The Glade 4.0

So yeah, my wife needs a cell phone. I have next to no experience in this area.

Requirements:
Something with a phone
Something that can hold and play music
Something that can take decent pictures

Nice-to-haves:
Internet connectivity would be a plus
Something that can connect to our car stereo via bluetooth would be a plus

I have the following perceptions, right or wrong:
If we go with an Apple product, we have to pay money for every song we load on the thing (so ripping existing CDs to MP3 is out)
We have to sign some kind of expensive contract

My questions are:
What phone?
How much is it going to cost?

Can anyone assist?

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iPhone 4s is by far the best phone in my opinion, although I haven't tried Windows Phone 7 and that could possibly change my mind. I could go on and on about this, but in almost all respects it's a better operating system than Android and has better apps. If you polled tech geeks in the Silicon valley area, most would have iPhones, and most startups first create apps for iOS. (read an article about this on Techcrunch I believe).

Your perceptions are incorrect. You can rip CDs and put them on iTunes and put them onto your iPhone. It's pretty easy. You don't have to jailbreak it or anything. The contract you sign is for a data plan that's the same for any smart phone.

edit:

Anyways I would rank these operating systems from best to worst, assuming the latest versions and devices for all.

iOS, Windows Phone 7 (probably if I tried it), Android, Blackberry

to load music onto an Iphone you must load the music into Itunes. However, Itunes will import your CDs, MP3s, .wavs or just about any other format. Iphones wont play .wavs IIRC, but is possible to convert them using Itunes.

There is no subscription or fee required.

I advocate the iPhone, as it's far and away the best phone I've ever used.

T-Mobile plans will not require a contract, Farskeee. Any other national carrier will. T-Mobile will actually give you an overall discount if you purchase the phone up-front instead of letting them amortize the "discount" by rolling it into your 2-year contract. You pay more up-front, but save on the monthly more than the discount would have saved you.

Secondly, TMO or Verizon (if you're on the LTE system) are likely to offer the best practical (vs. in a controlled environment) internet speeds simply due to infrastructure to customer demand ratio.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

You can do that with any phone, but it's so generally not preferable to spend $800 out of pocket for a decent phone that it's an option rarely taken.

The difference is, T-Mobile gives you a large enough difference in the contract vs. non-contract monthly rate that it's cheaper to do so over the 2 years.

And you only spend $800 out of pocket if you're buying the latest Apple product... I spent $350 for my Android phone, and it was among the faster ones out at the time.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

bearing in mind that your options for switching carriers with an Iphone are limited as they use differing technologies.

Some cellphones get around this by including both antennas in the system, but this increases the price of the phone, (which you're apparently paying for out of pocket) and makes for a larger/heavier phone.

What do you mean? For roughly a year iPhones have worked with both AT&T and Verizon, which are the largest carriers I believe.

This is the case with most cell phones if you're talking national carriers. Sprint and Verizon use different bands with the same CDMA standards, likewise AT&T and T-Mobile using different GSM bands.

The only place you find overlap is with small regional providers, which typically lease network coverage from one of the national carriers, and thus use the same hardware and bands.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

He means that there's a Verizon iPhone, and an AT&T iPhone, with different antenna hardware and firmware to support the different radio tech each uses.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Ohh I didn't know there are different models of the same phone. Makes sense though. Learn something every day .

You only need a contract if you want to get the phone at a discounted price. If you buy the phone at full price, there will be no contract and your plan will be month to month. At least that is how it is with Verizon.

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Los Angeles Kings 2014 Stanley Cup Champions

"I love this **** team right here."
-Jonathan Quick

We went with the LG Esteem on MetroPCS for 60 bucks a month. Unlimited everything + access to Rhapsody.

The Rhapsody app blows goat balls (if we drop that it'll only be 50 a month) but everything else is pretty awesome so far.

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The LG esteem is an android phone, and android runs mog. Load mog http://www.mog.com and google music and have infinite music for 9.99 a mo.