Going back to work tonight is not going to be fun, but that's sort of expected after a long vacation like the one I've just shared with Tobie. But work is work and I'm going to dive right back into things to meet my deadlines and of course to earn enough money to pay for everything that we spent on during the trip. Oh life.
Given the trip, Tobie and I are now considering finally updating our phones to something more...fully featured. You see, Tobie has been back on a "dumb phone" ever since he lost is his iPhone while I'm still using an increasingly dated Nokia N63. We both have WiFi-only tablets and thus we do get to enjoy the whole app experience and yet also realize that we're not getting the full functionality out of these devices when on the road. When you're dependent on WiFi for full use of your device in a place like the Philippines, your options are severely limited. During the trip, our limited mobile phone capabilities certainly limited what we could accomplish, which kinda sucked.
So we're now looking at the more "modern" phones to help jump us forward into the present. Given our very limited mobile phone usage, we both have rather paltry phone plans and thus trying to get discounted phones through Globe, our service provide, does not seem like a cost-effective option. Thus we're more likely going to go either directly through the brand retailer or some third party store somewhere in the city.
The bigger question is what phone to get - there are so many options. I definitely want to stay out of the iOS environment (I have never had to install iTunes EVER), so that means Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4 or the HTC One. I don't think I'm about to consider a Windows Phone just yet, but maybe I'm being elitist somehow in that regard. Tobie still might consider an iPhone given the functionality it offers to him in his game designer role, but he also hates the iOS experience.
There are modest benefits to both of us having S4's given the new sharing features that they've made available for that phone model, but naturally we don't want to make a purchasing decision based on a gimmick. And I do appreciate this aspect to our thinking process -we both like to look at these purchases as rationally as possible.
Thus on a related note, I ended up calling Globe to change my plan to one of their newer options. It's an old trick of the telco world - introduce new, cost-saving plans on a regular basis and leave your existing customers stuck on existing plans until they proactively call to make changes. It seems like a bad practice - well, it sort of is - but it's just business really. And it's not limited to the companies here - if anything it's a grand tradition begun in countries like the US and such.
Oh life.
So we're now looking at the more "modern" phones to help jump us forward into the present. Given our very limited mobile phone usage, we both have rather paltry phone plans and thus trying to get discounted phones through Globe, our service provide, does not seem like a cost-effective option. Thus we're more likely going to go either directly through the brand retailer or some third party store somewhere in the city.
There are modest benefits to both of us having S4's given the new sharing features that they've made available for that phone model, but naturally we don't want to make a purchasing decision based on a gimmick. And I do appreciate this aspect to our thinking process -we both like to look at these purchases as rationally as possible.
Thus on a related note, I ended up calling Globe to change my plan to one of their newer options. It's an old trick of the telco world - introduce new, cost-saving plans on a regular basis and leave your existing customers stuck on existing plans until they proactively call to make changes. It seems like a bad practice - well, it sort of is - but it's just business really. And it's not limited to the companies here - if anything it's a grand tradition begun in countries like the US and such.
Oh life.
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