Y'all need to hook me up!

[Plague*Star]

Who wants to guess if he got anything?

A big fat goose egg?

It's time to play....Stupid Answers!

I get this one a lot....I still don't know how to deal with it.
Every year, we offer...The Freshman Laptop Program. To...The incoming freshmen.
Every year....students walk in. With broken laptops.
"What year did you buy your laptop?
"Freshman year."
"....."
"?!"
"......and.....*sigh*...what year was that?"
"I'm a sophomore now!"
"so...*sigh*...three years ago....so....2012?"
"um......I guess so."
<later> "we'll have to send it out..we'll give you a loaner to use in the meantime...it will take about 10-15 days...we'll let you know as soon as it comes back."
<one week later>
random 20 YO wearing baggy pants, a "U" sweatshirt and backwards ball cap appears in doorway>"yes, I wanted to know if my computer was ready?"
"....?....."
"I dropped it off last week."
"..?..."
"It was broken."

[mathnerd]

I put OtterBox cases on all my kids' phones, and as rough as they are with them, they've never managed to break any of them. I've had two stolen phones (one mine, one a kid's), but never damaged. I've got four teenagers right now with phones that I provide (three of mine, and my extra kid I've mentioned before). My kids have iPhones, and the girl child has a Galaxy S3 (Thanks Jester!), and every one of them is in exactly the same condition they were in when I gave them to the kids. OtterBoxes are awesome! They're completely worth the price.

[Alpha Strike]

....
And I've never had the ifruit phones because I don't like 'em. So I have no idea why people pay hundreds of dollars for phones that do the same thing as my cheap Android. OK, sorry if you like the fruity phones; no intent to offend. Maybe they are better and I'm just not aware of the differences because I've never had one. Educate me?

Obviously I can't speak for others but I have a couple reasons I went with an IPhone. First, my computer and tablet are both Apple brand, so I was already very familiar with the products. The IPad in particular is very similar in a variety of ways with the IPhone, so the transition was very easy for me.

Secondly, Apple doesn't make it easy to access its "stuff" when using non-Apple products. So while there are ways to share data between Apple and non-Apple machines, it's much easier to stay Apple across the board.

I would also mention that since getting an upgrade from my several-years-old flip-phone to a smartphone, I have noticed that my phone usage has gone up quite a bit. It's much easier to access my news and info apps, and of course having games chews up a bit of time as well. (I'm sure it would be no different on one of the current Android-brand smart phones).

[AccountingDrone]

Dave's not here!

*snicker*

And isn't there a voice answer option for many phones? I would look at the book for my droid because I think it does [or maybe it was my moto m9? I know at one point I had a voice answerable phone...as long as the phone was on and ringing I could answer it hands free.]

[raudf]

You know, my Note 3 kept losing it's IMEI after the upgrade to Lollipop. Less than 3 months old, so we call the tech support and get a warranty exchange. Get the new one, and... Lollipop. It started losing it's IMEI too. One hard reset later (this morning) and it seems to be behaving. The other one, nothing we tried would get it to keep it's IMEI for longer than 5 minutes. Hard Reset, Kies.. everything short of rooting it and doing it via that.

No, I don't have the assured brand insurance on it. I have an Otterbox Commuter, which I paid $19 for on Amazon. This phone is used very heavily as a remote control (because when you have a toddler, finding the TV remote is.. nearly impossible.) I figure it will last the two years of the contract and then I'll be ready for a newer phone.

Edit: Nope, not fixed. Grrr..

[Catwoman2965]

The first one cracks me up. I get that when you get a new phone you need to play with it, to figure out how it works. But some people are just beyond clueless. My theory is, if its too difficult for you to figure out, got back to a flip phone. My mom, who is 80, doesn't have a smart phone, but has both an iPad and Mac computer. Both of which she figured out how to use on her own, with a little assistance and guidance from me and others.

Second one, at least they realized their mistake, and didn't try and make you conjure the number out of thin air!

[prjkt]

I only update my phones when the contract's up for renewal, iFruit only because I've got several of their computers and other devices and it all works nicely together.

I once dropped my iPhone 4 while attempting to put it in a case. Onto asphalt. $110 later, I walked into my shop with a newly repaired phone and bought a Lifeproof case. Somehow managed to break the rear of the phone IN the case, but considering it was in the case, and working fine, I didn't care.

As soon as I found out I was getting my 5S the following day, I bought myself a new case of the same brand, though it left the screen uncovered (so much easier to use.) It has since survived several dozen trips from the bathroom bench to the tiles below, water and other liquid splashes, a car accident, and my general clumsiness resulting in a bounce off the floor (or my shoe if I'm quick enough.)

