Slashdot Mirror

An anonymous reader writes "The new Nokia 7250 is out. Small, very cool looking phone that even has a built-in camera. 3 page review with 6 pages of photos, including a photo gallery of images taken by the 7250 itself - with some human help, of course."

An anonymous submitter wrote: "Just when you thought the award-winning data leech Microsoft had become invincible... cellphone manufacturer Sendo, in a statement on the front page of its web site, announces the termination of its Z100 smartphone development on the Microsoft platform, licensing the rival Symbian from Nokia instead. (Further reports by ZDnet and Heise.)"

HellKrisp writes "UK based game developers WildPalm have released a port of id software's Doom for the Nokia 7650. Features of the port include audio support and bilinear filtering. The download weighs in at around 1.5MB as it is just the shareware version featuring only the first episode. The port was made using the source code publicly released by id software in 1997."

bdsgeekboys writes "Another press release from Nokia entitled "Nokia and Sega to take gamers to a new level of mobile interactive gaming" has been released today. This means that Sega and Nokia has joined forces to provide branded games for the Nokia's new mobile game deck device category. You can read the full press release and view an image of the Nokia N-Gage(TM) mobile game deck."

bdsgeekboys writes "Another press release from Nokia entitled "Nokia and Sega to take gamers to a new level of mobile interactive gaming" has been released today. This means that Sega and Nokia has joined forces to provide branded games for the Nokia's new mobile game deck device category. You can read the full press release and view an image of the Nokia N-Gage(TM) mobile game deck."

scrm writes "Nokia have just launched six new phones at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference. All phones have color and MMS. Interesting is the 6800 that is specially designed for text input, and the premium 8910i with titanium casing, Bluetooth and J2ME apps. Will this company ever stop? (Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.)" I've still got a serious lust on for T68i - it's iSync compatible and all that fun.

scrm writes "Nokia have just launched six new phones at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference. All phones have color and MMS. Interesting is the 6800 that is specially designed for text input, and the premium 8910i with titanium casing, Bluetooth and J2ME apps. Will this company ever stop? (Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.)" I've still got a serious lust on for T68i - it's iSync compatible and all that fun.

scrm writes "Nokia have just launched six new phones at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference. All phones have color and MMS. Interesting is the 6800 that is specially designed for text input, and the premium 8910i with titanium casing, Bluetooth and J2ME apps. Will this company ever stop? (Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.)" I've still got a serious lust on for T68i - it's iSync compatible and all that fun.

scrm writes "Nokia have just launched six new phones at the Nokia Mobile Internet Conference. All phones have color and MMS. Interesting is the 6800 that is specially designed for text input, and the premium 8910i with titanium casing, Bluetooth and J2ME apps. Will this company ever stop? (Nokia's press release is here, but the server is being battered right now.)" I've still got a serious lust on for T68i - it's iSync compatible and all that fun.

Xi asks: "My cell phone recently died, forcing me to start looking for another cell/provider. I want one which will allow me to do some simple client/server Java programming but I'm perplexed by the array of choices. Some providers let you pay to download Java apps but do they let you create your own? Several providers can utilize phones on which Java runs but do they have to host some sort of software on their side? For instance can I use a Java enabled phone with T-mobile? Nokia, Nextel, Motorola (who shipped a Developer's CD with my October copy of Java Developers Journal) and its recent acquisition, AT&T, Sprint (new pricing), and others are all claiming Java this and Java that but what am I really 'getting' and what are fellow Slashdot-reading Java developers really using?"

Ch_Omega writes "According to this article over at Infosync, Sprint has announced that the Sanyo 5300, the first US phone with a built-in camera, will be available on their PCS Vision network in mid-November. It's still only 640x480, but unlike Nokia and Sony Ericsson's models, it will have a built-in optional flash as well. The official press release from Sprint is here."

Ch_Omega writes "Nokia has announced the 6650, which in short, is the first phone ever to meet the 3G-standard! It combines GSM and WCDMA into a single handset, then throws in a VGA still camera and video camera with sound. More info on Infosync and and Nokia forums!"

Ch_Omega writes "Nokia has announced the 6650, which in short, is the first phone ever to meet the 3G-standard! It combines GSM and WCDMA into a single handset, then throws in a VGA still camera and video camera with sound. More info on Infosync and and Nokia forums!"

Ch_Omega writes "Nokia has announced the 6650, which in short, is the first phone ever to meet the 3G-standard! It combines GSM and WCDMA into a single handset, then throws in a VGA still camera and video camera with sound. More info on Infosync and and Nokia forums!"

Ch_Omega writes "Nokia have announced a new cameraphone in the, traditionally low-cost, 3xxx-series. Surprisingly enough, it seems to have the same functionality as the Nokia 7650, as well as tri-band, MMC-expansion slot, and abillity to capture video as well as still images. The new smartphone has been given the name Nokia 3650, which, according to this article indicates that it will be much cheaper than the 7650, while actually being superior feature-wise!"

Little Hamster writes "SGI and Nokia have signed an agreement to co-operate on the development of a 3D standard suitable for all embedded mobile terminals, based on OpenGL. This could be used for bringing real 3D Games to mobile devices, 3D global positioning systems, 3D representations of buildings or even creating entire interfaces in 3D. You can also find the press release press release here."

cpfeifer writes with the review below of O'Reilly's 802.11 Wireless Networks: The Definitive Guide; he warns that this is not a book for everyone setting up a casual home wireless network, but says it's excellent for its intended audience. Read on for his complete review. 802.11 Wireless Networks : The Definitive Guide author Matthew S. Gast pages 443 publisher O�Reilly & Associates rating 9/10 reviewer cpfeifer ISBN 0-596-00183-5 summary A thorough survey of the features, issues and potential solutions of deploying 802.11 based wireless networks.

The Scenario

For a lot of folks, implementing an 802.11 network involves selecting and purchasing an access point and adapter cards, and installing or compiling the proper drivers. From there, we are off and running, usually in under an hour. However for the few, the proud, the sysadmins of the world it's a whole different ballgame. Sysadmins need a deeper understanding of network technologies to be able effectively design, deploy and debug them.

What's Bad?

Most of the book is right on the mark when it comes to the sysadmin audience, however chapters 8 (the PCF, for contention free service), 10 (the ISM PHYs) and 11 (802.11a overview) are only of interest to folks who are implementing 802.11 hardware, IMHO. These chapters contain very low-level material about the 802.11 transmission protocol, and will not be generally useful since equipment manufacturers do not provide access to this layer. A dead giveaway that you can skip over chapter 8 is the phrase "The PCF has not been widely implemented." If it's not widely implemented, chances are you won't have the option of using it in a deployment.

After this bellycrawl through the weeds, chapters 12 and 14 give click-by-click instructions for installing two commercially available 802.11 access point/client adapter pairs on your Windows box. The selected products are Nokia's A032 Access Point along with their C110/C111 and Lucent's Orinoco (formerly WaveLan) Access Point and client adapter. It's worth noting that these are two of the most expensive 802.11 solutions available on the market and have enhanced features that are not present in other models. These chapters are simply rehashed vendor installation documentation for these products and provide very little added value. There's nothing that I hate more than paying $30-$50 for a book which repackages documentation that is freely available on the web. Skip these chapters; the rest of the book is excellent.

What's Good?

This book starts off with six strong chapters that cover the 802.11 protocol specification, why WEP is vulnerable, and some upcoming security specifications. The first six chapters are invaluable reading for any sysadmin that is planning (or already responsible) for an 802.11 deployment. This is your ammunition when users come and ask why the wireless network is slower than the wired network with fewer users (preventing contention adds more overhead in wireless) or why they really really should tunnel every wireless connection over SSH (because WEP is fundamentally flawed). The chapter that covers the current WEP implementation demystifies the "40 bit" vs. "64 bit" key-length sleight of hand that some vendors play. The standard WEP key length is 64 bits. However, 24 of those bits are used as WEP's initialization vector for the RC4 cipher. These bits aren't encrypted in an 802.11 packet, so by sniffing 802.11 traffic you can examine the IVs of the packets and see how many distinct keys are in use, and even retrieve the actual key once you have captured enough packets. AirSnort retrieves WEP keys by implementing the Fluhrer/Martin/Shamir attack (orig paper, Stubblefield paper). Chapter 16 covers using tools such as Airsnort and Ethereal to analyze the 802.11 traffic on your network. Remember to use your powers for good and not evil.

The final 3 chapters address deployment, analysis and tuning of 802.11 networks. These chapters, combined with the first six are the heart of this book and the whole motivation for buying the book. The analysis chapter has a particularly wonderful section about gathering user requirements with respect to 802.11 specific issues (security requirements, roaming ...) and a very practical section about physical installation that clearly illustrates the author's mastery of integrating 802.11 technologies into an existing infrastructure.

So What's In It For Me?

If you're an sysadmin and implementing 802.11 technologies is on the horizon, this book is a solid reference of the current state of 802.11 solutions, both good and bad. It pulls no punches in presenting issues and weaknesses with the current solutions and documents forthcoming standards that are being proposed or developed to address them. If you're considering a smaller deployment at home, the security aspects of the text are still applicable, but the design/deployment sections are more rigorous than you will need. There is a bit of starch (repackaged vendor installation documentation) and unnecessary details (knowing that 802.11 frequency hopping uses Gaussian frequency shift keying is good for impressing women at parties, but doesn't really impact the design/deployment of an 802.11 network) but the other chapters redeem themselves and make this a very valuable text.

Table of Contents

1. Preface
2. Introduction to Wireless Networks
3. Overview of 802.11 Networks
4. The 802.11 MAC
5. 802.11 Framing in Detail
6. Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP)
7. Security, Take 2: 802.1x
8. Management Operations
9. Contention-Free Service with the PCF
10. Physical Layer Overview
11. The ISM PHYs: FH, DS, and HR/DS
12. 802.11a: 5-GHz OFDM PHY
13. Using 802.11 on Windows
14. Using 802.11 on Linux
15. Using 802.11 Access Points
16. 802.11 Network Deployment
17. 802.11 Network Analysis
18. 802.11 Performance Tuning
19. The Future, at Least for 802.11
20. 802.11 MIB
21. 802.11 on the Macintosh
22. Glossary
23. Index

You can purchase 802.11 Wireless Networks : The Definitive Guide from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit yours, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

scrm writes: "Nokia just released a slew of new phones at CEBIT. Among them are two phones - a full-color phone and a cheap n' cheerful model - both of whose software can be upgraded with Java applications." And Haggis writes "Nokia are to use the Opera browser in the latest incarnation of their everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink mobile phone, the 9210i. Oh, and it will run Java applets too."

AtlasT writes: "Amiga Inc. announced today that Nokia will be shipping their Linux-powered "Mediaterminal" STBs with AmigaDE pre-installed. These news along with the previously announced cooperation with Sharp for their Zaurus PDA make the future of Amiga Inc. look a bit brighter indeed. What we who use computers more often than PDAs and STBs wonder is when we'll see the release of AmigaOS 4 and new machines. If you'd like to have a pre-view of AmigaDE and some applications you can buy the AmigaDE Player for Linux or Windows. I wouldn't mind running games like Payback, a GTA2 clone, on a PDA!" The Nokia Media Terminal was supposed to be launched in the second quarter of 2001, then by the end of 2001, now... who knows. Update: 02/23 21:24 GMT by M : It seems the Mediaterminal is already available but expensive.

AtlasT writes: "Amiga Inc. announced today that Nokia will be shipping their Linux-powered "Mediaterminal" STBs with AmigaDE pre-installed. These news along with the previously announced cooperation with Sharp for their Zaurus PDA make the future of Amiga Inc. look a bit brighter indeed. What we who use computers more often than PDAs and STBs wonder is when we'll see the release of AmigaOS 4 and new machines. If you'd like to have a pre-view of AmigaDE and some applications you can buy the AmigaDE Player for Linux or Windows. I wouldn't mind running games like Payback, a GTA2 clone, on a PDA!" The Nokia Media Terminal was supposed to be launched in the second quarter of 2001, then by the end of 2001, now... who knows. Update: 02/23 21:24 GMT by M : It seems the Mediaterminal is already available but expensive.

Atryn writes "An article at the Register reports that a recent Black Hat conference presenter demonstrated how to crash Nokia cell phones using malformed headers in SMS messaging protocols. Though the SIM card can be recovered by moving to a new phone, this is perhaps an interesting preview of security issues as data goes wireless." Of course, when you live in the US, where your wireless services are about eight years behind the curve, this is less of an issue. *grin*

matthew.thompson writes: "Nokia have released a phone to give the RIAA nightmares - it includes built in MP3 playing AND encoding and an FM stereo radio - so you can MP3 up tracks from the Radio or from an external source via a line in jack. It's also got a full qwerty style keyboard and GameBoy Advance style layout. RIAA headache inducing features here and piccies etc here." I'm not quite sure how this works - Nokia's page says the gizmo plays "secure" mp3 files, which sounds to me as if it is crippled. Here are some hi-res photos. Update: 10/11 12:59 GMT by M : Ahh, my misreading. It says "secure AAC and MP3 files", and apparently "secure" is intended to apply only to AAC. According to the FAQ, the phone is crippled - only stores crippled AAC files, not unencumbered mp3's. A shame.

matthew.thompson writes: "Nokia have released a phone to give the RIAA nightmares - it includes built in MP3 playing AND encoding and an FM stereo radio - so you can MP3 up tracks from the Radio or from an external source via a line in jack. It's also got a full qwerty style keyboard and GameBoy Advance style layout. RIAA headache inducing features here and piccies etc here." I'm not quite sure how this works - Nokia's page says the gizmo plays "secure" mp3 files, which sounds to me as if it is crippled. Here are some hi-res photos. Update: 10/11 12:59 GMT by M : Ahh, my misreading. It says "secure AAC and MP3 files", and apparently "secure" is intended to apply only to AAC. According to the FAQ, the phone is crippled - only stores crippled AAC files, not unencumbered mp3's. A shame.

matthew.thompson writes: "Nokia have released a phone to give the RIAA nightmares - it includes built in MP3 playing AND encoding and an FM stereo radio - so you can MP3 up tracks from the Radio or from an external source via a line in jack. It's also got a full qwerty style keyboard and GameBoy Advance style layout. RIAA headache inducing features here and piccies etc here." I'm not quite sure how this works - Nokia's page says the gizmo plays "secure" mp3 files, which sounds to me as if it is crippled. Here are some hi-res photos. Update: 10/11 12:59 GMT by M : Ahh, my misreading. It says "secure AAC and MP3 files", and apparently "secure" is intended to apply only to AAC. According to the FAQ, the phone is crippled - only stores crippled AAC files, not unencumbered mp3's. A shame.

barrettlight50 writes "Nokia released news that they plan to distribute Linux games from Loki Software with their up and coming Media Terminal due out this fall." I'm hearing rumblings from people who have their hands on this box, but am still waiting for more meat. What remains to be seen is if Nokia will embrace the Open Source model, and let us hack the hell out of their box. Here's hopin'

barrettlight50 writes "Nokia released news that they plan to distribute Linux games from Loki Software with their up and coming Media Terminal due out this fall." I'm hearing rumblings from people who have their hands on this box, but am still waiting for more meat. What remains to be seen is if Nokia will embrace the Open Source model, and let us hack the hell out of their box. Here's hopin'

barrettlight50 writes "Nokia released news that they plan to distribute Linux games from Loki Software with their up and coming Media Terminal due out this fall." I'm hearing rumblings from people who have their hands on this box, but am still waiting for more meat. What remains to be seen is if Nokia will embrace the Open Source model, and let us hack the hell out of their box. Here's hopin'

acoopersmith writes: "In the San Jose Mercury News coverage of the recent Consumer Electronics Show was this article about the new Nokia "Media Terminal" - a device that's designed as a cross between a TiVo and a WebTV, but which is really a Linux PC, including USB& FireWire ports for attaching additional storage, scanners, and printers, and other expansion capabilities. Has the hacker-friendly "appliance" finally arrived?"

blirp writes: "Nokia today anounced the new 9210 Communicator. " Just dual-band support, so it won't work in North America, but great standby and talk time, and just 244 grams in weight. Mmm...

blirp writes: "Nokia today anounced the new 9210 Communicator. " Just dual-band support, so it won't work in North America, but great standby and talk time, and just 244 grams in weight. Mmm...

A reader writes: "Nokia has announced an media terminal at IBC'2000 (International Broadcasting Convention, Amsterdam) which seems to be a serious competitor for the home. It includes DVB receiver, x86 PC hardware running Linux & XFree. The hardware supports also recording the TV stream to the hard disk (TiVo functionality) and other cool stuff."

Matt_Bennett writes "According to this report from CNN, it is possible to send a SMS (Short Message Service) message to certain Nokia GSM phones, in particular the Nokia 7110, which will cause it to lock up. At this point, they are unsure if it is possible from an email-to-SMS gateway. The phone has to have its battery removed and replaced to return to normal operation." "Sorry I couldn't call you back, my phone was haxx0r3d." We laugh, but as personal electronics get better, we rely on them more... and at the same time, they become more complex: the potential security holes grow. Its kinda creapy.

Matt_Bennett writes "According to this report from CNN, it is possible to send a SMS (Short Message Service) message to certain Nokia GSM phones, in particular the Nokia 7110, which will cause it to lock up. At this point, they are unsure if it is possible from an email-to-SMS gateway. The phone has to have its battery removed and replaced to return to normal operation." "Sorry I couldn't call you back, my phone was haxx0r3d." We laugh, but as personal electronics get better, we rely on them more... and at the same time, they become more complex: the potential security holes grow. Its kinda creapy.

mge writes: "According to this story in some local Aussie IT pages, Nokia is looking for developers to make online games for mobile phones and it has established R&D centres in Helsinki, Belgrade and Sydney to provide content for the company's new mobile entertainment centre. There's a WAP Client Toolkit, Game Construction Toolkit, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), documentation and sample source code for applications to download. An Australian company, Fluffy Spider Technologies, is also offering assistance to game developers. They have posted free code online for a simple Tic Tac Toe game. Of course, they want games, but how about automated dial-ins (to take advantage of lower call/ISP rates), smart forms etc ... " Well someone needs to start giving all our smart phones something to think about, eh?

Chris Blain recently went on an adventure that many of us will experience: Getting a cel phone. He has written up his experiences for those of you on the fence on the issue. It's an excellent piece if you've thought about it, but just didn't have the answers. He also compares various services in his area, which is probably at least a decent example of what it will be like near you. The following was written by Slashdot Reader Chris Blain Cellular Service Review
Chris A. Blain
kfm@ipinc.net
July 9,1998
"Do I really need A Cell Phone?" I'm not Gordon Gekko, so a cell phone seemed unnecessary. Then my friend Olli f rom Finland came to visit. He has owned a cell phone for over four years and uses it as his only phone. Hmm, he's not Gordon Gekko e ither. Why does he need one? So he doesn't have to wait around for phone calls. So people calling him don't have to worry about if he is at home or at a club or in Lapland. I've had a pager in the past and it always made me feel like I was on a leash. A cell phone sounded like it would have the opposite effect. I wouldn?t have to worry about staying close to a phone. I would be fre e! Add the fact I recently started work for a company where travel would be a regular occurrence and enough reasons to seriously star t considering joining the ranks of the wireless were in hand.

Three issues had kept me from even contemplating buying a cell phone before: co nfusing rate plans, "surprise charges" that you wouldn?t know about until your bill came, and security. The new One Rate Cellular plan f rom AT&T got my attention because it seemed to address these issues. The billing appeared simple and transparent and the new d igital phones are more secure than previous analog phones. I'm interested in telecom, so at a minimum the research into cellular service a nd technology would be interesting enough to warrant the effort.

The Technology The first and most important caveat to remember is that all cell phones are "ra dio phones". As such, the abilities and performance of the phone will be limited by the same factors that limit other radio transmissi ons. A good introduction to how the cellular system works will educate you regarding the general performanc e and limitations of the system. Right now, America has three digital systems in use: CDMA, GSM and TDMA. TDMA can be conf using because it can refer to a general method of dividing up a channel into different voice circuits and can also be used to refer to a specific standard (i.e., IS-54 or IS-136) which is then just called TDMA. That?s telecom for you though. It gets heavy in acronyms and low-level detail very quickly. I don?t know enough about the fine points of each to say which is superior. I made my c hoice based on balancing coverage with security.

Cellular service is expensive enough without criminals adding to the bill. Desp ite known security issues, this area has improved with the advent of digital phones. The increased security of the digital systems was one reason I didn't even consider plain analog service. However, the option to roam into an analog area if it means the difference between making a call or not is an option I wanted.

Conveniently for those comparing the three systems, most big providers each hav e a different standard. Sprint uses CDMA, AT&T uses a TDMA/AMPS hybrid and VoiceStream uses GSM. Deciding which standard will become the dominant stan dard in the future is more difficult. Depending on the source of the poll either GSM or CDMA is predicted to be the global standard within the next several years. Considering GSM is leading the race right now, the prediction might not be so hard.

Choosing a Provider and a Calling Plan Choosing a provider can be hard. Deciding which provider has the best coverage, best call quality, best phone and best customer service is a big job. While you are trying to maximize the above you are also trying to minimize the price. One thing that all cellular providers have in common is that none of them offers calling plans. They all offer *billi ng plans* :) (I heard this phrase somewhere but forgot the author. My apologies). A good technique for evaluating providers is to call the ir customer service numbers multiple times with different questions. By talking to the customer service reps, you can find out a lot of information that isn't in the brochures. Providers

Digital service areas are still mostly limited to major metropolitan areas and freeways. Coverage maps may look disappointing if you want to use digital service anywhere and everywhere. Also, remember that covera ge maps show the best guess of the actual coverage. AT&T, Sprint and VoiceStr eam all have nice looking coverage maps. They would probably be more accurate if they resemb led scatter graphs rather than area graphs. The coverage is not that bad, but changing position can make a difference in reception.

A lot of what I heard about Sprint PCS ser vice was mixed. On the one hand, I heard there were coverage problems. Other stories talked of good results. When Sprint introduced PCS service a year ago they couldn't get the phones to work right outside the big downtown "Sprint Store" where I live. Not encouraging. If I was going to get a phone, it better work wherever I was likely to go. But then, I d on't even really like the phone offered by Sprint. It doesn?t seem like it is worth the money. I?m also wary of Sony?s thinking th ey can build everything. I prefer a company that specializes in manufacturing the product.

AT&T has been d oing digital voice for three years. Other providers have been doing it for much less time and I think it shows. AT&T does not offer "as digital" a service compared to Sprint or VoiceStream. As best I can tell it is a digital extension of analog. Competitors describe it as a digital/analog hybrid that isn't "truly digital". AT&T says the system is totally digital and not digital "piggy-backed" on analog. I don't know enough about the details to know the technical reality. The system seems to have the benefits of both the analog and digital systems: the broad coverage of the anal og system with all the new features of the PCS systems. The AT&T service is not as secure as the other standards that provide better protection against eavesdropping but AT&T does offer authentication for call set-up and is working on encryption of the conversation.

AT&T offers the new Nokia 6160 phone. The research I did indicated Nokia to be the current leader in digital phones. I like the features and interface of this pho ne. The large screen makes navigating the numerous menus easy and quick. The phone is also very compact so I would be a less conspicuous cellular phone user. This phone can easily fit in a shirt pocket. There are also four built in games. It seems to have a lot of hacker potential. You have to assume that a phone with a Swedish drinking song as one of the custom ringing tones was built by people who like to have fun. There is an infrared port at th e top of the phone that allows you to play "death-match" games against someone else who has the same phone. In addition, software allows you to enter your phone book entries into your computer and then transfer them to the phone. The manual doesn?t mention this, but Olli says its true for the phon es he?s seen in Finland.

VoiceStream (or your local GSM networ k member) was the third choice. As mentioned above, GSM is arguably the current global standard. It has been offering features just introduced in A merica with PCS service for years. GSM, in a statement from the PacBell site, handles encryption in this way: " Before the connection is completed, the call is digitally encrypted to prevent scanners from eavesdropping on the conversation or stealing and cloning your telephone number." This sounds se cure.

There is a choice of four phones from VoiceStream but the Nokia 6190 (same as t he 6160 ascetically and functionally save for being GSM) is the best one to choose. Of the phones that VoiceStream offers, the 6190 is the only one with an analog roaming capability. This is accomplished by placing a surfboard shaped "dual-mode sleeve" between the phone and the battery. In this configuration, th e phone feels twice as large. However, you have a lot of versatility. Due to the fact the 6190 is not a dual mode phone it is much cheaper than the 6160. For $149, you get the phone and the Li-Ion battery standard. The 6160 in this configuration would cost over $200.

Calling Plans Now comes the hard part. Not only do you have to decide how much you are going to use the phone but also where. Will you roam? How much long distance will you use? Will you call more during peak or off-peak hours? All of these qu estions and more may enter into your decision. You won't really know how much you will use the service until you ?well?use the service. You might use th e phone for all the calls you make now. You might also use it for all the calls you can't or don't make now.

Advice on calling plans is difficult to give other than broad recommendations. If you are going to use the phone a modest amount or use it constantly, your choices are easy. Most providers offer very reasonable plans for those usi ng the phone less than 100 minutes a month or more than 600 minutes a month. Also, providers sometimes run unadvertised specials, so you should be su re and ask what is available in your area.

All of the providers give you the basic PCS features: caller-id, call waiting, call forwarding, three-way calling. Generally, voicemail and text messaging are extra, although all the providers offer plans that include voicem ail. I haven't made up my mind about text messaging yet. It seems cool but I'm not sure it is really useful. Voicemail is a must have. It allows you t o decide if you want to use airtime or not. Therefore, while it costs extra, it is very helpful as a tool to control your airtime usage in addition t o is primary purpose.

VoiceStream has very simple plans that can be quite economical depending on you r usage. For example, VoiceStream has a special for college students or employees of Chamber of Commerce member companies where you get 70 minutes a mo nth for $14.99. A bonus to the VoiceStream plans in my area is there is no long distance charges in the home area, which in my case is considered to be the northwest. Another special they are running is 300 free long distance minutes a month for 6 months to anywhere in the contiguous 48 states. That could be a big saving for you depending on your usage. However, if I was to roam out of the home area I would be charged $0.49/minute for roaming plus $0.20/minute long distance.

AT&T has simple plans but depending on which you choose you might be using a lo t of long distance. Your home area is considered the area code of your phone. If you are out of your home area and someone calls you, they will be cha rged long distance of course. But so will you! Out of your home area and you want to check voice mail? That will be a long distance call. This can get t o be very expensive. It isn't mentioned in the brochure. A consolation is that AT&T offers the lowest long distance rates on average. I can roam n ine western states or the whole U.S. (depending on the choice of plan) without being charged any roaming fees. Roaming fees savings could balance long distance charges depending on your usage and plan choice. With the One Rate plan there is no roaming or long distance charges, just a flat $0.15 - $0.11/minute rate (the rate depending on the number of minutes you buy) for "everything".

The calling plans offered by Sprint are more complicated than those by AT&T or VoiceStream. This is due to the notion of peak and off-peak usage that is not a part of the other providers plans. With Sprint you may have to wo rry about where you are calling from and when you are calling, Sprint does have a "Home Rate USA" feature that lets you roam the Sprint PCS national network. Long distance, however, is extra and the rate can vary depending where you are calling from. Sprint does have a northwest home area that is toll -free. Sprint seems most likely to cost the most to use.

My Choice A friend who has had analog cellular service for many years told me go with AT& amp;T because of the customer service. AT&T had taken care of problems quickly and to his satisfaction. My friend is demanding as to customer service so I didn't take the recommendation lightly. This isn't to say the others offered inferior customer service -- I just didn't know anyone who has dealt wi th them. In my "test calls" to AT&T customer service, I found them very helpful. They also had the most technical knowledge at their fingertips or could quickly access a technical rep. VoiceStream was also very good in this area. Sprint was the most difficult to get technical information from. I was transferred a half dozen times to different departments and when I finally did get a technical support rep, they just read from a spec sheet to answer my question. They were busy when I called so this might not have been their best showing. AT&T customer support was very busy when I first called (sometimes 5 -10 minutes+ waits) but recently the call times have improved and the wait is nominal.

In my area, there is another option to the One Rate plan: standard AT&T PCS ser vice plans. The One Rate plan didn't appeal to me because I don't think I will need 600 minutes (the plan minimum) a month and I didn't want to p ay $89.99 a month for service. A plan with 300 to 400 minutes costing $30 - $40 a month would be a better fit. I would be traveling so I needed a plan that inclu ded roaming or offered cheap roaming as part of the package. One of the standard plans allows for roaming nine western states with 200 minutes a month for $39.99. A bonus was a special that added 100 minutes to the 200-minute plan for the same price. I chose this. It seemed like an affordable way to try out the s ervice with enough freedom for me to discover how much call time I would need. AT&T doesn't charge for switching plans. If my usage increased dramatical ly, I could switch to the One Rate plan.

Using the Service I bought the phone on a Sunday. The electronics store I went to had an ample su pply of Nokia 6160 phones plus a surprise: the Nokia 6162. This phone differs f rom the 6160 in that it is a flip phone. You can answer and end a call by opening or cl osing the flip. This technology belongs to Motorola so Nokia had to license it from them. This added to the price of the phone according to my salesman. The two ph ones are nearly identical save for the flip feature and slightly different butt ons on the 6162. Despite a $50 price difference between the two phones, I was tempted to g et the 6162. Then visions of the flip breaking started to sour me on the idea. The streamlined 6160 seemed the way to go. I went.

But not before the salesman sold me a belt holder and an extended warranty. For some reason, a belt holder seemed to suck all of the "cool" out of a cell phone. I might just as well get a pocket protector to go with it. The belt holder serves a dual purpose: it gives you a place to put your phone when you don't want to hold it and protects the phone from the elements. The co ol was sucked back into the phone when I spilled water all over my desk and my cell phone was protected from the flood. The extended warranty was a har der sell. In general, these are a rip-off and I avoid them. The plan the salesman was offering was two years protection for $19.99. The first year of co verage was offered by AT&T and the store extended the coverage for a second year. If anything other than theft or intentional damage happened to the phone, a replacement would be overnighted to me wherever I happened to be. Thi s would also serve as "obsolesce protection". If my phone broke at a point where it was no longer "current", I would most likely be sent the new and improved version. I got a deal on the belt holder and the activation fee was wa ived (note: this was due to my choice of plans. If I had chosen the One Rate Plan, there would have been a $25 activation fee.)

Activation was simple. Charge up the phone (it has to be charged for 24 hours i nitially) and call the activation center. In about a half-hour I was live Activation was simple. Charge up the phone (it has to be charged for 24 hours i nitially) and call the activation center. In about a half-hour I was live on the air. The signal is strong most everywhere I've tried the phone in my cit y. I even have a decent signal in the underground parking garage in my building. The call quality is between that of a cordless phone and a corded pho ne. Better than I had expected. Now to take it on the road.

Wednesday morning I left for the Bay Area on a business trip. This would be an excellent test for the phone. I knew of capacity problems in the Bay Area so I could also test the service in a high traffic area. I flew into the San Jo se airport where the service was available but marginal. The phone has a four-segment signal strength indicator. At the airport, the indicator had two s egments lit. If only one is lit you can?t make a call. I tried a call and got the low end of the quality spectrum. I hoped for better elsewhere.

In the rest of the South Bay, the quality was better, averaging three to four s egments lit. There was one notable exception: the offices of my company in Cupertino: ( I couldn?t get any of the indicators to light. This might have bee n due to problems related to a large amount of electronic equipment in the building. I've had pagers fail due to this. Once I went outside it was better. I also had no problems making calls in San Francisco. People who tried to call me did have problems on a few occasions. They received a "there are not en ough available circuits to connect your call?" type of message. Was this much of a problem? No, I had voicemail so they just left a message and I called them back later. All in all a good showing.

"Is it worth it?" Yes. After having used the phone for three weeks I would have trouble going wit hout it. It has saved me time and I?ve had fun using it. I have yet to get my first bill, so some of the fun might be lessened when I do . Deciding on service was hard. The exact plans and specials will most likely vary in your area, so you still have a lot of work to do inorder to deci de on service for yourself. The time will be well spent because service is too expensive not to have it work the way you want.

The next thing I really need is global coverage. I'll have to start looking in to those satellite phones... :)