Our family isn’t really into paying $40 a month, per person for phones.

We’d much rather spend about $15 dollars, which of course, is a very difficult task

It means lots of research and time looking at phone carrier reviews like this one.

Summary

Net10 – expensive plans or bad phones

Platinumtel – cheapest plans with decent phones

Pageplus – cheap, non-functional phones

Consumer Cellular – $15-$20 phone plans, wide array of phones

My first phone was Net10.  I was very excited when I first got it, but unfortunately after about a year of it, it completely broke down.  I couldn’t download games. I couldn’t listen to radio, music took 15 minutes to load and sometimes sound just stopped working.  Of course, this was after my 1 year warranty was up, so the best the customer service lady could tell me to do was “you buy new phone”.  Not so helpful.

Now when I look back at all of the new Net10 phones, some of them look like something I would actually want to own – however, a $30/$50 plan is required for those models.  That’s just too expensive for me.

My second phone was a Platinumtel phone, and quite honestly, I loved it.  I ended up paying about $7 dollars a month.  I could look online and see where my phone minutes were going, customer service was helpful and the phone I purchased (Samsung Intercept) was great.  Unfortunately, I lost that phone and soon after, platinumtel stopped carrying it.  Sigh.  But, Platinumtel still has some of the best cheap phones for the lowest prices.

After my Samsung Intercept met it’s untimely end, I started researching cheap phone plans again, and found Pageplus.  That is, until I found out that the crappy phone Hazel has came from there.  She has a pageplus phone that half of the time doesn’t receive texts that you send it, and the other half of the time, does.  So if you were to send important information to her, she might not get it. (This happens quite frequently).

After a close call with a Pageplus, I looked around some more until I found Consumer Cellular.  Consumer Cellular does not have the cheapest cell phone plans, but the phones available are more high quality than the Platinumtel phones.  Iphone plans there are the cheapest I’ve seen.  You can buy an Iphone 3GS for $200, and pay $15-$20 a month, if you are a regular user.  So that’s what I’m ordering next week, for better or for worse.

Note – Consumer Cellular, Platinumtel ACRS and Net10 all allow you to bring your own phone into the plans, if it meets certain specifications.

I’ve got a few more over on my Facebook profile if you’d like to check them out! Enjoy! Be sure to visit – and Like – the FB page as well!

Light Scribe Photo on Facebook

The iControlPad uses Bluetooth to communicate with your mobile phone, so it can basically be used with any modern Smartphone – or even your PC! It offers various different Bluetooth protocols, including standard HID. This is to ensure that you can use the iControlPad with current and future Smartphone generations.

The iControlPad has exchangeable clamps to make it possible to use any Smartphone out there. Just grab the clamps that are designed to fit with your Smartphone and you’re ready to play. And if you ever buy a new phone: No need to throw your iControlPad away, just get a new set of clamps and that’s it!

Current side clamps support iPhone 3, iPhone 3G, iPhone, iPhone 3GS, iPhone4, iPod touch (some require padding), Motorola Backflip (needs padding), Lg Optimus S, Lg Ally, Blackberry Touch, Samsung Intercept (may require adjustment), HTC Dream, T-Mobile G1, Era G1.

Furthermore, any phones which are a similar size may fit, you might have to make your own adjustments to the iCP clamps to match. It’s now available for order at a cost of $74.99.

(theeee CLAAAAAAWWWWW).

I was talking to the homies at VirusROM yesterday, and they too complained about their significant others complaints about the phones, so (kinda’ as a joke) I suggested that while my Fiancée was out with the kids, she make a quick stop at Best Buy to chuck the phone at one of their larger windows (would have done more damage to the phone than the window) to request that Samsung kindly shove their Instinct up their asses.  She didn’t, but when she got home, I talked her into checking online to see if anything comparable was available so she could make an exchange.  She called to find out about what options she had available, and while she was explaining that the phone drops EVERY call, the call dropped…  We found a replacement, and the rest is history.

We got her the  LG Optimus S and it’s AMAZINGLY better!

