Need Celll Phone Help

I need help on so many different things, but thought I would start with cell phones and see what kind of response I get before I move on to the 23423423 other issues I have with all things technology related.

We currently have ATT...have always had it, so I really have no idea if it is even the "right" carrier to have for our needs. Every time I try to investigate what we REALLY need, I get overwhelmed, so have always just stuck with what I know. That being said, I am totally open to suggestions of new carriers or methods of getting good cell service for the best price.

We are in Ohio, but will be moving to Indiana in the next few months...that being said, the 3 lines we have will all need new phone numbers anyway AND are all out of their contracts so if needed, I can cancel and start over with ANYTHING. (I also would need to know HOW to get a new service area...like if I just "tell them" or if I have to cancel altogether and start over in the new location etc.).

I'm not sure how to articulate "our needs" to make suggestions easier for you guys, but I will give you a few details.

We need 3 phones/lines. In an absolutely perfect world, we would have 2 lines with one area code and one line with another area code (I have no idea if this is even possible for a good price..if it is unGodly expensive, this detail would be un-necessary. The situation is that I need a phone for myself, my son and my mother who lives out of town).

Currently we don't use even 1/4 of the minutes that I am paying for, BUT I have a kid who will now be using one of the lines, so I expect our usage to increase To be more accurate, my guess is that our "talking" usage will only increase slightly, but any data usage we might use will increase 23423423x what we do now. Literally, now I'm the only one of the 3 phones that ever uses data (and I'm not even sure that is the right word for it)-I can't get online or anything with our current phones, so actually I just use text messaging and it is very infrequently. I hope that made sense...in summary, the plan and phones I would be looking for would include the ability to get online and text etc. AND I expect that would be a feature that ONLY TWO of the 3 phones would use frequently. (My mother *might* learn to get online IF that was an inexpensive option for the 3rd line or say..included in a plan), but I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

I *think* I want 2 iphones or similiar. The 3rd phone (for my mother) needs to be simple, nothing fancy at all. It would be nice if she could get texts and EASILLY retrieve them (she's NOT helpless, but likes to act such, so the simpler the better as she can't use the excuse "Oh, I would just looooooooooooooooove to have you send me a pic of the boys on my phone, but I just don't know how to do it.") However, if that is NOT an option, then just a simple phone that she can call the whopping 3 people she calls is fine.

The reason I *think* I want an iphone is that I also intend to purchase an ipod touch (okay, remember, I really have no idea what I am talking about here...this ipod touch is the subject of more help IF people here are willing to help me and do not want to strangle me for my ignorance lol). My ignorant rationale is that an ipod touch and iphones would be more compatible with apps (again, I'm slightly using a word here that I don't fully understand lol), etc. The ipod touch would actually be for a 4yo (yes, I know, that is ridiculous), but my reasons are that I need something that he can watch little shows on, listen to music, play games etc. while we are traveling, at his older brothers sports events etc. Not to mention, if his brother gets and iphone (or whatever you guys tell me to get LOL), then there need NOT be a fight over it. Please don't judge the ridiculous-ness of a 4yo with an ipod touch...I am in total agreement, I am in fact, a weak weak, over indulgent parent who sucks...fine. We can move on from that. LOL
----Anyway, my thought is that whatever phones my older son and I end up with (in my example, the iphone), that I would like a device that is somewhat compatible with those for my 4yo. He obviously does not need to be able to text or call anyone (tho he totally would use any online features, he's a master of the computer already), BUT I wonder if perhaps it might be more cost effective/make more sense to just get a 3rd iphone (or similiar) on a phone plan (making the total number of phones needed FOUR) than to get a different device w/out phone capabilities. This is where YOUR suggestions are so critical to me. Essentially, it would be nice if the 3 device could "interact" with eachother..whatever that may mean.= or have similar ablities (for example, if my older son with the phone had a particular game on his phone, then the device for my youngest child could get the same game. The need for them to "play with" eachother in a game is not really critical, but if one has a certain game, than you can bet the other one will want it to. Hope that made sense.
---One thing I liked about the ipod touch (and I assume this to be available on the iphones, but have NO IDEA if other devices have this) is that "live text" thing. I dunno what it is called (sorry), but it is when you can message people and SEE them. My husband travels A LOT and that feature would be so neat for the boys when he is out of town. Or, for example, my hubby misses a lot of baseball games/sports moments/family time and it would be cool if I could send him a "live" picture of something going on....maybe a wrestling match or an "at bat". Now, I am totally fine with just sending a video (as I do now), if this feature is only limited to certain types of devices that don't fit my other needs.

