Next week, I join the modern era...

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A few months back, a friend arched an eyebrow at the lumpy black block clipped to my waistband. "The Smithsonian called. They want their phone back," he said

Not because of him, but because I am finally excited about doing so, I'm getting my first smartphone next week. I think I've decided on the Samsung Galaxy.

Then I have to learn about apps. All advice is welcome. The ridicule, not so much. But I'll put up with it because I like you guys.
 
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MaryMumsy

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Hubby and I just got iphone 4s. The learning curve hasn't been *that* bad. He is having a ball with all the various 'goodies', I'm using mine as a phone. We ported the numbers from our two land lines to the smart phones. No more land line.

Good luck, and welcome to the 21st century.

MM
 

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It's good timing, because just now, the little MP3 player that I use in my car is finally crapping out. Imma be so fancy with my Pandora and my Bluetooth music.
 

KellyAssauer

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Zombies* do not go after cell phones, because cell phones do not have brains.
No brains... No zombies: therefore a cell phone cannot be dumb or smart.

Zombies do go after people starring mindlessly at cell phones.

Easy pickings.


We'll miss you Perks. :cry:


*
if you've been here long enough... substitute 'baboons' for zombies and 'faces' for brains.
 
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Maryn

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Apps I use all the time. all free:
Google
IMDb
Dropbox
Evernote
Kindle
NetFlix
Amazon
Accuweather
The Weather Channel
Google Maps
Open Table
Pandora
Shazam
Whatever games I like (very few; I'm not a game person)
Local Newspaper (available in full to subscribers)
USA Today

Of course, what you like to do online is a factor. I have Facebook and Twitter on there, but I type very poorly on my phone, so I rarely use them there. (Accursed arthritis thumbs!)

It's not always intuitive, so you shouldn't be shy about asking for how-to help.

Maryn, still learning
 

Dennis E. Taylor

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Learn to use the voice memo. Make sure the icon is on your home screen. I use it all the time for story ideas, notes about my WIP, anything else that comes to mind. You can convert them to something else at leisure, but a quick voice note is easy to do.

I haven't actually downloaded that many apps for my galaxy. The basic functions, voice memo as mentioned, and a TODO app are about it for me.

My daughter's galaxy, OTOH, has more apps than my laptop.
 

jvc

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A friend gave me their old smartphone. It's nothing special, and I'd never have upgraded to one had they not given me it. I basically just use it for twitter. And to take photos ... to upload to twitter.
 

calieber

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I'll second Evernote, I have a couple of story notes on there. It syncs with the website, too. Aside from games and stuff that came with the phone, Evernote, Facebook, and my bank app are probably what I use most.
 

Caitlin Black

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I don't have a smartphone, so I have no helpful advice. Although I would watch out for zombies/baboons, as Kelly noted. They're just waiting for a chance to make their move, I tell you.
 

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Dropbox and Evernote.
There's internet banking apps, useful.
Ebay, Paypal, Amazon have apps as well.
Airports, airlines have apps for check in and flight information. No more boarding passes in certain cases.
Episode trackers for TV. Goodreads for books. IMDB for film references.
A good weather app.
Google docs. Google drive.
A good app to navigate like "waze" or google maps as a GPS.
Shazam identifies music for you by listening to it for a few seconds, when your'e sitting somewhere and hear a song and wonder what it is.
A lot of restaurants or take out sites have apps, so you can order your food so it's arriving when you do :D
Etc.
 

jvc

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I have a weather app that never learned how to predict the weather. Or, in fact, tell me what the weather is at any given moment.
 

KellyAssauer

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I have a weather app that never learned how to predict the weather. Or, in fact, tell me what the weather is at any given moment.

I know how to fix this.
Take the phone, set it out in the yard.
If it gets hot, probably sunny.
If it gets wet, it's raining.
Too cold, might be winter.
See?
All fixed.
No charge!

*I iz smarter than your phone!*
 

jvc

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Yep, when it says it's sunny, and it's actually raining, I point it up at the sky and say, "Does it really look sunny to you? Really? Don't you want to re-think your statement?"
 

rhymegirl

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I have a dumb phone. But it works. So that's good enough for me.
 

Snowstorm

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I just got my first smartphone a couple days ago. I bought an iphone 5s. When I was undecided which to get, I looked up the general differences between an iphone and a "PC"-type (Android??) phone.

