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I too spent countless hours on the computer growing up (Im 25) but my parents strongly encouraged me (not quite force, but close) to go out into the real world, (whatever that is for a teen) and interact with real people. Go play sports, get into a band, ride bikes, or go for a drive when they are old enough. And you know what? I am glad they did.

*HEALTH* I am hearing a lot of people say that their parents never forced them off the computer, and while that may seem fine there is a reason why obesity is a major problem in today's younger generation. With XBOX, Game Cube, PC Games, all offering some sort of interaction with other people, via IM, there is little reason for teens to leave the house. Many teens do not take their health seriously and as a result develop bad habits that continue into their adult years. I am by no means a saint, and I also have bad habits but because my parents encouraged physical exercise those bad habits do not impact me nearly as bad.

*SOCIALIZING* I was a huge geek growing up but I also understood how to talk and interact with people who were not geeks. This is an important skill that will serve them well through their entire lives. Like most teens this skill needs to be nurtured and encouraged just as much if not more than learning a computer. Having had to interact with some of the geeks at M$ I can assure you that this skill is not emphasized enough.

by AT&T to remain relevant. First they were broken up by the Reagan administration. Then they tried to enter the wireless world by buying up McCaw Cellular for $14 billion. They did great for awhile with things like One Rate, but then they got a jackass for a CEO. Later, AT&T sold off wireless properties (!) in their bid to buy TCI which was a disaster. Finally, too late and many dollars too short, they switched to GSM, but it didn't work worth a damn. Finally, number portability did them in.

What's AT&T got left? Long distance? A dying industry if there ever was one! Once again, AT&T is a year or too late to jump on this bandwagon. As has happened many times before, a once-venerable company has been run into the ground by stupid management. Don't worry, though, Zeglis will get a golden parachute and find a new company to run into the ground.

Ahh, life in these United States . . .

How is this anything special?
Sprint has a variety of aircards operating on their 1xRTT network at up to 144Kbps. Verizon has an aircard for their 1xEVDO BroadbandAccess network with download speeds of up to 2MBps (also 1xRTT compatible) and another aircard for their 1xRTT NationalAccess network. AT&T Wireless also has an EDGE aircard at up to 384Kbps (they may have a WCDMA one too...not sure) and all of our GSM carriers have GPRS cards. Anyway any carrier with GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/1xRTT/EV-DO or any other wireless data network offers aircards (American or not) and you can pick up unlocked ones up on eBay at decent prices. So why is this front page news?

You can 384Kbps, with an EDGE modem (like the Sony Ericsson PCCard).

The OEM modules for machine to machine communications, directly comparable to this solution being pluged in the artical, are on their way.

EDGE is really starting to get a broad rollout, real 3G is much more expenseive for the carriers implement, EDGE is just an upgrade of existing GPRS basestations.

So let's see my alternative: we could track people much easier using RF-wave detection.

In Europe, many people carry GSM's. You could analyze the number of different RF-waves going around, and based upon the sensed channels and TDMA(GSM)-timeslots (max 8 in 1 GSM channel of 200khz) calculate what the 'cell-density' would be. If it's high, it means many people are calling, having their phones on standby, GPRS'ing or UMTS'ing. The potential is huge.
Based on specific data on the sort of transmission, you could theoretically even sense which type of transmission they are using, and base your screen-based advertisments on that. This way, you can grasp the potential customer even more and increase your net income. The potential is huge.
Imagine people that like to UMTS a lot - you could flash 'Go to http://www..com' in front of their eyes! Heck if - mind that I am not encouraging anything here - we could decode GSM-data we could even listen in and analyze their behaviour upon their conversations. Or grasp their phonenumbers/email-adresses/visited websites in detail. Imagine interactive spamming - the potential is huge.

This was another episode of "preaching to the converted".

A phone simple enough for you or my grandmother to use. Yeah, keep whining about how technology is advancing. What are you doing on a computer anyway? "aren't dem thingys just for astronauts?"

I just wanted to point out the obvious (but apparently not so obvious for many) that almost all of the mobile providers offer phones without some degree of features such as cameras, MP3 players, and the kitchen sink. It makes me wonder if anyone's actively looking for one...

