Ask HN: Abandoning smartphones?

[Mpkkk]

I've had an iPhone for two years, and love using it. But in other ways I hate it. I hate having y email at hand, and ignoring my surroundings to check the interwebs, and paying the monthly plan.

I want just a few things from my phone: instapaper, maps, and SMS/calling. But none of the rest.

What's the best way to do this? Can I stop paying for iPhone data and just use the wifi? Or should I get a new phone (do any others have instapaper)?

Have any of you done this?

*note - this has nothing to do with the philosophical iPhone/android debate. It's kist about improving my life.

[hugh3]

I have a cheap prepaid LG dumbphone for similar reasons; it's nice to be not email accessible for at least part of the day.

I also have an iPod Touch, which would solve your instapaper problem.

The only problem I can't solve is maps... obviously you can get maps on the iPod, but only when you have wifi, and if you have wifi you're probably not lost. There's always the separate GPS unit solution; you wouldn't want to carry it around all the time though.

[jbrkr → hugh3]

> The only problem I can't solve is maps...

Recent versions of Ovi Maps by Nokia work offline very well. I used v3.0x when I would have otherwise been roaming without incurring any data charges.

[NginUS]

My BlackBerry was broken >30% of the time I had it. If it wasn't the headphone jack, it was the keypad- or reboots in the middle of replying to email. I was constantly at the Verizon store to have the tech verify a replacement could be sent, waiting for that, then importing everything again & all that comes with that process.

Ultimately it cost more time than it saved.

It was helpful to have email in my pocket, but I get by without it for now.

[alastair]

i dont think you need a new phone. just disable the data on your phone plan, and grab one of the many mapping programs that use locally-stored maps. stick all the other distracting apps in their own folder so your screen is cluttered, done.

[pavel_lishin]

How do you ditch email when you're still on wifi, but still keep instapaper and maps? Short of writing your own phone OS, or maybe uninstalling built-in apps (can you do that?) the only answer I can think of is self-discipline. :)

[chadp]

Why not just delete your email accounts from the phone?