They just don't document how to create the ringtone file format
My phone supports MIDI and MP3, as do most other newer GSM phones.
Mine has a standard irda interface though, and last I looked bluetooth was pretty damn standard.
They're standard, but uncommon. Both features are found mainly on higher-end products, and even then, the implementations are often crippled, nonstandard, or limited. The Bluetooth implementation on the Verizon Motorola V710 does not allow you to transfer media. The software is very capable of doing so, and works fine on Bluetooth-equipped Motorola GSM phones. (But, Sony Ericsson and Nokia's implementations of Bluetooth are much more complete and featureful.) I believe Samsung's IR implementation does not support standard file transfer protocols that Pocket PCs/Windows and Sony Ericsson phones all support.
Almost all GSM phones allow you to download whatever you want over the Internet, for bandwidth/internet access charges only (which are often free with the right setup at the right time, if not cheap.) My Motorola phone supports Bluetooth along with its USB interface; the cable cost less than $10 on eBay, and a Bluetooh adpater cost less than $30 on Newegg. I can transfer MIDI, MP3, GIF, JPG, and 3GP (video) files to my phone either way (it's easier with Bluetooth), along with games (once again, easier with Bluetooth.)
It is a major pain to transfer your own content onto most BREW-based CDMA phones (Verizon, Alltel, US Cellular, etc.'s phones.)
Wrong.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy, local record stores, etc. are all selling legal music for the iPod. Have you forgotten about the fair use laws that allow us to make personal copies for this purpose?
HowardForums's Motorola section is a very good resource, although they have some draconian link policies, so you'd have to find some or most files on other sites (not too hard to find on Google.) A new flash and flex will fix most problems.
Considering AT&T is now owned by Cingular, they may be distributing the same replacment phones. What's your firmware version? (press *#9999#, it's listed as "S/W Version")
The majority of those problems are caused by bad firmware or flex/files on the phone, and the firmware was fixed after the first few months it was released (in the USA). With a cheap data cable and pirated software, one can modify the files or firmware on his own.
Earlier hardware revisions had issues ranging from bad RF on Nokia 800MHz base equipment to intermittent choppy calls and worse. However, some phones are physically defective -- but most other problems are caused solely by software flaws. Most carriers should reflash refurbisheds phone with the latest firmware available. (If they don't, they should. I'm assuming all carriers plan on doing this, while some phones still "slip through the cracks".)
The most recent Cingular V600 replacment. The phones are noticably faster and much more reliable. There are no signs of the phones being refurbished.
If I had to take a wild-guess, we probably use 40 different phone models spread across most of three states. It isn't isolated to a specific city or phone model.
That's the problem; three states is too broad of an area to use for comparison. Each major metropolitan area almsot always has its own switch, which acts as a completely different system than the others. Throwing together experiences between different networks and regarding it as proof that Verizon sucks is biased and unscientific.
First off, I had a satphone way back when because I needed it. Latency wasn't any worse than a trans-oceanic call, at least not noticibly
I was not talking about satellite phones in this situation; I was referring to satellite-carried international calls.
Some people may not notice latency. Given the right conditions, I can notice latency on a cellphone that I don't notice on a traditional local call... although it does not bother me. I can usually notice latency on VoIP, and it tends to bother me a bit. As for not noticing latency on satellite calls, assuming you aren't making this up, I guess you just didn't notice it. Latency on a satellite call will be much greater than a properly routed call carried through copper or fiber carriers, simply due to phsyics.
Secondly, compression today is for the most part same stuff used on common cellphones, that is to say GSM. Even back in the day it didn't sound "extremely poor".
GSM can sound "extremely poor", specifically when using the HR or AMR-HR codecs. While EFR and AMR-FR provide excellent sound quality, they are more expensive (in terms of bandwidth usage) than the half-rate codecs. Since I was discussing international calls carried by satellite instead of satellite phone calls, the situation is different. Destinations that rely on satellite telephone links are more likely to have less advanced telephone systems. Furthermore, since satellite bandwidth is expensive, lossy compression may still be used in between both parties to a call, which will only contribute to other potential detriments to call quality (antiquated/low quality local exchange systems, usage of compression on a terrestrial wireless system, etc.)
