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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Charles,<br>
I was just reading an article about CM in I think it was a post on
G+. They are developing an installer that is supposed to
"automate" the process and thus make it much easier to install CM
onto your phone. The downside is the installer is going to be
closed source. I've also seen reports that HTC has really come a
long way up in quality control. I still have their older Inspire
molder which was fine at first but really sucks now. Both of our
Inspires seem to be possessed. My wife's will just reboot or power
off on its own. Mine I have to reset to factory and then
re-install what I use extra every few weeks. But they all saying
that the new One and I saw the M8 at AT&T yesterday is really
nice. The only thing is that the Samsung S5 had a much larger
screen allowing my old eyes to see stuff on it. Although I do have
to admit that the M8 was very clear and I was able to see most
things on it.<br>
<br>
As to everyone else thanks for the input. My wife wants me to try
to reach out one more time to AT&T letting them know that we
are definitely considering of separating ways with them and reach
out with someone else. Of course the upcoming merge with Sprint as
Greg pointed out, could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending
who controls what. Since it's after hours I probably won't do
anything until Monday. I will definitely let y'all know what we
do. In the meantime I'm still open for any other suggestions.<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Scott C.<br>
<br>
On 06/06/2014 09:35 AM, Charles Shapiro wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CADT30qXzbg=F1NjkOTQQAajBUpfyqhJO48mQuk3e3LnbqOKOKw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>My current plan is to buy an HTC One M8 from swappa ( <a
moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://swappa.com">http://swappa.com</a>),
then go with T-Mobile's BYOD plan. I was able to pick up a
NIB M8 for about 12% less than retail. If I had waited longer
or been willing to accept an older device, I could've gotten
it for less. T-Mobile currently wants $660 for the phone,
although they'll allow you to stretch the payments out over a
couple of years. I'm going with HTC because they have
officially committed to allowing you to unlock their
bootloaders ( <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader">http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader</a>
). This allows you to remove the bloatware that most
carriers stick on their phones ( Verizon junkware, NFL Mobile,
et cetera), and it allows you to install a 3rd-party (or your
own) Android build on the phone if you wish. That in turn will
keep you at least marginally safer from things like Carrier IQ
( <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://gizmodo.com/5864220/what-is-carrier-iq">http://gizmodo.com/5864220/what-is-carrier-iq</a>
), although of course the radio part of almost all phones is
closed-source and there's no way of telling what goes on in
there.<br>
<br>
Alas, if you buy a CDMA phone from Verizon, they will try to
prevent you from working with your own device. You'll have to
use a 3rd party tool ( firewater ( <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://firewater-soff.com/instructions/">http://firewater-soff.com/instructions/</a>
) seems most recommended) to gain access in that case.
T-Mobile seems to have the best contract deal, from my
somewhat less rigorous research on carriers, and since they're
GSM the phone will work in a lot more foreign countries. I'm
going to put a CyanogenMod 11 nightly build on my new phone
after it's activated. My current phone is an HTC Incredible 2
running CM 7.2, and it's been near flawless since December of
2011. Some of the CM enhancements have finally gotten too good
to ignore though. I'll let the list know how it goes.<br>
<br>
</div>
-- CHS<br>
<br>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 11:15 PM, Greg
Clifton <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:gccfof5@gmail.com" target="_blank">gccfof5@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">My family used to have 7 phones with Verizon,
until they wouldn't let me have an Alias 2 phone without
$10/mo data plan or a smart phone without a $30/mo plan
per line, whereupon I told them to take the phones and
shove them (figuratively speaking). As the kids were in
the "kick them out of the nest phase" of life, we wound up
using a number of carriers including Verizon by way of
Page Plus, Sprint by way of iWireless from Kroger,
AT&T by way of Straight Talk and T-Mobile directly and
in different parts of the country including NYC, DC, Atl,
Columbus, GA. All of them worked pretty well, but like
others have said it depends on where you are. Home
coverage still isn't very good with T-Mobile, but they
have WiFi calling on all their phones, so, assuming you
have WiFi at home, you can use that to fill in the gaps.
<div>
<br>
</div>
<div>Since all carriers are transitioning or have already
to LTE, I'm not sure you can rely on experiences from 4
years ago. T-Mobile coverage did improve after their
merger with AT&T failed (the rep told me AT&T
had to give them a bunch of 3G towers in the breakup,
never verified, but my coveage did improve). The
iWireless was a CDMA/EVDO phone and the Sprint coverage
in South GA (Savannah-Fayetteville via Waycross) was
much better than the T-Mobile GSM service a couple of
years ago. I still rely heavily on the WiFi calling
feature and it generally works well.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>One other note, T-Mobile merged with Metro PCS not
long back (I think that is when they got into LTE since
Metro was already rolling out LTE service). Also, I just
heard on the radop today that T-Mobile and Sprint have
agreed to merge. If T-Mobile handles customer service,
that will probably be a good thing, if Sprint, not so
much. Right now, the T-Mobile famly plan is hard to
beat, though the Sprint Frambly plan looks good if you
have a large family and/or lots of friends. What sorts
of plans will they offer after the merger, who knows,
but one might expect their LTE coverage to improve.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Regarding phone choice, pick the size and features
you want/need (T-Mobile's upgrade plan is pretty sweet
in case you aren't happy after 6 months). My wife has a
Galaxy S2 (GSM), I and my son have Galaxy S4's, one
daughter just upgraded from an S4 to a Nexus (made by
LG) and loves it. She says it is much faster than the
Samsung and the screen is actually readable in daylight
which is a major shortcoming of the Galaxy line. I have
always had good service life of both their phones and
their batteries with Samsungs. I think they are the top
phone manufacturer for good reason. However, all the
phones seem to have gotten much better over the past 4
or 5 years (a short eternity in the phone/computer
universe). Competition does wonderful things for
innovation!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>HTH,</div>
<div>Greg C</div>
</div>
<div class="HOEnZb">
<div class="h5">
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 8:52
PM, Calvin Harrigan <span dir="ltr"><<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:calvin.harrigan@gmail.com"
target="_blank">calvin.harrigan@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div>On 06/05/2014 03:26 PM, Scott Castaline
wrote:<br>
</div>
<div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0
0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc
solid;padding-left:1ex">
So we're sort of getting tired of ATT's games
with pricing. We have 5 phones with 15Gb data
and paying ~$340/month with my wife's state
employee discount. We're looking to bail out
of ATT and go with T-Mobile's program to pay
contract termination fees. We can get all 5
phones exchanged for new ones plus the deal
only gives 1GB/phone, but I can get and extra
2GB for $10. So what I'm asking is 2 things:<br>
<br>
1. How is T-Mobile's service and also their
coverage?<br>
<br>
2. Motorola, LG, Samsung, or HTC?<br>
<br>
Thanks,<br>
Scott C.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
I've been with them for a bit. I used to travel a
bit and have never had any trouble in metro areas.
I only remember a couple times not having any
signal at all. In rural areas it falls back as far
as 2G, but you could still make/receive calls.
Service has been great. Contacted customer support
twice when I initially setup. One was to switch
from prepaid to post-paid, the other was adding my
wife to my plan. Both times the rep was
knowledgeable and empowered (no need to speak to a
supervisor). They just took care of business and
even credited me a few bucks during the switch
overs, even though it was working. Then earlier
this year they doubled my data for free! Can't
argue with that. Being able to text family over
seas is also a win. No data overages also saves
the day when you do go over. They throttle you
back, not charge you more. All in all a happy
camper.
<div>
<div><br>
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