Contracts and carriers

[mcdonaat]

I currently have an HTC Trophy on Verizon, and my early upgrade is in March. I REALLY want an HTC 8X or a Nokia Lumia 920, since both have that cool NFC feature, are Windows Phone 8 devices, and look really awesome. No matter what my friends say, I do NOT want an iPhone 5 (the sixth model), or a Blackberry... the most give I would do is for a Nexus phone. So here's the question... should I jump ship with my current carrier, pay the termination fee, and get the phone as soon as it comes out on a different carrier, or is there a way to get the new model by paying a fee, and then the new phone? My termination fee would be $180.

[Scott5114]

Have you considered a device running Android? I got an Android device a month or so ago (switching from an older Windows phone) and enjoy it quite immensely.

[J N Winkler]

Is it practical to do without a cellphone at all?

[Brandon]

Is it practical to do without a cellphone at all?

Why?  A landline is so 1870s.  Some of us use cellphones only without any landline at all.

[hbelkins]

I use my cell primarily for emergencies when I am traveling, or to be able to make personal calls when I'm at work and don't want to use a calling card or bill to my home phone.

Only a select few people have my cell number, and I plan on keeping that way. I don't want to be available to everyone, everywhere, anytime. And I probably won't talk to you at home, either. Leave a message on the answering machine and if I want or need to call you back, I will.

[corco]

I still haven't gotten a smartphone. Other people my age give me weird looks, but I figure I've gone my whole life without one and no sense in paying for a data plan. It's one of those things where I expect if I were to get one I'd start to "need" one, and that's not a door I'm ready to open.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to hold out before it becomes impractical, though, just as not having a cell phone is impractical these days.

[signalman]

I still haven't gotten a smartphone. Other people my age give me weird looks, but I figure I've gone my whole life without one and no sense in paying for a data plan. It's one of those things where I expect if I were to get one I'd start to "need" one, and that's not a door I'm ready to open.

I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to hold out before it becomes impractical, though, just as not having a cell phone is impractical these days.

I don't have one either, and I've been holding back for the same reasons as you.  I too get weird looks from the mid 30s and younger crowd.  I don't want it to become a necessity either.  Plus, I've never been much of a phone person, so I never felt the need to run out and get the newest phone.  I'm sure before too long I too will have to join the smartphone clan once not having one becomes impractical.

[Scott5114]

I recently got my first smartphone a few weeks ago. It is pretty nice having Google Maps right there with me in case I get into any trouble due to a detour or congestion and I'm in an unfamiliar area (not something that happens that often, but as a roadgeek, who knows where I might end up driving?) I have an Android device, which means I have great access to my Gmail accounts and at this point I think I check my email on my phone more often than I do on the computer. (I have a personal and a business account and it's easier to switch between the two on Android because in a browser the cookies tend to step on each other and log one another out.) Other than that I mainly use it to kill time when I'm waiting for service somewhere.

[corco]

. It is pretty nice having Google Maps right there with me in case I get into any trouble due to a detour or congestion and I'm in an unfamiliar area (not something that happens that often, but as a roadgeek, who knows where I might end up driving?)

That's where it's kind of annoying being anti-smartphone or GPS. Before I go on long road trips that involve weird backroads in unfamiliar territory, I thoroughly study the route to see where I might get lost and write down what's up on a piece of paper, but that doesn't allow for major spur of the moment route changes on non-state highways unless I've got a Delorme map with me or something. That's a lesson you learn quickly when you screw up- I once spent three hours driving on logging roads between Laurier and Northport Washington (trying to clinch US-395 and SR 25 without having the ability to go into Canada and not wanting to double back twice), not knowing where the hell I was. That was a bit scary.

Other than that I mainly use it to kill time when I'm waiting for service somewhere.

One of my fears is that I'd end up spending all my time everywhere surfing the internet on the phone. I like being away from the internet every once in a while, because when I'm at home or at work and near a computer and I get bored, it's my go-to crutch.

[Scott5114]

I have found that not to be the case. Usually I can focus on accomplishing whatever I need to when I'm out and about and only use the phone when the wait is interminable (like at a restaurant or in a really long line). Your mileage may vary, of course.

[J N Winkler]

What is the tipping point:  where and when does it become impractical to do without a cellphone or smartphone?