Go back to high school.
Based on your spelling and grammar skills (specifically your exemplary spelling of "noticibly", I think you need to go back to high school... if you aren't currently enrolled. At any rate, these issues were not covered in the high school I attended and probably aren't covered at many other high schools, either.
No, they are not getting skewed numbers. The special equipment provides much more informations and results (while most Motorola phones and some Nokias can tell you the signal strength in decibels with slight harmless modifications, along with some other cell site/network information, specialized equipment can provide more accurate signal strength information, along with signal quality and more than just "bars".)
As a Verizon customer, I can honestly say that that idiot is full of crap.
Your experience is very subjective. A low quality or defective phone can cause a myriad of problems. Early Motorola V600s had numerous issues regarding static and choppy calls; later ones don't have these issues. All opinions for wireless networks are extremely subjective. Reports on wireless networks in different areas should not be compared (e.g. because Verizon sucks in one city does not mean they suck across the country. Each individual network (e.g. one system for one carrier in one city/area) is built differently, may be licensed differently, and was built at a different time than another. Ameritech (now Cingular's) original network was built here in 1996; today, it has evolved through at least two (possibly three or four) different technologies. This network would be expected to have more coverage than T-Mobile's network, which was built in 2002, but less than Verizon or Alltel's networks, which were built before 1990. In some other cities, Cingular's network has been around since the 80s, and Verizon's is less than ten years old. Wireless experiences are specific to your specific location -- at most, a major metropolitan area or small state. Many cellphones suck or are defective or have subtle flaws that only are revealed in specific situations -- so unless your experiences are common between other people with different phone models in the same location, don't treat them like complete gospel.
I really miss my Sprint analog phone. I used it about 50 hours a month in 1993, and while I did have dropped calls, they were always due to lack of signal.
That network is no longer owned by Sprint. That network could even be Verizon's network now...
U.S. providers complain that GSM doesn't use bandwidth efficiently
It doesn't. Yet two of the five major carriers use GSM, one uses a GSM-like/derived system, and the other two use CDMA. CDMA is much more efficent and does a better job of providing a reliable signal.
You get a phone that handles 3 or 4 different protocols, you worry about "roaming" charges -- and you still often find yourself in places where your particular provider just can't serve you.
Romaing is supposed to be used when you're outside of your home area. Many carriers won't let you roam in areas where they have their own coverage (regardless of how good that coverage is.) Many holes are common between all carriers (due to building permit restrictions, geographical limitations, etc.) Some holes exist due to lack of demand for coverage in that area (at least some carriers -- T-Mobile in my experience -- determine where they build towers based on user feedback.)
That's not an advantage at all over a good transoceanic fiber connection. Not too common. The latency on satellite calls is great; and compression can make call quality sound extremely poor.
You CAN get Sprint PCS and just get a plan with analog roam for like $5 extra
With that addon, your phone will roam on a digital roaming partner if available.
which gives you nearly the coverage of Verizon and Nextel
Nextel's coverage isn't too special. Much of Sprint's roaming is on Verizon, so coverage would be much closer to Verizon's coverage (which surpasses Nextel's by far.)
On what? Windows XP? Recent versions of Windows ship with Flash 6 (Player) and no Java.
it does not require downloading the flash player or shockwave.
Of course not, because Java is not Flash or Director. Java requires the Java Runtime Environment, which is larger than Flash, and in my experience, it's harder to find the JRE installer and harder to install (it does not always work in Firefox automatically on Windows).
And more phones have built in support for Java.
Clearly you do not know anything _about_ Java support in phones. It is in the form of J2ME, Java 2 Micro Edition. There are many problems with using J2ME for this purpose:
J2ME is a subset of Java for "micro" devices -- J2ME applets will not run in your average Web browser, and applets/applications written for J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition) will not magically run on any J2ME device
Some APIs are not consistent between devices, not to mention differences between speed and screen size
J2ME applets are ran as applications on the phone that must be installed; they can't be ran from the Internet directly like they can when embedded -- so they are useless for this purpose
I have always been anti-Flash and anti-PDF because they require jumping through hoops to get it to work.
