My wife and I recently decided it was time to upgrade cell phones. Previously we were each an added line on our parents cell plans. After some deliberation, we decided it would be best if we cut the cord (pun intended, sorry) and started a new plan on our own. We ended up with new phones and a text/picture messaging plan, but no data plan. I like the concept of having internet on my phone (almost) anywhere I go, but I am not ready to pay the extra premium every month. Unfortunately, basically every new phone is made so that you can have easy access to the internet, even if you don't subscribe to a data plan. This often means an accidental button press, extra curiosity, or multitudes of preloaded data using apps can lead to connecting to the data network, resulting in unwanted charges. If you are a newer subscriber to AT&T, data usage without having a data plan will cost $2/MB. Since they always round up even one accidental visit to the mobile web will cost you $2 even if you only transfer 100kb of data.
So, if you are in this position what are your options? The first option would be to call your carrier's customer service and ask them to block all data to your phone. This will prevent any data transfer to/from your phone. This may be a very good option for some people. However, many texting plans now include text, picture and even video messages. For AT&T (I would imagine other carriers are similar) picture messages are actually sent through the phone's internet connection, but you are only charged 1 message, not kb of data. Therefore, if you block all data you are blocking a feature you are paying extra for.
I wasn't ready to give up picture messages, especially since I was wanting to experiment with posting pictures to facebook via my new cell phone. I started looking into other options and I came across a way to eliminate most of the accidental data charges and keep all of my phone features available to me. The solution is to create "dummy" internet profiles on your phone. I'll walk you through what this looks like on my LG Xenon. The process should be similar for other phones/carriers, but I can't guarantee your results.
First, look for through the settings menu of your phone for different "connection settings." Your user manual should help you find these settings.
On the Xenon go to Settings --> More --> Connection --> Access Points --> create a new profile
Here you can create a "dummy" access point with bogus information that will not be able to connect to the network, thereby avoiding data charges.
Next create a new Internet Profile by going to Settings --> More --> Connection --> Internet profile --> new profile. In your new profile make sure to use your newly created dummy access point in this set of settings.
Finally change the built in browser connection settings Settings --> More --> Applications --> Browser --> Accounts From here create a new account making sure to use your dummy Internet profile.
Notes:
If possible, do not delete the default settings, create a new entry instead. If something goes wrong you can always go back to the defaults.
There may be more places to change settings depending on your phone/carrier.
I have only used this on my phone and have not tested this extensively.
This may not eliminate all paths to data usage, but should significantly cut down on accidental charges.
I recommend doing some searching on google to try and find people who have attempted something similar with the same model phone that you have.
I've already discussed getting free HD with an antenna and watching some of your favorite shows online. Now it's time to get extra geeky and combine some of this together.
The goal is to have one device connected to your TV that combines the all of these sources into a user friendly viewing experience. While this idea is starting to gain traction, no one has completely mastered it. Apple has its Apple TV and Netflix has the Roku box. A company called ZeeVee also has some products out there. Game consoles are also another way to have video content delivered to your tv. The xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 can also be portals to online video, which might keep you from having another device hooked up to your tv.
Right now the most flexible (and geekiest) option for getting your favorite content to your living room is by buying/building a media center computer. If you have a laptop, it may be as simple as installing something like Boxee or XMBC and hooking it up to your big screen. The downside is that you have to keep hooking/unhooking your computer. One of the cool things about Boxee is that it can be used on an Apple TV with a little hacking. This is a pretty cool solution and is fairly cheap since an Apple TV is about half of the cost of a small computer. Another alternative would be to purchase a small computer (Mac Mini, Dell Studio Hybrid) and put similar software on it. One advantage here is the option of using the built in dvd player as well.
Let's get ultra geeky now. If you built/custom ordered a computer just for the living room it could have all sorts of cool stuff. By using the right software (as mentioned above) you could have access to internet video, any videos/dvds ripped to your hard drive and possible even access to a Blu-Ray drive. This could also be a sweet gaming machine. I'm not just talking about hard core games, either. It would be pretty easy to install a few emulators and play your favorite NES games in all their 8 bit glory on the big screen. Here are a couple things you might want to consider before going this route. First off, how much is this going to cost? I don't know about you, but I am not made of money (perhaps you could justify it because of all the money you will be saving?). Secondly, a big beastly computer may suck up quite a bit of electricity, especially if left on all day. Thirdly, do you want another large living room appliance taking up space, not to mention its accessories (wireless keyboard/mouse)? Lastly, if this is going to be a noisy machine, it may just be annoying and not worth the trade off.
I personally have thought about this a lot and have only used my laptop to occasionally watch online video using boxee or hulu. If I was going to sink some money into this I would probably look at something like a hacked Apple TV. That is just my opinion. Would you like something like this? Or have you built a lean mean living room machine? Let me know your thoughts.
Look at the date if you've never heard of this before. Only 6 (maybe 7 depending on how you round) more years until super Pi day.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/magic-number.html