Are you actually finding spots without digital coverage, or just finding that your phone will drop down to analog mode occasionally? the former suggests a strange hole (shouldn't be ANY in a major metropolitan area like DC), the latter could suggest a capacity issue (if there are certain bands are reserved for analog, they'll be usable when all the digital bands are full) or just some freak conditions of the network (CDMA is mind-numbingly complicated, and everything is constantly in a major state of flux)
The digital part isn't why they sound worse- it's the codecs. Most phones use either 8 or 13k codecs- which can't reproduce sound anywhere near as well as a full band of analog.
Up those codecs to use the same bandwidth, and it would sound A LOT better than analog.
May I ask where the hell you are that still has more analog than digital? Bet that means no one uses cell phones (i.e. analog deployed, little consumer interest, no need to redploy digital) The amount of spectrum needed for a single analog call can be used for about 3 TDMA calls (no idea about GSM), or 25-35 CDMA (real-world tests; theoretically MUCH higher).
Besides, the phone itself matters BIG TIME! An Audiovox will have shit signal compared to a nice LG (8100) or Motorola (e815). I have no idea where Treo fits in, but compare it to other phones with the same provider (all digital).
Oh yeah, all the big carriers are deploying exclusively digital now (LG 8100 has no analog mode, neither do many other newer phones)
Well, according to the Wikipedia article: "DIVX was sold primarily through the Circuit City, The Good Guys, Ultimate Electronics, and Future Shop retailers."
And: "Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures, for instance, initially released their films exclusively on the DIVX format"
DIVX was marketted wrong- it was pushed as a replacement for DVDs and failed due to the restrictions and whatnot (i.e. same thing here), but as a rental model, it might have had a chance. Nowadays, however, I think it would be crushed by VoD
Depends on how you define DRM. If you define it as encryption, then you're right. If you define it as loss of rights and abilities to do what you wish, then you're wrong (Lots of examples of PUOPs kicking in, such as forced commercials). Many ordinary people have noticed these, but feel rather helpless to stop it.
But how does that compare to the energy needed to create a standalone? Then compare the difference in energy used. I suspect the breakeven point is longer than the useful life.
Verizon won't officially let you- if you don't have a PDA designed for tethering, they won't sell you a plan- I can get EVDO "dial-up" on my LG 8100, but they won't sell me a plan for it. They also don't charge data rates, because officially, I can't tether it:-D
Their reaction? Try to block the tethering...(took a minor hexedit to re-enable, nothing too bad)
I think the real issue to that is that there are minor defects, and then there are major errors. A lack of punctuation is a minor defect (to a point), whereas loose and lose are 2 different words with 2 completely different meanings. (I parse 'kinda' as word of its own, I suspect a lot of others do too)
Of course, this being slashdot, I'm required to make a shitty analogy: If I give you directions like "Go down Main, turn left at McDonald's, and go about 5 miles until you see 3rd"- if 3rd street is only a mile down, it's a minor error, and probably won't stop you from reaching your destination. If there is no McDonald's (or the street is 5th instead of 3rd, etc), then it very well might.
While that is true for UNIX (e.g. System V), the poster said "*nix OSs". BSD basically wrote TCP/IP for the world, and the currently existing projects are fairly new- 1986 for NEXT, up to 1994 for most of the modern BSDs.
And obviously, Linux was written with networking in mind (at least, once it was clear it would become an OS)
Unless you're getting quad-band phones (rare), the ones available globally will probably not work in the states- the U.S. uses 850/1900 instead of the 900/1800 most of the world uses.
This has been answered repeatedly on most cell phone forums. Phones can be "programmed" (i.e. configured for the account and carrier), and PRLs can be loaded over the air. Firmware cannot, for a variety of reasons, such as risk (flashing the firmware is still not a perfect process, and fries phones regularly), complexity (it would have to hold the link open while it overwrites the code to do so), and confusion- firmware often modifies the UI. If it happens, most consumers are going to be very puzzled and call up customer service about it.
Invariably, unlocked phones are more expensive, or outdated- locked phones are subsidized by the carrier (at least here in the US) in exchange for a contract. An unlocked phone is one that has either never been subsidized, or was purchased with a contract that was then cancelled early (w/ or w/o being delinquent).
$150 more, or 2 years older, is not a very good choice, especially when you're still paying the carrier the exact same amount for nothing.
