jpp

well i hear this new slim is nice and quiet, so it would serve as a more ideal public entertainment center option....although that glossy prettiness and chrome finish are enticing.

and then factor in the fact that they only pay for outgoing calls and texts, and we pay for both outgoing and incoming.

true, but i think the factor there is that it doesn't matter if a cell phone company gives you that free phone, it's locked, especially on our CDMA carriers, so you're basically tying that phone with that company forever. also, until recent years, the phones available were 3-4 year old tech, and even the new ones today aren't that great of a deal considering. i suppose, though, it'd at least be interesting to see that correlation in terms of how quickly US cell companies make up that difference by subsidizing, compared to the overall cost of a phone (which range from 80-800 bucks for most average US cell carries for full market price....except for the free ones, those are usually discontinued products).

per year num nuts

again, that would be the point, this isn't a study on the cheapest plan, it's simply showing that per usage americans pay more because of our fixed plan rates. just because you spend 50 bucks on a play that has 1000 minutes does not mean you're gonna use 1000 minutes a month.

big rant, but i'll just point one thing out, a lot of european countries don't have "plans" that would be the point of the whole thing. we pay for a plan that has a limit on usage, which no average consumer ever reaches, most europeans aren't on a fixed rate plan, period. they have a true pay as you go, and end up paying half as much as us anyway because they don't pay for incoming anything, which makes sense, but that's a whole other argument. point is we have no choice here. i've always said it, unless you're a businessman of some sort, where your job requires you to be connected 24/7 and you actually need unlimited usage, there is no plan available anywhere that makes sense for the average consumer.

what's the point of mentioning new unlimited text and web plans? i like the way the first study did it. whether i send 10 or 10,000 texts in a month isn't going to change a fixed price plan. so they looked at the price everyone paid, and average usage. obviously people on here are going to have a biased opinion on how many text messages a month is average, but you're in the minority, i swear. of course american consumers spend the most on their plans. not only do we only have fixed plans (pay as you go is total crap, the minutes expire after a designated time so you're still on a contract), but we're also paying double. not only does the person sending the call pay, the person receiving does as well, calling requires two people, no matter what the same usage will happen in a phone call, otherwise you're just walking around with a cancer stick, it's ludicrous to charge both parties for the call. that should be factored in as well, actually. in europe, the person making the call pays for it, that's their usage, here, both parties are paying for the call, and on a fixed rate that most average people can never possibly reach the limit of.

i think the point wasn't that it makes you dumber, it makes you dumb, stunts your growth and ability to comprehend the english language. but you're right, predictive texting should be emphasized.

is dumber? have you been texting too much? look, it IS simple logic. studies found that kids who watch TV more instead of reading can't read, shocker. they get the input of words (though sometimes that's debatable dependent on what show they're watching), but they're not comprehending. just because predictive texting spells the words correctly does not correlate to the amount of time the person doing the texting actually pays attention to said correct spelling. predictive texting does not have correct grammar checking, MS word does, and it really isn't that good, notoriously so. if you have your phone type for you, that "jest" you made isn't really so funny. i've seen it in action where kids use short hand and abbreviations on freaking class tests, because that's what their expectations are these days. i'd be willing to bet that there's even a correlation between a child's vocabulary and the amount of time he or she spends texting, tweeting, or any of that other nonsense. just look at the above comment.

so basically, not our fault, buy our ridiculously expensive world data plan and hiya big eff you into the face for even trying to leave the country. what a lame set of excuses. i know android is open and fun for developers, but t-mobile, google, the developers, someone should make a switch that says, nope no data going through. t-mobile is shamelessly taking this money, and as much as i love the g1, i hope its sales tank cause of this because i had nothing but crap when i tried to deal with t-mobile, especially international (buy a cheap nokia unlocked, and get the sim card of your local country, most don't lock your phone, and get some minutes for the thing).