No Contract Phones as Audio Players

[tubemonkey]

Cellphone Carriers in the US -- updated Oct 2020

National Operators

• CDMA Operators (owner)
  
• Sprint Corporation (T-Mobile) --> defunct Aug 2020
  
• Verizon Wireless (Verizon)
  
  
• GSM Operators (owner)
  
• AT&T Mobility (AT&T)
  
• T-Mobile US (multiple)

Regional Operators (owner)

• US Cellular (Telephone and Data)
  
• C Spire Wireless (Telapex, Inc)

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (owner)

• Boost Mobile (Dish Network)
  
• Cricket Wireless (AT&T)
  
• H2O Wireless (Locus Telecom)
  
• Metro by T-Mobile (T-Mobile)
  
• Ting Mobile (Tucows Inc)
  
• TracFone Wireless (América Móvil)
  
• Virgin Mobile (Sprint) --> defunct Jan 2020
  
• Visible (Verizon)
  
• Xfinity Mobile (Comcast)

TracFone Wireless owns and operates the following brands

• Clearway | GoSmart Mobile | Net10 Wireless | Page Plus Cellular | SafeLink Wireless
  
• Simple Mobile | Straight Talk | Telcel América | Total Wireless | Tracfone
  
• Walmart Family Mobile

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[Alohamora]

This may be old news to many of you, but I just found that my library has a "new" app for borrowing and listening to audiobooks, Hoopla. They let us borrow up to 7 audiobooks a month. Some of the selections overlap what's available in Overdrive, but some different and theres no waiting for books, everything is available immediately. You can stream or download for offline listening.

One drawback, it won't load on my older devices. The specs say it needs Android 4.1, but it won't load on my 4.4. It does run on my newer tablet.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

This may be old news to many of you, but I just found that my library has a "new" app for borrowing and listening to audiobooks, Hoopla. They let us borrow up to 7 audiobooks a month. Some of the selections overlap what's available in Overdrive, but some different and theres no waiting for books, everything is available immediately. You can stream or download for offline listening.

One drawback, it won't load on my older devices. The specs say it needs Android 4.1, but it won't load on my 4.4. It does run on my newer tablet.

Old news, but I'm glad you discovered it. The reason content is available immediately is because libraries subscribing to the service get access to Hoopla's entire catalog in each category they subscribe to. Libraries don't buy the content. Instead, they pay Hoopla a set amount every time someone checks something out.

Libraries control their Hoopla budget by limiting the number of checkouts patrons can make each month. The clock resets itself on the first of the month and you can't carry over any unused "borrows". If you use all 7 of your "borrows" by the 16th of the month, you have to wait until the first of the next month before you can borrow any more books.

[Alohamora]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Inexpensive NCPs will be covered extensively in this year's BF thread. At $10 to $30 a pop, these phones are throwaways. So if you can get two years out of one, you've gotten far more than your money's worth from it.

I've been uprading my NCPs to get new technology and better screens rather than because they wear out hardware-wise. Except maybe battery problems. I use a really old nokia bar phone as an alarm clock because its' original battery is still strong and reliable. Yet some of these newer phones seem to kill batteries in a year.

[booklover6]

So for my audio books, this year I got an Alcatel Pop 4 Plus 16 gb Android 6.0 NCP. This is a beautiful phone with a 5.5" screen. Still fits in my pocket. I put in a 32 gb SD card. I don't know if it is just me, but music sounds GREAT on this phone (using my Amazon earbuds). I've d/l Overdrive, Audible, Smart Audio Player, Amazon Music, Spotify....and Kindle app, until I realized I can't do TTS, so deleted. Also d/l Calibre Companion and FB Reader with TTS Plugin. Now I should be good to go with all the audio uses I want! Although I don't have a holster for a phone that size!

Price: $50 from Best Buy, Black Friday 2016 ($149 retail)

Release: Spring 2016

Specs: Android 6.0, Quad-core 1.1 GHz Cortex-A7 CPU, 1.5 GB RAM, 16GB ROM, card slot, 5.5" screen, 720 x 1280 pixels (~401 ppi pixel density), 8MP & 5MP Cams, FM Radio, dual SIM

Size: really big compared to my Fire Phone, but no where near the brick of my 6" Fire. It's really nice.

[tubemonkey]

I picked up the LG Tribute HD to replace my Moto E2. The reason I got a new audio player is because one of my brothers needed a phone to use as a pocket tablet. Instead of getting him a new phone, I decided to upgrade to Marshmallow and give him my Moto E.

My primary use for this device is to play audiobooks and music. I will not activate it for use as a phone. The first thing I did before turning it on was to remove the nano sim card. After going through the initial setup, I never get prompts to activate it. I have an icon at the top of the display telling me the sim card is missing, but that's it. And I don't even have airplane mode on.

