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Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

yamdankee posted:

If you were coming from a 3G smartphone (Droid X) and bought a used 4G phone (Thunderbolt) and it didn't come with a SIM card, does it cost anything to obtain one and activate through Verizon?

Bring it to a store, they'll give you one, no charge (or possibly the ~$35 device activation fee, it seems to depend on if you get lucky or not with the rep).

Even if it had come with a sim, that sim would be worthless to you, as it's tied to the original owner's plan.

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Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Sulk posted:

So if they drop the unlimited, does that mean that it's still going to be $30 a month for two gigs or so? Does the change allow for an early termination? I'm considering switching to AT&T to share a family plan with my girlfriend because my current family plan I'm on with Verizon has me using a lot of minutes each month talking to her. I don't know if it's a stupid idea or not, but I am thinking about it. I've had nothing but bad reception lately, though fortunately my new iPad is fine on VZW for the most part.

New contract terms (in this case, going to tiered data) only affect you when you sign a new contract. As long as you keep your current phone, or upgrade though full retail prices, you'll keep your unlimited data.

It's fantastically unlikely that it will allow for early termination. Early termination is almost always relegated to when they are forced to change the current terms, such as changes in regulation. In fact they avoid changing current terms because that's when they are forced to allow you to early terminate. They don't want to give you a reason (or a way) out so they don't change it on you.

Going from family on verizon to family on att won't really be cheaper (and will tier your data to 2gigs), and unless you actually run out of minutes, why does it matter how many you use on who?

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Duckman2008 posted:

Would people rather pay more for unlimited? A lot of goons screamed bloody murder when Sprint raised data charges by $10 a month, but honestly curious which people would take? I think the perfect scenario is throttling, but it likely makes carriers the least money so i wouldn't expect it.

There was alot of discussion, but in the end it boiled down to even after the $10 extra, sprint was a good deal. Verizon is already pricy.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Zonekeeper posted:

drat, the Thunderbolt goes up to $199 if you're on a family plan :sigh:

In fact, all the phones have about $70 tacked on from the individual price if you're on a family plan. Why the hell would they do that?

Family plans are less profitable for Verizon.

Third party retailers get money from Verizon for each plan they sell. If they sell a plan with higher profit, they get more money.

Amazon's business model is to pass that money back to you as a discount; so when they get less money back, they can't take as much off.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

parasyte posted:

So I take it I can't start an individual line, then merge it with my family plan without Amazon coming after me then. drat.

Well, if you wait around a year you can. If you change/downgrade your plan too soon they send you a bill.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Bleh Maestro posted:

Has anyone been getting the random reboots after the OTA update on the Thunderbolt? And if so any fixes? Or do I chuck this phone out the window...I'm so sick of it :(

It's a known issue, with a fix in the pipes.

rock2much posted:

Thanks. Is Verizon also getting an SGS 2 phone? I primarily stick to the Sprint thread, sorry for the ignorance!

None announced or rumored. The old LTE SGS 2 rumor eventually manifested as the droid charge, which is really more of an SGS 1. Verizon will probably eventually get one, but there's no current news of one at all.

doctor thodt posted:

Supposedly the Droid 3 (3G) is June and the Bionic (LTE) is July, though nothing close to official has come down the wire on either phone yet. I'd caution against the Thunderbolt though, it has a plethora of problems.

I assume you're referring to the mediocre battery life, and the above mentioned reboots, or do you have other issues with the thunderbolt?

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010
So, for those of you waiting on the SGS2, you get to wait until sometime in July, apparently.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Panthrax posted:

What's up with this Thunderbolt rebooting poo poo? It's done it a couple times, but no big deal, but tonight I was on the phone and it rebooted itself. If I root and put a ROM on, will that fix it? Or is there word when a new update is coming out to fix it?

A fix is in the works and is coming out later this month, according to a leaked memo.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Cozmosis posted:

Nothing is coming out within a month on the 4G front. Of the 4G phones currently:

Thunderbolt has abysmal battery life, but a lot of people like Sense. Best dev support currently.
Charge has the best screen and camera, lightest, best battery life. Decent dev community so far. Built like poo poo, you'll need a case. Most seem to hate Touchwiz.
Revolution operates similarly to Tbolt, with slightly improved battery life. LG's UI is OK, nothing significantly impressive. Almost no dev support at all.

The revolution is also binged.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Disgruntled Bovine posted:

gently caress verizon. Seriously.


