Slashdot Mirror
Life on the Road with 3G
david_adams writes "Since I first evaluated Sprint's new Vision "3G" high speed wireless data service in September of last year, I've had the opportunity to travel around the country, using the service to keep in touch with the world, receive all my spam, er, email, and do my work. I've used the service in hotels, restaurants, parked cars, moving cars, picnic tables, and airports, in huge cities, and in desolate stretches of interstate highway. Here are my impressions after this long term test."
...Can you hear me now?
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
One week, that's how long it lasted. The service blew chunks in and around Boston, and this was for just plain old PCS voice service, not fancy 3G stuff.
I got my money back and switched to Verizon, which works well.
From talking to people I know in europe, the reason SMS is so popular is that SMS messages cost a ton less than talking on the phone. I don't belive "continent wide free long distance" exists over there. Some places still charge by the min for land -line phone calls.
I've seen video phones being used here all the time... of course, cell phones have been big in Japan since... well the turn of the 18th century I think.... they all had mobile tin cans and very long lengths of string. Seriously, you'd wonder how they lived without it.
Anyways, advertising here is heavily promoting the use of 3G phones, the fear is despite the techno-addiction of most people here, there might not be enough people using it to be commercially viable. Some people ("gasp") get buy with JUST email on their phone and don't need to see crotch shots of their friend's pet dog sleeping!
Fuzzy Knights: New RPG Strips Tuesday and Friday!:
http://www.fuzzyknights.com
I've used the service in hotels, restaurants, parked cars, moving cars, picnic tables, and airports, in huge cities, and in desolate stretches of interstate highway.
You've certainly been serviced in a lot of places. Wait until you get married, then everything will change.
Best Windows Freeware
In Europe at least the 3G vendors like Hutchison and Vodafone will be sweating a little over whether Wi-Fi hotspots will steal potential market share away from their target markets.
Wi-Fi = cheaper, more widely supported. Also 3G handsets are going to be too expesive for most users, for a few years anyway.
Could be interesting to see how the technologies mature and maybe merge (3G PCMCIA cards?)
Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
The author seems puzzled by the popularity of SMS in Europe, but it's just simple economics. With most plans I've come across in England in France, it's cheaper to send an SMS than to make a 1-minute call. Rates overall are also more expensive, so getting in the habit of sending an SMS rather than making a call lowers your bills.
The other advantage is that in noisy environments like buses, subways, crowded hallways, etc. you don't have to shout over the crowd to get the message across. This keeps your neighbors from strangling you and lets you say your message once rather than repeating it 3 times.
Have you seen my stapler?
Well he says that he can get 12-18Kb/s per second on GPRS. Well thats not bad but here in the UK its just not worth doing. We are billed on a per Kb cost. To download a 1MB can pay upto US$8. Also the latency sucks so SSH over GPRS isn't the most friendly expierence in the world.
However we have just had Three lauch which should provide real 3G services. Now that should be cool. I can't wait to have to make sure my hair is neat when I answer a video call
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
I just bought phones for the wife and myself, and we decided to go with Verizon wireless, mostly cuz the Sprint coverage sucks around here. Does Verizon have some sort of data network so I can hook my laptop to the phone and have real ip (not dialup to my isp)?
/bin/fortune | slashdotsig.sh
I've used the "service" *wink wink nudge nudge know what I mean, know what I mean* in hotels, restaurants, parked cars, moving cars, picnic tables, and airports, in huge cities, and in desolate stretches of interstate highway.
First off, he's not talking about 3G. Not even close. If the Slashdot posting had said 2.5G, I'd have ignored it. I mean, I've been using GPRS in Boston on T-Mobile's network for over two years, and it's nothing to write about. He can't even read his email on his phone! Bah. I was using Outlook on my iPaq using a bluetooth connection to my GPRS enabled Nokia 6330i almost a year ago.
"For now, though, if you're "in the know," you can access the internet wirelessly from most urbanized areas in the United States for $10 per month, with only a threatened, unenforced restriction on usage."
Sounds like Sprint's got another 10,000 people "in the know" on their hands...
Have you seen my stapler?
* Lots of latency makes it dial-up like.
* Coverage is spotty at best
* It's impossible to use the phone as a browser.
* No other killer apps.
* The camera on the phone is shoddy.
* In summary: 2.5G wireless services suck.
* But hey, it's $10/month unlimited because Sprint can't get their billing system to work! Rock!
I got a Treo 300 on Sprint, and absolutely love the Blazer browser on it. Yes, it's http, not WAP, which I agree rather sucks. The speed is a bit slow (I can confirm 12-18 kbits/sec, often half that), but always-on free (as in beer) net access is just dead cool. The screen is considerably larger and clearer than other phones, even other Palm phones.
A number of sites from Google to the BBC have text versions which render beautifully on the little screen and seem to be served up automatically when I go to www.google.com etc. Even standard HTML renders decently, as Blazer reworks the page to fit the 160-pixel width. LWN comes in nicely with the little image on top, Debian Planet is cool too -- though it's a bit annoying that these sites' left sidebars render before the text you really want.
There are only two problems. Some sites don't come in at all (e.g. Slashdot, or I would have written this on the phone). And even with maximum rebates (if you had Sprint before, you're disqualified from most), it will set you back at least 300 bucks -- quite pricey for a "phone"!
It was fun to fiddle around with, but it took too long to get any useful information, and the tiny monochrome screen and "walled garden" web service didn't help. It was useful for monitoring a stock price, but not much else
/. while taking a crap???
I was an early adapter to AT&T's Wireless Web service, and have been using it quite successfully for about 2 years now. The problem the author mentions of the "walled garden" is real, but I found the real use of this service was as an email "article repository" for myself.
What I do is this...during the due course of the day I find many articles (slashdot included) that I do not have time to read. I set up my cell phone email account as a user on my home email program, and quickly send a copy to my phone account whenever I find something interesting.
This allows me to catch-up during down time, boring lunches, meetings with my project manager, etc. I have found this to be *very* useful in my day-to-day life.
Plus, how else could I catch up on
never bring a twinkie to a food fight.
