Slashdot Mirror

They're sturdy and might help you better than a laptop.

Motorola PDAs

Much flak has been shot at Apple for FairPlay (a combination of the standard AES encryption and AAC codec), and their unwillingness to license it out.

Motorola licensed Apple's DRM in the ROKR in 2005.

Except in some people's conspiracy theories it was an unmitigated disaster so now Apple doesn't let other companies play.

There are conformal coatings for waterproofing. They're routinely used in automotive and military applications. The main limits on conformal coating come from components that interact with the outside world - connectors, microphones, speakers, displays, and switches. All those parts are available in waterproof forms.

The ruggedized forms of those components tend to be a bit larger. But not by much any more. Check out the Motorola i580 ruggedized cell phone. Note how the speaker and microphone take up more case space than on non-ruggedized phones, and the keyboard is thicker. But most of the extra bulk of the device comes from wrapping the whole thing in about 4mm of rubber for drop resistance.

If Apple would have gone with VZW, there would be x(iPhones sold) more VZW customers. My opinion of VZW would remain the same: Poor service, locked down handsets, and high fees for things that are simple on other carriers. If I had to use an iPhone and choose between AT&T and VZW, I would choose ATT; see previous sentence for why (although whoever has better coverage depends completely on where you live). Those two companies already compete with similar products and services in the same market. I have not seen prices come down and service quality go up, just more "latest & greatest" handsets with worse battery life. The best Motorola, MotoFone, in years won't even come out here because all it is a phone. Every national carrier has exclusive phones, yet only the GSM-based handsets can be taken to a competitors network (excluding the iPhone). I'm not hearing anyone complain about the Samsung Juke being locked to VZW or the LG Fuzic being locked to Sprint. There's nothing, except govt services, that doesn't have a competitor or a comparable choice. I'd be hard pressed to find anything where I don't have a choice. Doctors, yes. Pet Food, yes. Autos, yes. Rx, 98% yes. Clothes, yes. Electronics, yes. Concrete, yes. Lumber, yes. Fuel, yes. Groceries, yes. Books, yes. Banking, yes. Govt services, no. (That last one makes for an interesting debate for some other forum.)

This isn't the 1920s when there was still limited choices and you could choose any color paint, as long as it was black, to paraphrase Henry Ford. And even then, he still had suppliers, including Goodyear and Standard Oil. And those Anti-Trust laws you are referring to have worked extremely well to prevent any one company from dominating the tech industry. Nothing like getting your Office Suite from a different company as your Operating System. **cough, cough** [sidebar] Personally, OSX or *BSD, OpenOffice; I know /. will mix in Linux and the various other OS & Office packages, just saying, mainstream users. You know, the ones who's password you have to unlock every week because they can't remember their Pet's name plus 01. [/sidebar]

Personal choice will always be yours, whether you want an iPhone or not, Organic groceries or not, an SUV or a Mini, etc. etc. Consumers have more choice and quality today than ever in the history of man. Though I do like your argument about content delivery companies bundling certain packages only with specific services. That I see as collusion and anti-competitive, but a different argument from the cell industry. Mainly because of laws granting a local monopoly to the last mile provider combined with asinine HOA rules prohibiting dishes. About the only way to "get back at" your cable comapny is to turn off your service, and few are willing to do that. Satellite radio is an interesting market and I had XM for a while. But I didn't need it and I can still listen to my team on AM/FM. Most of the shows I listened to, I can grab the podcast or the stream, my choice.

RE: AC... I figured Germany would have near 100% GSM coverage by each carrier, I just didn't know where to look on the .de sites to find a coverage map. And yes, most American plans still pull incoming calls from your minutes. My plan from Nextel allows free Incoming calls, but I do pay more for that "feature."

There's a reason Java ME has gone nowhere

What about this list of Networks Operatos and Carriers

Or the Java ME Device Table?

Or, for that matter, what about these phones from Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericcson just to name a few?

Google is trying to succeed where Java has failed

RT
--
Your Bookmarks. Anywhere. Anytime.

I used to have one like that 10 years ago with Clearnet in Canada, it was a brick of some sort. It didn't break after being thrown, dropped, even dipped in water. It had a nice scroll wheel on the side (like modern RIMs do.) It was nice and heavy and hard to lose.

Of-course we could build phones that are sturdy and simple and that just work and with modern tech, they could have battery lives of weeks, if we used the same form factor as those bricks had.

