I need a new cellphone/GPS setup. Did I mention that I am also the most special snowflake in the world?
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posted by broadway bill
on Jul 23, 2012 -
8 answers
I've been receiving calls every few days for the past few months from a company trying to sell me prescription drugs from India. I've tried telling them to please stop calling, putting them on donotcall.gov, filing a complaint with the FCC, and even complaining to Washington state which seems to be where the calls are routed from domestically. None of these have worked so far...though that isn't too surprising. What does surprise me is that I'm unable to even put a block on the number because it has a 3 digit int'l prefix and Verizon's system for blocking can only handle 10 digit numbers! The number reads on 001-206-337-3269 on my phone. Pretty frustrating. Any other ideas? thanks!
posted by grammalvsu
on Jul 12, 2012 -
23 answers
How far underground would I have go to escape any man made signals?
posted by Query
on Jul 2, 2012 -
18 answers
Is there a phone out there with a battery life like they used to have that can still let me check facebook every now and then?
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posted by smoke
on Jul 2, 2012 -
19 answers
Recommendations for an inexpensive smartphone/plan combination? My wife pays $40-50 for her dumb phone now. Would love to pay the same or not too much more, but actually be able to take pictures, text without 3 keys per character, and sync her calendar. web surfing would be nice but is optional if the calendar works. Google Calendar would presumably require a data plan; but is there a windows/outlook calendar that would not? She has Outlook at work.)
posted by msalt
on Jun 26, 2012 -
21 answers
I live in the US, but I spend quite a bit of time in the UK. Please help me overhaul my (currently ridiculous) cellphone arrangement, so that I can make calls cheaply, and be called by other people cheaply for them, in/from/to both places, preferably with email access too.
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posted by oliverburkeman
on Jun 20, 2012 -
5 answers
Moving to Berlin from San Francisco in October, and I'd like some advice for finding both a cell phone plan and a broadband service for my apartment.
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posted by Yiggs
on Jun 12, 2012 -
3 answers
Please explain to me as though I have lived under a rock: What are the modern norms among urban folk in the US regarding mobile telephones? SMS? Internet-capable phones and "apps"? When is it appropriate to take a call? To place a call? What do people do with their telephones that really pisses you off? When, if ever, has someone made your life easier by appropriate use of a telephone?
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posted by d. z. wang
on Jun 8, 2012 -
21 answers
I left my dead-battery smartphone in a cab to Dulles. I rudely took the driver's card on the way out even though I didn't want to. I phoned the driver an hour later, and he actually said he'd return it to me, but I didn't have high hopes.
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posted by Ignatius J. Reilly
on Jun 6, 2012 -
29 answers
What cellphone and service should I choose for an upcoming 6-week vacation to Australia?
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posted by jepler
on Jun 1, 2012 -
8 answers
I have a legally unlocked GSM iPhone 4 from Europe and will be moving back to the states soon for the foreseeable future. Since I don't need to trade the next year or two of my life for a hardware subsidy and am not bound to any company already, what is my best carrier choice for a data plan with modest talk use? Does having my own phone free and clear give me any extra options I wouldn't have otherwise?
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posted by Schismatic
on May 31, 2012 -
21 answers
My wife wants a new cellphone but her needs are out-of-step with the market. She's looking for something very simple but the hard part is that we're on Verizon so it needs to be CDMA. Are there options?
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posted by camcgee
on May 28, 2012 -
9 answers
The recently-retired senior generation of my family is traveling from US to London in October. They are arriving separately and splitting up for a couple of different side trips, and want to be able to stay in touch by cell phone. What are the easiest, cheapest options for cell phones that they can purchase ahead of time?
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posted by kimdog
on May 23, 2012 -
6 answers
My mobile phone is suddenly getting lots (more than 30 in the last 18 hours) of phone calls from "unknown" numbers and numbers with strange area codes. No voicemails are left. In many cases, the leading three digits don't appear to be area codes used in North America (examples include 375, 736, and 486), so these could be calls from outside the U.S. and Canda. What's going on? What should I do?
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posted by Area Man
on May 17, 2012 -
11 answers
Non-American who occasionally travels to America wants a Southern California phone number (Los Angeles area) that has data and that my friends can text to. My phone works on all USA carriers. What's the cheapest
permanent solution? A web-based (or other non-cell) solution is also welcome as long as people can text to the number.
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posted by You Should See the Other Guy
on May 11, 2012 -
11 answers
Currently, I have a Virgin Mobile PAYG smartphone. I'd like to get a phone on my family's Sprint plan instead (for the same monthly price as Virgin, I can get unlimited whatever). However, Sprint says they can't port my phone number because Virgin is a reseller of theirs. I've heard that you can port your number to Google Voice for a small fee, and then have Sprint port the number to a Sprint phone, but this advice was found on a forum somewhere and no one backed up the claim that it actually worked. Would it work? Have you done this? I'd really like to keep my phone number, and before I risk losing it, I'd like to know. Thanks.
posted by bluefly
on May 7, 2012 -
6 answers
Walking down the street on a cellphone, my reception cuts out and I hear a
different voice through the earpiece, very briefly, say something like "... three months..." It sounds like an advertisement. The person on the other end heard nothing, and the call wasn't dropped. What the heck happened?
