Mary is disappointed in her cell phone choices. Most of the models have a blizzard of features she never uses and the displays are only readable when inside. There is no way to read them outside in the sunlight.
She had got a tip that the Samsung Rugby II phone was a rugged phone and the display was more readable outside. In searching for one of these, one place recommended the Motorola Barrage. Both of these are built to military specs. Both are loaded with all kinds of features she wouldn't use. Both are expensive. And none are in stock in four places we looked for them.
I got to think there is some kind of phone out there that is somewhere between the simple/cheep, fancy/expensive and expensive/military spec. phones that a person working outside can be happy with.
I make calls.
I take calls.
I look at the clock.
I listen to voice mail.
I listen to achived voice mail.
I like caller ID.
I like to see missed calls.
I like to see phone numbers of calls I have received.
I like to see phone numbers of calls I made.
I want to see it outside.
I want to have a loud ring.
That's it.
I don't need anythings else.
Quote from: Cedarman on June 11, 2010, 06:39:23 AM
I make calls.
I take calls.
I look at the clock.
I listen to voice mail.
I listen to achived voice mail.
I like caller ID.
I like to see missed calls.
I like to see phone numbers of calls I have received.
I like to see phone numbers of calls I made.
I want to see it outside.
I want to have a loud ring.
That's it.
I don't need anythings else.
Do you have such a phone or, like Mary, want one? horn_smiley
I know someone who got a mil-spec Motorola, and the outside display cracked the first day in his pocket with some loose change. ::) I bought a Motorola Razor about a year ago, because they are much cheaper and out of style now. :D I use it around the mill, doing excavation work, etc. and it has worked very well. It isn't mil-spec by any means, however. Reading displays outside is always a challenge, I cup one hand over the phone to block the sun and that helps.
My wife and I both have Samsung flip phone's. They were included free with our ATT contract. Very durable and fit easily into my pants pocket. They often work in low bar areas where "better" phones won't.
I have a casio Boulder from verizon. I've had alot of phones and this one is the toughest. It's military spec and also waterproof(although I would never test it). I am very tough on phones and this one has been great for a year now.
What Dana said. My simple Samsung flip phone has ridden in my left pocket for several years and is still like new. It doesn't even have a camera, but does have all the things Cedarman listed.
In order for a phone to do what it needs to do and still be compact, it is necessarily a delicate instrument. Don't put a folding phone in the same pocket with your change or keys. Coins and keys can work their way into it and wedge it open, then when you lean on it, the display screen will be destroyed. Like any other tool, including the anvil, it will serve you well if you take care of it, but will not if you don't.
motorola tundra phone here. it is a tough phone but ATT service still leaves much to be desired.
Oh boy this is going to get me slapped I can feel it now........................
I live near a retirement ALF home. I generally eat at a corner diner where many of the residents go for breakfast and lunch. They seem to like the Knack phone.. It's a plain jane phone with large buttons and screen, loud and simple. No frills. Theres also one called the Jitterbug
I know Verizon has them but not sure about other compaines.
Motorola Quantico is mil-spec and supposed to be tough but I haven't got one yet because I really like my old Nokia 6019. My cell provider no longer sells Nokia but I buy them on ebay for $25, keep spares and the cell company doesn't mind switching them over when one gets too troublesome.
It lives in my left front pants pocket by itsself and takes a beating.
Not waterproof (I've drowned one ::) )
No camera
No music
No color
Easy to see outdoors.
Don't know what model it is, but I have been seeing one in American Legion magazine that has large numbers, Makes and receives calls, and that's it. Sounds like it might be one of the phones Raider Bill is talking about.
