Help Is There A Better "Trump Phone?"

[MNottaRobot]

Hello, I have just registered and I am putting this thread here because my question is this:
I got my free government phone about 10 years ago, when I was pretty much a homeless street musician, and it is an ANS UL40 (that's battery lasts about 2 hours just sitting there, unplugged) I am wondering what kind of phone I could pay for myself, which I could then continue using through Assurance; but one that would have better camcorder better microphones than the ANS, which is probably circa 2012

It seems to me that all the phones I have found for sale online all come along with some kind of data plan and they are already hard-wired to work through some "carrier." One which is not sprint/virgin mobile.

I get 3 gigs of data per month free through Assurance, and so I want to buy a nicer phone and then switch it over to Assurance so I will have the same phone number and the same free voice and data (hotspot) but I am afraid of buying a phone that can only be used through T-mobile but not Boost or through Verizon but not PC Metro or Virgin?
So, just to throw this question out there; where can you get a nice phone and then choose your own carrier? For under 200 bucks
I know this is a newbie kind of question, and I'm not sure if there is a government phone reddit or anything so posting here..thanks

 

[Deleted User]

Sorry people missed your question.

Are you still looking?

I'm in England!
Hopefully this post will BUMP your question to the attention of your country men and ladies again, and they will respond.

 

[puppykickr]

Hello, I have just registered and I am putting this thread here because my question is this:
I got my free government phone about 10 years ago, when I was pretty much a homeless street musician, and it is an ANS UL40 (that's battery lasts about 2 hours just sitting there, unplugged) I am wondering what kind of phone I could pay for myself, which I could then continue using through Assurance; but one that would have better camcorder better microphones than the ANS, which is probably circa 2012

It seems to me that all the phones I have found for sale online all come along with some kind of data plan and they are already hard-wired to work through some "carrier." One which is not sprint/virgin mobile.

I get 3 gigs of data per month free through Assurance, and so I want to buy a nicer phone and then switch it over to Assurance so I will have the same phone number and the same free voice and data (hotspot) but I am afraid of buying a phone that can only be used through T-mobile but not Boost or through Verizon but not PC Metro or Virgin?
So, just to throw this question out there; where can you get a nice phone and then choose your own carrier? For under 200 bucks
I know this is a newbie kind of question, and I'm not sure if there is a government phone reddit or anything so posting here..thanks

Hey!
How are you?

I also am using the Sprint plan that you are referring to.

Luckily, I signed up about a year and a half ago, and they hooked me up with a Poblano Hot Pepper running the Android 8.1.0 Go OS.

For a free phone, it is quite remarkable in a number of ways.

But that and the details of it will not answer your question.

As a (semi retired) musician to another musician, I have to say that you will most likely be disappointed in any live recordings made with an Android- even a good one- unless you can connect some better mics and equipment up to it.

It can be done, there are a few decent videos on Youtube (God, that old cliche again), but it is always best to buy purpose built electronics.

If you want recordings, buy a recorder.
If you want pictures or video, buy a camera.

Not only will the quality of your art improve, but so will the simplicity of the task.

Anyway, for a device to work with your program, you need it to be fully capable with the cellular provider's system.

Check your current device.

Settings
Network & internet
Mobile network
Advanced
Preferred network type
(just read this)
Automatically select network
(see what it says)
Network
(see what it says)

This is just on my device, so yours will probably be different but similar.

Your new device must meet the same requirements that your old one does, in order to work right now.

Cellular systems are forever changing, albeit rather slowly- but I believe that some big changes are coming rather soon.

This means that you had better be sure that any device you get now will meet the future requirements as well as the current ones.

Have you gone online and looked at what Sprint is currently offering?

At any rate, as much as I like this bottom rung phone, if I had the cash, I would seriously consider the Poblano Ghost.

There are two versions, both of which are close to or within the price range you specified.

https://hotpeppermobile.com/ghost/

 

[mikedt]

Sorry, I can't help you.

I'm in China.

 

[MNottaRobot]

Hey!
How are you?

