Waterproof Phone

[wheels 544]

In AC's thread about him taking his phone for a swim, I mentioned that KM had told me about a waterproof one. Ofcourse, KM won't waste his 10,000th post to tell you all about it, so he handed me a note with the details on this phone. The person that told him about it apparently showers while using it and although I find this part hard to believe, apparently can talk on it while 1m under the water if he is swimming.

So if anyone is looking for a waterproof phone, the thing is a Sony Erricson Xperia Active, available on the Telecom network for $399 open term and there is a Vodaphone network plan available from someone for $499.

[Guest]

Sound like a good idea wheels. Also, at the rate KM is going you will be at 10,000 postes before he is

[Guest]

Motorola has one out too:

 

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/NZ-EN ... PLUS-NZ-EN

[wheels 544]

Knowing him, he will wait till I am at 9999 and then chip in with his 10K.

If KM were an Animal, I could imagine him being a Cat, because he likes playing with his prey

[Battleship 100]

This is the phone I will be buying next waterproof android http://www.mobicity.co.nz/samsung-s5690-galaxy-xcover.html

[Farrari 4]

A nice looking phone. It is a shame it doesn't support Telecom XT 850MHz 3G.

[Guest]

I've had a waterproof phone for ages . Its a Samsung Rugby costing about $100.

[Fogg 427]

My approach is to ignore ruggedness and buy the phone that has best usability for my tastes (iPhone) but take precautions in case of the worst scenario.

 

So although I went swimming on Saturday, I had plugged my iPhone into my laptop only the night before. Hence my laptop had a full backup stored in iTunes.

 

So when I got back home on Sunday avo with a new iPhone it gave me two options (1) start as new phone or (2) restore from iTunes. Of course I went for option 2, followed the instructions to plug it into my laptop and watched with huge relief as my out of the box new phone magically turned into an exact copy of my lost phone. And when I say exact I mean it. Not just contacts, emails, photos, apps, browser favourites etc but the restore even recovered the layout of my desktop apps and stuff like my notes folder, which had some useful stuff in it like shopping lists etc.

 

So I recommend getting the phone you like the best but backup regularly.

[Atom Ant 0]

So I recommend getting the phone you like the best but backup regularly.

Which is exactly what a friend of mine hadn't done prior to having his macbook stolen last night. Loads of family photos etc which are truly irreplaceable. I hate thieves!

[Fogg 427]

Sorry to hear that. You hear it time and again, the worst thing about a computer theft is the loss of photos.

 

I once worked with the CIO of a major corporate who had a break-in and irreplaceably lost years of his family's photos, kids etc. He should have known better and applied some of his workplace disciplines to home life (made a backup).

 

I learned from that (and an incident of my own) and so I now backup my home computer monthly and keep a copy of the drive in a bank vault. So the most I'd lose would be about 1 month's worth of pics, annoying but not shattering.

 

Backup, people, backup.

[ERSATZ 2]

My approach is to ignore ruggedness and buy the phone that has best usability for my tastes (iPhone) but take precautions in case of the worst scenario.

 

So although I went swimming on Saturday, I had plugged my iPhone into my laptop only the night before. Hence my laptop had a full backup stored in iTunes.

 

So when I got back home on Sunday avo with a new iPhone it gave me two options (1) start as new phone or (2) restore from iTunes. Of course I went for option 2, followed the instructions to plug it into my laptop and watched with huge relief as my out of the box new phone magically turned into an exact copy of my lost phone. And when I say exact I mean it. Not just contacts, emails, photos, apps, browser favourites etc but the restore even recovered the layout of my desktop apps and stuff like my notes folder, which had some useful stuff in it like shopping lists etc.

 

So I recommend getting the phone you like the best but backup regularly.

So you sre saying if you play hard near water don't buy a tuff rugged ph that can handle a quick swim just buy new one each time. That seems a typical Apple fanboy apoligise thing to say.

[Fogg 427]

So you sre saying if you play hard near water don't buy a tuff rugged ph that can handle a quick swim just buy new one each time. That seems a typical Apple fanboy apoligise thing to say.

 

No I'm not.

 

If you re-read my msg you'll see that it says "get the phone you like the best". Which in my case means an iPhone. But in your case probably means something else.

 

In 30-odd years of sailing this is the first phone that I have taken swimming. So for my personal usage, dunking my phone is not a big risk. So I am not going to base my phone choice around a potential once-in-30-years event. Because usability is more important to me. Especially cos I can have my cake and eat it too by backing up. This means I can have the phone I like AND the benefit of a backup if the worst happens again.

 

But if you are a clumbsy muppet more prone to killing/losing your device then yeah get a more rugged phone, if that's more important to you.

 

And whatever you get (rugged or not) back it up.

 

That's all I said.

[Battleship 100]

AC the same thing would have happened if you drowned a Google phone all data is backed up to the google servers including all your apps that you like.

[rigger 47]

AC the same thing would have happened if you drowned a Google phone all data is backed up to the google servers including all your apps that you like.

 

And if you set it up you do not have to manually do a backup as the phone will auto sync

[Murky 3]

AC the same thing would have happened if you drowned a Google phone all data is backed up to the google servers including all your apps that you like.

 

And if you set it up you do not have to manually do a backup as the phone will auto sync

Call me paranoid if you like but "my contacts and personal messages have been conveniently backed up to Google's servers" is not a statement that would give me a great deal of comfort.

[Fogg 427]

Sure. I realise iPhones aren't the only ones that can be backed up. I guess the mechanism varies, lots of auto-synching is convenient but maybe heavy on data? Or you might not want all your data synched into Google e.g. a password?

[Battleship 100]

AC the same thing would have happened if you drowned a Google phone all data is backed up to the google servers including all your apps that you like.

 

And if you set it up you do not have to manually do a backup as the phone will auto sync

Call me paranoid if you like but "my contacts and personal messages have been conveniently backed up to Google's servers" is not a statement that would give me a great deal of comfort.

 

Your data if backed up has to go somewhere, you can choose not to back it up but why would?

 

I wouldn't say Google's service is any less secure than Apple's they have been in the cloud storage game a lot longer.

[rigger 47]

Sure. I realise iPhones aren't the only ones that can be backed up. I guess the mechanism varies, lots of auto-synching is convenient but maybe heavy on data? Or you might not want all your data synched into Google e.g. a password?

 

Have not used anymore than 100mb a month for all data usage. Can restrict syncing so that it only does it over wifi if you want.

My phone is a company supplied phone, due to the nature of the work the odds of drowning a phone could be considered high thus they provided a more robus phone that does everything (and more) that I need it to do.

 

many phones, many options, many opinions.....

[Fogg 427]

In my opinion Google/Gmail/Contacts is the safest environment in the world to back up your data to.

 

Safer than any private or corporate option as well.

 

Even governments trust it.

 

I know a senior guy for Google AsiaPac and the global technical server setup is astonishing. Their location is a closely guarded secret for one thing, making physical attack virtually impossible.

 

And there is so much redundancy built into the system that if we ever faced a situation where Google had gone down irrecoverably, we'd proabably all have bigger problems i.e. the end of the world!

[Guest]

Best thing about waterproof phones is they can be washed.