I remember a slashdot article from ~1 year ago that touted 384 kbit/s in Tokyo. Supposedly the standard was redefined so that 3G means different things depending on where you are. My cellphone does do 144kbit and the sticker on it says 3G CDMA.
"This may not directly apply to the article, but it is cell-related;). Anyhow, I don't have much interest in the latest gee-whiz gizmos from the mobile companies -- but I do care about sound quality."
I have this service on a Canadian carrier and the quality is an excellent jump from my previous Sanyo 4000 phone... unless of course the person on the other end is using a non 1x phone or is not on a landline.
The only catch is that they reserve the right to limit you to 100 mb... so they have already thought about bandwidth demons using it to get onto kazaa.
"Do you think the 3G phones will be able to be used as a wireless modem like current phones? I'd love to use left-over minutes near the end of the month for some decent gaming over the internet. DSL here is rediculously expensive. I wonder how the latency will be..."
Sure you can! This is already available on 1xRTT networks in Canada. Although they currently reserve the right to limit your 'unlimited data' subscription to 100 mb per month. Bleh.
One other thing worth noting is that the provider I linked does not charge per minute for wireless web. I have it right now and you can browse online for a flat fee for as long as you have battery left as long as you stay within the 'free sites area' which gets gets bigger depending on the fee you pay. Otherwise, the services are 'per-use'
"The carriers in North America and Asia mostly scraped plans on going to 3xRTT after the European auction, but the didn't want their systems to be called 2.5G, thus 1xRTT is now called 3G."
So my north american mobile phone (Telus mobility in Canada) has a sticker that says Qualcomm 3G CDMA on it and the service is advertised as 1xRTT. You're saying that this was renamed to 3G because they couldn't pull of the 'true' 3G for various reasons?
"last I heard, any and all current US implementations of a "3G" system were only pseudo-3G in that they don't offer the full system capabilities."
Supposeldy 'true' 3G offers 384 kbit/s downstream, while what Sprint is deploying (1xRTT) is part of the upgrade path to 3G an peaks at 144kbit, averaging 50-60kbit.
"And before the flames arrive about what is 2G and what is 3G, that my granpa heard this columnist say it wasn't really 3G, and all that junk, there is an Industry Partnership [3gpp.org] that determines what consitutes 3G, and they determined a while back that 1XRTT (What Sprint is deploying) IS 3G."
Interesting, I have read that this 1xRTT service that sprint is deploying is the first step on the upgrade path to 3G. Maybe there are different definitions depending on the country or something. I've got this on my mobile phone right now and the voice quality is pretty amazing when the other person is on a landline. (I haven't phoned anyone else yet with a mobile that supports it.)
"Bingo. This "3G" shit is just that... a toy. While cellphones are fantastic, I can't possibly see what use "3G" could be to the average (ie: non-geek, non-kid) person. What's the point of this? "
Greater bandwidth allows for greater voice transmission quality. I have this service in Canada and it is amazing.
Also business users can connect the phone to their laptop via USB or Bluetooth and connect to the corporate network.
Yes, this is exactly why cell phone service in North America sucks.
The phones themselves are OK (the GSM providers sell some of the nicer Nokias too) but the service terms are clearly not that good, probably because there is far more incentive here in Canada to use a land line than in Europe.
And here's something... my SMS price is lower than yours. I only pay the equivalent of 6.49 euro-cents (10c canadian) per sent message and nothing for received messages. Of course you'll save more than me on the talk-time anyway. And I do believe my phone (which is one of a fairly-nice-but-not-as-nice-as-yours selection) is at least as good as yours as well.
"...Wired which mentions that existing DVR devices (Tivo, ReplayTV) aren't equipped to handle the digital TV signal that broadcasters are scheduled to start delivering in 2006"
Two words: Planned obsolescence.
Just like cellphones with games designed to wear out the keypads so you have to get new ones.
"The pay-as-you-go business in the USA is about 3 years behind Europe. Expiry of minutes and minimum top-up fees in the USA mean that effectively most so-called pay-as-you-go plans still require a minimum monthly payment."
I won't argue with you that these european plans are well advanced compared to the north american ones that are really a 'hybrid monthly plan."
I prefer the pay as you go because the lowest case scenario for my provider is $10 per month. And I'm using the phone every month anyway -- it's like having an ultra-cheap monthly plan.
"Who provides unlimited mobile calling (outbound) for one flat monthly fee to the public? I'd be willing to bet noone."
My experiences with this came from numerous angry europeans (from Germany in this case) who were enraged when I said that having a pre-determined number of minutes to use your mobile phone per month was not the same as a plan with no 'gotchas' and they told be about paying one price to use it as much as they want (for local calls)... just like land lines in the USA and Canada.
"Offtopic yes, but isn't it odd, what with the 'normal' banners that appeal to most of us that are on./ that I just saw one for Microsoft Visual Studio.NET [microsoft.com]? Kinda odd with all the MSFT and.NET bashing here... "
Yeah but whoever is serving the banners can get good data on what IPs have the most reloads on anti-microsoft stories.
