It costs $ 40, but may only month $ 30 when you use the phone sparingly.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the device does not have an Apple phone, to be exact. And 'the iPod Touch, touch-screen device, which contains most of the functionality of the iPhone, except the headset and the cell chip.
Using iPod Touch as a smartphone is an impromptu business reserved for the most part, a small niche of enterprising technicians. to share strategies Many phone related, usually involving the use of Skype or Google Voice message boards.
This ingenious iPod Touch owners Calling the speakerphone or a Bluetooth headset or cable. Once home, office or sipping a coffee at Starbucks, Stehling application to use Skype to call the crystal over a Wi-Fi Internet access. They sound better than most of the transmission cell, "he says.
When he launches into the street, wearing a Stehling MiFi stay in touch.
A MiFi is a credit card-sized gadget that can connect to a wireless network, and translate this signal Fi This makes your iPod, laptop and other gadgets to connect anywhere you can get cells .
His unit of Sprint Nextel Virgin Mobile's 3G network hooks and online broadcasts a Wi-Fi signal so that a maximum of five nearby gadgets can communicate.
"My iPod Touch is notification of incoming messages, so I can see now," Stehling wrote the e-mail to CNN. "It 's quite easy to maintain."
Stehling love this setting because it is inexpensive and helps you avoid the two-year contracts, favored by most mobile operators. It gets most of the benefits of a smart phone for a fraction of the cost.
But this provision can be for everyone. Here are some pros and cons.
Attractive price
iPod Touch wish to change the phone will cost $ 150 MiFi device, plus $ 40 per month unlimited use. But compare that $ 65 AT & T plan for a minimal voice minutes, text messages and has two gigabytes of data. (The cutting data to a minimum to reduce monthly costs up to $ 55.)
During the term of a contract for two years, equivalent to about $ 1110 for an iPod Touch "phone" cons about $ 1560 for an iPhone with a data plan of $ 65. This represents a savings of $ 450, excluding the costs of Skype.
iPhone owners no longer can get unlimited access to the Internet such as AT & T made the offer last year. If you want to share with AT & T computers, as you can with MiFi, you must add $ 20 for the plan.
Verizon Wireless has not said whether it will offer an unlimited data plan for iPhone 4 or how many subscriptions will cost when the new phone goes on sale February 10, but prices for other airlines phone bills to chip can be compared with AT & T's.
Verizon also offers a Mifi, which means that some people with your adventure as an Apple device on Verizon before the announcement of the new iPhone. The 2200 is more expensive than Virgin Mifi advance, but if you do not mind the contract, you can get for $ 70 with a commitment to a free one year or two years.
MiFi Virgin Mobile does not require users to sign a contract.
Cell carriers generally captive customers, especially those who buy smart phones for two years of legal agreements, which are expensive to break and to help subsidize the price of the phone. The cost of the iPhone after subsidies from an iPod Touch is the same.
But avoid the contract "early adopters" of particular interest, which are forced to have the toy-art technology. And this is exactly the kind of person who is testing the waters with this "iPod phone."
Disadvantages
On the one hand, and plans not only MIFIS data do not come with phone numbers. So someone go that route Skype usually pays about $ 6 per month for a phone number to assign to a Skype account.
Calls to other phones is a supplement, although this can be avoided by using the Google service free voice.
The iPod Touch is not a text messaging application. But the voice of Google comes to the rescue again. There are also lots of free software in the Apple App Store that mimic the functions of text messaging, which are designed to Texters who try to avoid excessive costs of telecommunications.
"I prefer people to reach me via Twitter direct messages and Facebook messages," said Stehling its methods of text communication.
Another major obstacle is the battery life MiFi. Wi-Fi sharing, nature, uses a lot of energy, even though the phones. MiFi dedicated devices for the implementation of juice after only two or three hours. So even if the battery on the iPod Touch lasts much longer, you will lose access to mobile Internet.
Stehling juggling the use of car and wall charger and multiple batteries to run the situation. Since the fail-safe backup, web app design and development contractor must also around the iPhone 3G, although he rarely uses.
Price vs. annoyance
For these reasons, this method can be difficult to find a critical mass.
"Most people do not want to carry multiple devices," said Phillip Redman, wireless research analyst at Gartner. "Most people want a little more consistent experience."
The battery in Mifis bass is a major stopping point, "said Redman. In addition, most Mifis available for 3G networks, at a time when handset makers are moving to 4G.
Verizon says that two devices 4G MiFi half of the year, and could help to accept this method. But it takes three years, Verizon 4G service is available worldwide, that its 3G coverage is now.
"The Virgin Mobile MiFi decent speed, but I'm looking forward to 4G speeds with devices MiFi support it," said Stehling - which means, "when I have the opportunity in my region."
Stehling and others to pave the road that can take a long time to clear and complete. He believes that 10 or 20 years to go before the use and cost of wireless data transmission over a voice - and vice versa, how the system works now.
Stehling but predicts that will happen later.
The phone is tomorrow?
If some of the major obstacles can be conquered, the potential market for a less expensive cell is enormous.
Apple has sold about 10 million iPod Touch in the last three months, an increase of 27% over the same period in 2009. In addition to playing music and movies, these devices for online gaming, many people with basic web browsing and FaceTime calls over Wi-Fi
smartphone market is not threatened. Apple has sold over 16 million iPhones during the same period of three months. Smartphones account for more than a quarter of U.S. mobile phone market, according to a report from Nielsen November.
But if you also table smartphone subscription prices high, the search for alternative methods could accelerate. Tuesday, Sprint announced its intention to increase the cost of all smartphone plans new $ 10.
In addition, Sprint has launched the ZTE Peel in November. It's like a MiFi, but is a iPod Touch. The shell is $ 80 plus $ 30 per month, no contract. Another device, the iPod can access the wireless connection.
The new version of Google's Android operating system is an Internet protocol called SIP calls, built-in, however, some carriers are using this software on mobile phones already on the market.
On the iPhone, Skype audio and video call application has been downloaded more than 4 million times.
Apple does not care about iPod phone or potential. Steve Jobs, CEO, nodded his head in this very idea in September, when the identification of newer iPod Touch, which has two cameras for video face time.
"Many people call it an iPhone without the phone," Jobs said the iPod Touch. "It is also an iPhone without a contract."
However, even tech-savvy people may get tired of trying to use an iPod Touch for the phone.
Gary Rosen, Venice, California, the creative director of online campaigns, took the blogs and forums for research if he could work on your iPod Touch. After some experimentation with the device and MiFi, decided against it.
Now, Rosen is looking for his old trick the iPhone into thinking that the iPad, SIM cards can switch to AT & T. cheaper tablet interface
Although Stehling plans to abandon its "iPod phone" mission project soon. He is switching to a simpler, more conventional but more expensive.
"Over the coming weeks, he said," I'll move to a 4 iPhone on Verizon. "