It was mineral oil, in a syrofoam case, cooled by a window air conditioner. Worked great until he forgot to turn the A/C off one day, and literally froze several of his components.
It has been copied numerous times, mainly in a fishtank, including being featured here on slashdot last may.
The issues you're talking about are all handled by firmware- which is not something that can be programmed over the air. To activate another carrier's phone, it must also exist on the target carrier's list. Beyond that, it's not usually a problem.
T-Mobile and Cingular both lock their phones. Thus, to do do a simple SIM-switch, it must either be a phone locked to the same carrier, or have been manually unlocked (not a simple process)
As for the ESN on VZW, they will activate unbranded phones, as long as they have a branded version (e.g. They will activate an Alltel RAZR, because they have a VZW RAZR). As for network features, both the target and the branding carriers (Alltel and VZW in the example above) must support the features in question. Since Alltel doesn't support VCAST yet, those RAZRs can't use it.
That all depends on carrier, and exact model. On Verizon, LG is usually viewed as tops for reception, with most Motorolas being poor. The exception is the e815, which is supposed to be one of the best ever released on VZW.
On Sprint, it's mostly Sanyo and Samsung at the top, with LG being at the bottom. Similar for Cingular.
Screw that- I've got the 8100 V04, and I don't use ANY special programs to put MP3s on my phone- I put the miniSD card into my card reader, and copy the MP3s to the MY_MP3 folder. I then put the miniSD back in the phone, and it reads.
If anything requires special software, it needs to have a good reason and a special need. Transferring files is not a special need. (granted, I use BitPim, because reading/writing the EFS is a special need that can't really be met through standards)
...And that same simlock removal is ILLEGAL in Hungary. Period.
European cell standards aren't mandated by the entire continent, they're all a patchwork of different standards. Some areas are better and more free, others are more restrictive.
As for coverage, well, the U.S. is a rather large country. In most urban areas, there's at least 1 carrier that works reliably, (and in many, most or all work fine). It's the rural areas that are a problem, and I doubt that European carriers are really interested in covering areas with less than 2 people per square kilometer
First, there are no phones available for both Cingular and Sprint (Cingular is GSM, Sprint is CDMA- and aside from a few very pricey traveler phones, nothing works for both), and "equivalent" phones are often VERY different (compare RAZR V3 to V3c)
Second, many (read: most) people choose a carrier based on how well it works for voice service- and in many areas, several are simply not choices, or are worse than others. e.g., here in western Ohio, VZW and Sprint work fairly well, Cingular varies heavily on conditions, and T-Mobile is right out (excluding certain urban areas). This varies wildly nationwide.
Third, even though I've never heard of Earthlink Wireless before now, some research showed that they are simply reselling Sprint.
First and foremost, there was never a mention ANYWHERE in the article of a religious group - yet you automatically assumed that was the case - or if not, went ahead and slammed many different religious and cultural groups.
It's Utah, which is well-known to be highly religious, and much of the local law/culture is based on religion, esp. Mormon. Furthermore, it's an attempt to block porn, a staple of religious activists. Assuming religion was involved was not foolish, and I'd still wager that religion was a driving factor.
You don't want it because it ANNOYS you. How? Because it stops YOU from downloading it at work.
Well, I oppose it because that's not what ports are for. But a major gripe of mine is:
you can download it at your home at your leisure - no ports should be stopping you there
Until there's a law forbidding it, there WILL be ISPs blocking that port based on their own beliefs, probably universities would be the most prominent.
Just because they *SAY* it's prohibited doesn't mean a thing. These are not new warnings, and are only now legit under certain circumstances because of the DMCA. In fact, these have directly contradicted US Copyright law (backup copy) for years, and some of them even try to claim that their statement overrides the law.
BTW, buying a CD isn't a contract- if I buy a CD, I am under absolutely zero contractual limitations/requirements. It's still illegal to distribute a copy, but it has nothing to do with contract law, that's all handled by copyright law.
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Are you actually finding spots without digital coverage, or just finding that your phone will drop down to analog mode occasionally? the former suggests a strange hole (shouldn't be ANY in a major metropolitan area like DC), the latter could suggest a capacity issue (if there are certain bands are reserved for analog, they'll be usable when all the digital bands are full) or just some freak conditions of the network (CDMA is mind-numbingly complicated, and everything is constantly in a major state of flux)
The digital part isn't why they sound worse- it's the codecs. Most phones use either 8 or 13k codecs- which can't reproduce sound anywhere near as well as a full band of analog.