I use about 6-8GB a month (no, I don't tether).

I was planning to upgrade to the bionic.

My upgrade isn't available until August 4th.

I'm hosed.

As some other people have said, you can use your upgrade early. Naturally you won't get a bionic though.

You should probably use it now to get whatever you think is the best 4g phone, and then buy "used" bionic off ebay or something, and then sell your current. This kind of movement usually lets you keep your current plan, since you're not signing a new contract with Verizon. Other people doing this will probably drive up the price of the bionic and down the price of whatever you have though. Worst thing that happens is that you find out this would change your plan, and you settle for 2 years of unlimited 4g anyway.

Unless, of course, August is your early upgrade.

As a side note, this is $5 more than the att data plan tiering, which is already a terrible deal compared to sprint and t-mobile.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

low-key-taco posted:

So if I run and sign up to get a verizon iphone next week I stay with unlimited data? I was waiting for the new one but I'd rather have the data plan.

yes.

Hamburglar posted:

I'm probably going to have to stick with my poo poo WinMo 6.5 phone until the end of time because of the unlimited bandwidth and I'm not risking switching to a 4g Android phone because it's considered a different "plan" or whatever.

Buy now, and you'll have unlimited. And you won't have a poo poo phone. It's not July 7th yet.

yamdankee posted:

"Semi-rumor". What would be more reasonable for me to do? I have a Droid X (3G) and 4G won't be live (albeit there's regular signal in some parts) in my area till later this summer. I'm not due for an upgrade till next April. Should I get a 4G phone on Craigslist or something before July 7th? As far as keeping my unlimited data, does doing that ensure anything? Or should I just hope that semi-rumor is true? Or does any of the little information we have now matter at all?

You'll keep unlimited data until you change your contract, i.e. a subsidized upgrade. When your contract expires you'll still have unlimited data, as you've done nothing to change it then either. Buying a used phone off craigslist does not alter your contract.

Doing what you're considering doing will not hurt you, but will likely* not help you either. In the future, buying a used phone of craigslist may be the only way to keep unlimited; depending on how true this second leaked memo is.

*Verizon doesn't consider 4g data plans to be any different than 3g data plans on phones; it's all the same plan, only matters what the phone supports. It is remotely possible that they could change this and consider adding 4g to you phone a contract change, and thus are able to tier you. They do not currently consider it to be any kind of contract change. If they do decide to change this, the first time you'll know is when people complain after the 7th.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

A few more newbie questions:

1) Could I do month-to-month (but not prepaid) with the unlimited data plan if I sign up before 7/7 or do I have to have a contract in order to lock it in?

2) If the answer to 1 is yes then I'd like to know if you can just walk in with a used, current Verizon phone and set up a plan on it as a new customer?

1. If you have unlimited now, you'll have unlimited after 7/7 whether you're on contract or not.

2. Yes, but they'll make you sign a 2 yr contract anyway. The only benefit to keeping your old phone is saving your first subsidized phone for later. Depending on how real that memo is on letting customers keep current pricing is, using you're first phone later may tier you anyway.

EvilMoFo posted:

I have a question akin to the previous post.

All of the lines on my family plan are running month to month and 3 of them are smartphones. Do I need to sign contracts to keep my unlimited data?

No. What you have now is what you have until you sign a new contract i.e. upgrade a phone. And the newest leaked memo may let you keep it anyway when you upgrade later.

The Human Cow posted:

OK, so I guess here are my 2 big questions:

1) Going from a single plan to a family plan - if I were to do this after 7/7, would I be stuck on the new tiered plan?
2) On a family plan, does everybody have to upgrade their phone at the same time? Can I wait until September to upgrade mine?


1. Probably not. Merging plans has generally left plan features intact. Not always though, last page people were talking about how new every 2 discounts disappear.

2. Phone upgrades are per line and can be used at different times.

EDIT: Striking out bad info. Sorry for the confusion.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 22:21 on Jun 23, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

Is month-to-month only available for prepaid/people whose contracts have run out?

Also if you sign a 2-year contract you can change your plan right? I can live with signing up for it as long as I can drop to a cheap plan and sell the iPhone if I lose my job or something.

Yes and yes.


EDIT: VVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Grinnblade posted:

So basically if I want to have unlimited data I need to get my rear end into a Verizon store before July 7th, right? I've been on the fence about getting back into a smartphone for the last few months but if the pricing's really gonna change that drastically I might consider pulling the trigger now instead of in August like I was planning on.

