This completely clears things up.
http://www.flixxy.com/my-blackberry-is-not-working.htm
Senior Member
This completely clears things up.
http://www.flixxy.com/my-blackberry-is-not-working.htm
Google Android - operating system, like Windows but for phones.
PDANet is an application (app for short) that allows your computer to use the data feature of your phone instead of paying the phone company extra. Main competition is Easy Tether, another app. We use PDANet but I've heard good reviews of Easy Tether too.
BOHICA is Navy slang, stands for bend over here it comes again.
Streaming video is addictive! You have no idea what crazy stuff is out there until you start following links on Youtube. Not just TV. We can also stream movies from Netflix to our home theater.
Our coach came with an in motion satellite system, we haven't bothered to subscribe to service. It's only good for TV, while we can get so much more over the Internet.
Jon, hope this answers your questions, but feel free to ask any others as you think of stuff.
Cheers, Sherry
You are right about the phone ringing.But if I answer it, Internet is suspended to the computer and resumes when I hang up.
Senior Member
If your phone can play movies and put internet on the computer why do buses have satellite dishes and why do people who want to work on their computer have a Verizon card for ???? per month. How much is 5 GB. Comcast won't tell me how much gigs I use on my computer.
Forgot to ask, how much does a phone cost and how much per month?
Satellite systems are good everywhere, not just where you can get a cell signal. Better system if you're in the boonies but much more expensive.Originally Posted by Jon Wehrenberg
Verizon aircard is the same as tethering a smart phone, it's just personal choice. Anything that can be done with an aircard can be done with a tethered phone, including sharing the connection with a router. I am frugal approaching cheap, and am not going to pay for an aircard when I have unlimited data on my Droid.
Five gig is a lot for a casual user, but the fuzzy hubby likes to watch Youtube and subscribes to an amateur photography site both of which are data hogs. We both play Farmville, another data hog, so that's why we were going over the data limit regularly before.
As for how much you can do with 5 gb, here's some examples from a web page I found:
Stuff You Might Do How Much It Uses How Many Times Could You Do It With 300 MB How Many Times You Could Do It With 5GB
Email (no attachment)
3 KB 99,998 1,666,667
Update Facebook Status
25-40 KB 7,500 - 12,000 125,000 - 200,000
Word document
70 KB 4283 71,429
Web page look-up
150 KB 2003 33,333
Low resolution digital image
500 KB 600 10,000
PowerPoint presentation
3 MB 98 1,667
Download a Song (3 minutes)
3 MB 98 1,667
YouTube video (3 minutes)
15 MB 23 333
1 hour of Skype (audio) @ 64kb/s
28 MB 10 178
1 hour of MagicJack @ 128kb/s
56 MB 5 89
1 hour of Skype Video Chat @ 384 kb/s
169 MB 1.5 29
TV show download (30 minutes)
350 MB 0 14
Movie download
700 MB 0 7
But one big gotcha is downloading updates. I've had iTunes updates that were 100mb! Not many of those and you'll be over the limit too.
Oops, forgot to answer your price questions.
The costs for a 4G aircard/modem is now $50 for 5g or $80 for 10g plus $10/g over your plan allowance. Much better and cheaper than the plan I had on my dongle.
Price for a smart phone plan is $40/month plus another $30/month for unlimited data on your phone. If you tether through Verizon instead of buying PDANet, that is an extra $20/month for 2g of data. Personally, I can't understand why anyone would choose that option since PDANet had a one time fee of $20, then uses your phone's unlimited data.
So total for one phone would be $70 plus tax. Our Verizon bill is around $100/month for both our Android phones.
Also, I told you wrong on a previous post: Verizon now has the iPhone too. I personally prefer the Droid but many people swear by iPhones, both are very good.
Cheers, Sherry
Senior Member
Then what is the deal with tethering? If the cost is as much as an air card what is the advantage. Similarly, I see emails sent from phones all the time. Do those cost $70 a month just to be able to do that as opposed to $40 or so per month?
If I want to get on line when we travel (not sure about that, it's nice to not have phones ring or to feel compelled to get on the computer) I would only do it to get on the POG forum and answer emails. Wouldn't a phone work?
Senior Member
Sherry,
Keep in mind Jon's current phone has two tin cans and string and he still keep quarters in his little change purse for the occasional pay phone!
Good, it won't cost him much to upgrade.
Fuzzy said to say "even Jim can work the Droid" but I would never say that about him.
Tethering just lets you use your full computer. Yes, you can do most everything through the phone but I'm just not that fast at typing with the chicklet keyboard. Yes, the phones do cost $70/mo as opposed to $50/mo for the aircard but you would probably still need the phone with the aircard for voice calls. So really, you're looking at either phone + aircard = $40 + $50 = $90/mo with 5 g data or a smart phone for $70/mo with unlimited data.
As for using it, one of the handiest things we do is use it to find places to stop. There is an online searchable database for free places to park overnight at Overnight RV Parking, I check for spots along our route when Fuzzy decides it's time to stop. If we want a park, I check the RV park review website for locations along the route that aren't dumps. I have both of our phones set up to give weather alerts, so we won't drive into a hazardous weather condition unaware. Course, that didn't help much when the tornado almost got us, but that's another story.
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