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When the iphone first launched on at&t it had the same restriction. The problem I had was that when using data (which I do a lot) incoming phone calls would go straight to voicemail. No idea if Verizon works the same way, but it was incredibly annoying at the time.

That's because GPRS/EDGE baseband doesn't support simultaneous voice+data, because there's only one transceiver.

Not true. If the GPRS/EDGE device supports Dual Transfer Mode (DTM, some people call it class A although it's not 100% equivalent), then the device can have a simultaneous CS voice call and GPRS/EDGE data transfer with a single tranceiver. This naturally requires network support.

For example, Vodafone UK has DTM support in its 2G network. Also, several devices from several vendors support DTM aswell (e.g. most if not all Nokia 2G/3G phones).

Ref:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_Transfer_Mode
http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showpost.php?s=98d8f1a1b6657fe1b1940cacbc6ab2b7&p=436254&postcount=23
http://www.wirelessforums.org/uk-telecom-mobile/iphone-4-o2-vodafone-98366.html#post403161

So, it's really not a matter of the devices, but network support. Not many carriers talk about this, which is understandable as it'd be making their own (lack of) service visible...

The mobile gaming industry was $2.6 million industry in 2005 and expected to be $11.2 by 2010. I suspect most of that number is java games (never seen a non-Java games, except those that came with the phone).

Maybe he's only talking about the US marked?

...as the USB or mini-PCI device can only be attached to one device at a time. However, they are a standard, of sorts, and new domestic wifi routers that can accept a 3G device plugged into them and share it out do exist: http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/August2005/1925.htm

It has happened many times with wireless modem cards (3G/GPRS) - not

£7000 Charge For Useage When Sim NOT In Use

case #1.

case #2

other cases
(Has anyone ever seen a $48,797.09 phone bill from ATT ????)

I've just realised I've made myself look dumb by linking to an Orange page about using EDGE abroad.

Nevertheless, they still seem to have EDGE support.
http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Feb2006/2548.htm

I bought an F901iC in 2004 with a fingerprint scanner built in. Works surprisingly well.

As of February 2006, Orange has offered Edge in UK, France, Slovakia, Romania, Poland and Belgium (in Belgium as Mobistar).

Of course it isn't marketed heavily. The much faster UMTS and HSDPA protocols are being deployed by many european providers, so why would any of them market the antiquated Edge?

I didn't say it was easy. I said it was possible.

In fact, it's being done now. All your points are valid challenges, but the QoS and handover stuff has been worked out. Power is certainly an issue for Wi-Fi, but given that you're most likely to use that at home or at work where you can recharge it's a solvable issue. Alternatively, you could start connecting GSM Pico-cells to local networks as Boeing and Airbus are doing for in flight calling.

The enduring problem is, the carriers are still looking to route the entire call back through their network (and hence charge you for it). That's just not necessary and I look forward to the day they lose their grip.

Ach. You missed out the phrase in the FA that says 'the first US music download service' to mobiles

You can do this in the UK - at carrier, handset and 3rd party level,

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/Oct2005/2095.htm (and loads more)

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/March2005/1182.htm

It's a new camera phone (more like camera with added phone functionality) from Samsung called SCH-V770.

From the looks of it, it's got proper optics to actually make some use of at least most of the 7MP. But then again, it looks a lot more like a proper camera than a phone.

I think it looks rather silly, personally...

Just a phone: KDDI has one in Korea. It's too bad America employs more marketers than engineers.

This looks right up your alley.

Here's some info about the Finnish project. It should cover every corner of the country in 2009.

Why on earth would Motorola or any of the other telecomms equipment manufacturers support standardized VoIP protocols.

It depends on what VoIP protocols you are talking about. Using SIP and RTP in the context of IMS makes sense for most telecomms equipment manufacturers because IMS is a 3GPP standard. This will help the equipment manufacturers and the operators to move their networks towards IP instead of the old telecom-specific protocols SS7 and others. This should reduce costs for them. See for example this press release from 2003.

