I used to be really focused on owning a Japanese 携帯 (cell phone). Really really focused.
So much so that I bought a hacked Sharp phone for use in the US. It was fun, but not perfect, and it was missing one important thing: I wasn’t in Japan.
Not to mention the phone was a couple years old at the time, technology had moved forward… But I really enjoyed using it for a while.
Now, I have the Tilt, a pda/phone made by HTC (also known as the Kaiser or the TyTN II), and I can’t really imagine having something that could do less.
Since I have a pda phone, I have an unlimited data plan, which I do my best to take advantage of （＾▽＾笑） but isn’t unlimited outside of the US （（（ T_T） (of course, right? but anyway..)
I post to plurk, to twitter, I read feeds through the google reader’s iPhone designed interface, I can even check LJ but I usually don’t since the main reason I check is for communities that have downloads…. facebook sometimes, I guess. Oh and wikipedia and google! But mainly for settling arguments about information… XD
At this point, I feel really crippled if I can’t be connected when I want to be.
I notice this mostly while I’m travelling, especially on planes. I know some airlines have started to implement wifi, but that’s only within-country usually (much like JetBlue’s satellite TV offerings, they go out when you head over international waters) so that doesn’t help me during the trips I would most like to use it – overseas flights! But being in the foreign country is difficult, too. I’ve been lucky enough to find a nice hotel in Tokyo that provides complimentary internet access, but other places weren’t as good. In London, both times, I had to rely on either paying a heavy fee for day to day use (when I wouldn’t even be there a whole day!), going to a netcafe (blech!) or hitting up a McD’s with free wifi… Paris was even worse, despite it being a ridiculously nice hotel. I don’t remember why, but I remember spending a lot of time in the nearby McD’s to get my internet fix… Even in Hawaii, the resort’s internet was paypaypay.
Internet is everywhere, guys, just accept it as a normal comfort like air conditioning! (which, if I might add, I’d be more than willing to swap for internet access…)
It was harder for me then, being so desperately connected to friends through the internet only, but even now it’s unsettling if I can’t have my normal morning routine of breakfast & rss feeds :/
Maybe I can’t understand it because I live a mostly quiet life in an isolated area, but I don’t want to go on vacation to be further deprived of entertainment! Like going to a secluded area on an island that barely has anything but tourist shops, that isn’t relaxing! It’s just boring. Same goes for camping. I don’t find the idea of living outside to be exciting or appealing. When I go on vacation, I want to do something.

And if I can’t do something, at least let me have the internet and I won’t complain.