Android on OSX? Carriers?

[archer75]

So i'm thinking about getting an android phone. I do not currently have a cell phone and have never owned a smartphone. My wife and friends all have iphone 4's so i'm familiar with those but i'm curious about androids.

My main desktop is an imac so i'm going to want to sync with that. Primarily I want to sync to itunes which I use to manage my podcast collection as well as my books.

I'm also trying to decide on carriers. I do get discounts for several via work. 5% off my monthly plan for AT&T, 17% off for verizon, 12% off for tmobile and i'm not sure what I get for sprint. I don't need a lot of minutes, maybe 450 tops, though I do care about the quality of calls. No interest in texts. I do care about data and will likely use a lot of data. Primarily for playing Pandora in my vehicle while commuting. Signal for all carriers seem pretty equal around here from what I gather from asking around.

Haven't decided on a phone yet, not in a big hurry. I will get something within the next couple of months. Not opposed to an iphone5 but the HTC sensation looks good as well as the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S II.

Any feedback?

 

[EmoTonyB]

i can say that android absolutely plays nice with OSX as i have an android phone and a macbook pro.

you will be able to sync with iTunes with one of many free apps that allow iTunes to recognize your phone and allow access to it through that program.

as far as carriers... sprint has unlimited data and the unlimited data plan comes with 450 monthly mins. ALL other carriers have tiered data, so i would do some research as to how much data you will expect to need.

i dont have any problems with the call quality in my area, but with any carrier this will be location specific. look at coverage maps to determine what will give you the best service for your work/home/travel area.

cheers and happy shopping!

 

[takeshi]

Always select carrier first based on real world coverage where you need it most. Rather than ask general questions about coverage, see if you can compare actual coverage in specific locations. The general comments about a given carrier having a "better network" don't really mean anything. All carriers have areas with poor to no coverage.

Unfortunately, the most practical way to test generally involves going with one of the choices and trying them out while you are in the initial period where you can cancel without ETF.

As for pricing, minutes, data tiers, etc all carriers have this info on their web sites for you to compare.

 

[archer75]

Don't carriers share towers? I can see from various coverage maps that certain carriers don't have coverage in certain areas but with them i've always had service in those areas which makes me think they share towers?

Verizon may have slightly better coverage here than AT&T. Tmobile offers a better plan than Verizon for a similar price. Since my wife is on AT&T I can save more money by going that route. Users in my area report Verizon 4g speeds as being better than AT&T.

I also have an imac, ipad, 2 ipod touches, my wife has an iphone 4 and we have some money invested in ios apps. I also have a number of PC's but the imac is my main system.
However I also use gmail, google contacts, calendars and docs so i'm also in the google ecosystem.

So what it comes down to is I might have a better experience on Verizon but I would save a lot more money on AT&T. I like the freedom that android offers over ios but ios may play better in my world. ios5 vs gingerbread? iphone5 vs moto atrix vs galaxy S2 vs samsung infuse?
Decisions, decisions.