Project Ara (PhoneBlocks)

[Payday]

Eww, Jersey City. Nothing works in Jersey! lol :P

Even farther yet, where things work even less than Jersey City. The dreaded port and sphincter of America.

[cidic]

Well I don't call THAT much, and ost of my mates have Mobile VIkings so it doesn't cost me anything anyway. The few 1000 texts each MONTH is more then enough too. And I don't have 32570 billion apps or games but I do use my internet daily, Gmail, Drive, Dropbox, simply Internet etc. but 2GB is mostly enough to get me through the month, if it's not it just starts using up my money (which would still be 15 euro in most occasions) which is still plenty to go from.

Like I said then your plan works well for you. Others (no matter where it is) do actually use their phones for both business and personal reasons however. The 1000 text you get each month I triple that within 3 days time. My data even though it is unlimited I use if it was not for the fact that I have the ability to keep my phone on WiFi for good portions of the day I would use well over 20 gig in a month with things I send out as well as things I do for work since I have to hotspot at times with my laptop. each person is different like I said.

[Reg]

Even farther yet, where things work even less than Jersey City. The dreaded port and sphincter of America.

Newark?! And you haven't been stabbed yet? That's bad, you can't even call an ambulance with shitty cell service lol

[Deleted]

Like I said then your plan works well for you. Others (no matter where it is) do actually use their phones for both business and personal reasons however. The 1000 text you get each month I triple that within 3 days time. My data even though it is unlimited I use if it was not for the fact that I have the ability to keep my phone on WiFi for good portions of the day I would use well over 20 gig in a month with things I send out as well as things I do for work since I have to hotspot at times with my laptop. each person is different like I said.

But you're all talking business, where having massive amounts of texts and data is basically part of your work. In most situations this is something your employer actually pays, or at least you get a big cost reduction. (And a 2nd Phone, for safety reasons etc too)

Personal smartphones aren't purely business oriented though, I don't think this Ara project is really aimed at pure business smartphone use either.

[Varabently]

I'd never get a phone on a contract... but then again most people rely on "free minutes" and "free text messages".

Can someone unpack this for me? What's so bad about a contract? Do you not plan to have a phone for 2 years? I assume I'll have a phone for the rest of my life, so why not just lock in? There's only like 3 carriers in the US, so it's not like there's a ton of options. It's either Sprint, AT&T or Verizon. I wouldn't pay $600 for an iPhone out of contract, so I don't really have any other option.

[cidic]

Can someone unpack this for me? What's so bad about a contract? Do you not plan to have a phone for 2 years? I assume I'll have a phone for the rest of my life, so why not just lock in? There's only like 3 carriers in the US, so it's not like there's a ton of options. It's either Sprint, AT&T or Verizon. I wouldn't pay $600 for an iPhone out of contract, so I don't really have any other option.

There is T-Mobile as well. Small or not they are the ones making headlines lately these days with their new "uncarrier" branding. Which is where Sprint, VZN and AT&T are getting the new "hey join this program with us and you can upgrade your phones once or twice a year" from. T-Mobile is making big moves and The other 3 major players have no other choice but to join in on what they are doing which is changing things for the consumers and making things somewhat better.

[Deleted]

This is an awesome idea and I'm glad someone decided to put it to good use.

As for the people complaining that "what's the purpose? nobody will care anyway" I say people will. You know why?
Well let's look at smartphones. They have a lot of applications and uses but not all of us use all applications. I mean, for example, I don't browse the net because I find that part of the phone useless. So remove the part that lets me do that and add a bigger battery since I want my phone's life to last longer.
Maybe I only want a mobile phone, no camera or bullshit, but I can't hear well, get a bigger speaker and remove the camera.
Maybe I am a photographer, get a better camera and turn my phone into a small pocket camera also.

There are so many options and this is why this thing will catch (assuming you can make the blocks from the phone actually sit there like they should). Stop being so close minded.

Also can you stop derailing the subject, this is about phone blocks, not how amazing/useless your phone company is.

[Thes]

I blow those minutes and texts away every month. Like ... 4-5 times that on the texts alone lol I send mass texts to hundreds of people for work related reasons. But I also don't pay for a home phone as my cell phone is used for everything.

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And to be clear, I have the most expensive plan. There are still plans with specific minute, text, and data limits. I need the unlimited though.

What is a home phone? Those things I saw 15 years ago.. I think?

[Reeve]

I pay about $80/month for my contract, I believe, which is unlimited everything.

[Masark]

What is a home phone? Those things I saw 15 years ago.. I think?

It's these things that send a telephone signal over a wire that don't stop working because the power went out and the cell phone company was too cheap to include a backup generator in the cell site.