The Wisdom of LiveJournal and Smartphones

[marcusmarcusrc]

I figure it is about time for me to join the world of the smartphone enabled, and before leaping into it, I thought I'd check the collective wisdom:

Given that I am a mac-user and a Verizon customer, are there any good reasons not to go with the default of an iPhone5 and a verizon plan?


I'd probably get the 32 GB (16 GB would probably be sufficient, but historically I keep phones and laptops for 4 or more years, and the extra memory might be valuable in a few years), 4 GB plan (though I have little idea how much I'd actually use), black phone.

My plans for the phone (listed here both to inform any advice for what phone I should buy, but also for app recommendations) include:

mapping functions (google maps over apple maps?)
zipcar/bikeshare functions
next bus apps
email checking
list making (eg, books I want to read, movies I want to watch, things I need to do) (I hear evernote is good?)
taking photos
making phone calls
price-comparisons/reviews in stores (some day I'll post thoughts on smart-phones and reducing market distortions)
checking wikipedia to answer random questions

... maybe game playing? I went cold turkey on playing kongregate games in January, because it was just too easy to lose hours to them. I've divided the time gained between a number of things - reading (I should post some book reviews some day), sleep, house-stuff (cooking, cleaning, shopping, etc.), socializing, and, sadly, more web-surfing... But hypothetically, waiting for buses, standing in grocery lines, etc. are good times for game playing.

...maybe reading e-books? I have an e-ink kindle, which I use when I can't get a book out from the library/get too impatient for the next book in a series, and one thing I like about it is that it isn't back-lit, and I spend too many hours staring at computer screens as it is. But I recognize that having a book-reading-device on me at all times might be nice.

...maybe music? though I don't really like wearing ear-buds. I do have a nice iTunes library, though. And probably not movies/TV, since I'd want the bigger screen from my laptop.

...maybe calendaring, though mostly I use my work computer for that because I have to use Outlook for meeting scheduling, and once I've done that, might as well put everything else in there too.

What other smart-phone functions am I missing? And apologies for oversharing here. But hey, isn't oversharing what livejournal is for?


Thanks for your thoughts.

Comments

[jadia.livejournal.com]

If I were a mac user I'd probably have jumped on the iPhone too. But they tend to be more expensive (or you get better hardware with Android for the same price), and I hate iTunes (since I use Windows), so I went with Android. Two other things to consider:

* iPhone batteries cannot be swapped out by users. So if your battery wears out, you can't easily replace it. (And you can't keep a charged battery to swap in if you need to.) But iPhone batteries I hear are generally longer than Android phones.

* I've heard that iPhone apps generally cost money, while Android apps are free. This is likely related to security issues too. :-)

I'm sort of a luddite when it comes to phones - I used the Palm Pre for 4 years and only just switched to the Samsung Galaxy 3. I expect to use it far beyond when anyone else wants to, as well. One thing I found useful in figuring out what to get was Best Buy Mobile, which had a pamphlet that summarized *all* the plans and costs across Tmobile, ATT, Sprint, and Verizon, as well as the cheaper pay-as-you-go options. I liked that a lot.

As for apps, the only thing I have to say is that I'm currently addicted to Cut the Rope (which is a puzzle game).

[katestine.livejournal.com]

I've never had to replace an iPhone battery, although mine's only 2 years old.

**

I didn't know you're playing Cut the Rope! (I'm halfway through the Buzz Box, although I already beat Season 3.)

I've also kinda gotten addicted to quick mode in Slice It, thanks to you.