I found that the iphone can't be as individualized as an ?Android phone, but like a Mac, it just works. Since I have a Macbook Pro, that was enough for me. It's not real hard to learn. And I like that it'll read my fingerprint to unlock the phone and not have to type in a passcode (although you can do that too).

My sister bought a Samsung Galaxy two months ago, and the screen turned purple where she swipes her finger. She's very careful with her phone and is not happy about it. (Note: I looked this up online, and this seems to be very rare.)
 

Brightdreamer

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I have a dumb phone. But it works. So that's good enough for me.

+1. About a year ago I lost my old dumb phone and upgraded to a refurbished average-intelligence phone (which is like a smart phone but too underpowered to do much), but that's probably as far as I'll go. It exists to call relatives in emergencies, and/or AAA. The rest, while it looks fun, cannot be justified on my nonexistent budget.
 

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I hate Apple products. I've a mild fantasy of digging up Steve Jobs to kick him in the shins. I realize many, many people feel very otherwise about Apple stuff, sometimes quite passionately.

I like the size of the Samsung Galaxy. (It's HUGE.) Teensy keyboards and type have never been a plus for me. Also, I really like Google products and a smartphone that will streamline with what I already have should be good fun.

For me, though, the last vote came from my sister-in-law. She's a techy and has both a Galaxy and an iPhone 5c provided by her work. I asked her and she "110%" recommends the Android phone over the Apple.

Still, my husband and two children seem quite pleased with their iToys. So we shall see.
 

juniper

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I hate Apple products. I've a mild fantasy of digging up Steve Jobs to kick him in the shins.

Well, I was going to recommend getting an iPhone instead of the galaxy, but ...

As Snowstorm said, the iPhones just work. Right out of the box, easy to set up, intuitive design so it's easy to find or change stuff.

My husband has some android phone and he has to fight with it. He's had smartphones for years and they've always been androids. He's a PC, I'm a Mac. We trade in our phones every 2 years (staggered) when our contract is renewed. This year it's his turn.

I've had 2 iPhones and can't imagine going back to a "dumb" phone. The iPhone is my calendar, my alarm clock, my planner, my notepad, a decent camera, my photo album ... plus I can be waiting in line somewhere and look up and buy tickets for my next plane trip, or ferret out the tide chart for Maine, or where Ursula LeGuin is having a book signing. Or anything else ...

I echo the apps Evernote and Dropbox, for efficiency and backups. Evernote is easy to share projects with others - right now 3 of us are sharing a notebook on our vacation coming up. We've got our plane itineraries, menu plans, a recipe, things to bring/buy, things to do, etc. - helpful when groups from different geographical areas are converging onto a small island.
 

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The iPhone is my calendar, my alarm clock, my planner, my notepad, a decent camera, my photo album ... plus I can be waiting in line somewhere and look up and buy tickets for my next plane trip, or ferret out the tide chart for Maine, or where Ursula LeGuin is having a book signing. Or anything else ...

This is the stuff I look forward to. I really can't wait for my Google calendar to be synched into my pocket. I think I will finally have a system that works for me.

I used to not have much to do and a better memory. Now I can never remember all the wheres and whens and then I promise things while I'm out that come back to bite me in the ass when I come home and check my calendar.

I'm so excited! This is as close to that kid-Christmas feeling as I've had in decades.
 

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As Snowstorm said, the iPhones just work. Right out of the box, easy to set up, intuitive design so it's easy to find or change stuff.

This is the funny thing. I think this split is an illustration of different brains. I've never once found an Apple product intuitive and I'm not sure I've ever cursed at my screen more than when trying to help my kids with the unruly monster that is iTunes. Android stuff almost always makes sense to me with minimal teeth-gnashing. But at the same time, I know plenty of people who feel completely opposite.

And I hear what you're saying about the "just works" except when the last operating system upgrade came out for the iPhone, I was at a writer's conference and all weekend there was a constant murmur of dismay-to-fury from people who couldn't get their lifelines to work.

It was bad advertising at worse timing. I was just starting to think about joining the smartphone gang.
 
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Dennis E. Taylor

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Well, I was going to recommend getting an iPhone instead of the galaxy, but ...

As Snowstorm said, the iPhones just work. Right out of the box, easy to set up, intuitive design so it's easy to find or change stuff.

When my wife's galaxy packed it in (impact-related), she got an iPhone because one of her best friends has one, and there's some kind of iMessaging that they can use (I'm not clear on the details). However, she is now deeply regretting it, and has expressed an urge, on more than one occasion, to give the iPhone an impact-related death.

In the end, you go with what works for you.