It’s a tad bit smaller than an iPhone, but works just as well as my EVO (which we originally got her when I got mine, but it was a little too much powerhouse for her).  It’s a pretty basic phone, with a 3.2 mp camera, 320X480 display, and a microSD slot to name a few (Here are the full specs from Phone Arena).  I REALLY like that even though it’s small, the screen still rotates to landscape when turned to the side.  This widens the on screen keyboard a bit, and hopefully complaints about typing will cease.  It came with Sprint’s new ID service  installed, which I THINK is a way to theme your phone with icons, backgroundds and apps based on what you like to do with it and what you’re interested in.  I’ll have more on that after I steal it, and play with it a bit.  It was pretty annoying that the phone asked for her to choose an ID pack before the phone was even activated, and before she even knew what ID was.  Luckily I read a few reviews, and sorta’ knew we could skip it.  In a nutshell, the LG Optimus is the perfect phone for the person who wants a smartphone but doesn’t necessarily need a mini super computer in their pocket like I do (plus, it’s rootable, so I’ll have something to play with if I get bored some day).  Once again, she’s happy therefore all is right with the world…

Here is the breakdown of the cost of service between the big 4 carriers,with the basic amount of minutes:

and for a family plan

One of the biggest developments in smart-phones has been the introduction and the wide adoption of the Android platform. The operating system of these phones are developed by Google and have a wide range of different shapes and sizes. Some look like and perform like iPhone, while others act more like Blackberries, and others have full size, slide out keyboards. Not only are these generally great devices, but they are extremely open, and you can use their features to knock down your monthly bill.

One such thing is to eliminate paying for text messages with Google Voice. The only real drawback with this service is that you can not port your regular number over to this service. This means that you will have to get a new phone number,  but for customers who want to use either ATT or Verizon’s cell phone service, you’re looking at saving $20 (individual) to $30 (family) per month for unlimited SMS service.

Another nice thing about Android, is that there are a variety of ways to not chew through your minutes. There is free Skype to Skype calling. Another alternative is very cheap calling out to landlines,cellphones, even internationally for 1¢ per minute while on WiFi with the service Fring. Or, if you are feeling adventurous, you can root your phone and use Skype anywhere or through Gizmo5.

Here is a cost breakdown if you employ the aforementioned services:

and for a family plan

Now if you notice, this is starting to get pretty expensive! Averaging $3,500 for a family and almost $2000 for an individual.

Now here are the tricks to bring these costs down. The first is to sign up for cell phone service in Nevada! A New York resident could save up to $600 dollars over 24 years, while a Massachusetts resident is looking at more of a $200 savings– just be sure to use paperless billing! Now this loophole is not all that honest, and probably not all that legal, either. So we’ll forget about that one.

A better option could be to go prepaid. There are multiple advantages with going prepaid, and it could save you lots of money!

First, the tax is paid for by the carrier and not YOU! Well, you will have to pay the states sales tax for the top-up card, but it looks like bestbuy.com isn’t charging either shipping nor sales tax on this item. Also, there are always states with no sales tax, and sales tax holidays when you could stock up on these cards. Second, there is no cancellation or early termination fees, which depending on the carrier, can range from $200-$375– these are charged to recoup the cost of subsidized hardware.

Finally, the monthly rates are much, much cheaper. Meaning that even if you are paying sales tax on these top-up cards, you are going to be paying that tax on $600 for 2 years of individual service and not on $1466-$2400. That is right, for 2 years of service $600 dollars! Virgin Mobile, recently introduced the Samsung Intercept, and you can pair it with a $25 monthly plan, that gives you unlimited data, text, and 300 minutes. While the minute amount is low, no free nights and weekends, and no mobile to mobile found in the major carriers’s  minute plans, with the tips and tricks mentioned above there are a few ways to easily supplement smaller amount of minutes.

Now you’re thinking, “well what’s the catch with prepaid?” Traditionally you were not able to keep your phone number, they are were regional (you couldn’t use them outside of major metropolitan areas), or that the phones were not good. Well all of that has pretty much changed recently. You are now allowed to transfer your number over to Virgin Mobile, which is part of Sprint network, and it uses the exact same network that the Sprint plan for $69.99 uses. And for the phone? It is pretty great, not perfect by any means but if you are moving from an iPhone 3G or any feature phone, it is a really nice step-up. It is a Honda or Volkswagen, and not a BMW or Mercedes. And we are talking about saving money after-all and not the advantage of 3-6mbps versus 600Kbps downstream over CDMA RevA! The only real drawback is the upfront cost, which is a bit more than other entry-level Android phones:

The Tiny Wallet Style takeaway is that it’s worth it to invest a bit more upfront cost in exchange for big savings. For an individual plan you are looking at saving a little bit more than $1000, and for 2 lines you are looking slightly above $1700. So this leads to the question, would you rather have the latest, and greatest cell phone? Or a capable and still awesome phone, PLUS an extra grand snugly secure in your own Tiny Wallet?

