Cell phone update thread

I would guess that you'll be within arms reach of your computer for most of the day.

Why else did I buy the snazzy laptop bag???

RF

I plan to have my assistant handle all of my telephone correspondence.

I'm looking at the Palm Pro (is it out yet?) and will probably look at what plans Vodafone or Orange have in the UK. Email/web access will probably be a plus, since AFAIK most event signups (for company presentations, etc.) are done at LBS via web, and some of them are popular enough to be first-come, first-served.

My advice...get a smart phone. I had a normal old cell phone for the first semester and it was a pain. Not so much the phone but the lack of the ability to check email, calendars, and things like that very easily. Yes I always had a laptop with me but it is a huge pain to bust that out of your bag and check for what room a meeting is. A smart phone will make your life so much easier to keep up with the huge volume of email and appointments you will have.

Remember I am basing this off life at Kellogg where we do tons of group work, so I am constantly in touch with email and have multiple meetings every day...and dont forget recruiting events.

I have been researching various smartphones/plans for quite a while. I am still not sure whether a data plan is completely necessary. For e.g. at Duke, the entire PIM can be synchronized over Wifi as well as cellular data networks. One of the devices they support is the IPod Touch. I am not sure if I want to carry 2 devices so best bet is to get a device with Wifi and an add-on data plan. Palm Pre seems promising but Sprint service sucks in most cities including Durham. Verizon and AT&T seem to have the best coverage at most campuses from what I've heard. Both their data plans are in the $35-40 range, more if you go with BlackBerry plans.

I agree with River- get a smartphone. I'm probably the least tech-savvy person at the GSB; until I went to Stanford, I had never owned a smartphone and had (seriously) never used Outlook to schedule appointments/meetings. Six months later, I don't know what I'd do without my iPhone.

Refurb, you raise a good point about being with your laptop most of the time. But, with the "help" of a number of Stanford and GSB lists, I get ~ 100 emails a day into my Stanford account. Some of 'em need pretty quick action, so it helps to be connected. Further, a lot of social stuff occurs via email. Say you're out to dinner with a bunch of friends. Then another friend sends out an email to a big group of people or even the class listserve, announcing an impromptu party, drinks at a bar, or a movie outing. This happens on a fairly regular basis, so it's just convenient to have a smartphone.

Wow. I get maybe 50-70 per day at work and most of those have nothing to do with me.

I may have to rethink the phone thing.

RF

A good day is 25-35 emails...a bad day is the 150+. I put on an event last fall and broke 250 in a day all directed to me, coming from alums, faculty, students, administration. Basically I lived in outlook that day. The hard thing is some emails are sent with the desire for immediate turnaround. Will get something from an alum you network with saying, hey I have 15 minutes free and wanted to talk to you about somehting call me. Or a group mate putting together a case saying, hey I had a question about you wrote...

Dont underestimate the volume and urgency of some of the stuff you will be dealing with. Its like the work world but instead of screwing your company a little by being slow...you could be screwing yourself and friends.

OK, now that I've received an education on the realities of b-school, let's talk phones (yeah I'm hijacking rca's thread again, but this time hijacking the thread to bring it back on topic).

I've tried checking email on a regular phone and it sucks. I'm thinking a Blackberry or iPhone.

So what do people have/recommend?

I don't need all the bells and whistles, just a phone that isn't a pain in the ass to check and compose emails on. I'm not interested in a $100/month plan either.

RF

Both Blackberry and iPhone is going to get you to $100/month mark when you add the cheapest phone plan + text msg/other monthly msg fee + unlimited data plan + all the hidden fees and taxes on your monthly bill.

Yep, the BB service of Voice, Data and SMS will run you close to $110
If you add international plan to it (very valuable if you travel abroad) $133

This does not include any discounts your company may be eligible for.

I own both a Blackberry (currently use a Pearl) for work and iPhone for personal, I would recommend the iPhone. I haven't really used my iPhone for its calendar since my Blackberry linked to my work calendar, so I don't know how it compares to the BB in terms of that functionality. But overall the pluses for me in favor of the iPhone are:

- easier to manage multiple email accounts on one device (on the BB all incoming emails end up in one inbox vs. keeping separate inboxes on the iPhone). With the volume of school related email, it'll be nice to be able to keep my Gmail separate.
- Voice quality is slightly better than the BB. I don't know if this is true for all BBs or if it's just the Pearl.
- Better web browser (Safari vs. BB browser)
- doubles as iPod, so one less device to carry around
- doubles as a Kindle, so saves you $350 if you were planning to get one of those
- More functionality thanks to add-on applications

The only negative I've seen for the iPhone vs. BB is that the BB's keyboard is a little easier to use.

Overall though they're pretty close, especially in the basic email functionality. I think mainly it comes down to personal preference.
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I'm going to get an iPhone just because the BB browser sucks. There are so many websites that I can't even get on because of formatting or the size of the page. I love to be able to look up something quickly on the internet and from my experience the BB is just not up to par.

iPhone phone and plan prices:

https://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone- ... aqSection0

does someone have similar numbers for blackberries?

I think it's just about identical for Blackberry services (typically $30 for unlimited data, excluding text messages). However, with Blackberries you can shop around a bit in terms of service providers. T-Mobile tends to give more minutes for the same price, but I think I will stick to AT&T anyway because of the free AT&T-to-AT&T calls (and as the exclusive iPhone provider that will mean a lot of free calls) and the rollover minutes.

I'm glad to hear that you recommend the iPhone, despite also using a Blackberry. I've only ever used a Blackberry and probably see the email/texts as my key functionality, so I have been leaning toward sticking with RIM.

However, my iPod is also an outdated POS. I haven't used it much because I commute by car these days (I just steal my girlfriend's otherwise). So the iPhone has great appeal in that it's a 2-for-1 on the iPod, but I have had reservations about it as an emailing device.

Also, would you recommend straying from the $99 refurb iPhones that AT&T offers?

I currently have a BB Curve, and am considering upgrading to either the Bold or the iPhone. One of my colleagues mentioned that the Bold allows the user to keep email accounts separate. Also, its screen is BEAUTIFUL. He was watching Iron Chef via Slingbox and it looked great. As far as the iPhone vs. BB debate is concerned, I think it comes down to your comfort typing out an email on a touchscreen. I personally enjoy having a physical keyboard, but I have not yet played around with the touchscreen keys on the iPhone.