Newbie With a Few Ques Here...Be Gentle:)

[MishiRN]

Hey All!!

I found your forum recently, and it took me about a week to get myself registered (issues with the verification page), but I got it, finally

So, I'm not the most tech savvy person, I'm sure you all can run circles around me in that arena, and I'm new-ish to Apple. I always used Android devices, but I switched to the iPhone a couple years ago and I'm definitely looking to get the new iPhone 6. I actually thought about switching to the Samsung, but because about 80% of my phone usage is for work, I had to stick with Apple. I needed to retain and have access to things like text messages, pictures, documents, etc, and the guys at the AT&T store told me that couldn't transfer to a different phone...the texts mostly.

That's actually one of my questions. Do any of you know a way to download all of my texts onto my computer so that I can access them exactly as I would on my phone, and not just "backed up" in the cloud somewhere? I fell into a YouTube hole, and found this techie guy's channel, and he was recommending this app (I can't remember the name of it offhand) that allows you to download everything (texts, notes, bookmarks, etc), and access them just as if you were on your phone...but on the computer. This would be uber helpful, because my phone keeps telling me I have no storage left, even though I've downloaded almost all of my pics and I've bought more cloud space. So, I'm assuming it's the actual device that's full, because I still have a good amount of cloud storage left.

Second question, and the reason I'm posting to begin with (sorry...ADD takes over) when and how can I buy the new iPhone 6? I saw online somewhere that today Sept 9 was the release date, and my sis-in-law told me last week to pre-order it online so I didn't have to wait in any lines, or risk them selling out before I get one. My current iPhone (4s) is total crap right now, so I've been waiting for this new phone to come out so I can upgrade and have a functioning one!

I'm currently with Verizon, but we were switching to ATT because their service is better here. The ATT guys made a "ghost acct" for me, so my hubby and I could take advantage of the new customer/switchover deal, and it was only supposed to be charging for one line until I made the final switch. *I was about to buy the 5S back in May when we were making the switch to ATT, and then saw online (said YouTube hole) that the new iPhone would be coming out in either June or Sept. When I bought the 4S, the new 5S came out like a month later, and I was sooo annoyed, so I figured I'd hold out.* Well, they lied, lol. We've been getting charged for both lines, and I'm still paying my ridiculously high Vzn bill, too, so I really need to make this switch ASAP!

Anyway, I called ATT the other day to pre-order, and they said that they weren't selling the 6 yet because the official launch date wasn't released yet. I swore I remembered reading and seeing on TV that it was set for 9/9/14. So, any info?? How can I buy this phone without waiting in some crazy-*ss line for hours...I work 3 jobs, so that's definitely not an option!

Thanks for any and all help!! Please forgive me if I sound a little green in this arena

~MishiRN

 

[1981d]

It will be announced today. Will prolly go on sale Sept. 19. Preorders are an open question, if allowed it will prolly start this Friday with delivery for the 19th. Buy online from apple, or day of from Radio Shack if they are still in business by then. A lot of people forget that radio shack sells the iPhone, so you often have a better chance of picking one up. I got a 5s on launch day last year from there with no line.

 

[zorinlynx]

It will be announced today. Will prolly go on sale Sept. 19. Preorders are an open question, if allowed it will prolly start this Friday with delivery for the 19th. Buy online from apple, or day of from Radio Shack if they are still in business by then. A lot of people forget that radio shack sells the iPhone, so you often have a better chance of picking one up. I got a 5s on launch day last year from there with no line.

Does Radio Shack typically sell unlocked full price iPhones? Or only contract-constrained?

I may consider this option.

 

[MishiRN]

Thanks 1981!! When you say buy online from apple do you mean on sept 19? And the radio shack tip (great idea, btw!), can/did you buyer the store, or online?
I've never bought a phone outside of my VZN upgrades, so I'm not 100% familiar w how that works. Would I be paying full price doing it that way?
With pre-order...do you do that through apple (online or in store), or can this be done through your carrier, VZN currently and ATT as soon as I switch, via the upgrade function?
Thanks again!

 

[1981d]

Does Radio Shack typically sell unlocked full price iPhones? Or only contract-constrained?

I may consider this option.

As far as I know, they are pretty much like everyone else. So, I think u can. Check with your local store though.

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Thanks 1981!! When you say buy online from apple do you mean on sept 19? And the radio shack tip (great idea, btw!), can/did you buyer the store, or online?
I've never bought a phone outside of my VZN upgrades, so I'm not 100% familiar w how that works. Would I be paying full price doing it that way?
With pre-order...do you do that through apple (online or in store), or can this be done through your carrier, VZN currently and ATT as soon as I switch, via the upgrade function?
Thanks again!