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posted by BungaDunga
on Apr 30, 2012 -
6 answers
Will there be a place in the lobby to check cell phones at tomorrow's preview screening of The Avengers at the AMC Empire 25 in NYC?
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posted by Devoidoid
on Apr 30, 2012 -
10 answers
I've had a fantasy about my computer acting as a wireless answering system that I can voice control to answer calls via Skype while listening to streaming music. It's suddenly occurred to me that my smart phone can already do this, or is darn close to it. Is that true, and how could I pull it off?
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posted by diode
on Apr 28, 2012 -
2 answers
Staying in Italy for 3 1/2 months from June to October 2012. The Flashdrake and I need SIM cards for our mobile/cell phones while we are there. I must have data access as well, at least 1GB a month.
The TelCo industry changes so rapidly however, that I hoped that MeFites might help with current options.
In the past we have had not problem with SIM cards overseas, particularly finding the
Lebara plans great in Europe as they permitted us to call each other for free.
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posted by Flashduck
on Apr 28, 2012 -
4 answers
I'm switching my cell phone service from Bell to Koodo. I'd like a smartphone but I've never had one before. Which phone should I get?
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posted by kyla
on Apr 20, 2012 -
5 answers
I want to create a number to send text messages (SMS) which will then post all the messages onto a Twitter feed...
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posted by iamck
on Apr 18, 2012 -
3 answers
How risky (or not) is it to buy non OEM batteries off of ebay from china for my cellphone?
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posted by skjønn
on Apr 10, 2012 -
5 answers
Upgrading my phone: I'm debating a Droid 4, but I'm a bit nervous about the mediocre reviews of the camera. Will a third-party camera app improve the photo quality?
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posted by soleiluna
on Apr 5, 2012 -
12 answers
i have a boost mobile feature phone. i'm on a pay as you go plan. the phone has been off for several days, yet i continue to see data charges. whats going on?
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posted by sammich
on Apr 4, 2012 -
3 answers
I have a new smart phone on Virgin Mobile. I could have ported to Google Voice initially, using a number on GV I already had, but chose not to. I'm now getting calls from the cell's # and my GV #. Should I port over to GV completely and have just one number?
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posted by diode
on Mar 24, 2012 -
5 answers
Can I, a man whose clothes comes from Marks & Spencer (US: think JC Penney), get away with having a pink mobile phone?
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posted by ambrosen
on Mar 15, 2012 -
57 answers
Sacramento, CA Filter: What are your experiences with Page Plus, Virgin Mobile, and StraightTalk? Leaning toward Page Plus for their coverage map and price point.
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posted by luciddream928
on Mar 11, 2012 -
10 answers
What is the best phone for an active, mobile senior?
My mom is 75 and is on the phone all the time when she is at home. What would be the best cell phone for her so that she can keep in touch with people when she's on the go?
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posted by any portmanteau in a storm
on Mar 10, 2012 -
18 answers
I'm searching for a lowkey unobtrusive but interesting ringtone that won't draw looks of ire from those around me. I know this has been
covered on ask.mefi before (in 2006), and, indeed, I ended up with one of those ringtones on a long ago now dead phone. But six years later, most of those links are dead, and we've moved from RAZRs to iPhones and Androids.
So what's the latest and greatest in non-annoying ringy-dingys for our phones?
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posted by redbeard
on Feb 5, 2012 -
35 answers
What can I do to make things go smoothly when I quit Sprint for another mobile provider in a few months?
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posted by jepler
on Feb 2, 2012 -
6 answers
Could I potentially ruin my Iphone (which I love) if I take it to some guy suggested by T-Mobile to get it unlocked because AT&T won't give me the unlock code.
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posted by victoriab
on Jan 27, 2012 -
17 answers
I done did it, I cracked my HTC Thunderbolt's screen. Help me understand my options. Lots of questions interspersed in the details; any answers appreciated.
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posted by rouftop
on Jan 23, 2012 -
7 answers
What do you do about very small scratches in a glass cellphone screen other than replacing the screen?
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posted by Orb2069
on Jan 22, 2012 -
2 answers
Where might I go to gain the use of a landline for an hour or so during normal business hours?
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posted by indubitable
on Jan 19, 2012 -
9 answers
If I use Google Voice from Europe to call someone in the US, does the other person get charged for a long-distance call? Or does the number appear as a US number?
posted by Busoni
on Jan 19, 2012 -
5 answers
I am on Tmobile and need a new 4G cell phone. What are the great new 4g T-Mobile phones that have come out recently or are coming out in the next week?
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posted by icy
on Jan 15, 2012 -
6 answers
Has anyone tried using both the AT&T LG Thrive and the AT&T ZTE Avail, and can you recommend one over the other?
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posted by shipbreaker
on Jan 12, 2012 -
3 answers
Prompted by this article about
India's “missed call” mobile ecosystem: Other than the U.S., are there any countries in which the recipient of a call pays/uses minutes to receive calls on a mobile phone? What is the history of this unusual billing structure (assuming it is unusual)?
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posted by caek
on Dec 20, 2011 -
15 answers