So first of all, the /. title and the title of the article are "Life on the road with 3G," when he's not even using 3G? What the heck? From what I understand, 2.5G is an order of magnitude slower than 3G, isn't it?
Secondly, the whole article is pretty much a gripe/review of the specific Samsung A500 Hardware that he's using, and hardly even goes into the 2.5G service?!??! Thanks, buddy, for letting me know that the A500 has A. a crappy web browser, B. a crappy cable, and C. no bluetooth (crappy). I'm also glad to know that you think SMS is useless. That's really great to know IN YOUR SUPPOSED REVIEW OF 3G. WTF.
I know this has been said a bajillion times before, but could the editors please stop to read the stories they post once in a while?
Now that I have 3G on the road, what should I do with my life?
Forgot to mention Linux now supports hot-syncing to the Treo 300, though you need Greg K-H's latest kernel patch (visor driver v2.1, on kernel.org, should get into 2.4.21, may already be in 2.5), and a patched gnome-pilot. See the gnome-pilot and/or pilot-link list archives of the last couple of months for details.
Onward to supporting it as a USB net device!
Another article adding to the confusion.
Verizon and Sprint use CDMA2000, along with S.Korea.
The 2.5G vs 3G is a euro red herring to hide the UMTS mess (and propagated by US companies still using TDMA/GSM technology). GSM and GPRS/Edge will never be able to compete with the speed, quality and capacity of the CDMA2000 network. Japan, like Europe, is trying to create a 3G network not based on the US flavor of CDMA, they call it WCDMA. It's all more political then technical and in the end QualComm will make all the money. UMTS is a few years off and will require 2 network upgrades for the service providers to get to 3G.
A little research would have showed that Sony Ericsson will be releasing the t608 for Sprint which is Bluetooth enabled. The t608 is perhaps the big brother of the t68i.
2 8
http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=2
Also, using a phone connected to a computer via a data cable is a violation of the Sprint Terms of Service. If you do it enough they will charge you. The Unlimited Vision plans are intended to be used via handset and not cables. Sprint has the wireless internet cards for a reason and if you use these cards you get fast speed compared to the data cable method. Right now Sprint is assumably letting data cable internet usage slide because not a lot of people do it, but if it becomes popular they will start cracking down and many people will see lots of charges on their bill from it.
You've been warned.
wow, that's new. My mobile is a year old and supported GPRS (ie G2.5) on Orange out of the box. Granted I'm in the UK, but this isn't really new and it is defiantly not G3.
The huge problem with G2.5 is not bandwidth, but latency. If you try running TCPIP over GPRS, it all goes to pot due to the 2sec+ latency. TCP is just not optimised to work well with such a long delay. Hopefully G3 will perform better than this.
Oh and try to convince any european teenager that SMS is a waste of time. I have a contract which gives me loads of free off-peak min (to any network) but charges me a small fortune to make calls during the day. For me a 1 min call during the day to a mobile on a different network costs the same as 5 or 6 text messages.
.sig (insert funny sig here)
As the article notes, it is really 2.5G service. Nevertheless, I think the author's experience mirrors mine in a lot of ways.
1. SMS is way overrated. It has its place, but given the tariffs in the US, it will never be a big deal. Calling is just too cheap.
2. Data interfaces suck on phones. Everyone keeps predicting the demise of PDAs, but my Handspring Visor Neo with the Sprint PCS module (available for $20) kills any "phone" out there. Go to a bigger (compared to a phone) Treo (for an arm and a leg), and the web is usable.
3. Phones need a better way to get data in and out. At a minimum, maybe a USB cable to synch data from a desktop/laptop. Again, my Visor/PCS phone rules here. I can't believe the Samsung phone inthe review wastes all the features by lacking that simple item. I hadn't considered "how the features work" when I looked at that phone a few months ago -- gotta add that criteria to my list. I do not want to enter several hundred addresses on a fricking phone keypad.
4. What I want in a phone/pda/service plan are the following:
a. desktop synch
b. a decent, usable screen/browser
c. a smallish form factor (less than my currrent clunky rig, but super-duper small isn't a big deal to me)
d. palm-like features (handwriting recognition, scheduler, phonebook, to-do list)
e. lots of third party developers and apps
f. total cost $100
g. good coverage (very important)
h. 1 meg/day of transfer for data
i. under $50/mo.
j. 250 primetime minutes, free weekends/nights
I have compromised on some of those things, but I still haven't found everything I want in my market. Video phones don't interest me. Ditto cameras and MP3 players. I want my phone and PDA to converge for basic web/mail/phone capabilities in one usable, comfortable package for a reasonable price.
Lots of petrified grits
i am happy with verizon's service, though have not travelled with it... this summer hopefully... speed is pretty good. what did people get k/s with sprint? my experience has been uneven, but 88k with a good connection.
One of his major gripes with the service is the lack of Bluetooth phones. I read on PhoneScoop that Sprint PCS is going to start selling a Bluetooth enabled wireless phone very soon, in about May or so. The phone will be the Sony-Ericson T608, which is one hell of a phone, running the Symbian OS.
The only difference between this phone and the T610 that was featured earlier on Slashdot is that this phone doesn't have a built in camera. Not a big deal for me. I'm looking forward to having Bluetooth wireless data and synchronization with a Powerbook would be the shit!
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
3 options. The free, the limited, and the expensive-but-oso-cool option.
Free: Plug in the USB cable and make sure you have the necessary drivers and the phone set to the right setting. Typically, you're limited to 14.4k but it only uses normal airtime with NO extra charges.
Limited: You can pick a plan with either limited airtime for data or limited usage (like 40mb a month for example).
Expensive but oso cool: $99.99 a month gets you unlimited, any time of day, bandwidth at constant ~140kbps at peak time and ~170-180+kbps at offpeak hours. I've heard great things about this if you plan on using this a lot.
You'll need a phone capable of doing this. Most newer phones support it. Check Ebay for a USB cable. It shouldn't cost you more than $11 especially if you check eforcity.com
For example, my Motorola T720 is recognized as a usb modem when I plug it into my computer. Since I don't pay for any of the plans I mentioned above, I get 14.4. Still good for checking email or browsing low-graphic sites.
