Eight Days In

The first week has been interesting so far.  I've had a number of ups and downs relating to my new setup.  First, I love that I have basically a mini-computer at my fingertips pretty much all the time. The keyboard was a phenomenally good purchase; it's mostly laid out like a normal computer keyboard and is only slightly smaller than your typical laptop keyboard. It's really responsive and makes my typing at least five times faster. It also has a bunch of shortcut buttons, including media buttons, cut, copy, paste, home, search, lock/unlock, and includes standard shortcut combos for selection.  The screen gets dirty easily, so I ordered a pack of 10 styluses (styli?) to combat that problem.

The two phone apps I use (textPlus and Talkatone) are okay as phone apps. Talkatone is definitely better; it has fewer bugs, costs nothing, has voicemail, and can receive mms messages by forwarding the images to your gmail account. A few issues became apparent rather quickly: there is currently no way for me to answer a phone call using my bluetooth headset. I scoured the internet in the vain hope of finding a way, but nobody has found one.  Also, it can be rather inconvenient to respond to a text message or an iMessage while out and about. I have to stop somewhere and pull the iPad out to reply, and it can be a bit cumbersome when not sitting. As a plus, the limitations force me to separate my in-person life more distinctly from my digital communications. It makes it more likely for me to miss a call and have to call back, and it increases the average time for me to respond to a message. These facts give me time to gather my thoughts a bit more before replying, and it puts me more in the moment.

One other thing that takes getting used to is lugging it about everywhere. My mini-backpack helps a lot; it's just barely big enough to carry the iPad in it's keyboard case, so it takes a little bit of effort to get it in and out, but if it was much bigger, it would feel too cumbersome. Also, keeping the bluetooth headphones nearby all the time takes a little getting used to, but it allows me to listen to music or podcasts whenever I want.

To sum up, the downsides are probably too much for a lot of people, but for me, I don't regret it at all, and am very happy with my decision. I rarely make phone calls anyway, so that's not too different for me. I'm saving lots of money each month (about $45), and I'll break even in about a year. After that, the monthly savings will continue. I'll probably upgrade in a couple years, or maybe I'll get a cheapie pay-as-you-go dumb cell after a while if I decide I want a genuine phone again, and still come out way ahead.

Just a Pad And A Dream

This marks the first day I've been without a phone since I was a teenager.

Like most people, I have considered a cell phone to be absolutely necessary.
But today, I cancelled my cell phone service, in favor of an iPad. Of course, I have a phone number, but I am using it exclusively through my tablet.

The purpose of this blog is to chronicle the experience, since not many people get their phone service strictly via a tablet.

Here's the pluses:
- I'm saving about 45 dollars a month.
- I have just as constant access to the internet through my tablet as I did through my smartphone, but with a much better interface.
- I don't have a phone weighing down one of my pockets all the time.  I didn't even consider this one when I decided to go through with it. True, I have a much larger device to carry around, but it's not in my pocket.
- my old phone has a pretty decent resale value, which I may take advantage of.

Here's the minuses:
- bluetooth headphones and phone apps don't always get along perfectly.
- I have to have a headset of some sort (or possibly a handset someday) on if I want privacy in my conversations.
- There's more stuff to charge on a regular basis.
- There's a significant up-front cost.

This is the hardware I'm using to make this work:
- a new Pad (3rd Generation) 64GB with wifi and verizon, purchased on sale at Best Buy for about $600.
- a new Targus keyboard case, purchased at Amazon for about $33.
- a new Kinivo BTH Bluetooth Stereo Headphone, purchased at Amazon for about $30.
- a new Timbuk2 Small Fry travel case, purchased at Ebay for $16.

As of now, I'm still familiarizing myself with the combination of devices, and the travel case hasn't arrived yet.  I've tested a couple iPad voip apps, but I'm not yet sure which will be my primary.
Apps tested:
- textPlus: this was the first one I tried.  The interface is pleasant, if a bit plain. They provided a free phone number and allow you to choose one in whatever part of the country you like, if they have any numbers in that area.  I chose one that matches where I live, which pleases the locals.  Texting is free, and phone calls are inexpensive.  I had problems with outbound calls not coming through my headset-- the audio kept coming out the iPad speaker. Texting is not terribly reliable.  I sent one text through this service, and it took about 20 minutes to get to its destination.
- Talkatone: this app uses your Google Voice login to allow you to make and receive calls and messages.  Setup was quick and easy since I already had a Google Voice account.  Outbound calls worked well with the bluetooth headset. I haven't yet received any inbound calls on this number. I haven't tried texting with this service yet.  But so far, I'm very impressed with this app.  It feels solid. It seems fairly likely I'll end up relying heavily on this app/number.

How it feels so far: scary.  I've spent pretty much my entire adult life with a cell phone. I think being without one will take me a while to get used to.  But, honestly, I was using my iPhone more as a tiny iPad than as a phone anyway, so maybe it won't be that hard to adjust.