A phone is a quite a different story however. For me, the biggest hurdle to overcome is not the phone’s technology, it’s the cost of the phone service. People are paying around $100 or more/month for the service which often has poor performance from what I read. I like smart phones but I really want the phone for making phone calls and I don’t want to pay more than $10-$15 a month. I don’t want to fumble around with a small screen trying to make it go through hoops and using a magnifying glass. Pre-paid plans like ATT Go-Phone are the answer for me. An unlocked GSM phone and service at 10c a minute – works like a charm. Everything else I can handle on my Kindle Fire. I have Wi-Fi at home and I look for Wi-Fi restaurants so that I can check mail and read the news and my books etc. Siri on iPad 3 would be a plus and I’m betting it’s coming.

Phone technology is very innovative and I like the idea of the Apple Siri feature in particular. Years ago I used IBM’s ViaVoice and later, Dragon Software’s “Naturally Speaking” (Now Nuance). IBM withdrew support (another bunch of $$$ down the toilet) but Dragon is still around. Siri is an improvement and probably has another year or two to mature. I would consider an unlocked iPhone with Siri as long as I could use it on Go-Phone and do everything else on Wi-Fi. The price of the phone has to come down however. I’m not paying $800 for a phone. Maybe Amazon will come up with something that comes close to solving my problem.

Of course I am not the typical user and I’m glad my children are grown up with families of their own. We missed the “Mum/Dad, I need a smart cell phone with a blank check for my minutes”