The official info about this kind of stuff can be found here at Verizon.
I must say if you get near a big city like boston 3G is AWESOME. Its like having a portible cable modem. But closer to where i live i get at most 8KB/sec and the connection drops sometimes (near Hartford, CT and western Massachusetts). I also tried useing on vacation in cape cod last summer to download some debian isos...did'nt work out too well i maxxed out at about 3KB/sec and lost my connect a lot.
I have the Kyocera 2235 Phone and a USB cable, its a pretty good combo for portibility but you can't charge the phone while you use the net, which sucks really bad IMO. Ive been stuck at my GFs parents house before and stayed up all night MUDing with it and run out of juice. The next day i went to verizon and told them and all the guy said is "Its not supposed to be used like that, its designed for mobile use." or something along those lines. I would have dropped Verizon then just for giving me that cheeze ass line but I have a really good phone number and don't want to lose it....
Won't you be my my neighbor?
For my uses, 3G is overpriced and overrated. OK - the transfer rates are pretty good (especially compared to GSM or 2.5G), but the latencies still suck making it unpleasant for remote administration.
From the point of view of people who want to have fun (play games), 3G sucks because of the latency.
There have been a few cool uses of 3G so it's not all lost - I live in the Isle of Man, and Manx Telecom's mobile arm (Pronto) are doing 3G trials. One use is a bus full of computers they drive around to various schools around the country. The bus is networked by a single 3G handset and according to the piece in the newspaper, has worked out pretty well as a mobile 'net cafe.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
"Like I said, I can't understand the text messaging phenomenon, since when I want to talk to someone it's a lot easier to just call them than to poke around on my keypad to compose a message, though I must admit that I'm impressed with the magic of T9."
erhm, T9 has been around now for how many years ? I even had it on my crappy nokia phone 4 years ago. I don't really see the point of getting all that excited about it, let alone mention it in a review about "3G (but he really means 2.5G) network usage"...has shown 3G to be pretty ok for some things, but crappy for others. ssh is just impossible over 3G.
I'd rather run X over dialup than try running ssh over 3G. I never really figured out why, but I was more interested in that it didn't work than why.
Anyway, just adding my thoughts.
Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. God, how I love it. - Gen. George Patton
I got mine working about 4 months ago. The realization of the cool geek factor finally set in after a Christmas party. My girlfriend had to drive me home as I was quite drunk, and I somehow managed to hook everything up and rant to my friends on IM whilst traveling at 80MPH on the freeway.
I decided then that it was cool.
OMG, jorje bush just dropped the thermel global nucular bomb on iraq!!!
Any submissions coming directly from the author or someone who works for the site being submitted. Obviously this guy used the term 3G to get his article posted. Frankly, between the recent 2 page fluff review of Mandrake 9.1 on Osnews and this supposed 3G review, I'm not impressed with either site. I guess their strategy is to get their half-baked articles submitted on /. to generate impressions and click-throughs. This strategy appears to be working.
3GUpload
3GVisionCorrection
REALLY help you use the most of your phone with minimal spending.
McD
People who are against human cloning must be bitter they are not good enough to be cloned.
has anyone gotten thier kyocera 2235 to work in linux?
Won't you be my my neighbor?
I've had the service since early November, and I will be a sad, sad little boy if they ever deactivate it or change the pricing structure unfavorably. I principally use it with my laptop, and it's absolutely magnificent.
I have the Sanyo 4900 phone, fwiw, and it shows up to Linux as a USB modem using the standard acm.o driver. I get a pretty high latency, about 350ms ping to my gateway, but the bandwidth is around 20K/s (that's kiloBYTES) when I'm in a strong service area, averages around 12 if I'm moving around. Coverage is good, albeit not perfect. I drove from Atlanta to St Louis with a ping going the whole time, and lost less than 10 packets. There are a few dead zones in the rural area south of St Louis where my parents live, but not many (and we haven't found ANY cell phones that work in those areas, T-Mobile and Cingular all die in the same places)
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
GSM/GPRS/EDGE has a huge advantage because it is already there, and cheap to upgrade. In reality you will probably get a dial-up quality service on GPRS - everywhere! I suspect the latency issues will go away as the standards guys work out some good solutions and it propogates through into the operator's kit.
The big question is 3G. Where will it be profitable, and where will it be needed. BTW, both CDMA2000 and UMTS (the European standard) are WCDMA technologies - it stands for Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). There will be a need for it in many built up areas because of capacity limitations in GSM (voice is still the killer app). China is one of the big markets for UMTS - they have their own flavour of it. It's a million quid to apint of warm beer that Qualcomm won't make any money of patent licensing in China!
Oh, and only 1 newtwork upgrade should be required, as GPRS has already been rolled out. You need a new radio end, but the core should all stay the same.
regards, treefrog
I bought an A500 a few months ago because SprintPCS was temporarily offering unlimited Vision service. On my old phone I used WAP on it every day and relied on it to read my Yahoo mail. There were hundreds of great WAP sites (sprint even added new ones to the list every week), but now with the Vision I can't even use most of them because "WAP browser on the A500 sucks". I thought using the internet on the phone it would be just like before, but including access to nice colorful mobile sites in addition to the old WAP sites. I was wrong and now I'm out $300. I can still access Yahoo mail, which is what I use the phone for most of the time, but now I have to enter my user name and password every single time, which is a pain to do on a keypad (the old WAP browsers stored these before). I can't wait until next November when I can change cell phone companies and keep my phone number.
"the feature of this phone and the SprintPCS Vision service that I use most, and the one that fills me with enthusiasm and awe, is the one that SprintPCS itself wants to underplay: the ability to connect it to my laptop computer."
i use verizon unlimited service for $99/mo. on a dedicated card. i wish the article actually mentioned tasks accomplished and coverage areas, rather than an off hand mention of arizona. for me, this is the future... i want to connect anywhere with decent bandwidth!
