I need IPhone advice

[KristyBDJ]

I need a new phone and am looking to change my plan as well. I'm with Alltel right now and feel like I'm getting ripped off every month. My DH and I have decided to go down to one cell and I would love to get an IPhone. I'm hoping you guys can suggest a similar phone with another company or a way to get the IPhone with a cheaper plan. I want a phone/plan with internet and GPS capability mostly. I don't really text or send pics or anything I just want the internet and apps etc. Any advice is appreciated since I obviously don't know a whole lot about this. TIA everyone!

 

[Green Tea]

Sounds to me like you need an iphone . Nothing else really compares. They are the only game in town as far as apps. The basic plan would cover your needs- phone and unlimited data. You wouldnt need to pay for a text package.

 

[KristyBDJ]

Ok...so I just ordered my IPhone online...YEAH ME!! I couldn't help myself! And I was surprised...I got the IPhone and my husband got a more basic phine, we did the basic data plan and 550 min family plan and it will only cost us $10 more every month than we pay now. Right now we have two freebie phones and really basic service...no texting or anything! I'm so excited but now I have to wait 2 days to play with it!

 

[KristyBDJ]

Ok...now I need everyone to tell me which apps to get!

 

[Nicholfamily5]

I'll give you the news before you get your first bill.

Be SUPER cautious on what you are doing where with the iPhone. By that cryptic statement I mean, DO NOT assume that just because you have "unlimited data" doesn't mean that they won't charge you for downloading on the 3G network. You can go on the internet without problems, but try to avoid downloading apps while on the 3G network. You will get a nasty surprise if you do!
Make sure you are on a wifi network when you are doing any downloading. AT&T WILL charge you per kilobyte (or whatever it is they use) while downloading on the 3G network, but downloading on the wifi is not charged. Clear as mud? I hope to spare you the same shock I got when I opened my first bill after "playing" with my new toy for a solid MONTH!!!

 

[nordkin]

I'll give you the news before you get your first bill.

Be SUPER cautious on what you are doing where with the iPhone. By that cryptic statement I mean, DO NOT assume that just because you have "unlimited data" doesn't mean that they won't charge you for downloading on the 3G network. You can go on the internet without problems, but try to avoid downloading apps while on the 3G network. You will get a nasty surprise if you do!
Make sure you are on a wifi network when you are doing any downloading. AT&T WILL charge you per kilobyte (or whatever it is they use) while downloading on the 3G network, but downloading on the wifi is not charged. Clear as mud? I hope to spare you the same shock I got when I opened my first bill after "playing" with my new toy for a solid MONTH!!!

This has not been my experience. I have downloaded several aps with 3G and have not been billed anything additional. The iphone does have a limit of 5gig per month before you start paying, May be you exceeded the 5 gig.

 

[KristyBDJ]

This has not been my experience. I have downloaded several aps with 3G and have not been billed anything additional. The iphone does have a limit of 5gig per month before you start paying, May be you exceeded the 5 gig.

Thanks for the tips! I'll have to watch that carefully. So, if I want to download an app...I should do it while near a hot spot? Can I do it at home with my wireless router for my laptop? Do I need to connect differently to use 3G vs. wifi?

 

[momto2inKC]

This has not been my experience. I have downloaded several aps with 3G and have not been billed anything additional. The iphone does have a limit of 5gig per month before you start paying, May be you exceeded the 5 gig.

I have not had it happen to me either and I've downloaded aps quite a bit while on 3g.

 

[ambgoph]

I have not had that happen either. All of the apps I've downloaded have been on 3G except for those that are too large for 3G which they tell you you must use wifi to download.

 

[Mean Queen]

Ok...now I need everyone to tell me which apps to get!

Some of my favorite apps:
Shazam - it tags music on the radio. For example, you hear a song, you think "Hmm, who sings that?" You use Shazam to "tag" the song and it tells you who it is, what album, and even gives you a link to buy it from iTunes.

Facebook - I can check my pages from my phone and update my status.

Kindle - a free ebook reader, but the books usually aren't free. You download them from Amazon's Kindle store. Still, very worth it to me. I always have a book with me now, since I have a few downloaded on my iPhone.

Urbanspoon - tells you restaurants near you with a quick shake of the phone.

Allrecipes - tells you what to cook for dinner with a quick shake of the phone.

There's also many, many games to play.

