This item is for discussion of cell phones.

68 responses total.

I have a bunch of questions about cell phones.  I have one, but I don't 
really understand them well.

1) When I got my cell phone service, the phone was included.  Can I go 
out and buy a different phone and still use it with my service?  How 
would I go about doing that?  Why would I want to?

2) Why would anyone send a text message from a cell phone?

3) I have 3500 "anytime minutes" with my package.  My service contract 
is for 2 years.  How do these anytime minutes get used?

1. a - yes, but you may have to pay a service charge for changing phones.
   b - contact your provider
   c - To get a better phone.

2. Either they are a serious geek or they are desperate.  I understand
   sending text messages TO cellphones but not from them.  What a pain
   in the ass.  My friend Doug ("serious geek") sometimes uses the
   instant messenger feature on his Sprint PCS phone.

3. 3500 anytime minutes?  Are you sure?  That'd be an awfully expensive
   package.  Your package is most likely to include 350 anytime minutes
   and 3150 night/weekend minutes, or some similar arrangement.

2. The popularity of text-messaging is greatest among those who spend a fair
amount of time in loud discoteques.
(the popularity of "radio-mode" is more difficult to explain; I suspect some
secret wish to get beaten up by complete strangers)

1. Actually I'm considering getting a new cell phone.  My current one is a
bit on the large side, and I will probably start using it much more as my
career gradually changes from "employee" to "consultant".  

Re #1.1 - It's easier with some services than others - you should probably
contact them to find out what your options are.  With VoiceStream, as long
as you get a compatible phone it's pretty easy, since you can just pop out
the smartcard and snap it into the new phone.  The smartcard has everything
that makes a particular phone "your phone" to the network.

Re #1.2 - I almost never send text messages *from* cell phones, but I do
receive text messages on mine.  I have some software at work that sends me a
text page when certain network or computer problems come up.  The voice mail
that comes with my phone also offers people the chance to send me a numeric
page (which arrives as a text message) when they call.  Also, if they leave
a voice message the voice mail system text messages me to let me know I have
one waiting.

*Sending* a text message is too tedious to be worth it unless you're really
bored, at least if you have a regular phone.  If you have something with a
keypad or touchscreen, like a Handspring Phone or a Blackberry, it's a bit
different.

Re #1.3 - I don't think I understand the question.

The Cingular Nationwide 250 package costs $29.99 per month, has 250 
minutes per month with no roaming charges, and 3500 anytime minutes.  
I'm trying to find out what the anytime minutes are about.

I've been on hold with Cingular for 15 minutes, trying to talk to a 
human about a billing question I have.  I am not very impressed right 
now with their customer service.

Note: Cingular is owned by SBC Communications, and so is my employer; I 
have stock options for SBC and so am kindly disposed toward Cingular.  
Right now, though, I'm ready to blast them into oblivion.

Whew!  I got ahold of someone after 20 minutes.  She didn't know what 
to do, so put me on hold for another several minutes, came back and 
still didn't know what to do.  She started to say "Let me put you on 
hold and I'll..." and I caught her at it.  "How about if you call me 
back?  I've been on hold for over a half hour already!"  She'll do 
that.  (She'd better.)

This was probably karmatically good for me, as a customer support rep 
myself.  I hope I carry the lesson of the cruelty of a support phone 
line with me for a while, so I don't put someone through that myself.

Argh... they're 3500 minutes, but they're weekend/evening minutes.  
Sorry about that.

It seems like a weird concept to me.  They're spread over the life of 
the contract?  It just seems weird.

(Why buy a new phone?  I had two fail from being dropped repeatedly
(oops) and the third one got lost for months.  Only the newest one has been
small enough to travel with my wallet; seems like this one might stick
around for a while.)

Sending text messages from a phone:  I use that to send email when I'm
traveling and don't have access to the Internet.

Re #8: That is weird.  My plan has a certain number of 'anytime minutes',
but it's per month.  Same with my weekend minutes -- they replenish at the
beginning of the billing cycle.