There is absolutly no better way to connect via a laptop if you are looking for widespread / cheap connection. I've been using the Hydra cable and Vision service for about 3 months. It is absolutly great. I get coverage from North Dakota to Texas. Solid.
The phones can receive SMS (except they call it "notifications", because that's what they use to notify you of new Short Mail and new regular mail).
"Short Mail" is very similar to SMS, except it is web-based. To compose a Short Mail message, you have to use the browser, and the message is uploaded to the server, and then an SMS notice is sent. The recipient has to use the browser to read the message.
The web stuff is slow enough to make this annoying. It's almost useless when you just want to dash off a quick message.
I was very suprised to see Sprint marketing their service using the '3G' buzzword. Here in Europe, 3G phones are only just becoming available. So unless the U.S. has suddenly made incredible progress this is very misleading since these are not 3G phones.
GPRS, SMS, multimedia messaging, HSCSD (up to 60kbps) and WAP are NOT specific to 3G. These are all already available on the so-called 2.5G network for years.
It seems that yet again, stupid marketing people are going to cause mass confusion.
I concur. Additionally, the most important thing about ANY wireless service is coverage.
I'm a former Sprint customer specifically because the service is awful. I dropped about every other call.
You can't roll out service like this for anything important (aka your business) w/o being sure coverage is excellent. And what do we get from this review? A short blurb about the great coverage in Arizona, where you can see all the way to Las Vegas on a good day.
Somebody please wake me for the detailed review on coverage from Wheeling, WV to Bangor, ME. From Colorado Springs to Steamboat Springs. From San Francisco all the way to Seattle.
Until then the rest of this review is pretty much covered here unless the suck factor of 2 inch WAP browsing is new to you.
Operator, give me the number for 911!
As discussed in the feature, it would be hard for me to judge my usage in MB. Isn't the only unmetered Verizon plan about $100 per month? How has it worked for you?
I've been waiting on the T608, too. It looks like a great phone. How much will they cost? Is Sprint keeping the current rate plans for them? A Bluetooth, unmetered connection would be a jump forward.
You haven't the slightest idea of whether God exists or not. You don't even have any evidence one way or the other.
Someone here is lying. This is 2.5G 3G won't be around in the States for a while. The first European 3G networks are rolling out as we speak and in the coming months. Sorry.
--
This sig is inoffensive.
The data access rates are very nice - I can get 25 k/sec from bandwidth test sites. Almost sounds too good to be true...!
I am an RF Engineer working for a major wireless provider, and have worked with several of the technologies in use in the US.
The difference between CDMA 2000 3G service and GPRS 2.5G service is about as much as say, a McDonalds hamburger and one you cooked yourself on the grill. They may seem the same on paper, you may describe them as being similar, but the difference in practice is night and day.
GPRS is indeed a fairly simple update to a GSM system. As such, it inherits GSM's spectral inefficiency. All the new data systems (CDMA2000, UMTS/WCDMA, and GPRS) deliver data based on available resources. In other words, you get great throughput, but you must share with everyone else. If there are lots of people trying to use it, the service is slow for everyone. This is important, because you don't just share the spectrum with other data users, you share it with voice users as well. This is where the spectral inefficiency of GSM really hurts GPRS. A few (and I do mean few) voice calls reduce the throughput you can expericence from a respectable 60k down to just a few k. Try and find a cell site without even a few calls on it and you can see why this would be unpleasant.
CDMA2000 on the other hand is much more spectrally efficent. Yes, your data throughput will slow down as more users enter the cell (voice and data), but there is so much more capacity on the cell that the slowdowns are not as dramatic. You really can experience very nice web browsing and file downloading speeds. Latency is an issue, and will be for quite a while, as the RF scheduler (the algorithim and decides when and how much bandwidth to give you) requires a long time to make its decision. I've found that the service in a decent coverage area is far better then any dialup service.
Just my thoughts.
You cannot make something up and put the burden of proof on the opposing side of the argument. There is no evidence god exists. There is no evidence that he DOESN'T exist either, but that's because he has been defined in a way that makes him untestable. Weak argument.
The real deception is on the part of the GSM providers who like to pretend that GPRS is equivilent to CDMA2000. They are not. Achieving a throughput of more then a few kilobytes per second on a GPRS system is a near impossibility for a real world system. CDMA2000 throughput speeds are very usable, and make for a better experience then you can get with dialup.
SprintVision? Ironic they would call it that with the jpegs so messed up.
I have been using my own a500 and my laptop on the road for about 3 months now. When I have a signal strong enough to talk I am usually able to use the data stream (although this was not the case in West Virginia in a few towns).
One thing David does not point out is that the connection between the latop and the phone is constantly hanging up and redialing, even while you are attempting to download a file or load a URL. That said, I have been able to download a 50 mb file that seemed intact despite the phone redialing the connection every 2 minutes or so. And I was pleased that I averaged about 12 k/s on my download.
I agree that this method is great for email, but it is terrible for web browsing. The compression is intolerable and slow even when you allow that horrible jpeg compression. I have used a proxy server to load pges in their full glory, but it can take up to 2 minutes to load a single page. While the download bandwidth seems to be great (it's hard to complain with up to 15 k/s wireless dl speeds), the latency is quite poor. And the fact that my phone keeps hanging up and redialing each minute makes it too unreliable for anything like instant messaging.
I'm on the road a lot these days, so I need this service. But once I settle down in a few months I'll be getting rid of the $10/month service. It's neat and cool, but not worth it as a primary internet connection.
There is no evidence god exists.
Sure there is. Look around you. The universe exists. We cannot conceive of something existing without having been created, therefore the universe was created. We have no knowledge whatsoever of how the universe was created, so we can make any guesses we like about the mechanism of that creation. We have some evidence to support the idea of a big bang; that's fine, but it fails to answer the question of what caused the big bang.
So we have this giant, overwhelming piece of evidence (the universe) and no theories to account for it. God is as good an explanation as any.
Cell Phone execs want to sell your eyeballs to a web site. To them, a laptop is an expensive thing that workers want so that they can screw off working at home.
It's the same attitude that the wireline folks had in the late 70's and early 80's (why would anyone want to connect a modem to their phone?).
