Slashdot Mirror

Seems like something like this or this is what you're after. These cases are generic, so most ebook readers will fit in them. I guess you'd still need to be a bit careful dropping them, but from the post it seems like you want the device to be protected from moisture/dust/sand rather than rough handling.

Wait, it costs how much?!

At GBP 370, that puts it about A$630 or just shy of being half the cost of an Iphone.

Cheaper and more functional, a bargain I say.

Thats approx 580 of your American Peso's.

Google had all the leverage they needed over the carriers

Carriers in the US have a monopoly over what devices can and cant be used. CDMA networks will refuse to activate devices that are not sold via their own channels and the GSM telco's require custom hardware because they use non standard bands. You can buy an unlocked and unbranded HTC Desire, Samsung Galaxy S or any other Android 2100/900 device but you cant use it on a US carrier. Tell me again how this is Googles problem.

HINT: you cant.

Unlocked 2100/900 phones work on any network in Europe and Australia as well as most networks in Asia. Google doesn't need to control the carriers when it can just go around them. Why is it up to Google to fight a battle you aren't willing to.

And yet many carriers bought into, and still carry, they iPhone which allows none of that.

Right, I'll just bring an unlocked Iphone onto AT&T and try tethering. Whoops, I cant because Apple gave carriers the ability to disable that function remotely, completely independent of the handset.

Furthermore, Google could have allowed skinning without going so far as to allow the search engine to be replaced entirely with Bing!

Shock horror. Google allows customisations, it's not like you can install Google search from the market, or launcher pro...

no...

wait...

I can.

I'm sorry but this is utter bollocks, you dont have a clue about how Android works or how the OHA is pushing it.

But Google went whole hog the other way, letting carriers run amok after a promising start where it seemed like they would maintain a firm hand

You're ignorance is showing.

Here is an unbranded and unlocked HTC desire. It's half the cost of an Iphone, does more and can be used on any 2100/900 MHz network in the world...

What, you dont have one of those? Well I'm sorry, the problem isn't Android it's the way your carriers are set up. I have no problem buying this phone and using it on any network in Australia, Europe and most of Asia.

but cannot in good conscious support a model that I feel screws the market over so badly.

So you cant write for Iphone either?

You complain about Google not controlling the carriers (see link above, they went around them completely) but Apple climbed into bed with the carriers. There is no technological reason for preventing VOIP services over 3G nor is there any reason that Tethering has to be carrier controlled. With an android device, whether purchased from a carrier or from a store like Clove.co.uk I can tether on the Optus network in Australia, however if I buy an Iphone unlocked from the Apple store, I still have to pay a tethering fee to Optus if I want to use that function. Google is not in bed with carriers, Apple is, by giving carriers the ability to disable functions at the pipe rather then having to disable them on the OS (which an unlocked and unbranded phone gets around completely).

Heck Google does almost no advertising just sells the phone in three countries and then everyone expects that the phone sells like hotcakes. The entire EU except Britain for instance cannot get it the same goes for Asia and the rest of the world is left out as well.

Are you referring to the Nexus One or Android in general.

In either case you are wrong, if the UK can get the N1 under EU trade laws anyone in Europe can get The N1. In fact if it's being sold in the UK and it is, anyone in the world apart from a few special nations like Iran and North Korea can buy it if they have the money.

The Nexus One in Hong Kong.
The Nexus One in The United Kingdom.
The Nexus One in Australia.

If I can buy it from HK, I can get it anywhere in Asia, if I can buy it from the UK I can get it anywhere in Europe. The whole idea behind the N1 is that we can finally become separated from this damned telco control over handsets and software (yet Vodafone are in negotiations with Google to release worldwide).

BTW, there are more Android handset then the N1, take a look around the Expansys and MobiCity web sites, also try clove but they aren't offering the N1 just yet. I bought my Motorola Milestone from Expansys UK (non EU residents don't pay VAT, about 70 Pounds less for me) so they do deliver internationally.

I'll tell you why I desperately want an Android phone, but won't buy one. It's because the carriers have locked-down what is supposed to be a "free, open source, and fully customizable mobile platform".

Buy a HTC Dream or Magic unlocked from here or here, root and install Cyanogen mod on it. You still have to use a telco that has a 2100 MHz HSDPA 3G network but that's your problem, you have a free, open source and fully customisable mobile platform. If you dont like doing the work yourself then you are stuck with whatever the carrier chooses and again that's your problem.

The vast majority of people I know who bought PDA haven't used past the 3rd day of playing.
So they keep telling me not to waste my money.
I am talking a handful of people here (boss, neighbour, friend, sister, cousin, etc)
But hey I want to play too! :(

Now most PDA's run Windows so that is a no-no.
Sharp Zaurus are difficult to get in the UK you could use an import service but you get no pound sign - having said that I noticed you can't get a pound sign here too

Can the owners tell me why? (you bunch of disgusting outsourcerers)

... Anyway, back to the main subject I was gonna buy the extremely expensive Psion Netbook
but the Linux-PDAs wave saved me from burning many-pound-sterlings unecessarily.
The Malay version more than doubled in price so am not going there ... site is off air anyway.

Now this seems like a tempting and very humble solution. It runs Linux, so a nice toy to play and learn.

PC Instructions
Mac instructions (including t68 sync instructions)