i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

I am trying to get my cellular cost down by ... buying more cellular phones/plans.  Argghh!

...

I have been itching to get an android.  I have historically been faced with the problem that I often go to court and some courts will allow cell phones but not cell phones with cameras.  So, that eliminates most of the decent hardware.  I have a verizon blackberry tour (no camera model) and yes, I am going to get to a blackberry tour story here, but first for the new stuff.

I was thinking of getting an android that I could use just on wifi (no phone plan) so I could start experimenting with Android.  I have an iTouch that I inherited from my daughter, which is essentially an iPhone with no phone, so I thought, "why not an Android?"  But, getting one was not cost effective.

But, every day I walk past a Cricket advertisement for its unlimited use, no contract, Android.  And, I was looking at a Working Assets plan that offered a Zio.  So, the Cricket ad was for a Zio and I thought -- wow, I can try it out and then ... whatever.

By the time I got around to it, Cricket had changed their ad to the Ascend.  Yes, the Zio is still available, same price -- but Zio still runs 1.6.  The "retail" price is much higher than the Ascend, both were the same price to the customer -- and I give the Cricket salesman credit, the Ascend with 2.1 certainly seems to be the better choice.  The purchase was easy, but buying things via online chat is a PITB.  Next time I will go directly to the store.  I have to admit the sales guy was very helpful, even if the transaction took forever.  While we chatted, I read online reviews for the Ascend and Cricket.

How we review something has a lot to do with our point of reference.  Mine is Blackberry Tour and iTouch.  So, while some people think the call quality on the Ascend is just great, I have to go with CNet -- not so good.  I can't say whether this is a result of the phone or Cricket, but I will give my frame of reference.  I've made calls from the exact same location with T-Mobile, Verizon and now Cricket.  I had the T-Mobile, with a ton of pre-paid minutes as the result of another "cost-savings" endeavor by me that was FAIL.  Problem was, my wife did not like the T-Mobile call quality and as she is the only one I talk to, the T-Mobile SIM became pointless despite having a truckload of unused minutes on it.

And ironically enough, just made some calls on my Blackberry Tour in Europe -- some on Vodaphone, which I was told is the 51% owner of Verizon and some on T-Mobile DE.  Both from the exact same location on the exact same phone, both with great signal reception.  The Vodaphone calls were GREAT, the T-Mobile calls broke up and were hard to hear.

Both Cricket and Verizon are CDMA, so I would have expected comparable call quality.  Not so -- and I don't have any way to determine whether it is the system or the phone.  And, I've only made a couple of calls on the Ascend, so I can't tell if it is situational or not.

But ... I don't make many phone calls.  I'm a data kind of guy.  I have a Verizon phone plan that is 5 years obsolete, they don't even offer plans with so few minutes -- plus they are shared on the "family plan" -- and we never use them up.  Ever.

So, you know, phone quality -- who cares?

So far, data on the Ascend is running GREAT!  Quick response, easy to set up my GMail account, my Microsoft Exchange account and my private IMAP account.  The touchscreen is a tad sensitive and I inadvertently deleted an email I wanted to save -- haven't found the sensitivity setting yet, if there is one.

Now, let me tell about getting the phone running.  This was hysterical.  The book says "charge over night."  Why?  The phone will report when it is 100% charged anyway.  Ok, so maybe being in a hurry will cost me battery life, I don't know.

Then they have this little booklet that tells you how to get started.  Excuse me?  Who wrote this thing?  Well, you have to call a Cricket phone number that ends in "Cricket" -- they didn't bother to give the actual numbers, what a pain!  You are supposed to call on a different line, give them your social security number or driver's license number, blah, blah, blah. FAIL. Doesn't work.

Let me tell you.  First of all, when you finally figure out what the number actually is and call it, it is not at all clear how to get to the "Activate New Phone" menu.  I suppose if you think to say "New Phone" you will get there, but that is not the way my mind works.  So, I kept getting FAIL and told to call back again later when I have figured out how to navigate the menu system.

I then tried the sales phone number on the Cricket website.  FAIL.  It specifically informs you that sales reps. know nothing whatsoever about tech support and cannot help you.  You are referred back to the 1-800-Cricket phone number that is already fail.

So, I tried that again, this time impatiently saying "new phone" alot and ended up in the Activation menu.  Suddenly I found myself fumbling to pull the battery (while holding my other phone that I was calling on, of course) because you need the serial number from under the battery.  Which wasn't in the system anyway.  Which kicked me to an actual live tech support person.

Said tech support person barely spoke English, but did manage to inform me that "the system is updating, call back in an hour."  Oh, crap.  Who wants a new phone, already paid for, that won't work.

By this point I was really sick of following written instructions.  I generally don't follow them anyway, until I screw things up -- so why had I wasted so much time following directions this time?  I was about ready to throw the phone away (yes, I am that impatient and I can just imagine what hoops you have to jump through to return it for a credit) when I decided to just turn the Ascend on and see what happened.  Should I really click "Activate?"  I haven't gotten Cricket authorization yet!  I don't have my three secret numbers yet.  I have not given them my personal identification yet!

Oh -- time for a legalistic digression.  The Cricket contract is one of the worst I have ever read -- and yes, I read it, even though it is in tiny print for page after page and I can barely see it.  For those of you who actually care what it says, let me give you the short version:  "We are the devil.  If you are prepared to sell your soul for unlimited broadband service, click 'Accept.'  Otherwise throw away the phone."  Yes, I have no virtue, I clicked "Activate."

The Ascend did some stuff for like 1 1/2 minutes and then told my I had successful registered.  What???

I found this hard to believe, but to see if it was actually working I set up my gmail account, my IMAP account and my Exchange account.  Yep, email pouring in.  Is this ridiculously easy or what?  Why didn't the instructions say, "Turn on phone.  Go."

Small problem, what is my phone number?  I can never find the phone numbers on any of my phones, I always forget them -- I have SIMS that I don't use for long periods -- so now what?  Usually I call my other phone and check my id.  But what about the 3 secret numbers I need?  How did the phone register without them?

The Ascend is surprisingly easy to navigate and I quickly found the page that showed ALL OF THE NUMBERS.  We are rolling now ...

I have not found the easy way to shut off all sounds.  I go to hearings where we are allegedly supposed to have our phones off.  Because that is ridiculous and no one can do business with their phone shut off, we at least have to make it STFU.  The Blackberry Tour has an easy switch from "normal" to "all alerts off."  (Of course, it is NOT "all alerts off -- it still alerts to incoming txt msgs.  WTF?  But fortunately, I do not text.  I mean, if you've got email why are you texting?  I don't get it.  'No, I luv u more...'  Wife does not txt either.)  But anyway, the Cricket is happily chirping away everytime an email shows up.  And there are sounds for when you click keys on the virtual keyboard, sounds for when you click on the display, sounds when you use the dialer.  I can't figure all this stuff out, and I'm not sure if I want feedback or not.

I'm still not certain I can live with a phone with no keyboard.  The new Verizon global Android is looking very good right at the moment ...

So, let's move on to the promised Blackberry Tour story...

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