First impressions --> LG | Boost | Best Buy | Amazon

Price: $20 from Best Buy on Black Friday 2016 ($80 retail)

Release: this is a new phone from LG and was released on 03 Oct 2016.

Specs: And 6.0, 1.3GHz quad CPU, 1.5GB RAM, 16GB ROM, 5.0" 294ppi display, 8MP rear cam w/ flash, 5MP front cam, FM radio.

Size: this thing is super slim and way too thin for me. The ghost of Steve Jobs must've designed it. So instead of a normal case, I'll be getting a rugged case to add some much-needed bulk to the device. It's also about an inch longer than my Moto E.

Sound: the speaker is not super loud, but is loud enough to hear when near you. It'll work just fine for audiobooks, news, and other non-music audio just nicely. Music plays okay, but I want bass; so I'll hook it up to a bluetooth speaker for that.

Storage: 16GB, but only 10.24GB of user available storage.

mSD Card: up to 32GB, but I was able to pop in the 64GB card from my Moto E and play content from it. That card has 59.46GB of user available storage. So out of 80GB of total storage, I get 69.7GB to work with.

Battery: 2,100 mAh & removable. The battery is small for a device this size, but in order to get a phone this thin, they had no choice but to skimp on the battery. I really wish the phone was much thicker so they could shove a battery at least as big as the LG Volt's 3,000 mAh battery.

Color: it's white. I hate white. Soon it'll get covered up with a nice black case.

more to follow...
.

[Conan46]

These phones and small tablets are made much more useful when connecting to a bluetooth speaker. I use them for text-to-speech reading books, audiobooks, and music. Bluetooth speakers are rather inexpensive. I have several on hand.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by Alohamora

This may be old news to many of you, but I just found that my library has a "new" app for borrowing and listening to audiobooks, Hoopla. They let us borrow up to 7 audiobooks a month. Some of the selections overlap what's available in Overdrive, but some different and theres no waiting for books, everything is available immediately. You can stream or download for offline listening.

One drawback, it won't load on my older devices. The specs say it needs Android 4.1, but it won't load on my 4.4. It does run on my newer tablet.

Hoopla has a some good content, but I find the Android app to be so poorly built as to be unusable.

I even started a thread on it:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=277617

When you get a chance to use it for a while, I'd like to hear your experiences.

[Blossom]

I love the audio app on Hoopla. I use it all the time. It's the eBook reader part that needs to be redesigned.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Blossom]

I got a ZTE Maven 2. It's free at the AT&T store. You just have to purchase a month of airtime which is $30 or $25 for auto refill.

The screen size is 5" It doesn't have alot of free space. About 2GB. I need to get a SD card for it. It does have Dolby sound though.

It's a huge upgrade from my ZTE Maven. I ordered a case for it that will be here Monday. I'm using this as my main phone.

You can also get this offer online through their site.

Sent from my XT1528

[Blossom]

Here's a side by side of the ZTE Mavens. The notification light on the Maven 2 is smaller Maybe too small. Ignore the dirt on the Maven 1. I need to clean it.

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I got a ZTE Maven 2. It's free at the AT&T store. You just have to purchase a month of airtime which is $30 or $25 for auto refill.

The screen size is 5" It doesn't have alot of free space. About 2GB. I need to get a SD card for it. It does have Dolby sound though.

It's a huge upgrade from my ZTE Maven. I ordered a case for it that will be here Monday. I'm using this as my main phone.

You can also get this offer online through their site.

Sent from my XT1528

I was tempted, but the lack of space is a deal breaker. On my current phone, I can't even update apps anymore because I don't have space--even though I have very few apps loaded, and all that can be moved to an SD card have been moved.

[Blossom]

That's how my Moto E is. Why do they still make 8GB phones is beyond me. My previous Maven was used as a dumb phone. It was limited but the new one is very nice for a free phone.

Sent from my XT1528

[Catlady]

Originally Posted by Blossom

That's how my Moto E is. Why do they still make 8GB phones is beyond me. My previous Maven was used as a dumb phone. It was limited but the new one is very nice for a free phone.

Sent from my XT1528

Moto E is what I'm using now. I need to replace it because every once in a while it decides to turn itself off for no reason; I'll probably go for a Moto G.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Moto E is what I'm using now. I need to replace it because every once in a while it decides to turn itself off for no reason; I'll probably go for a Moto G.

Mine is a Verizon Moto E which works fine with StraightTalk but not so good with AT&T.

I have a Fire Phone but it has issues with AT&T too. So I got a gophone last year and no more problems. So I'm staying with GoPhones for my cell phone.

Sent from my Nexus 7