 

[Tinkertude]

Tons of freebie apps that are useful and fun. And also some really good ones under $2 shazam is free a fun app for identifing titles of songs several free app for figuring tips and some fun games that are free Have fun,you are going to love it.

 

[mtquinn]

A must-have free app is Pandora, for me. It is streaming internet radio, but it's really cool in that you choose "stations" by typing in an artist or song. Then that artist or song becomes a station and it plays music from that artist, and other artists like it from the same genre of music. You can skip the song up to six times, and you can thumbs up or down if you want to hear the same song again or not. Really cool

But beware, Pandora REALLY eats up battery life. I have become accustomed to listening at the gym every day and charging every night. The IPod in the Iphone hardly eats up battery at all, but Pandora is a killer. I love it anyway.

Welcome to the Iphone club!!

 

[aliwolly]

My Favorite Apps:

Facebook (free) - the updated app (just updated last night) allows for almost everything you can do from a regular browser.

AppSniper ($0.99) - not a free up but TOTALLY WORTH IT! It lists all of the new apps to the store for the day and all of the apps that are on sale. I've gotten a bunch of apps for free using this app that I would have paid for. Of course, you can do this for free using RSS feeds, but the AppSniper interface is great and convenient.

Evernote (free) - Note taking application that can sync between your iPhone, a browser based version, and Mac and PC versions. I love this because I use a Mac at home, a PC at work, and my iPhone allllllll the time. I store recipes, clips of sites that I found interesting, ideas for decorating my house, my wish list of things that I think I want/need when we start a family, and of course stuff for work. Was awesome for keeping all of my notes/pictures in order when we were buying our house earlier this year.

Quicken Online (free) - The online version of Quicken is free and (like Mint.com) can sync up with all of your bank accounts/credit cards/etc and help you track your finances. Unlike Mint.com you can actually enter in transactions (you don't have to wait for them to post through your bank). The iPhone app provides a nice interface for seeing what your spending and if you're staying within your limits.

Pandora (free) - I love, Love, LOVE Pandora! Free (up to 40 hrs/month) online streaming of music in stations that you create based on a certain artist or song. My husband and I use Pandora more than our iTunes libraries. Streams great over 3G - wasn't so great with my original iPhone but when I upgraded to my 3GS the quality of the stream really improved and now I use this App ALL the time.

DailyBurn (free) - An app I use with DailyBurn.com (used to be Gyminee) to track my calorie intake with food and my calorie burn with exercise (whenever I finally get around to that...). If you're interested in tracking food/exercise I'd definitely check this free website and app out!

TweetDeck (free) - My favorite app for checking in with Twitter.

RunKeeper Free (free) - I work for a software company that does school bus routing, so I really am sort of a map geek. I love this app because I can track my walks and see them on a Google Map. There's a paid version that has more features but the free version works great for me! The website has some social networking features built in - tweet about your walk, etc - if you're into that sort of thing.

WootWatch (free) - Check in with Woot.com and see what their daily deal of the day is (that was redundant...). It hasn't been updated yet to include the new kids.woot.com site, but I haven't been "updated" with kids yet either - LOL!

AP Mobile (free) - Associated Press reader. I wake up every morning and check the news with this app.

NY Times (free) - NY Times reader. Now sort of has intrusive ads when you click into a story, but you can get around them quick enough and if I get an app for free I don't mind seeing ads (the developers have to make their money some way, right?!).

Wikipanion (free) - My husband and I are sort of Wikipedia geeks and I like this interface for quickly looking things up on Wikipedia.

Shopper ($0.99) - My go-to shopping list. Customize the categories and aisles in your stores, locate automatically which store you're at using GPS, save frequently used lists, total up your cart as you shop, indicate if you have a coupon or not for an item. I LOVE this app! Easy checkboxes let you mark off items on your list as you shop. I don't ever go grocery shopping without making my list with this app first.

Phanfare Photon (free) - I use Phanfare as my photo storing/sharing service because I like the Mac/PC apps for uploading and creating albums and I like that they store my high res images (had a fire 4 years ago and lost everything - including my high res original images and only have web sized images of pics before 2005). The iPhone app makes creating and updating albums on the go a breeze.

Now Playing (free) - I can get info on what's in the theaters, what's new to DVD, and manage my Netflix queue all from this app. Reviews from different sources (including Rotten Tomatoes - my fav) are accessible from this app as well.

myWireless (free) - I don't pay extra for texts above what came with the basic plan, so I make sure to use the AT&T app to ensure that I'm not going over my text/minutes allotment.

