Retiring the Android

Motorola One phone

A while back, I moved to Android. My first smartphone was an Android. Unless you count the Blackberry. I don't count the Blackberry. At least, I'm not counting it right now. I might count it later if it suits me, but for now, it doesn't. So, my first smartphone was an Android phone.

After Verizon stopped updating it (like, the day I got it), it eventually became out of date. And, running a really old version of Android meant there were features I wanted but didn't have. So, I replaced it with a used iPhone. 

I loved that iPhone. I found iOS so much more user-friendly than Android. Actually, I think the old, underpowered Android was the real problem, compounded by the out-of-date Android OS. So, the iPhone on iOS was a dream. And I stayed with iPhone for a while.

A year or two or so ago, I tried Google Fi, and got an Android phone for it. Now, I had Android phones, just not using them as phones, for a while. Galaxy S4, S5, and other phones. But when I started using Google Fi phone service, I found it easier to just use an Android. And I was really happy with that Motorola X4. Good phone.

I upgraded to a newer Motorola phone after a bit, but after retiring, I needed to cut back everywhere I could. And, after analyzing my phone usage (among all kinds of other things) I picked that as a place to cut back (among all kinds of other things; I cut way back on everything).

That meant dropping Google Fi. Part of that decision was because the services on which it runs -- Sprint and T-Mobile -- aren't as reliable as Verizon or AT&T, at least not at the places I go. If I drive into some parts of the city or county, it works great, but at the house and many places I drive, it's not reliable.

I cut back to using the Freedom Pop service. I think I wrote about them before. I limped along with that for a bit, but even though it runs on AT&T, it's not reliable. Not the AT&T part, but the carrier, software, or some other part of the setup. Anyway, I'm going to do something different. 

Right now, my best option looks like Verizon prepaid or Xfinity Mobile (with runs on top of Verizon's network). If I go with Xfinity Mobile (I am an Xfinity Internet customer, so I can get the good pricing), I am very limited on what phones I can bring in.

They'll let me buy a Motorola phone from them, just like one I have, but they won't let me bring my own Motorola phone. For bringing my own phone, I'm limited to iPhone, Samsung Galaxy, or Google Pixel phones. I have a perfectly good iPhone in a drawer. Yes, I have a perfectly good Motorola phone, but I can't use it.

So if I go with Xfinity Mobile -- and yes, their pricing looks better than Verizon's -- I will have to say goodbye to the Android phone.

I'll miss it.

iPhone X

I upgraded my phone recently. I've had an iPhone 6s for s couple of years, but now, I have the iPhone X.

When they announced the iPhone X -- it's pronounced "ten" as in the Roman numeral, and only silly people call it the "ecks" -- I decided against getting one. The reason? Well, the $1000 price was part of it, but so was the size. Or what I thought was the size.

You see, I used to have an iPhone 6, which was an upgrade from the iPhone 5s. The iPhone 5s had a 4-inch screen. It took a little getting used to the 4.7-inch screen of the iPhone 6. When I went from the iPhone 6 to the iPhone 6s, there was no adjustment period, as I was comfortable with that size phone.

I never got any of the "Plus" series phones, which had a 5½-inch screen. My daughter, son-in-law, and ex-wife all had a "Plus" series iPhone, so I had the opportunity to put hands on the device. I didn't like it. It was a little too big. Maybe I would have become used to it, as I did the 4.7-inch screen of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, but I didn't want to.

When the iPhone X was announced, I found out it had a 5.8-inch screen. So, in my mind, it was even larger than the "Plus" series, and if the 5½-inch "Plus" was too big, the 5.8-inch iPhone X would certainly be too big, right?

Wrong.

It turns out that while the screen has a larger diagonal measure, the overall phone is smaller. The iPhone X is 5.3% wider than the iPhone 8/7/6s devices, while the "Plus" series is 10.1% wider than the iPhone X. The iPhone X is 3.8% taller than the iPhone 8/7/6s while the "Plus" series is 10.3% taller than the iPhone X.

