 weeks after we retired, we were on our way to Yellowstone to take some winter tours of the park. We were near Deer Lodge, MT on I-94 when the air dam over the rear window on my Honda Pilot broke. My wife got on the Internet, located a Honda dealer in Butte, Mt. She called the dealer and they gave us an appointment based on our arrival time. We arrived there and 45 minutes later departed with a repair and continued on our journey.

I am a fan...now.

Got any family members that work for the one of the phone companies? I'm on my brother's plan, he works for one of the local carriers based in KC. We pay $40 each per month for 500 minutes, unlimited data, and unlimited text on smart phones, $20 for regular phones (which my daughter still has), which still have the same features for minutes, data, and text.

Since you do photography, more memory may be useful, but depends on how you manage your files. I've got 8gb on both of mine (work and personal), have about 2-3 hours of music on each, and about a 1000 photos, but neither are close to being full.

I broke down and got a smart phone this last upgrade. I didn't think I would use it very much. I was wrong! I use it constantly. There's an app for just about anything you can think of. It's a phone/texting device, but it's so much more!

While doing research on this tonight I came across a website that had a memory data caulculator. It used the following as an example. 500 images with a few short videos and 3 hours of music and 1000 apps worked out to under 6 GB. That seems like a lot to me.

Check out citizen cellular, I pay 30.00 per month for 2 phones, NO contract, 300 mInutes, not bad, if you want a smart phone, $200.00 for a iphone 3GS iphone and still no contract..., I have used their service for the past 3 years and from Michigan to Florida, the best service I have had I do not have their smart phone (iPhone) but will this spring

I have the most basic phone I could get... it's on a Verizon network, and about half the time it lays on my desk....I forget to attached to my behind.... only reason I got it was for when I was at the Public Market when I opened there... I was 50 miles from the wife and needed to be able to contact her or her contact me....

I have an iPhone 3GS, a Samsung Galaxy S2 Skyrocket (Android box) and an iPhone 5. While I generally don't get along well with Apple computers, I really, really prefer the operating system on the iPhone over the Android units. For the smartphone novice, I'd recommend the iPhone. My 83 year old dad uses his a lot.

My iPhone 3GS has 16 GB of memory and I was able to fill it, primarily with music although I have quite a few apps, including some games that are real space hogs. When I got the new iPhone 5, I went the full Monty and got the 64GB. It'll be a while before I have this one filled.

I use mine daily asa sub contractor I use it for sending pics, messages and talking. Also have alot of different apps on their for work.

If you are concerned with pictures taking up memory get your self a free "Dropbox" account. Your