I received a brand new Motorola RAZR V3xx Phone that is branded by Cingular, and they have set the J2ME (JVM) environment so that 3rd party j2me/java applications (such as Google Maps) are not trusted to use the network. Unfortunately, this means that every time I move Google Maps it pop's up a dialog asking me if I want to let it use the network. This completely ruins the user experience.
One nice thing about the LG CU500 Phone is that BitPim (an application that works on Linux as well as windows) will allow you to edit it's file-system easily. This makes it relatively easy to modify some of the bad things that Cingular has done to the phone.
By default, Cingular locks the phone down so that unsigned Java Apps are forced to ask for Internet access on every single URL they load. Needless to say, this is very annoying when using a network based application such as Google maps.
The Samsung Blackjack is a nice piece of hardware. The screen is beautiful, it is well proportioned and fits well in my hand, the scroll-wheel makes it easy to select from menus, and it's thin enough to be carried in a hip pocket despite the factthat it's wider than most phones. The camera is adequate for a cell phone, and the speaker is plenty loud. The phone actually has two speakers,one in the ear-piece, and one on the back that is used to play audio from everything that isn't a phone call (movies, mp3, speaker-phone). The only downside to this is that people behind your phone get better (and louder) sounds than you do, which may be good for sharing music, but isn't as appreciated when you're watching a movie in public. As with every other 3G device I've played with (namely the LG CU500) a standard Bluetooth headset works for call audio only, and will NOT play mono-only sound from the movie/mp3 player. See my rant on 3G phones and why I hate this.
I have tried out two 3G phones that work on the Cingular Network, the LG CU500 (a flip phone) and the Samsung SGH-i607 (a.k.a. Blackjack) Windows Mobile smart-phone. Both devices support the A2DP Bluetooth profile, for connecting stereo Bluetooth headphones to listen to stereo audio in movies and music, but… Continue reading
The key to teathering your linux laptop to your Cingular Blackjack phone is enabling the Bluetooth DUN profile on the blackjack. Although it shows up by default, it won't work unless you are running the Internet Sharing application. (Which, Cingular has hidden from you, yay carriers!) Continue reading
When running linux, you sometimes want to connect to a cell phone (using it as a modem) over bluetooth.
Different cell phones use different RFCOMM channels to export their Dial-up Networking service on.
Here are the commands to use to find which channel you should use: Continue reading
I have been looking at the SyncML standard as a solution to keep the calendar on my palm pilot in sync with the calendar on a Nokia 9500 on the off chance that I don't want to carry two devices at once. SyncML was first developed for synchronizing cell phones, so the Nokia 9500 has a built in sync client. I explored two different clients for the Palm Pilot, the free Funambol open source client, and the Synthesis AG SyncML client (which costs $25 for the standard version).
The iPhone looks amazing. Coming from Apple you know it has to be slick, and the demos and reviews from people who have actually played with it back that up. I'm sure it will be a great phone and music/video player that will sync seamlessly with your Macintosh personal information programs. I want one myself, but here are the pragmatic reasons why you shouldn't go out and buy the first generation. Continue reading
Short instructions on how to use a Bluetooth enabled cell phone as a modem (allowing you to log into the Internet while mobile). A few of the commands are T-mobile specific (Look for internet3.voicestream.com), but most of the rest would apply to any service provider. With T-Mobile, you must have an activated data plan to use your phone as a modem. I am grandfathered into a plan called "T-Mobile Internet VPN" for 19.95 a month, but believe the current rate is closer to $40 a month. Continue reading
Note! This phone works better than my previous phone but the user interface is somewhat kludgy. Once you work around its misdesigned phonebook and confusing and inconsistent menu system it does work without crashing (as my sony T610 was prone to do whenever using bluetooth). I’m willing to trade some UI uglyness for a phone that doesn’t crash once a day and the extra speed that EDGE provides. Perhaps the newer Sony Erricson (T616, etc) phones work better than the T610 I bought, but I wasn’t willing to gamble after experiancing a year of crashes and other problems with my T610.
Overall, the Motorola v330 feels snappy, with the web browser and menus responding much faster than my older T610. But how does it work as a celular EDGE/GPRS modem?
Testing in Atlanta, GA, USA where I get 5 bars of service (9th floor) using a T-Mobile VPN Internet account ($19.95 a month when bundled with a voice plan, the costs have since gone up), I have seen bursts of 20-23 KB/sec on downloads, with sustained speeds of 12-13 KB/sec. Uploading is significantly slower, with sustained speeds of 4-5KB/sec. {My previous, GPRS only (no EDGE) phone maxed out at 5.6KB/sec downloads, and 1-2KB/sec uploads, so EDGE is definately an improvement. It makes browsing the web a slow process, as opposed to a painfully slow process.}