Smartphone during law school/career? Forum

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jd2416

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by jd2416 » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:50 pm

Don't buy a Blackberry..unless all you wanna do is e-mail and text. I have one now and I don't hate it (it's AWESOME for e-mail, bad for everything else) Droid is the way to go if you want an awesome web browsing experience and plenty of apps. Law school apps specifically.. your guess is as good as mine.

dgsaudio

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by dgsaudio » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:59 pm

Another good thing I thought of for Android - you don't have to have the data plan to download apps, you can do it over wifi, and your calendar/contacts will still sync over wifi as well. If you get the phone at a discount (with a contract), you're forced to contract for the data plan as well. Some people don't want to do that. You could maybe find a used Android phone in good shape on craigslist or find a cheaper new one on ebay.

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kalvano

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by kalvano » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:03 am

Wait for the Verizon iPhone. I've had bunches of smartphones, and it's the most awesomest one ever.

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kswiss

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by kswiss » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:12 am

I switched from an iPhone to a Nexus One. I kept them both for 2 weeks to make sure I liked it, and it is far superior in (almost) every way. The only thing not as good is getting videos onto it, or if you like to do playlists in iTunes. Go for the Droid or the newest Android phone. The learning curve between the iPhone and Droid is about the same if you've never used either, and the functionality of the android phone is much better, especially if you use more than one social network.

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bk641

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by bk641 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:43 am

Mattalones wrote: I have spent thousand one HTC phones ... they have all been crap! I gave them a fair shot for years. I didn't know that the Nexus One was an HTC phone. I mean, things may have changed, but I left them with a bad taste in my mouth. Although, Google is quite impressive, much more so than Microsoft, who was the OS provider for HTC when I last owned one of their phones. It could have just been Microsoft failing to take into account the capabilities of the HTC phones while developing their software.
You're right about that last part. If you've been using them for "years" there is a very good chance they would have been running Windows Mobile 6.0 or 6.1, which are utter crap in spite of what HTC did to make it look as presentable as possible.

HTC phones always have very, very nice build quality. Get an HTC phone running Android (Nexus One, Hero, Incredible etc etc) and you'll be fine. I have an iPhone 3GS, and it's great too.

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EBGB

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by EBGB » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:35 am

This is an old posting from January, so things like the number of apps available from the Android market is already up to 38,000, but it could still be pretty useful.

http://www.billshrink.com/blog/6847/nex ... ownership/

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TheBigMediocre

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by TheBigMediocre » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:40 am

Whatever you do, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT get a fucking blackberry storm. I rarely regret things in life (I've done some pretty stupid shit) and I regret getting the storm.

I just got the brand new blackberry curve and am very pleased.

de5igual

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by de5igual » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:42 am

switched from the blackberry to the iphone. minus the whole not getting work email part, life is better.

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Reinhardt

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by Reinhardt » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:47 am

I'm going to be that guy and ask why law students need a smartphone. I was planning to get a $10 phone from Virgin Mobile with the cheapest possible plan.

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Panther7

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by Panther7 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:49 am

i use phones to call people.

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mle0918

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by mle0918 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 10:56 am

Mattalones wrote:
EBGB wrote:Verizon will be coming out at the end of the month with the Incredible. It's the newest Android phone and rumors are that it'll blow the Droid out of the water. My boyfriend tried to convince me to get one if it went with T-Mobile, but I went with the Nexus One instead which is also on par with, if not better than, the iPhone.
Could you post some information about the Nexus One. I know that it has more processing power than my iPhone3GS, and that it is also more customizable, but I have never touched one. I have had smartphones since before they were really that smart (remember the FAT, old HTC phones on Windows Mobile 3 or 4 with the slide down keyboards? ... yeah, back when dialing a phone number took 90seconds of delay and a stylus!). I got the iPhone because it was the first smartphone whose hardware was actually able to run the software installed on the phone (and it does a beautiful job). But, now that other phones, particularly the Nexus One, are able to run their operating systems/software packages smoothly, without crashing, I am interested to hear about them.
I used a nexus one for 4 months and recently switched to an iphone 3g. My favorite thing about the google phone was the ability to sync your google calendar (it looks just like the actual thing too on the phone, colors and everything), and it can automatically update your contact's photo to its facebook profile picture. It also takes better pictures and video (with flash, zoom, timer) and it rotates in more angles than the iphone. Another fun thing is the voice-to-text function, you can speak out text messages (but how often are you going to do that in public?) and "google voice" can dictate out voice mails and then you can email/text them to people.

