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Help Phone for Farmers

Farmerjoe

Lurker
I have over 75 acres of land in a rural community, and I have 5 employees that work on the farm. We have wired the whole area for wifi, so yes it is possible to use wifi on cellphones that are capable. The problem is that some of my employees do not like carrying their smart phone with them on the farm, and walkie talkies will not do the job for us. I am looking for cheap flip phones that will connect to wifi, but I do not know which flip phone to buy. The Tracfone LG440g would be an excellent choice, mainly because of price, however, even though Tracfone tells you it will work on wifi it does not from the research I have completed. Do you know a very cheap Android Phone that will work for me, that is a flip phone? The phone does not need texting, but at the same time a camera phone will be needed. Phones get dropped a lot, and lost etc... Getting a signal on any network is very weak at best in any area on the land. Only our wifi is dependable.
 
Tbh I don't think I've ever seen an Android flip phone but I'm sure some exist. How about a candybar shape phone with a rugged case?
 
I'd try and find some cheap used androids and see if you can get otterbox cases for them. A good place to look may be Swappa. If you want ideas on anything in particular, certainly ask here.
 
I want to explain why I would rather have an older flip phone. Any of you that have one, and have access to a tractor do the following. Lay the flip phone on the ground and run over it with the tractor. If the tractor is in a field and the ground is somewhat moist, you will see the flip phone is just pushed down in the soil. Now try the same with a smart phone, and you will at the very least come up with a cracked screen. I guess you could even try it with a car on a moist field. It does not matter if the flip phone is a rugged one or not, I think it has to do with size and and shape of the phone. I didn't do this, one of my employees showed me this, and told me he had ran over his flip phone several times with little to no damage. However, after replacing his smart phone for the third time, and because the size of the phone and even being in a hard case, the phone was destroyed every time. Now you can pretty much take this to the bank. Try it, you will see. It pretty much amazed me.
 
Walmart has on their site the "Straight Talk Huawei Ascend Y" phone with Gingerbread 2.3. (Matter of fact, they have a few including a Samsung Galaxy). The cost is 10 bucks. Will any Android phone work on wifi, without a provider and also, is Talkatone the best wifi phone app? Just trying to find information here.
 
There are a few Android flip phones, but I don't think they will work for you. Two examples:

Samsung Galaxy Golden - dual screen would still get crushed by a tractor.
Motorola Motosmart Flip XT611 - clear flip up, still would probably break.

Unfortunately I've never seen a regular flip phone with a small screen running Android.

EDIT: sorry, you posted while I was typing :)
 
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Walmart has on their site the "Straight Talk Huawei Ascend Y" phone with Gingerbread 2.3. (Matter of fact, they have a few including a Samsung Galaxy). The cost is 10 bucks. Will any Android phone work on wifi, without a provider and also, is Talkatone the best wifi phone app? Just trying to find information here.
Any android phone should work on WiFi and run any app in play. I would test with Google Hangouts as it does voice calls, video calls, and messaging ala SMS. It will work over cellular or WiFi.
 
Any android phone should work on WiFi and run any app in play. I would test with Google Hangouts as it does voice calls, video calls, and messaging ala SMS. It will work over cellular or WiFi.
Yes, I do realize this, but do you have to activate the phone for it to work? If I only needed to activate one time, that would be fine, but if the phone would need to be activated for it to work on wifi all of the time, that is a different story.
 
Unfortunately I've never seen a regular flip phone with a small screen running Android
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I hope I did the quote correctly. (Got it finally). It would be nice if someone did write an OS for the older Motorola, LG, and Samsung flip phones that was Android. People would pay for it I am sure, providing it worked over wifi. I loved my flip phone, and many others did too.
 
Yes, I do realize this, but do you have to activate the phone for it to work? If I only needed to activate one time, that would be fine, but if the phone would need to be activated for it to work on wifi all of the time, that is a different story.
No, you don't need to activate the phone with a carrier. You need to sign in with a Google account but there is no need for any carrier if you are using WiFi only. I have three retired phones in my house that aren't tied to a carrier. They are wifi only. I also have two WiFi only tablets. I can use Google Hangouts on all of them over WiFi. In fact, last month I went to Jamaica and used Google Hangouts over wifi to talk with my son, parents, and inlaws. This was on my Wife's wifi only Galaxy Tab.
 
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Thank you for the outstanding information. I am going to order the Galaxy from Walmart now. However, I am guessing you made a mistake when you said, "no need to sign in with a Google account". Next time I go to VI I will definitely try it, even though I have a rule of not taking an electronic chain with me on vacation. (We all know how that rule works?)
 
Walmart has on their site the "Straight Talk Huawei Ascend Y" phone with Gingerbread 2.3.
...is Talkatone the best wifi phone app?

I would test with Google Hangouts as it does voice calls, video calls, and messaging ala SMS. It will work over cellular or WiFi.

Unfortunately both Talkatone and the Hangouts Dialer require Android 4.0+ and will not work with 2.3 Gingerbread. :(

Viber might work for you, it looks like Viber to Viber phone calls are free based on the description, but it also says your phone number is your ID so I'm not sure how that would work since you wont have a number. GrooveIP could also work. :thumbsupdroid:
 
Unfortunately both Talkatone and the Hangouts Dialer require Android 4.0+ and will not work with 2.3 Gingerbread. :(

Viber might work for you, it looks like Viber to Viber phone calls are free based on the description, but it also says your phone number is your ID so I'm not sure how that would work since you wont have a number. GrooveIP could also work. :thumbsupdroid:
Walmart had a Samsung Galaxy Discover S730G for $9.99, so I bought that. It has Android 4.0, hopefully that will work, worth the price even if it doesn't work.
 
There are a few Android flip phones, but I don't think they will work for you. Two examples:

Samsung Galaxy Golden - dual screen would still get crushed by a tractor.
Motorola Motosmart Flip XT611 - clear flip up, still would probably break.

Unfortunately I've never seen a regular flip phone with a small screen running Android.

EDIT: sorry, you posted while I was typing :)

I don't think Samsung really intended it for the peasantry. At $700 it's more petty bourgeoisie.
 
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