You should buy online from Apple the first day you can. Whether that will be the 12th or the 19th we should find out today.

When I bought from Radio Shack I did it in store. But they can handle a carrier upgrade, when I bought mine it was an ATT upgrade and I only paid the upgrade price.

Pre-orders can be done through your carrier, but they usually take longer to ship the phone. Apple's website is integrated with the carriers, however, so you will get the upgrade pricing from Apple. You could go to an apple store as well, but not if you don't like long (very long) lines. If you preorder, you have to do it when apple's site goes live at 12:00am PST. They will sell out within an hour or so, so if you wait till you normally wake up you will get placed in the two to three week back order pile.

 

[MishiRN]

Great advice, thank you!!

So, to be sure...you think ordering online from apple on pre-order day (either 12th or 19th), and get on their website by 12:00pst that day (I think that's 10:00p CST), and I'll be able (likely) to use my upgrade from my carrier. Do I have that all correct?lol Sorry...I told you I'm a newbie

Oh, any idea on how to go about the switch from VZN to att? Should I buy through apple via my VZN upgrade, then switch to att...or would that stick me with another 2 yr contract? I don't know if you know that or not, but I'm curious how to navigate that, so I don't keep paying two bills!

 

[Breaking Good]

MishiRN,

What is it about your text messages that are so important you do not wish to delete them?

I've always viewed Simple Messaging System (SMS) texts like a conversation that is being written out. I wouldn't think about recording and saving a telephone conversation.

 

[MishiRN]

Well, for my job, many of my clients, patients, etc contact me via text so I have a lot of valuable info in them. Info that I need to keep and access immediately if need be, but ideally I would be able to do that from my laptop and clear everything off my phone.

 

[1981d]

Great advice, thank you!!

So, to be sure...you think ordering online from apple on pre-order day (either 12th or 19th), and get on their website by 12:00pst that day (I think that's 10:00p CST), and I'll be able (likely) to use my upgrade from my carrier. Do I have that all correct?lol Sorry...I told you I'm a newbie

Oh, any idea on how to go about the switch from VZN to att? Should I buy through apple via my VZN upgrade, then switch to att...or would that stick me with another 2 yr contract? I don't know if you know that or not, but I'm curious how to navigate that, so I don't keep paying two bills!

I think it's going to be 2 am CST, if that's the same CST we use here in Texas lol Otherwise I think u got it.

To switch, you just go to ATT, give them your current VZW phone numbers, and they will port them over to ATT. That will automatically cancel your VZW service and they will generate your final bill and mail it to you. Don't upgrade through VZW and then switch, they will back charge you for the full retail price of the phones. Just upgrade with ATT.

 

[Shadowbech]

Great advice, thank you!!

So, to be sure...you think ordering online from apple on pre-order day (either 12th or 19th), and get on their website by 12:00pst that day (I think that's 10:00p CST), and I'll be able (likely) to use my upgrade from my carrier. Do I have that all correct?lol Sorry...I told you I'm a newbie

Oh, any idea on how to go about the switch from VZN to att? Should I buy through apple via my VZN upgrade, then switch to att...or would that stick me with another 2 yr contract? I don't know if you know that or not, but I'm curious how to navigate that, so I don't keep paying two bills!

We will find out after the event of when the pre-order will start. Most likely pre-order will begin at 12:01. Unless they changed it to 12:00 am. You would have to be on your computer clicking refresh because it will be sold very quickly.

 

[MishiRN]

Newbie With a Few Ques Here...Be Gentle

1981-Lol, duh! This is why I should only do one thing at a time
So it would prob be a good idea then to switch someday this week then pre order when ATT allows, or actually through apple via att upgrade.
Thanks for all your help...and patience

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Thanks Shadow! I've never done this before...I'm almost nervous, lol

 

[Breaking Good]

MishiRN,

I think you need to start moving that information into your contacts and into a note taking app.

What type of nursing do you do? I'm assuming the RN stands for "registered nurse".

Since you are depending on your iPhone for work, I think you would do best to purchase a new iPad was well when the next version is released in October. With the right note taking app you can sync information about your patients between the iPhone and the iPad.

 

[MishiRN]

Breaking-yes, I'm an RN I work at two opposite ends of the spectrum...I'm an ER trauma RN, and aesthetics; practitioner and trainer. The latter being what I use my phone for, mostly. Setting appts, pics, demo/teaching materials, post procedure follow ups, etc etc.

