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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 12:23pm
Post #1 of 54
(2123 views)
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Which phone do you use when you are at home?
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I've been hearing that many folks don't use land lines anymore. I wonder if that's true?
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sador
Gondolin
Oct 10 2012, 12:32pm
Post #2 of 54
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At the moment though, it needs repairing, so I sometimes use the celleluar.
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Misto
Menegroth
Oct 10 2012, 12:34pm
Post #3 of 54
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Depends on who I'm going to call.
Someone's home -> landline.
Someone's cell phone -> my own cell phone.
It's just that the landline has a flatrate on anything but cell phone numbers. So it's actually cheaper to use a cell phone for that.
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 12:39pm
Post #4 of 54
(1631 views)
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What I've been seeing is that people don't want to pay for both (understandably), but I'm wondering if all this talk about possible increased cancer risk is something people pay attention to. I've asked this before, a while back, and I'm wondering if this has changed at all. It was on the news again the other day, with a suggestion that people use the speaker function of their phones and not carry them on their person but in their purse (those that use purses or backpacks.)
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Delrond
Nargothrond
Oct 10 2012, 1:09pm
Post #5 of 54
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When we moved to an apartment earlier this year while house-hunting, we didn't mess with a land line. Now that we are in our home, we looked into adding a land line. Mrs. D wanted one because she likes to have a phone that feels like a phone, not an obilisk. However, our service providers (wireless, TV) wanted to charge an additional $40/month - we said no thanks. I know we could use Vonage or some other VOIP vendor, but I am used to no land line and I think there is no turning back for us. Besides, we pay quite a bit for our plan (just got smart phones - Siri is so cool); it seems a waste of money for little to no added benefit.
I do use speaker when at home depending on who I am talking to. Overall for me, I really don't get a bunch of calls anyway. It's usually Mrs. D thanking me for my multitasking skills like listening to her while watching TV or making the bed while running several loads of laundry or vacuuming the entire house as the dinner I have prepared cooks in the oven.
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Nightingale
Nargothrond
Oct 10 2012, 1:11pm
Post #6 of 54
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but only because I am at university and don't have a 'phone in my college room. I much prefer to use the landline otherwise.
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:15pm
Post #7 of 54
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since the iOS 6 update I have Siri on my iPad. Other than asking her where I can dump a dead body  , and asking her the weather I haven't yet gotten much use out of her. Perhaps I would if it were an iPhone. What use do you make of her?
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:18pm
Post #8 of 54
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Yes, I can see that a college student would get more use out of cell phones.
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And your parents? Do they use landlines? I've been watching a lot of "House Hunters" type shows, and when people on these shows receive calls at home they almost always only have cell phones. Mr. Patty only gives out his cell phone number, and leaves it on all the time at home. Me, if I'm at home my cell is turned off.
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Delrond
Nargothrond
Oct 10 2012, 1:24pm
Post #9 of 54
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mainly due to my inability to type well on the iPhone touchscreen keyboard.
- I just tell her to call Mrs. D or anyone else in my contact list.
- Texting - why type when Siri can put all that text together in seconds?
- playing music of my choice, instead of drilling down.
- finding restaurants, etc. depending on where we are. This is a real time saver.
And she is very polite!
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:39pm
Post #10 of 54
(1612 views)
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The grandkids like asking silly questions...
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and I think Siri has several stock answers to "I love you, Siri". One of these is "I bet you say that to all the Apple products".
How do you get the voice dictation to know when to use a "period" and when to spell out the word "period"...and then to skip two spaces before beginning the next word, which should be capitalized? You can tell I'm a novice.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Doriath
Oct 10 2012, 1:50pm
Post #11 of 54
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Well, we'd dump the land line if my implanted defibrillator didn't need it for checkups.
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It really annoys me that a company can produce a device that goes inside the human body and can give that human body's heart a jolt of electricity if necessary, but that same company does not have wi fi on that defibrillator's exterior monitor.  Once a week, a little box about the size of an answering machine "interrogates" my defibrillator while I sleep and sends the info to the company. If there has been any weirdness since the last scan, the company then notifies my cardiologist. This little box depends on a land line to send the info. The defibrillator itself can be manipulated wirelessly, so I don't understand why the monitor can't as well.
And because of where we live, our land line number is long distance for my kids' schools, my husband's work, the grandparents who only live 9 miles away, and my brother in law, who only lives about 2 miles away. And our service is mediocre at best, with a low humming background noise most of the time. 
So as soon as my stupid defibrillator people make a wi fi connected monitor, which they say they are working on, but I'll believe it when I see it, we'll disconnect the land line.
So back to the poll. I use the cell phone because it doesn't have that low humming background noise.
