Life Without a Mobile Phone

For the past six weeks I have been living without a mobile phone, as I await my purchase of the 3G iPhone. When I tell people this, they react like I’ve been sleeping under a bridge – they can’t believe I’ve lived without a device to keep me in touch with the world. The most common question I hear is, “Aren’t you missing out on doing fun things with friends?” and the truth is that my social life has been excellent this entire time. Thanks to Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook it’s still easy to coordinate.

I work for a company that builds software for mobile phones, so it really is a bit strange that I don’t have one. Pelago released the new version of the mobile application Whrrl on Tuesday, and I can’t wait to have it with me 24/7. At the same time, I am relishing these last few weeks before I go back to 24/7 connectivity. When I return to having a phone it will be vastly different than before, a huge upgrade from a Chocolate phone with Verizon… to basically a computer in my pocket all the time.

Even when I do have the phone I am not going to spend much money on a voice plan, all I really care about is data. I hate to answer my phone and I hate even more processing voicemail.