So does Java on many platforms.
Not only do you have to instal it, often not even getting the exe file but rather having it instal over the net
Java does this. The last Flash installer I used did not download anything; all I needed was included in the download. The last Java installer I downloaded was a small installer that downloaded a few megs (more than Flash) worth of data. It may do more, but it's still not designed to do the things Flash is. It has its own control panel, and its own update that runs in the background! Fairly annoying for the kind of people that rarely use Java applets.
but then when you go to some website like espn, they blow up the whole page filled with flash and all sorts of crap.
Do you disable images too? Java was once used for advertisments. It was generally too slow/troublesome.
Sometimes all I want is the news, not big ADVERTISING in flash that I can't control or get rid of
You CAN control and get rid of Flash and advertising; you can either not install Flash (like you already do) or use a browser that can only display some Flash objects/block certain URLs from loading, or live with it. Many of the JavaScript advertisments are more annoying than the Flash ones (except for the talking Flash. They are pretty bad...)
Do you run with images and JavaScript turned off too?
So what I do is, I just don't use those websites anymore. And I keep flash off my computer.
What's the problem if you don't have Flash installed? Many websites have advertising.
Java is the anwser.
Java is the answer for what problem?
Applets can do everything Flash can do, and better.
Have you ever used Flash? Ever made a Flash movie? It's very easy to make a simple animation. Flash is graphics oriented, although recently many new features have been added. It would be very difficult to do the graphics/user interface things Flash is commonly used for in Java.
Not to mention that Flash loads a lot faster.
Plus, applets give the end user some control to disable them, to not play them.
What are you talking about? Java applets do whatever they're programmed to do, as do Flash movies. I don't see any difference here; they're both embedded using the same methods.
How is Documents and Settings a confusing mess? It's fairly straightforward. Each user has his/her own directory, Default User is right there (opposed to a skel directory placed in a completely different location), and All Users provides data for all users. It's sorted, which is better than having all your dotfiles and documents in one home directory.
and I imagine that is a large percentage of Phoenix/Fire(bird/fox) users.
Doubt it.
How many people actually dual boot? How many people actually dual boot and actively use both operating systems? That's a fairly small minority. Now let's move on to how many of them both a) use Firefox on both operating systems and b) are smart/motivated/annoyed enough to copy their Firefox profile? Is it even possible? I know a special version of Firefox exists for Windows for use on USB drives because a regular Firefox installation does not copy between drive letters/locations very well.
It's called "\Documents and Settings".
Documents and Settings is the Windows equivalent to/home. \Documents and Settings\All Users provides global start menu, desktop and favorite entries, while Default User does the job of skel. The user's own registry is stored in their home directory as NTUSER.DAT. Inside each user's home directory are some expected folders - Start Menu, My Documents, Favorites, Desktop, Cookies, Application Data (where most application data hides), Local Settings, etc.
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea!
on
Pentium M Goes SFF
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· Score: 1
Irrelevant.
Re:Golly, I WONDER where they got that idea!
on
Pentium M Goes SFF
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· Score: 1, Insightful
What IS the target demographic? Those who can't afford more expensive Macs? Being the cheapest Mac, it fits that target demographic. First-time Mac users? Once again, being one of the cheaper Macs, this fits the target demographic very well. But that's sort of like saying cheap/small cars fit the target demographic of those who want a new car, but don't have much money: it's obvious.
Entry level computer users? You can buy a similarly equipped Dell for cheaper, WITH a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, AND the operating system that everyone else uses.
That's hardly an improvment over running an X server on Windows; it's more of a disadvantage. VNC is relatively slow compared to other protocols (you can deny this all you want, but X itself or RDP tend to perform better than VNC).
This does not resolve the parent post's complaint about the lack of a framebuffer. However, coLinux is perfectly usable for many people without a framebuffer. At any rate.. I bet coLinux would be faster than QEMU, even running over VNC. (Administrators membership would be required to install the coLinux driver and use some types of networking connections in either case.)
