As most of you know, Bubbey got the iPhone pretty much a day or two after it came out. That was what, last June? As a result of his upgrade, he abandoned Verizon and his Palm Treo. I know, I should have jumped on this bandwagon way back then, but I’m just now coming to embrace the mobile phone. I mean, sure I had one in China where I used it frequently, particularly for SMS. But here, I saw very little need for a regular plan. First, not only have people been extremely slow to catch on to SMS, but second, I didn’t really have phone buddies. Most of my phone buddies got lazy on me when I moved overseas in late 2003. John and I set up the Vonage line within a few months, but the calls still never came. Blame it on the time change, the life changes, whatever. Vonage ended up just being a line where our families could call to make sure we were still alive.

Since moving back (it’s been over a year already), we’ve kept the Vonage line, and I’d have to say, we’re using it more for outgoing calls but again, without friends in the area and with lame friends outside the area (who don’t call), again, it’s been relatively low traffic.

But now that I have my new activity buddies and I’m starting to chat it up more with my former coworkers, I’m thinking the mobile phone could become more convenient. Plus, with the 1-hour commute home and the time difference with the east coast, this thing could get a lot more play. To date, I’ve been on the T-Mobile prepaid using my Sony Ericsson clunker from 2004. It’s still a decent phone but voice quality could be better and the prepaid minutes are getting a bit old as well.

So this weekend, I decided to put Bubbey’s orphaned Treo to work. I did a buttload of research on the Verizon data-only plan. That’s right: I’m going without the voice plan. Yes, this is a whole new level of cheap, from John’s point of view, but I’m just excited to test out a new workaround. And from my research, there are others who have done the same, although most are Blackberry peeps I think. Anyway, I turned on data service yesterday, and now my Treo is all hooked up with my email and calendars. I’m thrilled to be back with some form of PDA organization. As for my voice service workaround, I’m using Skype for mobile. I’ve run into a few complications… Skype to Skype is quite good; however, Skype to mobile/landline is another story. In addition, I have concerns with battery life, staying logged in to receive calls (for those of you who have me on Skype, please accept my apologies for the psychotic log ons and offs all weekend long…), and well, accessibility. John insists that he needs a way to call me anytime, anywhere. Frankly, we still have trouble connecting even with two voice plans (for example, his phone won’t ring or mine will go straight to voicemail). Plus, what’s the huge deal.. he can still send me a text. Well, all of that is still under debate. But in the short term, I’m going to test this thing out. See how far it gets me. I’m thinking it’s got to work.

Through all this research, I’ve discovered some other cool programs. I have to say, Yahoo! mobile is not bad. Google has its parred down version for mobile phones, but Gmail mobile is not nearly as pretty as Yahoo’s. Also, I found myself a nifty little GMobileSync, which puts my Gmail calendar into the Treo calendar. Good for organizing my appointments and such. Anyway, I’m having fun. If any of you want to give me a buzz on Skype to try out the quality, search for me via email address and add me as a contact.