I am constantly on a search for better, more effective ways to get things done.  A better gizmo.  A better way of doing things.  A better idea.  Sometimes I'll see something come across my Google Reader and I'll just stare at it for a moment and think, "How can this help me?"  There are great ideas out there.  Great technology.  But many times there is technology just for the sake of technology.  It really doesn't solve any problem.  Maybe for someone else it does.  So after a few moments of staring/thinking, I either delete or continue.  I suppose what I'm saying here is that there's a lot of wasteful time going on just looking for effective things and instead finding cool but useless things.  It takes some sorting out.  Hence, the following:

The iPhone.  If you cruise the internet, you have already found that many people believe the iPhone is a great computer but a rotten phone.  None of us with iPhones really want to believe it but I have come to the conclusion that it's true.  Some believe the problem is with the network but I don't think so.  I had a Nokia E62 and if I had not been ripping my jeans off to jump into a pool, well, my lovely Nokia would not have popped out of my pocket, bounced onto the rubber matting that surrounded the pool and floated gently to the bottom, still working all the way down until I had a clear shot of the screen fading to black. Pffft. Gone. Tried everything. Dead.  I even waited 3 days hoping it would come back.  It's a Catholic thing.  Didn't happen.

Shortly afterwards, I bought the iPhone.  Sound quality sucked.  Signal sucked.  Speakerphone really sucked, almost non-existent.  BUT, what a great little gizmo that had so many apps that did so many useless and useful things.  Checking them out is half the fun.  

I don't believe AT&T really ever realized what people would figure out down the line.  I finally asked myself why, if the phone was so bad, why was I using it as my primary communicator.  Why was I paying $100/mo. for a rotten phone?  So I decided to make use of the computer/otherness of the iPhone.  The timeliness of my discovery could not have been better.  It takes me a while but I do figure things out or, at least, I tell myself that I do.   Google Voice arrived about the same time of my new thinking.  GV lets you manipulate phone calls and messages.  It does it very well and, knowing Google as we all do, better ways are on the way.

I decided to start handing out my GV number and, begin routing my calls to my home voip or Skype.  The cell would only be used if it had to be used, e.g. my son calling to let me know that something else has gone wrong or my exwife calling to say that aaahhhh, something else has gone wrong.  Anyone with AT&T might get my cell phone attention because I don't pay for minutes with other AT&T users.  I also would use the JOTT app to record a message to be  uploaded then sent out as a text message.  Very cool and yet still no use of minutes and my message is very much to the point.  My iPhone voice communication cost would drop substantially (so I hoped) and, in the process, become extremely effective.

The result? My 90 minutes a day cell usage is now down to between 5 and 8 minutes a day.  My cell plan has gone from $99.99/mo. to $39.99/mo.  $720 a year in savings and I am sooooo much happier and getting so much more done.  

Something to think about.