[lynchburgwildcats]

BreakingNews.com, via Wall Street Journal, is reporting Apple is working on a cheaper iPhone that could arrive in late 2013. Will be interesting to see what they cut back on to make it cheaper if this is true. Depending on the price, could make me switch over from Android. Not very likely given the # of awesome Android phones, but could - everyone has a price!

[RubberMallet]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

[lynchburgwildcats]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

[alabama24]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

Straight Talk wireless just announced that they are carrying the iPhone 5, using AT&T's network. Unlimited Text, Talk, Data for $45. Walmart will offer the phone on a $25 a month, no interest payment plan.


http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/08/wal ... -iphone-5/

[adam42381]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

Straight Talk wireless just announced that they are carrying the iPhone 5, using AT&T's network. Unlimited Text, Talk, Data for $45. Walmart will offer the phone on a $25 a month, no interest payment plan.


http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/08/wal ... -iphone-5/

That would be for the full priced iPhone 5 which starts at $649.

[lynchburgwildcats]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

Straight Talk wireless just announced that they are carrying the iPhone 5, using AT&T's network. Unlimited Text, Talk, Data for $45. Walmart will offer the phone on a $25 a month, no interest payment plan.


http://www.macrumors.com/2013/01/08/wal ... -iphone-5/

I'd much rather online and get a quality, unlocked GSM Android phone before forking out $600+ for a freaking iPhone. Paying $600+ for a phone is complete madness. I went on eBay back in September and got a factory refurbished, unlocked GSM Android phone that compares very favorably to the iPhone 4 as far as specs go for only $170 and have it running Android 4.1 (will get 4.2 on it soon)!

Actually, truth be told, next time I get a phone, I'll likely get the google nexus unlocked straight from the google play store. 8 GB nexus 4 only costs $299 full price and without a contract!

[HenryGale]

Kind of along the same lines, I head on Leo Laporte that T-Mobile is going to be offering no contract plans. You pay full price for the phones, but then you pay much less each month for your plan. Seems quite interesting...except you have to deal with T-Mobile coverage....

[olldflame]

Kind of along the same lines, I head on Leo Laporte that T-Mobile is going to be offering no contract plans. You pay full price for the phones, but then you pay much less each month for your plan. Seems quite interesting...except you have to deal with T-Mobile coverage....

Offering no contract plans is nothing new for T Mobile or the indusry in general. The big step that T Mobile is taking is that they are completely doing away with contracts.

[RubberMallet]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

ok alex jones

sorry the majority of android phones out there are terrible. especially the cheapo ones. i hate apple and i somewhat despise my iphone but listening to an entire row of people on a plane talk about how completely awful their android phones were (each of the 4 people had 4 differnet phones) made me giggle.

[RubberMallet]

t mobile's coverage is awful here as is sprints. us cell is a bit better but verizon's shines. my brothers just took their old phones and moved them over to verizons pay as you go plans.

[lynchburgwildcats]

iphones are free, 100 bucks, or 200 bucks. all run ios6. whats the problem here?

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

ok alex jones

sorry the majority of android phones out there are terrible. especially the cheapo ones. i hate apple and i somewhat despise my iphone but listening to an entire row of people on a plane talk about how completely awful their android phones were (each of the 4 people had 4 different phones) made me giggle.

Yes, because four people on a plane is such a great sample population that the world can now draw drastically concrete and full proof conclusions about a mobile operating system

Have you ever used an Android on an extended period of time? My android phone works wonderfully on Android 4.1. Most recent version of Android is 4.2 which I will upgrade to very soon, when's the last time an iPhone was able to go through three major OS upgrades? It's a very early 2011 phone and it would be lower tiered price range nowadays if anyone was still selling it new. So we're talking about a now two-year-old phone that wasn't going to break the bank for anyone even at release time smoothly running an Android OS released just six months ago.

[Sly Fox]

That's definitely in contrast to my circle of friends, Mallet. Most of my longterm iPhone buddies have all started switching over to Samsung Galaxy device users the past 6-12 months. The level of quality in the devices is startling to most iPhone users when try a SIII or Note 2 for the first time. But to each his own. There are certainly crappy Android handsets aplenty on the market.

[lynchburgwildcats]

t mobile's coverage is awful here as is sprints. us cell is a bit better but verizon's shines. my brothers just took their old phones and moved them over to verizons pay as you go plans.

Verizon prepaid is a scam even on the most basic pay as you go plan. 25 cents per minute? I've never been on a carrier that made me pay more than 10 cents per minute and I've been on three different prepaid carriers (T-Mobile, Boost, AT&T). Of course, if you want Verizon prepaid on a smartphone, you're forking out $80 a month for unlimited minutes, text, and 1GB of data (do get 2GB of data if you activate by January 31 though).

