"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...
People find it useful? (...I know I do...)
Yeah, and my grandfather (if he were still alive, he'd be about 15 years older than you) felt the same about movies. :-)
I would think you might at least like games such as Sudoky or crossword puzzles?
Your have enough grandkids and inlaws that sooner or later I'm sure one will end up with an iPhone and you can try it out during Thanksgiving inbetween the debate over whether getting the illegals out of Arizona is more or less of a priority as getting rid of Obamacare. :-)
One application I left out is navigation -- iPhones (and other smartphones with big screens) pretty much eliminate the need for a separate GPS navigation "box."
Tethering a smartphone to, e.g., a laptop is a popular way to obtain Internet access on the "big screen" when you're not covered by, e.g., WiFi... AT&T has made this very difficult to do on iPhones, however. (I did this last weekend as I wasn't up for paying $13/day for the Portland Mariott's WiFi... sheesh!)
I got my wife a B&N color Nook for Christmas. She loves it (she had a B&W one before). AIUI, they're going to come out with software to make it into a "tablet PC", of some sort.
In the US, AT$T and T-mobile use different frequencies for 3G. So clearly you need to get a phone that is designed to work on the right network if you want high speed data. AT$T and T-Mobile in the US use the same EDGE frequencies, or at least their phones are compatible. Once in a while you find a location where your T-mobile phone roams on AT$T. If you are getting an unlocked phone, you still need to research if it had the right bands. It probably isn't all that difficult. Just don't depend on notations such as "quad band" phone. Both AT&T and T- Mobile are quad band phones, but the bands are not all the same.
While I'm at it, AT$T has voice roaming, but data roaming will cost you. T-Mobile doesn't charge for data roaming, at least in the US. T- Mobile also has UMA on a few models of their phones. If their is a good cellular company (hey, they are all bandits to some degree), it has to be T-Mobile.
T-Mobile is a hacker friendly company in a way. They don't block much of anything. For instance, you can tether off the network for free with a data plan, perhaps without one. However, the company provides no help on the hacks, so you need to google. Crackberry for the most part has the best tips. Incidentally, Blackberry desktop software provides tethering, so you don't have to do the hacks you might find on the net anymore for this function.
If you really want to geek out, check out sourceforge.org or getjar.com for J2ME programs. Blackberry apps don't have to come from a "store." There is quite a bit of open source J2ME for the platform.
I called T-Mobile sales earlier today at 800-866-2453.
I asked about that supposed "Android exception"; it apparently is bogus and does not exist. All smartphones, they say, are treated similarly.
If you hook up a NON-SUBSIDIZED smartphone to the T-Mobile network, they (unlike AT&T) will NOT force you to pay for a data plan that you don't want.
I also asked, as you suggested, about the T-Mobile cancellation fee.
Turns out you were right! There is a $200 cancellation fee if you cancel the data plan on a SUBSIDIZED smart phone anytime within the two year contract period.
So, it's looking more and more like the two viable options are: a) Change the IMEI of the smart phone to look like a dumb phone to AT&T ... or, b) Simply switch the plan over to T-Mobile (which seems to have what we need at better prices than AT&T anyway).
I'd still like to explore the option of changing the IMEI of the smartphone to a dumbphone IMEI ... and need to look up some more on that since nobody here seems to be an expert on phones. :(
I called T-Mobile sales earlier today at 800-866-2453.
I asked about that supposed "Android forced dataplan exception"; it apparently is bogus and does not exist for T-Mobile (it exists only for AT&T).
All smartphones, T-Mobile sales staff sais, are treated similarly.
If T-Mobile subsidizes the smartphone, then you need the data plan for two years (or face a 200 dollar cancellation fee).
If you supply your own unlocked smartphone, then you do NOT need a data plan on the T-Mobile network.
The only caveat, so far, on the user-supplied smartphone is someone said they are different frequencies for AT&T versus T-Mobile (which I don't quite understand).
Can someone explain how a user-supplied smartphone on AT&T would be any "different" than that same user-supplied smartphone on T-Mobile?
If all you want is wifi, I would take the phone and put it on T- mobile. You will need a 3rd party browser since the blackberry browser assumes you have BIS. The Bolt or Opera mini browser will do. I'd suggest Opera Mini. You can't do OTA loading since you are not on the network.
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the right browser for your phone. Unzip it. I haven't done this myself , but it should be a jar or jad file. Plug the blackberry into your PC. It will show up like an external memory device. Drag the file to the phone. It doesn't particularly matter where you drag it, just remember where you put the file.
Unplug the phone from the PC. Navigate on the blackberry and find media. Click on the icon. Now click on the "menu" key (should be the key to the left of the track ball or pad). Select explore. Navigate until you find the jad or jar file. Click on it and the OS will install the browser. Now you have loaded a program without having to bow down to some freakin' app store, marketplace, or OTA.
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link shows jad files for Bolt. I'm not sure if you want the blackberry specific file or the generic, but I think generic since you won't have BIS. The procedure is similar to what I wrote above. Download file to PC. Plug phone into PC. Drag jad file. Unplug phone. Use explore to find the jad file. Click on it to install the browser.
You probably will not be able to email photographs directly from the camera software since it except you to have blackberry email. For sure you can drag and drop to get the files to your PC, or use blackberry desktop.
I'm not sure you could ever use email on the blackberry, at least with the blackberry client. With a working browser, you could use a web interface to email. Once you have a browser, you should be able to OTA install software.
The blackberry browser has two modes. One is internet, and the other is hotspot. You might be able to use the blackberry browser in hotspot mode without having to go the 3rd party browser route. I know I can turn off my mobile connection and browse over wifi, but I have a data plan. You are in uncharted territory.
