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Re: Simple phone with gMail address book

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VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> wrote:

>Gordon Levi wrote:
>
>> I am looking for a featureless phone. An old fashioned flip phone
>> would be ideal but it needs to be compatible with the latest mobile
>> phone standards.
>> 
>> It also needs to be able to use the gMail address book although that
>> does not need to be automatic. I would be content if I could export
>> the gMail address book and then import it into a Windows program that
>> can copy the phone numbers into the phone.
>
>Not so simple.  You never mentioned whether you want a cell phone with a
>plan (locked in), prepaid phone (locked in), or an unlocked phone.  You
>won't get a featureless phone for what you specified as your criteria.
>To connect to Gmail means Internet access either via cellular data or
>wi-fi connectivity along with running an app on the phone to do the sync
>and local management of your contacts.  
>
>A dumb flip phone will already provide Internet access via cellular data
>using a very crippled web browser with minimal features shown on the
>tiny display of the flip phone.  So you could use up your data minutes
>connecting your cell phone to Gmail; however, that will let you see your
>contacts, not dial them from your flip phone.  As I recall (I never used
>it), you can look at your contacts in your Google account and have
>Google call that number.  It asks for which phone to call you.  You use
>their web UI to start the call, it calls you, and then it calls the
>contact's number.  So, indirectly, you could use your Gmail contacts to
>make calls by using the web browsing in the flip phone to connect to
>your Gmail contacts.  I'm pretty sure the outdated and crippled web
>browser in the flip phone, slow cellular data service, and tiny screen
>on the flip phone are going to make that experience suck.
>
>Another criteria you didn't mention is price.  What is your top price
>that you will pay?  Are you willing to wait until there is a sale on a
>smartphone?  I happened to grab the Samsung Galaxy Core Prime when
>BestBuy had it on sale for $50 (along with a Samsung EVO 64GB microSD
>card for $20).  I think it was some Samsung sale for a week.  Far
>cheaper than anywhere else that I had looked.  Also, a phone by itself
>is worthless.  You'll need a cellular carrier provider.  Are you willing
>to buy used to reduce the price?  See, there are more criteria than you
>mentioned when getting a phone.
>
>I don't much use my cell phones so I get Tracfone-locked cell phones
>because that service is cheap.  Minutes rollover indefinitely, I never
>use up all what I buy.  You can get triple-minute phones where what you
>buy gets tripled, so I buy the 400-minute airtime annual card which
>gives me 1200 minutes per year for only $100 (they used to have an
>option to pay $150 for the 400 minutes but it lasted 2 years), plus I
>usually got a bonus code that added another 200 minutes.  For me, 1400
>minutes per year is far more than I need just for talk minutes.  I don't
>do Internet on dump flip phones because the web UI sucks.  The phone
>will be cheaper if you buy it with a service but I don't know if you
>want an unlocked phone.
>
>The problem with a flip phone is screen size.  How are you going to see
>the web page on such a tiny screen?  How will the page appear using the
>limited web browser fixed inside the flip phone (you won't get a choice
>of web browser)?  How fast (er, slow) is your cellular data service?
>Are you willing to eat up your cellular data minutes connecting your
>flip phone to the Internet to get at Gmail?  You won't have use of much
>faster wi-fi hotspots to use which could be free, like at home, work,
>restaurant, stores, etc.  You could try browsing to Gmail Contacts on
>your existing cell phone to start a call from there to see if the web UI
>is usable.

I don't care about any of the stuff I didn't mention. I'll worry about
how I pay after I find I find the right phone. All I want is a
featureless phone to which I can transfer a gMail address book. I
definitely don't want to use the phone for mail or browsing, just cell
phone calls and text messages. It does need a USB data connection to
my computer and a supplied computer program that allows updates to the
phone's contacts.

Ideally the phone would update its address book from my gMail account
when it was plugged in to my computer via USB but that does not need
to be automatic. I don't mind exporting the gMail address book and
reformatting it to suit the Windows software supplied with the phone. 

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Thread

Simple phone with gMail address book Gordon Levi <gordon@address.invalid> - 2016-10-01 16:36 +1000
  Re: Simple phone with gMail address book "Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 07:30 +0000
    Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Adrian Caspersz <email@here.invalid> - 2016-10-01 09:23 +0100
      Re: Simple phone with gMail address book "Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 08:57 +0000
    Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Gordon Levi <gordon@address.invalid> - 2016-10-01 20:24 +1000
      Re: Simple phone with gMail address book "Jeff Gaines" <jgaines_newsid@yahoo.co.uk> - 2016-10-01 12:35 +0000
  Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Whiskers <catwheezel@operamail.com> - 2016-10-01 12:47 +0100
    Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Gordon Levi <gordon@address.invalid> - 2016-10-02 01:46 +1000
  Re: Simple phone with gMail address book VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2016-10-01 12:52 -0500
    Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Gordon Levi <gordon@address.invalid> - 2016-10-02 15:55 +1100
      Re: Simple phone with gMail address book VanguardLH <V@nguard.LH> - 2016-10-02 02:18 -0500
      Re: Simple phone with gMail address book Frank Slootweg <this@ddress.is.invalid> - 2016-10-02 17:57 +0000

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