In the search of a good phone (just phone) I tried many things, I use Motorola L2 now, it's nowhere near perfect, but it is closer to what I want (if you get one, be careful, do not drop it, it has glass, not plastic covering the LCD. The glass broke easily and I didn't replace it with anything, it's OK like this too.

They tend to be hard to find in B&M stores in the U.S. because there is little to no market for such phones. Average Joe Wireless User wants his $800 phone for $300 and doesn't care that it locks him into a 2-year-contract. Heck, even non-average-joes like myself don't care much about getting locked into a 2-year contract, and are definately fine with it when it saves $500.

You can buy them from reputable online specialists such as Mobileplanet, and in some cases, directly from the manufacturer.

For example, to buy unlocked GSM phones from Motorola - http://www.store.motorola.com/mot/en/US/adirect/motorola - Click on "Unlocked GSM"

In theory, if we could buy unlocked phones more easily, we could then choose whatever carrier we want, adn would probably be less likely to pay the cancellation fee.

It sold a million units in 75 days. How can I make my next product a "disaster" like that?

By branding it Apple.

Wake me up when it hits 50 million (or 12 million in 90 days). Any product that a big company like Apple put out is going to sell a load, and given how much advertising it gets (I don't see daily RAZR stories here on Slashdot), it's very telling how its average sales are.

My numbers are certainly NOT wrong, and in fact were slightly low. Our dual-tuner DVRs cost just over $500 per unit, direct from MOTO. The DCT2524 is $300. http://broadband.motorola.com/business/digitalvideo/product_dct2500_settop.asp We would have liked to move to the DCH-700 which is a slick little digital only box, but they do not comply with the FCC separable security

Surely, you know these are more than mere "zapper boxes" or frequency remodulators. At the minimum, dual QAM/analog tuners, diplex filters, return generator, FCC-mandated CableCard slot and corresponding software, and in the case of a DVR, a 160GB hard drive. Already we've blown past your $50 mark, just in required components. If you would like verification on pricing, call Motorola for a price quote. We buy in units of 1,000. I cannot provide the partner 800 number on a public forum, but I have verified that a little Googling will find it for you.

I also doubt ATSC digital is anymore complex than QAM/QPSK, especially since digital cable tuners have to determine on-the-fly whether the input is QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, or 256QAM. I think it's likely a draw, and we'll consider it a moot point.

Now, if you need an analog converter for a really old ghetto TV, (which is more along the lines of the example you've given) we've got so many of those in the local systems we don't even charge for them.

Of course, that won't stop the cable companies from using any excuse to jack up their rates.

Typical U-verse (as delivered to my house in Oakland, CA) uses a Motorola VIP1200 IPTV set-top box (see http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=7460-10536-10543), which among things has an NTSC composite video output connector (see http://www.motorola.com/mot/image/16/16315_MotImage.jpg). It will even send a signal via an RF coax connection fercrissake!

Typical U-verse (as delivered to my house in Oakland, CA) uses a Motorola VIP1200 IPTV set-top box (see http://www.motorola.com/content.jsp?globalObjectId=7460-10536-10543), which among things has an NTSC composite video output connector (see http://www.motorola.com/mot/image/16/16315_MotImage.jpg). It will even send a signal via an RF coax connection fercrissake!

Your absolutely lying. The RAZR by default is set to have the external displays BACKLIGHT turn off after periods of inactivity. But, the display is still visible in direct light. It is an option to then configure the external display to go completely out after a period of inactivity, for optimal battery life. If you don't call the external display with date and time an indicator, I'm not sure what else your looking for. + I don't have every cell phone I've ever owned logged down, nor do I have their model numbers memorized. To expect me to recite them back to you is ridiculous. But seeing that you yourself are a liar, I can see how you would have trouble with this. ...and I can tell you that none of the phones that I owned, of which you can't believe any of them had a power indicator, ever cost me a $4800 dollar phone bill. Here's a copy of the RAZR v3 users manual if your uncertain of its features: http://www.motorola.com/mdirect/manuals/v3_manual9491A47O.pdf

This is possibly the most insightful comment in this entire thread. Everyone is so busy considering why American telcos "suck" that they're not stopping to actually carry through on the comparison made. For those of you in the dark, this is a Casio W41CA:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/mobile-devices/news/ 2006/01/20/Casio-Mobile-Rocks-For-Movies/p1