Another issue, I don't have a data plan now (that I know of) because our phones are so old and crunchy that I don't even think they had that capability. That being said, I don't understand how data plans work and even when I ask questions of customer service people, their answers are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over my head.

I also don't know how how many "gs"..or whatever they are called we even need. 8? 16? 32? 64? for each device. For one phone (mine), I would definitely use it to search the web some, would post on FB/twitter a little bit (like a few times a day maybe), would check in HERE to see what bargains I am missing, would send a few texts/messages a day etc. I would not use any sort of video/television-y stuff/gaming etc. unless I was out of town or something. So, that kind of thing (watching videos/shows/games) would be a very rare occurence. For the other phone I need (for my bigger kid), he would not be using it to make many calls, would not text much, but WOULD use it a lot for gaming, video watching, websurfing, music etc. (So 2 of the phones would have exact opposite needs). The 3rd phone (for my mother), as mentioned, needs really NO special abilities..unless it was part of some "package" anyway. Then, the 4th device I would need (be it an ipod touch type of thing OR a phone) would be used for gaming, videos/movies/show watching etc. (more like the 2nd phone in this paragraph). All of this being said, I have no idea how much "storage"..or whatever...we need for what OUR needs are in this set of devices.

As for price, I am somewhat open. Obviously, I wouldn't be on this website if I were not a deal hunter by nature, so don't need the newest, greatest, fastest, most amazing thing IF something "older"/not as cool (lol) would do the trick. I guess my point is, I just want to pay FOR WHAT I NEED...if that is pricey..fine...but I don't want to pay for what I do NOT need just to be "hip" or whatever.
---HOWEVER...I am the type of person that does not want to sit around and count minutes, check plan usage or otherwise "nickel-and-dime" every minute. Meaning, I would rather have an "all inclusive" type of plan or "unlimited" type of plan or a plan that perhaps is slightly MORE than we actually use just to eliminate the need for me to constantly be monitoring etc. However, if there is some plan (or device 8? 16? 32? 64? or whatever) that is likely to be more than sufficient, I don't need an even higher "ceiling",/newr model either. I hope that made sense.

Oh-one other "note" that MIGHT be relevent (I have no idea), my hubby's phone that he has thru work, the one that I always talk to him on is on a VERIZON plan. Since I rarely use even close to my current ATT minutes, this has never been an issue, so doubt it would be much of one in the future either. I just thought that might be relevent to your suggestions since he is someone the other phones on the plan do "talk to" alot.

Another small note of interest...I like doing things online. I like buying online. I like doing custiomer service online. I like paying bills online. I really HATE the phone (interesting eh?) so any purchasing/maintaining etc. that I can do ONLINE is a big plus for me.

So, that is my novella (and I have a ton more to say, but already feel guilty for this abundance). I am basically looking for any suggestions for how to go about getting 4 devices (remember, 1 of the devices can be a basic phone and another does not even NEED a phone on it-ie. ipod touch) that are compatible with one another (so I don't have to learn 2394283492384203 operating methods), need some kind of calling/data plan (what are these walmart plans? what about amazon? ANY carrier is fine) etc.

I don't mind buying phones (or upgrading thru ATT, our current carrier) thru carriers or buying phones elsewhere and then getting a carrier with previously purchased phones (I don't know how THAT works either! Uggh!) So long as someone can tell me what I need, where to look for it and how to go about activating it (and what "plan" I would need from a carrier), I'm fine with anything. I just need a lot of help. LOL

Any responses are appreciated, but remember, I know NOTHING...I'm really pretty much a moron with all of this stuff, so please talk to me like you would talk to a 5yo about phones/plans/"gigabytes" etc. LOL Even tho I am using certain words or "throwing around" certain terms/product names, don't be fooled into believing that I actually have any idea what I am talking about.