I might think that they're totally nuts to actually want to stay with VB6, (and I do), but I think that they ought to have the choice.
Microsoft is not forcing them to move on. They have a choice; they may continue to use VB6 for as long as they want to.
Some people are stubborn. They refuse to change. Just like some refuse to drive anything but a Ford, without a reason, or others still refuse to use cellular phones. Some people (e.g. my grandma) refuse to drive on expressways. Others only stick with their favorite OS/editor/language/etc.
Why would incoming calls cost more than outgoing calls? And you do get your own phone number. Why would it be unlikely? otherwise, what's the point? Besides certain mobile telephone systems and toll-free numbers, incoming calls usually cost the recieving party nothing.
I *very* highly doubt Skype has went through the process of starting up their own telephone company and has obtained their own exchanges; they probably rent lines from companies such as Level3, Focal Communications, etc. They most likely pay a flat rate for unlimited incoming calls every month to the company that provides them with incoming lines.
Slashdot Mirror
Not as common on larger devices, but it is found increasingly in small devices like digital cameras.
My phone supports MIDI and MP3, as do most other newer GSM phones.
Mine has a standard irda interface though, and last I looked bluetooth was pretty damn standard.
They're standard, but uncommon. Both features are found mainly on higher-end products, and even then, the implementations are often crippled, nonstandard, or limited. The Bluetooth implementation on the Verizon Motorola V710 does not allow you to transfer media. The software is very capable of doing so, and works fine on Bluetooth-equipped Motorola GSM phones. (But, Sony Ericsson and Nokia's implementations of Bluetooth are much more complete and featureful.) I believe Samsung's IR implementation does not support standard file transfer protocols that Pocket PCs/Windows and Sony Ericsson phones all support.
It is a major pain to transfer your own content onto most BREW-based CDMA phones (Verizon, Alltel, US Cellular, etc.'s phones.)
Wrong.
Wal-Mart, Best Buy, local record stores, etc. are all selling legal music for the iPod. Have you forgotten about the fair use laws that allow us to make personal copies for this purpose?
Considering AT&T is now owned by Cingular, they may be distributing the same replacment phones. What's your firmware version? (press *#9999#, it's listed as "S/W Version")
Earlier hardware revisions had issues ranging from bad RF on Nokia 800MHz base equipment to intermittent choppy calls and worse. However, some phones are physically defective -- but most other problems are caused solely by software flaws. Most carriers should reflash refurbisheds phone with the latest firmware available. (If they don't, they should. I'm assuming all carriers plan on doing this, while some phones still "slip through the cracks".)
The most recent Cingular V600 replacment. The phones are noticably faster and much more reliable. There are no signs of the phones being refurbished.
If I had to take a wild-guess, we probably use 40 different phone models spread across most of three states. It isn't isolated to a specific city or phone model.
That's the problem; three states is too broad of an area to use for comparison. Each major metropolitan area almsot always has its own switch, which acts as a completely different system than the others. Throwing together experiences between different networks and regarding it as proof that Verizon sucks is biased and unscientific.
I was not talking about satellite phones in this situation; I was referring to satellite-carried international calls.
Some people may not notice latency. Given the right conditions, I can notice latency on a cellphone that I don't notice on a traditional local call... although it does not bother me. I can usually notice latency on VoIP, and it tends to bother me a bit. As for not noticing latency on satellite calls, assuming you aren't making this up, I guess you just didn't notice it. Latency on a satellite call will be much greater than a properly routed call carried through copper or fiber carriers, simply due to phsyics.
Secondly, compression today is for the most part same stuff used on common cellphones, that is to say GSM. Even back in the day it didn't sound "extremely poor".
GSM can sound "extremely poor", specifically when using the HR or AMR-HR codecs. While EFR and AMR-FR provide excellent sound quality, they are more expensive (in terms of bandwidth usage) than the half-rate codecs. Since I was discussing international calls carried by satellite instead of satellite phone calls, the situation is different. Destinations that rely on satellite telephone links are more likely to have less advanced telephone systems. Furthermore, since satellite bandwidth is expensive, lossy compression may still be used in between both parties to a call, which will only contribute to other potential detriments to call quality (antiquated/low quality local exchange systems, usage of compression on a terrestrial wireless system, etc.)