Each case cost me ~AU$80 - but still a load cheaper than buying a new phone.

My iPad Mini that has never left he house however got a large crack right across the screen sometime in the first two months of owning it. Ergh. Not to mention the MacBook Air I left on the roof of my car....

[bbbr]

I know a guy who went "moose hunting" with his brand new phone one night. Turns out he actually threw it at a tree and it shattered (surprise surprise), alcohol was involved....

He got cut off from the insurance plan as that was phone #3 in under 6 months. He spent the next year and half using one of his "less" damaged phones.

[emax4]

Smartphones 101

It never ceases to amaze me how many people own a smart phone and do not know how to:

- Find their settings
- Find their app store/play store etc.
- Download an app
- Turn the volume up on their phone
- Locate their home button
- Locate their back button (Windows and Android phones)
- End a phone call (yes, I took a call once where all the person wanted to know was how to hang up. )

This was a major factor in my divorce. No, I wasn't mad at her because she didnt know how to use technology, but that she blamed me for not knowing how to operate it when I was better at tech. She had an iPhone 4s, I had a 3GS. The maps app was a little different, and she used her bluetooth to transmit music through her car stereo. So when she couldnt figure out how to stop the turn-by-turn voice directions cutting the music out intermittently, she said to her daughter and daughter's friends in the back, "sorry girls, Eric cant figure it out so I guess were gonna be lost now...".

If you can't figure out how to operate it or read the manual and follow directions, you probably shouldn't own it.

[Ophbalance]

Sadly, I'm finding that equipment protection is around about worthwhile the first year. After that it's just a never ending pit to send your money into. My SG4 on Sprint was going for $200 last time I looked, should I need to replace it, all over ebay and craigslist. And seeing as how I've had the carrier for I'm on for about 8 years and never done a warranty replacement I'd be better of without it. In fact, I think last time I looked the math for it, just sending the equipment protection amount monthly into a savings account would allow you to do the $250 phone upgrade every 2 years as you'd have that much put away by then.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

You'd probably be amazed (well then again, maybe not...) at the number of people who think nothing of laying down $200-$400 on a new nigh end smartphone and refuse to spend $20-$50 on a sturdy case to protect it.

Considering the fact that at the time, I didn't feel like I could afford the extra 8 or so bucks per month for the insurance on my bill when I got my first iFruit, I took a friend's advice and spent $30 for a pink OtterBox from Amazon. Also didn't feel like shelling out $200 or so for the then latest version, so I bought my 3GS for 99 cents.

Same when I upgraded to my current one - the 4S. Got it for 99 cents (extended my contract by 2 years but as I like Death Star wireless and not planning to leave) but I cannot see spending $200 or more for the latest model. Just wait until they come out with another model or two, then then one you want will be really inexpensive (or free) and then do the upgrade. Or at least that's worked for me so far.

That old 3GS is still working fine . . . my brother currently has it.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

My personal phone is an S4. I have a hard case on it that cost me $9.99 online and it has already survived several drops.

You'd probably be amazed (well then again, maybe not...) at the number of people who think nothing of laying down $200-$400 on a new nigh end smartphone and refuse to spend $20-$50 on a sturdy case to protect it.

[TheSHAD0W]

I don't have insurance on my phone, nor is it in an otter box or the like.

I'm not bragging about being careful with it either, I'm pretty klutzy. Instead I bought a ruggedized phone, to make sure it'd be difficult to damage.

[EricKei]

Are the super-expensive phones just more breakable or something?

More complicated tech generally means having more moving parts (for mechanical items), or more solid-state parts (for purely electronic ones like a touchscreen-only phone). More parts = more bits that can break = more things that can go wrong. Also, whenever you're dealing with the latest, hot-drek SOTA gear, you can reasonably expect that much, more time and money was invested into making the thing work as advertised, than making it tough and durable. After all, if the things were nigh-unbreakable, there would be minimal need for warranties and rubberized phone cases

[Jay 2K Winger]

When my phone recently started st-st-st-stuttering periodically with audio when I'd be playing music over the Bluetooth in my car, or even just sitting at home tooling around in a game, I thought about going to upgrade it-- since I knew I'd be eligible soon.

Rather than call up Red Checkmark (my carrier) and scream at some poor phone jockey like the OP, however, I pulled up my account information in my Red Checkmark app and checked my eligibility, and saw I'm not eligible until the middle of next month.

And you know what? I can wait a month and just deal with the annoyance of the stuttering audio (never applies in calls, at least) until then. Then again, I haz teh common sense.