Also yes.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 22:50 on Jun 22, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

OK, then this post is kinda confusing me then. Does it just depend on the carrier whether or not new customers can not sign a contract?

In short, yes. It's Verizon's policy, along with at&t and Sprint, that new customers cannot sign up for month to month service.

T-mobile, as well as many of the regional carriers do allow you to join up with no contract.

This is not the way it works globally either, the USA is easily the most carrier fractured cellular market.

You can sign up for prepaid, which is a different set of plans, and a different set of phones. On verizon, they cost more and do less.

EDIT:

WeaselWeaz posted:

He's wrong. You can start a new Verizon account without a contract. They just will not subsidize the cost of your phone, so you pay full price or activate a used (but not blacklisted) phone. Just make sure they don't accidentally (or on purpose) sign you to one anyway.

I very well could be wrong. I know that many sellers refuse to let you walk out the door with service without a contract, regardless of whether you brought your own phone. It could be a training issue. I also know that it is official policy for some companies but perhaps not Verizon's.

That said, when I told I was wrong, I just went out and did some research; rather than going by memory. Sure enough I did fine something relevant: from 2008.

If you don't want to read it, the short of it all is that it's a press release saying that if you bring in a compatible phone, you in fact can sign up for month to month. The opposite of what I said.

It is old information, and there is little further information out there though, but it's a good sign for you.

EDIT 2: Striking out bad info. Sorry for the confusion.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 22:20 on Jun 23, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Pepper Potts posted:

Can someone answer this for me? I didn't read back the last few pages so sorry if someone already did.

I currently have an Android phone but I want to get an iPhone. I'm eligible to upgrade. Since I already have a data plan, will I be grandfathered in with unlimited data for forever, or should I pick up the iPhone before July 7?

I asked at a Verizon store yesterday but not even they could tell me one way or the other. Maybe a Goon has the necessary knowledge.

All current signs point to yes, you'll have it forever.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

Actually the other 2 4G phones aren't at bad prices on there either. Is there a catch to signing up over Amazon? I haven't used it before.

Extra etf if you cancel service with in like a year. They also charge you if you end the data plan early.

hotsauce posted:

Can a carrier just yank something like grandfathered unlimited data? Is there a precedent set? (i.e. not speculation)

Kind of depends on what you mean by grandfathering.

If you mean just being able to carry on indefinitely with what you have now with no changes, then basically no.*

If you mean being able to sign a new contract repeatedly with what you have now and receive updated hardware, then yes.**

EDIT:
I remembered an old post of someone saying that he was currently grandfathered, but if he changed anything about his plan, he'd loose his unlimited data. It took me a good 30minutes of searching, but I found it. It's not decisive, but it is evidence.

Hamburglar posted:

Verizon already got rid of the unlimited data plan for mobile broadband like 2 years ago. However, when they did it, I was grandfathered in. The Verizon rep pretty much threatened me that if I so much as broke my broadband card and had to get a new one I'd be hosed and capped.

*They can legally do this, but don't. It's bad business; it lets people out of contracts and makes them extra angry.

**The draw of new hardware is a huge killer of old plans. Look though the old sprint thread and you'll see tons of people gnashing their teeth about choosing between SERO*** and a good phone.**** Sure, eventually sprint relented and allowed the evo on SERO, with a couple of surcharges, but it had already taken a huge bite out of those subscribers.

***$30 a month for talk text and data. On WinMo 6.x

****The Evo 4G.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jun 24, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

Sorry to be a moron but can you show me where it says this in the terms of service? I couldn't find it. Also is this an Amazon-specific thing?

Amazon specific.


AmazonWireless Instant Discount Policy posted:

When you purchase your device with service from AmazonWireless.com, we automatically pass along an instant discount from the carrier to you. This discount has been provided to you based on your agreement to (a) activate a new, or extend an existing, line of service for this device with the carrier, and (b) maintain this service in good standing for a minimum of 181 consecutive days. If you do not activate or extend a line of service in connection with this device, or if your service is canceled/disconnected before 181 consecutive days, AmazonWireless.com will charge you $250 per device, plus applicable taxes.

So it's actually half a year(181 days) that you have to maintain it, not a whole year.

(Wirefly does the same thing. Instant discount, and extra etf if you cancel.)