Go back to high school.
Based on your spelling and grammar skills (specifically your exemplary spelling of "noticibly", I think you need to go back to high school... if you aren't currently enrolled. At any rate, these issues were not covered in the high school I attended and probably aren't covered at many other high schools, either.
No, they are not getting skewed numbers. The special equipment provides much more informations and results (while most Motorola phones and some Nokias can tell you the signal strength in decibels with slight harmless modifications, along with some other cell site/network information, specialized equipment can provide more accurate signal strength information, along with signal quality and more than just "bars".)
Your experience is very subjective. A low quality or defective phone can cause a myriad of problems. Early Motorola V600s had numerous issues regarding static and choppy calls; later ones don't have these issues. All opinions for wireless networks are extremely subjective. Reports on wireless networks in different areas should not be compared (e.g. because Verizon sucks in one city does not mean they suck across the country. Each individual network (e.g. one system for one carrier in one city/area) is built differently, may be licensed differently, and was built at a different time than another. Ameritech (now Cingular's) original network was built here in 1996; today, it has evolved through at least two (possibly three or four) different technologies. This network would be expected to have more coverage than T-Mobile's network, which was built in 2002, but less than Verizon or Alltel's networks, which were built before 1990. In some other cities, Cingular's network has been around since the 80s, and Verizon's is less than ten years old. Wireless experiences are specific to your specific location -- at most, a major metropolitan area or small state. Many cellphones suck or are defective or have subtle flaws that only are revealed in specific situations -- so unless your experiences are common between other people with different phone models in the same location, don't treat them like complete gospel.
I really miss my Sprint analog phone. I used it about 50 hours a month in 1993, and while I did have dropped calls, they were always due to lack of signal.
That network is no longer owned by Sprint. That network could even be Verizon's network now...
It doesn't. Yet two of the five major carriers use GSM, one uses a GSM-like/derived system, and the other two use CDMA. CDMA is much more efficent and does a better job of providing a reliable signal.
You get a phone that handles 3 or 4 different protocols, you worry about "roaming" charges -- and you still often find yourself in places where your particular provider just can't serve you.
Romaing is supposed to be used when you're outside of your home area. Many carriers won't let you roam in areas where they have their own coverage (regardless of how good that coverage is.) Many holes are common between all carriers (due to building permit restrictions, geographical limitations, etc.) Some holes exist due to lack of demand for coverage in that area (at least some carriers -- T-Mobile in my experience -- determine where they build towers based on user feedback.)
This applies for all cellular phone companies.
That's not an advantage at all over a good transoceanic fiber connection. Not too common. The latency on satellite calls is great; and compression can make call quality sound extremely poor.
With that addon, your phone will roam on a digital roaming partner if available.
which gives you nearly the coverage of Verizon and Nextel Nextel's coverage isn't too special. Much of Sprint's roaming is on Verizon, so coverage would be much closer to Verizon's coverage (which surpasses Nextel's by far.)
On what? Windows XP? Recent versions of Windows ship with Flash 6 (Player) and no Java.
it does not require downloading the flash player or shockwave.
Of course not, because Java is not Flash or Director. Java requires the Java Runtime Environment, which is larger than Flash, and in my experience, it's harder to find the JRE installer and harder to install (it does not always work in Firefox automatically on Windows).
And more phones have built in support for Java.
Clearly you do not know anything _about_ Java support in phones. It is in the form of J2ME, Java 2 Micro Edition. There are many problems with using J2ME for this purpose:
- J2ME is a subset of Java for "micro" devices -- J2ME applets will not run in your average Web browser, and applets/applications written for J2SE (Java 2 Standard Edition) will not magically run on any J2ME device
- Some APIs are not consistent between devices, not to mention differences between speed and screen size
- J2ME applets are ran as applications on the phone that must be installed; they can't be ran from the Internet directly like they can when embedded -- so they are useless for this purpose
I have always been anti-Flash and anti-PDF because they require jumping through hoops to get it to work.So does Java on many platforms.
Not only do you have to instal it, often not even getting the exe file but rather having it instal over the net
Java does this. The last Flash installer I used did not download anything; all I needed was included in the download. The last Java installer I downloaded was a small installer that downloaded a few megs (more than Flash) worth of data. It may do more, but it's still not designed to do the things Flash is. It has its own control panel, and its own update that runs in the background! Fairly annoying for the kind of people that rarely use Java applets.
but then when you go to some website like espn, they blow up the whole page filled with flash and all sorts of crap.
Do you disable images too? Java was once used for advertisments. It was generally too slow/troublesome.
Sometimes all I want is the news, not big ADVERTISING in flash that I can't control or get rid of
You CAN control and get rid of Flash and advertising; you can either not install Flash (like you already do) or use a browser that can only display some Flash objects/block certain URLs from loading, or live with it. Many of the JavaScript advertisments are more annoying than the Flash ones (except for the talking Flash. They are pretty bad...)
Do you run with images and JavaScript turned off too?
So what I do is, I just don't use those websites anymore. And I keep flash off my computer.
What's the problem if you don't have Flash installed? Many websites have advertising.
Java is the anwser.
Java is the answer for what problem?
Applets can do everything Flash can do, and better.
Have you ever used Flash? Ever made a Flash movie? It's very easy to make a simple animation. Flash is graphics oriented, although recently many new features have been added. It would be very difficult to do the graphics/user interface things Flash is commonly used for in Java.
Not to mention that Flash loads a lot faster.
Plus, applets give the end user some control to disable them, to not play them.
What are you talking about? Java applets do whatever they're programmed to do, as do Flash movies. I don't see any difference here; they're both embedded using the same methods.
How is Documents and Settings a confusing mess? It's fairly straightforward. Each user has his/her own directory, Default User is right there (opposed to a skel directory placed in a completely different location), and All Users provides data for all users. It's sorted, which is better than having all your dotfiles and documents in one home directory.
Doubt it.
How many people actually dual boot? How many people actually dual boot and actively use both operating systems? That's a fairly small minority. Now let's move on to how many of them both a) use Firefox on both operating systems and b) are smart/motivated/annoyed enough to copy their Firefox profile? Is it even possible? I know a special version of Firefox exists for Windows for use on USB drives because a regular Firefox installation does not copy between drive letters/locations very well.
It's called "\Documents and Settings". Documents and Settings is the Windows equivalent to /home. \Documents and Settings\All Users provides global start menu, desktop and favorite entries, while Default User does the job of skel. The user's own registry is stored in their home directory as NTUSER.DAT. Inside each user's home directory are some expected folders - Start Menu, My Documents, Favorites, Desktop, Cookies, Application Data (where most application data hides), Local Settings, etc.
Irrelevant.
Entry level computer users? You can buy a similarly equipped Dell for cheaper, WITH a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, AND the operating system that everyone else uses.
That's hardly an improvment over running an X server on Windows; it's more of a disadvantage. VNC is relatively slow compared to other protocols (you can deny this all you want, but X itself or RDP tend to perform better than VNC).
This does not resolve the parent post's complaint about the lack of a framebuffer. However, coLinux is perfectly usable for many people without a framebuffer. At any rate.. I bet coLinux would be faster than QEMU, even running over VNC. (Administrators membership would be required to install the coLinux driver and use some types of networking connections in either case.)
I might think that they're totally nuts to actually want to stay with VB6, (and I do), but I think that they ought to have the choice. Microsoft is not forcing them to move on. They have a choice; they may continue to use VB6 for as long as they want to.
Some people are just stubborn.
Mod parent down. This is not a Mozilla bug. It's a problem with Java.
I *very* highly doubt Skype has went through the process of starting up their own telephone company and has obtained their own exchanges; they probably rent lines from companies such as Level3, Focal Communications, etc. They most likely pay a flat rate for unlimited incoming calls every month to the company that provides them with incoming lines.