What great options. Digitizing a lifetime of music, voice recordings, movies, etc sure is time consuming. But it's wonderful there are so many options out there. Raven- I had forgotten all about Heartland catalogue. It's been probably 20 years since I ordered from them. Those are some great gadgets. The one with lp too is a bit pricey - esp. since I have a cd recorder connected to my turntable. It's a lot less convenient than having it by the computer - but it works well. The one for just tapes looks good. Grandms'- I don't need the turntable portion, but your post made me think that with the right cables (do you happen to know what they are?) I should be able to hook up my old compact stereo/cassette player to my computer. My question about that has always been that I don't think i have an input into my sound card. Does that mean I have an integrated sound card (without its own input port). But there must be cables that could transfer from a stereo to a usb port. Heck - are there cables that go to a firewire port - or perhaps that's overkill for music files. What's Pyro? Did that come with turntable - or just a program you have? I assume Roxio cd creator could do that - burn a cd? how did you find Cakewalk easier than Audacity? I think I've heard good things about both. And Urlee and Jean love Audacity and find it easy. So I'd appreciate any other thoughts in deciding which software to use? Thanks. Lynn.

when you use your cable are you going into my computer as was mentioned and looking for what drive that cell phone is being listed as? you need to do that and then open that drive and in there you will find your various folders the pictures will be in one of those, on mine it is called DCIM in there are all of my pictures I can then save them from that folder to my pc, either drag and drop to the location you want on the pc or just right click and copy to. If you can email from that phone then you can easily do as I had mentioned before just open your email compose an email and do attachments add the pictures from their location on your phone to the email and send the email to your own email address then access the email on your pc and there you will have the pictures to save to the pc.

Be very aware of the charges as some plans are for phone use only and some are for mobile broadband only (computer) and there are other plans that work for both depending on if you have sprint or att Tmobile etc. If the plan is the wrong one you can easily rack up a staggering bill overnight, and I mean totally jawdropping one night or day of usage fee.

Any smart phone these days, purchased now, will give good results. Just play smart/dumb when you are in the store and ask for quick hints...like "hey, this is so new to me"...(show them your old flip phone)..."I need and want a photo help lesson now". "show me how to take a pic and how to delete"... That way, when home, you can toy with it...take many pics and delete as you experiment setting up a piece of fruit or veggie here and there trying different lighting...not when a hot meal needs to be on the table...experimenting you will know what works. Just get the basics down if this is your first...then go through the manual.... Ann-t is correct on better phone cameras but often i am satisfied with what i have. A good pic is the one taken, and handy. Our phones are with us always and more often than a side camera bag lugged around. I would follow ann's advice if it fits the budget. (my eyes spin when deciding a new phone and all the gab speak and hidden costs but it is not at all like it used to be). I doubt you will be spending much more than you are now per month? And have a much better tool in your pocket or bag. Or not notice the cost as it is so great having so many options at hand...