Not your average switch from VZW thread

[SFStateStudent]

Cut the apron strings; get a job; and pay for your own cell phone bill. These are things I've told my 30 year-old son, since 1993 and he's done everything except the 3GS iPhone bill. It sounds like your parents don't have the BB or a PDA Smartphone; and it seems that you are the bulk of the monthly bill (I could be wrong). How much would you be paying with VZ for your own BB and data plan? Probably in the $100 a month arena? I might suggest a nice $40 a month plan with something like Metro PCS, b/c anything on your wish list is gonna' run you at least $100 a month, on your own.....

 

[QCassidy352]

Whoever said that their battery was at 85% from 11AM to 6PM is definitely not being honest. You had a 30 min conversation, 7 hours pass, played a game, and texted and you're at 85%? There is no way that is possible unless you had brightness at 0%, no wifi, no bluetooth, no location services, no push or fetch. I don't believe it.

agreed. no possible way.

 

[applerocks]

I know it's a long shot, but is there any chance your parents would move to AT&T, and you'd stay on a family plan, but just pay back your portion of the bill? I've heard of lots of people doing this.

That would save money, especially if they take the "main line" on the bill. Then you're looking at $60/month for unlimited ($10 (Phone) +$30 (Data) +$20 (SMS)).

I don't know the specifics of their contracts and everything to know if that's even plausible, but just an idea. You could sell them the benefits of rollover, free talking to you on the phone (which they'll lose when you switch), etc.

 

[tctony]

I know it's a long shot, but is there any chance your parents would move to AT&T, and you'd stay on a family plan, but just pay back your portion of the bill? I've heard of lots of people doing this.

That would save money, especially if they take the "main line" on the bill. Then you're looking at $60/month for unlimited ($10 (Phone) +$30 (Data) +$20 (SMS)).

I don't know the specifics of their contracts and everything to know if that's even plausible, but just an idea. You could sell them the benefits of rollover, free talking to you on the phone (which they'll lose when you switch), etc.

OP has stated a few times that he can't stay on the family plan.

 

[scaredpoet]

If you work out the pricing between the Blackberry Storm and the iPhone, the per month costs are pretty much the same. Actually, if you are about Visual Voicemail, then Verizon is slightly more expensive because VVM is an extra $2.99 a month, while it's included with the iPhone plan on AT&T.


If I were in your shoes, and I had to have a smartphone, then yeah, the iPhone would be the way I go.

When you do get a job, check with your employer and with AT&T to see if you can get a FAN discount. If your employer has a deal with AT&T, they can knock off a percentage off your bill each month.

Note: the same is true of Verizon, so you may end up with an employer that has a deal with VZW as opposed to AT&T. Then again, large corporations have deals with both companies.

 

[Drewsky87]

Whoever said that their battery was at 85% from 11AM to 6PM is definitely not being honest. You had a 30 min conversation, 7 hours pass, played a game, and texted and you're at 85%? There is no way that is possible unless you had brightness at 0%, no wifi, no bluetooth, no location services, no push or fetch. I don't believe it.

Believe what you want bud...that was just ME. It's obvious that a lot of the batteries behave differently as you can tell from the people on here complaining about theirs.

 

[420-THC]

When you do get a job, check with your employer and with AT&T to see if you can get a FAN discount. If your employer has a deal with AT&T, they can knock off a percentage off your bill each month.

Note: the same is true of Verizon, so you may end up with an employer that has a deal with VZW as opposed to AT&T. Then again, large corporations have deals with both companies.

My dads a pilot for American Airlines, and of course since there HUGE they offer discounts for T-mobile, Verizon, Sprint, And now AT&T. So tomorrow were going to AT&T and we get 21% off bills as opposed to T-mobile getting only 15% off. Although ill warn the OP Employee discounts don't cover Phones .

 

[kate-willbury]

Whoever said that their battery was at 85% from 11AM to 6PM is definitely not being honest. You had a 30 min conversation, 7 hours pass, played a game, and texted and you're at 85%? There is no way that is possible unless you had brightness at 0%, no wifi, no bluetooth, no location services, no push or fetch. I don't believe it.

lol seriously. i use my iphone at work. if i didnt bring my adapter with me the phone would be dead half way through my shift.

 

[coolbreeze07]

Blackberry Desktop software is supposedly coming to mac's sooner than later although thats just hearsay. I do happen to like my iphone much more than the storm. You will definitely need to unlock your storm if you want to get some decent money for it. They arent selling for as much now since lots of people are waiting on the 2nd version coming out this year. In the end, its up to you. If you have a decent job the bill isnt bad. but i feel like if you have to worry about trying to pay the bill maybe you should look elsewhere

 

[dvrmstrng]

Blackberry Desktop software is supposedly coming to mac's sooner than later although thats just hearsay. I do happen to like my iphone much more than the storm. You will definitely need to unlock your storm if you want to get some decent money for it. They arent selling for as much now since lots of people are waiting on the 2nd version coming out this year. In the end, its up to you. If you have a decent job the bill isnt bad. but i feel like if you have to worry about trying to pay the bill maybe you should look elsewhere

well i just found out my brother ordered a 3GS.....so ill be able to play around with it and decide for myself if its time to make the switch...either way the bill is going to cost around the same.