I also am using the Sprint plan that you are referring to.

Luckily, I signed up about a year and a half ago, and they hooked me up with a Poblano Hot Pepper running the Android 8.1.0 Go OS.

For a free phone, it is quite remarkable in a number of ways.

But that and the details of it will not answer your question.

As a (semi retired) musician to another musician, I have to say that you will most likely be disappointed in any live recordings made with an Android- even a good one- unless you can connect some better mics and equipment up to it.

It can be done, there are a few decent videos on Youtube (God, that old cliche again), but it is always best to buy purpose built electronics.

If you want recordings, buy a recorder.
If you want pictures or video, buy a camera.

Not only will the quality of your art improve, but so will the simplicity of the task.

Anyway, for a device to work with your program, you need it to be fully capable with the cellular provider's system.

Check your current device.

Settings
Network & internet
Mobile network
Advanced
Preferred network type
(just read this)
Automatically select network
(see what it says)
Network
(see what it says)

This is just on my device, so yours will probably be different but similar.

Your new device must meet the same requirements that your old one does, in order to work right now.

Cellular systems are forever changing, albeit rather slowly- but I believe that some big changes are coming rather soon.

This means that you had better be sure that any device you get now will meet the future requirements as well as the current ones.

Have you gone online and looked at what Sprint is currently offering?

At any rate, as much as I like this bottom rung phone, if I had the cash, I would seriously consider the Poblano Ghost.

There are two versions, both of which are close to or within the price range you specified.

https://hotpeppermobile.com/ghost/

 

[MNottaRobot]

Hey man, thanks a lot for the advice; yeah, I hear what you are saying about the phone recordings..they come out super compressed and when I load the file into Audacity and analyze the "spectrum" there is nothing above 3 Kilohertz and nothing below 100 hz. This makes sense because the speaking voice falls within this range and anything lower would be considered "rumble" since few people speak in the bass guitar range.
I really just want to be able to post a Youtube video of me sitting on my couch playing a guitar that sounds as good as the other 100,000 ones out there and not have people click "next" as soon as they hear the quality. I will probably get an external mike to plug into the headphone jack or wherever.
The LG Aristo 2 that my friend bought me was mysteriously made useless about maybe 90 days after I stopped making payments. It was like they sent a wireless signal to it to make it useless at a certain point.
But, I followed a Youtube video on how to unlock it and I apparently succeeded, but I was worried that if I go to the Assurance Wireless site and switch my service over to it; I will find out the hard way that a phone sold by PC Metro will not function through any other carrier than T-Mobile, unlocking notwithstanding...I suppose in that case, I would look into a hot pepper ghost or similar.
I just want to come up to the 21st century with my technology and not have people online think that I suck as a musician because my equipment sucks...But the LG Aristo 2 told me that the unlocking succeeded and so maybe I'm free to use it with Sprint as my carrier; or else I might have to go a few days without hotspot wi-fi while I come up with a work-around...thanks for responding; maybe I can contact the hotpepper people and just ask them if their phone will work on the lifeline government plan (which I believe was the governments way of counting how many homeless people there were in the nation under the guise of "What if they have an emergency and have to call 911? They have a human right to have access to 911, so we will give them all free phones"

 

[MNottaRobot]

Sorry, I can't help you.

I'm in China.

 

[MNottaRobot]

Can you come to America and help me? I would really appreciate it (smiling emoji here)

 

[puppykickr]