Up those codecs to use the same bandwidth, and it would sound A LOT better than analog.
May I ask where the hell you are that still has more analog than digital? Bet that means no one uses cell phones (i.e. analog deployed, little consumer interest, no need to redploy digital)
The amount of spectrum needed for a single analog call can be used for about 3 TDMA calls (no idea about GSM), or 25-35 CDMA (real-world tests; theoretically MUCH higher).
Besides, the phone itself matters BIG TIME! An Audiovox will have shit signal compared to a nice LG (8100) or Motorola (e815). I have no idea where Treo fits in, but compare it to other phones with the same provider (all digital).
Oh yeah, all the big carriers are deploying exclusively digital now (LG 8100 has no analog mode, neither do many other newer phones)
Social engineering? That's a bit old... (but effective)
Well, according to the Wikipedia article:
"DIVX was sold primarily through the Circuit City, The Good Guys, Ultimate Electronics, and Future Shop retailers."
And:
"Disney, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount Pictures, for instance, initially released their films exclusively on the DIVX format"
DIVX was marketted wrong- it was pushed as a replacement for DVDs and failed due to the restrictions and whatnot (i.e. same thing here), but as a rental model, it might have had a chance.
Nowadays, however, I think it would be crushed by VoD
Depends on how you define DRM. If you define it as encryption, then you're right. If you define it as loss of rights and abilities to do what you wish, then you're wrong (Lots of examples of PUOPs kicking in, such as forced commercials). Many ordinary people have noticed these, but feel rather helpless to stop it.
Yet, every once in a while, it shows up anyway. And not even always encrypted, but it can still take a while to find, such as this:m l?tid=193
1 9206&mode=thread&tid=126&tid=172
http://slashdot.org/hardware/04/06/05/1250244.sht
Now, once the cat's out, it's a snap to keep an eye out for it, see the followup from 3 days later:
http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/08/13
But how does that compare to the energy needed to create a standalone? Then compare the difference in energy used. I suspect the breakeven point is longer than the useful life.
Verizon won't officially let you- if you don't have a PDA designed for tethering, they won't sell you a plan- I can get EVDO "dial-up" on my LG 8100, but they won't sell me a plan for it. They also don't charge data rates, because officially, I can't tether it :-D
Their reaction? Try to block the tethering...(took a minor hexedit to re-enable, nothing too bad)
I think the real issue to that is that there are minor defects, and then there are major errors. A lack of punctuation is a minor defect (to a point), whereas loose and lose are 2 different words with 2 completely different meanings. (I parse 'kinda' as word of its own, I suspect a lot of others do too)
Of course, this being slashdot, I'm required to make a shitty analogy:
If I give you directions like "Go down Main, turn left at McDonald's, and go about 5 miles until you see 3rd"- if 3rd street is only a mile down, it's a minor error, and probably won't stop you from reaching your destination. If there is no McDonald's (or the street is 5th instead of 3rd, etc), then it very well might.
While that is true for UNIX (e.g. System V), the poster said "*nix OSs". BSD basically wrote TCP/IP for the world, and the currently existing projects are fairly new- 1986 for NEXT, up to 1994 for most of the modern BSDs.
And obviously, Linux was written with networking in mind (at least, once it was clear it would become an OS)
Unless you're getting quad-band phones (rare), the ones available globally will probably not work in the states- the U.S. uses 850/1900 instead of the 900/1800 most of the world uses.
This has been answered repeatedly on most cell phone forums. Phones can be "programmed" (i.e. configured for the account and carrier), and PRLs can be loaded over the air. Firmware cannot, for a variety of reasons, such as risk (flashing the firmware is still not a perfect process, and fries phones regularly), complexity (it would have to hold the link open while it overwrites the code to do so), and confusion- firmware often modifies the UI. If it happens, most consumers are going to be very puzzled and call up customer service about it.
Invariably, unlocked phones are more expensive, or outdated- locked phones are subsidized by the carrier (at least here in the US) in exchange for a contract. An unlocked phone is one that has either never been subsidized, or was purchased with a contract that was then cancelled early (w/ or w/o being delinquent).
$150 more, or 2 years older, is not a very good choice, especially when you're still paying the carrier the exact same amount for nothing.
