Hi Deidre, This is an excellent point, especially since so many people who are blind are unemployed or under employed.
My wife does just what you suggest BTW, and a basic phone from someone like Virgin Mobile (prepaid) is only $20 every 90 days! Yes, only $80 per year if you don't talk a lot. It also includes texting, so, if you aren't spending a lot of time on the phone, mobile prepaid phone service is essentially free. I on the other hand own an iPhone which I paid $1000 for plus $40 a month. I haven't even read all the replies yet, but I doubt I have anything to add other than support for your financially practical point, which I was making years ago to blind people who were justifying these expensive phones by saying they would not need to purchase dedicated function stand alone devices, the phone could do it all. My second supporting point was that if you ever got into a financial place where you could not afford to keep making your monthly payment, then you would own nothing ... where-as if you had purchased a bar code reader, a color identifier, etc., they would still continue to operate for you. I like my phone, but I try not to fool myself, it's definitely a luxury, and if anyone is struggling financially, then luxuries should be identified as such. Chip -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of deidre muccio Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2017 11:51 AM To: [email protected] Subject: the cost of staying connected In the last day, I have had cause to think of the cost of staying connected via an i phone. First off we all pay a monthly service charge perhaps starting around $50. Put another $7 or more on for insurance if you buy it. Then there is the cost of the phone which can be dirt cheap if it is your first phone provided by a carrier you have been with for a long time. Once that phone needs replacing however, let's say, 2 years and a few months, you are in for purchasing a new phone or a used one, or might pay a $200 deductible on one that your insurance coverage will replace due to hardware damage. Add this all up, and it's thousands of dollars over a mere 2 year period. I have to ask what the true value is in all this? On the practical, not philosophical front, I am paying for the convenience and portability of a phone that I can make calls on and text with, and I can do all the information sharing and web searching, social networking, watch movies, listen to podcasts, read books, etc all on the run or away from home. Other than phone service and texting, all of this I can do on my desktop computer for the price of my internet service. What would I be missing if I gave this all up? Yesterday, I seriously thought of buying a monthly phone service for $25 and giving the rest up. Has anyone tried doing that lately? I'd like to hear about it! Are you planning more hikes or tandem bike rides? How I love my phone! I love lying in bed or cleaning house and moving my phone from room to room while I listen to a podcast, a replay of a news show, or a book. Again, I could do all this on a desktop computer provided the volume on my speakers reached the far rooms. I doubt I'd miss not getting calls or texts while away from home unless I was traveling out of State. Admittedly, the cheapest cell phone service I was able to purchase was $39 per month so the additional cost to text and have a phone with voice over menus is definitely superior to that. I wonder if I've already nearly fully answered my question cause I'm sitting here smiling broadly as I write this. Still, I conclude that I'm crazy for putting out the money to entertain myself around the clock, not unlike an avid TV watcher, when I could be out gardening or I could spend more time at the gym, or finishing a novel and/or the few short stories in the works! I could even get some kind of volunteer job. I will say that when I do work for pay, my work being as a masseuse, I do not use my phone at all. One good thing, I guess, is that if I go silent, friends might inquire as to whether or not I am still alive, so for safety's sake, I guess that detail gets racked up in the plus column. I did not write or dictate this using my phone. I am typing away on a full keyboard, which is far more comfortable and affords much more time for thinking. If I could word process using a full keyboard or a dictation program that would allow you to dictate unlimited text, I'd trash the desktop pronto. Oh, no no no, having a iphone on the blink for the past day was bad enough, we'll always need back up, now won't we? Deidre Deidre -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the V iPhone list. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. Your V iPhone list moderator is Mark Taylor. Mark can be reached at: [email protected]. Your list owner is Cara Quinn - you can reach Cara at [email protected] The archives for this list can be searched at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