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
"See you at the train station" can often mean just that - if they know what train you're on. Nothing more needs to be said. I'm calling all the time with messages like "There in 15min", where the definaition of "There" changes but is understood by the receiving party.
In fact, I could probably live with a small set of predefined messages that I could send with the press of a button. I'm not sure I'd really make more than a few calls a month on my cell phone if I had that, and the ability to receive text messages...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
After reading about the unlimited PCS vision for only $10 over my regular plan I decided to try it. I typically spend 3-4 hours a day commuting to my job, to help that time pass faster I have already developed various techniques for getting work down such as preloading various websites, email, and code that I'm working on. Although some of the tools I develop can be run on my laptop running windows, others cannot and I hoped to be able to expand the range of stuff I can work on in transit.
I ordered a new phone, the sanyo 4900, that supported all the typical in-phone features such as email, messaging, and web browsing. It also has a USB for connecting a laptop etc. Since I already had an existing sprint pcs service most of the rebates weren't available, so I ended up paying full price for the new phone.
When I first got the phone I tried out some of the in-phone "3G" features, such as the built in browser, but found it very slow and clumsy. I typically would wait 30-60 seconds every time I tried loading a new page. Trying to type a url in using the keypad is extremely painful, and it seems many webpages just won't render in any usable way on such a tiny screen. I already have two email addresses, so I haven't made any real effort to use the sprint email.
The main way I now use the vision service is by connecting via USB to my laptop. This gives me a real web browser, and makes it possible to connect to my work via VPN.
Like the article says the latency is very high. Typically in the range of 500mS. Also the jitter (the variability in the latency) is very high as well, I often get latencies that vary from 200mS up to 1.2 S! This latency is most noticable if you try to use a terminal connection to login to a remote machine. Trying to type anything with a latency that high is downright painful. I have learned to keep an buffer in my head of what I have typed because I typically won't see it echoed back for 2-3 seconds after I type. For web browsing the latency is noticable, but usable.
Obviously writing code with such high latency is painful, fortunately there is another way. Trying to run a filesystem such as NFS is not really doable under these conditions, but ftp works fine. I typically work by loading source via ftp, editing, saving it back, and then using a (extremely slow) terminal to compile and execute with output redirected to a log file. I then load the log file (again with ftp) debug, edit code and repeat. Fortunately vim has built in ftp support so I can just load a file by saying ftp://hostname/dirpath/filename and then from then on it gets treated as a regular file.
salsa_43 n0spam-at yahoo.com
Sprint is all hype. Every person I've ever known that has had Sprint cellular service constantly complained. I had it for a few years and finally went with Cellular One (before they were bought by AT&T). The change was dramatic (no dropped calls, no dead spots in Berkeley, CA), and I haven't even talked about customer service: Sprint is among the worst.
Consumer Reports had a big cellular service comparison recently (I'd give a link, but you need to be a subscriber to view it). Sprint was at the bottom.
It's true. There are still no rules defining even the entire creation of the universe. If someone wants to study it in detail, just scientifically compare Genesis 1 to archealogical evidence.
not for cellular at least....
h ee ts/portable.html
http://www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Common_Carrier/Facts
...you'd see he says that right off the bat...
In the article, the author states: "If I could set up my AIM or ICQ account to redirect to my phone when I'm away from my computer, it would be much more heavily used."
You can! But you need to own a Handspring Treo 300. There is a fantastic third party PalmOS instant messaging app designed speficically with the Sprint Vision service in mind.
It's called Verichat. Not only does it let you use all the major IM networks on your Treo cellphone but goes a step further. Whenever you leave the app to do something else or to simply put the phone in your pocket you remain online via a special proxy server they set up. To all your IM buddies you appear to remain online. If you disconnect from the data services, it will even forward you the message via a special SMS interface where you can then do a quick reply or start a new chat session. When you get to your computer you just sign on to IM and it disconnects you from thier proxy server.
I've been using this great program/service since it's beta days and I recommend it as the ultimate solution for anybody who wants true Instant Messaging anywhere.
Universe expansion is explained by the big bang theory, not by god creating the universe. Humans have done this all throughout history... if something is hard to explain, some attribute it to a deity. Others look for scientific explanations.
I have a few friends in my classes who have this. Sprint "Vision" unlimited plan ($100 / mo) + laptop with wireless card in Ad-Hoc mode makes a few people very happy :)
$100 / mo is far too expensive for me (the poor college student), but if you can afford it you'll be happy. 256Kb/s from Socorro NM is nothing to laugh at.
-- Bill "Houdini" Weiss
Exactly... a long time ago people thought lightning and thunder were created by god. Now we know what causes it and the mystery is gone. No more need to say "god did it".
"I've downloaded a bunch of little apps and ringers for the phone, and that's a good way to kill time while you're waiting in line for something, but it's hardly a killer app. Also, the "official" downloads from SprintPCS seem really expensive. Everything costs at least $1, but that can really add up, especially since everything only include a time-limited license, usually 90 days. So you download a ringer for $1, and you don't like it, so you're out $1. But if you do like it, you have to pay another dollar in three months just to keep it."
I have had java apps expire on my Sanyo 4900, but I've never had a ringer expire. Actually, any non-java download seems to ignore the expiration. Maybe that's a "feature" of his phone, or a "bug" in mine.
Haw-haw!
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
First, some background. I previously had analog service with Southwestern Bell Wireless. After they failed to properly credit payments, they killed my service on a weekend while I was out of town. Naturally, none of their customer service numbers got me to anyone on the weekend. So, at the end of 1999, I went to Sprint.
/., I decided to upgrade. (Plus, with the current pricing, we'd have more minutes available, plus unlimited Vision, all for less money per month than we were paying before.)
I got the Touchpoint phone, which worked well. I never really used the wireless web functions because of the pricing. It served me well.
Finally, at the end of 2002, with the unlimited Vision offers, and the description of how to use the phone with your computer here on
Wife and I both got the Samsung N400. I'll agree with most of what the article's author has stated about the A500. The unit itself works well enough, although I have encountered the periodic software glitch that requires me to power cycle the phone. Only other complaint about the phone itself is that the calendar and alarm functions don't provide an option to snooze the alarm.