An impressive phone? Certainly. It's on the order of something like the Motorola Q phone, but with a better form factor. At the end of the day, though, the Casio is still just a phone. The iPhone, however, is a complete hand computer and digital assistant that hits a sweet spot in the market's needs. The iPhone may appear to have a similar feature list, until you actually get down to the nitty gritty of it:

iPhone - Casio
128MB - 70MB
4-8 GB Hard Drive - 2GB SD Slot
Visual Voicemail - ???
Auto-Landscape Mode - Manual Swivel
Phone Numbers from Webpages - No
Integration with Movie/Music Service - No
Easy "Pinch" and "Spin" Navigation - Phone Keypad
Auto-Threading of SMS Conversations - Standard SMS Mailbox
On-Screen Conferencing options - Play on-hold games with the phone
Safari Browser with "Zoom on Element" Features - Opera Mini with imprecise Zooming
Rich email client - ???
Smooth Integration with Google Maps, Youtube, and Mac Widgets - Some functionality through Opera. No Flash

Basically, it comes down to usability. The iPhone is a modest step from a pure technology and feature-set perspective, but it's a quantum leap from a usability perspective. While the iPhone's design does not meet everyone's needs, it meets the largest cross-section of users on the market. i.e. The people who are not technophiles and have little to no idea how to use all the bizarre and excessive features of a smart-phone. For the most part, people just want a phone. The iPhone gives them a phone + a comprehensive feature set that easily performs other daily tasks that people do (e.g. check whether, look up maps, etc.) and handily replaces several other devices that they might carry around.

Folks around here tend to laugh at Taco's initial assessment of the iPod. ("No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.") Yet they turn around and make the exact same mistake with the iPhone. It's an interesting trend to behold.

http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motofone/expe rience/experience/index.html

Talk Time: Up to 500min, Std by Time: up to 300h.

Motorola has one. I just don't know where it can be purchased in the USA.

the Motorola L6 is the US version of that UK phone http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.j sp?globalObjectId=99 its available ot Cingular/ATT

The Motorola C139 is a dual-band GSM phone that will fully utilize the t-mobile and cingular US networks. It can be found new for under $20 unlocked. It's as bargain as phones get and has nice battery life to boot.

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.j sp?globalObjectId=119

Cingular/ATT carries the Motorola L2 . It is a Candy-bar style phone, and its pretty plain-jane, the only feature beyond making calls, and the standard list of crapola, is Bluetooth, which is pretty much standard. I have had mine for about 9 months, and the kids cannot break it, it has survived several drops, and still works fine.. best of all, the charger port is a mini-usb, so you can load ringtones and wallpaper from your pc.. hell, you can even snag a charge anywhere there is an open USB port, which is handy as hell.. I cannot count the times I used my laptop to power the phone to make a call when the phone was dead... that being said, i get like 3-4 days standby time, and 4 hours talk or so. The phone is Quad-Band GSM, so it will work anywhere, Cingular/ATT or T-Mobile in the US, if unlocked. Not sure if t-mob offers it, but attular does.

In the United States, phones and SIMs aren't generally sold separately, and phones are sold locked to a network

Phones for use on Sprint and Verizon networks have no SIM slot because they're CDMA.

What more needs to be done?

More conspicuous advertising of locking and unlocking policies, for one thing.

I'll tell you what - I'll give you back one or two of those millimeters you're so impressed with, if you'll give me a consumer-replaceable battery. Deal?

In every review of a new "smart phone" posted on /. there is always one person that gets modded up for

Mobiles these days jut have too much crap and not enough just plain phone.

If want a plain phone then go out and get one. Stop whining about the smart phones. Here check out Motorola or Nokia it wasn't that hard to find plain phones

I know you were joking but if that is what you really want have a look for one of these phones.

They are dirt cheap too.

I gave up looking up for specs when I found out my pretty old SB3100 Motorola cable modem in fact can therotically do 38mbit.. Poor thing was running 512 kbit that time.

http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/products/S B3100/downloads/SB3100_Data_Sheet.pdf (PDF warning)

It hurts you know :)

** The Motorola RAZR V3i is available with iTunes in ONLY the following markets:

Australia, NZ, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam, Turkey, South Africa, Rest of Africa, North Africa, Israel, Thailand, Middle East

And yes, it's the New Razr that has the iTunes interface too...
http://www.store.motorola.com/mot/en/US/adirect/mo torola?cmd=catProductDetail
And the new Razr allows streaming videos and phoneTV...
Now, you might be right that the Apple interface might be more usable than the Razr. But 400 dollars more usable? That would be someone with way more money than brains IMHO... but hey, there is probably a market.
But I still haven't seen the "Wow" factor yet... and Apple's going to need it to be more than a one-hit wonder.

