SMART Phone and Photo Blog

While I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for an I-phone on Verizon’s network, there are Google powered phones out.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114156763

Google is providing the Operating System and in the first case, Motorola is making the phone.  With the I-phone, as with all Apple products, Apple is providing both the Operating System and the phone/device itself.  So the Google announcement is more of a “platform” announcement.  You’ll see other Google powered phones from other phone manufacturers over time.

The main impact of Android is on Symbian (Nokia’s Operating System, platform effort) and probably Palm.  An application developer will probably prioritize I-Phone, Android and Blackberry to port their applications to.  Beyond those it’ll be hit or miss if an application works on a particular phone platform.  Two things drive “platform” adoption and acceptance:  “ease of use” and application availability. 

In the PC world, Windows has always struggled in the “ease of use” category but has always won the application availability aspect.  I-phone has terrific “ease of use” and over time we’ll see which platform attracts the most/best applications.  The key applications over time are the ones that businesses need to justify paying for their employees to carry around the phones.

UPDATE:  the Motorola Droid is out and the reviews are generally good.  There’s some excellent reviews with the pros and cons on our Amazon link:  http://astore.amazon.com/spphone-20/detail/B002UUTCKC

If you buy your new phone through our Amazon link, we’ll help you use it and get it configured.

To send a text message from your email, send to NUMBER@vtext.com

To send a PICTURE message from your email, send to NUMBER@vzwpix.com

If you send a picture to contact@smartphonephoto.com we can print it here in 4×6, 5×7 or even 8×10 size here in the store.  If you need help doing all this, stop by the store and we’d be happy to show you.

All the carriers make claims about how their coverage is the best.  AT&T is “more bars in more places” or “the nation’s fastest 3g network while Verizon is the “nation’s most reliable network.”   Of course they’re all very careful to make sure they’re technically accurate in these seemingly conflicting statements.

AT&T phones generally work everywhere in the world where there is GSM network coverage – which is all of Europe and much of Asia including China (although not including Japan or Korea).  Thus “more bars in more places” is accurate when you look outside the US.

Verizon’s phones are CDMA which is a US and Korean standard.  But a Verizon phone won’t work out of the box in Europe or China.  Verizon will loan you an international phone, or there are Verizon phones that have multiple radios in them including GSM.  But Verizon’s network claims are based on having the most coverage here in the US. 

On the 3g side, AT&T’s 3g network is technically faster than Verizon’s for data downloads.  The catch is the AT&T’s 3g network isn’t available in nearly as many places as Verizon’s (something like a 5:1 ratio in Verizon’s favor).

But if you have good AT&T coverage where you live and work, and if you have AT&T 3g coverage, your I-Phone will work great.  If you live in downtown San Francisco, you’re all set.  If you live on Alameda’s east end (Bay Farm) or move around alot around the Bay Area, the coverage will start to get on your nerves.  If you drive to I-5 for example, you’re going to get dropped ALOT by your AT&T phone.

Alameda presents some unique challenges for wireless coverage.  Because it’s flat, and near the water, the coverage will always be tricky.  Coverage near the water will always be spotty – the carriers can’t just “crank up” the signal because signals can skip across water.  If Verizon and AT&T just cranked up the coverage on Alameda’s shoreline, the signals can get picked up by drivers on 101 by the San Francisco airport, which screws up coverage over there.

Net on coverage in Alameda:  on Bay Farm, where I live, I’ve tried them all in the past 10 years.  Sprint and T-Mobile work “ok.”  With them I can have a wireless call but I immediately warn the other party I might get dropped at any second.  With AT&T I had to stand in my back yard and hope for the best.  With Verizon I am able to have an extended call from home, stay on the line, walk into my garage, get into my car and drive down to Mtn. View while never getting dropped. 

South Shore:  along the water there I’ve heard coverage problems with all the carriers, including Verizon.

Alameda Point and Marina Village:  on the west end the opposite tends to be true.  Verizon does NOT work that well on the Point, nor in Marina Village.  On the west end AT&T or T-Mobile are your best bet, is my experience.

The best thing to do is talk to all your neighbors.  People are very eager to share their experiences and you’ll learn pretty quickly what works best in your area and for where you go.

Feel free to stop by the store and give us your insights on mobile coverage here in Alameda, or ask about your particular neighbor or area.

The main thing to know about “smart” phones today is that they ALL come with a required $29/month internet/data plan IN ADDITION to your voice plan.  That’s $720 over the two years of your contract.  That’s why I-Phones and Blackberry’s are so cheap.  Those devices cost $300+ to manufacture, but are sold for $49-199 because you’re committing to the two years and $720, and it gets you hooked on a smart phone for life.

That said smart phones can be terrific value.  If you do alot of email, a Blackberry from Verizon is a terrific productivity tool.  You can be “in the office” and online wherever/whenever you need to be. 

There’s three key elements to a smart phone:  email, synchronizing to your desktop/laptop Outlook, and the internet.  Email means managing multiple email accounts and many messages in the day.  You can still view and receive all your messages on your desktop when you get home, but with a Blackberry you can get rid of many of them before you do get home.  Synchronizing your Outlook allows you to see and manage calendar appointment, tasks and contacts on the go, while synchronizing all that back to your desktop at night.  The Internet on the go is quite handy, but remember that no matter what you do, that screen is pretty small compared to your desktop/laptop at home.

Feel free to stop by the store for an in depth discussion about smart phones, regardless of what carrier you’re looking into.  We usually have a working Blackberry here in the store you can try out to see for yourself.  If you’re interested in web browsing in particular, try out some of your favorite sites before you buy that phone.

