It occurred to me, after writing
my post about what the iPad would need and would replace for me that my iPad, if I get one could not only replace upwards into the MacBook territory (if there's a graphical Second Life client) but could replace downwards into iPhone territory.
I am quite deaf and getting worse - I will be getting hearing aids in the near future as my responses are now poor across a wide range of frequencies - and as a consequence of that, at least in part, I hardly use the iPhone as a phone.
The iPhone is nice because I can check email anywhere, whereas an iPod would need wireless access but I don't use it as a phone. But, for those people perverse enough not to contact me by email, texting is the commonest approach. So, if I can find a service that will give me (well let me buy) a number for a text service that I can then have automatically forwarded to email, and a reply via email to text in there too, I won't need the phone. I found a couple that are on an industrial scale "Send your text to up to 10 million accounts at once" when I need a service that's for a few texts per month.
I'd probably need the 3G iPad so there would be those monthly costs on top of the texting service but if that's less than the monthly costs of the iPhone then it's a winner as far as I'm concerned. If Skype-over-3G becomes available too, with a push system, then I'd have a potential phone for those times it's essential that has a visual cue and will almost certainly be louder than a normal phone.
So, anyone seen a personal level sms-email-sms gateway system that runs in the UK?