It was mineral oil, in a syrofoam case, cooled by a window air conditioner. Worked great until he forgot to turn the A/C off one day, and literally froze several of his components.
It has been copied numerous times, mainly in a fishtank, including being featured here on slashdot last may.
The issues you're talking about are all handled by firmware- which is not something that can be programmed over the air. To activate another carrier's phone, it must also exist on the target carrier's list. Beyond that, it's not usually a problem.
T-Mobile and Cingular both lock their phones. Thus, to do do a simple SIM-switch, it must either be a phone locked to the same carrier, or have been manually unlocked (not a simple process)
As for the ESN on VZW, they will activate unbranded phones, as long as they have a branded version (e.g. They will activate an Alltel RAZR, because they have a VZW RAZR). As for network features, both the target and the branding carriers (Alltel and VZW in the example above) must support the features in question. Since Alltel doesn't support VCAST yet, those RAZRs can't use it.
Actually, I don't have an MP3 player, because my phone handles it just fine. (LG VX8100 V04, 1GB card)
Oh and, most people don't just want a phone- they want all sorts of stuff. Hence, the options are changing to match.
That all depends on carrier, and exact model. On Verizon, LG is usually viewed as tops for reception, with most Motorolas being poor. The exception is the e815, which is supposed to be one of the best ever released on VZW.
On Sprint, it's mostly Sanyo and Samsung at the top, with LG being at the bottom. Similar for Cingular.
(disclaimer: longtime LG fan on VZW)
Screw that- I've got the 8100 V04, and I don't use ANY special programs to put MP3s on my phone- I put the miniSD card into my card reader, and copy the MP3s to the MY_MP3 folder. I then put the miniSD back in the phone, and it reads.
If anything requires special software, it needs to have a good reason and a special need. Transferring files is not a special need. (granted, I use BitPim, because reading/writing the EFS is a special need that can't really be met through standards)
...And that same simlock removal is ILLEGAL in Hungary. Period.
European cell standards aren't mandated by the entire continent, they're all a patchwork of different standards. Some areas are better and more free, others are more restrictive.
As for coverage, well, the U.S. is a rather large country. In most urban areas, there's at least 1 carrier that works reliably, (and in many, most or all work fine). It's the rural areas that are a problem, and I doubt that European carriers are really interested in covering areas with less than 2 people per square kilometer
No they can't. In fact, very few R1 players can do PAL->NTSC, and most of those do a very shitty job of it.
Most PAL DVD players can convert to NTSC. Not the other way around.
First, there are no phones available for both Cingular and Sprint (Cingular is GSM, Sprint is CDMA- and aside from a few very pricey traveler phones, nothing works for both), and "equivalent" phones are often VERY different (compare RAZR V3 to V3c)
Second, many (read: most) people choose a carrier based on how well it works for voice service- and in many areas, several are simply not choices, or are worse than others. e.g., here in western Ohio, VZW and Sprint work fairly well, Cingular varies heavily on conditions, and T-Mobile is right out (excluding certain urban areas). This varies wildly nationwide.
Third, even though I've never heard of Earthlink Wireless before now, some research showed that they are simply reselling Sprint.
First and foremost, there was never a mention ANYWHERE in the article of a religious group - yet you automatically assumed that was the case - or if not, went ahead and slammed many different religious and cultural groups.
It's Utah, which is well-known to be highly religious, and much of the local law/culture is based on religion, esp. Mormon. Furthermore, it's an attempt to block porn, a staple of religious activists. Assuming religion was involved was not foolish, and I'd still wager that religion was a driving factor.
You don't want it because it ANNOYS you. How? Because it stops YOU from downloading it at work.
Well, I oppose it because that's not what ports are for. But a major gripe of mine is:
you can download it at your home at your leisure - no ports should be stopping you there
Until there's a law forbidding it, there WILL be ISPs blocking that port based on their own beliefs, probably universities would be the most prominent.
Just because they *SAY* it's prohibited doesn't mean a thing. These are not new warnings, and are only now legit under certain circumstances because of the DMCA. In fact, these have directly contradicted US Copyright law (backup copy) for years, and some of them even try to claim that their statement overrides the law.
BTW, buying a CD isn't a contract- if I buy a CD, I am under absolutely zero contractual limitations/requirements. It's still illegal to distribute a copy, but it has nothing to do with contract law, that's all handled by copyright law.