[hbelkins]

I use the data function of my iPhone more than the phone function. It's nice to be able to make motel reservations, find a nearby restaurant, order ahead and and have the food ready to pick up, etc., while out and about.

[corco]

What is the tipping point:  where and when does it become impractical to do without a cellphone or smartphone?

For me it became impractical to do without a cell phone when it seemed like everyone else had one and therefore expected that I had one- this is mainly a problem when I'm travelling and various people I care about want me to be able to check in with them when I've arrived at my destination. Hotel phones are really expensive, and pay phones are hard to find, which leaves me having to use a cell phone. Alternatively, in the year 2012 as stupid as it may seem, girls my age expect me to have texting capability and it seems considerably harder to find a companion without the ability to have them send me text messages.

I suspect it will become a problem with a smartphone when I'm no longer able to do things efficiently without one- once a service I use normally becomes inaccessible without a smartphone (for instance, if the day comes that the smartphone becomes your wallet, to use an extreme example), then it will become impractical to do without a smartphone.

[Scott5114]

I doubt that it will ever become required. Most smartphone use cases could be done on a desktop computer. You just do them on the smartphone because it's more practical.

For example, if I were allowed to have my smartphone with me at work–I work in a casino, no pockets allowed–I would find it quite convenient to be able to Google slot machine error messages to more quickly diagnose errors. I could theoretically head all the way into the back offices and look it up there, but I generally don't want to bother going through the trouble (and probably end up tripping on the stupid Internet filter anyway). I either try to puzzle through it myself or just turn the stupid machine off and let the vendor deal with it. I have seen the higher level techs that do have pockets use their phones as flashlights (the iPhone has a utility that turns the entire screen white expressly for this purpose), and supervisors use the calculator feature of theirs to do complicated paytable math to prove payouts were correct. (How much should a thirty credit payout with a 4x multiplier pay when each credit is worth $25? Sure, you could work it out manually but that probably takes most people a good amount of time and if you're accidentally wrong you might end up giving the customer something they can seize on to press the issue further.)

[J N Winkler]

I have been asking these open-ended questions about the value of cellphones and smartphones because I have neither and thus consequently tend to imagine very limited applications.  I am also deaf, so I cannot use the voice function of either type of phone, which complicates things.

I don't actually want to be instantly contactable except when that is a specific requirement for a paying job.  I value my ability to achieve and sustain unbroken concentration since I regularly do things (like writing and coding) where that is essential.  This is one reason I have held off from minimum approaches like getting a very cheap cellphone with a few pre-paid minutes, just so I can use the text-messaging function.

I also wouldn't want a smartphone for heavy data usage because the input technologies, even in the age of the capacitive touchscreen, are just not up to the job, and file management is unnecessarily difficult.  On the other hand, I recently took a trip to Colorado and New Mexico where I found myself on a gravel road at one point with no clear idea where I was going or whether I could continue forward and re-connect with the state highway network without risking a smashed oil pan.  This time I happened to be in a car with built-in GPS navigation (which I did not know how to use, but could have come to grips with if I had taken three hours before departure to study a PDF manual which I had downloaded), but since my own car does not have it, a GPS-equipped smartphone would be an obvious choice to fill this gap.  And on this trip, even though I made a particular effort to choose motels which had wifi capability so I could "phone in" by email and confirm I was still alive, I still ended up searching for lodging by visual inspection (not Googling) for two out of the five nights and one night I had to settle for an off-chain motel which did not have wifi.

But are these situations frequent enough to justify spending $400 (or whatever) on a smartphone and $80/month on a data plan?  And wouldn't it make more sense in any case to get a Mifi, especially if for travelling I had something a little better than a six-year-old Windows XP laptop with a tired battery and a tendency to choke on some types of routine task?  (Travelling with a smartphone alone--no laptop--was not an option in this case because I was also keeping a travel journal.)

Corco also gets at some reasons to have a cellphone or smartphone that I think are hard to assess until you actually do have one, such as the expectation of girls your own age that you will be available 24/7 for text messaging.  There are similar expectations in regard to smartphones.  The input technologies are so incompetent that smartphone users reading Facebook resent long feed posts composed by someone with the luxury to sit down at a laptop and use a detachable keyboard.  (To paraphrase a Facebook friend with a tendency to post controversial things to his wall which draw excited and angry replies:  "Don't people realize I am doing this on my phone?")  And smartphones are so expensive (both in terms of initial purchase price of the phone and the recurrent cost of the data plan) that getting one sends a strong signal of desire to be plugged in to informal social networks of smartphone users.