T-Mobile - Nokia 6010
Cingular - Nokia 3595
AT&T Wireless - Nokia 2260
Alltel - Nokia 3585i
Verizon Wireless - Nokia 3589i

OK - now perhaps you're one of those who feels that color screens are over the top for mobile phones... so what to do? Why not look around on eBay?

With that said, I wholeheartedly appreciate the trend of adding features to phones.

Rotary phones "just worked." Why did they even bother adding that newfangled touchtone button dialing or even eliminate operator-connected calling? They always "just worked." The reason: progress.

I love Caller ID and SMS... they're infinitely useful and convenient. Sure... features like Push-to-talk and loud ringtones are annoying... but only when they're blantantly misused or inappropriate... like for personal conversations and in classrooms, respectively.

I just had to say this because I really dislike comments like "just give me a phone that works" because if telephone tech never evolved and never incorporated any new features, we'd all be using AMPS. We've come a long way from the days of car phones. And I, for one, LOVE being able to check my eMail on my 3650. Granted, network reliability should be paramount, but I've never had any lingering issues with my T-Mo service.

I guess I'm less spiteful of the industry than I used to be.

ATT Wireless launched UMTS also.

There's even a free one!

Why don't you just *gasp* cut out the middle man and order direct from the provider?

Here I'll make it easy,
T-Mobile (great where there's service...can you say FREE DATA? thought you could)

AT&T wireless ...Okay service (as in coverage) expensive data. Hope you never need to call customer service.

There's others of course...All the main ones will sell to you direct and you usually get a better deal, as in more minutes for the same price.

-TMF

PROVIDE READY ACCESS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE
Customers will be provided a toll-free telephone number to access a carrier's customer service during normal business hours. Customer service contact information will be provided to customers online and on billing statements. Each wireless carrier will provide information about how customers can contact the carrier in writing, by toll-free telephone number, via the Internet or otherwise with any inquiries or complaints, and this information will be included, at a minimum, on all billing statements, in written responses to customer inquiries and on carriers' web sites. Each carrier will also make such contact information available, upon request, to any customer calling the carrier's customer service departments.

I am the CTO for a large enterprise software company (>$1B).

I spend about 30% of my time in front of the IT departments of the largest companies in the world, all of which are household names. They almost all tell me two things about our software:

1. It is heavily modified (they all have source)
2. They wish it was not

The fact is that these large customization projects, particularly ones which involve the Big 5, are over budget and late by factors that would boggle the minds of most mortals. It is not uncommon for these companies to spend >$100M for a software upgrade ON A SINGLE SITE. These companies have hundreds of sites.

As a contrast, another $9B electronics company I met with a few weeks ago can install a complete factory, including financials, manufacturing, logistics, scheduling, human resources, and reporting, all in less than 6 weeks. They have done it over 100 times. How do they do it? They have the entire cookie-cutter system burned on a DVD. Literally no customization is allowed at the plant level.

The only way to be successful at these kind of projects is to use an axe, not a scalpel. AT&T Wireless tried to use a scalpel. They should have thrown out all that junk and started over.

I would also point out that if you read the CIO's biography, he is an advisor to HP. Notice that they also chose HP as their outsourcing partner!

Can you say "conflict of interest"?

AT&T Wireless already offers this on their mMode service. There's a picture of what it looks like in this forum post.

I find it funny that slashdot linked to an article bashing ATTWS for not offering only 850 phones, when 1900(1800/900I) was the WORLD phone standard.

Now here's someone who wants a World phone, but most carriers have American phones with 1900/850 (1800 International) standard.

So, why isn't anyone blaming the vendors for no 1900/850(1800/900) phones? Motorola finally stepped up and did. ATTWS is releasing the Motorola V600 which is quad band this month, Cingular released the V400.

I tell ya, After ATTWS and Cingular merges, pick up a Quad phone, and have the best coverage everywhere. Tack on ATTWS's full nationwide EDGE/GPRS network and Worldwide roaming partners with EDGE/GPRS, life is starting to look good. Hell, now that SMS works between all major carriers worldwide, you can be truly global.

I'm really excited to see when ATTWS and Cingular starts working together merging base stations, coverage will be perfect everywhere. Cingular has the best customer suppport and plans, ATTWS has the best data network and data phones (Blackberry, Treo/etc).

