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I'm now a fully certified smartphone user!

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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2015-04-24 7:07 PM
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I now have my own full-time smartphone. Yep, you heard it correctly ladies and gents...I'm part of the modern-day age group.

In America, for those who are eligible, you can get a free cell phone through a program called "Safelink." They send you a basic cell phone, and there are several plans you can subscribe to. The two most common are the 250 minutes of talk time each month with no carry over, or you can have 125 minutes of talk time each month, and any unused minutes carry forward.

The phone they provide is your el'cheapo Motorola flip phone or Alcatel mini-brick phone.

The nationwide "free Obama phone" program is contracted through several carriers, with the most dominant Safelink, distributed by the Tracfone people...who also own Straight Talk and Net10.

The nice thing is that if you have a Safelink phone, you can transfer your services to any other non-Android Tracfone. This is what I did. On eBay I picked up a brand new LG 306G smartphone. It is a touchscreen smartphone with built in wifi and Bluetooth, with all the apps that you would primarily use, such as a camera, video camera, wifi browser, etc....all written in JavaScript, and with an interface typical of an Android system, but no Android.

Anyway, for ten bucks for the phone and nothing else for the service...I look pretty cool sitting at my local McDonalds eating a Sausage Egg McMuffin with egg while surfing the net.

...even for an old fart like myself...



(myphone.jpg)



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Jake Page Icon Posted 2015-04-24 8:39 PM
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Very cool. Did any data come with the original deal? Or voice only?

Jake
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thcrw739 Page Icon Posted 2015-04-24 8:58 PM
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Nice try, but they call that a "Feature" phone
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2015-04-24 9:03 PM
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256.80 minutes. I assume "minutes" is Rich's standard euphemism for hookers, though I wonder what's it like with a .80 hooker?

Jake
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 12:41 AM
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Actually, they charge data is different for Tracfone. Unlike Android phones which have the 3 buckets for different rates, Tracfone charges data differently. 1 minute of TRACFONE Mobile Web Access = 0.5 units of airtime. So 2 minutes of access to the Tracfone Mobile Web would cost me 1 minute of airtime. And anything that is less than a minute is rounded up to 1 minute. Text messages are charged at .30 minutes each...both sending and receiving...

But I won't be using the data via the cellular rate unless it is an absolute need...I'll just use the browser when I have access to a wifi hotspot where it is free...which for you Jake would amount to 2.7 hookers....
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 7:50 AM
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Cool phone, what OS does it use?
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 10:44 AM
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Rich Hawley - 2015-04-24 11:07 AM
The nationwide "free Obama phone" program is contracted through several carriers, with the most dominant Safelink, distributed by the Tracfone people...who also own Straight Talk and Net10.


The "Obamaphone" epithet is a misnomer. This is an extension of the Lifeline service program, which started under Reagan and was extended to cellular phones under Clinton.
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 1:50 PM
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Hmm, two minutes of data for every minute of phone use. That's enough to check your email, if you can program the email app to download only recent email.

If you can install Android apps, Rich, try Sparse RSS. The developer runs any RSS feed through his full-text parser, so ESPN, for example, would give you 15 full articles. You can program it not to download images, so you could conceivably check email and download your news with two minutes of data in a pinch.

And I've never spent more than two minutes with a hooker, so it works both ways.

Jake
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 3:09 PM
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Stingraze, the OS is unique proprietory LG homegrown...meaning that it uses JavaScript apps and is based on the same. It does run a version of Opera Mini 8 which is nice for browsing. I suspect that it is Linux based somewhere down deep since LG purchased WebOS long ago.

Like I said, 90% of the time it is used simply to make and receive phone calls...the rest will be wifi use only.

Jake, you cannot install Android apps, i.e. .apk files are not recognized. Luckily, most JAVA apps run fine and I can download a variety of apps from Getjar.com.

CEGeek...spoken like a true Democrat...and I agree. Surprisingly enough however, lots of people know what you are talking abut when you say Obamaphone, but if you use Lifeline or Safelink as your descriptor...many shake their heads and say "what is that?"
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Jake Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 3:15 PM
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Yes, getjar... I remember running some of their apps on my Nokia E90 Communicator, Opera too. Impressive little bunch...

Jake
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CE Geek Page Icon Posted 2015-04-25 4:47 PM
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Just like they say "What's that?" when I say Windows CE, Rich.
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stingraze Page Icon Posted 2015-04-26 1:14 AM
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Rich Hawley - 2015-04-26 12:09 AM

Stingraze, the OS is unique proprietory LG homegrown...meaning that it uses JavaScript apps and is based on the same. It does run a version of Opera Mini 8 which is nice for browsing. I suspect that it is Linux based somewhere down deep since LG purchased WebOS long ago.


Cool! It's cool to be able to use Opera Mini 8, I personally like Opera Mini to use it on my Tytn II / EMONSTER S11HT.
And yes, nowadays Linux is everywhere....
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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2015-04-26 1:43 PM
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So (having never heard of this Americanism) what's the advantage of using the "Obamaphone" carriers instead of a retail one?

Here in the UK, you'd walk in and get an SIM only PAYG or SIM only £7/mo pay-monthly and pick up a £20 phone from any phone retailer, £40 if you wanted something claiming to be a smartphone running some version of Droid. Then after 12 months you threaten to leave the carrier and they reduce the £7/mo down to £5/mo if you stay.
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Rich Hawley Page Icon Posted 2015-04-26 2:28 PM
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One advantage is that the phone uses our standard CDMA cell tower network...which is everywhere, same cell towers as Sprint and Verizon.

But the biggest advantage is the phone service is free...that is it costs nothing. That is they give you free 250 minutes a month...after that you pay extra. They even give you a free phone, albeit it is just a standard Motorola flip phone, but it works fine.

Free is always better. But you have to be eligible to get one...eligibility includes, but is not limited to:

Federal Public Housing Assistance
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
Medicaid
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
Any additional qualifying program established by your state
or an income below the 135% poverty level

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C:Amie Page Icon Posted 2015-04-26 2:48 PM
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Oh I see! That's pretty smart. It should be a lot cheaper to give subsidised cell phones than it would land lines, so that should be win-win for the government. Especially in rural areas where comprehensive wired infrastructure isn't available.
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