And the winner is...

Smartphone!

For now.

"What?" you say. "For now? What does that mean?"

Here's the story: I went to a T-Mobile store to look into their different phones and plans.

The problem with this scenario is that I'm a sucker and can be talked into anything if the salesperson is any good at all.

Knowing that much about me, it didn't take me long to start talking to a sales rep about smartphones and their attributes. We talked about different plans which aren't really much more than I'm already paying. I can afford a data plan (plus, I'm changing my plan so I don't get as many minutes every month - I've never gotten close to using all my minutes).

Then the guy looked up my account to see what kind of upgrade discount I'm eligible for. "You're so close!" he said. Meaning, of course, that I was very close to the maximum discount on a new phone. 17 days.

Just as the sales rep was starting to tell me to go out and buy a cheap phone to get by for the next half month, my phone rang. It was my dad. I took the call. He said he had an Android G1 phone from back when he was working on it. It's a developer phone, but it still works. It's just a first generation Android - he's got a newer one now.

The timing couldn't be more perfect. I told the T-Mobile sales rep that my dad had a G1 phone I could use until my upgrade is available. But in order to get the G1 phone to work properly, I need a data plan. After a lot of back-and-forth between the sales rep and customer service, they figured out something that would work for me. I'm getting a new plan - a package that includes fewer minutes, unlimited messaging and unlimited data. But, since I'm not buying the new phone yet, I get the data part of the plan for free for the next 30 days.

To be honest, I'm not really sure how it worked out. But I didn't have to pay anything in the store. Looking at my account online, it looks like I've got the new plan with the fewer minutes and unlimited messaging, but data isn't listed. It must be some sort of trial period, because the data plan is certainly working. I've gotten Facebook and Twitter all synced up (though I think the Twitter is misbehaving).

Dear World: I may be 2 years behind on technology, but I'm catching up - fast!

Once I'm eligible for my upgrade, I'm going to go back to the store. I'm going to get a fancy-pants new phone. It's gonna be awesome. And it's going to be even cheaper than I thought.

Yay!