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

OK thanks . . . What about the second part where if you drop data they charge you?

Amazon charges you an etf if you remove the device you bought through them from your plan.

The only way to remove data from your plan is to remove the smart phone it's on from your plan. Then amazon charges you.

For most people this is basically the same thing, but I remembered that you were talking about dropping down plans earlier, so I figured I'd say something specific about it.

Over all amazon is definitely a good way to buy phones if you're eligible to buy though them, e.g. new customer or have an upgrade waiting. Half a year isn't that long, and you were probably planning on paying for your phone anyway.

hotsauce posted:

I'm sure you want to know just to know, but why would anyone drop data? Especially if you have a 4G device?
Lose your job, buy cheap dumbphone, sell phone for 300-400bucks, and save another $30 a month data charge.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 02:11 on Jun 24, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Hed posted:

Ok, this should be my last question for a while I swear:

The Droid Incredible 2 is on sale on Amazon now so my wife wants it now. I still want to bring a Verizon Treo 755p in and have them activate it next week when I get it in.
Can she buy phone and sign up for a 2-year single line plan off Amazon, and then next week we go in to a Verizon store, upgrade to a family plan by adding my original equipment as outlined in the quote, and also apply our corporate discount? Then, whenever a phone I like comes out I can use the 2-year subsidy thingy and sign an extension on my line (as outlined in the quote).

Sorry this is super complicated but it's hard to pass a deal like this up when the phone costs so much in store.

From my reading of the relevant passages of the amazon terms (one of which I have quoted on a post on this same page) they do not specifically call this out as impossible.

That said it IS a tricky situation. Amazon will not upgrade phones or plans that receive a corporate employee discount.

AmazonWireless Frequently Asked Questions posted:

If I currently receive a corporate employee discount with my cell phone contract, can I still upgrade it at AmazonWireless?

At this time, we are not able to process cell phone upgrade requests with employee discounts.

Perhaps it's simply due to difficulty and reducing the number of variables that amazon has to deal with, or perhaps Verizon simply doesn't produce enough of a kickback to merit it.

Amazon dings you based on if they are dinged by Verizon. Verizon dings them if a plan is sold and then the level of profit goes down based on a lowering of plan level. Adding an employee discount will lower profitability, but is it something that Verizon dings resellers over? I don't know.

Even if it is something that Verizon dings resellers over, Amazon doesn't specifically call it out in their policy. The closest they get is "maintain this service in good standing" going to a lower plan level doesn't do this, but does same plan level + discount trigger it?

For what it's worth, wirefly.com has the same business model. They also have the same language of maintain the plan level you buy, or we'll ding you. The official word that discounts are after the fact are fine, as long as you don't change the plan level (eg fewer minutes, the $40 vs $30 data level). This comes from a yahoo answer, :rolleyes: but seems to be official none the less. Judge for yourself.

But Amazon isn't Wirefly. What one lets you do isn't necessarily what the other will.

In the end, I'd say that there's probably no problem with doing what you want to do, as long as you add equipment to the amazon plan. If it turns out there is, though, it's a $250 mistake.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

sadus posted:

I'm switching carriers even if I do get grandfathered into unlimited data, that could be taken away at any point and regardless it would be like condoning rape to stick around and support such a sleazy company. Reminds me of when my home town got its first draconian cable modem provider and you could go over your monthly quota in just a few hours.

If all the other carriers follow suit I can only hope Google turns into a non-rapey cell phone provider in addition to rolling out their Gigabit internet access, or some other rich-but-not-greedy company steps up to the plate to provide a fairly priced service.

ATT has already gotten rid of unlimited and uses the same tiers, and is only $5/mo less expensive. Tmobile has already gotten rid of unlimited and uses the same tiers, is $5 less than att, and they throttle instead of charge you more. In my opinion throttling is the better of the 2.

Only sprint has unlimited, and they do it by offering basically no choice at all, and having a $10 a month "good phone tax."

If you really want to encourage unlimited, hang onto it until you're forced off and leave then. Or go to sprint.

bbcisdabomb posted:

I've read the OP and have gone back a few pages and haven't seen much discussion on new phones.

Basically, I have a phone upgrade available and want to get in on the unlimited data. I'm still using a dumbphone now (SCH-U740 - before it was the Alias) but I'd like to get an Android phone.
Which ones are good and fairly cheap, or which ones do I avoid? Is there someplace I should be checking that would tell me all this?

