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Merry Christmas, all!

After a certain point, I had a different thought every day, which would make this thread look like a twitter feed, and I decided not to post to this thread until I made a decision. So for the sake of closure, I will tell you that a couple weeks ago, I saw a mint Galaxy S Blaze for $208, at least $42 cheaper than I could find previously for a non-mint one with an unscratched display, and jumped on it. It doesn't meet all of my original requirements, but it meets a lot of them. I couldn't really find a S II in decent shape for much less than $300$250. I had no resistance to putting ICS on it via Samsung Kies program, and there were no issues. I am not using it as a phone yet, I am waiting until I can get it in a decent protective case, but I am installing apps like crazy as well as an offline version of Wikipedia (via Aard Dictionary).

I plan on using it on T-Mobile for at least a couple months (it can take advantage of HSPA+ 42, which in my hometown is faster than Verizon LTE) and probably longer. After two months, my understanding is that T-Mobile will unlock it for me, and then I will still probably stay with T-Mobile, but it will be international 2G and 3G (2100Mhz) ready if I need it (not that there is any urgency to that). There are a few T-Mobile MVNOs emerging that look interesting, including a prepaid data one. I'll probably go with $30 unlimited data + 100 minutes talk plan + Google Voice or something similar. That's all I really need.

Battery life is so-so, but at least it is removable. If I go somewhere, I may get a charging case for it. The Super AMOLED display is very clear, but visibility in direct sunlight is nothing special, about the same as my iPod Touch. What I was looking for as far as visibility in direct sunlight may not be possible, at least not in my price range. But I think everything else meets my revised specs in the original post.

I used to use MyMobiler for Windows Mobile to "remote" into my Dell Axim, and it was awesome and I registered it (it was freeware then with a paid version). I see there is an Android version of it now. Does it look like it might meet your needs?

The Android version of MyMobiler does not seem to be quite ready for prime time. It does not autodetect the display of my Galaxy S Blaze properly, forcing me to try different combinations of color and display settings. The MyMobiler keyboard crashed twice a couple times in brief testing, which also crashed the app.

[lately]

I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer

I use that with my Android phone just fine, so that opens a load more phone choices for you in future.

Since this thread is a year and a half old, I am reopening it to ask if either of you have installed MyPhoneExplorer (the desktop client) lately. It is the subject of my first ever Google Play review

Malware alert: avoid like a sharp stick.

To use this app, you will need to install the desktop client. It also installs at least two unwanted programs: snap.do and InfoAtoms. After having spent the day cleaning this up, I re-downloaded the Windows client to run the setup again twice to make sure there was not a custom install option where I might have avoided it. There definitely is not a custom install option, but when the Terms of Service comes up, you are actually seeing the InfoAtoms TOS. I believe most users will expect MyPhoneExplorer's own TOS to come up at that point, and just click Agree. If you click Cancel, you will get another TOS prompt for TranslateGenius. If you cancel that one, the install continues. So possibly you might be able to install MyPhoneExplorer for Windows without installing "potentially unwanted programs," but this was enough to keep me from trusting the software.

InfoAtoms puts ads everywhere, even Wikipedia and YouTube. If I had not been giving AdBlock Plus, a break, I might not have seen it. snap.do hijacks the browser's home page and default search. TranslateGenius, to my knowledge, did not get installed, and I have no opinion of it.

In fact, InfoAtoms put 3 ads inside of f0dder's post on this forum, and I'm still not sure it didn't insert the words "nice unbloated" and the   in f0dder's post.

And yes, I am admitting to not reading Terms of Service (I guess End User License Agreement is a better phrase -- I'll probably change that in the review) when installing software.

Well, Fences itself has been spun off for Windows 7.

IIRC, the free version's main limitation is that it can't sort new icons automatically, and there is a paid version that remedies that.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will use all of them! I am currently leaning toward a Nook SimpleTouch since it supports both ePub and PDF (Barnes and Noble is selling the $99 one on ebay for $60)

And found this (and assuming most of these are free or cheap on Nook as well):
http://www.goodreads.com/...ndle_Ebooks_for_Children_

I made an uneducated guess about which add-on was slowing down Firefox for me these days, to the extent that I often have to wait minutes for a response from clicking on the tab or scroll bar. I have disabled that addin, and after a few hours of not having any problems, I re-enabled the other add-ins I had disabled. So far so good. I will give it a week and if I still don't have any problems, the add-in gets booted and I will tell you the name of the add-in. I don't want to jump to conclusions prematurely.

