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Motorola's i95cl
thefalconer writes "MSNBC has a very detailed article about Motorola's new all-in-wonder phone offered by Nextel. It is a PDA, has a Walkie-Talkie, phone, web browser, instant messaging, addressbook, it has a high resolution Color LCD screen, and it's running on a Java Based OS! It even comes in a variety of styles and colors just to your taste. There is so much to this phone that it makes you ask "how'd they get all that, into this tiny little thing?" Makes me want to ditch my old phone for one of these right now!"
I have an i85s and aside from the color and the flip phone form factor, it has almost the same specs as the i95...The color is a big thing from implemenation standpoint, but not so much from usability. Unless they've made great strides in the UI design, the thing won't work that well as a PDA...I don't think any phone can be a good PDA without either a touchscreen or qwerty keyboard.
Just my $0.02
~Adam
SPAM
Doesn't ATI have the name all-in-winder trademarked?
This space available.
.... from four months ago...
Motorola's i95cl Press Release
- HeXa
I'll buy one when it has a real keyboard.
Ever try sending a message on a keypad? MAJOR pain in the ass. You can use chat-shorthand to send message to friends, but replying to business email? Where is the spll chker?
required to make a cell phone ring like a normal one?
Having seen it, I must say it is a nice phone. I fixes must of my biggest complaints against the i90c. (Overall, an excellent phone)
I find text entry isn't that bad when using T9. For quick replies, it is quite nice.
It should also be mentioned some of the features Nextel can give you. If you sign up for the developer plan (http://developer.nextel.com) you get 5 MB worth of data and a ROUTABLE IP for the phone. Neat stuff.
Just a thought...
Now put a 10gb firewire drive into it. That would be the perfect device.
sig.
Sun has a list of J2ME wireless devices.
Such as, we can replace walking with driving, so why ever walk? Oh wait, there's tons of places where walking is probably a better idea than driving a car. It's been said many times, and its very true: You use the tool that fits the situation. Sure, I could use a screw driver to hit in a nail, but it would be easier to do with a hammer.
Java has all the great things you've mentioned, but it has the draw back of a lot of overhead. It's not a cut and dry decisions - you have to weigh the costs and the benefits in every situation. Java has its place, but give me C or give me death!
James Tiberius Kirk: "Spock, the women on your planet are logical. No other planet in the galaxy can make that claim."
Gee, maybe because the Unions don't have such a strangle-hold on the economy. How come toenail clippers cost $5.00? Oh sorry, that should be in ERU. I know celular technology is far in advance of what we have here in the states but damn, that's what 6 weeks of vacation I'll get ya.
I have read that this is already available in Japan. The 3G phones have 384kbit downstream and (I think) 96kbit upstream.
It makes me cry because the best internet connection I can get where I live is 28.8. Even my Canadian cellphone can do better than that -- 144kbit on 1xRTT in metropolitan areas.
All we ever needed - more things for idiots to do while driving.
Until then I was using some of the built-in, pre-composed responses. Needless to say one co-worker was confused when I sent him a message saying "I love you"!
But the confusion quickly turned into shared delight as Gary and Tom discovered the vibrating silent-ring feature and sent each other instant messages long into the night.*
Motorola.. bringing people together..
*optional waterproof cover required
Sorry, but enthusiastic bantor about Operating Systems are reserved for Linux items only.
This story has angered the Open Source Gods. Retract this open enthusiasm at once, or fear their retribution.
/^[A-Z0-9._%+-]+@[A-Z0-9.-]+\.[A-Z]{2,4}$/i
Motorola i95cl
... battery life seems to be its most apparent weakness. My LG VX1 / TM-520 is rated at 180 min talk / 110h standby from the standard battery.)***
:-)
General Features
* Color Display
* Voice Recorder
* Speakerphone
* Voice Activation
* Multi-Language Support
* Time & Date Display
* SIM Card Operation
* Custom Styles Settings
* Pre-Installed Software Applications
* JAVA(TM) 2 Micro Edition Capable**
SLIM BATTERY: 19g, up to 2h talk time, up to 45h standby
EXTENDED BATTERY: 33g, up to 3.33h talk time, up to 75 standby.