That being said, I love my iphone much more than I ever loved the nexus one. Maybe an updated version will be better, but the nexus one's keypad would often freeze/quit responding/respond funny in all sorts of situations, such as higher altitude, cold air, typing while laying down...having a keypad that won't respond (or not respond the way you want it to) is extremely frustrating to say the least. The iphone, despite its simplicity and less fancy set-up, is much more dependable and does just fine surfing the internet, uploading contacts, and checking emails.

But this is just my opinion, and I'm definitely not a tech-expert by any means!

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hannah87

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by hannah87 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:00 am

TheBigMediocre wrote:Whatever you do, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT get a fucking blackberry storm. I rarely regret things in life (I've done some pretty stupid shit) and I regret getting the storm.

I just got the brand new blackberry curve and am very pleased.
+1, love the curve. we blackberry-lovers are definitely in the minority here.

jasonac21

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by jasonac21 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:03 am

Mattalones wrote:ACTUALLY, if you are thinking about getting a smartphone, it will probably be better to wait and see what comes out in the summer. That is generally when phones come out. Apple usually puts out new iPhones in June and other manufacturers will be around that time as well. Given that you won't actually need it till the Fall, waiting will probably be doable.
This. I'd wait until the new iPhone comes out, June I think, then wait one more month to see if Google responds. I'm loving this competition between Google and Apple now. I'm not sure why anyone would go with anything besides the Nexus One or the iPhone at this point (maybe the Droid if you like a physical keyboard).

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de5igual

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by de5igual » Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:03 am

jasonac21 wrote:
Mattalones wrote:ACTUALLY, if you are thinking about getting a smartphone, it will probably be better to wait and see what comes out in the summer. That is generally when phones come out. Apple usually puts out new iPhones in June and other manufacturers will be around that time as well. Given that you won't actually need it till the Fall, waiting will probably be doable.
This. I'd wait until the new iPhone comes out, June I think, then wait one more month to see if Google responds. I'm loving this competition between Google and Apple now. I'm not sure why anyone would go with anything besides the Nexus One or the iPhone at this point (maybe the Droid if you like a physical keyboard).
the new iphone is just a software update

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redvelvetccake

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by redvelvetccake » Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:17 pm

hannah87 wrote:
TheBigMediocre wrote:Whatever you do, for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT get a fucking blackberry storm. I rarely regret things in life (I've done some pretty stupid shit) and I regret getting the storm.

I just got the brand new blackberry curve and am very pleased.
+1, love the curve. we blackberry-lovers are definitely in the minority here.
Agree. Can't ever see myself parting with my curve, although I have to admit, if I absolutely ever had to, I would go with a Droid next.

barrydukakis

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by barrydukakis » Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:43 pm

Just throwing an alternative out there for those that don't want to spend exorbitant amounts on a data plan.

If you have AT&T and buy an unlocked smart phone, then it is very cheap for unlimited data. I have unlimited data for $10 currently, and paid 200$ for a very nice, unlocked Nokia E71 on dell. It has walk and drive navigation free, does everything the newer phones do minus a touch screen, and is overall an incredibly useful phone. Even better, with my $10 unlimited plan, I am able to tether it to my netbook via bluetooth and use 3g internet whenever I need to.

Massive savings over iphone/blackberry/typical data plans
+
Great phone with navigation and all the bells and whistles... incredibly attractive brushed metal casing that everyone loves
+
bluetooth tethering
=
The best, for the price, phone and plan that one can buy.

