Author Topic: Flip phone mugger gives phone back  (Read 5781 times)

The knitter

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Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« on: December 29, 2013, 11:52:51 AM »
http://nypost.com/2013/12/29/central-park-mugger-rejects-flip-phone/

Something about this story made me think of MMM.

Having an old phone is not only good for your wallet, it helps you out during a mugging, apparently.

Daley

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2013, 12:16:48 PM »
This just proves a personal philosophy. Nobody can steal from you if you have nothing worth stealing in the first place. In a way, it's the perfect defense for minimalism. In today's conspicuous and lazy consumer society, simple and basic tools don't carry the cache, glitz or desire that the high price sticker items do. A thief will steal your $600 iPhone, but not your $30 Nokia. They'll steal your $200 Bostitch nail gun, but not your $10 hammer.

An argument could be made towards the right tool for the job and how technology simplifies and maximizes your time... but how many people actually need that bigger, better tool to do their job/meet their needs in the first place? If you scale back your tools to what you actually need, you'll not only save money up front, but you may find that the muggers don't want to steal what you value in the first place.

Will

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2013, 01:48:50 PM »
I thought you were referring to this:

http://youtu.be/vQCu6Hf2JPM

Megatron

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2013, 08:32:27 AM »
I recently decided to stop my cell phone contract after it ended and use the free phone and service from my work. It was a blackberry curve. I had it for almost 2 years since the first day I started work in this company but it's been mostly just sitting in a drawer. It's 3-g and the screen is so small you can't see crap. Other than the obvious savings, I've noticed that I stop looking at my phone and checking emails / social networks every 5 minutes. I feel safe leaving it on a table at a bar and going to the bathroom knowing no one's going to steal that thing. I'm sure I'll get the same reaction when someone tries to mug me. "wtf is that? a blackberry?"

Jamesqf

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2013, 01:11:30 PM »
It's 3-g and the screen is so small you can't see crap.

Err...  It's a phone, why do you need to see anything?

jefffff

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2013, 02:33:40 PM »
Making calls isn't even in the top 10 things I do with my phone any more, calls seem like an expensive luxury next to navigation which I find essential.

Jamesqf

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2013, 02:42:05 PM »
...calls seem like an expensive luxury next to navigation which I find essential.

Which is something I'll never understand: unless you're doing something like flying a plane under IFR, why would you need navigation?


SwordGuy

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2013, 03:03:15 PM »
Learn to read a map, maps are cheaper than monthyl IPhone rates.

jefffff

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2013, 04:13:16 PM »
Maps don't generally have the names of businesses on them, which is generally what I'm using it to find. Even if they do, its only businesses that existed when the map was printed, and I live in a place where these change frequently. Generally if I'm with a group and we'll walk all over the place to different locations in a given night. Having to pre-plan and research a list of places to go(only for people to change their minds), or carry an unwieldy map of a large area is pretty burdensome and would change our plans for the worse. Granted, it would be sufficient for one person to have such phone service, but being at point A and being able to know how to get to point C without stopping at home first seems pretty worthwhile to me.

Assuming you have home internet service independent of your cellphone, why not make "calls" over that? Voice phone service seems useful if you are travelling to remote places where, if you are seriously injured, no one would wander by to help you. Other than that it seems like a luxury compared to email + maps to me. I pay ~30/month (it varies based on use) and am going on 3 years with the same phone, not really all that bad considering.

Daley

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2013, 04:22:27 PM »
Other than that it seems like a luxury compared to email + maps to me. I pay ~30/month (it varies based on use) and am going on 3 years with the same phone, not really all that bad considering.

I'm just gonna leave this here for you.

jefffff

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2013, 04:34:28 PM »
I know its a lot of money, no doubt. I'm paying under their well under average, I have no contract or ETF and I have all the bells and whistles. Moreover, I was comparing it to a voice-only flip phone plan as discussed in the article, which I see as completely pointless and wouldn't pay for. That article complains a lot about mandatory data plans being tacked on to low-end plans, whereas when I used a major carrier I was more annoyed by voice plans being tacked on to low-end data plans.

Daley

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2013, 04:46:19 PM »
That article complains a lot about mandatory data plans being tacked on to low-end plans, whereas when I used a major carrier I was more annoyed by voice plans being tacked on to low-end data plans.

Trust me, I wrote that article and it's pretty obvious you didn't actually read it. Read the second half closer, it applies to you as well because it's tearing apart the "I need a lot of data" argument. Let me give you some highlights:

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E-mailing, web browsing with the images turned off, the SMS text replacements… they don’t really use much of any data at all. After all, nearly 7,500 SMS text messages can be sent in a single megabyte of data, and there’s 1024MB to 1GB. For a little extra perspective, the entirety of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby Dick is only a 1.2MB text file, and that’s uncompressed! Compressed file formats get that tome down to around 500kB! Printed out in dead-tree format, my physical hardcover of this book clocks in at 593 densely printed pages. Further, the entirety of the King James Bible is only 4.2MB uncompressed. There’s a saying that a picture is worth a thousand words, but using the CTIA’s math where they set the average smartphone photo size at 8MB and working off of the statistics of the KJV, one photo stored is actually worth closer to 1.5 million words. I know it’s easy to get jaded about the cheapness of data in an era of terabyte data storage, but are you starting to appreciate the true value and power of just one megabyte of data yet?

Clearly, the real data monsters are images, audio, and video. Remember this point as well moving forward.

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Of course, George finally reveals some of his habits: he listens to podcasts regularly while driving and uses Google Maps to help him navigate because his job has him on the road frequently. Now, let’s help him plan ahead and use the data storage on his phone to his advantage! By simply downloading his podcast messages at home and replacing Google Maps for iOS with the offline GPS mapping utility from Sygic ($40 plus an optional $16/year live traffic update subscription), his data habit has dropped by more than half.

The point is, you don't actually need near the amount of mobile data to do what you're citing... even if you're only spending $30/month. There's no reason why with the right software you couldn't get that bill down under $5-10 a month with a little self discipline and pre-planning.

Jamesqf

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2013, 05:23:03 PM »
Maps don't generally have the names of businesses on them, which is generally what I'm using it to find.

But most businesses (and even private individuals who're ok with you visiting them) will give you their street address, which you then look up on the map.

Even if you want electronic maps, it's pretty easy to download them to a device of some sort, thus avoiding large phone/data charges.  Personally, I'm just the opposite, and will more often print out a paper copy of the relevant portion of an on-line map.

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Assuming you have home internet service independent of your cellphone, why not make "calls" over that?


Because it's not always on, and I want to receive incoming calls.

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Voice phone service seems useful if you are travelling to remote places where, if you are seriously injured, no one would wander by to help you.

As a general rule of thumb, if you get phone service in a place, it's not all that remote :-)


« Last Edit: December 30, 2013, 08:46:46 PM by Jamesqf »

lifejoy

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Re: Flip phone mugger gives phone back
« Reply #13 on: December 30, 2013, 05:59:56 PM »
Great link! Thanks for sharing :) I have an old non-smart phone, so I really enjoyed this.