Also, my mother wants a smartphone as well. I'd like to get her the most stable and robust one I can find.

Thanks in advance.

Get the incredible 2. Its $99 at amazon wireless. Or $150 in the stores.

Don't bother with anything that cheaper and new, if it's cheaper, its much worse, and if its the same price, it's just worse.

If you really must go cheaper, get a LG Vortex. At amazon it's 1 cent, but honestly, spend the $99. The cost of the phone is a fraction of what you're spending over the life of the contract, but its also the thing that you'll have the most contact with and the biggest difference between being happy and not.

All this assumes you have a waiting upgrade.

Are you in a 4G area? Do you like big screens? Too bad. They're all much more expensive even at amazon, unless its a brand new plan.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 23:24 on Jun 24, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Hed posted:

Just want to point out the Incredible 2 is actually $0.01 with a 2-yr contract, so even more good news!

Thanks everyone for your help, wife got a Thunderbolt that should be here next week. My Treo (:mmmhmm:) should be coming next week and we'll migrate to a family plan and get our corp. discount. I'll report back in here in case anything interesting happens.

Incredible 2 one cent on amazon? Only with a brand new contract. With an upgrade it's still $99.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

hotsauce posted:

"gobs of money"

They don't care about your monthly bill and I seriously doubt they would let this happen. It's in their best interest to make you upgrade to a tiered plan next May.

It's in corporate's best interest to make you wait. It's in the sales rep's best interest to get you a sale anyway they can for the commission now. A sales rep will never tell you to wait so you can have a higher bill.

Anyway last year Verizon advertised allowing people to upgrade to smartphones early. That special has long expired, but you might be able to talk someone into letting you do that. Bull3964's ETF idea is great too.

For the record, depending on just how much unlimited data is worth to you, it may well be worth buying a new plan, canceling your old, and eating the ETF. For a dumbphone contract ending in may 2012 I estimate your ETF to be $110. If, for example, you bought a thunderbolt off amazon with a new plan, it would be $129 there. That, plus the 110 etf is 239 which is still cheaper than if you bought a thunderbolt at Verizon on a normal upgrade(sans any current offers)

An incredible 2 being 1 cent at amazon with a new plan, doing the same thing would also be around $50 cheaper than doing a normal upgrade to an incredible 2.

Of course, this is a huge amount of hassle, porting numbers and the like. And with paying around a month of double cell bill will wipe out any savings. And if you're on a family plan, you can't easily move numbers or your new amazon plan around, which means that if you did do that you'll eat the amazon ETF as well, which would be another $250. So this scheme is only practical if you're on your own cell plan.

Not to mention, you're currently on a dumbphone, it would seem that a smartphone isn't a huge priority for you.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Jun 25, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

HondaCivet posted:

Went to a Verizon store to check out the phones, 99% sure I'm going to go with the Thunderbolt. I know what plan I want too so I pretty much just have to start ordering. Is there any reason I shouldn't just do it all online? Do brick-and-mortars ever offer worthwhile specials or promos? Should I just try calling around? This is the first time I've bought my own phone so I gotta play the brand-new-customer card right damnit.

Brand new customer? Honestly, unless you have reason to fear for your job in the next 6 months, buy on amazon.

The best special that I have seen for a thunderbolt from Verizon is $150. That was a limited time offer, and extended to only specific customers. If you can find them there are relatively consistent specials from Verizon for a thunderbolt for $200. If you can't find one, you'll pay $250.

Or, if you buy on amazon with a new plan, its $129, and the only extra hitch is you have to pay for 6 months. The price difference alone covers 4 months. (of data)

Other resellers sometime offer similar pricing. Costco, for example, offers a Droid Charge for 179, which is the same price amazon offers for that phone. But they're harder to find, and less consistent in how often they occur.

EDIT: Oh, and coming from a dumbphone, enjoy your new masochistic battery relationship.

Aurium fucked around with this message at 05:44 on Jun 25, 2011

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Penguissimo posted:

The Continuum was already outdated when it was released last year and is pretty much the poster child for Samsung's piss-poor software support. You would be better off with literally any phone in the store except the Citrus and Vortex.

The vortex is Verizon's Optimus One. Which is a great budget phone.

The Continuum is a poo poo high end phone (at it's time). The Continuum is a Fascinate with a bit more hardware, yet it's $50 while the fascinate is still $100. There's a reason for that.

