Wednesday, June 22, 2011

iPhone Ramblings

Well, that's a surprise! I had a sense that cell phones in the US are more expensive than in the UK, so I was curious about how the price of an iPhone compares. After a bit of googling, I discovered that not only are iPhone plans cheaper here, but massively cheaper. The cost of my plan is not only less than the cheapest American iPhone plan, but less than half the cost of an equivalent deal. Not only that, but I only had to pay about half as much for the actual phone - £69, or just over $100, which was conveniently almost the exact amount for which I could sell my old phone. Then for a little more than $50 a month (including tax - it looks as though US prices have to have taxes added?) I get the phone, 2000 minutes of call time, 5000 minutes of same network call time, 5000 texts and unlimited data. And I can even use the iPhone as a Wifi hotspot for my iPad, which will come in very handy for working on then train. It almost makes up for having to pay more than twice as much for petrol / gas!

My biggest success with the iPhone so far is to get my calendar synchronising wirelessly across iPhone, iPad and computers using Google Calendar and Google Sync. I have used Google Calendar off and on for years - lately it has been an off time, so I went through our paper calendar and updated my Google calendars (one for each member of the family so that I can see clearly who is doing what). I then followed the instructions from Google Sync, and ... ta da! All my Google Calendar details pull through into iCal on the iPhone and iPad, and entries I make on the phone miraculously appear on Google Calendar on the computer. So clever! I am now organised! I will never forget things - or children - again. I hope. We still need the paper calendar as the rest of the family haven't made it to the electronic calendar stage yet. For the last couple of years we have been using this Family Weekly Planner, which works beautifully for us - a week to a view, with a column for each family member plus one spare for reminders.

Oops! Here I am blogging when I should be showering and getting ready to take the girls to school! Time to go ...

3 comments:

PixieMum said...

Even after many years of computers none of us have used the electronic diary facilities.

At home we have a desk diary in the hall where appointments and reminders are written in. This year's diary is from V & A with lovely examples of needlework and quilts.

Bossy old me says "if it is not in the diary it isn't happening".

At one time we were recording all our car journeys and who drove which section as we were accused of having both cars in Croydon simultaneously hitting another car!
Fortunately we had proof we couldn't have been there but the worry made us very careful to record our journeys for a while.

Sometimes it is obvious who is driving which car and where. Daughter has driven to Glastonbury today, it would not be the parents in that car.

Jennifer Gregory Miller said...

How nice that it's much cheaper in the UK. I'm jealous. We're thinking of making the plunge, and the Google calendar is one of the features I really wanted to apply. I appreciate the thoughts on this gadget!

Missus Wookie said...

I love being able to update my calendar and refer to it as well whilst not at home. I keep the paper one updated too - and family know if it isn't on there I don't guarantee anything.

Glad iPhones are cheaper here tho' - and we don't get charged minutes.