bfchat.brainformation.com

I remember the days of the first cell phones; the company I worked for invented them. It looked a lot like a walkie talkie; also invented by this company. Then came the brick phone. After much research and competition from abroad, the truly portable cell (flip) phone emerged. It was great at making phone calls, and in fact that is all it did. To this day I've never transitioned to a 'smart phone' nor do I have an inclination to do so. The phone I have just makes calls and sends text. It has a camera and a connection to the Internet, but I rarely use any of that. The phone I have is about as old as this website and I'm thinking I would like to replace it. I haven't done so already because it's damned near impossible to find a cell phone that just makes phone calls. Enter: the Light Phone. Nice, if not pricey.

https://jezebel.com/400-dumb-phone-only ... 1823459457

I only have a Flip-Fone, wish it did not receive texts though. At least it has a Delete Key which handles them nicely!

What I don't like about this new Flip-Fone is I have to charge it once a week. My old one I only had to charge about once a month. I guess battery life technology went downhill on this one.

but why spend $400, when you can get a nokia 3310 for $49?

https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/tech/20 ... -relaunch/

Apparently people do it for the same reason they buy Apple's iPhone. It's not a matter of price.

My little fone was always free with our contract, and they replace it every couple of years if I let them.

Of course you know nothing is 'free', right?

Compared to what I hear other people pay for their cell phones, mine is essentially free.
Albeit, my group plan did change rates when they changed providers.
My actual cost jumped from $9.99 per month up to $18.77 per month, but has more of what I don't use anyhow, such as unlimited texting. I don't do texting!
To be clear, that is NOT the Total Plan Cost, just my share of the group plan, based on my phone type and usage.
If I had a Schmartz-Fone, my share of the cost would be around 35 to 40 bucks a month.

My point is that the service providers do not get those phones for free. They must pass the cost of them onto the customers. There are indeed flat rate contracts that include a new phone periodically, but the last time I looked into it (several years ago) it was cheaper for me to Pay As I Go. To give you some idea of my costs, I'm paying 20¢ per minute of talk time and most months do not get up to the $9.99 your plan costs. I do text and give them $5 per month for 200 sms/mms transmissions. I rarely use even half the quota. I don't use a smart phone, but when this one breaks that will all change. LOL

i got a really smart phone for mainly pictures and translations. then i discover that many VILLAGES/TOWNS have totally crap service, which renders the translation part null & void...

I tried a pay-as-you-go cell phone about ten years ago.
Since they charged for all calls in or out, it ended up costing me about 15 bucks a month.
Enough people complained, because 90% of the calls were telemarketers, they finally stopped charging for inbound calls under 15 or 30 seconds.
My son called me once a week and sometimes talked for half an hour, most of the time on the landline. But when he started calling my cell phone more often than not, I was getting 20 and 30 buck a month bills.
This is when I went with the first group plan and knocked that down to under 10 bucks a month, and have been in group plans ever since.

I only use preaid service. I had to quit a Nokia 6230b since it stopped ringing and then died, and also my first bought "smartphone", a Palm Treo 680 after its touchscreen and display were smashed in an accident, And also a Nokia 5330 that for my usage and taste is as much phone as I really need. Nowadays, since most of the people I work with is at least 10 years younger than me, and they can't go by without trying to contact me on Whatsapp or FB, so I had to concede and am using a Samsung Galaxy SIII I found in the garbage and revived. Anyway my monthly cost is around MXN $150... and it's more than plenty for me...

mine's about $35/m, but i have unlimited internet. this came handy when i got lost. a lot. the roads here are a nightmare, unless one of the old roman ones; those guys new how to make a straight road.

if you google map southern france, you'll see what i mean.

I see what you mean

That must be a downtown area?
Can't believe there are no trees or grass except in the parks.
Weird orangish tan color to everything?

the soil here is a reddish, pottery colour. a lot of houses the same. they kinda blend into the landscape.

as for trees, they don't seem particularly bothered, which drove me nuts at the previous house we lived in; a large section of the village had 2 trees and my friends' vine covered house for greenery. when it hits the 90's, you really could use some shade.

The picture is of Toulouse, France, as seen from Google's satellite camera. I'd not expect much foliage in the city, but the roads can use some straightening out.

yes, it does say toulouse on it but on the other hand, it's also dated 2018, so a lot of threes are either pruned back of snoozing for the winter.

they trim back the sycamores to ugly nubs every other year or so, they end up looking like the arthritic stubs of the vines. the picture i posted of snow in the backyard shows you what they do...