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Alternatives to MSN+Verizon Wireless?
a.h.s. boy asks: "I took a little visit to my usually-neglected Verizon Wireless online account site today, and found myself greeted with the following message: 'Attention This site will not be available for use after October 2002. Please go to http://vzw.msn.com to set up a profile and start using our new VZW with MSN portal.' And now what does it take to login to my wireless phone site? That's right, .NET Passport account. I want one of those like I want a hole in my bedroom wall, however I really do want the convenience of getting my phone information online. I'm sure more and more sites are going to start requiring .NET passports for access, and even if I use bogus information for the Passport, it's still tied to my (quite non-bogus) cell phone records, isn't it? I already sent mail off to the Executive Office of Verizon Wireless to complain, but I can't imagine they're going to care what I think. What are others doing to work around the growing need for a Passport account?" For current customers of Verizon wireless, the question basically boils down to: "Should I stay or should I go?". For those opting for the latter, based on this latest twist, are there other cell-phone companies offering similar features to Verizon's service?
Is this really any different than a 'registration required' site?
Yes it is indeed, because as the person who asked the question pointed out, his cell phone records (name, address, and whatnot) are NOT imaginary. He could enter a fake email address if he wanted to, but that information would still be tied to his real name/address that his cell phone billing account is registered to.
So "Mickey Mouse, 1 Lois Lane" won't do. It's cyber-world tied to real-world and you can't fake the real-world end in this situation.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
Unfortunately, the ATT salesguy misled me about the data capabilities of the plan. He insisted that I could charge my voice minutes to any data (GPRS) accesses. Even when I mentioned that the ATT web site sells separate data packages he wouldn't budge. He said I could buy an "unlimited megabyte" package from $99 per month but otherwise I would just be charged voice minutes.
I didn't believe him so I called ATT directly and sure enough, he was flat-out wrong. They don't even have an unlimited data plan. No CSD either.
It seems that no wireless provider has a reasonable (cost-effective) data plan in place. I'm not going to pay $20/mo. for 5 measly megabytes of data transfer.
Anyone have ideas on this one? Since my mobile is my primary voice line I'm running out of data options. Cable/DSL won't be in my area until I've already moved away.
the .net messenger, wap portal is just for the web access on the phone. You cant reach billing through that login. You have a separate location, login/password for billing. FYI, You can still get to a yahoo messenger.
Go ahead and get it, I started playing around with the odd couple and added some calendar stuff to the msn calendar and found i could have stuff smsed to my cell and if I set it, i could have my cell smsed if i get a hotmail message from someone in my contacts or all messages or none. On the calendar side, you can set up a hunt deal where if a alarm goes off, if you are on your msn im, it msgs you there, if not it drops to email. or sms your cell.
The calendar MSN has can import palm calendar databases, which is more than i can say for yahoo since they switched apps. Yahoo used to import, but now they created a sync application and require you to download the app and install it. You use it in place of your usual hotsync application. They forgot something tho, some of us use USB cables. Yahoo gets the finger for that.
Which remote organization suite is better? I still say I like Yahoo. Yahoo wrote their own messenger client for use under linux. It works very close to the windows counterpart. If a alarm goes off on the calendar I get a message. If I receive new email, it messages me. A few other alerts are available through the client for stocks and other things I have no use for. Msn on the other hand, im left using the only client i can find that is stable on linux ccmsn. Totally featureless. MSN fails miserably by not having a linux client. They need to get their head out of their ass and wake up before it's their funeral.
DRACO-
Consider yourself blessed if you are sneezed on by a dragon and only get wet, it could have been a fireball.
Went to http://bill.verizonwireless.com/
Input my username/password
I now see my bill.
Nothing about MSN.
Yes, their online portal is a different story. They switched MyVZW from Infospace to MSN.
Not like I care.
My advice: Get a Kyocera Smartphone. No more need for the crappy $5/month Mobile Web WAP service, you now have a full-blown client side web browser, an excellent combo web/WAP browser (Blazer) is available for $20, and you get to use the hundreds of PQA apps that have been written for the Palm VII.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?