Many of the web sites that are supposed to be 'mobile' don't work with the browser on this phone. I know that the A500 has a bit more functionality than the N400, but if there's a better browser that I can use on the N400, I'd like to hear about it. Another gripe on the browser is that it won't let you hit another link until the graphics are loaded....annoying. And the link from Sprint's own page to the Weather Channel never works....
As for using the data side of things, I agree that the built-in browser is of limited use. I mainly find myself hitting Yahoo to check things like weather. (Oddly, Yahoo's site doesn't provide a URL that this browser likes...hafta go through the Canadian Messenger site, then when you close, it gives you the option to go to Yahoo. Since I don't see Sprint ads plastered on the Yahoo pages, I'm guessing that Yahoo is making life difficult for Sprint users due to marketing issues.) I'm also in full agreement that the various messaging services (e-mail, SMS, etc.) on the phone are too cumbersome to bother with.
When using the laptop with the FutureDial software, latency is of course rather poor. It hasn't become a replacment for dialup, but works pretty well, and it's handy to have the ability to check my mail anytime I have my laptop and a signal. The image compression does kind of suck though, so I was glad to see that mentioned. Also glad to see it can be dealt with by using different ports.
Ok, here's a question for you guys. My dad was on a plane from Chicago to Switzerland and there was a guy sitting next to him connected to the Internet. Now, my dad is not a tech type and so I thought that this guy was simply pulling his legs. But I was amazed when my dad said that he was able to pull up live score updates to a game on a website and also news on his favourite news website. This guy said that he had special connection provided by his company that was always on. My dad didn't see any little satellite dish or anything around him either. Since he's not the tech type as I mentioned above, he doesn't remember what the guy said about how he has a "always live" (even in a plane at 30,000 ft) connection. I am dying to find out how you can do this. Does anyone know?
Using the Gomadic cable you can still dial up with Sprint PCS (Verizon, and other services) phones and get 19.2kbps which isn't much but still gives your PDA or Laptop web access using your existing phone. Still usefull for checking email.
I have owned a t-mobile sidekick for a while. It renders HTML very well, with images. The backend I think is mozilla based. It does aol instant messenger well and email. It is truely several steps ahead of all the pathetic wap based browsers. I use it all the time, when I am in the bookstore I look up the reviews on amazon.com. When I am waiting for a bus here in San Francisco I use the take transit trip planner website to find out when the next bus is coming. I never buy a paper again I just read the news on cnn on my sidekick.
The author mentions that SMS would be more useful if he could forward AIM messages to his phone...
I have found 2 solutions to forwarding iconming instant messenger messages to my cell phone.
1. Trillian Pro + AIMForwarder plugin (or something like that) This is a little buggy, but it works with any of the 4 protocols used by trillian
2. imforwards.com - their system monitors your connectivity,and when you sign off it signs on as you, and forwards your sms device any incoming messages. you can also reply from your phone. (its free)
no comment
Text messaging is great for many things. Messaging people is not one of them. We have a rather large network of public Internet terminals and payphones. Each machine sends logs every 2 hours saying how much money they have made, and if theirs a problem, such as a unexpected reboot, money jam, etc.
Its pretty useful, and everyone around me knows that my computers "are always talking to me"
I deleted my sig years ago.
It?s been a comedy of errors since the start.
The phone came with a mail-in rebate for a free extended battery, which could be redeemed either by phone or via the web. Initially the web site would not accept my ESN number? insisting that it was too short. Having worked for in wireless I KNOW what an ESN number is. I tried several different browsers on both a Mac and a PC. No dice.
Calling the hotline several times over a period of a week yielded nothing but long hold times and disconnects. I waited a few weeks, tried the web site again. This time a pop up message let me know that the ESN# number that I was using was ?already redeemed?. I gave up at this point. I?ve since gotten accustomed to recharging my phone every night.
I purchased the phone before going on a trip and it worked fairly well. I was in a small city in upstate New York and was very pleased that everything worked so reliably? and then I returned home to Seattle.
Much to my disappointment the phone is almost useless in my apartment unless I use it while it?s on a flat surface with a headset near the window. If I move it or pick it up? dropped signal? and it?s too late to cancel the plan without paying through the nose. This is completely my fault? but sometimes it?s impossible to plan your life around testing a cell phone properly. The only building interiors that I get a reliable strong signal is the Sprint store and Starbucks!
Worse yet? the phone SHUTS OFF after a while if it doesn?t get a signal so even when I go back to a covered area my phone is off and I miss calls.
This is the fourth cell phone that I?ve owned and I?ve gotten accustomed to using them as a replacement for my watch and as an alarm clock. Not so with the a500. It only keeps time when it has a signal. This makes it useless as calendar because I can?t keep pulling it out of my pocket to see if it?s on.
I canceled the Vision service after two months and took my minute plan down to cheapest plan they offer. I was originally very excited about downloading games and ringers? until I actually tried it. Sprint was retooling their website when I signed up and I had to wait several weeks before I could download anything. Not that it was worth it the wait.
Most of the games are pay for play. While there are some games without time limits on them? they tend to be unpleasant to play. The checkers game just plain doesn?t work! Call me cheap? but I really resent having to pay a Tetris bill every few months! And would it kill Sprint to have a screenshot of the games available?
I've considered canceling the plan outright and going to another company but I?ve been laid off and that?s an expense that I can?t afford right now.
"Under the spreading chestnut tree, I sold you and you sold me."
Exactly... a long time ago people thought lightning and thunder were created by god. Now we know what causes it and the mystery is gone. No more need to say "god did it".
Okay, what causes lightning? Electrical discharges through the air. Okay, what causes those discharges? Potential difference between the upper atmosphere and the ground. What causes that difference? Ionization in the upper atmosphere. What causes the ionization? Solar radiation. What causes solar radiation? Nuclear fusion. What causes nuclear fusion? The strong nuclear force. What causes the strong nuclear force?
Uhh. God did it?