Myself, I'm looking at the Nokia 6820, I just want the full keypad and nationwide EDGE speed.

Here are links to BOTH phones on AT&T's site:

Siemens S46 and the Sony Ericsson t62u

They have not discontinued that feature. Also you may wish to call 611 or 1-800-888-7600 and ask one of the CS reps about the Multi-Band plans.

For someone who sounds very frustrated, it doesn't seem like you have _really_ researched the problem.

Here are links to BOTH phones on AT&T's site:

Siemens S46 and the Sony Ericsson t62u

They have not discontinued that feature. Also you may wish to call 611 or 1-800-888-7600 and ask one of the CS reps about the Multi-Band plans.

For someone who sounds very frustrated, it doesn't seem like you have _really_ researched the problem.

Why can't AT&T offer you a GSM phone that falls back to TDMA (whatever that is?).

They do. The Siemens S46. Great phones! Major travellers carry them (the editor of a major magazine's international bureau, for one example that I know off the top of my head).

BTW To pick nits, GSM doesn't fall back to TDMA. GSM is a TDMA-based network. TDMA is an architecture, and GSM is a specification.

If your cell phone provider is Cingular or T-Mobile, then your location services are being provided by TruePosition. Since Cingular is now going to gobble up AT&T Wireless, there will probably be a huge growth in TruePosition services in the US as a result. There is some information available online but the location system is quite proprietary and not simply GPS. Since the location is actually determined from equipment in a telecom rack somewhere, don't expect to be able to hack your phone much to make use of this.

The Motorola MPx200 is a phone to consider. Everyone where I work is getting them.

Ok, so it is a Windoze phone. Once you get past that fact, it is actually pretty cool. Small form factor, and syncs with Outlook. You can have all of your Outlook contacts and your calendar stored in the phone. In addition to that it has MP3/WMA player and a SD slot for extra storage.

I know a guy working through his MBA, sitting in class hooked up to the net wireless through through Verizon Wireless. He's getting a minumum of 144kbps both ways most of the time. Considering that most of the US and world is connected vi dial up, that a bit improvement. He says it works well in most areas, but it has trouble if you're moving, such as while on the train. He said he does get the burst speeds in many situations, but the average speed is quite acceptable (and he's used to a oc-3). Cingular has this too, as well as, Sprint and At&t wireless. The nextel specs cliam to be high, as the other web sites I cites also make their claims, and they all charge premium prices for this service. Given Nextel's pricing, this will also be at a premium rate.

I just don't understand how the last big name to get in the game is considered news. Was their hyped numbers are bigger than the other hyped numbers? Or was it just general ignorance about the market.

My Motorola V60 color (link goes to att wireless) will do exactly what you are asking, i press a button, say "dial" pause then say the numbers slowly and clearly. Works in all but really windy/noisey environments.

I'm not sure about the GPS side of things, but the most hacker-friendly phones I've found are the Nokias from AT&T wireless. They don't place any restrictions on the phones, and the development kits as well as software to transfer the applications are freely available for download from Nokia's website. Mine is a J2ME environment and has been fun to play with so far. AFAICT, they are the only ones in the US who have not restricted their phones.

Lots of good developer info is available on forum.nokia.com, and some basic win32 tools are available here.

Hint for buying one: Shop Amazon for the best price, then go to the AT&T wireless store near you to purchase. Show them Amazon's price, and they will often get close or even match it without requiring you to mail something in for a rebate.

I used to use Verizon's prepaid phone service before switching to a annual plan.. I pretty much always had reception, but not necessarily the best sound quality (compared to GSM). They cover pretty much all of the US, but it looks like their prepaid service charges extra for roaming if you're out of their coverage area. I was also able to sell my phone on Ebay when I was done with it.

If you know the general areas you'll be, check out the coverage maps and prepaid services. I know Tmobile, Cingular and AT&T have prepaid services. AT&T also has a Go Phone service which is a rate plan without the annual contracts.

Just about all of them. AT&T's offering

it's S56, not C

Has anyone tried ATT's GoPhone plan? You pay for the phone upfront ($80 online), but the minutes are competitive ($40/mo for 400 min + free nights/weekends), and there's NO CONTRACT! If you go over your 400, your next month just starts early, instead of being charged through the nose for overage minutes.