AT&T only charges $65 a month for their regular smartphone prepaid plan, which is unlimited minutes, texts, and 1 GB of data and conversely they only charge 10 cents a minute if you go with the bare bones basic prepaid plan.

T-Mobile gives four options. One for $30 with 100 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data. For $50 you get unlimited everything. For $60 you get unlimited everything but with more unthrottled data. And for %70 you get unlimited everything with no throttled data.

Of course there are several Sprint network companies that have vastly superior smart phone prepaid plans. Of course Sprint's coverage is abysmal in many locations. I had T-Mobile and then Boost when I lived in Lynchburg and they both worked fine for me there. I would have stuck around with one of the Sprint carriers if their coverage didn't suck beyond belief where I live now. Ended up switching to AT&T after comparing them first-hand with people who had t-mobile prepaid around here. AT&T had me covered well out here while at work T-Mobile varied based on where I had the phone sitting in the office. Verizon has really good coverage here, but I don't like being robbed.

[lynchburgwildcats]

That's definitely in contrast to my circle of friends, Mallet. Most of my longterm iPhone buddies have all started switching over to Samsung Galaxy device users the past 6-12 months. The level of quality in the devices is startling to most iPhone users when try a SIII or Note 2 for the first time. But to each his own. There are certainly crappy Android handsets aplenty on the market.

Crappy Android phones indeed are aplenty. My first was a complete piece of crap. But boy did it ever save me a ton of money on texting and calling even on the pay-per-minute/text plan as I set up google voice on it and gave everyone my google voice # instead of my phone's actual #. I could text left and right all I wanted for nothing instead of paying per text and I could answer google voice calls on my office phone saving me money on minutes as well. But I was in a situation where I didn't have much money and I had to switch right away since my Boost phone was unusable here. So it was either get some piece of crap dumb phone or a piece of crap smart phone. If I am going to be forced to buy crap I'll at least buy the polished crap.

Saved up a little bit of money and went on eBay to get a decent factory refurbished phone back in September. It's not a great phone - that's what the two newest flagship Samsung and Google Nexus phones are - but it certainly is a joy to use and does everything I want it to do. I do wish it had better battery life, but as far as I can tell that's a problem with just about every smartphone on the market. I don't know how well it would handle the higher end games, but that's what my tablet is for if I want to play them.

[RubberMallet]

There are certainly crappy Android handsets aplenty on the market.

thats what i said. the s3 and note are both awesome phones. i also like one of the motorolas. but that doesn't change the fact that the majority of them are junk.

[RubberMallet]

Not everyone buys into the scam known as subsidized phones on contract.

ok alex jones

sorry the majority of android phones out there are terrible. especially the cheapo ones. i hate apple and i somewhat despise my iphone but listening to an entire row of people on a plane talk about how completely awful their android phones were (each of the 4 people had 4 different phones) made me giggle.

Yes, because four people on a plane is such a great sample population that the world can now draw drastically concrete and full proof conclusions about a mobile operating system

Have you ever used an Android on an extended period of time? My android phone works wonderfully on Android 4.1. Most recent version of Android is 4.2 which I will upgrade to very soon, when's the last time an iPhone was able to go through three major OS upgrades? It's a very early 2011 phone and it would be lower tiered price range nowadays if anyone was still selling it new. So we're talking about a now two-year-old phone that wasn't going to break the bank for anyone even at release time smoothly running an Android OS released just six months ago.

had an htc hero and evo, and an original droid. i have an original samsung galaxy for work currently that is kind of a loaner. i never use it it sits there. the hero was awful and the evo was meh. the droid was nice when i wasn't having problems.

[LUconn]

I've had an evo for the past 2+ years and it was pretty great but has really been on it's last leg for a while. I think the main problem with android phones vs iphone is the updates. Apple seems like they will always keep updating ancient phones to the latest OS. Even if you get the flagship android phone, you're lucky if you get 2 updates. I think it's up to the carriers and obviously they stop caring about old phones. It also especially makes ipads more attractive than android tablets since you are less likely to be upgrading every 2 years than with a phone.

[lynchburgwildcats]

There are certainly crappy Android handsets aplenty on the market.

thats what i said. the s3 and note are both awesome phones. i also like one of the motorolas. but that doesn't change the fact that the majority of them are junk.

Majority would be incorrect.

[RubberMallet]

you show me 1 android phone and i'll show you 2 or 3 that are complete disasters. one of our software testers moonlights at a verizon store. problem phones? android phones. generally because you have software that has to fit on 30 different hardware platforms. there will be problems. he says people will walk in and drop the same amount of cash on an LG or HTC and he's like please get a samsung or motorola....they don't. he always sees them again because their phone is junk.

