Strangely, there’s little talk of downgrading to a “dumbphone.” You know, a plain old cell phone that makes calls, sends texts, and not much else.

About six weeks ago, I sold my used iPhone 3G, and I’ve been living with just such a dumbphone: a Motorola L7. As it turns out, I’m not the only one living life without a data plan and full QWERTY keyboard. Only 15-17% of the world’s cell phones are classified as “smartphones,” which means the vast majority of cell phones are not smart.

Still, the smarties get all the press.

So, what’s life like with a dummy? After the initial shaking, tears, and denial, I was surprised at how easy it was to shed my data plan. And there have been noticeable benefits:

• I’m way less compulsive about checking email/Twitter/random trivia
• I’m way more observant about the world around me. I pay more attention, because I’m less distracted.
• My dumbphone is way cheaper to operate. My Fido bill for July was $15.63, compared to $80-85/month with the iPhone

For my CBC tech column this week, I’m talking about the virtues of the dumbphone: why regular old cell phones aren’t necessarily sexy, but are still a good choice for many people.

Do you have a dumbphone? Do you love it? I’d love to know why. Leave a comment or shoot me an email: dan@misener.org

Today, in addition to announcing a new family of iPods, Steve Jobs announced a price drop on the 8-gig iPhone. From $599 to $399 USD. That’s a pretty big drop, especially for a product that’s only been out for two months.

So-called “early adopters” are pretty peeved about this.

TUAW and CrunchGear both have some suggestions for upset iPhone owners.

Luckily, I bought my iPhone on August 25. And according to the back of my receipt:

Should Apple reduce its price on any Apple-branded product withing fourteen (14) calendar days of the date of purchase, you may request a refund of the difference between the price paid and the current selling price.

I plan to call the Apple Store tomorrow to request my refund. Not sure how it’ll work since I’m in Toronto. I’ll post the details here when I find out.

Update: I phoned the Somerset Apple Store this afternoon, and spoke to a very friendly man named Charlie. He told me that I could probably bring the iPhone into the Apple Store at the Eaton Centre. When I called the Eaton Centre store, they told me they “don’t do cross-border refunds.” So I called the Somerset store back. Charlie took down my name and phone numbers, and told me that someone would get back to me tonight or tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, Steve Jobs offered refund-ineligible iPhone customers at $100 credit.

Update 2: Nobody from the Apple Store got back to me, so I called again and talked to manager Ryan. Within two hours, he sent me an email with a PDF receipt (right) for the credit. Thanks Ryan!

Problem is, I never remember to actually sync the darned thing, so the information on my phone is always hopelessly out of date. So I’ve come up with a solution — scheduled syncing:

1. I copied Fraser Speirs’s Synchronize with iSync, then Quit script into Script Editor, then saved it as an application.
2. Then I set up a cron job to periodically run the script. I used CronniX to do this, because I’m no Unix geek.

The result? When my computer is on, and my phone is within range, it’s periodically synchronized with iCal and Address Book. If my phone is out of range, it fails and quits iSync.