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ummm, hi res0?

Any hoo. Futuredial is the site you want to take a look at.

There, you will find a comprehensive listing of phones available for internet connectivity and the appropriately matched cable for your phone enabling you to do such a thing.

Officially, Verizon says there's no way to get your photos off without spending a quarter each. Unofficially I was told to look around on the Internet...

Buy the cable from radio shack or FutureDial, download the drivers from FutureDial, and either use the FutureDial software, if your time is worth more than your money, or the free BitPim/Gagin, if your money is worth more than your time.

I have the a610, and BitPim works for photos (most of the time). I take several dozen photos per day with my a610, and haven't paid Verizon a cent.

Get their Vision plan, and you have unlimited data for $15/month. Just don't go crazy; there have been reports of people having their line disconnected because they were using data 24/7.

Of course, Sprint won't tell you about this; they want to sell you a connection card and the extra phone line.

As for reception it's simple: if you're near an interstate, it's great. If you're not, NO SOUP FOR YOU.

I've been using my Sanyo VM-4500 phone with a USB cable to my powerbook to connect to Sprint's "Vision" service. Future Dial has been offering this for awhile.

there is no money in it for them when their customers can transfer mp3s from their PC's to their phones, and seeing that the phone manufacturers sell their phones to the Telco's (and not end users) the Telco's have significantly more control over the functionality (and therefore dysfunctionality) of phone devices than Microsoft will ever have in the PC world.

Indeed. I bought the kick-ass Sanyo SCP 5500 (Sprint's VM4500) phone with camera, video, ringtones, organizer, etc. for my SO. It's a fabulous phone for only $179 with rebates on a 2-year plan.

Sprint really really wants you to pay $15+/month for PCS Vision where you pay them for picture and video mail, and buy your ringtones and games from them. It's convenient and you can see Sprint PCS wanting to be like .mac for your phone, but the fees add up.

Meanwhile, in theory the phone is expandable. So you can go to Radio Shack and buy a USB cable, and then go to FutureDial and buy SnapSync and SnapMedia, and jack your phone into your PC, and transfer your contacts, pictures, and ring tones. In practice you've just spent more than the phone cost you to get some poorly-written Windows-only software with all kinds of limitations. Likewise, this phone runs Java so in theory you can download your own MIDlets. In practice, I've yet to figure out how, and Sprint has no interest in telling me. As the parent posted, this situation is exactly how the telco wants it. Premium phones have the checkboxes for PC connectivity and Java, but in practice it's so painful most users will pay Sprint for their easy service, and Sprint only has to support a closed device.

I think the telcos' self-serving focus will actually save the PDA-phone market. If you buy a Treo 600 or a Samsung sph-i500, it is going to sync fine with your PC out of the box, and you can easily install third-party Palm software like media players, e-book readers, etc. But that expandability, media access, and user control makes PDA-phones a lot less appealing to telcos. Maybe that's why Sprint is dragging their feet on the greatest (for me) PDA-phone-camera-music player with SDIO expansion yet made, the Samsung sph-i550: announced in 2003, approved by the FCC early in 2004, but Sprint won't sell it in the USA until 2005.

Check out SnapSync from FutureDial
I've never used their sync'ing software, but I bought the data cable for my phone from them. SnapSync sync's with Outlook, so if Outlook isn't your PIM of choice you'll need something else. They have a long list of phone that their software works with.