I'm looking for the downside, and I haven't found it. Anyone on the plan right now?

AT&T is launching its mMode service, turning mobile phones into a sophisticated wireless services platform. Their pitch to developers is "XHTML as the mark-up language of choice, more viral marketing tools and better public exposure." (free registration/questionnaire required). Geeks can debate the supremacy of XHTML, and only a prude is against better public exposure. But which marketdroid is pushing "viral marketing" from the technology source to the users? Which developer will publish the innoculation apps to keep us running in place, in the spam race?

AT&T is launching its mMode service, turning mobile phones into a sophisticated wireless services platform. Their pitch to developers is "XHTML as the mark-up language of choice, more viral marketing tools and better public exposure." (free registration/questionnaire required). Geeks can debate the supremacy of XHTML, and only a prude is against better public exposure. But which marketdroid is pushing "viral marketing" from the technology source to the users? Which developer will publish the innoculation apps to keep us running in place, in the spam race?

More than a few large cities. AT&T is rolling out GSM to all of their service area, and have done most or all of the major metro areas already:

AT&T Wireless GSM map

Cingular has done the same:

Cingular CSM map

AT&T and Cingular were the two major TDMA networks in the US, and have are converting to GSM.

Cell phones are the battleground where Linux will defeat Microsoft for world domination in the OS war. When executives who buy Linux-based phones note how reliable the OS is on their phone, it's a short mental leap to see it's reliability on the internet, servers, phone systems, and eventually the growing server and desktop.

Then they'll have absolutely no interest in this, right? No business executive could possibly have a use for a phone that can sync directly with their Windows programs and includes pocket versions of Outlook, IE and Windows Media Player...

I'm not saying you're wrong (well, yes I am), but you're incredibly naive if you think Linux is going to come in and sweep across cellular phone land. There are plenty of reasons why someone would choose a Windows-based phone over a Linux-based phone and a lot of those reasons have to do with what people are running on their desktop. (I also think the phone in the parent article is ugly as sin, but that's just me.)

Myself, I don't give a crap what OS runs on my phone as long as my call quality and signal strength is good. That's still my measure of any phone (and it always will be).

You don't find it ironic if you type that line in a story about a REAL EXISTING **LINUX** smartphone while there is nothing but hot air and vapor about MS-smartphones from Motorola?

No. If anyone blow hot air here, it's you. The MPx200 was announced available nationwide on Oct. 21st this year, and can be purchased from for instance AT&T.

They lack support - again because everybody (rightly) believes that MS-smartphones are dead. It's a self-fullfilling prophecy. No support -> Everybody believes it's dead -> even less support -> It is dead.

Wrong again. MS mobile efforts was set back with over a year because Sendo dropped them in the last minute. An affair amusingly resemblant of what MS themself once did to IBM when they dropped developmenet of the 32-bit OS later known as OS/2. The comparision stops there, however. To think MS lost mobile momentum for good would be very silly. (BTW: I'm no MS fan.)

no.. you are wrong... many of the phones available in europe don't come for the US spectrum AT&T only has 1 (and 2 more on the way) here) GSM phones that do bluetooth, and its the largest phone you can buy physically, it also costs ~$300 unless you sign a 2 year contract. At least this is the case for AT&T Wireless.

So your statements that you can get what you get in europe here are wrong. You can't.

In the united states, you must purchase your phone from your provider. The handset companies hard code the default signal locator to the provider and it cannot be changed. This is the reason that in the US, you can't just buy a SIM card for your GSM phone like you can in europe, but must buy a whole new phone for each time you switch providers. Therefore, you are stuck with what your provider has. AT&T wireless (the largest GSM provider in the US) has a large selection of phones, but they certaintly have NOTHING compared to what is available in europe and asia. Not even close.

The handset companies have the US cellular companies strongarmed, and this isn't changing any time soon. Untill there is an act of congress to forbid this type of uncompetative behaviour by the MFG's, you will get stuck buying a new phone for each provider you change to, and worst yet, stuck with the small choice that your cellular provider carries.