Five years ago, you were right. Not anymore.

SiGe is killing GaAs.

Many of the devices communicating in the higher frequences of the microwave range are based on Silicon Germanium. This includes cell phones.

Almost ALL WiFi radios are SiGe [PDF warning]. Some have even moved to RFCMOS.

Most GPS devices are SiGe.

Oh, and TV Tuners, too.

Gallium Arsenide *is* exotic, because it has to be done in specialized fabs, not those that run silicon wafers. That significantly drives up the cost vs. SiGe and RFCMOS.

Check out the Motofone from Motorola: http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.j sp?globalObjectId=164

It's a very simple phone, with plenty of battery power and no gimmicks.... Unfortunately, it won't be marketed in the US since the customer "doesn't want that"... :(

Is there a phone that is just a phone? Designed to have a respectable life span for the phone itself and the battery? A phone that isn't also a camera, PDA, and now web surfing device. Just a phone.

sure

The Motorola C51 Bluetooth Mobile Line will connect up to 5 mobile phones to the C51 cordless phone system and each mobile phone can have its own ring. The phones are placed near the base. I don't know if the C51 system can have that many calls at once, but I suspect that it can. (Disclaimer: I work for Motorola, but not in this division, and this isn't an official statement or anything.) I happened to see this the other day on the Motorola Store, and I thought it looked pretty cool...if I had a home phone at all, I'd probably get one of these.

Would it really work that easily? Our Comcast HD box doesn't really look like it would be able to hook up that way. I don't know enough about HD connections since I don't actually own the HDTV but based on what's on the back of the box vs what goes into the card, there appears to be a significant disparity in connections.

I know we have a boatload of connections for video and then have a separate series of connections for audio. Based on my limited experience with HD, I would imagine that I need to match them up. But I could always imagine that said required connections could be satisfied through a USB or 1394 connection to the PC. I suppose the hardware exists somewhere but I wouldn't know where to look.

Would it really work that easily? Our Comcast HD box doesn't really look like it would be able to hook up that way. I don't know enough about HD connections since I don't actually own the HDTV but based on what's on the back of the box vs what goes into the card, there appears to be a significant disparity in connections.

I know we have a boatload of connections for video and then have a separate series of connections for audio. Based on my limited experience with HD, I would imagine that I need to match them up. But I could always imagine that said required connections could be satisfied through a USB or 1394 connection to the PC. I suppose the hardware exists somewhere but I wouldn't know where to look.

What you're looking for is a Motorola i560. "The i560 meets rigorous US Mil Specs for dust, shock, vibration, high and low temperature, low pressure and solar radiation." There's a "Maximum Capacity Battery" option with 5 hours of talk time or 130 hours of standby.

It's available for Nextel.

From those pictures, it's impossible to tell if the phone bends or if it just slides on a curved track. From http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motorizrz8/, it looks like part of the back end of the phone can pivot once the phone is slid open. I hardly call that bending.

Strap that to your belt.

the black AT&T phone (with camera) that most people have

Maybe you should try the Motorola W220 Don't know if you can get it in your part of the world, but nice phone, no camera. Sorted.

I have a Motorola Q running Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone edition that I really like. I've had it for 4 months now, and never turn it off. It has yet to crash, and I've added several applications to it.
I'm not a Microsoft apolagist, far from it in fact, the only Microsoft software I have is that phone. I work with a friend who's addicted to his Treo 650, and after playing with my Q for a bit he's already shopping for a Windows Mobile 5 based phone.

I use the Motorola homesight system for this very purpose. We have a wireless camera and a water sensor attached to an old PC running Windows XP. We get text messages and e-mails at a prescribed time every day and get an immediate message if the water sensor gets wet. Here's a link: http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/products/h mez2000/ The video does a great job explaining system capabilities. Ron :-)

Certainly the RakuRaku (if that's what its called!) is disqualified for the "simple and basic phone" competition since it has a camera!

I currently use the Motorola C116... It has a monochrome screen, no camera, no annoying ringtones (it has basic monophonic tones), no frills...

But it does have very good reception, a usable onboard dictionary for texting, and battery life that lets me charge it once a week, instead of twice a day.

