Fighting obsolescence..... - do you REALLY use a smart phone, and if so, how?
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I am with you. I wanted to have a smart phone but did no want to pay the $30/month that AT&$ ask gor just having one. So what I did is registered my phone in my account as a Motorola Razor (not smart phone) and use a Nokia Express Music (a very smart phone) When I needed the internet I used a wifi spot (found everywhere). It is not worth to have the internet unless you use the phone as a modem for your laptop when not at home as I do now (paying the $30)
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interesting workaround. i am told, however, that VZW maps phone model to ESN and therefore when you activate they know what you have :( no fooling them. haven't tried working around it in this manner though.
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It is possible. But I used an old Razor phone when I changed the phone profile. They never question. Later I switch to Sprint to have a Android Hero (wonderful phone). Sprint has mucho better reception in my area than AT&T and was tired of their abuses.
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I have an iPhone and use it constantly for: - Email (triaging emergency emails, quick replies, and social chat only. Serious email on the desktop) - Taking, swapping and viewing pics. Far, far more than I realised I would - Reading the news (Aussie news, gadget news, weather news, PhysOrg - endless news!) - As an iPod while cycling - For directions while (often) lost via Google maps - For weather reports so I can determine how wet and potentially fried I will get while cycling - Occasionally I use the 'phone' function that I discoverd not long ago. I can talk to other people on my iPhone! Cool.
cheers, Chris Maunder The Code Project | Co-founder Microsoft C++ MVP
weird is walking around Dunedin using the free wireless and using Skype holding the thing up so i can hear it properly, yes miss it DOES look like an oversized iphone Bryce
MCAD --- To paraphrase Fred Dagg - the views expressed in this post are bloody good ones. --
Publitor, making Pubmed easy. http://www.sohocode.com/publitorOur kids books :The Snot Goblin, and Book 2 - the Snotgoblin and Fluff
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your post starts saying "it is possible" in ref to me wondering about VZW, then you talk about being sick of AT&T... you did this on which carrier?
I don't know the carriers can tell which type of phone you use. I used the Nokia smart phone for almost a year without AT&T internet. However I was able to use the wireless interface where available. I did not like AT&T to tell me that, because I had a smart phone, I have to pay $30 extra.
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I'm king of in the same boat as you guys. However my thinking is this: Nearly all the smartphones out there have Wi-Fi built in. This means that you do not have to use your cell provider's data plan whenever you are w/in range of a wi-fi hotspot. So, why am I forced to buy said data plan just to have one of these phones? I have every intention to hold out until data plans become part of the normal charge to your cell bill, and at much less than $30/mo (I, too, am on VZW). I just think it's ridiculous that they force you to have X plan if you want Y phone, even if Y phone can avoid using X plan altogether. :mad:
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norm_fox wrote:
This is exactly why I have a basic cell phone/plan and an iPod Touch.
I'm doing exactly the same thing. Basic phone and iPod Touch. I had a couple of smartphones over the last year or two and found that I was paying $30/month for access to data that I was already paying for (through my home router) or got free at the office or other WiFi spots. It was "cool" to be able to do a Google search or something when out and away from everything or even check e-mail (which I don't get a *lot* of anyway). I quickly grew tired of paying the extra $30 and trying to make up reasons to get online when all I needed to do was go to my PC or get in range of a WiFi. I'm not a road warrior - my work doesn't require me to be "online" constantly, particularly when I'm not at one of my keyboards. The iPod has tons of stuff on it that I don't need to be online for and when I do, I just get to a WiFi for the 1 or 2 minutes I need to exchange some data. Now Verizon is talking about carrying the iPhone. I am really pleased with my iTouch and it has occurred to me to switch to an iPhone but, then again, I'll just be throwing away $30/month and gaining what? Practically nothing. As "cool" as the idea sounds - I just can't sell myself on it. I think I'll just buy another "basic" phone with a good texting keyboard on it and leave well enough alone. -Max
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I miss plain old PDAs. I don't need a phone. I have one already that makes calls and only costs me an average of $10 per month. Now, if I could get a smartphone with just the data contract, I could handle that, but I refuse to pay iPad prices for an "unlocked" phone. Right now, I have an iPod Touch (it was from my card's rewards program), which is sorta what I'm looking for, but I'd love to have a data plan with it so I can use it everywhere. Right now, it's mostly used for reading (Kindle and Stanza), and music. Sometimes a few games, but nothing major. But, honestly, I'm looking for something closer to this[^] device running either WM6.5, WM7 or Android. Of course, for the price, I could live with the limitations of WM5. :-\ Flynn
Flynn Arrowstarr / Regular Schmoe wrote:
I miss plain old PDAs. I don't need a phone.
I find my iPod Touch (3rd Gen, 32GB) to be all the PDA that any of my Pocket PC's ever were. I have every bit of the software I had on the PPC and it was actually cheaper to equip than the PPC was. -Max
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Nope. No cell phone either. Hate the damn things.
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norm_fox wrote:
This is exactly why I have a basic cell phone/plan and an iPod Touch.
I'm doing exactly the same thing. Basic phone and iPod Touch. I had a couple of smartphones over the last year or two and found that I was paying $30/month for access to data that I was already paying for (through my home router) or got free at the office or other WiFi spots. It was "cool" to be able to do a Google search or something when out and away from everything or even check e-mail (which I don't get a *lot* of anyway). I quickly grew tired of paying the extra $30 and trying to make up reasons to get online when all I needed to do was go to my PC or get in range of a WiFi. I'm not a road warrior - my work doesn't require me to be "online" constantly, particularly when I'm not at one of my keyboards. The iPod has tons of stuff on it that I don't need to be online for and when I do, I just get to a WiFi for the 1 or 2 minutes I need to exchange some data. Now Verizon is talking about carrying the iPhone. I am really pleased with my iTouch and it has occurred to me to switch to an iPhone but, then again, I'll just be throwing away $30/month and gaining what? Practically nothing. As "cool" as the idea sounds - I just can't sell myself on it. I think I'll just buy another "basic" phone with a good texting keyboard on it and leave well enough alone. -Max
I recently went on holiday and while my family waited patiently to start our trip I was stuck in my office trying to upload a large file to a client. I finally gave up so we could get going, having no real idea of how I would solve the problem. I had my computer with me, but our rental house had no Internet connection of any kind. I was able to get the file from my laptop to my new Droid Incredible via USB cable. The Droid has built-in VPN so I connected to my client with just a couple of tries. Poking around in the Android Market I found a free FTP app that allowed me to send the file, and a free RDP app that let me remote control my client's server, map a network drive, move the file to the proper folder, and unzip it. All ready to go. This was an important client, so I could almost justify a year's worth of Verizon charges with just this single mission. -David