On the other hand, using proprietary VoIP protocols such as Skype is more questionable. This may help selling more terminals but it will probably have a negative inpact on sales of network equipment because Skype is mostly putting the operator out of the loop.

What does this mean? Maybe Motorola is focusing their business on terminals and does not care about losing their network infrastructure business. On the other hand, I would be surprised in other big suppliers such as Ericsson, Nokia and others would also enter the Skype boat.

I'm waiting for products that can utilise the Zigbee standard. My wife recently got a cell phone from Pantech&Curitel that is Zigbee capable, but since there aren't any products to control, it's pretty useless in that respect.

It's a pretty nifty phone in other respects though, nice camera, decent size memory with a mini-SD card.

But back on topic, this seems to indicate that they are looking at Zigbee for home use as well as the industrial use other here on /. have suggested.

...battery life and practical viewable area on a phone.

Well, the obvious question to me is what is new about this?

Is it just because we're talking United States here? If you read through this thread, people are acting as if watching TV on a phone is some kind of new idea. (Your post being one example.) I mean the size of the screen and the battery life are not open questions, because TV-enabled phones have been on the market for over a year (if not more) around the world.

Am I missing something?

Why is this necessary when some networks and/or aggregators are already allowing content providers to send content via the 3G cellular network? Isn't this a better path anyway, being circuit switched and having a return path for video, audio and interactive feedback?

A quick search on Google for "video short codes" brings up:

3
MX TELECOM

In the UK only about 40% of the population is in range of 3G but there is near 100% coverage for older technology. These 3G data devices fall back to the legacy protocol when out of range.

It is increasingly common to see the cards in laptops on trains.

that VIDEO MOBILE IS HERE!

There are Flash players for various models of cellphones and PDAs already, and more in the works.

The devices that Flash is deployed upon (e.g. Nokia's 9210 Communicator, soon) are much more hefty than the ones SVGt is being optimized for (e.g. Nokia's 3650 and 7650). Furthermore, SVG is being sold with the platform, such as TI's OMAP chipset platform. That chipset has a huge percentage of the cell phone market.

And Flash MX supports what Macromedia calls "assistive technologies functionality."

Nevertheless, SVG's markup-based, HTML-integrated syntax is much better optimized for accessibility.

Flash's licensing model is inherently anti-accessibility because it does not allow the creation of competitive "viewers" including viewers optimized for blind people. SVG is not so-encumbered.

Seems to me a Web page designer who can embed alternate XHTML code would find it trivial to implement a Javascript or other server-side check for the presence of the Flash client, then "degrade" to static pages as needed.

Those are the kinds of hacks that make the Web much less easy to index, download and otherwise manipulate. Scripting is a fallback, to be reserved for exceptional tasks.

Even if SVG becomes a widespread standard, I could imagine a lot of pages checking for Flash first, then "degrading" to SVG -- because Flash files are compressed binaries, far smaller than the equivalent SVG.

SVG files can also be compressed binaries. GZIP compression is a required part of the specification. That's the better way to do binary compression because almost every language and platform has a gzip implementation.And because they use mathematical animation rather than frame-based animations, they will often be smaller than Flash files. Try again!

To me, the issues are clear. Flash has a much better existing toolbase and a much larger deployed audience. SVG has a much stronger technical architecture and is achieving rapid uptake in all sorts of verticals. It will take years for SVG to seriously challenge Flash. But when it does, SVG will win because its technology is so much stronger and it is a true standard which already has literally hundreds of cooperating tool implementations for every language, platform and application and will have thousands in the not-too-distant future.

The Nokia 6650 is defintely NOT the first 3G phone to be announced! You might want to take a look at the Motorola A820. It will use the UMTS standard, as defined by the ITU under their IMT2000 (a standard capable of delivering upto 2Mbps) - matter of fact, concept models aside, take a look at their whole range of 3G equipment. First? my lilly white butt! And when it comes to Nokia, announcements are one thing, delivering on it is another! But hey, I'm still waiting for my shiny new Sony/Ericsson P800 as well... "What?! Christmas you say?"