Scramble (free) - awesome little word forming game that has a great interface for the iPhone. Posts to facebook with your scores.

Those are really my top apps that I use if not daily, weekly at least. Have fun with your new iPhone - I don't know what I did before I had one because this thing is literally attached to my left hand - LOL!

 

[aliwolly]

I've been using Forums Lite on my iPhone to read this forum during the day. The full version is $2.99 and provides the ability to post as well - I wish I could try that before I buy it. $2.99 seems steep for an app for me. I've got it in AppSniper so I can be alerted if it comes down in price. Will post if it does/if it's worth it!

 

[Blue.Fairy2]

Waiting to get my iphone in Oct when current contract runs out.

thanks for all the great info, will be sure to ask about the 3G/5gig thing.

If you have unlimited, even if u exceed 5 gig how can they charge you, isn't unlimited unlimited????

how can you tell when you are on a 3G network?

 

[micheleq]

Just got my iphone last weekend, love it. I had a four year old dinky phone that just died, and when I went to the AT&T store I was ready to just get the free phone, but DH convinced me otherwise.

For free apps, here are a few that I don't think others have mentioned

Fairies Lite (of course we all need a little Tink!)
The Weather Channel
Locator Lite (locate registered sex offenders in your area)
Bloomberg
WSJ
USA Today
my local news channel
Trailers for UP
Units (for measuring and converting)
iHandy Level
BigOven
icoloring Book Lite
NYC Subway map (we are in the NYC area)
Flashlight
NPR News
tv.com (which is CBS mainly, you can watch some full episodes, I love NCIS)
Yowza!! (coupons)
I've seen, but haven't downloaded yet, there is a free app for a GLOWSTICK! How very DIS!

That's it for me so far, still getting used to it. I'm just a little annoyed that it will not sync with my hotmail account, so I have to open and read e-mails that I've already read on my computer.

 

[Green Tea]

I'll give you the news before you get your first bill.

Be SUPER cautious on what you are doing where with the iPhone. By that cryptic statement I mean, DO NOT assume that just because you have "unlimited data" doesn't mean that they won't charge you for downloading on the 3G network. You can go on the internet without problems, but try to avoid downloading apps while on the 3G network. You will get a nasty surprise if you do!
Make sure you are on a wifi network when you are doing any downloading. AT&T WILL charge you per kilobyte (or whatever it is they use) while downloading on the 3G network, but downloading on the wifi is not charged. Clear as mud? I hope to spare you the same shock I got when I opened my first bill after "playing" with my new toy for a solid MONTH!!!

That has NEVER happened to me or my son

 

[momto2inKC]

how can you tell when you are on a 3G network?

It will say 3g in the upper left corner.

 

[momto2inKC]

I love all the aps! Some of my fav's are-
Toy Story Mania
The Weather Channel
Facebook
Tweetie (for Twitter)
All the Disney parks maps
Tetris
Disney Dining
Kindle
365 Holidays
Pandora
Flixter (look up showtimes)
TMZ
Icanhazcheezburger
Live 365 (list every holiday)
E! Online
Camera Bag (you use this to edit your pics, way cool)
Facinelli (Dr Cullen from Twilights ap )
Zippo (awesome lighter ap to use at concerts for those of us who don't smoke)
MySpace
Ebay
At&t my wireless (to keep an eye on my useage)

 

[Tina]

I'll give you the news before you get your first bill.

Be SUPER cautious on what you are doing where with the iPhone. By that cryptic statement I mean, DO NOT assume that just because you have "unlimited data" doesn't mean that they won't charge you for downloading on the 3G network. You can go on the internet without problems, but try to avoid downloading apps while on the 3G network. You will get a nasty surprise if you do!
Make sure you are on a wifi network when you are doing any downloading. AT&T WILL charge you per kilobyte (or whatever it is they use) while downloading on the 3G network, but downloading on the wifi is not charged. Clear as mud? I hope to spare you the same shock I got when I opened my first bill after "playing" with my new toy for a solid MONTH!!!

I have no clue what you are talking about. I've been on the iphone since inception and upgraded to 3GS a few months ago. I've never been charged for anything on the internet. I will get charged if I exceed my texts or call minutes, but the data is UNLIMITED. If you were charged, you need to call AT&T and straighten out your bill instead of scaring people unnecessarily.