It’s not widely publicized, but Verizon has an overseas loaner program if you need to take your phone with you on your overseas trip.  If you call 800 711 8300 you can arrange for them to send you a loaner ahead of your trip.  You’ll activate that phone as your Verizon phone before you go.  Then while overseas your local phone number will follow you wherever you go.  The voice rates are somewhere between $.69 and $1.29 per minute – typical international roaming fees no matter whose phone you have.  For a full list of prices go to www.verizonwireless.com/goglobal   

When you return from your trip you’ll switch your phone back to your own, then ship the loaner back in the prepaid box.  The switching is done by calling Verizon.  The charge for the phone is typically just the $9.95 for the shipping.

So don’t be burdened by a clunky “global” (re AT&T) phone around here just for the occasional overseas trip.  Verizon’s loaner program works great for that occasional trip.

For anyone that bought their Verizon phone from us at SMART Phone and Photo, we’ll help you get your device switched back & forth and move your contacts to the loaner phone for free.

Camera phones are very prevalent.  But while they may have high megapixel counts (=resolution) they still have very small apertures and lower quality optics.  It’s physics.  Small aperture = very little light.  Good/expensive cameras have BIG apertures to let alot of light in.

If you are taking photos outdoors in bright sunlight, even your good Nikon SLR would close the aperture down very small.  Thus outdoors in good light, camera phones can take very good pictures.

If your camera phone has a flash, it’s probably nowhere near as good as a regular camera’s.

So indoors your camera phone is not very likely to take good photos.  No, your baby doesn’t have jaundice, that yellow is from the low light you took that i-phone photo in.

How to get your photos out?

1) you can send them to your email.  Most phones support MMS (multimedia messasing service) where photos can be sent to other phones or email addresses

2) you can connect to your computer with a data cable, or

3) if you have a removable memory card in your phone you can just take that out and insert it directly into a printer such as our Sony kiosk here in the store.

Stop by the store and we can show you how to use your camera phone and how to get images out.

We’ll put all your camera phone photos on a data DVD for just $4.95.  So if you have a bunch of photos in there, get them out where you can enjoy them!

Some LG phones lose the ability for you to hear the audio.  This can happen because the phone “thinks” a wired headset is plugged in.  However plugging and unplugging a wired headset often does not solve the problem.  Before you give up on the phone try to things:  1) blow out the charger hole – sometimes there’s debris in the charger hole which shorts out that connection, and 2) with the phone on stick a paper clip end into the wired headset hole and jiggle it around a bit – often there’s a short in this connector and the paper clip can solve the problem.

If you have an LG phone with this type of problem, feel free to bring it to the store if you want us to try this paper clip type fix.  Again, we’re not a service center, but we’re good at these shortcut type fixes that often save the trip to the repair shop!

Who do I contact if my device malfunctions while under warranty?

If your device malfunctions after 30 days, but still within the first year after purchase, please call Verizon Wireless at 866 406 5154 from a landline phone and they will diagnose the issue with you right over the phone.  If they can not address the problem while you’re on the line and the problem is caused by a manufacturing defect, they will send you a refurbished replacement device (either a like unit or one of comparable quality) right to your door at no cost to you.

If you one year warranty has expired, but the device is less than 24 months old, they will still replace it, but a $50 fee will apply.  They will also replace devices with a cracked or bleeding display for $50.  Devices with physical or liquid damage are excluded.  If you need to replace a data device (PDA, smartphone or PC card) call 800 922 0204 and select option 3.

If you bought your phone from us, we’re happy to walk you through the process.  Stop by the store with any questions.

Here’s what you need to know about Verizon’s insurance program:  http://support.vzw.com/features/calling_features/equipment_protection.html

To make an insurance claim you must go to a service center (i.e. the corporate Verizon store) or better yet, call (888) 881-2622

They will send you a replacement and you will send back the old one.

If you got your original phone from SMART Phone and Photo we can move the contacts, photos and more (depending on device) from the old one to the new one, PROVIDED that the old one still comes alive.  If you didn’t get your phone from us we can do that for $10 for most any phones from any carriers.

Insurance is a good idea for kids who might lose or destroy their phones.

You can take insurance OFF a phone but can not add it after 30 days from purchase.  So if you do take the insurance and keep your phone for 3-4 years, take the insurance off after a couple years.

There is a “three strikes you’re out” clause to insurance.  Once you have 3 claims on an account, you can not get more insurance, you’re high risk!

Stop by the store if you want to discuss phone insurance further.  We’ve seen alot of phones in our day and can tell you if it’s “really broken” or something that could be easily fixed.

The data and voice portions of a Blackberry travel on different wireless networks.  Thus the phone part of your Blackberry might work fine but sometimes your data isn’t working (can’t browse, no browser ball on the home screen, no email).  You can pull the battery on per the other post, and you can do *228, but often this doesn’t fix the problem.

To reset the data services with the network, do the following:

options==>Advanced Options==>Host Routing Table.  Then hit the “menu” key and “register now”

This generally registers all the data services.  Often this doesn’t fix the problem right away – it can still take a couple hours for all the data services to kick in.

This kind of problem occurs often when you switch your service from one blackberry to a new one.  Or if you’ve roamed off the Verizon network (say you drove up skiing….) and came back into town – in that scenario the data services might need to be reset.

If you got your Blackberry from us, stop by any time and we’ll work these fixes for you.  We’re much nicer than the Verizon store!