Hey man, thanks a lot for the advice; yeah, I hear what you are saying about the phone recordings..they come out super compressed and when I load the file into Audacity and analyze the "spectrum" there is nothing above 3 Kilohertz and nothing below 100 hz. This makes sense because the speaking voice falls within this range and anything lower would be considered "rumble" since few people speak in the bass guitar range.
I really just want to be able to post a Youtube video of me sitting on my couch playing a guitar that sounds as good as the other 100,000 ones out there and not have people click "next" as soon as they hear the quality. I will probably get an external mike to plug into the headphone jack or wherever.
The LG Aristo 2 that my friend bought me was mysteriously made useless about maybe 90 days after I stopped making payments. It was like they sent a wireless signal to it to make it useless at a certain point.
But, I followed a Youtube video on how to unlock it and I apparently succeeded, but I was worried that if I go to the Assurance Wireless site and switch my service over to it; I will find out the hard way that a phone sold by PC Metro will not function through any other carrier than T-Mobile, unlocking notwithstanding...I suppose in that case, I would look into a hot pepper ghost or similar.
I just want to come up to the 21st century with my technology and not have people online think that I suck as a musician because my equipment sucks...But the LG Aristo 2 told me that the unlocking succeeded and so maybe I'm free to use it with Sprint as my carrier; or else I might have to go a few days without hotspot wi-fi while I come up with a work-around...thanks for responding; maybe I can contact the hotpepper people and just ask them if their phone will work on the lifeline government plan (which I believe was the governments way of counting how many homeless people there were in the nation under the guise of "What if they have an emergency and have to call 911? They have a human right to have access to 911, so we will give them all free phones"

You are so correct.
I dont know jack about unlocking, rooting, and things like that.

What I do know is what works for me, and that we agree in what you say about the mic response quality and the purpose of these devices.

It seems counterintuitive, but my 'free' government phone, at least as far as listening to music, sounds better and has more options than more expensive devices.

I know that it is off topic, but since you are interested in music I want to post some links to apps that you may enjoy/find useful.

In fact, they are collectively small enough to all reside on a device at the same time.

There are seemingly a few duplicates in function, but each does have a purpose on my device.

 

[puppykickr]

Audio Recorder (Record audio files) - https://f-droid.org/packages/com.github.axet.audiorecorder

https://blackplayer-music-player.en.uptodown.com/android/download/345945

https://eq-ecualizador-fx.en.uptodown.com/android

Microphone (Feeds audio from the mic right out of the speaker) - https://f-droid.org/packages/net.bitplane.android.microphone

https://m.apkpure.com/neutralizer/eu.javeo.android.neutralizer

https://m.apkpure.com/noozxoide-eizo-rewire™-e/com.noozxoidelabs.eizo.rewirep

https://m.apkpure.com/noozxoide-eizo-rewire™-pro/com.noozxoidelabs.eizo.rewirepro

RadioDroid (Browse and stream internet radios) - https://f-droid.org/packages/net.programmierecke.radiodroid2

https://m.apkpure.com/equalizer-free-no-ads-only-audio-permission/com.weebly.kainz.simple_equalizer

 

[dontpanicbobby]

No way there's a Trump phone.
My President doesn't believe in giving things away.

 

[puppykickr]

No way there's a Trump phone.
My President doesn't believe in giving things away.

Well, that's odd for you to say, considering that he has donated millions and does not take the presidential salary.

 

[Hadron]

Well, that's odd for you to say, considering that he has donated millions and does not take the presidential salary.

If we follow this line then posts will end up being deleted as PCA. But I cannot help note the high profile forced closure of his "charitable" foundation after he used large sums from it for furthering his own ends.

 

[puppykickr]

If we follow this line then posts will end up being deleted as PCA. But I cannot help note the high profile forced closure of his "charitable" foundation after he used large sums from it for furthering his own ends.

As is the case for me, when the Clinton foundation has been an obvious source of corruption for years- yet is allowed to remain open.

 

[jhtalisman]

Well, that's odd for you to say, considering that he has donated millions and does not take the presidential salary.

Not trying to make this PCA, but he has grifted 100x+ the 4 years of presidential salary at his own properties.

 

[dontpanicbobby]

@MNottaRobot Did any of these tips help? @puppykickr's list had some cool stuff. Inquiring minds want to know.

 

[puppykickr]

Not trying to make this PCA, but he has grifted 100x+ the 4 years of presidential salary at his own properties.

Name a democrat president that has not spent many more than his salary AND collected a check.

I'll wait...

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Kennedy.

I don't spend much time In politics.

My President didn't have any pets in the WH.

Kennedy didn't have mobile phones either.