What is your total cost of ownership of your phone, over five years?

[The Real Bev]

Probably not, but we can all read faster than we can write. Even faster than we can touch-type on a real keyboard.

[rbowman]

This one has a calendar. I don't use it. I have a real camera plus a couple of tablets. I take photos extremely infrequently. I don't play games. I listen to music -- on my Fire tablet. That also has a web browser superior to anything you will find on a flip phone.

I charge the battery every couple of weeks unless I'm in an area with no cell reception and forget to turn it off. I might have to charge it more frequently if I ever used it more than a few times a year.

I don't like phones, never did, and nothing in a 'free' upgrade would make me like them better.

[dorayme]

OK, I missed it! That is the first joke I have missed in 786 years (I'm very old).

[dorayme]

Of course, you would know what is good for *everyone*. You are such a d*****ad.

[Harold Newton]

I don't blame you for not thinking this one through, so I will gently remind you that *today*, you can buy the phone, online, for the full price, from a seller who doesn't have a "substantial presence* in California - and you can "avoid" the oppressive sales tax.

However .... we weren't talking about buying the phone. We're talking about the typical carrier "free" phone deals.

If you get the phone "for free" from the carrier, then there is no practical way to tell the carrier that you live in Oregon, when you don't.

Remember ... They know where you live.

HINT: California gets people who try this when they *register* a car bought out of state, for example. If it has fewer than 7,500 miles on it, and you bought it out of state, it's considered "new" and you have to truck it

*out* of the state. They won't register it. (Of course, you can drive in circles for 7,500 miles, and then you *can* register it - so there will always be a way round the law.)

[Kraigw]

+1

The nice thing about my neighbors unpatched devices is that it allows me to once again easily use their internet connections free of charge.

I don't need no stinkin' VPN, LOL.

[Jonesy]

+1

Prison is not harsh enough.  I'd like to see the death penalty for these assholes.

[Frank]

That's why I bought 2 years last time. Not sure how many minutes came with it but did not care.

[nospam]

yes you were.

however, now that you moved the goalposts again, sales tax won't be a problem.

[nospam]

much too quick.

[Ed Pawlowski]

On the do not call list?

I just reported a number that called 42 times trying to sell me an extended warranty on a car I sold two years ago. Most times I don't answer, other times I let them go theough the whole spiel and tell them I sold the car, a fe times I told them the owner they are looking for dies a month ago. After that, one still had the balls to ask if I still had the car.

[rbowman]

Not in those states that haven't figured out how to do a lethal injection... Junkies do it every day but professionals can string it out.

[Harold Newton]

It's funny how you act, don't you think? It's not what normal adults do.

a. Normal adults either care about their credibility, b. Or, they don't.

In your case, you don't care about your credibility, except when you do, and then when you are gently told you made a minor mistake, you respond with childish insults.

[Harold Newton]

I suspect this is Snit. Same off-topic meaningless rant that is complete bullshit. Hence, it must be Snit.

[trader_4]

For cell phones there are apps that will screen and identify calls from shysters like that. I use Should I Answer on my Android. They have a database in the cloud with known fraud, spam, etc and it will identify it as that when it's ringing. Or you can tell it to block them permanently, etc. And if you see a call that it doesn't know about, you can flag it, type a line about what it is, and then it updates their database.

[nospam]

you clearly don't.

[nospam]

it's still too quick.

a better alternative would be something which causes significant ongoing pain for the remainder of their natural life, possibly 50+ years of pain.

[Peter]

Do not call list is worthless. Telemarketers mostly evade identification and even when they are caught, the fines are just a fraction of what most of them make; they just consider it a cost of doing business. Ever since we've configured our phones for NOMOROBO, we hear a single ring ---- and then silence for almost all robocalls. It didn't reduce the number of telemarketing calls we get, but maybe only 1 in 30 are a live person from a number we haven't blocked yet. (Our phones allow us to manually block any incoming call with the press of a button on the handset with a memory for 250 blocked numbers. In addition, we can go on-line to our phone service provider, view our calling history and block an unlimited number of numbers.) However, lately we've noticed that they callers are getting more desperate. We're getting robocalls as early as 8:30 on Sunday mornings!

[Ken Blake]

le in the world know our cell phone numbers.

ortunately one of the people who knows my number is name Heather and

What's worse is the maggots

ut of service local numbers that constantly

May they all die of STDs.

to sell me an

ars ago. Most times I don't

them go theough the whole spiel and tell them

the car, a fe times I told them the owner they are lookin g for

balls to ask if I still

You might want to use NoMoRoBo. I like it a lot.

orobo.com/

[Frank]

I heard a smart phone defined as a computer with a phone ap. I know people that say they don't have a computer, don't need one, yet use a smart phone to access things. These are the denizens of the Twitterverse where messages are limited to maybe 18 words or less. They are just lightweight computer users.