If I had one of those I’d probably end up in jail. 
Latest crackberry offering from the RIMjobbers looks good…
will have to see if it goes down the privy or not.
Slider phone with physical QWERTY
I thought this was interesting:
El Reg does have a distinctive style to their articles… I spend half the time reading it trying to not hear John Cleese’s voice.
The LG flip phone has been finally replaced by an actual smartphone. It is a world of difference between the two. I am having a hard time thinking of any business that has a legitimate reason for hobbling its employees with a basic cell phone these days.
Dakwife has a basic candybar style phone from work. With tight text and minutes limits. Which really sucks when a number of her clients and colleagues communicate primarily via text.
Is that a case where someone decided that that kind of phone was suitable for the work she needs to do, or was it that someone decided to save money by going with a cheap phone?
In my case, it was the latter. Corporate said “turn in your Blackberrys and pick out what smartphone you want”. Boss’s boss stepped in just after I turned in my request and overruled it. That’s what I got for waiting too long.
Crippling cheapness.
She doesn’t bother submitting mileage for reimbursement anymore. She got hassled too much over it. She’s assigned cases all over 3 counties and then management gets upset because she’s driving all over 3 counties and it’s costing them too much (yet they only reimburse 50% of the IRS rate).
At least she’s able to deduct the full IRS mileage rate less any reimbursement she does receive. My mileage usually gets me below the personal deduction every year. While I have to pay FICA, I don’t think I’ve owed actual Federal Income tax in years. (Local income tax on the other hand, still a pain. State Income tax is pretty much negligible.)
Time for an update. The new smartphone has worked quite well, but I’m reaching a point where I’m having to respond to a lot messages on it and the virtual keyboard is just slowing me down too much. In order to get the accuracy I need and avoid having to correct mistakes, I stopped trying to type with my fingers and use my stylus most of the time. But the stylus don’t last very long before the tip starts sticking to the plastic screen protector, so moving the cursor to the right position is problematic.
My solution was to buy a $40 Logitech K380 Bluetooth keyboard. If I was concerned about getting one that’s a half pound lighter and 1.5" narrower, i would have gotten the Keys-to-Go keyboard for $70, but that’s a chiclet-style keyboard and the K380 has honest-to-goodness mechanical keys.
Touch-typing without having to constantly watch the screen, I have found thee again.
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I cast Threadus Resurrecticus!
I’m very satisfied with my current phone, but it’s Verizon-locked and they won’t update the OS.
So I’m thinking of going with BYOD.
Mrs Dubious and I each have I have Motorola Droid MAXX.
Anyone have an Android to suggest that’s similar?
I’ve got a Moto G5Plus that looks fairly similar (and I love it).
It’s missing the barometer and compass from the sensors, but it has a much faster processor.
Ah the old Droid MAXX. I happened to pull mine out of a drawer the other day and it still powered up.
I have been doing a BYOD type purchase for a while now. I usually buy the Google phones as they are the most vanilla. About a year ago, I replaced my old Galaxy Nexus 6 with a Pixel XL. It’s about the same size and although it’s older hardware, it is faster than the old Nexus. If I don’t use a live wallpaper and make sure I plug it in when running Maps, it will last all day on a charge. With quick charging, I’m back to 80% in about 30 minutes.
Very helpful, thanks.
I was looking around for places that had them locally so I could actually see and touch one.
Costco was one of the local stores that sell them, and we were going there for other stuff anyway, so I figured “why not?”
Their cellular kiosk is about 8 ft x 10 ft, with phones every foot, maybe foot-and-a-half cabled in on cradles. The ONLY Motorola was the G5… most of the rest were Samsungs.
Every device EXCEPT the G5 was live. You could launch stuff, poke at he buttons, etc. The G5 had a dummy screen.
Well, the screen was one of the specific reasons I wanted to see it. So we started to walk away.
The employee asked if there was anything he could do to help. I swear, he sounded just like John Candy’s character in National Lampoon’s Vacation.
Anyway, my wife asked if he had a G5 we could see. He replied, no, he just had the dummy. Could he answer any questions?
Wife said, well we wanted to see the screen. He replied, in Candy fashion:
“It looks… good?”
Exactly the kind of input I was hoping for. Thanks, DT
My previous phone is a Samsung Galaxy S4. It was mostly ok, but Samsung’s TouchWiz is needless fluff on top that wastes memory and battery.
My current phone is a Motorola Moto X Pure Edition with stock Android. It came with 5, currently running 6, and fscking Lenovo is sitting on the 7 update, which was supposedly ready almost a year ago, but I’m still waiting. Other than the ‘sealed’ back and non-user-replacable battery, I love it. Just over a year and the battery is letting me down - I try not to go over 2 hours without plugging it in, or it may spontaneously die with 60% charge indicated.
I ordered a new battery off Amazon and resurrected the S4 when I started driving Uber - separate number on a cheapo cell plan that I only use for Uber and occasionally for church related stuff (hit WiFi at the church and do the accounting and Square reader for the Cub Scouts.) Since it is not my primary phone and I only use it occasionally, the TouchWiz is much less annoying. It probably helps that I have maybe a dozen apps installed, so there is plenty of memory for TouchWiz to have its way with.
You’re welcome. I haven’t had too many issues with my Pixel XL (none really). From reading the webs, I’d stay away from the new Pixel 2 until some of the issues are resolved. YMMV.
Am I the only one on an HTC, I love my A9. My wife has an LG, but we’re likely putting her in a Samsung this month.
My tech and her husband both have the Pixel and love them. And as an added bonus they usually get the software updates first, what with being Google phones and all. 
I love my Droid but next time I need a phone I may switch to a pixel…
My last four phones have been HTC. I love my HTC 10, which replaced my HTC 9 (I only replaced that one because I dropped it and smashed the screen). I really like my HTC 10, and I don’t want to replace it any time soon. I may have to in a year or two because I play so much Pokemon Go that I think I’m killing the battery.
I loved HTC back in the day. I rocked out on my Desire and Touch. Ah… the days of trying to cram MS Mobile 6.1 onto a phone with physical buttons and an actual keyboard. I still have them as well in the mobile phone graveyard. They sit in a place of honor right next to my old Razer flip phone.
I only jumped manufacturers because in the early days of Android, HTC locked down bootloaders and made side loading such a pain. The loss of a physical keyboard was rough too. I’ve just never gone back as the hardware never impressed me again.
Also, I’ve been streaming Spotify for the last 4 hours on my phone and my battery is down to 79%.