Cell phone for old folks... ;D :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10332/Cellphone.jpg)
Read this thread this morning, and went outside and my phone fell off the mill :( and I must have stepped on it. Now the screen is cracked ::) Lucky I have a small collection of spares :) to bad the collection of spares is a lot smaller than the collection of broken phones :D
Nick
Good one Doug. :D :D
Did you know you can almost read your phone number on that rotary? :D :D
I have a Casio boulder by verizon it is my 2nd one . The first 1 I used for 2 1/2 years and needed a new battery I wanted to upgrade but bought the same thing . I've had it for more than a year and it has been great. It has been dropped ,kicked, scratched it, and banged into stone and concrete walls it looks like DanG but it still works great. It even has an electronic compass so you can find your way home from the mill. Holmes
Jitterbug. Renee's says when I become the Judge I have to have a cell phone. Simple is good.
Big thing for both of us is, can it be read outside in the sunlight? Often times when we get a call we're running the mill and have to go out in the logyard to talk. Or if we make a phone call we have to go out in the loggyard to make it.
Casio boulder, tough, wont slip in your hand, loud, simple, got stuff I will never use, but hey, it beats the others. My wife has a flat screen and hates it, forever doing stuff in her purse.
We just bought a Sanyo Pro-200 for my wife. It seems pretty rugged, all cased in rubber, does NOT have a camera, and has both nice big numbers and nice big buttons (compared to phones we've had previously). It's good and bright, and seems to be easily viewable in most outdoor conditions. It's not cheap ($319cdn here in Canada), and that's a drawback.
cheers
John
'Nether question...
Are these phones tied to one phone service? I see listed phones for AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, etc.
We got AT&T. So does that mean we are limited to phones that are specific to AT&T?
I have a samsung Rugby 2 through at&t. Best phone i have ever had. I set the phone for outdoor settings which is ring and vibrate. I carry it in a case that clips to my belt and can feel it vibrate when someone calls. Also the speaker is louder, I can drive the skidder or be in the mill and hear perfect. I've dropped it in water, drove over it and lost it for a day in the woods, still works as good as the day I bought it. Well worth the money.
I just checked on E-bay and they have used ones from $75 up and new ones for just under $200. A lot less than what the AT&T store wanted for ones that didn't have in stock.
Quote from: Bibbyman on June 11, 2010, 06:16:44 PM
Are these phones tied to one phone service? I see listed phones for AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, etc.
We got AT&T. So does that mean we are limited to phones that are specific to AT&T?
I
think this is where the term
unlocked comes into play.
If someone can explain
unlocked please do so. ;D
Im like the others, I have had SAMSUNG phones for years, the first one cheap free one through Verizon lasted 3 years was dropped in creek 3 times,. went through the washer in my pants and also into the toilet several times. It was dropped 1000 times once off the stair railing and down 2 flights of wooden stairs. once from 15' in air onto concrete. finally died when it was caught while on my pants flipped open fell off and a clod foot stepped on it. (Ya my own clod hoppers landed on it.)
I now have a newer version "SAMSUNG U340" it is 3+ years old same battery and it still lasts 3 + days for a full charge, when new it lasted a week on full charge on 16hrs a day. This phone also has made it into the washer while in my pants pocket. it fell off tractor as well. didnt run it over that I'm aware. it spent 2 days out in the woods until we finally found it by walking the woods & calling it repeatedly with my womans phone.
I regularly drop my phones so I expect them to be able to last a while. I also put a leather padded case on them to help them survive makes taking pictures harder but the leather padding & clips make it worth it. I usually but the leather cases at radio shack seem to be better quality and cheaper than the verizion store.
I have not upgraded due to so many people complaining the new SMART phones or TOUCH screen phones are easliy damaged. not something I want lol...
be sure to read the reviews on line, there all over, I read them at my VERIZON log on account there are people that tell the truth there for sure...
Mark
Quote from: Bibbyman on June 11, 2010, 06:16:44 PM
'Nether question...
Are these phones tied to one phone service? I see listed phones for AT&T, Sprint, Nextel, etc.
We got AT&T. So does that mean we are limited to phones that are specific to AT&T?
Bibby, there are several different cellular base station technologies used in the US, including CDMA, TDMA, GSM, and iDEN. Because of the mergers between the carriers over the years, they all have a variety of technologies on their network, as well as different spectrum. ATT used to be the most complex; as I recall they had seven different tecnhologies deployed across the US. Sprint has two - CDMA and iDEN.
