Iphone questions

Sir Headless VII

So I have been wanting a new ipod for a while now and I need a new phone (mine has the nice dial random buttons while your talking feature) so the obvious choice would be to buy an iphone. The thing is there is no way I want to pay the $50 rogers wants for data every month. So I figure I will not get the data tell them to shut down the data sending to my phone so I don't get any charges and then it will be lik eI have a new phone and a new ipod touch, but better. Is there a reason I cant do this (with Rogers in Ottawa)? Will I be missing out on allot using only wi-fi? Also worth noting is that I am currently in Saudi Arabia and could probably buy an unlocked iPhone for allot of money which would only be worth it if rogers refuses to subsidize the phone using my plan.

Captain Vash

Most cell companies either
(a) won't sell you the phone at the subsidized rate without their data plan
or
(b) won't allow you to turn off the 3g data access.
which leads to my conclusion
(c) don't fucking try to buy an iphone and not use it to it's full potential, this is a crime against nature and trust me sir you will pay dearly.

Either get an iphone and use it properly and I promise you will love it (most satisfying electronics purchase I've ever made), or get yourself a decent smartphone (maybe a blackberry pearl?) and a seperate ipod (such as an ipod classic!) you'll get much more for your money if you do this instead of trying to castrate one of nature's rare beauties in your dirty dirty money saving scheme.

TK-42-1

an iphone without a data plan is worthless. just buy a cheap older ipod/zune and get a free phone from your carrier. i know at&t literally requires you to pay the dataplan when you get an iphone.

Sir Headless VII

An iphone without a data plan is a touch, I want a touch. I also want something to replace my broken Razr. It says on the rogers site it is possible to buy one without a data plan. What I want to know basically is if there are allot of apps that run only on 3g or what impact turn off the 3g data access will have (if an phone without 3g is worse off than a touch basically) . I know turning off 3g is gimping it a bit but I am not going to pay 600 a year because it offends your techonolgical senses.

EggyToast

most apps that look for an internet connection will look for either 3G or WiFi equally, and if nothing is available will simply say "no connection" or whatever, and not work. There's plenty that you can do on a touch, and if Rogers will do it, then yeah a touch is fine.

Locust76

Many apps have some kind of way to connect to the internet to do things like upload high scores and check/receive data from other users, but for the most part, most apps can be run in airplane mode (absolutely no data connection either which way), if they're designed to do so (games, tip calculators, etc..). Apps that rely on data connections (like Wikipanion) will not work without data (3G/Edge or WiFi).

If you can get an iPhone without a data plan, you won't be able to do data transfers when outside of wifi hotspots, which makes the Google Maps app a bit worthless, but, for example, the GPS navigation apps have their maps built in and don't require a data connection.

I say an iPhone without data is still better than a touch, simply because it's still a phone.

Everywhereasign

Two friends got iPhones without the data plan. They basically were carrying a phone and a touch, but paying way more. It was about 3 or 4 months before they bought data plans, they love them now.

TK-42-1

that was basically my point. if you can afford it, buy the data plan. iphones are boss as fuck

Sir Headless VII

Ok cool, I think I'll go for it then when I get back. The reason I don't really want to buy the data is that 1) I hardly ever use my phone in the first place 2) I work overseas for long stretches of time (I have been in Saudi for 3 months now and i have about a month to go) and don't want to be paying an arm and a leg for a data plan that I can't even use half of the time. Now I still have to decide if the subsidy is worth getting a locked one vs buying one here (they are outrageously expensive here, although cheaper than Botswana, if thats something you wanted to know)