 

[dvrmstrng]

well i just found out my brother ordered a 3GS.....so ill be able to play around with it and decide for myself if its time to make the switch...either way the bill is going to cost around the same.

and what does it mean exactly that gmail wont push....does that mean it will not push emails to your device EVER...or only so frequently...or the only way to get it email on your phone is to use the internet to access gmail.com

 

[scaredpoet]

and what does it mean exactly that gmail wont push....does that mean it will not push emails to your device EVER...or only so frequently...or the only way to get it email on your phone is to use the internet to access gmail.com

It means that your iPhone must be set to "fetch" GMail. That means that every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or every hour (depending on how you set it up), the iPhone will poll your GMail account and check for new mail. Or, you can set it to retrieve "manually" (that is, it checks for new messages when you open up the mail app).

This is opposed to "push," which pretty much means a new message will show up on your iPhone's inbox moments after it's received by GMail.

GMail has a push capability, but has not enabled it on the iPhone for whatever reason. Right now on the iPhone, push e-mail is supported by Yahoo, Mobile Me, and MS Exchange mail servers.

For what it's worth, it looks like the situation was pretty similar with GMail on Blackberries using BIS. RIM describes synchronization as "near real-time", and that it uses IMAP just like the iPhone does. So I would say you're probably not going to notice too much of a difference.

RIM also notes their sync with Gmail is "one-way...from the BlackBerry smartphone to the Gmail webmail account, of read and unread status, sent items, and deleted items." Which may mean that read/unread status isn't update on the Blackberry if you happen to read a message using the webmail interface. So I'm guessing it's not as seamless on RIM as you would think.

 

[dvrmstrng]

It means that your iPhone must be set to "fetch" GMail. That means that every 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or every hour (depending on how you set it up), the iPhone will poll your GMail account and check for new mail. Or, you can set it to retrieve "manually" (that is, it checks for new messages when you open up the mail app).

This is opposed to "push," which pretty much means a new message will show up on your iPhone's inbox moments after it's received by GMail.

GMail has a push capability, but has not enabled it on the iPhone for whatever reason. Right now on the iPhone, push e-mail is supported by Yahoo, Mobile Me, and MS Exchange mail servers.

For what it's worth, it looks like the situation was pretty similar with GMail on Blackberries using BIS. RIM describes synchronization as "near real-time", and that it uses IMAP just like the iPhone does. So I would say you're probably not going to notice too much of a difference.

RIM also notes their sync with Gmail is "one-way...from the BlackBerry smartphone to the Gmail webmail account, of read and unread status, sent items, and deleted items." Which may mean that read/unread status isn't update on the Blackberry if you happen to read a message using the webmail interface. So I'm guessing it's not as seamless on RIM as you would think.

yeah the non-push for gmail seems to be a non issue for me...every 15 minutes is just fine...im no ER doctor that needs emails instantly....im thinking iphone here i come.

 

[TLewis]

GMail has a push capability, but has not enabled it on the iPhone for whatever reason. Right now on the iPhone, push e-mail is supported by Yahoo, Mobile Me, and MS Exchange mail servers.

If someone needs gmail push now, nuevasync provides it for something like $25/year, IIRC. Also, with gmail, you can always autoforward gmail to a free (or non-free) push email account, which will give you "quick" email notification; you then read/reply using gmail, and not the push email account.

 

[TLewis]

Also, here's another way to get "push gmail notifications":

http://lifehacker.com/5322057/gmail-growl-15-improves-push-notifications-for-iphone-with-prowl​

This does require that you keep your PC/mac turned on all of the time, but it seems to cost only $3 for the app.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

Also, with gmail, you can always autoforward gmail to a free (or non-free) push email account, which will give you "quick" email notification; you then read/reply using gmail, and not the push email account.

This is exactly what I did in February of last year (forwarding to Yahoo) and it has worked flawlessly ever since.

 

[TLewis]

This is exactly what I did in February of last year (forwarding to Yahoo) and it has worked flawlessly ever since.

On a side note: if you use gmail filters to forward, instead of the "forward-everything autoforwarding", you can get selective email push. This is great for those people who get a lot of email, and don't want to be bothered by most of it. By configuring gmail filters to only forward the "important/urgent" email, you can greatly reduce your interruptions (and not use as much battery, too).