Okay, while I get what the article is saying, I just kept coming back to this sentence:

Simple cell-phone games...are perfect for those situations where you need to kill time, like waiting in a line or riding a bus. They're also free, which is key for people like me, who are poor enough to have to wait in lines and ride the bus.

Um - I have spent a lot of years waiting in lines and riding in buses/on trains (partially for financial reasons, more for hideous traffic reasons). And I did this when cell phones were still very rare and about the size of your forearm, so I had to amuse myself other ways.

You want a free way to fill your dead commuting time? Read a book. From the library or an accommodating friend or family member. Paperbacks don't take up too much room in your briefcase or backpack.

And as a bonus, books generally do not have any sort of tones, so you won't annoy people around you with a hand-held beeping device. If you drop a book, it usually doesn't break. Your thumbs rarely get sore from flipping pages (as opposed to quickly manipulating tiny buttons). And unless you're stuck on a bus or train where the power has gone out, you don't need batteries to light and use it.

Or, if you want to go a different route, most daily newspapers rarely cost more than 50 cents. There is that whole awkward folding thing, but I know in DC at least, the Washington Post has "The Express" - a smaller, free publication with highlights of the larger paper that's distributed along MetroRail. Other big cities have some sort of free daily or weekly paper that is usually available near public transportation.

I'm not anti-technology - got a few gadgets myself and I'm an Internet professional. But not every down-time filling activity requires something small and electronic!

And trust me - to those who think playing with their cell phone is something you can do unobtrusively when you're supposed to be paying attention...it's really not...

I take the bus an hour each way to work every Monday - Friday. I also get motion sick when I read on the bus so while your reply sounds great in theory, some of us don't have the option to read a book or the newspaper while on the bus/train.

Listen to talk radio....

this is great, *if* you are always able to predict having "wait" time in which to fill up dead space. unfortunately, I too frequently seem to end up wasting time in activities that *should* only take a minute or two - and end up taking an hour or more.

I deliberately chose not to have internet access on my phone (the expense, for one), and, like the author of the article, now only have virtually unplayable demos on my nice new phone. I really don't want to buy a new phone, or go with a different service provider just for the opportunity to play "real" games - we have bundled service, precisely for the cost-effectiveness it provides us for the services we *need* - but it would be really nice to have a time-filler in those unforeseen events when I have neither book, magazine, nor newspaper available (or available for purchase - many of us do not live in large, urban areas), and want to do something other than examine the contents of my purse ad nauseum while I'm waiting my number to be called.