Date: Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:08:57 -0700
Reply-To: Robert Fisher <garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Robert Fisher <garciasghostvw@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Smartphones for Vanagoneers; was RE: CB
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinNY3W9inP-DavSsqzyvOWZpFUfuqqTADL=PhtL@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Well, briefly: We had cable internet that was costing us around $60/month.
The "unlimited" data plans for the phones are $30/month each (most providers
will be going to/offering cheaper capped plans as an alternative). I got my
phone for "free" for extending my contract (I planned to continue to use the
service anyway); we paid $20 for my wife's phone (same one, the Droid). The
minutes and texts are separate from the data plan and the costs remained the
same. Basically we have the same connectivity at the same cost with the only
practical exception being that we can't stream Netflix at the moment.
Netflix is making an app for that; I think Blockbuster already has one.
I haven't paid for any apps at this point and I don't plan to. Many of the
free ones are "ad supported" which means there's a tiny little ad at the
bottom you can safely ignore and barely see anyway.
I had hundreds of ebooks and thousands of songs already that I can use on my
device. I can tether the laptop to it for internet when we travel (not
exactly kosher, but not specifically forbidden either). They have tethering
plans for additional costs, but an OS update is about to make every one of
these particular phones a potential WiFi hotspot as well as making the
phones flash (video) capable, so the carriers are going to have to deal with
that somehow. Apparently a court ruling handed down today or yesterday make
it "legal" to jailbreak (modify) your phone.
Getting back to Vanagons more or less; we've really struggled with
connectivity while traveling over the last couple of years. We got Boingo a
couple of times, drove to distant McDonald's and that sort of crap. This
approach took care of that and added a whole bunch of usefulness all in one
shot, plus we don't have to buy a separate GPS device and so on.
My wife said today "what did I do without this thing...?". Basically every
time she thought of or remembered something she had to return to her
computer. Now she just pulls it out of her pocket and deals with it on the
fly. You might think it would tend to make you waste more time but for us it
has condensed most of our computer time because we can just deal with things
as they come up.
I guess I lied about "briefly" so before this goes any farther afield you
can pmail me or bring it up on Friday, tho I think how one uses the thing
while traveling and so on would be a legitimate subject.
My Bentley is falling apart so I plan to scan it into a .pdf file and I'm
trying to work out how to get my Vanagon list archives onto the phone as
well (and the rescue list, and... and... and...). Can you imagine just
pulling all of that info out of your pocket if you're stuck someplace? Yeah
I'll have it on the laptop as well, but picture this: I'm on the ground
under the van on the side of the road at night, reading the archives on the
screen and using the "flashlight" app to fire the LED on the back of the
phone to illuminate the problem. I almost want to break down just to try it.
Almost. : )
Cya,
Robert
From: Don Hanson [mailto:dhanson928@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2010 9:53 PM
To: Robert Fisher
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Subject: Re: CB
Just curious for you smart phone type device users... How much does all
the bandwidth work out to use these devices? Do they charge you like a cell
phone for air time and minutes? How much does it cost to program or load
all the apps into them? Are they expensive to own and operate? Not dissin
anybody or any thing...just that it's a bit difficult to cost out what
people are paying to have these units in operation doing all the cool stuff
they do. Nobody I ask can actually give me a real answer...I guess it is
like driving a Hummer...if you have to ask how much fuel mileage it gets,
you can't afford one?
I know my TV cable was about $40 a month at one time and now I pay over
$100 with 'substantial early termination fees' to have my dish network and
DVR working...and the shows (now hundereds of bad ones) still mostly are
repeats and mostly suck...and they still have commercials in addition to my
'subscription fee'...Is that like..."Buy this cool mobile device and get all
this cool functionality...after you pay for the air time, too and the
programs(Apps?), one by one, and each song you hear, book you read, etc etc?
Have anything to do with Vanagons? Well I see people driving down the
road with mobile devices in use in vanagons and I see lots of messages here
on gerry@vanagon with the tagline..."Posted from my dingleberry device" or
somesuch..I would like to be able to access the internet without
Wi-Fi...like while driving in reception areas and camped within a 3G-4G
whatever serviced geographic location...but not if I can't afford the gas to
get there because I spent my meager income on Apps and Airtime..
Don Hanson