The iPhone X screen covers nearly the entire front of the phone, meaning there is more screen per total phone size on it than on other iPhone devices. So, after I put hands on an iPhone X and realized it was not noticeably larger than my current phone, one of my objections was removed.

That $1000 price, though. How to get around that?

Well, I found a way. Or, more properly, the way was always there. You see, I have an old Verizon plan. It's a 30 GB plan, and I have a pretty good price on it.

Some years ago, when I went back to Verizon (long story for another time) they were running specials. How special? Half price, that's how special. You could get a 6 GB plan for the price of a 3 GB plan. Or 10 GB plan for the price of a 5 GB plan. Or, the one I got, a 30 GB plan for the price of a 15 GB plan. Add to that, the fact that I get 19% off my data plan because of an agreement with the company where I work, I'm paying only 40.5% of the cost of the 30 GB plan.



By the way, they stopped that offer after a couple of weeks when they realized what they were doing.

Now, I am paying $40/month to connect each device. For their Unlimited Plan, it would drop to $20/month to connect, but the cost of the plan (Unlimited vs 30 GB) would increase, and the overall bill would be higher.

Now, there's one other thing, and it makes all the difference. As part of the Verizon Edge plan (told you my plan was old) I get a discount for financing devices. The $40/month drops to $15/month, which is less than $20.

There's another way of looking at it, though. If I play down enough to leave $600 owing on the phone, my monthly payments for the phone will be $25/month. That's the amount of the discount. It's like getting $600 off the cost of the phone. Meaning I can buy an iPhone X for $400.

Heck, you'd buy an iPhone X for $400 if you could.

Now, every time I go into a Verizon store for anything, they try to get me off the plan I'm on and onto an Unlimited Plan. I'm not budging. You see, that 19% work discount isn't applicable on an Unlimited Plan. So, I'd lose that. I'd also pay more for the plan. And I'd pay more for a phone, about $120/device. ($40/month becomes $20/month, but no Edge discount, meaning a higher net cost per phone.) The total cost would be more.

I'm staying on the plan I'm on.

Oh, I was planning on writing about the iPhone X and what I thought of it. Then I got sidetracked.

So, here's what I think of it: I like it.

See, I can be succinct if I try.

Normal. Or what passes for it around here.

After several days, the situation at the house has improved.

We're now to the point where there's just a hole in the roof.

And, yes, that's an improvement.

The tree is still down in the back yard. Or what's left of the tree after getting it cut up to get it off the roof.

The phone line is still down. Oh, the phone works. Mostly. Touch tone doesn't work, for instance. Pulse dialing does, as do incoming calls.

And the DSL works. Mostly. Download speed is supposed to be 6 Mbps. It's 3.5 Mbps, which is on the low end of what passes for acceptable. Normal for here is between 5 and 6 Mbps.

But, like I said, the phone line is down. On the ground. It runs from the house, across the yard, to the road, across the road on the asphalt, and to the pole on the other side of the road. We still have Internet access, though. For now.

The cable is still down. Oh, we are picking up the channels on the TV and TiVo. But the cable is down. It runs from the side of the house, across the ground, until about half-way to the road, where it droops from the other lines running across the yard.

But, we have power.

The electrician got the box on the wall yesterday. And the building inspector signed off on the work today. The power company reconnected the house and got power back to us late this afternoon.

Still waiting on the insurance company to send someone by. But the delay isn't entirely their fault. So, I'm trying to be patient.

Hope to hear from them soon. The cable folks said they'd have a man by Thursday to fix the cable. The phone company said they'd have the line fixed by Monday upcoming. And, yes, they know the line is laying on the road.

So, the good news is that 5 days after the storm, there's a hole in the roof, we haven't heard from the insurance company, the phone line is laying on the road, and the cable is down.

Yes, that's the good news.

That sums up what kind of week it's been.