NOTE, the E71 is now well over $300 on Dell, wait and it will likely come down.

Web browsing experience isn't the greatest, but it isn't bad either, and it does everything I need it to.

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Kiersten1985

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by Kiersten1985 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:50 pm

Pearalegal wrote:Your Summer position and job will give you a blackberry.
This.

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GordonBombay

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by GordonBombay » Fri Apr 16, 2010 3:58 pm

I just switched to Verizon from AT&T, I got AT&T at the time because I thought I wanted the iPhone, and the only BB that was 3G with buttons at the time was the Bold...on ATTT (verizon had the storm). AT&T is terrible in NYC. Verizon has been lights out awesome so far. If you were going to a city where anything would work my advice is get the cheapest data/ phone plan possible. Sprints new $60 all you can eat deal is awesome.

Note: I have not gone to school yet, I just think that everything outsie of the basic data, email and phone features is frills, though I could never go back to not having a smart phone. Im a BB guy if you couldn't tell. BBM for the win!

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ArthurEdens

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by ArthurEdens » Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:04 pm

Reinhardt wrote:I'm going to be that guy and ask why law students need a smartphone. I was planning to get a $10 phone from Virgin Mobile with the cheapest possible plan.
+1

That's a lot of extra money every year compared with how (relatively) little a decent conventional plan costs. I'm never far enough away from a computer to need it. I can also get 24hr of internet access on my phone (which is a quasi smartphone w/QWERTY keyboard) for just $1.99 if I'm ever stuck somewhere.

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rickter

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by rickter » Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:09 pm

EVO 4G

Image

sullidop

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by sullidop » Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:15 pm

Wait a month or two and get the Nexus One when it comes out for Verizon...unless HTC stops making b/c of apple's playa-hatin' patent lawsuit.

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Mattalones

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by Mattalones » Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:04 pm

f0bolous wrote:switched from the blackberry to the iphone. minus the whole not getting work email part, life is better.
People keep saying this, but you can set up the iPhone to do anything with mail. You just have to put in the information.

The iPhone also does all of the live sync stuff with contacts and calendars that the google phones do. Don't take advice on this being true only if you get a google phone b/c it is false. The only difference is that you have to take 10min to set it up on the iPhone, rather than having it already done for you on a google phone. Not a big deal in my experience.

You can see for yourself if you want (the iPad also does this): http://www.google.com/sync/iphone.html
Last edited by Mattalones on Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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JollyGreenGiant

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by JollyGreenGiant » Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:05 pm

The i-phone is probably the best phone, but AT&T is a crock of shit.

Look for the best Verizon (Droid) or Sprint (HTC Hero) phone. I'd wait a couple months until the newest ones come out.

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hannah87

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by hannah87 » Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:10 pm

Mattalones wrote:
f0bolous wrote:switched from the blackberry to the iphone. minus the whole not getting work email part, life is better.
People keep saying this, but you can set up the iPhone to do anything with mail. You just have to put in the information.
i think what f0bolous meant is that some companies/organizations only have or allow email capabilities for BlackBerrys, and don't allow you to connect your iPhone to their servers. i worked at such a company.

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Mattalones

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Re: Smartphone during law school/career?

Post by Mattalones » Fri Apr 16, 2010 5:15 pm

hannah87 wrote:
Mattalones wrote:
f0bolous wrote:switched from the blackberry to the iphone. minus the whole not getting work email part, life is better.
People keep saying this, but you can set up the iPhone to do anything with mail. You just have to put in the information.
i think what f0bolous meant is that some companies/organizations only have or allow email capabilities for BlackBerrys, and don't allow you to connect your iPhone to their servers. i worked at such a company.
I have never heard of that. I have only heard that they won't "support it" (i.e. pay for it and fix/replace it if it breaks). But, I have never heard of a company that won't let you put the code in your iPhone and use it ... I mean, for people with an iPhone before working at such a place, that would be saying, "Either carry two phones around with you or ditch your iPhone." That seems silly.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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