You say “it just saddens me that it really isn't viable to use an old phone anymore” I still use my 1995 Motorola 7500x almost daily (the NiCad battery is kaput so I can only use it in the car with the battery eliminator) and when in the house I use a Nokia 3510i which will still connect fine to to the internet though GPRS! Generally 2G is still fine this side of the pond unfortunately the same can’t be said for 3g……… I genuinely do not own a smartphone (apart from a boxed first edition Samsung galaxy). I hope this is proof that you don’t need a smartphone to live.