Each one of these carriers has had "dual mode or tri-mode" handsets developed that allow them to work seamlessly on their national network, even though you may be using ATT TDMA 800 Mhz service in Colorado and ATT CDMA 1,800 mhz service in Missouri - two totally different technologies on two totally different spectrum bands.
In some instances, a specific carrier may have some dedicated spectrum that is used for control channels. Nextel and Southern Linc come to mind. Even though they use the same underlying technology, because they use different frequencies for their control channels their phones will not work on one another's networks w/o being re-flashed.
Some technologies are portable - such as GSM.
For these reasons, it's safest to stick with the carrier that the phone was originally sold for.
AT&T uses a sim card which is the brain...so you need a phone that will accept the sim card. I just bought a new phone from Walmart. It was a "Go" phone (there cheap). Transferred my sim card from another device into the Go phone.
Don't have any suggestions for a good phone. I hardly ever use my phone but I do have a heavy leather pouch for it on my belt.
Doug , That is the phone that I have been looking for . Told my wife not to get me a cell phone unless she could find one with a rotary dial . She got me an expensive do-all phone with small unidentified buttons . they have +-#*= and other picuretype markings that have nothing to do with a phone ,oh and a big button that has OK on it We live in Illinois. Shouldnt it have IL ?
I broke the flipper top out of the thing . It got hung up on something while I was slipping through a tight spot after the storm . I poped it back togeter but it did not work forsome reason . She took it back and they could not figure out what had happened ,caled all the employees over to check it out . Not a one had seen that before . So they gave her a new Phone because it was under warranty.
Now where do I get that dial cell phone you have???????????? ;D
I've noticed the more features a phone has, the shorter the battery life. My work phone gets replaced every year, and they got some kinda gee-whiz-super-duper phones with all the stuff ya don't need, and the batteries wouldn't go 2 full days! Everybody complained, and we got new, simpler phones that will go a solid week. When I start building my place, I'll be looking for a cheap, simple, solid phone myself.
As an aside- Does anyone know how to attach a phone (not the holster) to your body, so if you drop it, you can retrieve it? I just know that the day the ladder falls while I'm the roof alone, I'll fumble the DanG phone when I try to call for help! :D :D :D I'd like to attach some kind of lanyard to the phone itself, and hook it to a belt loop or something. Do they make a phone with an attachment point?
Quote from: scgargoyle on June 13, 2010, 09:50:33 AM
Do they make a phone with an attachment point?
Mine has one. Of course they don't make that phone anymore. ::)
Maybe you could super glue something to the side of the phone, ....the same as I had to put a coffee cup holder on the sawmill. :D
How come they keep making those phones tinier and tinier. They've got no room to put anything on there but icons now. I've got at least one picture on there that I can't tell what it is, much less what it does. I looked it up in the instructions, one day, and it did a lot of stuff, none of which I remember, or apparently do. I'm still trying to figure out how to get the one picture I managed to take, off of the phone and into my computer. The instructions say, "just email it". :-\ :-\
I like the lanyard idea, or the "can't drop it" idea, if you figure out a good one.
They haven't figured out that they could sell a wire head gear that you could put on your head and slip the phone into to talk hands free. Instead, they sell these stupid looking hearing-aid looking things that hang on the side of your head. I'll bet I could build one with a coat hanger wire in just a few minutes. You could make one that fit all kinds of phones, even cordless ones in the house. Used to be, when phones were phones, you could get those hooks to put on the handset that let the phone rest on your shoulder. I wonder who uninvented that?
Quote from: DanG on June 13, 2010, 11:58:43 AM
Quote from: scgargoyle on June 13, 2010, 09:50:33 AM
Do they make a phone with an attachment point?