And I'm sure MSFT could do something with that information. Maybe they could find out which company has the most anti-MSFT slashdot readers and send the executives of that company on a nice MSFT-sponsored vacation and then start hawking Visual Studio.NET to them.
The entry price of the Trident card is $99 (or so the article says.)
So would you by a card that has 20% less performance than a GF4 Ti4600 and 65% (or better) less cost? Maybe not. But would you put one in your kids' machine or kid brother's machine who has been whining about wanting a 3D upgrade so they can play Max Payne?
"The plans suck, if we were like Ireland and had pay as you go minutes, more people would have them. Being locked in to a plan is the worst way to market a phone, but it makes the companys the most profit."
Both the 'plans' and 'pay as you go' exist in Canada and the USA. The plans are more popular because the cost per minute of talking time is lower. Also with the pay as you go, you have to keep track of expiry dates and such or your rates go up if you don't refill it in time. The people would rather just have anto-credit card charges as opposed to more bookeeping.
The profit is actually less for pay as you go and my mobile provider (Telus) sent me a letter recently trying to convince me to switch over. To get all the services I get for CAD$10/month on the plans, I'd be paying $40-50 per month (with of course a whole lot more talk time.) Why do you think they offer all kinds of rebates if you sign up on a plan (I could have saved $150 on my new phone if I signed on for 3 years) and nothing similar happens with pay as you go?
Of course this still stinks compared to what's in Europe were you can often just pay one price per month and use it as much as you want and the only thing that can run out is the battery.
Re:lack of regulation
on
Meet the Spammers
·
· Score: 3, Informative
"I have personal experience dealing with my local police. I called them once regarding a case of internet identity theft. Their response to me? Something like "we don't have any way to get at these cases, so why don't you just change your e-mail and other online identities?" How INCOMPETENT is that!"
A similar thing happenned to me. Someone had sent hundreds of threating e-mails to someone else and forged my address in the 'from' field. The municipal police in my area of Ontario, Canada interviewed me because they researched my domain name and I explained how the 'from' address meant nothing and that forgery of such things is common place.
The officer told me she did not know why they gave her this case and that she did not own a computer!
"Folks, if you haven't discovered SpamAssassin yet, do yourself a HUGE favor and at least look into it. If you're not running a Linux box and are relegated to Windows, talk to your ISP about it. If you're running Mac OS X, I believe you should have no problem getting SpamAssassin to filter your mail, if you route it through a local MTA."
This assumes you get spam in the first place... my 'real' e-mail address is hidden behind layers of relayers and such and I protected it from the beginning. Spam only comes to my webmail that you see attached to this post. Otherwise, I don't need spamassassin.
"Has there ever been an industry which has survived solely on the basis of legislation?"
This is kind of 'against the spirit' of what you're asking, but here is an example: The radar/laser detector industry.
Their lifeblood is the anti-speeding laws. Without such legislation, there would be no demand for radar/laser detectors because the police wouldn't be trying to clock you.
Then they would fall back to the old dark ways of marketing, using obsolete reasoning likem "Find out what the customer wants and give it to them." Such anti-progress is unacceptable.
"Such export controls may not work. I remember times when there were very strict controls (by USA) for export (to India) of any kind of components that can be used for building high performance computing equipment. During that period several indegenous projects sprung up for building supercomputers (I remember at least three different projects)."
Yes... and even if they did restrict the exporting, the stuff would still leak out. My friend went to Taiwan and saw a PS2 right after the Japan release, before it was officially exported to any other country. It probably got there in a civilian suitcase.
TheJapanese government realised that the computers in the PS2s were very powerful for the time and could be networked to create a crude missile guidance system.
Slashdot Mirror
I remember a slashdot article from ~1 year ago that touted 384 kbit/s in Tokyo. Supposedly the standard was redefined so that 3G means different things depending on where you are. My cellphone does do 144kbit and the sticker on it says 3G CDMA.
I have this service on a Canadian carrier and the quality is an excellent jump from my previous Sanyo 4000 phone ... unless of course the person on the other end is using a non 1x phone or is not on a landline.
I will only consider all of this as progress when I can send someone an SMS of the ASCII version of the goatse image.
The only catch is that they reserve the right to limit you to 100 mb ... so they have already thought about bandwidth demons using it to get onto kazaa.
Sure you can! This is already available on 1xRTT networks in Canada. Although they currently reserve the right to limit your 'unlimited data' subscription to 100 mb per month. Bleh.
One other thing worth noting is that the provider I linked does not charge per minute for wireless web. I have it right now and you can browse online for a flat fee for as long as you have battery left as long as you stay within the 'free sites area' which gets gets bigger depending on the fee you pay. Otherwise, the services are 'per-use'
So my north american mobile phone (Telus mobility in Canada) has a sticker that says Qualcomm 3G CDMA on it and the service is advertised as 1xRTT. You're saying that this was renamed to 3G because they couldn't pull of the 'true' 3G for various reasons?