The mystery isn't gone. It's just moved.
For those, like me, who have a A500 Samsung phone, you'll be interested in this site.
It'll give you interesting tidbits of information about the phone, and how to get around limitations set forth by phone carriers in terms of available data (images, sounds and software) that you can download to the phone.
Have you tried Reqwireless WebViewer? It's an HTML (not WAP) browser that works on the A500, N400, and most other Java-enabled phones. The Samsung phones don't provide the best experience due to their slow speed and lack of heap memory, but we've still had a number of A500 and N400 users buy WebViewer. (I work for Reqwireless and helped develop WebViewer.)
My wife uses her Sanyo 5300 and SprintPCS for a cellular camera-enabled blog.
We've found the Sanyo 5300 to be worthless for general Web surfing under SprintPCS. But it makes a very handy camera, and I set up a system so she can email pictures to her blog for immediate display. The camera doesn't do well in low light, but the form-factor is just too cool. She lugged around a very small tablet computer webcam for a while, but now she just carries the cellphone.
Wow, I never thought I would see someone use the word link feature of the nuke variants as advertising. I don't like it one bit. I've been testing the verizon version of 2.5G, and you are lucky to get dialup speeds out of it.
ignorance is bliss. googlefiberatx.com
Have you tried Reqwireless WebViewer? It's an HTML browser for the Sanyo 5300 and other Java-enabled phones. Our Sanyo 5300 users seem to enjoy WebViewer. (I work for Reqwireless and helped develop WebViewer.)
I signed up for the Vision service since it was free for 3 months (and since I already had the cable to sync to my PC, it was a easy decision).
In short: I live in Rochester, NY and I found the service to be rather slow and my connection intermittent. Now, mind you, on a good day (rare, but it happened), I could get between 10 - 14 KB/sec, so the potential was there. I don't think the phone was the problem (I have a Sanyo SCP-4900) It's rarely dropped a call and voice quality tends to be pretty good. (As opposed to the POS Samsung I had last year, ugh!)
Just my 2 cents.
I've never really seen the use of a camera on a phone. The quality isn't going to be very good and once the novilty wears off, it's pretty much useless.
The only thing I think I could use the camera on a phone for is to get a camera into places they won't normaly let you take cameras....
like strip clubs.
WANDA is the tech you're looking for... Texas Instruments. it's the Wireless Any Network Digital Assistant and it works on 802.11b, Bluetooth and GSM (presumably GPRS as well as a subset of GSM).
9 65 E8CC256CEE0006F27B
http://pcworld.co.nz/webhome.nsf/nl/EB632492204
Apologies for the evil URL - damned Notes.
I am a leaf on the wind
SMS may be cheaper in Europe, but in the US it's the other way around. You pay 10 cents a message *extra* no matter what, while any voice call you make is usually with the already-paid-for minutes included with your plan.
So in the US, SMS is mostly a zooty novelty service for gadget freaks and people with unlimited expense accounts. In reality it adds little value but much cost, so it hasn't caught on.
I shopped around a bit and chose Verizon's Express Network. Here's my experience:
CHOOSING A SERVICE
There are two technologies to choose from, at least in my area (forgive me for not sorting out the acronyms): Good old data over the plain old cell connection (up to 19.2 Kbps before compression, often advertised at some wishful compressed speed of ~40 Kbps) and the new high speed data networks (up to 144 Kbps).
I tried Nextel's 19.2. It is painfully slow. I haven't experienced anything like it since I replaced my 14.4 modem with a 28.8. You'll see it advertised as 'up to 56K' (because the 19.2 Kbps is compressed, don't you see?), which is a big big stretch; you'll never see more than 40 AFAIK, and that's only for compressable data (i.e. text, but almost no multimedia). Useful for emergencies, but you'd better check what's in your pop mailbox before you click download. Nextel helpfully puts all attachments in zip files during the download, which is a problem with less skilled computer users.
I'm now using Verizon's 144. There is some technical problem with signal strength, but I think it will be resolved when they replace the card. Otherwise, connects in a few seconds and works very well and at nearly the advertised speed. Service area for 144 is small (e.g. Verizon has nothing in Colorado at all), but it backs down to 19.2 when I'm not in the 144 footprint. Watch out for 'roaming' costs if outside the 144 footprint.
In general: First, look carefully at the their service footprints. Also, nobody provides an SMTP server for reasons I can't fathom, so BYO. Some options if you lack your own: smtp.com, though I've had performance problems with them, or a $10/month Earthlink dialup account provides an authenicated smtp server that works great.
CHOOSING A PROVIDER
I've had experience with two:
Nextel provided one of the worst customer service experiences of my life, but that was their billing department. In customer service or tech support, it is hard to find anyone who knew they sold a wireless Internet product, much less someone who could provide any help. Due to the billing nonsense alone, I will personally avoid them whenever possible. On the plus side, they offer unlimited 'up to 56K' service for $50/month, which is easily the best price.
Verizon provided their usual excellent service once I found someone who knew about their wireless products: For sales, call the 800-2JoinIn number. For support, 800-308-3282. Their compression software is a bit immature, so I disabled it. Otherwise, I'm happy if the signal strength problem gets fixed.
--
"data" is not the plural of "anecdote."
- Robert L. Park
How is the coverage of the broadband service? If you pay the $99, do you get a broadband connection wherever there's digital coverage? Also, does the $99 plan require a contract, or can you do it month to month like you can with their other options? Also, if I add Canada to my national (US) plan, will it work up there?
I have Verizon but I've never gotten around to trying the regular free service. 14.4k may be slow, but it's plenty fast for email. Now that the cables are available cheap I'll have to give it a go.
The t608 is CDMA.
The t68i is GSM.
Phone Details: http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?id=228
At my company we currently use 9 of the Verizon Wireless Aircard 555 cards to get onto their 3G(2.5G) 1x Express Network.
Coverage is patchy, but decent. Large external antennas are not readily available, so custom antennas are used tuned by a local antenna company. Modifications to the cantenna design used sometimes with 802.11 also work, but of course they are highly directional. Signal strength really only has to do with your likelyhood of getting knocked off, not with your throughput.