I am increasingly coming to feel "left out of the loop" since I don't have a smartphone; I don't need or want an invitation to every party (I am quite capable of entertaining myself and I often find parties stressful), but on the other hand I don't see that it is really to my advantage to be socially invisible.

[agentsteel53]

if I were allowed to have my smartphone with me at work–I work in a casino, no pockets allowed

holster on belt? or does the holster count as a pocket?

[Scott5114]

if I were allowed to have my smartphone with me at work–I work in a casino, no pockets allowed

holster on belt? or does the holster count as a pocket?

I do use a holster to carry a multitool around (never attempt slot machine maintenance without one! You might have to work on an IGT!), so I could probably get away with it as not being a pocket, but I don't think management would like me having the phone around–they'd reason that it would be too tempting for me to nip into the drink station and play Angry Birds or something, I guess. The techs effectively don't have management so that's not a problem for them.

To respond to J.N. Winkler: Regarding input, I also hate touch screens–working in an environment with thousands of them and having to troubleshoot and calibrate them tends to cause that–so I intentionally opted for a phone with a slide-out keyboard. I do still have to use the touchscreen for some things (what you would use a mouse for, mostly) but when composing text I can happily avoid it. I also hate social networking, so no Facebook on the phone for me. I am not really sure what sort of complicated file-management tasks you have in mind; the only thing I could imagine doing is transferring files to and from the phone, since you usually don't create documents other than photos on the phone. Transferring photos can be done easily enough by sending them as an attachment to a text message; if you place a valid email address in the destination field most carriers will convert it to an email and send it on its way. (I think most phones do this even simpler through the means of syncing apps, but they're not an option for me, as I run Linux–thus another reason I couldn't get an iPhone; it is overly dependent on iTunes.) I can't imagine saving an arbitrary file from the Internet to the phone. I'd be more apt to bookmark the URL and download it to my desktop, probably.

[1995hoo]

I use my cell primarily for emergencies when I am traveling, or to be able to make personal calls when I'm at work and don't want to use a calling card or bill to my home phone.

Only a select few people have my cell number, and I plan on keeping that way. I don't want to be available to everyone, everywhere, anytime. And I probably won't talk to you at home, either. Leave a message on the answering machine and if I want or need to call you back, I will.

I agree heartily with your second paragraph. Another reason why I'm very careful about giving anyone my mobile phone number is that nowadays a lot of people seem to think that if they have your mobile number, they're entitled to send you those stupid text messages. I hate text messages and I hate the attitude of "I'm owed a reply" that some people have (in particular, if I'm driving, I'm not going to read it, much less reply). But more importantly, because I don't use text messages very often I don't see any reason to add a text-message allowance to my phone plan, which means I pay 20¢ per text message sent or received. I'm not willing to risk having my bill run up when someone starts sending me unwanted text messages and then doesn't stop when I say not to send them. (True, I could add something to my plan that would give me 250 text messages for $5. But why would I when I've never sent/received enough in one month to cost $5? I will admit I use them every once in a while, usually if I'm in a very noisy place where I wouldn't be able to hear to make a phone call.)

I doubt that it will ever become required. Most smartphone use cases could be done on a desktop computer. You just do them on the smartphone because it's more practical.

....

I can think of some things for which I'll use my phone even if I'm sitting in front of the computer. Online banking is the main one–I find that the mobile app is faster and easier to use than the bank's website (perhaps because it's a stripped-down interface for use with the smaller screen). The "mobile check deposit" where you can deposit a check using your phone's camera is a really convenient feature, too.

[J N Winkler]

I am not really sure what sort of complicated file-management tasks you have in mind; the only thing I could imagine doing is transferring files to and from the phone, since you usually don't create documents other than photos on the phone. Transferring photos can be done easily enough by sending them as an attachment to a text message; if you place a valid email address in the destination field most carriers will convert it to an email and send it on its way. (I think most phones do this even simpler through the means of syncing apps, but they're not an option for me, as I run Linux–thus another reason I couldn't get an iPhone; it is overly dependent on iTunes.) I can't imagine saving an arbitrary file from the Internet to the phone. I'd be more apt to bookmark the URL and download it to my desktop, probably.

