Cell phones!

[Thermofusion]

A few Android apps I like: Tape-a-Talk (simple voice recording for making verbal notes), TuneIn Radio (excellent internet radio app), Jota Text Editor (clean, simple text writing program), MLB At Bat 11 (duh), and Battle for Mars (turn-based Advance Wars clone with a retro sci-fi theme)

[FreddyKnuckles]

I declined the tapatalk announce one time and haven't seen it since.  Are you all using the typical browser?

Programs I use (all free):

1. Dolphin mini (Best browser)
2. Liquor Run (tells you where to find teh booze)
3. MyFitnessPal (calorie counter/workout tracker)
4. PdaNet (tether your phone to your pc for internets except https)
5. ESPN Scorecenter (good because you can set the app homepage for your favorite teams/leagues)
6. Gstrings (Excellent quality guitar tuner)
7. SilentBoot (no matter what you have the sound/whatever set for when you turn off your phone, you don't get the robotic DROOOID voice when you startup)
8. TaxiMagic (streamlined taxi ordering)
9. The Weather Channel (My standard weather app is no good)
10. Wordfeud (scrabble. like words with friends... pm me if you dl it and want to add me...)
11. Audiobooks (links you to the huge database at LibriVox, a site where people volunteer to read literature that is in the public domain or has no copyright holder like most classics. So you can basically stream a ton of classic audiobooks free and legally on your phone.)

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.hbwares.wordfeud.free&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.crossforward.audiobooks&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dolphin.browser&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kansassoftware.liquorrun&feature=search_result
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.myfitnesspal.android&feature=search_result

[Thermofusion]

US Cellular, this morning, has managed to make me angirer than I think I've ever been in my life. What a fucking half-assed piece of shit company. Never enter into a business agreement with midwesterners, they're a fat, cornfed degenerate subspecies and they all should be sterilized.

[Thermofusion]

Apologies for my outburst there, I'm sure all the midwesterners at this board, as well as their friends and families, are lovely, intelligent, sensitive people with strong values.

Mainly though US Cellular forms a kind of unholy trinity of horrible customer service with TimeWarner Cable and Sprint. All three companies should be destroyed.

[Thermofusion]

Also, accepting recs on cell companies. I've been with US Cellular since February and they are the epitome of half-assed and worthless, before that I was with Sprint for literally only 16 hours and they're a pox on humanity. Before that I was with Cingular/AT&T for years and years - say what you will about those folks, they can be douchey but at least they're adults. What's left, Verizon? How are those dudes? T-Mobile is a cell phone provider for adult diaper fetishists, 43 year old babies. Am I forgetting anyone?

[elpollodiablo]

It's all good, I say shit like that about Southerners on the regular

[Thermofusion]

No problem with that! Sometimes the best way to soothe your own anger is to lob some profane over-generalizations at some arbitrary group of Americans. That shit's good for the soul.

[jm]

Well, despite your beef with T-Mobile (which I 100% do not even understand), I've never once had a problem with them, or at least not a problem that they haven't fixed with smiles and polite apologies and sweet, sweet alacrity. Verizon pretty regularly fucks people over for $$$big sumz$$$, from what I understand.

[Thermofusion]

T-Mobile is good if you 1) live in the Northeast and 2) never travel.

[elpollodiablo]

My brief experience with T-Mobile was awesome--except for the fact that they had no 3G service in central Ohio at the time, so whenever I'd travel back from NYC my phone wouldn't work very well. I explained the problem and they let me out of the contract without an early termination fee. That shit is unheard of.

Since then I've been with AT&T, and my main beef with them is the spotty service in places. I'd actually forgotten how bad it is in NYC; I'd say my phone worked about 1 in 5 times I tried to use it in Midtown last week. Totally horrendous. But: their customer service people have always been very accommodating with me, and will routinely waive overage charges and things if I just ask. And their service in all non-NYC areas seems totally solid.

xpost, yep

[Thermofusion]

Yeah being let out of a contract for free is pretty awesome. T-Mobile has a presence in my area and everything but the coverage is really spotty in the Carolinas. Guy I used to travel with for work had T-Mobile and seemingly every day on the road he had to borrow my phone to make a call.

AT&T has staggeringly good coverage down here. They have towers everywhere, even out in the sticks. My main beef was that they were expensive. I guess at this point it's "do I go back to them, or try Verizon?"

Also, what about prepaid? Apparently there are prepaid Androids now, but I've also read that prepaid customer service is generally a nightmare. And there's the "stigma."

[jm]

Again, I haven't used Verizon myself, but based on everything I've ever heard about them, if money is the issue, you're probably better off staying as far away from them as humanly possible.