Throughput on average is comparable to a 56k dial-up w/o the use of their propiatary Venturi Compression software which is not compatible with our application. Latency is pretty bad and sort of kicks our database snyc app in the balls as far as speed goes. SSL is also a bit problematic, but it hasn't kicked me off yet until after bank transactions preformed completed(sometimes knocks you off when disengaging an SSL session).
The main software(sans Venturi), works pretty well, and the new update allows XP to recognize the network connection better once initiated.
Updating your Preferred Roaming List is a must. The preferred roaming list is the list of valid cell towers that the card can use. (its *22890 from the voice tab in watcher, have no idea what sprint's is.)
Internet Printing to main office printers can be very slow, for example just a test page takes 2 minutes before the destination server gets it all and tells the printer to start printing.
Here's the biggest tip I can give you, when you get the card, throw away the disk that comes with it. Jump on the web and grab the newest software/driver then burn it/throw it on a pen drive, whatever you got to do. You will thank yourself for not being lazy and just using the pack-in-disk for now and upgrading later. (Especially on your XP clients!)
Pretty nice to be able to do these things, but for $99/mo unlimited, I would at this time expect more bandwidth. But, I do think we are lucky. In an era where they think we want to A, Take Pictures??? with our phone, B, Instant Message with a phone keypad?!??, C, Run our batteries down with games when the battery doesn't last very long anyway?!?! -- They actually have something out that is useful. I would like to see true 3G happen tommarow still, but you know I guess maybe at this point you would think that any phone you buy would have bluetooth, and you would be wrong. I still haven't seen a phone that is better than my StarTac.
Assuming you're on the America's Choice plan, I think the coverage should follow similar to that plan though the extended network may not support it. (Extended network = non-Verizon towers)
I also think the $99 would be an option that goes on top of your existing plan.
I doubt it'll work in Canada because the single rate Canadian plan means that Verizon is dishing out money to the towers it has roaming contracts with up north. Since they aren't owned by Verizon, I wouldn't expect express coverage.
Yeah, that $11 I paid included shipping. If you need more details about Verizon things, check out these forums.
I still work on the 2G network from sprint (yes it is only 14.4) I will upgreade if sprint does go to a bluetooth inable phone.
I got the Tungstent T, I am wondering about bluetooth adapters for linux laptops (any one know of any good ones?) I would love to beable to trash all my cables.
SMS is the best thing that ever happened to phones. The only thing that sucks is that not too many people in the US use it, or even know about it, but if you can get your friends to use it, its great.
/.ers ever go to these places? Maybe not.)
Here are some great reasons to use it:
1a.
- "Hey, can you give me Barney's number?"
- "Yeah, its 555-"
- "Why don't you text it to me?"
- "Far out!"
2. Communicating in loud places like bars, clubs, and concerts. (Do most
3. Communicating with other people when you shouldn't be, i.e. at work, in class, in boring meetings, on dates, in movie theatres, in restaurants, etc.
4. Voicemail is irritating. Many people don't check it, and don't call you back right away. Text messaging means communication at the touch of a button.
5. Calling the UK is $2 a minute! Texting is $.024/msg for me if I buy 250/month. Trust me, I use them!
6. Studies show that people who use SMS have more friends and more sex! Hurray!
"It's Dot Com!"
howdy all! i live in rural iowa, so broadband isn't an option. I hooked up my sprintpcs phone an old sony laptop running rh8. I set it up as my proxy download pipe using squid. When ever i want to download something on my main computer, I set up phoenix to proxy to my laptop with the srpintpcs phone hooked to it. I then use it to download large files and what not, so I can still surf the web using mozilla. Works fantastic!
I find that casual surfing and email is better suited to my dial up. Its working great!
I recently went to indiana. i used my wifes laptop with it. funny thing is that it seems a better web surfing experience when you vpn in someplace so you dont have to use sprints jpeg compressor...
sprints jpeg compressor = ass
the really ironic thing is that it took me 4 hours to get it to work with winxp - was hard finding the samsung cdma drivers
with rh8 it took like 10 minutes to figure it out-lol
with macosx it took less than one minute when I saw someone posted to try the sony cdma script with it
samsung sph-n400
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
i just moved to Saint Petersburg and was very curious about the wireless access here. what i've found is that cell phone use is widely supported, although it is all prepaid.
my cell phone provider is also an ISP so i can access my cell phone from my laptop via infrared, which then accesses a GSM connection to my cell phone which dials my ISP and gets me online.
i can only connect at 9600 baud, which compeltely stinks, but then again it costs me only 8 cents a minute.
is there any other way?
I just ordered an Ericsson R520m to use with T-mobile's US GSM/GPRS network. It had all the features I wanted (GPRS, IrDA, speakerphone, even bluetooth which I didn't care for but would probably be useful someday) and none of the features I didn't want (camera, color screen, etc.). Of course, the only way to get something like this is to order the international version (900, 1800, 1900Mhz). Unfortunately T-mobile doesn't sell this device here, so I couldn't get the subsidized price, but it's only $85 (!), amazing for something with that feature set.
I also looked at the Nokia 6310i, which has most of the same features, but costs 3x as much for some reason (probably because it has downloadable java applets that you also have to pay extra for). I would have prefered the Nokia because their excellent human interfaces work (my old Nokia 8290 was the only phone I've had (out of Ericssons, Motorolas, Visorphones, etc.) that I could use almost everything without having to jump to the manual)
XXXVI: ... gets eaten.
The thickness of the proposal required to win a multimillion dollar
contract is about one millimeter per million dollars. If all the
proposals conforming to this standard were piled on top of each other
at the bottom of the Grand Canyon it would probably be a good idea.
XXXVII:
Ninety percent of the time things will turn out worse than you expect.
The other 10 percent of the time you had no right to expect so much.
XXXVIII:
The early bird gets the worm.
The early worm
XXXIX:
Never promise to complete any project within six months of the end of
the year -- in either direction.
XL:
Most projects start out slowly -- and then sort of taper off.
-- Norman Augustine
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...