When I think of file management issues, what comes to mind is a recent post from a Facebook friend who was thrilled he had gotten 'jmtpfs' (which I guess is a Linux volume mounting command with the ability to handle smartphone OSes) to mount his smartphone as a disk, so he could finally do file management on it.

Aside from photos, I can envision a smartphone user wanting to ensure that jotted notes were transferred to his or her main computer and kept up to date.  Another advantage of being able to mount one's smartphone as a volume is that it allows backup of the phone's data to be automated, which removes the element of forced interactivity in using a syncing app.  This forced interactivity--which I define as requiring the ordinary user to spend eyeball time on routine chores for which the system does not afford the possibility of automation--is one of the defining characteristics of the new techno serfdom.

[hbelkins]

I use my cell primarily for emergencies when I am traveling, or to be able to make personal calls when I'm at work and don't want to use a calling card or bill to my home phone.

Only a select few people have my cell number, and I plan on keeping that way. I don't want to be available to everyone, everywhere, anytime. And I probably won't talk to you at home, either. Leave a message on the answering machine and if I want or need to call you back, I will.

I agree heartily with your second paragraph. Another reason why I'm very careful about giving anyone my mobile phone number is that nowadays a lot of people seem to think that if they have your mobile number, they're entitled to send you those stupid text messages. I hate text messages and I hate the attitude of "I'm owed a reply" that some people have (in particular, if I'm driving, I'm not going to read it, much less reply). But more importantly, because I don't use text messages very often I don't see any reason to add a text-message allowance to my phone plan, which means I pay 20¢ per text message sent or received. I'm not willing to risk having my bill run up when someone starts sending me unwanted text messages and then doesn't stop when I say not to send them. (True, I could add something to my plan that would give me 250 text messages for $5. But why would I when I've never sent/received enough in one month to cost $5? I will admit I use them every once in a while, usually if I'm in a very noisy place where I wouldn't be able to hear to make a phone call.)

If you have a smartphone, the solution to that is Google Voice. It gives you a number from which you can send and receive text messages without charge, and it also provides a number that you can give out to anyone and then set up which (if any) phones it will ring, or when to ring certain phones, or even what numbers are allowed to ring through and which go straight to voicemail.

The BlackBerry GV app is worse than Apple's new Maps app, but the iPhone GV app isn't bad. There are also third-party apps (GV Connect) that work with your GV number, and an iPhone app called Talkatone that allows you to use your GV number as a VOIP connection. With a newer iPad or iPod Touch and a Bluetooth headset, you can use that device as a phone and make calls on your GV number.

My GV number is set to go straight to voicemail 24/7, and I've gotten in the habit of giving it out instead of my home number.

[1995hoo]

Interesting, thanks. I have a Google Voice number that I use for business purposes (I am self-employed and generally work out of the home office, so the Google Voice number lets me protect my phone numbers without paying for a separate line), but I didn't know about the free text message thing.

[Mr_Northside]

Is it practical to do without a cellphone at all?

Out of all the people I know, I'm the only one who has yet to own any kind of cell phone.
One of these days, I'm sure I will....

[hbelkins]

Interesting, thanks. I have a Google Voice number that I use for business purposes (I am self-employed and generally work out of the home office, so the Google Voice number lets me protect my phone numbers without paying for a separate line), but I didn't know about the free text message thing.

You can also text from your computer at http://voice.google.com

[Hot Rod Hootenanny]

Is it practical to do without a cellphone at all?

Why?  A landline is so 1870s.  Some of us use cellphones only without any landline at all.

Depends if you work from home and need a secure line to conference with that won't cutout randomly. Or maybe you're a business and need a phone line to conduct credit card transactions.
Then again, maybe neither private industry nor the state have deemed your region as significant enough to warrent a cell tower or two.

[agentsteel53]

Depends if you work from home and need a secure line to conference with that won't cutout randomly.

our "land" lines here at work are VOIP.  when the building was built, it was decided that that was the most cost-effective way to do things, especially given that our server farm already was getting a very fat internet pipe.

Or maybe you're a business and need a phone line to conduct credit card transactions.

there's gotta be a way to do that online or via a cell phone.  I knew someone in 2000-2001 who was working on connecting a card reader to a cell phone - wonder where he got with that, but it's been about 12 years so someone must've gotten somewhere.