It seems that its a "third world model" since I couldnt find it in the USA Motorola page, but its a good GSM phone that is almost given away here in Mexico by Movistar.

From Prudential Equity Group analyst Jesse Tortora's report in Oct '06: "Our checks indicate that Apple will produce these phones in limited quantities initially due to concerns over market acceptance and battery life."

Today: Apple orders 12 million iPhones

Seeing as how the Razr only sold 5 million units in the quarter it was released, I call for Tortora to be fired.

How about the Motofone? No linux, but exactly what you want. Cheap, reliable and has an e-ink display to boot.

i don't think anyone has pointed this out yet in this thread.

http://www.google.com/search?q=motofone

#1 http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motofone/

#2 http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,164,00.html

#3 http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/motorolas-9mm-m otofone/

#4 http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/motofone -f3-handson-sexy-cheap-192107.php

i don't think anyone has pointed this out yet in this thread.

http://www.google.com/search?q=motofone

#1 http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/motofone/

#2 http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,164,00.html

#3 http://www.engadget.com/2006/07/25/motorolas-9mm-m otofone/

#4 http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/cellphones/motofone -f3-handson-sexy-cheap-192107.php

Actually, it looks awful, just like almost every other phone Motorola has ever designed. More info on the phone here. Here's a preliminary list of flaws:

• No cover for the keypad. The #1 complaint non-techies have about phones is accidentally dialing someone.
• No mechanism for synchronizing contacts with your computer. This means that you have to manually key in your phone book using whatever kludge of an interface they provide.
• Uses special technology to boost battery life but provides less talk time and less standby timethan my three-year-old Sony Ericsson T616 that does have Bluetooth for synchronizing, plus a camera plus a terrible UI and lots of internet crap that I don't care about....
• Still has one of those dumb game-controller-style control pads. I shouldn't have to navigate any significant number of menus to get to what I use regularly---that would be the phone book and dialing. If I really need one of those control pads, that tells me that the UI sucks without even having to see it.
• Keypad in an arc. That may look cute, but it makes it prone to misdialing. Here's a hint, Moto: most people have longer fingers in the middle of their hands, not shorter fingers.
• Slimmest phone yet. I've already had problems with a Sony Ericsson T616 being so thin that the display gets distorted when I carry it in my back pocket and sit on it. And we're talking about something a fraction that thick? Give me a break.
• Voice prompts in multiple languages. Two words: battery life. Two more words: privacy problem. Two more words: noisy bus/car/aircraft.
• Still has the ability to download ringtones. Yes, despite the claim of this being a simplified phone, it's still the same bloated, menu-bound turd of a phone as everything else out there. Simple, my ass.

Bottom line: they tried to listen to customers and failed as usual. Here's what I want to see in a phone:

• Readable in any light. Okay, they finally got this one right, at least....
• Four week standby. This provides enough time that I won't ever have to carry a charger on vacations.
• 24 hour talk time. See previous point.
• No camera, internet functionality, IM, text messaging, etc. None of that crap.
• Simple user interface: if there isn't space for a dedicated button for the feature, drop the feature.
• Bluetooth synchronization for contacts.
• A slide switch to lock the phone, just like the hold switch on my iPod... or maybe a sturdy slide cover over the digits that disables all the other functionality except when it is fully open.
• No large LCD panel at all. It should have about two lines of display---enough for a phone number and a name.

Things I don't care about:

• Style---no, it isn't important to most people. It's a phone. It goes in my pocket and stays in my pocket unless I'm using it. I mean, I wouldn't want it to be hot pink, but short of something hideous, it serves a functional purpose and I don't care what it looks like. Who the heck did they survey for this? A bunch of teenage girls?
• Thickness---who cares? It goes in my pocket. Ditto for every guy I know. Most women I know similarly either carry them in pockets or purses. I'd rather my next phone thicker because it is less likely to snap in half that way.
• Camera---I have a real camera; 320x240 or even 640x480 looks hideous by comparison.
• Internet access---costs way too much to be useful.

Nope. This is more of the same disposable, bloated UI crap that the phone manufacturers have been shoveling at us for the past several years. Don't get me wrong---I'm not surprised that they don't get it, just a bit disappointed.

"I found it actually impossible to buy a new mobile *without* internet access."

You can have my piece of crap cingular phone if you want it. I'm paying for a multimedia package I can't even use.

Phone with no internet access available from cingular