Finally made the jump to the 21st Century and bought a Smartphone

[Draco1962]

My wife has had a smartphone for a while thanks to a hand-me-down Samsung Exhibit from our daughter and a Galaxy S4 for her work. I have, on the otherhand, been in the last century with a semi-smart (but mostly dumb) Samsung phone with slider keyboard . Thanks, in part to corporate employee discounts through my work and an allowance through hers, we decided to jump carriers from T-Mobile to Verizon and take advantage through Sam's Club for a Galaxy S5 for $99 each and free activation (with 2 year contract).

So now to figure out how to take advantage of the apps and extras. First look at the display reminds me of an explosion at a Skittles packaging plant - colored icons all over the place and no apparent order other than alpha. I guess I will be learning how to create custom groups real quick so it is less overwhelming at a glance. Will also need to setup my contacts, email, voicemail, browser, yada, yada, yada... WTF have I gotten myself into!

[Adultery]

You'll love it! I envy my wife's S5, but I can't upgrade mine for a couple more months.

Your first stop should be Tapatalk.

[tthurman]

Hah, my wife held out completely until she missed some connecting flights on the way to Italy a few years ago. She went from no phone, ever, at 43 to having me fire up my old BB Tour as soon as she got home.

Verizon will drive you nuts pushing updates to all their apps, which I rarely, if ever used. If you got a bunch of stuff on the home page you don't like, just press the icon and hold it until it hovers, then slide it over to a lesser used screen and let go. My contacts syne with our exchange server, so I've never had to manually do this. If you don't have this luxury, or burden, you'll probably want to strongly consider using your gmail account.

Obviously the apps you use will be dependent on your interests, but there are tons of free ones. I used a local TV stations weather app, that I believe is simply a shell used by many local stations. You might want to check you local TV stations first that if you want a weather app, I found the weather channel one to be terrible in comparison. There are some pretty good pinball apps with a couple tables that are free. Great time killers if you're stuck somewhere with nothing to do

I saw a really cool app at a party last night that used the camera, hold it up to the sky and it showed constellations and planets that were in the viewing field. Didn't bother to get the name though, they moved us to iphones early in the year.

[Draco1962]

I downloaded the Google Sky View app and it is pretty cool! There is an app for local weather through the station we watch so I will probably add that next.

[Adultery]

Actually I rooted my phone to stay up on the latest firmware regardless of what my carrier says, and ditched all that bloatware.

I wouldn't recommend that though unless you really know what youre doing.

[Draco1962]

Since I don't know what I am doing (yet) I think I will hold off for a bit on rooting anything.

[Tempest]

You might have the option to list apps in the order of most used, or recently used. Of course you can always arrange them yourself.

[Draco1962]

There is a ton of bloatware to say the least. Not only do you have the Android apps, you have Samsung apps, Verizon apps... Once I get my head wrapped around what I really need and how to create the custom groupings, I will commence with categorizing then eleminating those that are dupes to other apps that I will actually use.

[tthurman]

The bloat on them is nearly unbearable, but I never rooted my Bludnerbolt. I had this crazy thought that HTC might actually release something that made it the phone it was supposed to be. In all likelihood it probably would have ran better rooted!

If I updated Blockbuster, Slacker Radio etc. etc. once, I did it a hundred times.

[stigzler]

Good work - another android user! Must have apps to get everything synced up nice:

Evernote (PC client too)

Dropbox

Android Assistant (keeps it tidy)

ES file explorer

GTasks (sync tasks with Google tasks)

Kaiten Mail - good email client

Mighty Grocery (cloud synced shopping list - mine reads "beer") - good for syncing with the missus

SafeWallet - best p/w manager imho

SwiftKey

Viber - save on SMS costs/numbers (SMS via net)

UTorrent remote ()

Hope that helps!

[Tempest]

XBMC remote. Very Cool. But only if you use XBMC. :-)

[MNMax21]

I have an iPhone 5 . Ha

[stigzler]

Dirty word.

only kiddin

(ish)

[KRC]

I'm a little late in replying but it's good to see you taking the leap into the smartphone world.

Galaxy S5 is a nice phone to go with, pretty similar to the Galaxy Note 2 I used to have.

BTW what phone did you have previously?

One Of these?

[Draco1962]

Ray, you are a cruel and cheeky monkey! I am old enough to remember when those came out and they cost several times over what an S5 cost.

My previous was a Samsung Gravity 3 (semi-smart slider).

[nullPointer]

My previous was a Samsung Gravity 3 (semi-smart slider).

This is (more or less) the phone that I still use. (I have a Samsung Intensity 3. Spoiler Alert: It's not intense ... at all)

My wife works in finance and assists people with budgets and whatnot. I've yet to convince her that moving to a spendy data plan is a financially sound decision for the household.

[KRC]

From my understanding, Gravity and intensity handsets dont exist in the UK, are they network carrier phones only available in the US for networks like Verizon?

[Adultery]

@null: Well maybe you should shift some of your Steam budget to that then. Lol! You have a seemingly massive collection.

[Draco1962]

From my understanding, Gravity and intensity handsets dont exist in the UK, are they network carrier phones only available in the US for networks like Verizon?

Mine was with T-Mobile. Made the jump (albeit more expensive) to Verizon.

[nullPointer]

@null: Well maybe you should shift some of your Steam budget to that then. Lol! You have a seemingly massive collection.

I can honestly say that the only Steam game I've ever paid over $10.00 for is Rocksmith 2014. Plus my Steam addiction is not a regularly occurring monthly fee. ... But yes I'm the first to admit that I have a bit of an issue.

[Adultery]

I didn't say it was a problem....

[tthurman]

I can honestly say that the only Steam game I've ever paid over $10.00 for is Rocksmith 2014. Plus my Steam addiction is not a regularly occurring monthly fee. ... But yes I'm the first to admit that I have a bit of an issue.

Hard to resist those Steam sales!

Early on I recall dad coming home with a "bag phone", and ironically, these things are still available.

Makes the Wallstreet phone seem not so bad!

[Draco1962]

A coworker of mine spent close to $2500 for his original "brick" including the installation in his car of the dock/charger that required a specialized installer to handle, including the addition of a dedicated antenna. This was required by his job but had to come out of his pocket because the employer would not cover any of the cost associated.

[Adultery]

My dad had one for his job at the Wi Lottery. He absolutely hated that thing, but I thought it was the coolest thing ever! I never saw a bill, but I can only imagine the cost of install and use.

I remember they used to sell fake ones to trick people into thinking you could afford one. Funny, I never got any additional booty fire talking in the cell back in the day. Haha!

[RIP-Felix]

What's worse, that the OP just got a smartphone or that I don't know what Steam is (besides the gas phase of water)?

Ok, I'll admit I know it's some kind of online gaming thing but I haven't looked into it nor played a single title.