All the math http://bit.ly/cuOx4Y

Virgin Mobile will be offering the Samsung Intercept on its Beyond Talk plans so yes that means you’ll be able to run it for $25 a month with no contract. $25!! Are you kidding?? The Intercept might be outclassed by the likes of the Droid X and the Epic 4G, but it’s still a perfectly solid midrange Android smartphone. It packs an 800MHz processor running Android 2.1 and I would expect the usual Android goodies to be present, like Google Navigation, a decent browser and Android Marketplace. On the downside the Samsung Intercept’s camera is a middling 3.2 megapixel affair and it uses the slower EVDO Rev. 0 data speed. But $25, for unlimited data, texts and 300 voice minutes on a genuine Android smartphone!

We’re hoping to get our hands on this puppy as soon as possible so stay tuned for a review…

Neil Berman

After a couple of weeks of fighting I finally got my Samsung Intercept to connect to Windows 7 64. Problem is I’m not exactly sure why the heck its working, I just know it is. Here is how I (somehow) did it.

First I tried to use Win 7′s XP mode, which was a total failure. The Windows stock Virtual PC cannot control any devices, it just reads them as belonging to the real computer. After a lot of searching I found the open source Oracle Virtual Box, which is Windows Virtual PC on crack. With Virtual Box, you can mount any number of operating systems to play around with. As a bonus it has the capability to see external devices as its own. All you need is an install disk for your operating system of choice. I had gotten the Intercept to work with both XP and 7 32 bit, so I chose to install a Win 7 32 virtual machine.

For all the specifics on how to install a virtual operating system in Virtual Box, read the user manual. Its large and technical, but skimming the first two chapters should tell you all you need to know to get started. The short version, you set up a partition for your virtual machine, you then “boot” the virtual machine with the install disk of your operating system of choice. You then go through all the normal installation steps, and bingo-bango you now have a virtual copy of XP/7/whatever.

Here is where things get hazy. I was under the impression that the virtual machine would be where I would see the phone. However for mysterious reasons, suddenly the phone now gives me the option to mount and my main Windows 7 64 has no problem letting me into the phones drive!

I don’t know why. I can close the virtual machine and still have access when I plug in. I wish I knew what the heck was going on and how a virtual 32 bit 7 convinced a real 64 bit 7 that the Intercept is OK, but I do not. All I know is that Virtual Box somehow worked for me, perhaps it can work for you. Other than that Virtual Box is a nifty tool I should have had long ago. Good luck!

UPDATE: I wrote this a couple months ago and while it did work, I have a funny feeling that its all just pure luck as to if Windows will bother to recognize the phone. I have computers it works fine on and some that refuse to see the phone no matter what I do. The whole key is to just keep trying, something will work eventually. If all else fails get an app like SwiFTP and move on with your life.

Streaming Pandora wherever I happen to be
On the ride to work this morning I rocked out to my Medeski, Martin, and Wood station, never a stutter.

The Video
By using the simple and free Handbrake program, I can take any video and turn it into a 240×400 mp4 that the Intercept can natively play. For pure entertainment I took the 2008 Fiesta Bowl DVD and tossed it on the phone. The file size is large, about 500 megs per 40 minutes of video, but holy crap does it look good.

Opera Mini Browser
My first Android App, I’m astounded how it takes any page and compresses it so well for easy viewing. I’ve used a few phones stock browsers and was never impressed. Opera Mini actually shows the page as it is, only tiny, you can then zoom and look around anywhere you please. It’s still not quite browsing on a desktop, but its as close as it gets.

GPS
I load up google maps then it puts a little blue arrow where I am, it found me at home, it found me at work, very nifty. It also makes me want to put on a tin foil hat.

Android Apps
I have hardly begun to scratch the surface, so many free apps to try, its unfortunate I need sleep or I would have tried more. I can’t wait to download and try out some games.

What I hate

The 3.5 MM headset jack
It is 3.5 mm wide but not as deep as a standard headphone jack, so I have to go and buy a 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm adapter, stupid. eidt: well it does work with headphones, but tends to make pandora crash when i put them in mid song, that still sucks. The adapter I speak of is to add a mic to any set of headphones

Windows 7 64 bit hates it
My main computer uses Windows 7 64 bit, and it refuses to recognize the phone. I was able to get everything working on an older XP machine, then when I came top work today I discovered it also works fine on Win 7 32. Going to try running XP mode in 7/64 when I get home and see if that does the trick.

Using it as a phone is about the dumbest thing you can do with it
When used as an actual phone its not comfortable, and manages to pick up a ton of invisible grease from my face. I did the activation phone call in my million degree car right after I bought the phone and thought I would short the thing out with sweat, so I also need to invest in a blue tooth.