Spec wise the vortex is worse, real world it's probably better. I still wouldn't recommend on verizon. The amount you spend on the contract will dwarf what you spend on a phone, but the phone has a much bigger effect on your happiness, but at 70 it's probably the best cheap phone on verizon.

The fascinate itself the next price up, $100, but it's also poo poo, but slightly less poo poo than the Continuum.

Next up, at $150, the incredible 2 is excellent.

Although, if I were you, I'd buy at http://wireless.amazon.com/. The upgrade price there for the Vortex would be would be $.01, one cent. Likewise it would be $70 to upgrade to the incredible 2.

As a disclaimer if you cancel within 6 months amazon will charge you an extra fee on top of Verizon's ETF. That is the only catch though, and I suspect you're planning on paying your bills and keeping your service.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Bizarro Kanyon posted:

Any issues with the Blackberry Curve? Since the info on the Continuum has lead to her moving past it, she is looking at the Blackberry Curve (she does not care about touch screen capabilities).

Edit again: Can you upgrade through two different sites? My wife gets an extra $50 credit going through verizon but I can get a cheaper phone going through Amazon? Is she able to upgrade her phone through Verizon while I upgrade my phone through Amazon or am I just pipe dreaming?

The only issue is that it's an old blackberry. In my opinion, the only real reason to get a blackberry is if you need a blackberry. In actual concrete terms, maps and web browsing are better on android, texting and email will be better on blackberry. The tiny, bad screen is pretty much the death of doing anything else on the curve.

Getting upgrades though different groups is no problem at all.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

kitten smoothie posted:

Is there any price match period after in-store purchases?

That leaked screencap that suggested an iPhone 4 price drop also showed the Thunderbolt as being free. I bought one Thunderbolt a week and a half ago, and another one on Saturday.

The leak could be total bullshit, but if it turns out to be real, is there any way to get some money back if it happens within 14 or 30 days of when I bought the phones?

I found this screencap. It's full of errors which make me doubt it's authenticity. First off, the DroidX is listed twice, not even the new DroidX2, the original. It has the Citrus on sale as 14.99 whereas it's currently free. The Thunderbolt is also listed twice and says that at 50% off 299.99 it's free. First off, any amount of money to free is not 50% off. Secondly, the Thunderbolt was never 299.99, it was 249.99.

sadus posted:

No voice chat calculator, and a maximum of 2 hours streaming music and 1 hour streaming video a day... Not very realistic at all.

Voice chat doesn't use data, and they had better hope a limit of one hour a day of video is reasonable, when 10minutes a day is enough to wipe out the standard 2gb a month.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

Jhonas posted:

I am not expecting the best battery life in the game like I had with my iPhone 3GS. I am expecting my phone to last 16 hours or so, especially when I'm hardly ever waking the phone up, screen brightness is always manually set to the lowest setting, I haven't used any minutes, and the 4G radio is shut off. That has proven to be impossible. I have a phone I avoid using that still doesn't make it through a day without more charging.

What exactly do you mean hardly ever waking your phone up. Do you mean like for a few minutes every hour, or more, or less?

When I use my thunderbolt, a phone known for having bad battery, and only use it a few minutes every couple of hours it easily lasts me two days. 4G radio on.


When you say elsewhere that you get 5 hours on it, do you mean:

1. Unplug, and 5 hours later it's dead.
2. Unplug, and 5 hours of USE later its dead, which is 16 hours later, because it's idle the rest of the time.

My thunderbolt dies with around 5 hours of use (screen on/browsing/streaming/other) depending on how hard I actually use it, that 5 hours of use has lasted me 2 days. Again, this is a phone known for a small battery.

If your phone is dieing that quickly without you using it there's something wrong.

1. Bad signal. Bad signal kills battery.
2. Apps gone rogue and consuming power when they should be off. One thing you can do is check your uptime vs awake time. (Home- > [menu] -> Settings -> About Phone -> Status) Your awake time should be much less than up time. You can also take a look and see what is using up your battery. (Home- > [menu] -> Settings –> About Phone –> Battery)
3. Something's defective. This happens.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

slackerbitch posted:

I have so much hate for Verizon right now. My original Droid is on its last legs, and I'm due for an upgrade. BUT. I can't stand the Pentile screen for the Droid 3 screen, this unreleased Samsung phone is last year's Sprint phone with an LTE tacked on, and my other option for a keyboard with Android is to go back to a Droid 2.

