o tempora, o mores!

So in light of my landline phone going poof, my family is all about this MagicJack phenomena.

As soon as they told me about this product, I knew they named it for idiots. :/

Basically, it’s a little unit that has a USB connector on one side, and the socket for an RJ-11 [phone connector] on the other. You plug it in to an available port, go through the setup, and viola! You have telephone.
It’s MAGIC!
No, it’s just another version of VoIP. Get over it. It isn’t special; you’re just using your [likely cable, because it won't work with dialup, and if you have DSL, you may have to pay for a phone line anyway] broadband connection as your phone line instead of purchasing a line through the phone company. But for some reason, for so many idiot Americans, this is magic. [Learn internet, k? For srs.]

Well golly gee, are we gonna start burnin’ witches again?

No, seriously though, it has supposedly won the 2008 Product of the Year award and has been featured everywhere on TV [not that I'd know since I don't really watch TV]. For some reason though, I just don’t like the idea of it. I’ve used and <3 Skype, but not as a main line.

My family ordered it yesterday. The unit is 39.95 and includes the first year of service [each year afterwards is 19.95 I do believe], but they’re running some special that doesn’t charge you for thirty days, and in that time you may return it, no questions asked [supposedly] to avoid the charge. I’m just wondering how much this system will actually be liked by this household, as most occupants can’t login to their email half the time. It seems foolproof, but I can only imagine that I’m going to get woken up to come fix it or something or simply to my father screaming about how it sucks…even though it was his idea.

This puts me in the market for a cellphone. x] I haven’t had one in a while since my cheapy pre-paid one decided it didn’t wanna function anymore, but I don’t like the idea of being without a phone should I need it or if the power or cable goes out, we’re fucked re: phone if we need something or if there’s an emergency.
I know I will be going with Sprint, but I haven’t come to a decision on what I want to save up for. I’m familiar with the HTC Mogul because phixious has one, and I like it…tbh, I’ll probably end up getting one of those. I do want to wait for the HTC Touch Pro to hit the market/Sprint in hopes that it will lower the cost of the Mogul since it is pretty much the souped-up, new-and-pretty version of it [from what I've read, they haven't made really substantial upgrades that would make me choose the Touch Pro's price over the Mogul's]. I do know that I don’t want to rely solely on touch technology [so HTC touch itself is out]; I’m a jerk and I like my tactile keyboard. My other two, “I’m kinda sorta glancing at these but meh,” phones would be the Samsung Ace and maybe even less so, the Moto Q 9c. I don’t really want to fuss with a Blackberry, although I did almost buy a Pearl at one point. I’m pretty sure I’m going to end up going with the Mogul, though.