[peacocks]

I've had AT&T for years. It is expensive but the people are really helpful and the service down here is great. I remember encountering some difficulties with it in San Francisco but it wasn't too bad. I don't really use customer service that often and I'm not meticulous when looking at bills, like with the extra fees they put at the bottom. As long as my bill is the same amount every month I don't worry about it. I figure every phone company does that. I was grandfathered into get unlimited everything so I never have overages.

[elpollodiablo]

I also have a grandfathered in unlimited data plan. I think the only place to go for unlimited data these days is Sprint, which, fuck that. I've only ever once gone over 2GB in a billing cycle anyway and that was when we went a month without internet access at home and were tethering with it every day. I use my phone *a lot* and my average monthly usage is around 1.2GB, even with all of the audio streaming.

[Bernard]

T-Mobile is good if you 1) live in the Northeast and 2) never travel.

I live in the West and (used to) travel quite a bit. Never have problems with coverage, prices are great, customer service is stellar. I would have to have extremely bad coverage to switch, if they keep their customer service like this, and by this, I mean calling me to tell me that my phone was being used abroad, is that me? Yeah, it's me. Oh, ok, they'll switch me to a cheaper abroad plan for the duration of my travel and take off the charges I'd accrued through forgetfulness.

[jm]

T-Mobile is good if you 1) live in the Northeast and 2) never travel.

I live in the West and (used to) travel quite a bit. Never have problems with coverage, prices are great, customer service is stellar. I would have to have extremely bad coverage to switch, if they keep their customer service like this, and by this, I mean calling me to tell me that my phone was being used abroad, is that me? Yeah, it's me. Oh, ok, they'll switch me to a cheaper abroad plan for the duration of my travel and take off the charges I'd accrued through forgetfulness.

Yeah, this is the kind of stuff they've done for me. Though I've never been abroad. Or a broad (ho ho!)

[Bernard]

I like how your corny joke turned you into Santa Claus.

[jm]

Well I have gained some weight

[Thermofusion]

I also have a grandfathered in unlimited data plan. I think the only place to go for unlimited data these days is Sprint, which, fuck that. I've only ever once gone over 2GB in a billing cycle anyway and that was when we went a month without internet access at home and were tethering with it every day. I use my phone *a lot* and my average monthly usage is around 1.2GB, even with all of the audio streaming.

Going over my 5GB data limit last cycle caused part of my US Cellular distress today, and that part is absolutely my fault 'cause I have the 3G Watchdog app that makes my phone shake like a spazz as I'm approaching my data limit. Still though, US Cellular, from corporate all the way down to the local shops, is such a half-assed, amateurish company that you wonder how they've even managed to make it this long.  At my lowest point talking to customer support this morning, I taunted the rep about US Cellular's hemorrhaging of customers, their inevitable collapse and/or buyout and my rep's inevitable job loss. Using a lot of curse words. I'm a bastard on the phone, guys, good thing she wasn't Indian.

T-Mobile is probably OK for you cultured, intelligent city types who dwell in major media markets where only the most polished and important Americans live but where I come from, people don't wear shoes and they barter for groceries with chicken eggs. No dice. Verizon looks like a fuckin primo choice for yuppies and Dave but unfortunately I wear boots and Carhartt jackets. I do appreciate that no one has come to Sprint's defense, we can all agree they're shit. I think I'm going to gingerly crawl back into Ma Bell's warm embrace, sit on her lap and nuzzle on her teat.

[elpollodiablo]

How the hell did you go over 5GB? Tethering?

Also you have some really weird ideas about cellular carriers

[Greg Nog]

I liked T-Mobile but they made me take a test first where I had to prove my knowledge of NPR and The Wire.

[Thermofusion]

How the hell did you go over 5GB? Tethering?

Also you have some really weird ideas about cellular carriers

I know all that shit looks like a madman's ravings, I'm just horsing around. I think all of these companies suck in unique but not entirely different ways.

I think I went over because the wifi on my phone lately has started to fuck up and revert back to 3G after about 10 minutes of streaming something, and I didn't always notice it doing this until hours later. At the same time, I'd gotten into the habit of using TuneIn and Stitcher all day at work, on my commutes, and at night or pretty much anytime I was awake and/or alone. Thing's been streaming audio dusk to dawn basically.

[elpollodiablo]

Yeah I use Stitcher daily, too, and have for a couple of months... Maybe my usage would be up way higher without the Wifi offset, but I'm curious to know how it would break down. I use it in the car a whole lot.

[Thermofusion]

On a few occasions I made the mistake of using it while laying in bed at night, then falling asleep and realizing next morning that Stitcher had plowed through all the most recent episodes of my favorites while I slept. Over 3G, of course, cause of the aforementioned Wifi issue. Great app, though, and again I kind of deserve my insane bill by doing stupid shit like that.

[jm]

Actually my lady has had awesome experience with Sprint, by every metric. So there's that in their favor.