Efficient use of Android smart phone without contract or Internet access plan

Well, what I need my phone is:

• to make and receive phone calls and SMS...
• browse internet, use e-mail on some occasions...
• to find my way using the GPS...

The rest I can do from my computer, that I am almost constantly using in my job.

This actually does not require contract and Internet access plan from your mobile provider. I use prepaid card with reasonable prices (for prepaid card) for Internet access. I try to fully utilize the wifi access I have at work and home (were I spent most of my time) and use the mobile connection for those occasions when I need Internet on the road. The phone turns automatically every 1 hour the Wifi to sync my device but only if I am at work, home or other predefined place where I have Wifi access.

Here is how it is done:

I found Tasker perfect for this job.

I use schedule to sync every 1 hour between 8:00 and 20:00. The sync procedure first checks if the phone is in a predefined location, based on the GSM Cell ID. If yes, it turns ON "Wifi" and "Auto Sync" if the battery has more than 20% charge left and turns it OFF after 3 minutes (enough to sync Google contacts, calendars and other mails). 

With this setting, the phone runs as regular GSM (that does not require much power) and this way my HTC Wildfire runs about 4-5 days on regular use on one charge.

Some other hints for "off the grid" use:

Osmand is turn by turn navigation application for Android Devices with online/offline features. It also has online routing and audible navigation. The application is open source and the offline data is based on OpenStreetMap - the free wiki map (OSM).

Dropbox syncs your files online and across computers for access anywhere. Sync your files between your computers and your mobile device. Now you can browse the files in your Dropbox folder from anywhere! Share links to files, save photos and video from your camera to your computers, and open files using your favorite Android apps.

To keep the applications up to date, I tun ON the Wifi while charging...


Here is how a regular charge/discharge looks like with this configuration: