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My Siemens S46 does both GSM bands and both TDMA bands. It gets pretty good AT&T coverage in rural Oregon, which is saying something. Cheap, too, and works as a dataphone and web browser. Unfortunately, no high-end functionality: camera, etc. are lacking, and it's monochrome.

Then go find a Siemens ME45 somewhere !!! It really survives hard shocks and water. I've had it for 3 year before replacing it with a SE P800

you know why those features appear there? most of them don't really 'cost' anything, they're just bits of software. and really, if people just settled a phone that 'just phones well' the sales of phones would be much much much lower, there's been such phones available for years(this year for example massive amounts of people switched to color screen phones, that as phones essentially work exactly like their old phones did). though many just buy a new phone instead of shelling out the cash for a new battery too. the phone can't do miracles about the providers network though.

how about a nice nokia 2100 if you don't want any features? or siemens a50?

the thing is that those phones(that don't have much features) do exist, but they're a horrible deal to actually buy(cost nearingly the same as the next phone in the range with couple of more useful functions), you essentially save a bit(not nearingly enough) of money to have things disabled.

I presonally prefer the Siemens series of phones,
just got my hands on the Siemens S55, it has all the features MMS, camera etc etc etc, plus java support, holds the signal very well (AT&T), and is nicely designed.

I could've sworn that the T68i had already been replaced, by the Siemens S55. I picked one of these up quite recently, and it's a truly amazing phone - Bluetooth, J2ME, great polyphonic ringtones, and an excellent set of PIM applications (address book, notes, calendar), which I sync with Evolution on my laptop, thanks to the fantastic Multisync. About the only thing it misses is the funky colour screen - the S55's screen is limited to 256 colours, like the T68i.

The T610 does look quite nice though, as long as it's not as bulky as it looks in the photos. Either way, for serious data use, especially with Linux, both Siemens and Sony-Ericsson are miles ahead of Nokia, with their non-standard communication protocols which make it nigh-on impossible to fully communicate with their phones under Linux.

Apart from the title there is no mention of 3g in the article. Is the author actually looking for a 3g solution (in which case i can't help because 3g is not available in most of the world, including where i live) or was the 3g buzzword just thrown in for good measure ?

(note: the following info is gsm-only because that's all i'm familiar with)

Getting your mail via webmail can only be done if you have a phone that can surf the web like the nokia 9210i (gsm 900/1800 only, old, no gprs), siemens sx45 (again 900/1800 only, kinda old) or the sony ericsson P800 (which works on gsm 1900 and looks way better than the other two). Apart from the cellphone, make sure your gsm network provider supports gprs, because data transfers without it are more painful and more expensive.

If you only need pop3, all you need is a phone with a pop3/imap client (there tons available). Again make sure your network supports gprs.

Of course you could always get phone with decent data capabilities and a pda. If you really want to impress you friends, make sure they both have bluetooth. (bluetooth products: nokia hp/compaq Toshiba

they're been out for a while. siemens c55 can record sounds to use as ringtones, and can also play polyphonic tones.

as for copyright, a couple of years ago in italy mobile phone companies stopped giving downloadable ringtones from their sites for free, or they would have had to pay royalties.

Cell phones ALREADY HAVE the worst of what we expect Palladium to be. If an app isn't signed and delivered (usually with a FEE) to your cell phone by your cell phone provider, you're not getting it on there.

Next comes the issue of getting data onto your phone... The screen is small and the entry interface (press each button over, and over, and over) is awful. You can't begin to compare it to the Palm or any other PDA at all.

Games on phones (and more) that you can download have been around for a while. Sun's J2ME is implemented on quite a few mobile phones. I've got a Siemens SL45i that runs J2ME applications (not only games) pretty well. If you want a look at the sort of stuff available for these phones try midletcentral.com and Micro Java.

The Siemens HomeStation is a docking adapter for cell phones. It both recharges the phone and diverts its incoming calls to the landline, so you only have to deal with one phone when at home.

Here's a couple:

There are many others under development.