Category Archives: Phones

Cell Phones

3G is better than EDGE for me!

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Some idiot makes the claim that EDGE is just fine and you don't need 3G for web-browsing. The author claims that pure bandwidth doesn't matter, and that latency is more important to the user experience (which I totally agree with) but then goes on to state that 3G has worse latency than EDGE, which is completely bogus.

I can't imagine the author had ever used a (working) 3G network, because in my experiance (using a Motorola Razr V3xx on AT&T/Cingular), the 3G network has ping times of 200ms, while the EDGE network has 800ms ping times. This means that when you click on a link using EDGE it takes about a second for the page to start loading, but if you are using 3G the web pages respond much faster! 

Using my phone's WAP/HTML browser is MUCH more responsive on the 3G network than on the EDGE network. (I switch to edge in some subway stations). The same thing applies to Google Maps (J2ME on the phone) which is much more usable on 3G, so this applies for apps that do intelligent caching as well as web browsing.

Bottom line, if you can get 3G instead of EDGE, do so!

Unlocking my Cingular / AT&T phone

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AT&T Death Star

AT&T allows some customers to "unlock" their phones. This allows the use of a SIM card from a different provider (for example, VodaFone) while traveling. (It also allows you to use the phone with another GSM provider in the US after your AT&T contract is finished, which is one reason AT&T and other carriers lock the phones they subsidize.) 

I don't know exactly what makes a customer "eligible" to have a phone unlocked, but I suspect that you have to have made several payments on time and be in good standing. When I am under a new contract with a subsidized phone I typically wait a few months (in this case, about 6) before calling in to ask to have my phone unlocked. I've had T-Mobile unlock three phones (under 2 different contracts) for me in the past, but this was the first time I tried it with AT&T.  

I suspect that AT&T has an official policy of making it difficult to unlock your phone. Here is my experience:

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Motorola Razr V3xx SIM Lock problem

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Apparently, many (but not all) Motorola V3xx phones from Cingular have a problem where they will not work with a locked SIM card. If you change your SIM code it will apply the changes, but as soon as it turns on the “SIM Lock” feature, the phone will not be able to access the Cingular network. If you call Cingular, they will insist you have “locked up” your SIM and that they must send you a new one. A thread on the Cingular forum about this topic appears here.

If you have access to a different GSM phone however, you can fix the problem yourself by moving your SIM card to the other phone, typing in your SIM card number, and then turning off the “SIM Lock” feature. When you move the SIM card back to your V3xx phone, it will work again. Just remember, don’t turn on the “SIM Lock” feature on a V3xx until Motorola/Cingular issue a fix unless you have another GSM phone around to correct things if you have one of the broken v3xx’s.

I verified that my V3xx has this problem and notified Cingular.

Changing the outside display logo on a Razr V3XX

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Electronics My RAZR V3xx has two screens, a small one on the "outside" and a larger one inside. During normal phone usage, the outside screen shows the Cingular logo. (Or the Motorola Logo if you have a non-branded phone.)

I decided to replace the Cingular logo with one of my own, so I used P2kCommander-v4.9.9 to replace the cl.gif file in a/mobile/ with my own. (I'm currently using the picture of electronics, which makes the outer screen look like a window into the phone, but I've included a few others you might want to use instead.) Remember to back up your original cl.gif if you ever want to go back!

Other hacks for the v3xx are here and here and my review is here. Continue reading →

Review: Motorola RAZR V3xx

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V3 Gold The Motorola RAZR V3xx  is one of Cingular's new non-smart 3G phones, and can be purchased relatively inexpensively with a contract. (Amazon sells them for 0.01 with a 2 year contract, cingular charged $79 the last time I checked.) Although it doesn't have a mini-qwerty keyboard and good email support like the Blackjack, 8525, or Treo 750, it also costs $200-400 less. The Motorola RAZR V3xx is in the same class as the Samsung A707 SYNC and the LG CU500 Phone in that it supports 3G, playing music, and Cingular videos, but it's 3G chipset is twice as fast (3.6 vs 1.8). Continue reading →

Best J2ME mobile applications

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j2me logoThis is a list of the J2ME applications that I use and like. To make the list they have to be free to use and not have annoying advertising (open source is also a plus).

NOTE:
If I do not list a URL Link, but instead just have a number in parenthesis such as (7223) the number is a "quick download" link at wap.getjar.com. 

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LG CU-500 Mobile Phone Review (Cingular)

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LG CU500 cell phone The LG CU500 Phone is one of Cingular's new non-smart 3G phones, and can be purchased relatively inexpensively with a contract. (Amazon sells them for 0.01 with a 2 year contract, cingular charged $50 the last time I checked.) Although it doesn't have a mini-qwerty keyboard and good email support like the Blackjack, 8525, or Treo 750, it also costs $200-400 less. The LG CU500 is in the same class as the Samsung A707 SYNC and the Motorola RAZR V3xx in that it supports 3G, playing music, and Cingular videos.

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Enabling the IMAP4/POP3/SSL email client (and other goodies) on a Motorola v3xx phone via SEEM editing

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Cell Phone Tower

My new Motorola RAZR V3xx phone is Cingular branded, which means that Cingular has added many money making links to it ("Shop Cingular!") and have hidden some of the nicer features that Motorola originally built into the phone. For example, Cingular has hidden the IMAP4/POP3/SSL email client that is built into the phone. Luckily for me, by changing a few bits in the phone's memory I can re-enable the features I want. I have already fixed Java on my phone so that Google Maps doesn't ask for permission to access the network every time I zoom or scroll, which is another hack I recommend you do to your V3XX phone. Now I will describe the SEEM edit I made.

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