A Total Newbie, Drowning in Choices I Don't Understand

Lesley547

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Aug 27, 2009
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:eek:My partner and I have a family account with T-Mobile with 2 vanilla Motorolas that mostly sit quietly at the bottom of our respective purses until one of us is late for something and the other becomes frantic enough to paw through 20 lbs of junk to see if a message has been left.

Though we spend lots and lots of time on our desktop computers and love our IPods, we are illiterate with respect to even the simplest capabilities of the phones we have. Text messages? What's that? Oh - it costs money, forget about it.

So anyway, her birthday is coming up and my boss just got the IPhone 3G and this usually staid businessman is jumping up and down about how much fun he's having with it, and all the wonderful things it can do. Thought I'd wander into the internet and see what these Smartphones are all about. Jeez!! I've been out of the loop for so long I don't even understand the language being spoken, and I can't imagine typing a message without a keyboard. (I'm almost a senior citizen and may have met my Waterloo)

Is there someplace I can go to learn this technology on the See-Spot-Run level so I can intelligently assess the choices that are out there and make a good one? The idea of a phone you can use for e-mail, web surfing and I-Tunes is truly appealing. But some people say AT&T reception sucks, or wait a year and there may be more carriers ... I've always had good customer service with T-Mobile, but am frustrated by our inability to download I-Tunes on anything but the Apple-AT&T system. Who can walk me through this maze?
 

Alli

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Apr 28, 2009
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Your best bet is to sit down and figure out your questions first. For instance AT&T vs T-Mo. That will depend totally on where you live. Any way you look at it, T-Mo is cheaper. But (there's always a but, isn't there), an iPhone will be cheaper on AT&T than if you buy one on ebay or Craig's List to use on T-Mo.

I'm in the 50+ group, and I live on my iPhone, so don't try to let age hold you down. One of the best things is, the screen is so large and bright that even old eyes can see it all clearly!
 

JSimonian

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Mar 20, 2009
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Lesley: The iPhone is an amazing device...to me. I use pretty much every feature that it offers; from texting, to email, showing photos, reading books from Kindle, watching movies and TV, listening to music, etc, etc. However, for someone that may not use all of the features, it may be overkill. It's somewhat expensive to have the data plan that the iPhone requires (this is relative, but it's expensive for me.) If you have the money and want to step into the newer technology of smart phones, then I would reccomend the iPhone. It's easy to learn and use and there are plenty of people that want to show off their iPhone skills (in a good way) that would love to help someone that is struggling.

I don't know that I've helped you, but I thought that I would offer what I could.
 

Ipheuria

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Jul 21, 2009
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Like everyone has said don't let your age deter you from using it. You should go to an AT&T and find out how much it will cost you whether you are getting one or two of them, the plan and the data plan. Then you can decide if you do actually want it. If you decide you want it get only one, it is very intuitive once you open the phone up. You've already signed up here so if you need any help setting up your email, and learning the settings to do certain things just ask. If you've been using ITunes for your media then once you sync the phone it will pick up music, movies, etc. Once you start using it you will learn things but as long as it does what you want you will be happy. I don't know much about using it on Windows I use it on Mac but there are many users from each side on here.
 

GMJeff

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May 3, 2009
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As stated, go to the store and check your options. If you are having issues now with adding features because of cost, then the iPhone will be a let down for you, as AT&T requires a data plan at $30 per month per iPhone.

I am not trying to deter you, but just keep in mind that the cost is pretty high. I have 2 iPhones on my account (5 lines). The first iPhone costs me the price of the voice plan ($60), plus the family messaging package ($30), plus the data plan ($30) for a total of $120 a month. The second iPhone costs me $10 for the added line and $30 for the data plan for a total of $40 a month. So for around $160 a month, plus taxes and fees, you can both have iPhones.
 

BENGRIMM

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Aug 13, 2009
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The great thing about the Iphone is the User Interface , it is so easy to use , my wife who is pretty techno iliterate can work the iphone way easier that her treo (which she only uses for calls , text and bubble breaker ) . But as suggested go to your local AT&T store of Apple store and just play with the phone . You could also see if you could sign up at the Apple store for an iphone class and get some real one on one time with the phone . It is well worth the money .
 

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