[Text]

Not sure what you mean. I am using Firefox 15.0 and it says Firefox is up to date. Did this start happening with 15.0.1?

If I type in froogle.com, it redirects to www.google.com/shopping.

Further, if I do a google search for

Formatted for Text with the GeSHI Syntax Highlighter [copy or print]
site:notefrog.com inurl:forum

and open several results in tabs, I see no issue with those pages, I don't get any security warning.

My second kneejerk reaction is this.

Consolidate a library of articles into kind of an article app store on one site (Google Play?), to faciltiate impulse purchases of 35 cent articles, similar to the way mobile app stores facilitate impulse purchases of 99 cent apps.

Maybe the only important thing about the refund policy is that there is one. The sales pitch should use words like a "eight article refund limit per week" instead of "abuse," and requesting a refund of the ninth article will just be blocked, and has zero chance of disabling your Google account (speculating here).

--
In current form (controlled by the site owner vs app store), I could see the Wall Street Journal or somebody else with articles already behind a paywall doing something like this.

The service gives users the ability to sample the content (e.g. text or image) before they buy, which can be done with a single click. Those who are not satisfied can get their money back within 30 minutes. Of course, Google has safeguards in place to prevent users from abusing the refunds to get free content.

So if you don't like to read kneejerk reactions, stop reading, because here is mine.

I see an article that may or may not be worth a dollar, read it, decide it is crap, and get my money back. The content provider thinks I am abusing the system, they tell Google, and they disable my Google account..

Do you actually use the phone part of your phone? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA~!
 (see attachment in previous post)

That reminds of the MVNO Ting device page:

[attachimg=#]

I used to use MyMobiler for Windows Mobile to "remote" into my Dell Axim, and it was awesome and I registered it (it was freeware then with a paid version). I see there is an Android version of it now. Does it look like it might meet your needs?

[cmd]

Well, now I'll show my noob qualities again

No-one told me I had to type in cmd as well as the 'dir etc etc' in the run dialogue

It's really kind of an age test, I just remember because I often had to put in a 5.25" diskette in the drive to get back to the command line because it had command.com on it. The other executables were on the other diskette. That was back in the DOS 2.0 days. 

Just hit Win+R and type the one line command in the box, and click OK.

Sidenote: Disadvantage of that, is that the output isn't visible anymore after the command completes, might you need that.

Another sidenote: to run an internal command* like "dir" from Win-R, precede it with cmd /k.

The /k takes care of leaving the cmd window open so you can see if it worked or not, otherwise you can use /c instead.

.

---
* "internal" meaning it is inside cmd.exe vs a separate executable

I was just downloading a video from YouTube with the YTD Downloader, and for some reason, thought of a feature in it that I've also put in software, but is really very, very rare.

In the Main UI, you can simply wave your cursor over a text box, and it copies URLs from the clipboard.
 (see attachment in previous post)
It saves a bit of time, but it's really just very cool. I can wave my mouse over the URL input as I move my mouse cursor to the "DOWNLOAD" button. Couldn't be easier.

However, these kinds of things are VERY rare, and really very difficult to implement properly. I don't mean technically difficult, but they're so easy to do, that you could do them everywhere, which is idiotic and makes for crappy software. You have to be very careful where you use these kinds of things.

Anyways...

Just kind of wondering what people generally feel about that sort of thing, and can you name any other "convenience"-type cool features? (I mean those small, tiny, little polish things.)

SunriseXP (program for Windows, used to collect content for Plucker, the classic offline reader app for Palm OS) did that, except, no mouse waving required. If the last thing copied to the clipboard was a URL, it was there waiting for you in the URL field. Very convenient.

This Samsung commercial seems to start out a little like the video in the original post:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJafiCKliA8</a>

What is different about cpanel? Mine's altered, so maybe that is why I am not seeing any changes. Does it still pull from %FARRDIR%\scripts?

Don't don't know the answers to these, but FYI, I recently stumbled on to this
http://www.techsupportale...ces-free-books-online.htm
Maybe there are some kids' books in there ...

Nice..found a link to 161 Places For Free Children's eBooks Online  there. That will keep me busy for a while.

Looks excellent! Thanks for the link!

We're not quite at that stage yet, but I'll be keeping this in mind.

Of course now that Microsoft has essentially bought out (or more probably bought off) B&N (in an effort to get out of that ridiculous patent lawsuit they themselves started) there's every indication the new Nooks will soon start being based on Windows 8 rather than Android as the current models are. Could be good or bad. Only time will tell on that score.