Blackberry hardware is damn nice. None of that made in China in a company so shitty that employees jump to their death. All my blackberries have been made in Canada, though occasionally some show up from Mexico or Europe.
One bug in the older blackberries is the trackball. It wears out and needs cleaning. The newer blackberries have an infrared trackpad that is heaven on earth. I ran into the guy on the engineer team that designed it and did a "I'm not worthy" bow. The trackballs are replaceable. I got one from ebay when I had a BB Curve.
Oh, and Steve says to buy one. Fanbois do what Steve tells them. Even with the documented bugs in the iphone 4, fanbois still bought it.
Apple jumped the shark when they started to sell Apple rechargeable batteries. They were rebadged Sanyo ENELOOPs, which are good batteries, but can't a fanboy buy a freakin' Sanyo battery. Does everything have to say Apple on it.
Apple is missing out on a great product: Apple toilet paper. The fanbois will gobble it up.
That's branding for you -- many a fanboy might not know what a good brand of rechargeable battery is, but they believe that if the battery has Apple's logo on it, it's probably pretty good. And like most things Apple, they'd probably be right -- Macs aren't for everyone, but their owners are consistently happier with them than PC owners are with their machines.
...although personally I'm sticking to Windows and Linux for the moment... unless someone wants to send me one of the new MacBook Airs...
The two networks, at&t and T-Mo, use different frequencies for their HSDPA data:
1700 MHz for T-Mo, but 1900 MHz for at&t. Handsets provided by those two companies therefore have HSDPA data radios tuned to the part of the spectrum right for
*their* HSDPA data services (and hence wrong for the other providers HSDPA dsata services). Most of the GSM world's HSDPA data services also run in the 1900 MHz spectrum that at&t uses. Most HSDPA-capable handsets (or even data modems) choose only *one* of those two radio spectra to cover, hence won't "do" HSDPA data in the other.
And *that* is why "a user-supplied smartphone" won't work the same on at&t's HSDPA network as it will on T-Mobile's -- HSDPA data will work 100% on one network and simply NOT work at all on the other -- UNLESS: that smartphone happens to be one of very few sets, like the Nokia n8, that does BOTH HSDPA spectra (1700 & 1900).
I had to look up "High-Speed Downlink Packet Access"! :)
From Wikipedia ...
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United States * AT&T is operating a 3G/HSDPA network, called BroadbandConnect, currently in most metropolitan markets. Speeds up to 7.2 Mbit/s are available in most markets. Areas that use UMTS instead of HSUPA as the uplink protocol are limited to 1.8 Mbit/s speeds.
T-Mobile USA is currently rolling out a 3g network in the 1.7/2.1 GHz band. Currently T-Mobile USA has rolled out in most of their 29 top markets and over 120 cities by the end of November 2008 with their 3.5G
7.2 Mbit/s network.
When I look at the "List of HSPA mobile phones" on Wikipedia ...
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Most smartphones seem to cover HSPA on 2100Mhz, 1900Mhz, & 850Mhz although some are at 1700Mhz and 900Mhz.
For example, the Apple iPhone 4 seems to allow data on 2100, 1900, 900 &
850 Mhz ... while the Google Nexus One Android phone is only 2100, 1900, and 850 Mhz.
That's the key part: T-Mo USA is, with perhaps a Canadian exception or two, virtually the *only* provider with an HSDPA offering requiring the 1.7 GHz band; in *all* the rest of the world, it's the 1.9 GHz band that's used for HSDPA, and T-Mobile(USA)-targeted equipment just won't manage HSDPA there.
Because handsets are oen sold in different configurations for different carriers, and most phones, due to available chipset designs, only support three 3G frequency bands.
T-Mo was late to the 3G party, and bought the only spectrum available at the time in a spectrum auction: 1700MHz. So T-Mo uses 1900MHz for GSM/2G data, and 1700MHz for 3G. AT&T uses 850MHz and 1900MHz for both 2G and 3G.
AT&T-branded smartphones typically lack 1700MHz, preventing them from utilizing 3G on T-Mo, and T-Mo-branded phones typically lack 850 and 1900
3G (usually opting for European 3G frequencies instead, allowing the same handsets to be sold by T-Mo Europe and T-Mo USA.)
Both companies' handsets support GSM and slower 2G data at both 850 and
1900.
My Voda Sony X1 is a 3G phone, but only works at 2G speed on T-Mo. The Euro versions, like mine, use two European 3G bands and one North American. The NA version has two American 3G freqs and one European.
o, virtually the *only* provider with an HSDPA offering requiring the 1.7 G= Hz band; in *all* the rest of the world, it's the 1.9 GHz band that's used = for HSDPA, and T-Mobile(USA)-targeted equipment just won't manage HSDPA the= re.
Google does a pure Android phone on T-mobile. First the G1, then the G2. Developers buy THAT phone because it is as pure of Android as possible. Anyway, that is why the google phone is set up for T-Mobile. The iphone only does 3G on AT$T, hence it picks different bands.
Most Android phones have some proprietary code on them to differentiate their phone from the rest of the Android pack. If I were in the Android market, I'd get the google branded phone. However, would I buy a phone from a company with CIA contracts? Hell no!
Hahaa, well I am a doctor and I can tell you I don't have time to kill in my office :)
And although I have never owned a Mac or anything else by Apple, I decided for an iPhone4 for my 40th birthday and I'm happy as a pig in sh*t. There might be bugs in the iPhone4, but none that I am aware of or that bothers me anyway.
It sure is expensive, but no subscription is needed here in Finland, home of the Angry Birds.
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