@Band on the Run:
A Geek Squad person told me I could purchase an older iphone for about $100. He said Verizon will allow me to upgrade my plan ahead of time if I threatened to go to AT&T. He did not have details on how to threaten AT&T if I am still under K with Verizon.
I have no idea what this Geek Squad person to whom you spoke meant by threatening your current provider (Verizon) to go with another provider (AT&T) in order to force Verizon to let you upgrade your current cell phone to an older iPhone. If you are currently locked into a one- or two-year contract (actually most folks have never been offered a one-year contract, so I should really only be mentioning here the more prominent two-year one), then there is typically a $350 early-termination fee on the Verizon network (a $325 early-termination fee on the AT&T network) with which you will have to contend in order to enter into a new two-year contract with Verizon. Personally, the Sprint network provides satisfactory service as does Verizon and AT&T, depending upon where ones uses their cell phone or other wireless devices (i.e., wireless hotspots), so which network is best is not so much as subjective (as one might think) as it is based on locale/geography, and locale is what I believe to be the driver of the conclusions one reaches as to which wireless provider is best.
Let's say, for example, that you've you have already satisfied 15 months of a 24-month (two-year) contract you have with Verizon. This means you're looking at an early-termination fee of $200 ($350 -(15 x $10)) in addition to the cost of a new iPhone, whether it be one of the older iPhone 3gs or the iPhone 4. You said the Geek Squad person told you that you "could purchase an older iphone for about $100," but with the iPhone 4s being Apple's latest iPhone offering, I don't know if he was referring to an even "older" iPhone, which for reasons I will not get into here is inadvisable, or to the "3gs" or "4" models. Be that as it may, considering that were you to satisfy, say, 23 of such a 24-month contract, you would then be looking at an early-termination fee of $120 ($350 -(23 x $10)) , so you'd be paying $80 less by not terminating your contract until after the 23rd month, and totally avoid having to pay an early-termination fee were you to wait until the two-year contract expires on its own terms. Verizon has decided to impose as a penalty for the early termination of your contract $110, plus $10 for each of the months that remain in your contract (AT&T has decided to impose $85 or $25 less than does Verizon), but I don't think the extra $110 (or AT&T's $85) to be fair.
I should mention here that the Sprint network, which also touts a $350 early-termination fee, forces those wishing to use Sprint-powered iPhones into an individual plan of either a 450-voice minutes, free mobile-to-mobile (to/from on the Sprint network) with unlimited data on its Everything Data Plan for $79.99 (it advertises this plan for $69.99, but the $10 Premium Data add-on is a must) or an unlimited voice minutes, free mobile-to-mobile (to/from on the Sprint network), with unlimited data on its Simply Everything Plan for $109.99 (it advertises this plan for $99.99, but the $10 Premium Data add-on is a must) and unlimited text messaging.
Sprint also offers a "family plan"-equivalent for each of these two plans, which effectively doubles the cost of the individual plan. Because the iPhone can be used as a mobile hotspot, Sprint offers a mobile hotspot option for an extra $29.99/month, which provides support for up to five wifi-enabled devices (i.e., other iOS devices, wireless printers) since Sprint blocks the "personal hotspot" feature of the iPhone 4/4s (which enables it to sell access to this feature separately).
If one actually needs such wifi access to other wireless devices or using the iPhone's Bluetooth tethering feature, I would recommend not subscribing to this personal hotspot feature and instead getting an AT&T Mobile HotSpot Elevate 4G device and paying $49.99/month, which device come with its own lithium battery, which is real portable router, which the iPhone isn't, that supports wireless connections at 4G speed (if used in a location that supports 4G), and it won't prove to be a drain on one's iPhone 4's/4s' battery.
He said I will be amazed by an older iphone over a regular phone.
Perhaps, but I have no opinion, since I have no idea what the Geek Squad guy meant.
MY question is it is worth it? If they are unreliable or I can't interface with other iphones b/c my iphone is too old....
An iPhone is a smartphone, which is a cell phone on which things can be done that most smartphones cannot, that comes with a built-in GPS, but it is no more reliable than any other cell phone. Dropping it, for example, could cause some degree of damage to your iPhone and there is no known cure for klutzism, so you would want to try not to do this or protect yourself by subscribing to Apple's Apple Care program through Sprint for $99, which provides free "green" repairs (iPhone having minor damage) for two years, and up to two $49 "yellow" repairs during this two-year period, while non-subscribers will pay $199 for "green" and "yellow" repairs. (Forget about "red" repairs, which are really whatever the cost of replacing your 8GB, 16GB, 32GB or 64GB iPhone.)
You have to decide if owning an iPhone is worth it to you; no one else can make this decision for you, but they are all of them as reliable as any cell phone might be. The iPhone 3gs comes with 802.11b/g wifi and Bluetooth 2.1; the iPhone 4 comes with 802.11b/g/n wifi and Bluetooth 2.1; and the iPhone4s comes with 802.11b/g/n wifi and Bluetooth 4.0, so your iPhone won't be "too old" to connect to interface with other iPhones, but you will need a iPhone 4 or iPhone 4s to be able to use the Facetime app if this is something of interest to you. (The iTouch, 4th Generation, supports the Facetime app and doesn't require a two-year commitment with a wireless carrier to use and maintain, so an iPhone 3gs would be enough in this case.)
Does anyone have insight over priorities for an iphone or ipad?
Insight is one of those words that is subject to interpretation, so here's my interpretation of your question? There are many apps available for the iPhone and the iPad that will allow you to do many of the things that you may be doing on the Windows or MacIntosh desktop. You may want to use a smartphone, like the iPhone, to do them and even derive some bit of joy knowing that you may be able to these things using your iPhone, but there are reasons that I would rather use a tablet, like the iPad, to do, rather than attempting to do those things using a smartphone.
I definitely want a SmartPhone. My plan is to take Advanced Word and Excel classes at the local community college. I need to learn Outlook and One Note.
Ok. In view of what you say here, you can open and edit Word and Excel documents and well as create Word- and Excel-compatible documents using any of the iOS apps -- i.e., the iPhone, the iPad and the iTouch -- but the word processing and spreadsheet documents that are typically produced using the Microsoft Office suite are not the kind of tasks for which a smartphone, like the iPhone, is as well suited to accomplish as would a tablet, like the iPad. But the iPhone and iPad apps, like "Documents To Go" ($9.99) and "Documents To Go Premium" ($16.99), don't include anything equivalent to Outlook or One Note, although "Microsoft OneNote for iPad" and "Outlook Mail Pro" ($9.99) are available for the iPad. (BTW, Outlook Mail Pro is what is called a "universal" app, which means that it is also supported on the iPhone.)
Also, the feature set peculiar to the Microsoft Office desktop apps, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, is scaled down and thus are not as robust in the corresponding iPhone and iPad apps, so whatever you might learn about Word or Excel in a community college might be of help to you from a theoretical point of view, but there is a learning curve to climb in order to use these iPhone and/or iPad apps. The "Quick Office HD" ($18.99) and "Office^2 HD" ($7.99) apps are specifically designed for the iPad, while "Pages," "Numbers" and "Keynote" ($27.97 @$9.99 each), which can be used to open, create and edit Word-, Excel- and PowerPoint-compatible documents, respectively, are all universal apps.
After having reviewed many of these iOS apps in the past -- I won't tell you where in order to keep "you guys" in suspense about me nor how much I loved writing this response without feeling any need to do a word count! -- I regularly use Documents To Go Premium in court using my iPad, and this app, along with Pages, can be used to create and edit pleadings, except while footnotes in Documents To Go are supported, they can only be created or edited on the Windows or Mac desktop using the "Documents To Go Desktop for iPhone" application; however, footnotes are not only supported in Pages, but they can also be created and edited in Pages as well, but I prefer Documents To Go Premium over Pages. There are actually several reasons why I would recommend Documents To Go Premium over Pages, but I won't go into them here.
Now this message, @BOTR, contains quite a bit of information in it (maybe too much to digest all at once), but your mention of "community college" here suggests to me that maybe you would be content with the iPhone 4 and with buying Documents To Go now, so that you might become acquainted with creating and editing word processing and spreadsheet documents on it, and then upgrading to Documents To Go Premium through an in-app purchase later should you decide to invest in an iPad, which is ideally suited for such tasks, since all of the apps you buy for the iPhone are not only compatible with the iPad, but they can be used on the iPad without your having to pay again for them a second time.
Refurbished phones are fine, since it your new iPhone must be replaced, it will likely be replaced with a refurbished one, but considering the fact that Sprint is currently offering the iPhone 4 with 8GB for $99 with a two-year commitment (see above), your first iPhone 4 will be a new one. If you want to use your first iPhone 4 as a MP3 player and you have many songs, then there's also a 16GB, 32GB and 64GB one for $199, $299 and $399, respectively. If songs are a real consideration for you, you will want to count your songs and count the cost, and then go for it (or not).
@djeggnog