Thank you so much in advance for any help you can give me.

if you dont yap on your cell a lot, you might consider a prepaid cell.

att has 10 cents a minute for prepaid. you can buy a $25 prepaid card that is good for 3 months. what you dont use rolls over, as long as you add another card before the end of the 90 days.

t-mobile has their Gold Membership where you start out putting $100 prepaid card on it that is good for 1 year. then before the end of 365 days you add a $10 card which extends any remaining time and adds the new $10 time.

also, prepaid cell records can't be retrieved like post paid cells can be. for instance in auto wrecks when the other person was yapping/texting and caused the wreck.

That makes sense. I don't think that is the right choice for us at this time, but that is awesome info to know. If nothing else, maybe if I can figure out what my immediate family needs, then that might be an option for what I can get for my mom. I *think* that is is probably better that she is included on some family plan type of thing (as she is now) so that I don't have to explain anything to her/give her "limits" or restrictions, but this IS good info for the future in the event our needs change. Thank you. I really didn't even know that was possible (that mins roll over on prepaids etc.)!

Unless cost is a factor (you said it wasn't a huge factor) - I'd suggest going the iphone route. Get the base model iphone 4 for everyone who needs a data enabled phone. Take grandma to the store and have her pick her favorite phone for texting. Get the little kid an ipad instead of an ipod touch. Spend the money up front on the 3g model, and if you ever feel you guys want cell data on the thing all you need to do is buy a sim card. If you're on ATT now and happy with your service, you will be fine with iphone. Since you are moving, go test your current phone in the new area.

Quote from discoverEdeals : Unless cost is a factor (you said it wasn't a huge factor) - I'd suggest going the iphone route. Get the base model iphone 4 for everyone who needs a data enabled phone. Take grandma to the store and have her pick her favorite phone for texting. Get the little kid an ipad instead of an ipod touch. Spend the money up front on the 3g model, and if you ever feel you guys want cell data on the thing all you need to do is buy a sim card. If you're on ATT now and happy with your service, you will be fine with iphone. Since you are moving, go test your current phone in the new area.

Can you be more speciic when you say, "base model"? Sorry...do you mean the 8Gs? And, are you saying I should get at least a 3rd generation? Will these have enough..er..memory or whatever (sorry, like I said, I'm soooo lame when it comes to this stuff)...we need for gaming/music etc (for my son) and for me to surf the web from time to time?

This is really helpful, thank you!

The 16GB iPhone 4 (4th generation, latest model). It's $199. The 3gs is noticeably slower in most circumtances, it is the "old" model that they still sell at a discounted rate. The iPhone 4 is the new model with the new processor, ram, etc. In my opinion it's really worth the extra $100, especially when you consider the cost of the device versus the cost of the plan over two years. It's a great device (though I'm an Android kinda guy myself) and I think it will fit your needs perfectly.

16GB is quite a lot of music, a whole ton of games, and a fair amount of video (a standard movie compressed for an iPhone is about .7GB for reference) - I don't see any need to spring for the 32GB model.

I like the ipad instead of the touch for the little one because it's something the whole family can use and kids (in my experience) have an easier time with a larger screen. This also applies to the other end of the age spectrum, so even grandma might have a time with it.

Thank you for all of the replies. I ended up going ahead and renewing my ATT contract...got the 16GB iphone 4 for myself (which i am totally too half retarded to use, but I'm pretty sure I like it) and was able to get a 16GB iphone3g refurbished with a "cosmetic damage" for my 8yo...for just $49. The cosmetic damage is not even noticeable...I assume they are referring to barely there scratches on the outtermost edge of the case...of which will be concealed by a cover anyway. As for it being refurbished..I loaded it up with some apps and stuff (it will be a Christmas present) and all SEEMS to work fine. I really appreciate the input here, it helped A LOT.

As for the ipod touch...I'm still debating where to go with this. My toddler LOVES my iphone, and I know that he will do great with a Touch. That being said, I LOVE the idea of an ipad (and it is not all that much more in the scheme of things), but wonder how big it is? I know I can get measurements etc., but the thing I like about the ipod touch idea is that I can put it in my purse easilly and keep him occupied. Also, does the ipad have this "face time" buisness? I really think that is a feature that we will use if more than one device is equipped...right now my iphone4 is and i know a ipod 4g would be, too.

thanks again for all of the help.