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Magpie
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:50pm
Post #12 of 54
(1609 views)
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It's my only phone although my husband and one of my two sons have cells.
Two of our extensions are cordless - so they're not entirely tied to the wall. But one is the an old princess phone that is tied to the wall and we still have an old rotary dial phone in the house in red like these:
http://www.boldoldphones.com/...one_other_colors.htm
It looks like that sucker is worth some money!
That rotary was in the basement and worked for receiving calls till we got a couple of new cordless phones.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Doriath
Oct 10 2012, 1:55pm
Post #13 of 54
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Does your red phone call the Kremlin?
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My mother had the old princess phone in turquoise until we made her get a cordless phone with an answering machine. Which we shouldn't have bothered. She never would learn how to use the answering machine.
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Magpie
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:57pm
Post #14 of 54
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but I"ve heard that land lines are more reliable in large scale emergency situations
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When the bridge collapsed here, cell phone available collapsed too - I think it had something to do with services being swamped with calls. I can't remember the details but a point was made that, in some situations, land lines are more reliable.
Perhaps that's changed or doesn't pertain to your situation, but it would seem to be an important factor if it does pertain.
But we barely use our landline and it's expensive. So I'm seriously considering dumping it even though I don't own a cell phone at the moment.
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:57pm
Post #15 of 54
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Wow. Well, I can see you have no choice.
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I'm fortunate and blessed not to need my land line for that problem (bless you, A. E.) but I have to say that when it comes to paying my bills I always opt to use my land line. For some, probably ill-informed reason, I am loathe to use a cell or even a cordless because I'm convinced that hackers or some such boogeyman can't eavesdrop on my personal information when I use a land-line. I know that the cordless phones nowadays are supposed to have scrambled signals, but all of that still worries me, so I pay the ridiculous (and I do mean ridiculous) prices AT& T charges for the landline.
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 1:58pm
Post #16 of 54
(1575 views)
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Magpie
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 2:00pm
Post #17 of 54
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I loved that red phone!
I dearly wanted to take my grandmother's old phone when she died.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/.../s1600/Old+Phone.jpg
It didn't use a jack. I would have had to cut the cord. And back in the day, you rented or borrowed the phone from the phone company - you didn't own them. This was so old, I figured it might technically be phone company property. And I didn't want to fight my extended family on letting me take out a knife, cut the thing, and take it home.
Instead, I chose a handkerchief and a glass orange juicer for my mementos. :-)
(This post was edited by Magpie on Oct 10 2012, 2:00pm)
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 2:03pm
Post #18 of 54
(1609 views)
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Magpie, you of all people should know
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land lines are more reliable in an emergency--don't forget in Day After Tomorrow when no one's cells were working and Jake Gyllenhall's character went to the payphone to call his parents.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Doriath
Oct 10 2012, 2:05pm
Post #19 of 54
(1588 views)
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That's how my mom's princess phone was.
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We had to get the phone company out to her house to install a jack. But they let us keep the phone. I think my nephew disassembled it to see its guts. 
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 2:07pm
Post #20 of 54
(1556 views)
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We are just getting rid of a Western Electric phone that looks somewhat like that...
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but is touch tone. Also, we are on the hunt for new cordless phones. I remember back when you rented the phones and when they didn't use a jack. I'll bet a lot of folks here are too young to remember that.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Doriath
Oct 10 2012, 2:07pm
Post #21 of 54
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Yes, land lines do not go out if the electricity goes out.
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However, you need to have a phone that is not cordless and does not sit in an answering machine. You need the kind that plugs directly into the jack.
But at fifty bucks a month, it's still hard to justify the land line.
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Patty
Elvenhome
Oct 10 2012, 2:11pm
Post #22 of 54
(1566 views)
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Ya got that right, and mine is even more than that.
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And that's with no long distance.
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Nightingale
Nargothrond
Oct 10 2012, 2:11pm
Post #23 of 54
(1586 views)
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Like you, their mobiles are often turned off in the house. I never use my mobile in my 'real' home either.
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Delrond
Nargothrond
Oct 10 2012, 2:13pm
Post #24 of 54
(1575 views)
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I wonder if Magpie is married to Commissioner Gordon. 
BTW, I hope your router issues are fixed.
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Alassëa Eruvande
Doriath
Oct 10 2012, 2:15pm
Post #25 of 54
(1573 views)
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Yeah, we have the bare minimum on our land line.
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We use the cell phones to call long distance. But, with today's technology, "long distance" is no longer applicable.
I even tried to get the phone company to give me a discount due to needing the line for my defibrillator, but they only give you a discount if you get other government goodies. Which we don't. 
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