I just got this great new phone and I had to share it with you! It's the very latest thing in dis-integration.
The features list is beautifully thin. NO email! Nearly no web browsing! No Facebook app, no games, no apps at all unless you really want to mess with it. NO touch screen! Actual physical BUTTONS for anything you can make the phone do.
NO data charges!!! NO blinking light in the middle of the night telling you someone updated their Facebook status. Isn't the modern world wonderful? I can hardly keep up any more.
It's tiny. It weighs less than half what my old Droid and my old IPhone weighed and is about half the surface area.
What does it DO? It's a PHONE. It makes phone calls.
Oh, and texting and Bluetooth and a camera and play mp3's from your microSD card, if you're into those kinky sorts of things.
You'd expect to pay hundreds of dollars for something this advanced, right? Even on contract? Something that just simply and quietly did its job without feeling like a brick in your pocket?
No way! It was like twenty bucks. No contract, on a pay as you go phone, and it's going to run me about $20 a month.
Science is wonderful!
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I hope everyone recognizes the snark above, but it's all true. No brand names because you can find this deal or similar ones all over the place.
The point is this. Verizon, for example, just instituted a data plan for phones that STARTS at $30 a month. Yes, it's cool to do all the stuff a smartphone does... but are they really WORTH it? Have you been sold on another gadget - another whole FIELD of gadgets - just because it's cool? No one really NEEDS to be able to surf on their phones... it's just (admittedly) really really cool.
Some will say yes, because they actually use the capabilities in their work or play, and that's legitimate. But I'm a DEVELOPER for these things and even I can't really justify paying for a data plan when I'm already paying for Internet access at home. Maybe some can, but I can't. (But please keep buying my apps.)
We love gadgets. But we've become far too eager to simply gobble the latest ones up. No one actually NEEDS an IPad or a Xoom... it's just (admittedly) really really cool.
You pay a lot for that cell phone in your pocket. Do you really get your money's worth?