Of Adblock fails! and smartphones

[maharetr]

Confusion and gnashing of teeth 1: Adblock is failing me! I have moving, flashing things in the corner of my vision in Yahoo and there are ads in Facebook and all these places they weren't before. I've tried reinstalling adblock and restarting firefox, to no avail. Has anyone else had this problem> Any ideas on how to fix it?

Angst 2!: I want a smartphone. I'm very much liking the look of the HTC Desire.

Things I'm after in a (smart)phone:
- ability to make calls, text (with threads!), and take photos
- a good calendar, with a weekly-ish view of what I'm doing
- ability to use GPS and maps while on foot
- good browsing ability for blogging sites (LJ! DW, oh how I miss you!)
- potential ability to read e-books
- ability to listen to (and store) music

I'm pretty sure iPhone and Android both do these things admirably. Just that the android OS looks pretty and seems to be slightly cheaper, depending. I'm not deep about this. If there's something in that list that Android doesn't do well, shout out.

Angst the 3rd: what carrier should I go with? I'm currently pre-paid just-phone-no-internet with 3 on a $29 cap. Which... I resent paying $29 every month after Virgin's $50 'yeah, use it whenever,it's cool', but it works for me just fine, other than that. samvara has mentioned the roaming rates that kick in for internet (they kick in for my phone, too, but only when I'm using it, and even then I've never spent more than the cap's worth). So I'm wary of that.

The best deal I've found so far is this one from Vodafone: $50 a month for a two year contract: 1 GB of data, unlimited this, unlimited that. Only thing I'd want to double check is if they really, really did international texts. Pro column: 3 and Vodafone are completing a merger. They'll be delighted to swap me over, says <user name="samvara>. Con column: their service has been up and down because they're... upgrading things? doing hardware things? I'm not too clear. Can anyone advise? Who are you with, carrier wise? What do you think of them? Aid the confused!

Comments

[hope]

I'm with TPG pre=paidish (i.e. no contract) - You bring a phone you own, and they deduct a small monthly amount that you end any time.

http://www.tpg.com.au/mobile/plans.html

I'm on the $18.99 plan ($300+ calls/texts, 1GB data) and I don't come anywhere near using it all (I think because I use wifi so much at work - I end up using more like 150MB mobile data per month).

Anyway, the going-over-the-limit rates are quite reasonable, too, from what I read.

And TPG is an Optus carrier, so where you have Optus coverage TPG goes. I've never had any probs with them in the 5 months I've been with them.

But yes - you need to BYO phone.

[prk]

I'd strongly recommend against Vodafone, given all the network issues and outages they've had recently. People are leaving them left, right and centre.

IMO, the best price/network combination is Optus, or one of the resellers who use the Optus network (Virgin, Primus, iiNet, TPG, etc). The Optus network isn't as good as Telstra, but their prices aren't as high either. You also get the advantage of shopping around to see which reseller (or Optus itself) has the best plan / deal for the phone you want. If you have your phone separately, you can get incredibly good value plans.

The best network option is Telstra, particularly for outside of metro areas, but that comes at a premium price, and has somewhat fewer handsets to choose from. I heard the Desire-HD is coming to Telstra soon, but it doesn't appear there yet.

You've linked to the HTC Desire above, was that actually the one you wanted, or did you want the Desire-HD ( http://www.htc.com/www/product/desirehd/overview.html )?

Android / iPhone / Win7 is more of a personal preference. I went down the iPhone path, and am quite happy with a combined smartphone / music player which lets me do almost everything I want. It's very pretty to use, my only issues are when it won't let me do something I want, as it's against Apple's design. I've heard Android is much more flexible, but a bit more buggy / not as comprehensively integrated. Pick your poison, I guess.

Good luck with whatever you choose!


Adblock Plus - uninstall, restart Firefox, re-download & install, restart Firefox, choose subscription.

If that fails, grab Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, and scan your machine to see if something is messing with Adblock Plus.

*loves*

prk.

[transcendancing]

I support this. The only reason I haven't switched to Virgin-or-something-like-it is pure mismatch of time and money and credit running out.

[rdm]

Okay... The playoff for platform:

Win7Mobile - the latest incarnation of WinCE, and pretty enough, but carries a lot of baggage, both technologically and legally. Not that much of an issue for most end-users. Has a decent SDK that is pretty easy to obtain and deploy with - with all the good and bad that goes with it.

IOS - The standard against which everything else is measured. Just Works, but remember that Apple Own Everything. Which is both good and bad.

Android - The bad boy club. Some vendors have done horrible things with/to it, and damaged the 'brand', while others (HTC is one) have done some great things. Works well, and has the least legal baggage (the Oracle suit not withstanding). You get to own your stuff, and Google does appear to play nice. Nice SDK, and will happily talk to anything on the planet - even as a raw storage device in the worst case.

I'm an Android fan myself, but only because I have a thing about data ownership and F/OSS code.