iPhone

[Irulan]

Of course I am joking.

[Velocivixen]

Badger, just get one. You've wanted one and now is your chance.

[pll]

Of course I am joking.

Ha, ha. You know I am *that* person, with a land line and a dumb cell phone (as opposed to a smart one). I jumped on the smart phone bandwagon when they first hit the market and got it off my system. I don't miss them... and much less the monthly charges. I'd rather use the money for traveling or buying bike-related stuff.

[ny biker]

I have a landline phone because sometimes a cell phone doesn't work. In big emergencies, cell networks get overloaded and you can't make a call. If I lose electricity, I can plug in an old-fashioned not-cordless phone and still be able to communicate with people, without worrying about draining a battery that I can't recharge.

Anyway.

I am very happy with my HTC Droid Incredible. Having internet access and maps on my phone comes in handy all the time. If I'm running errands and I want to find the nearest location of a certain store or check what time they close, I can look it up easily. If I'm on vacation, I don't need to bring my laptop in order to check email or the twitter feed (or the TE forum). When Delaware closes a highway for construction and doesn't bother to put up detour signs, I can pull over, fire up the map and find an alternate route that allows me to avoid the tollbooth because they just don't deserve my money.

The camera is decent and it's easy to upload photos on facebook or picasa or flickr, or I can send them to people via text or email. I take pictures of things while I'm out shopping so I can compare them to similar items at other stores. I photographed my kitchen window so I could show it to the salesperson at Next Day Blinds who helped me figure out what kind of shades I should get for it.

I find it useful for things that I never thought about before I had it.

And I kick a$$ in Words with Friends.

My sister has an LG Ally (an Android phone) which she doesn't like. But it's the phone, not the Android part, that's a problem. She's thinking of getting an iphone -- can anyone comment on the call quality of iphones on Verizon vs. AT&T? Is there still a problem with calls getting dropped on Verizon?

[Blueberry]

If I lose electricity, I can plug in an old-fashioned not-cordless phone and still be able to communicate with people, without worrying about draining a battery that I can't recharge.

Not necessarily. The phone substations run on generators and battery backups. They can and do go out (they did during the last hurricane). The cell phone was the only thing that worked. I agree it's good to have a choice -but sadly phone lines do require power somewhere....

[Crankin]

Well, despite my IPhone, i still have a land line and I won't give that up. I want it for the fact that in an emergency, the cell phone doesn't do so well with 9-1-1, and my house is hard enough to find anyway.
I had a weird thing happen yesterday, related to the topic of phones. I was at a meeting for one of my 5 year old clients. It was noted that she doesn't know her phone number. I thought, well, that's because she doesn't have a phone number. Her mom only has a cell phone and I don't think kids see their parent's phone as *their* phone. She will have to learn that number, but I can see this being an issue in the future. Obviously, we won't be giving 4 and 5 year olds their own cell phones.
Both of my kids and their spouses only have cell phones. I have no chance of "accidentally" talking to either of my D-I-Ls when I call my sons. While this may or may not be a good thing, I think it might enhance the relationships if they were the ones answering the phone once in awhile.

[Jolt]

I don't have a smartphone yet...maybe when it's time to upgrade. I can see where some of the stuff would be nice to have, but the flip side of this technology is that it creates such an expectation for people to be connected ALL the time and I don't think that's healthy. There need to be some boundaries b/c we all need our space, some more than others. Yes, it's convenient to be able to contact someone anywhere, but it can easily turn into an electronic leash (as can regular cell phones for that matter, but my family and friends know there are certain times I may not answer like when on a hike or while driving) and that's just not cool. My dad has one for work and he's found that people expect him to check his email more...because he can do it anywhere. That's the kind of situation I really don't want to find myself in. As for the land line, I don't have one--makes no sense to pay two phone bills when I am working at paying off my student loans and on track to do it in five years.

ETA: As far as cell phones/911, I've had to do it a couple of times and never had a problem. Granted, it wasn't from the house and maybe that's different, but if anything that would be less likely to be an issue.

[BikeDutchess]

Crankin, that is an interesting observation that I hadn't thought about yet. The "family phone" phenomenon will probably mostly disappear with our kids' generation.

[OakLeaf]

ETA: As far as cell phones/911, I've had to do it a couple of times and never had a problem. Granted, it wasn't from the house and maybe that's different, but if anything that would be less likely to be an issue.

I witnessed a car accident a couple of years ago and called 911. Thankfully the person was fine, but I didn't know that when I placed the call. I must've gone through at least five minutes of dispatchers giving me grief because 911 had connected me to the wrong jurisdiction for the location I happened to be in. I wasn't home and had no idea where the county and township and municipal boundaries might be or what agency I "should" have called.


But it's true - when you're home, the only time it might be an issue is when there's no one capable of telling the dispatcher your physical location. That's a real possibility, but it's also a small subset of 911 calls.

[GLC1968]

I witnessed a car accident a couple of years ago and called 911. Thankfully the person was fine, but I didn't know that when I placed the call. I must've gone through at least five minutes of dispatchers giving me grief because 911 had connected me to the wrong jurisdiction for the location I happened to be in. I wasn't home and had no idea where the county and township and municipal boundaries might be or what agency I "should" have called.


But it's true - when you're home, the only time it might be an issue is when there's no one capable of telling the dispatcher your physical location. That's a real possibility, but it's also a small subset of 911 calls.

And the flip side of that is if no one had cell phones, how long would it have taken for someone to call 911 in that situation?

[Irulan]

For landlines I think it comes down to some other factors, too.
One is if you have to have a fax. (yes, some people still use those) We need a fax for our home office.
The other thing is, we get really crappy cell reception at our house. I have to run out on the deck to answer a call or it goes straight to voice mail.

The whole "always connected" argument? No one forces it on you. These things do have an off or silent button. They are not attached by a permanent leash to your body. We have a simple agreement at our house. No phones at meals, period, land or cell.No cell phones at a table, ever. We went out to dinner at a super nice $$ place we like. There was a couple at another table, that both were diddling with their phones the whole time. They want to live like that fine, I think I left mine in the car.

[Irulan]

ETA: As far as cell phones/911, I've had to do it a couple of times and never had a problem. Granted, it wasn't from the house and maybe that's different, but if anything that would be less likely to be an issue.

It used to be that 911 dispatch wasn't set up for geolocating off cell phone data, but they can do that now.

[OakLeaf]

And the flip side of that is if no one had cell phones, how long would it have taken for someone to call 911 in that situation?

Oh, I wasn't saying don't have a phone! I don't go anywhere without mine, I've said before IMO it's kind of irresponsible in this day and age. I'm just talking about the reliability of 911 connections (and I'm pretty sure the GPS location does NOT happen when the initial connection to the dispatcher is made - I think it's just something they can get from the phone company if they can't locate the person).

Years ago I made that other call too. I was just a mile from an exit when I saw the car flip in the oncoming lanes, and there was a gas station with a pay phone right there, so I was probably connected to the 911 dispatcher quicker than the time I called from my car ... but I get that it could've been the other way around too.


I've got a landline because the only internet available to me at home is DSL. I don't think you can get that without a voice line too, but I could be wrong.

[badger]

I'm debating if I should keep my landline. I think the only thing I would need it for would be is to call my mother in Japan, but I can probably circumvent that by using a calling card. I've had my phone number for about 20 years now so I'm kind of attached to it, too, but that's a silly reason to hang onto a $40 monthly fee.

[OakLeaf]

I think number portability extends to former landline numbers now. It would be worth looking into, anyway.