If you want to buy a smart phone

This is not for the full out techie. This is for the average person who is just now thinking about buying a smart phone for whatever the reason.

The first thing you need to know is that you are going to be paying 25 dollars a month in addition to everything else just for your internet fees. For example, AT&T has a low level of 250 megabytes but you can't do anything with that. So I think now you can buy 2 gigabytes for $25 dollars a month but the 250 megabytes is really to little if you are going to do anything with the internet or GPS at all. However, the most internet usage I have personally ever done in any one month since Christmas 2010 is 500 megabytes. I average about 300 megabytes a month. So if you can buy 2 gigabytes for 20 or 25 dollars a month I think now with AT&T you can (right now) get another 2 gigabytes for a total of 4 for 5 dollars more a month. So they really get you coming and going. Unlimited gigabytes of internet usage neither Verizon or AT&T does exist at all anymore except for those who had it unlimited before the rates all changed so they have it grandfathered in. This may not be true for other companies besides Verizon and AT&T. These are the only two that I know much about.

So, what kind of Smartphone can you get? My wife has a Blackberry but for me it is the single most unintuitive phone I have ever used. So, I got myself an IPHONE 4 last Christmas never having had one before but my previous phone was a touch phone that was not a smart phone before. I had wanted to become proficient with a touch screen as I knew all smartphones use touch screen technology and this needs some getting used to. So imagine a small computer with the screen as your keypad with a few buttons around the edge of the phone to control things like on-off and mode and things like that. I bought an Iphone4 because I knew it would be very intuitive and easier to use than an Android. Though an Android system does more things potentially, my son who is a tech said it took him about 1 week of constantly playing with his new Android to fully understand everything it could do. However, with my Iphone4 I was using it (at least the phone and texting well) within the first couple of days. It took me longer to learn the GPS part of it because I didn't understand how to make the maps get bigger and smaller with my fingers. Also, I didn't know how to switch between the types of maps available. For instance I prefer a hybrid of where you actually see the terrain from a satellite with roads superimposed upon that with street names and area and town names also superimposed upon the whole map. However, if you see the little blue dot pulsing that is you and anyone who can hack into the phone from outside can see that little blue dot pulsing and not only exactly where you are but anywhere you have ever been while using the phone as well. So this is something to think about. However, almost any cell phone of any kind on earth is being tracked right now by someone. So, if you have ANY cellphone someone else you don't know knows where (at least the cell phone is) or you are with the cellphone right now. This is the price we all pay to play with all this technology in our lives. So, I see it in some ways like and addiction, a computer addiction. But that is just my point of view. Will this tracking ever bit you or me in the butt. Unknown. But then my God Daughter's ex boyfriend bought a cell phone for her before she married someone else and he tracked her every movement without telling her over the internet and followed her and beat her up a couple of times before the police were called and this ended. So this is something for everyone to consider before they let (ANYONE) give them a cell phone that they did not buy themselves.

So, then I would say the single simplest and easy to use smartphone is any IPhone there are several different ones out now that you can buy and use. The second easiest to use would be most Android phones that will take you a week or more of constant playing to become proficient with them. Though I bought my Iphone4 at Christmastime I'm still learning new thing about it here 8 months later. But then I take a different attitude about hardware and software than most people. I have seen literally somewhere between 20 and 100 generations of technology come and then become obsolete within 1 to 5 years since the 1960s. So, I tend to be a minimalist with technology in that I try to learn as little as possible or as necessary about any new technology because within a couple of years it will be outmoded too. So unless someone comes up with something we can keep all our lives to use I won't spend forever learning about it except in the course of finding out new things in the process of using it over time.

A couple more tips. Though many people like Verizon, for example, you can't use your phone and do anything else at the same time like you can on the AT&T way of functioning. So, for example, since I'm with AT&T I can be talking to someone on the phone while I text at the same time or am on the internet at the same time or even check GPS locations at the same time or anything else. But if you are talking on the phone with Verizon that is all you can do at once, talk on the phone. But then, when I talk using my Iphone4 over AT&T I find that to my wife sometimes (most of the time) I sound like I'm talking underwater. So, unless I plug in my earphones with the built in mike she sometimes can't understand me. Also, AT&T reception really sucks in places like the Greater Los Angeles ARea or the San Francisco- San Jose Corridor. So many people in these areas have gone over to Verizon as a result.

However, where I live AT&T is the only carrier that works very well all the time so that I why I'm using AT&T. So, as you can see wherever you live and whatever you do in your life you must consider many different variables to be happy and satisfied with your personal Smart Phone in the long run.