My cell phone plan includes 300 "anytime" minutes and 3500 night/weekend 
minutes.  Per month, not spread over the lifetime of the contract.

I have never sent a text message with my cell phone.  I have recieved 
them (Northwest Airlines flight status info on days when I'm flying, my 
dad will e-mail me sports scores when I'm in a place that I can't answer 
the phone, etc)

This response has been erased.

I never understood "radio mode".  It's annoying, for one, and why don't they
just TALK ON THE PHONE instead of subjecting others to hearing the annoying
beep and the other person's voice?  Do they want to look popular?  UGH.

(rant complain)

I've just seen way too much of that in restaurants lately.  It's distracting
and annoying.

I think radio mode doesn't count against their minutes, or something.

I get 3500 weekend/evening minutes per month?  If that's true... wow.

Yep, it is true.  They're per-month.  I had thought they were some kind 
of bonus over the lifetime of the phone contract.  They're usable 
between 9 pm and 7 a.m., and any time on weekends from 9 pm Friday to 7 
am Monday.  I never understood that before.  Not at all.

I'll admit to having used radio mode on occasion.  The place I work at 
when I'm at school purchased a bunch of phones with the two-way radio 
feature, and when a tech goes out in the field, they carry one with 
them.  There are a few reasons for going with those phones rather than 
actual two-way radios.  1) They have more range than a typical two-way 
radio.  2) The SU campus is very hilly, and as a result, there are 
repeaters located on top of many buildings.  If we had purchased radios, 
we would have had to work with Public Safety, Housing Office, and the 
Maintnence office to make sure that our radios wouldn't interfere with 
any of the other radios, but would still be able to use the repeaters.  
3) On occasion, techs need to use the phone feature to call a client 
from out in the field.  4) The initial purchase costs for the phones was 
much less than for radios. 

I think the reason for using radio mode instead of phone mode is it's a
quick, asynchronous sort of thing.  It's faster than dialing and hanging up
every time.  It doesn't make any sense for extended conversations, but for
quick exchanges or for the kinds of things you'd normally use a 2-way radio
for, it makes sense.

They're virtually universal in the trades, and in production for TOP or 
other outdoor festivals, they're almost indispensable for efficiency of 
operations.

Okay, that all makes sense.  What bugs me are the people in restaurants who
could at least GO OUTSIDE.  :)

That's one thing I liked about Sylvia (bhelliom).  Her phone rang at dinner
one night, and she went outside.  She said, and I quote, "I wouldn't want to
be so gauche and take a phone call at the table."

I have a two way pager that I got work to order while I was still doing
on-call stuff, but that didn't show up until I was no longer doing on-call
stuff, so I have yet to use it.  I've been carrying it around in my computer
bag on the assumption that I may have some need to send e-mail from somewhere
where I don't have Net connectivity sometime.  The reason I wanted it (given
that I had to replace my existing pager, and the cost to me was the same for
one way or two way) was that I used to sometimes get text pages describing
some urgent problem, but not including a phone number to call.  I wanted to
be able to send e-mail back asking for a phone number, rather than having to
call the NOC and have them hunt for the person, which was often a pain.

I also used to wish for something like that when trying to find people in
clubs, where it was too loud for the cell phone to be useful and too crowded
to look around and see the people I was looking for, but I haven't been doing
that sort of thing much lately.

Are pagers on the downswing?  Maybe I just don't notice them much, but 
I don't seem to see many of them any more.

I've seen some accessories, ranging from surprising to useless 
seeming.  Does anyone change the faceplate on their cell phone?  Do you 
have a leather case for your phone?  I can get a vibrating battery for 
my phone, which will vibrate instead of ringing.

My phone is made by Nokia.  There's a Club Nokia that Nokia owners can 
join.  You have to specify your country to join, and the United States 
is not on the list, though.  Supposedly, through Club Nokia, you can 
download ring tones, games, etc.  Has anyone gotten a customized ring 
tone, or added any games to their phone?

