Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Smart + phone

Smart + phone

Okay, first of all, where was the outrage LAST YEAR when Verizon Wireless required data plan for new smartphones?

(Amazingly enough they don't seem worried about users of old smartphones "accidentally" overusing the web and getting overcharged by the pay-as-you-go plans.)

Second, have people totally forgotten PDAs?! Yes, small handheld computers or electronic devices (e.g., calculators, GPS, calendars, alarms, reminders, notepads, etc.) could be useful WITHOUT internet connections. I would like a handheld device that's "smart" (pc/pda)and a "phone", not a web browser.

Third, but this whole argument could end by answering one simple question: What NON-smartphones can read a simple ASCII text file?

My ancient Nokia 3650 (the one with the keys in a stupid circle) was old and decrepit but I could transfer by infrared a simple 3k ascii .txt file and guess what, I could read it. I could make notes for myself or download stories. Meanwhile my LG CU500 phone has 10 times the memory, could open mp3s, and videos and have far greater resolution in pictures, but comes to a screeching halt when I try to open a text file. If a non-smartphone could do that, then I'd shut up about the (STUPID) required data plan for smartphones.

-- Ken from Chicago (who had wanted to get a Samsung Omnia but refused after finding out the required data plan would almost double his monthly bill)

P.S. I asked a Verizon rep to name ANY non-smartphone that could read an Ascii file and there weren't any.

P.P.S. Worst of all is that if Verizon had simply offered a data plan at $15 instead of $30 that would cut my anger since that's a monthly MMO subscription rate, and now that I have an XV6900 (pre-November 2008 smartphones were exempt), and trying out the web browsing for a month, I'm tempted to upgrade back to the Omnia.