Post # 1
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
Hey Bees!
My Fiance and I are going to be going long distance starting in august. He’s joining the marines so the first three months will be just letters. He comes back for some where between a week and a month before his infantry training and we tihnk he might be allowed to use a cell phone on weekends, we don’t know for sure. So we were thinking about investing in iPhones so we could facetime and play games together and stuff like that.
So I was wondering if any of you had done this and how it worked out for you. Any other advice is totally welcome!
Post # 3
Member
69 posts
Worker bee
My husband and I got iPhones about a month ago and are having issues with facetime. I think you both need wifi in order to use it but ours still won’t connect sometime. Otherwise I love the phone.
Post # 4
Member
3253 posts
Sugar bee
DH and I had a LDR for about a year before we were married. We found Skype and IChat to be really helpful. Will your SO have Internet access?
Post # 5
Member
472 posts
Helper bee
I have an android phone, and I downloaded skype so we could see each other more (my computer couldn’t handle skype.) I think it’s really nice to be able to see their face, but you don’t necessarily need an iPhone to do it. Although, I’ve never had an iPhone, so maybe the other features would make a difference.
Also, write LOTS of letters those first three months! My guy told me that he wasn’t going to have much time to read them (he’s in the air force) so I didn’t write very many, but when he got back he said that he would have liked to hear more from me. I felt really bad!
Post # 6
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
@brideatbeach: I have no idea and he doesn’t have a laptop which is why we were thinking iPhones. I’m sure he could find some where that had internet on the weekends but idk if they have it on base or not where he could access it.
Post # 7
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
@Holocene: I plan on writing TONS lol when he comes back I’m sure he’ll be more likely to say I wrote too many! I’ve been told that other phones can do it I’ve just always wanted an iPhone.
Post # 8
Member
3253 posts
Sugar bee
@marinewifetobe: The “face time” really does help… I would recommend the iPhones if that’s the reason you are interested in them!
Post # 9
Member
18628 posts
Honey Beekeeper
The base should have available computers for soldiers to use them. I would look into a high data plan since he might not always have access to WiFi in his area to use the phone.
Post # 10
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
@brideatbeach: We thought they would be a good idea but I thought it would be a good idea to check on here to see if someone had trouble with it. Thanks!
@MrsSaltWaterTaffy: We plan on getting Sprint so we can have the unlimited plan with unlimited talk, text and web since we will be using all three a lot we figured it would be worth it.
Post # 11
Member
366 posts
Helper bee
When my DH was stationed overseas (before he was my DH!), we both had iPhones and they were lifesavers! We were able to text for free (using an app) and also Skype. Back then (mind you this wasn’t all that long ago) it was pre-FaceTime so we didn’t use it. I have the new iPhone and it seems that you can only use FaceTime when you’re connected to the internet, I think… I have an unlimited plan but remember trying to use it once and it said I needed to connect to the internet.
That’s definitely something worth looking into!
Otherwise, the iPhone is a great phone regardless!
Post # 12
Member
1856 posts
Buzzing bee
Check into whether the unlimited plan will actually cover FaceTime and/or Skype – I need a wifi connection for both on my iPhone (but with a different provider in Canada).
We’ve been long distance for almost a year now and we skype pretty regularly (my iphone, his laptop). I wouldn’t say the iPhone makes much of a difference or makes things easier; nothing we do to communicate (skype/email) is something we could only do with an iphone.
Post # 13
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
@MrsTahoe: So good to hear that! I don’t know about the wifi but I will look into that for sure! I’ll be on a college campus so I will have wifi but I don’t know how easy it will be for him to get internet access.
@kittyface: That’s a very good point. I just feel like the all in one part is nice but that could just be me!
Post # 14
Member
5658 posts
Bee Keeper
It’s also nice because texting between iPhones is now an iMessage and its so instantaneous it’s almost like instant message, you can see when that the person is typing etc it also doesn’t use texts if it’s going through iMessage (anytime you have an Internet connection). And yeah one of the most frequent ways I keep in “contact” with my dad is by playing words with friends. It’s dumb but it’s kind of nice to feel like we are communicating regularly somehow
Post # 15
Member
194 posts
Blushing bee
I have an iPhone, and the facetime does work great. But when my boyfriend and I are separated when he is deployed, we usually just use Skype. That seems like the best conceivable option for us. We used to use Yahoo messenger where we would play games on there with each other. 🙂
Post # 16
Member
166 posts
Blushing bee
@MsJ2theZ: I didn’t know that. That’s pretty cool. Glad that someone else had some success with it