[lynchburgwildcats]

I've had an evo for the past 2+ years and it was pretty great but has really been on it's last leg for a while. I think the main problem with android phones vs iphone is the updates. Apple seems like they will always keep updating ancient phones to the latest OS. Even if you get the flagship android phone, you're lucky if you get 2 updates. I think it's up to the carriers and obviously they stop caring about old phones. It also especially makes ipads more attractive than android tablets since you are less likely to be upgrading every 2 years than with a phone.

Are you on crack? iDevices typically only get two complete official major OS updates, if even that much. Typically the second major upgrade for every iDevice doesn't even give the customer the full set of new features in iOS.

The iPhone 3GS, released with iOS 3, was one of the first to get beyond two major updates with the release of iOS 6, but it didn't get a bunch of the new iOS 6 features like offline reading list, shared photo stream, Siri, turn-by-turn navigation, and FaceTime on 3G.

The iPhone 4 was released with iOS 4, yet it didn't even get a complete upgrade to iOS as it didn't receive Siri, turn-by-turn navigation, or facetime on 3G. If a user is lucky to get a third major update, it's a severely limited update and more resembles minor software update or a patch fix than anything else.

The iPad 2, which was released with iOS 4, didn't even get a full upgrade to iOS 6 as it is missing Siri and FaceTime on 3G. I told my brother when he got his iPad that he needed to wait another month for the new one to come out so he could extend the iOS upgrade life of his iPad another 11 months. Once he couldn't get a full iOS 6 upgrade all he did was b**** because his iPad wasn't even two years old and Apple has already sent it on it's way to extinction.

The big difference with Android is you can root (the equivalent of jailbreaking on iOS) and install the newest Android OS with ROMS from the Android development community. My current phone never got an official Android update beyond 2.3 Gingerbread, but I've already installed two 100% complete Android OS upgrades (4.0 ice cream sandwich, 4.1 jelly bean) and will install a third soon (4.2 jelly bean). You don't get that with iDevices, once Apple has decided to stop updating your iDevice the thing is an antiquated paper weight.

[LUconn]

I know you can root the android and update it but the majority of people aren't going to do that or aren't going to know how to do that. As for iphone updates, I was just going by this chart that I saw a while back. Admittedly it's about a year old now.



looks to me like all 4 iphones were on the current version of iOS and Android devices were looking pretty bad. Obviously hardware differences are going to vary the features.

[lynchburgwildcats]

I know you can root the android and update it but the majority of people aren't going to do that or aren't going to know how to do that. As for iphone updates, I was just going by this chart that I saw a while back. Admittedly it's about a year old now.



looks to me like all 4 iphones were on the current version of iOS and Android devices were looking pretty bad. Obviously hardware differences are going to vary the features.

The problem with that chart is that it treats a 100% complete OS update as the same as a severely limited OS update. iOS 6 on an iPhone 5 isn't going to be the same as iOS 6 on an iPhone 3GS or 4. It's like going to Pizza Hut, getting 3/4 or less of a pizza, then trying to say you got a pizza. While technically you did in fact get a pizza, but you didn't get the whole shabang!

I'd try some analysis on the chart, but clearly the person who made it hates color blind people seeing as how I can't tell the difference between some of the colors. But holy crap the original iPhone was $500 ON contract? That was absurd!

[RubberMallet]

beyond a things here or there, my 4 is pretty much identical to my fathers 5. you are really only limited by hardware....i can't take panoramic photos or utilize siri. outside of other features the general user wouldn't care about, its pretty much that same.

[El Scorcho]

iOS 6 on an iPhone 5 isn't going to be the same as iOS 6 on an iPhone 3GS or 4.

An important point: It is from a security perspective.

That's one of the major reasons Apple continues to update older handsets to the latest versions in spite of missing features. They patch vulnerabilities on three year old handsets and their users are better off because of it.

I don't know if anyone here cares about that, but it's important to me and I appreciate it. I don't understand how Android users accept being at the mercy of their carrier to have their devices updated. It just doesn't make sense.

[lynchburgwildcats]

iOS 6 on an iPhone 5 isn't going to be the same as iOS 6 on an iPhone 3GS or 4.

An important point: It is from a security perspective.

That's one of the major reasons Apple continues to update older handsets to the latest versions in spite of missing features. They patch vulnerabilities on three year old handsets and their users are better off because of it.

I don't know if anyone here cares about that, but it's important to me and I appreciate it. I don't understand how Android users accept being at the mercy of their carrier to have their devices updated. It just doesn't make sense.

Knowledge is your friend. Many android devices will get security updates, Google/phone manufacturers won't "game the system" and tell you that you got an entirely new version of the OS when you really didn't like Apple does.