Of course they don't make that phone anymore. ::)
That reminds me of the time we had to have a new phone installed because of lightening damage. The phone guy was going over the charges with me and told me there was a $5.00 charge for the optional style of phone (push button) and I asked him what was standard. He said rotary phones were standard. I told him that I liked the rotary dial just fine so give me one of those and take the five bucks off my bill. He said "Those aren't available anymore" ??? :o >:( ::)
Bro. Noble, you better check that you're not still paying that extra five bucks, even though the phone co. hasn't provided phones for years. As long as you're paying for something you aren't getting, they are happy to take your money. I have demanded and recieved two major refunds since we've been here. Our line is served from the office in Gretna, which was unincorporated when we moved here. They became a City soon afterward, so the phone co. started billing us for City taxes, which shouldn't apply because we aren't in the City. Another time, they arbitrarily added "inside wire maintenance" charges, even though I installed and maintain my own wiring. They cheerfully refunded the charges as if to say, "Well it was a nice try anyway."
Bibbyman, I have a motorola tundra. I got it because it is dust proof and semi water proof. I have dropped it out of my pocket from on top of the grinder (which is about 13 feet up with me standing on it) and it has hit the ground and is still working. I have had it for a year and there is absolutely no dust in the screens. I can see the display just fine in the sun. It does have a lot of bells and whistles if you want to pay extra for them.
The only problem I have had is when Stillwater went to 3G networks it would not pick up other towers. However ATT replaced it for free and the new one is working like a champ, this was about a month ago . I had a motorola razor before this one and the screens had so much dust in them I could not read them inside or out.
my samsung convoy has a lanyard attachment point. it is supposed to be mill specs. we'll see. I left it in my soaking wet pants last night and had water in the battery compartment when I checked it this a.m. The screen now has some fuzzy issues b/c of the water.
It has a camera, you can hardly read it in the sun it is 4 months old so I can't give it a thumbs up or down but It does have a lanyard attachment!! 8) 8)
Quote from: okmulch on June 13, 2010, 06:40:43 PM
Bibbyman, I have a motorola tundra.
We've looked at phones in 5 stores in 4 towns. All agree the Rugby II is the best for outdoor use. But none have them in stock. We talked to a lady at the AT&T store in the Columba Mall today and she also said the Rugby II was the best but they were out. BUT! She expected to get some in on Wednesday! Mary is going to call back.
On the Motorola Tundra, she said it was a good and rugged phone but they don't make it any any longer. Said it had a couple of problems - one being the antenna would break off.
My antenna never broke off, but it would not pick up signals out in the country. It would do fine in town. It possibly could have broke internally.
If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice. The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture. Don't ask me how I know this. ::) :D
Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks. No purposely submerging your phones. :D :D
Have the Boulder sound quality improved? I bought one a couple years back and returned it after only one day of use. You could hardly hear the person on the other end. Something to do with a protective film over the speaker to make it water-proof. It was a shame because it looked like a rugged phone. I liked the flashlight they had built into it.
Quote from: Coon on June 15, 2010, 01:09:31 PM
If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice. The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture. Don't ask me how I know this. ::) :D
Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks. No purposely submerging your phones. :D :D
This work! I don't know why but the girls here in the office seem to drop theirs in the potty a lot. That's how they fix them.
Quote from: Raider Bill on June 15, 2010, 03:35:55 PM
Quote from: Coon on June 15, 2010, 01:09:31 PM
If you get your phone wet and to the point where the screen gets fuzzy and such a simple thing to do to remove the excess moisture is to put it into a container of rice. The rice will absorb and wick away all of the excess moisture. Don't ask me how I know this. ::) :D
Don't y'all go trying this at home now folks. No purposely submerging your phones. :D :D
This work! I don't know why but the girls here in the office seem to drop theirs in the potty a lot. That's how they fix them.
Bill, that's kinda weird. Nice rice trick.
I've kinda lost my taste for rice all-of-a-sudden.......
Yellow rice and beans................... Just sayin......
I'm happy now! 8) A sign of a good topic when it stays long enough to get around to food. :D
bibby, i thought of you this am. i seen a comercial on the tube with Meridith baxter in it. she was advertising a simple phone with big numbers and large print onthe screen. it was a basic phone with ab. no frills. looked like what you wanted. sorry i didnt remember the name.