Joi Ito has learned a lesson from his $3500 GPRS bill:
"I think that as broadband becomes a standard part of households, more and more people will fill up their iPods and mobile devices with all the content they need from their flat-fee low-cost pipe. Most content isn't THAT time sensitive. I don't see any reason to have to download content on-the-go over expensive gprs when devices can talk wifi or bluetooth and have enough storage to allow you to carry content around."
[by way ofMobitopia]
Frank Koehntopp Notes:
Operators have tried to get people to buy the idea that if only they have UMTS, their mobiles will be able to be used for huge amounts of data: music, video and pictures. That is just not true, at least with the current economics. I can see that in my own behaviour: before I leave the house to go somewhere where I can't access the net for a while (like a business trip), I'm making sure I got all my gadgets 'synced', i.e. I have the content that I need while I'm away with me.
I've been thinking about this and recently have begun to use Audio Hijack to pull off audio content and save it to my iPod. Things like segments of Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and specific radio shows. With Audio Hijack I can program it to record and save content for syncing with my iPod.
I'm also using Bluetooth on my Powerbook and my Nokia 3650 to connect my phone to the web via bluetooth and my laptop connection. Using the Opera browser, I save content on my phone, but do not go through AT&T's network to get the content. I save articles and such for later viewing on my phone. Comes in handy standing in line at the store or waiting around in a doctor's office.
I'm making this post from an Alphasmart Dana. It is a small Palm OS powered device with a keyboard and grayscale screen. This particular model has wireless capabilities so I'm giving it a try as a blogging device.