Cell phone RANT !

[xxturbowesxx]

Re: Cell phone RANT !

Heres a suggestion if you have Att/T-mobile. The phones have sim cards and you can purchase prepaid phones from each carrier for under $20 without any service from wally world. Keep your contacts stored on your sim and before you head out on your trip put your sim card in the prepaid phone and bring it with you. It will just use your contract plan and keep your nice phone at home. If you lose it overboard get the phone back and take your sim card back out and rinse it with fresh water and put it back into your nice phone when you get home. Losing a $20 phone hurts alot less than when its a 200+ phone.

 

[drewmitch44]

Re: Cell phone RANT !

I walk around with that big bag phone. It is the one that was called a "car" phone when it first came out. I put straps on it and wear my phone like a back-pack. My wife has that big brick phone that you always see the terrorists useing in the desert and what not. My bag phone i got in the early 80's and it still works. I just have to raise the antenna to make a call. i know that someone is trying to call me when my beeper goes off and i can see the number to call on my pager.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: Cell phone RANT !

I have a couple of ATT "free" prepaid phones that a co-worker from the UK gives me. He comes over here for a couple of 3-week trips a year, gets a cheap prepaid plan with a phone, and gives me the phone when he goes back home. The phones work just fine with the SIM card for my regular ATT plan.

 

[jay_merrill]

Re: Cell phone RANT !

My first cellular phone was one of those "car phones." It was a Radio Shack unit that was permanently mounted in my 4WD. I think I paid about $900 for it! The transceiver was mounted under the jump seats in the back of the cab, and the handset, complete with a coiled cord, was mounted in my center console. Its been a long time so my memory is fuzzy, but I think minutes cost close to $2.00 each! Fortunately, 90 percent of my usage was for business, so I was reimbursed for most of the cost.

In the time since, I have been like a few folks here. I never much cared for all the "do-dads" that have been available on cell phones over the last five years or so. What has converted me, however, is GPS. My current phone has email, television, yada, yada, yada, but what I really like is being able to tell it where I want to go, and having the little bugger tell me to "drive 2.6 miles and turn right at intersection!" I used it just last week to find a specialty lumber yard that carries marine plywood - gotta get a new floor put in my latest project boat!

My phone also has a moving map function tied to the GPS. I tried it out in the boat recently and it works pretty well. It doesn't give headings, etc., but it does tell you where you are in relationship to land/water features. As long as you are in cellular range, it is a very functional backuo to a marine GPS.

Pretty dang cool!