Supports a 32 GB micro SD, comes with a 2GB
Come on, at least give me an 8 gigger to start out with, so much to try and so little space. Another thing I need to buy, problem is the 32GBs are running about a 100 bucks, so I’ll prob get a 16 that is closer to 30.

Overall

All in all about 18 hours after purchase I’m very pleased. Its not the biggest baddest or fastest, but it gets the job done. Most of the issues I have with the phone will be solved with money and more fiddling, you’ll have that I suppose. I have not even begun to figure out exactly what this thing can do, I can feel it attaching itself to my cerebral cortex, it totally made me forget to eat dinner last night. Resistance is futile.

These work extremely well for the Motorola Droid, Droid X, Cliq.  Also for the HTC Droid Incredible, EVO, Aria.  The Samsung Galaxy S, Epic 4G, Fascinate, Vibrant, Captivate and Intercept will also work well with these mounts.

Micro Mega Cradle Lighter Mount

Micro Mini Cradle Lighter Mount

The Samsung Intercept features a beautiful 3.0 inch touch screen and a full sized qwerty keyboard. Unlike the Samsung Moment (last years Android Slider from Samsung/Sprint) these qwerty keys are flatter and offer a much better and faster typing experience.

The Intercept features a 3.2 megapizel camera and video camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, and comes with a 2gb micro-sd card expandable to 32gb. The micro-sd card is housed with side entrance to the slot so that the battery cover does not have to be removed to access the microSD card.

The Samsung Intercept is a great phone for customers looking to transition into Android from another operating system or a feature phone. It’s also great for those looking for an Android experience but Galaxy S is just too much phone for them. At the $99.99 price you still get the ease of using integrated google products for free, ie: Gmail, Google Maps, Google Calendar even Google Docs (with an app available free in the market) and of course access to 70,000+ apps. Kevin Packingham, Senior Vice President of product development for Sprint said “…at this price we are able to bring the Android experience to a broader audience that will apprecite the versatility that comes with access to thousans of apps in the Android Market…”

Direct USB sync with the Samsung Intercept works in tandem with an Android app called DejaOffice, which provides business-class address book, calendar, tasks and notes apps. Data transfers two-ways between Outlook and DejaOffice using the USB cable that comes with Samsung Intercept.

Wireless sync through Google relies on the built-in integration the Samsung Intercept has with Google Contacts and Google Calendar. CompanionLink synchronizes Outlook contacts, calendar and tasks to Google, which then synchronizes over-the-air to the Intercept. Changes made on phone will sync back to Google, and then to the PC using CompanionLink.

In addition to Microsoft Outlook, CompanionLink supports other PC software such as Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage, Palm Desktop, GoldMine and others. CompanionLink’s sync solutions for the Samsung Intercept start at $39.95. More information and a 14-day free trial are available at www.companionlink.com/phones/samsung-intercept.html

[via Sprint]

We know that the My Touch 3G came in a variety of colors but so far no one has stepped up to the plate with a PINK android phone. There are a lot of Android Gals out there, just ask Scott Webster founder of Androidguys.com there are so many Android Gals out there that they started Androidgals.com as well… so now Samsung and Sprint have answered the call with the Samsung Intercept available in Gray and Pink!

Aside from the pink here are some other attractive specs for this solid “Smartphone”
Android 2.1
One Touch Picture Posting to the top social network sites
3.0 Inch Touch Screen Display
Full Slide Out Qwerty Keyboard
Access to over 60,000 apps in the Android Market
Accelerometer and Proximity Sensor
Instant messaging
View word, excel and powerpoint on the go
3.2 mp camera/video camera

The Samsung intercept will be $99 after $100 mail in rebate and presumably a flat $99 a Best Buy Mobile. It will hit the shelves July 11 (that’s this sunday)

Sprint officially announced the Samsung Intercept today via a press release, and you can pick it up at a nice, affordable price! Great news for Sprint Android fans. You will be able to pick up the new, affordable Android device for a cool $99.99 after a $100 mail-in rebate, and don’t forget to sign that 2 year contract. Once you do that, you’ll be on your way! Available through all Sprint outlets beginning July 11th.

Here are some details on this new device:

• Android 2.1
• 3.2 MP camera
• MP3 Player with MicroSD card slot (supports up to 32 GB)
• Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology
• Visual Voicemail

Plus many more features to keep you informed while on the go!

Anyone planning on picking up this new Android device?

Check out the full press release below.

via – Press release