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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannager" data-source="post: 5612305" data-attributes="member: 73683">Speaking as someone with a smartphone and an uncapped data plan, I think this may be one of those situations where one doesn't quite understand the utility until they experience it firsthand. There's a tremendous amount of comfort for me, personally, knowing that I can be anywhere I might reasonably go, and still be able to access any information that I might desire. You have to judge for yourself whether or not $30 per month (or whatever) is a good value, but frankly I feel that's a pittance to pay for what I get out of it.As for not paying for ephemeral things, ever, that's an uncharitable way of describing a subscription model. I realize that, for some people, subscriptions have a sort of intellectual ugliness to them, but understand that you already undoubtedly pay for a number of subscription services - all of your utilities (water, power, trash, gas, cable, internet, phone), a mortgage if you have one, car payments, newspaper, etc.It might be time to reevaluate the idea that subscriptions are not acceptable because they can eventually end.It's timely and illustrative that you mention the rarity and ecological impact of the materials necessary to make modern devices. News just broke yesterday of the discovery of truly mindblowingly huge deposits of rare earth minerals in the Pacific that are apparently not that difficult to get at. To boot, these deposits contain far less (percentage-wise) of the radioactive elements that contribute to the environmental hazards of harvesting these minerals.You can read the full Reuters article <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-rareearth-japan-idUSTRE76300320110704" target="_blank">here</a>.</blockquote>

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