Speaking of ring tones, I have mine set as loud as it will go, but 
still frequently don't hear the phone ring until the 2nd or 3rd ring, 
often too late for me to answer the call.  Does anyone have any 
suggestions on how to improve this situation?

Your phone should keep a list of recent incoming calls.  You can always call
back and say "sorry, I got to the phone too late."

Pagers seem to be losing favor now that cell phones have gotten cheaper.

Thanks, Sarah.

I have never understood that sort of thing.  I never take call at the 
table if I can help it, especially if it's in a place that has a rather 
quiet atmosphere. 

Re#24 John, you be able to set your phone to light up when it rings, if 
it doesn't already.  Most phones keep at least the last ten numbers 
that you dialed and the last ten incoming phone numbers.  If you have 
your phone book programmed, if it is one of those people that called, 
you'll know.  I'd also look up the schematics of the individual phone.  
Perhaps there's some features you've overlooked that may prove useful.  

Yeah, I can call back from the list on the phone.  Quite a lot of the 
time, though, I see numbers I don't recognize, and I wonder who is 
trying to call me?

I set my phone to both ring and vibrate, since if it's under several layers
of cloting I'll feel it vibrate but not ring, but if I'm not wearing it, I'll
only hear it ring.

The traditional use of pagers -- receiving a phone number so the person can
call back -- seems pretty much gone among people I know.  It's much easier
to just answer a call on a cell phone.  When I was doing on-call shifts at
work I liked my text pager.  It gave me a lot of the information I needed in
writing, where I could refer back to it easily, and if I got called about a
couple of issues at about the same time, it would keep a list for me.  All
that, of course, was highly dependant on how much information the person
paging me put in the message.

Phones are so prevalent that pagers are pointless for a lot of people.  A
phone pretty much does everything a pager does, plus you can listen and talk
back.  Handy.

Our entire family has gone with Verizon for cell phone service.  There's no
particular bonus, except that we can actually talk on our phones IN OUR OWN
HOUSE, a surprising bonus.  Extra helpful for dad, since one of the points
of him having a cell in the first place is that he'll have it with him if he
is partially incapacitated and can't make it to a landline.  

I don't use my phone a whole lot during the day, but I will use it quite a
bit in the evening when I'm on the 4-digit minutes time.  Quite useful,
really.  I'm a big fan of the weekend option.

I make all my long distance calls on my cell after 9pm (well, almost all of
them) But even factoring in using my peak minutes I pay much less in total
telecommunication costs.

I usually keep my phone set on vibrate alert.  Big benefit is that if it 
rings while I'm in class, professors don't get mad at me because they 
don't know it rang. (I will never answer in class, but I leave the 
phone on so I can get the caller id info)

In the course of our last move, we seem to have lost the charger/AC
adaptor for our cell phone.  I wonder if I can get another someplace?

Try Radio Shack.  Depending on the make/model it will charge off
the auto adapter(barrel) connector which you should be able to 
get an universal DC adapter for at RS.

I'm mulling over a change to much more cell-phone use, but what I really need
is a cheap international rate.  Family overseas...

I've never seen a cell phone that used a barrel connector for charging.  You
should be able to get a charger at just about any cell phone store that
carries the same brand as your phone, though.

My biggest complaint about my cell phone is that it came with a woefully
inadequate manual.  It doesn't even list all the menu options, much less
describe how to use them.

Try going to the manufacturer's website, David.  You might get better 
luck there.

Hrm...Samsung does have many of their phone manuals online in PDF form,
but they don't seem to have the one for my phone, an SGH-N105.  They
have an SGH-N100 manual, which may be similar, but it's only available
in French, German, Italian, and Portugese.  I guess I'll email them and
see if they plan to make one available.

I've seen both Nokia and Motorola phones that use a barrel connector for
charging.

for aftermarket parts and accessories: www.the-phone-store.com  I've bought
several itmes from them.

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