On top of all this BS, you have to deal with 1-2 year contracts with each provider, or face the consequences of paying double on rate plans. Thank the 200$ commission per telephone activation for this $175 early termination fee. Most cellular companies don't recoup their costs until the 9th month of service on mid range rate plans. Because they have to eat the cost of the expensive phone (between 50-100 dollars is lost for every new phone sold) and because they are in such a ratrace to get marketshare, they pay (don't ask me why) $200-$300 in commissions per sale, the 1-2 year contracts are the only way to survive.

The fact that Sprint and Verison are split off into CDMA only networks really drives the last nail into the coffin for reasonably cost efficient cellular service and equipment in the US. Don't ask me what Sprint and verison plan on doing when all the other providers phase out all their TDMA transmitters the dual band CDMA phones use for roaming. Hell, in some states, its illegal to deploy CDMA because their towers must be placed too close together. heh.

It just shows you what marketing dollars and anti-competative behaviour can do to an over ignorant population.

What ones have you seen? As I said, I've never seen a Java-based phone that prevents developers from loading their own apps.

You can get the LG 5350, Samsung SPH-A500, Samsung SPH-N400, Sanyo 4900, and Sanyo 5300 through Sprint PCS. There's a developer program at developer.sprintpcs.com.

You can get the Motorola i85s, i50sx, i55sr, i80s, i90c, and i95cl through Nextel. There are developer programs from Nextel and Motorola.

You can get the RIM BlackBerry 5810 from AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile. RIM has a developer's site with an SDK and simulator.

[D]on't you think sites would prepare for the traffic if they knew a story was coming out?

[advocacy type="devilish"]

Not really. Anyone else recall the whole mlife launch fiasco for AT&T Wireless during the last Super Bowl?

[/advocacy]

thousands, five, what's the difference?

No, seriously... I realize there are at least two (and possibly as many as four) other providers that cover more than ten square miles with something resembling recent technology.

Good thing The Market has provided us with all these choices, eh?

Alot of people keep asking why we dont have the cool 3G phones in the US yet, well nokia, mitsubishi, erricson and motorola dont want to put out phones for the small US market. With the large ammount of GSM phones around the world, they can make more money selling only GSM phones. Now this is were GPRS (2.5G) comes in, they can alter the GSM phones to work on GPRS networks with less hassle.

ATTWS is already working toward 3G networks, GPRS/2.5 out NOW, then EDGE in 2002, and UMTS in 2003. Check Here for ATTWS upgrade news And here for the Motorola Timeport P7382i Remember that 10 Billion bux DoCoMo spent for 16 percent in ATTWS? That money is going to pay for the upgrade.

I currently have a Motorola GSM/GPRS Timeport P7382i on ATTWS network. Speeds about around a 56K modem here in Seattle. Even using IR via win2k IRmodem port and PPP, so linux should work flawlessly. On my Ipaq, Im upgrading my sierra wireless Aircard 300 cdpd modem. to a new GPRS pc card modem. Should have my GPRS pcmcia card within a couple weeks.

Side note. I cant wait to install Qnx on my Ipaq, after seeing that /. article.. I also need to try that PDA pr0n site out too. :)

Alot of people keep asking why we dont have the cool 3G phones in the US yet, well nokia, mitsubishi, erricson and motorola dont want to put out phones for the small US market. With the large ammount of GSM phones around the world, they can make more money selling only GSM phones. Now this is were GPRS (2.5G) comes in, they can alter the GSM phones to work on GPRS networks with less hassle.

ATTWS is already working toward 3G networks, GPRS/2.5 out NOW, then EDGE in 2002, and UMTS in 2003. Check Here for ATTWS upgrade news And here for the Motorola Timeport P7382i Remember that 10 Billion bux DoCoMo spent for 16 percent in ATTWS? That money is going to pay for the upgrade.

I currently have a Motorola GSM/GPRS Timeport P7382i on ATTWS network. Speeds about around a 56K modem here in Seattle. Even using IR via win2k IRmodem port and PPP, so linux should work flawlessly. On my Ipaq, Im upgrading my sierra wireless Aircard 300 cdpd modem. to a new GPRS pc card modem. Should have my GPRS pcmcia card within a couple weeks.

Side note. I cant wait to install Qnx on my Ipaq, after seeing that /. article.. I also need to try that PDA pr0n site out too. :)