If you're referring to still using the phone for it's main purpose (or maybe not so much anymore) of calling, then you're correct, Verizon wouldn't allow that. But if you upgraded to a new phone, for example, and you have your old one without connection, it's still functional for many many uses. Camera, games, apps not requiring OTA data, videos, books, GPS/navigation, calculators, conversions and the list goes on.
That depends on the value.
Yes, you need a data plan with most carriers in order to get voice service, but that doesn't make a smartphone without a plan useless. (You may know this, I'm just sharing.)
There is a difference between activating a phone on a carrier's network and using it to access the internet. I have a Verizon data plan for my main smartphone. I also have TWC which provides my internet access and WiFi at home. I have an older smartphone that I still use to access the internet without it being on any carrier's network.
For example, the old phone typically lives in my shop where I use it to listen to Pandora, Tune-In radio, youtube, surf the web, etc. It's attached to an old stereo system through the headphone jack. No plan, it's basically a low end tablet.
If I wanted to, I could use it for VoIP and get "voice service" to.
This is changing the discussion somewhat. The OP was ANY kind of Internet Access, even Wifi. If all you want is Wifi, then you aren't on Verizon's network and that is easy (after all that is essentially what the iPods are). Now if you want to get one from Verizon, I can see the problem. But we have a bunch of iPhone 4 handsets that have been replaced by newer ones and we still use the 4s for Pandora and other Internet uses.
First, no one said installing an app over WiFi was an "ordeal".
Second, a provider is most certainly needed. WiFi is a network connection and someone must *provide* that network connection. You don't need a data plan from a data plan provider, such as Verizon or Sprint, but you do need a network connection provider, even if you aren't paying for it.
Perhaps you don't know the meaning of "subset".
subset - a part of a larger group of related things. - a set of which all the elements are contained in another set.
If we consider the "set" to be every app in the universe of apps, then a subset is any smaller group of apps contained within that set.
"All apps that require a network connection for full functionality" is a subset of the set of all apps.
"All apps that give you driving directions" is a subset of the set of all apps.
"All apps that tell you if a surface is level" is a subset of the set of all apps.
Oh, I almost forgot: "All apps that do not require an network connection to work" is a subset of the set of all apps.
As do most of us.
And those apps are a subset of the set of all apps.
While there was no real need to apologize, I have no idea how you got the impression that I was "displaying a negative impact on apps as a whole".
First off, grammer-wise, I'm not even sure what "displaying a negative impact" means. Did you perhaps mean "portraying a negative image"?
If that's the case, then I still have no idea how you got the impression that I was being negative in any manner. All I did was point out that apps that don't require a network connection for full functionality are a small subset of all available apps. That's not a negative, it just is.
she and her son have been here approaching 5 years, in august. the cell phone issue has only arisen recently....
OMG! No, don't do it! It's cheaper to buy new clothes.
The OP's post was about Shazam and similar interesting apps, not about how you access the internet on a smartphone. The discussion changed long before I entered it.
Sure, you can do that. But the vast majority of people are purchasing and using smartphones for use as a cell phone on a cell phone network, ie they need that as a key requirement. And just a few years ago, you couldn't put a smartphone on the Verizon cell network for voice only or voice and text and then use wifi for internet. You had to have a data plan. That was a big issue for many people. It was for me. If I could have done that, I would have switched to a smartphone much earlier and relied on using it at a hotspot for the occasional times I needed internet accesss. But I wasn't going to have one voice phone with Verizon, then buy another smartphone and carry it around, use it only for internet for the once in awhile that I might need it. That doesn't fit my usage model. I can see how it might fit some people's model, but it's not the mainstream usage for smartphones. The vast majority of smartphones are being used with a cell phone plan on a cell phone carrier's network.
That's why I posted:
Problem is that until recently, every carrier I had experience with,
Oren posted for all of us...
It's mandated by the FCC that even unsubscribed cells get 911.
Also at our police station we take cell phones of any ilk; working or not and send them to an organization called Cellphones for Vets. The Vets get calling cards to use to call home. It's legit.
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