"Decent screen," "current specs" and "physical keyboard" should not be this unbelievably difficult laundry list of requirements.

The worst thing is that T-Mobile has all kinds of keyboard phones, some of them even rocking 768 MB of RAM, which is a nice bit of future-proofing that I'd appreciate as someone with a Droid suffering from that 256-to-512 gap right now.

So my options are (1) pay an assload of money to break contract and jump ship to T-Mobile -- which has lovely coverage in the rural areas where my extended family lives, but at least has phones I want -- and lose my unlimited data in the process; (2) suck it up and get a phone I hate with Verizon and deal for the next two years without either a decent screen or a keyboard; (3) buy an unlocked phone, again, assload of money, and I feel like that rewards Verizon for not offering decent phones -- why should they bother, people will spring for their own; (4) loving wait and see if Verizon might bother getting more phones in the future and hope my Droid doesn't die in the meantime.

I had all my hopes pinned to the Droid 3, until that whole Pentile poo poo. And now the Samsung one is out. I'm tempted to pay all the money to switch just because I feel like punishing Verizon for not having better phone offerings, which is stupid and spiteful, yes, but how else are they going to realize or care that people are upset?

Wait, that's a stupid question; they're not going to realize or care anyway.

While the mytouch 4g is definitely a better offering than any of verizon's keyboard offerings, if you're okay with the G2, you do have an option.

Verizon sort of launched their own G2 analog. It's only available though third parties, and frankly, it's near impossible to find online. You could try a best buy, verizon's press release mentions them by name. Best buy's website doesn't seem to list it though.

Of course, it's binged and, considering how rare info is on it, is extremely unloved. But if your heart is set on a G2 analog on verizon, there you have it.

As an aside, did you look at the D3 screen, or did you just hear it's pentile and go "that's poo poo." It is not the same pentile arrangement as the SGS1. Now, it still bothers some people, and I'm not saying that it won't bother you, but if you haven't actually looked at it you should.

Fake edit: I looked at your previous post and how you disliked the droidx2 screen and said the pixels were very noticeable. The D3 and the Dx2 do have similar screens with the same resolution, but as the D3 has a smaller screen it will also have smaller pixels.

Aurium
Oct 10, 2010

kalibar posted:

After reading this bullshit yesterday, I'm really starting to get disgusted with Verizon. Turns out that having LTE on a desirable frequency makes you a real dick of a company.

I love my Droid Charge's hardware, but the lack of an even remotely-loving-usable ROM is really killing me. I came from a Galaxy S on T-Mobile that had lots of aftermarket development done and thought "how much worse can the Charge be, and how long can it take them to get CM7 going given that it works on the Fascinate?"

The answers are "a lot" and "a long time," respectively. I know that LTE poses tough challenges for devs, and Samsung sucks for not releasing driver source code, and it's totally not the devs' faults because they're an awesome bunch of chill bros working for free, but yeah, this thing is just a mess.

I'm reluctantly switching down to a CM-able Ev-DO phone and giving up the sweet nectar of LTE for awhile. If the Galaxy Nexus somehow turns out to suck, my pals and I are thinking of just eating our ETFs and going back to T-Mobile.

If it makes you feel better, they probably won't get very far at all with the turbo-button thing. Few developers are willing to use 3rd party apis that will only affect a fraction of users. It's pretty much the same story with specific device and manufacturer's api.

As far as Droid Charge Woes. Not much you can do. Individual device devs aren't just doing this for free, and against tough challenges, they generally do that because they own that phone, and want it better. If it's taking this long, the Charge probably wasn't attractive enough to devs. You can at least take solace in that there's at least active work unlike the Continuum, also close to the Fascinate, but will probably never have CM7.

Or anything else of note.

Other than a device specific api.

(that nobody uses)

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Aurium
Oct 10, 2010
So I'd like to sell an upgrade (well, get a phone at an upgrade price and sell it), and looking online I'm getting quite a bit of conflicting information about the best way to go about it.

It seems the best phone for resale value is the iphone 6

It seems the best way is to order it online, activate it over the phone (or online) using the imei on the box. Then reactivate my old phone, and sell it?

Do I actually need to activate it at all? Some people say yes, it needs to be to start the upgrade counter ticking again, other people say you can just sell it.

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