So I'm looking at those one-cent phones on Amazon, thinking it's time to get a smart phone and thought you guys might help me out. Keep in mind that I'm pretty much a novice right now.

I'm basically looking for three things:

1. A good OP with access to places like Facebook and Twitter.

2. A nice camera to replace my old Sony Cyber-Shot.

3. An average calling plan since I'm not on the horn all day.

The iPhone seems to be a favorite, but I'm operating on a PC. I suppose that kills compatibility between both gadgets, so I'm wondering about the PC equivalent of an iPhone?

Google's Android? RIM's BlackBerry? Nokia's Windows Phone?

Any advice is highly appreciated!

Being on a PC does not kill the iPhone for you at all. All you need for an iPhone is to have iTunes so you can sync your content, back up your phone and get updates. If you're looking for the best and most simple experience I would go iPhone. Android could be had for cheaper but there are a lot of drawbacks like apps with viruses, phones that never get updated, not nearly as many apps, but there are some very nice Android phones out there. The others I wouldn't even bother with. It's pretty much an Android or iPhone world right now as far as smart phones are concerned. Blackberry is lagging behind them both big time.

Which carrier do you have? Are you close to an Apple store? Do you want more detailed info? I spend way too much time following this stuff so I could go deeper here haha.

I figured you'd be the first to respond. LOL

Okay, I have AT&T and will be getting an individual account. Their unlimited plan is around twice the price of the rollback plans. There's the cost of the phone itself: Any huge differences between models 3 and 4? Seems like a new one is being released each year now, like with the iPad. There's a couple of Apple Stores nearby but I don't want to get stuck with stuff I don't need, so I usually shop online after a good debriefing in places like these.

More detailed info? Fire away.

Alright, well let me start by saying that I obviously have an iPhone and I have never used an Android phone myself so I can only tell you about the reports and news as far as that is concerned.

Since you have AT&T, I would go to their actual store if you have one nearby or do a thorough search on their site because they offer plans that are cheaper but do not advertise them. My wife and I got a real low minute plan because we got free nights and weekends, rollover minutes and free calls to fellow AT&T subscribers. Plus we work during the day and can't talk on the phone so it's perfect. We never come anywhere close to our minutes and we're only sharing about 500.

For data plans, again you'll need to check their site. I know for the iPhone they offer two plans, 15 a month and 25 a month. The 15 plan is fine if you don't stream music or download a bunch of apps or books over your 3G network. If you do, then you'll need to look at the higher data plan. Also you'll need to check overage charges because different phones and plans have different stipulations as far as that's concerned.

I would also strongly suggest you go to the Apple store if you have questions about the iPhone because they'll know a lot more than anyone working in the AT&T store. As far as iPhone is concerned, all you'll need is iTunes running on your computer and an account with Apple to download apps. All updates for your apps and your phone will happen through iTunes and will be delivered to everyone at once. Drawbacks I guess would be that there are strict guidelines on the app store so there are several things you'll find on an Android phone that Apple won't allow on their phones but you may find that you have no use for apps like that anyway. As far as "AttennaGate" is concerned, it's non issue. It really never was an issue for most people but the press ran with it like a political assassination. An update to the OS pretty much neutralized it and if you have a case it was never a problem to begin with.

Android is a strong OS and they put up some pretty tech loaded phones but fragmentation will be an issue. Each update to the OS has to be given to you through your carrier and has to be supported by your phone so updates may or may not be available to your phone or your phone may ship with an outdated OS. This of course could limit your app choices if they are not specified for the OS your phone currently has. There has also been a string of malware apps lately that affected several thousand phones and had to be remotely wiped by Google so user information was not stolen. Again, I can't say I have experience with this phone and OS so the positives are lost on me. The news is almost always bad for any carrier or phone after all.

Again on the iPhone, the 3gs is a great phone but there are significant changes between that and the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4 is faster, has a MUCH better screen and several other features you can read about on Apples site. The lifetime of the phone will also be longer. For example, the iPhone 3G, released in 2008 still supports the latest OS updates but is lacking some features the hardware can't support. After the next update this year, I suspect that phone will be dropped in support like the original was this past year. Of course this doesn't mean your phone is obsolete, it just won't receive any more updates. So if you went with the 3Gs you would probably have one more year of receiving updates which may or may not be missing some features, while the iPhone 4 would receive updates for another 2-3 years.

If you're looking to wait until this June/July, there will be a new iPhone released which would offer you that option plus the lower price of the current iPhone 4. For Android phones, there are many of them out there and their release schedules are varied. I haven't heard of anything new or big coming out soon though.

That's pretty much everything I can think of now but as I go back and read this I'll probably think of something I forgot. And hopefully someone can come in with a more pro Android view for you because I'm obviously Apple slanted. If you have any other questions though, post them up!

Now that the Iphone is being offered on Verizon I changed from lame AT&T and went with them for better coverage.

I had the iphone 4 and loved the device but hated the phone. I couldn't talk for more than 3 minutes or it would drop the call. the antenna thing was a big and a real problem. you also need a case because the entire phone is glass. as for ever other feature other than phone, its the best on the market. dropping calls pissed me off so much that I cancelled att, paid the fee and went to sprint. pricing is much better. I bought the evo. is it better? I dont know. its a better phone and it has flash. apple has better apps and it works better as a web device. android alliws free emulators though. it really just depends what you want the device to do. you should read cnet editor reviews

Thanks for the info, Talongar. Sorry to hear about your bad phone experience.