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moylan writes:
An article from the Chicago Tribune discusses people who are changing their smartphone for a dumbphone. From the article:
When Ryan Gleeson punches out a text message or takes a call on his cellphone at parties, he prepares to hear questions from onlookers, and sometimes snickers. That's because the 24-year-old carries a $50 flip phone - the Samsung Gusto 2. There's no touch screen or apps. No Web browsing capabilities. No collection of music to enjoy through earbuds.
"Definitely it's like a black sheep in the room when I pull it out," said Gleeson, a postproduction associate at a documentary production house in Lincoln Park. "I work with a lot of Apple people - creative types. Everyone has an iPhone." Gleeson is among cellphone users who choose to be dialled out of the world of iPhones, BlackBerrys and Androids. In an increasingly connected and accessible culture, these stalwarts have chosen hand-held devices that offer only the basics, despite the social isolation and limitations that may come with them.
For Gleeson, hanging up the iPhone demonstrates no "grand realization about humanity," he said; rather, it's a way to tamp down his compulsive email checking. With the basic phone, "It's a lot easier now to just step away and say, 'I'm not going to work right now,'" he said.
[...a survey] found that 35 percent of U.S. adults carry a cellphone that is not a smartphone.
As someone who got rid of an iphone and android device and replaced them with 2 feature phones I thought I was in the minority. But I have noticed more and more folk around carrying a second dumbphone for when the battery goes on their smartphone. Anyone else doing this?"
[Editor: Yes, me!]
(Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday March 26 2014, @08:38PM
Unfortunately it is required.
I already ran into this setting up a phone for an older gentleman. Doesn't use email or Internet and just wanted a "freakin god damn phone".
Month after month I was running into issues talking with the provider since they were charging like $15 in overage fees for Internet use.
Turned out the phone itself is generating traffic. So whether or not you want the data plan, smartphones are just little computers after all, you are using up bandwidth.
Of course a $15 overage fee for what amounted to a few megabytes of base line traffic is beyond unreasonable. That's like me asking for your first born because you scuffed my shoe.
(Score: 2) by everdred on Thursday March 27 2014, @11:28AM
That's insane. Am I reading this right when I assume that not having a data plan on the carrier in question means automatically being on some kind of pay-per-MB de-facto data "plan," and that there's no way to say "really, don't allow data for my account at all"?
Can I also ask whether this is a GSM or CDMA carrier?
We don't take no shit from a machine.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday March 27 2014, @02:26PM
CDMA
Was told that it was Verizon's network they were using.
Yes, per MB is de facto.