(hmmm
Digital Cellular Phone Service
* Voice Activated Dialing
* 250 Entry Phonebook
* Quickstore Phone Numbers
* Last 20 Recent Call List*
* Turbo Dial® one-touch dialing
* VibraCall® alert
Digital Two-Way Radio
* One-Touch Private & Group Call
* Quickstore Private IDs
* Built-In Speaker
Message Service
* Consolidated In-Box Storage
* Voice & Message Mail Indicators
* Time & Date Stamp*
Data Capable*
* Software Download Capability
* Internet Access Services
* T9® Text Input for Fast Entry
Performance Specifications
* Dimensions: 90mm X 50mm X 28mm with Slim Battery
* Weight: 154.4g
* Power 600mW typical
* Frequency Range:
Tx 806 - 825 Mhz/Rx 851-870 Mhz
* Channel Spacing: 25 kHz
* Channel Access: TDMA
* Operating Temperature: -10C to + 60C
* Storage Temperature (Radio Only): -40C to + 85C
Specifications are typical and subject to change.
* Network and subscription dependent feature not available in all areas.
** Visit www.motorola.com/idenupdate for a list of downloadable software applications.
*** I was not paid by LG to type that
During my first several months here in Japan, when my phone was my only contact to the outside world (went 8 months w/out internet), I eventually gave up emailing my family and friends in English, but instead would email my Mom in Japanese (one of her co-workers would translate) because it was taking 10-20 minutes to type a message in English that would only take 2-5 minutes in Japanese.
Anyway, compared to the offerings on phones here in Japan, that phone doesn't seem like much...not to mention it is huge. Of course, I don't really have much use for a walkie-talkie so this kind of thing isn't really for me.
Cheers. :)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
Of course, there is definitely some "Steve" in that name as well, eh? ;-)
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
iDen is just a network type. i.e. it fits into the set {GSM, CDMA, TDMA, 1XCDMA, GPRS...}
Despite the article calling it a PDA phone, it is what's called a featurephone, similar to the Ericsson T68i. If you are on iDEN it sounds like a reasonable phone, but I would want Bluetooth so I could use a wireless headset (Motorola makes a good one that's the size of four or five postage stamps).
And of course the OS is not written in Java, it is just running J2ME apps (hopefully MIDP ones). For some apps for such Java phones, see www.midlet.org and www.mobiled.net.
(that's all... simple surprise at the omission)
They do have normal rings. My cellphone sounds almost the same as my cordless. Most people just program in silly, cutesy rings or songs or the like because they like it. The phones themselves have a host of normal rings.
Our phones are larger because they *do more* - see, America is a large place, with lots of spaces. Those spaces are served by analog cell service, and guess what: those analog sending-and-receiving things (we call them radios) add bulk to our phones.
Also, if we crazy-americans can't get out handgun out qucik enough, we can just beat and GSM totin' weasel-faced euro-toll with out CRAZY -HUGE CELL PHONES.
Note: Non San Francisco Americans will never refer to their cell phone as a 'handy'. God knows how the Europeans picked that habit up...but it must have somthing to do with the water. Or the Gremans. There up to somthing - I just know it.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
GSM is a TDMA system.
TDMA simply stands for Time Division, Multple Access. This is in contrast to systems that use CDMA, or Channel Division, Multiple Access.
The only real incompatibility between traditional TDMA and GSM is the protocols used. The underlying transport layer is essentially the same.
A phone capable of TDMA should be just as easily capable of GSM (as it's just a protocol change). In fact there are many iDen phones out there that can speak GSM for use in Europe and elsewhere. CDMA is a bit more challenging as it's a patented technology by Qualcomm.
The biggest obstacle is frequencies... traditional TDMA and CDMA use the standard cellular ranges. GSM (in the United States) uses 1.9 GHz. In order to be "universal" you'd need to talk 800MHz, 900MHz, 1.8GHz, and 1.9GHz (have I missed any?).
All opinions presented here aren't mine.
If you want a full QWERTY keyboard in a cell phone and have a decent GSM service in your area, I highly recommend the Nokia Communicator. Heck, you can even run Opera on it (see here for details).
-- PhoneBoy
"Forward into the past."
The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of anyone, including the poster.
Best feature of my StarTac: It doesn't play music. ^_^
...does it make coffee and fries? : p
I have been living in Japan for a couple weeks and this article made me laugh. Third Generation cell-phones are very, very popular in The Land of the Rising Sun. A standard 3G phone comes with a hi-res color LCD, built-in camera, e-mail, decent sound, and lots of other stuff along with almost flawless service. Oh and all of this is about $150. The pink models with photo-stickers and custom flashing antennas added by their users are admittedly cute. =( In comparison to what I have seen in Japan, this Motorola model is bulky, ugly, boring, and overpriced. Anyway, the bottom line is the MSNBC article seemed naive to me, but I would love to see Third Generation cell-phones become popular in America and see the prices of these go down.
Oh and don't worry about the typing. Some Japanese people can get up to 100 kanji characters per minute which I would say is equivalent to 70-80 English words per minute. Granted, these are people who win thumb-typing contests, but if one were to have good word recognition software and a little practice, typing on a keypad would become much easier and usable for lengthy messages.
I've had a couple motorola phones in the past, and all I can say is that they have sucked. Maybe the i95 is an exception, but motorola's UI systems have always been crap, and battery life is shit. 45 hours of standby and 2 hours talk? C'mon, that sucks ass. My Sony Ericcson T68i has 480 hours standby and 7 hours of talk time. Though reality is a little less, but not much.
Plus, the T68i is $149, not a whopping $399. It has all of the features that the i95 has except that walkie talkie crap. I can sync the thing with my PIM via IR or bluetooth, I can run a little outlook plugin thing just like the guy writing the article and access all of my Outlook crap in real time, or I can even load some pr0n on the phone to view when I'm bored or send to a friend who's feeling down.
$399 for a phone with poor battery life does not seem like a good deal to me. And that price is *with* service, if nextel is discounting this phone like most providers do, this thing is an insane ripoff. Save yourself the money and get a T68i with ATT, Voicestream, or Cingular service. It has the same features, in a ligher package, for less, and with the best battery life of any phone I've ever had.
Need Free Juniper/NetScreen Support? JuniperForum
Heh, nice troll, but I'll bite. I don't recall mentioning machine code or byte code. I find it peculiar you are preaching to me about something I never argued. I stand by what I said earlier. Byte code vs. machine code is not what I was talking about, it is robustness vs. efficiency. The fact that so many things are classes rather than primitives in Java gives you much greater flexibility, but at a performance penalty.
slashdot!=valid HTML
Everything in one box is not always a great idea.
I know that I use my PDA to remind me when to pay bills and such. I also have a tendency to let my Cell Phone battery get low on power...especially when I'm away from home for along time...imagine if your battery goes dead...now you no longer have a PDA, Walkie-Talkie, phone, or addressbook.
And to be honest, the "Walkie-Talkie feature is a Nextel only feature. It's really just a special channel...the phone has to be changed, but it's still only available with Nextel. The person you are talking to has to be in the Nextel network as well, and you are still charged per minute for using this feature (XXX "free" minutes under your plan). That having been said, it's also a very kewl feature...however, simply calling cell-to-cell would acomplish the same thing with another provider...
I like having my PDA seperate from my cell phone. The other thing is, this thing seems too small to be very useful as a PDA (1.9" x 1.9" screen vs. 4.5" x 3.1"). I like the big screen of my Palm IIIxe...
There's another point, how long must these batteries last? They claim 2 hours of talk time and 45 hours on standby...I have to say that this number is most likely without using the PDA feature...I didn't even buy a color Palm because it eats batteries too much.
Then again, I have had to replace my cell phone twice in the last year, yet I still have a Palm III with no problems. Wonder if this has a Flash ROM that can be switched out when the phone dies...what about syncing with a desktop...if you can't switch the memory I certainly hope you can sync with a PeeCee...otherwise, it's useless as a PDA...
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cebit/p800.htm
I am suprised no one has mentioned this yet as this appears to be the first truly killer integrated solution to come along. Phone sized, with a decent display, bluetooth, java, gprs, camera, memory expansion and lots more rolled up in a symbian (psion) os.
--- I do not moderate.
Unlimited nationwide PLAIN OLD TELEPHONE SERVICE service for no more than $30. The ability to plug a desktop computer and use it as a modem would work as well. That's all I need.
I need a wirelss telephone replacement of my wired one, which is all what MOST of us want. Why are the wireless companies so averse to selling this?
a java OS
why do we have to keep coming up with new operating systems for these things? I hate to admit it, but Microsoft is on the right track with these things.
I love my Samsung I-300....phone+color PALM....
Whats the point of being able to store all these wonderfull names and addresses, if you cant transfer them to someone else without a hassle?
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
Being trialed in the UK at the moment, by Virgin I believe.
Cheers,
Ian
err
how exectly are you going to tell your boss with POTS phone and desktop computer, that you just got jammed in a traffic jam and will be late from work?
mobile phone with camera: just take a pic of the jam and send it to your bosses email.
impliying that mobile phones just replace POTS is like 80's thinking. At least here in Finland. And yes, we have a excellent POTS network, people just find mobile phones more usefull.
signatures pending - ansa@kos.to - (dont mail there)
Time Division Multiple Access means taking a slice of spectrum, subdividing it into even more slices, and then subdividing each slice into different time slots. Each phone making an active call is given a time slot and spectrum sub-slice, which typically changes each time the time slot is used (so that the phone isn't transmitting on the same frequency all the time which helps eliminate static conditions - where one misaligned phone permanently screws up the calls of neighbours, for instance.)
You can already see there are a lot of variables. How large are the spectrum subslices? I don't remember the details off hand, but IIRC it's something like 30KHz for "TDMA" (IS-136, etc) and a much larger slice for GSM. GSM splits the time slot into 64 slots, IIRC, carrying 8 "calls" per spectrum sub-slice, whereas for IS-136 etc it's something like 18, carrying three calls per spectrum sub-slice. And, all importantly, what is the encoding used? Splitting the frequency and time space is one thing, but there's always the question of what types of waveform you transmit - FSK, MFM, etc. A V.21 modem doesn't use a transmission protocol remotely similar to a V.32 modem, and the same sorts of differences apply to how your mobile phone works. This is becoming more of a concern recently now that Ericsson has developed "EDGE". EDGE keeps most of the details above the same for GSM, but massively increases the bitrate, simply through using a different type of waveform.
A phone that offers both IS-136/etc functionality and GSM needs either a special chipset developed or needs to have chipsets for both underlying systems installed on the radio side of the phone. You wouldn't be able to, say, change the firmware on a GSM phone and expect it to work on an IS-136/etc network.
I think part of the confusion here is that there's a lot of CDMA advocates around, who have "Amiga-fan" syndrome, where they'll simply accuse everything other than CDMA, as Qualcomm implements it (IS-95 and cdmaOne), of being the "same" technology and attribute GSM faults to IS-136 and vice-versa, because of emotion rather than logic (anyone who saw the Amiga wars during the early 90s has an idea of what I'm talking about, where the Amiga was the "only" computer that multitasked and only it had shared libraries and... and...)* Anyone who's used all three types of phone (cdmaOne/IS-95, IS-136/D-AMPS/"TDMA", and GSM) will know that there are radical differences between all three systems, but people who haven't still believe things like GSM and IS-136 have the same voice quality, that the underlying systems work the same way, etc.
It would save AT&T and Cingular wireless, both of whom are switching to GSM, a huge dollop of money were it true. Upgrading their base stations to support GSM would be a simple matter of loading new firmware.
(* Note: I loved the Amiga to death and thought it genuinely was superior. "CDMA", IS-95, on the other hand, suffers from having relatively lousy functionality compared to GSM, call quality is roughly equivalent and call reliability seems poor, on Sprint PCS's network at least. I wouldn't use a PDA phone with something that doesn't support personal mobility, which makes GSM the only choice for me right now. GSM is starting to support a variety of underlying transport layers, including EDGE and a CDMA-based system [not compatable with IS-95], which we'll start seeing in newer phones as 3G begins to take hold.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I am a user and administrator for our company's Nextel account. The biggest selling point for the Nextel/Motorola phones is the direct connect feature. What they don't tell you is that this is that you can only use this "radio feature" in your local calling area. Users do not have the ability to connect across the country (USA). Or even in the next State in some sections of the country. Our office is based in Connecticut, but we cannot communicate via the "radio" to our field personnel miles down the road in Rhode Island or Massachusetts. Users are restricted to using the phone to communicate. However the Internet part will work anywhere that there is service.
I have been told by people working inside Nextel that the Direct Connect radio feature will be available beyond local calling areas next summer. I also read this in one of Nextel's brochures I received the other day. This will be a big plus for their service.
"mobile phone with camera: just take a pic of the jam and send it to your bosses email."
Yeah. Like anyone's boss reads their e-mail. Right...
Heck. If anyone did that, he'd probably figure they was surfing the web from home and screwing with him. What are the chances of a PHB beliving someone was really in their car taking photos with a phone?
The dilberts of the world never win.
No Zen is good zen
Do they make phones that can actually take a real sample for ringtone, or is it just a bunch of MIDI-style notes programming?
If you could get a sample, you could actually put in a sample of a real Bell telephone ringing, which might be pretty amusing.
why is it whenever there's a thread about new cell phones, the first thing I always see is americans bitching about how they just want to talk? Duh, if you just want to talk on your cell phone, just get a 5year old used nokia, that'll work fine.
for the rest of us who actually embrace new technology, I want a color display, ir for palm pilot syncing, fast sms capability, gprs for data transfer and fast web service.
I don't understand the reluctance for people on slashdot, a site devoted to the latest computer hardware and software, to get into sweet cellphones. It's like everyone's running around with linux laptops looking for free 802.11 nets, enjoying their massive storage mp3 or md player, developing new cool software, and talking on three pound analog cell phones from the late 80s. why is this?
my theory is that people are just jealous of the phones that everyone else in the world can get, and so they get defensive and pretend they don't want any of that. It sucks for america to be behind in some cases, huh?
5 hours of talk time and 100 hours of standby time.
Yea, but your phone is also 8 ounces which a little bigger than my cell phone (4 ounces...which is rather heavy anyhow). And belive it or not, that's a rather heavy size for a handheld phone that's going to cost $400 to replace!!!
On the other hand, my phone is well under $100 and even comes free with some services...
The other advantage of my phone is that the screen is rather tough...versus my Palm's touch screen which is rather "fragile".
For the $400 that you pay for one of those, I can buy my phone, and an new color Palm for the same price. And still have some $$$ left over for a nice case, a li-ion battery, and a few months of service.
if you can't remember to plug in your phone each night you've got problems.
Really? Well, I guess you're right then, because I still forget to take it out of my coat pocket...which brings me to another point...I don't guess it's very easy to fins accessories for this phone (cases, chargers, batteries, etc).
And as far as I can tell, that's still got to be fairly small compared to the screen on my Palm IIIxe.
As well, if I'm not mistaken, there have been complaints about the phone portion of that phone being of poor quality, poor integration with the PDA portion, etc. That's just the point, it's hard to do everything in one device...some thing has to suffer or the thing is going to be too expensive. Which yours is, but it still has problems. I don't doubt that you like your phone, just that alot of us don't see it the same way.
There are some fun GSM phones no doubt - but due to the huge expense of Euopean cell coverage, I actually bring my "Friggin-Huge" Iridium phone to Europe. The call quality sucks, but to call back home it only $1.50 per min - I'm usre there a plan out there that's cheaper but I've been too lazy to find one. It's quite a conversation starter - "Ill parlez avec les etoiles" is the best I can do with my poor French skills.
The best thing about the phone, is that the landline originating caller pays for the entire call! I hand out the number with no fear.
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Check this out, a $399 Motorola i95cl gets you:
- A color display, with no programmable color themes, no picture caller ID and no image upload. (maybe in an upgrade they say.)
- A nice Java Virtual Machine with some downloadable applications from Mot/Nextel.
- Two-way, and the rest of the Nextel iDEN features.
But, a $199 Sony Ericsso T68i on AT&T gets you:- Bluetooth AND Infrared.
- GPRS and a color graphic-supported microbrowser.
- A color display with uploadable themes, images, ringers, animations, screen savers.
- Killer talk and standby times
- Synchronization capable
Anyways, I just ordered a T68i from AT&T Wireless GSM. They are in the process of building out their GSM coverage, but I think it's worth it to be an early subscriber and taking advantage of lower phone and monthly costs. One thing about Nextel, is their rates are expensive!-Pat
In countries where SMS is popular, many people can type quite fast using a phone keypad. It's just a matter of practice.
Jesus, a week and a half ago Amazon.com had them for free with a contract. They only cost that much when they came out last November.
GSM is already encrypted. TDMA can be, dunno about CDMA, but it should be because of the unique public key tagging for calls.
from the it-fluffs-it-folds dept.
Fluffs? I'm getting one right away...
(sorry - I apologize for that.)
.sig last updated Jan. 14, 2000
In trying to avoid OS licensing fees, Motorola has shot themselves in the foot.
"Java-based OS" - While it may technically be cool, it's basically useless. An OS is as good as its applications, which means that unless you're using PalmOS or (dare I say it) Windows Crack Enhanced, you're dead in the water compared to the competition. No one is going to want to pay $$$ for a large phone that's NOT compatible with the majority of PDAs out there. (How many people have PDAs that are not PalmOS or WinCE? Not many. Linux PDAs are cool, but PalmOS is still the best in the market for PDAs in my opinion.)
Someone noted that the battery life listed for this is crap compared to most other phones - another reason this is "wannabe" that will never truly succeed. For many people, battery life is EVERYTHING. This is why I will NEVER touch a color-display phone. Motorola tried the integrated StarTac/PDA before, no one I knew bought it.
On the other hand, there's the Kyocera Smartphone 6035, which I have and I LOVE. It has killer battery life, runs all PalmOS apps, etc. It's bigger than a phone, yes. But considering I was carrying around a Palm III and a phone all the time before, it's a big improvement.
Kyocera's next-gen phone (Due out in Sept-Oct) is color (unfortunately), PalmOS based, has a larger screen in a smaller phone. (It's a flip phone and the graffiti area is on the keypad portion while the screen is on the main body. kewl. Something like those nextgen Palm concept designs that looked like the Graffiti area pulled out from inside the unit.)
Samsung's Palm-based phone is also far better than this thing and is Out There already, despite bad things I've heard about its abilities as a phone. (The review of it I saw indicated you have to dial the number on the touchscreen itself - screen fingerprints ahoy!)
I believe there are also some WinCE phones out there too, which will blow away any proprietary OS for phone use - Still not something I'd buy since CE devices are generally not known for good battery life.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Please don't embarass America any more with your pathetic spelling/grammar. (for the 100th time, you mean "their", not "there" - dumbass. And if you think that these phones use analog, think again.
The real reason America is so F'd up when it comes to cell phones is because we are so damn big. We simply have a lot of surface area in our country, and to produce phones that can work everywhere takes a lot longer. The logistics of it are just more complicated.
And, we have to drive EVERYWHERE. Unless you live in a city, chances are you are going to be in your car every day. If we were able to properly use public transportation, people might be more inclined to use phones. Well, not that they don't while they are driving, but those people aren't the highest memebers on the evolutionary scale.
I guess what I am trying to say is, we have a different kind of country. What we can't do in the way of cellphone technology, we make up for in other areas. (good or bad, take them for what they are)
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Just curious, what is wrong when the person who calls my phone gets stuck with all the charges? Why should I be charged just to answer my phone?
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.