This really pisses me off. Even when you want to just go and get a book for your kid, you have to worry about this crap.

Nothing against you 40 - you've pointed out a valid issue. But should it even be an issue? Sanity would say "no". Reality on the other hand isn't completely sane.

After Borders closed, showing that all brick bookstores will die eventually, buying a Nook from the other big brick-and-mortar bookstore seemed like a sure dead end, and Amazon seemed like it would be the last bookstore standing. At least the partnership with Microsoft seems to change that, so in that sense it is an improvement.

Priceless.

([url=http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=32265.msg300265#msg300265]see attachment in previous post)[/i][/url]

from Tmonews

Lol is an acronym, not a word, so it should be LOL.
 

It is also a sentence fragment. :-)

Unless it's taken to be in the imperative mood, in which case it's an order for the other person to do it.

(That's a) good point.

Priceless.

([url=http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=32265.msg300265#msg300265]see attachment in previous post)[/i][/url]

from Tmonews

Lol is an acronym, not a word, so it should be LOL.
 

It is also a sentence fragment. :-)

Priceless.

[attach=1]

from Tmonews

Wouldn't that be going back to the old school PDA? (I have and still use an 11 year old HP Jornada 540 through wifi)

You know, I miss my old Palm Tungsten.  I didn't have to worry about each and every app's different configuration to get it to sync with whatever variant of cloud storage they use.  I just put the thing in the cradle, pushed a button and everything on my desktop was synched with the device.  Simple.

At least that's the way I remember it, but maybe time has faded memories of problems I encountered?

Nope, that's really the way it was, and perhaps you used something like Plucker or iSilo as an offline web browser to generate "e-books" out of rss feeds and web pages to sync to the device so you could read them instantly instead of having to wait for them to load over an internet or network connection. On my iPod Touch 2, even if tried to load something stored on the device, I still had to wait. There is an Android version of iSilo, although at least one review says it hasn't kept up with the times (the desktop client always had a few quirks, too). Wonder if it is worth a try. but it is fairly expensive (for a smartphone app).

When I get an Android device, I will attempt to locate tools that can make desktop sync as simple as Palm OS or Windows Mobile (I had a Tungsten T3 a Dell Axim x51v too)

In fact my last phone was an iPod Touch, which can't make calls.

In fact, I wonder if smartphones will eventually find a way to take "phone" out of the name, since making calls is probably a tiny fraction of what people use them for nowadays.

Wouldn't that be going back to the old school PDA? (I have and still use an 11 year old HP Jornada 540 through wifi)

Yep. 

[deleted.. overall irrelevant - actually not sure, brought it back]

No, but it did come with double mins for life, no extra card to buy.  Net10 is where I first saw a Huawei phone.  Their android phones require the 50.00/month plan, which made me think of it in the first place:
http://www.net10.com/phon...s.jsp?model=UCMTST_009539
Unfortunately, no Net10 android phones are available in my area, which I cannot understand at all.

Once you start talking about Android phones and $50 plans, you may as well get a SIM from Straight Talk (same company America Movil (based in Mexico) as Net10/TracFone) and get whatever unlocked phone you want for $45 a month.

In my case, I'm good with 100-300 minutes of talk and some data, so what makes the most sense for me is either:

Virgin Mobile - use one of their phones, pay $35 for 300/min + unlimited (throttled to 256 Kbps after 2.5 GB)
T-Mobile - buy a SIM and put it in whatever compatible phone you want, pay $30/min + quasi-unlimited (throttled after 5 GB/month)

Nice round-ups of Prepaid plans in the US is on Prepaid Phone News (the second link I used as a source for the above info):
The Best U.S. Prepaid Voice and Text Deals
The Best US Prepaid Data Deals

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't already know, and mobile phone requirements are very personal, but I can't help myself.

daddydave notes at long last this topic does not have the word phone.


[irrelevant to getting a cheap Android phone and just using as wi-fi. but possibly relevant to being disappointed that Net10 doesn't have Android phones in your area -- so that is why I undeleted it, I'll let you decide]

I got a LG500G prepaid through Tracfone, and it suits me just fine, though I've lately considered buying a cheap Huawei android phone and just using it through WiFi... kinda like a tiny tablet computer.

Do you have the triple minutes for life deal? My phone is NET10, and would probably grab a LG 800G (touchscreen) with triple minutes if I weren't itching for an Android phone. Then I would paying like 3.33 cents a minute. Crazy deal.