Supposeldy 'true' 3G offers 384 kbit/s downstream, while what Sprint is deploying (1xRTT) is part of the upgrade path to 3G an peaks at 144kbit, averaging 50-60kbit.
Interesting, I have read that this 1xRTT service that sprint is deploying is the first step on the upgrade path to 3G. Maybe there are different definitions depending on the country or something. I've got this on my mobile phone right now and the voice quality is pretty amazing when the other person is on a landline. (I haven't phoned anyone else yet with a mobile that supports it.)
Greater bandwidth allows for greater voice transmission quality. I have this service in Canada and it is amazing.
Also business users can connect the phone to their laptop via USB or Bluetooth and connect to the corporate network.
With enough compression, can you say videophone?
I didn't post it as a deliberate troll but I see what you mean.
The phones themselves are OK (the GSM providers sell some of the nicer Nokias too) but the service terms are clearly not that good, probably because there is far more incentive here in Canada to use a land line than in Europe.
And here's something ... my SMS price is lower than yours. I only pay the equivalent of 6.49 euro-cents (10c canadian) per sent message and nothing for received messages. Of course you'll save more than me on the talk-time anyway. And I do believe my phone (which is one of a fairly-nice-but-not-as-nice-as-yours selection) is at least as good as yours as well.
Two words: Planned obsolescence.
Just like cellphones with games designed to wear out the keypads so you have to get new ones.
I won't argue with you that these european plans are well advanced compared to the north american ones that are really a 'hybrid monthly plan."
I prefer the pay as you go because the lowest case scenario for my provider is $10 per month. And I'm using the phone every month anyway -- it's like having an ultra-cheap monthly plan.
My experiences with this came from numerous angry europeans (from Germany in this case) who were enraged when I said that having a pre-determined number of minutes to use your mobile phone per month was not the same as a plan with no 'gotchas' and they told be about paying one price to use it as much as they want (for local calls) ... just like land lines in the USA and Canada.
Also someone else mentioned http://www.boomerangwireless.com/.
Yeah but whoever is serving the banners can get good data on what IPs have the most reloads on anti-microsoft stories.
And I'm sure MSFT could do something with that information. Maybe they could find out which company has the most anti-MSFT slashdot readers and send the executives of that company on a nice MSFT-sponsored vacation and then start hawking Visual Studio .NET to them.
People say the same thing about AMD chips, but they're not exactly going out of business.
But overall I agree with you ... we must look at a real non-vapourware card and benchmark it before slandering Trident.
The cheapest pricewatch price for a GF4 Ti4600 is $280.
The entry price of the Trident card is $99 (or so the article says.)
So would you by a card that has 20% less performance than a GF4 Ti4600 and 65% (or better) less cost? Maybe not. But would you put one in your kids' machine or kid brother's machine who has been whining about wanting a 3D upgrade so they can play Max Payne?
Cha-ching! Cash for Trident from your wallet.
Both the 'plans' and 'pay as you go' exist in Canada and the USA. The plans are more popular because the cost per minute of talking time is lower. Also with the pay as you go, you have to keep track of expiry dates and such or your rates go up if you don't refill it in time. The people would rather just have anto-credit card charges as opposed to more bookeeping.
The profit is actually less for pay as you go and my mobile provider (Telus) sent me a letter recently trying to convince me to switch over. To get all the services I get for CAD$10/month on the plans, I'd be paying $40-50 per month (with of course a whole lot more talk time.) Why do you think they offer all kinds of rebates if you sign up on a plan (I could have saved $150 on my new phone if I signed on for 3 years) and nothing similar happens with pay as you go?
Of course this still stinks compared to what's in Europe were you can often just pay one price per month and use it as much as you want and the only thing that can run out is the battery.
A similar thing happenned to me. Someone had sent hundreds of threating e-mails to someone else and forged my address in the 'from' field. The municipal police in my area of Ontario, Canada interviewed me because they researched my domain name and I explained how the 'from' address meant nothing and that forgery of such things is common place.
The officer told me she did not know why they gave her this case and that she did not own a computer!
This assumes you get spam in the first place ... my 'real' e-mail address is hidden behind layers of relayers and such and I protected it from the beginning. Spam only comes to my webmail that you see attached to this post. Otherwise, I don't need spamassassin.
This is kind of 'against the spirit' of what you're asking, but here is an example: The radar/laser detector industry.
Their lifeblood is the anti-speeding laws. Without such legislation, there would be no demand for radar/laser detectors because the police wouldn't be trying to clock you.
Then they would fall back to the old dark ways of marketing, using obsolete reasoning likem "Find out what the customer wants and give it to them." Such anti-progress is unacceptable.
Yes ... and even if they did restrict the exporting, the stuff would still leak out. My friend went to Taiwan and saw a PS2 right after the Japan release, before it was officially exported to any other country. It probably got there in a civilian suitcase.
If you are used to driving in Canada and then drive around in Michigan for a day, you will understand how true this is.
TheJapanese government realised that the computers in the PS2s were very powerful for the time and could be networked to create a crude missile guidance system.