This is why I at least need to retain the info I have to date in a readily available form. I'd be more than willing to switch to a more efficient method, I just don't know a better way honestly

Here's a snapshot of that program I found on YouTube:



Ever hear of it? DiskAid. I was hesitant to buy it, because I wanted to make sure it was a legit company, and not some hacking scheme.

Thanks for your input!

 

[nostresshere]

As to announcement, buying and signing up.... most of those question will be answered today. Good (and bad opinions) for all of those questions have been debated all over the first page here. You can read though those posts.

Your first post is long. Though folks here spend all day on sites like this, they mostly have a very short attention span and will not read a post that long.

 

[MishiRN]

Nostresshere-lol, I've been told that before...my verbosity
I'll check through the posts after work today. I'm new to these forums, so it's a learning curve I guess

 

[Breaking Good]

OK This is what I figured out so far. But you have to work with me on this.

If you open up a text message and then press and hold on any bubble in the text message thread. After a few seconds you will get two menu options to pop up, "Copy" and "More...".

Tap on "More..." and you will see little circles to the left side of every bubble in the thread. Tap on each empty circle to fill it with a checkmark.

One you've done that tap on the forwarding arrow in the lower right corner. You will then have a new message open up that will contain everything you checked from the previous message thread.

Enter your e-mail address as the recipient and then press send. You will send an MMS message to yourself.

It is a litte rough, but you will have all the information in an e-mail on your laptop that you can then copy and past into some type of note taking software application.

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If you have a Microsoft Windows laptop, I would start by checking out Microsoft OneNote which is available on Apple's app store as well.

If you have a MacBook, I would check our Evernote which is available on Apple's app store.

 

[MishiRN]

I have a windows laptop. I've seen the OneNote program (think it came installed) but I haven't looked into it yet. I'll so that tonight too! This comp is fairly new too. I'm worried I'll get that inundated w stuff too...it's really fast, so I don't want to ruin that too.
What's your thoughts on using Dropbox for all docs/pics? Is it secure? I want the securest thing I can find, regardless of whether or not I hv to pay, so I can keep my docs confidential. As confidential as possible. These hacks seen to keep happening everywhere!

 

[Breaking Good]

I have a windows laptop. I've seen the OneNote program (think it came installed) but I haven't looked into it yet. I'll so that tonight too! This comp is fairly new too. I'm worried I'll get that inundated w stuff too...it's really fast, so I don't want to ruin that too.
What's your thoughts on using Dropbox for all docs/pics? Is it secure? I want the securest thing I can find, regardless of whether or not I hv to pay, so I can keep my docs confidential. As confidential as possible. These hacks seen to keep happening everywhere!

I am actually thinking about starting to use dropbox myself, but my security needs aren't as great as yours with HIPAA and all.

The most secure thing would be for you to encrypt your hard drive and then set up a schedule to clone it. You could get three laptop hard drives and a Vertical Hard Drive "toaster type" Docking Station. Then clone one of them weekly and one monthly. Then keep another monthly one in a safe deposit box.

The idea here is that even if you home burned to the ground with your computer and you back ups, you would still have another clone of your hard drive that was less then two months old.

If you are cloning your hard drive and the hard drive in your computer craps out, you just need to drop in the most recent cloned hard drive that you have and keep moving. The most you would lose in such a case would be a week's worth of work. (Note, this assumes your laptop allows you to replace the hard drive.)

If you are using Microsoft 365, I believe it comes with one terabyte of OneDrive storage. I also believe that if you have the Microsoft 365 subscription, you can access OneDrive using the Microsoft app on the Apple app store.

I think the fastest way for you to get up to speed would be for you to start using Microsoft 365 and OneNote and back up to OneDrive.

But seriously, if you are a nurse anesthetist, I think you should just pay some twelve year old kid to set all this crap up for you.

 

[MishiRN]

Newbie With a Few Ques Here...Be Gentle

Lol, I may have to do that!! Those are all great ideas, but I'm sure I should stick to medicine, lol That's a really great suggestion though!! I wish I knew more about this stuff...things I didn't even know existed! The guy who sold me my laptop was a computer genius too. Blew my mind, lol
My brother uses Dropbox like that, and swears by it. Doesn't keep anything on his phone or comp. He's a big shot marketing guy, and does all his work and personal stuff through Dropbox. And it's only $99/year for a ton of space.
Thanks for all your help, Breaking