"Mobile users diss premium content"

John Navas wrote:
>> I think it's ridiculous that I have Laptop Connect Unlimited (with a
>> Sony Ericcson PC card) which I use frequently to download a fairly
>> large amount of data, yet I have to pay extra if I want to use the WAP
>> browser in my cell phone to download a limited amount of data.

> Why? Just move the PC card SIM to the phone.

Yes that is possible, but it is not something I would consider
convenient; swapping SIM cards back and forth. Besides, I could not
receive any voice calls while the PC card SIM was in the phone. No
thanks.

---

› See More: "Mobile users diss premium content"

John Navas wrote:

> My Motorola V551 does quite a bit better than that -- even with steady use
> of multimedia I still get a few hours of battery life.

I've just been considering a V551. Can you sync the phonebook and calendar
to any PIM via bluetooth? I can ditch my Palm if I can do that. The manual
says you can send individual calendar or contact entries to another device,
but nothing about a full sync.
--
derek

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> If I'm
> trying to impress other geeks, I'll wear one of my commercial Motorola
> status symbol radios, which demonstrates to everyone that I overpaid
> for the radio.

Tell me it was a Moto HT-220 and I will surely be impressed.

DecaturTxCowboy <[email protected]> hath wroth:

>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> If I'm
>> trying to impress other geeks, I'll wear one of my commercial Motorola
>> status symbol radios, which demonstrates to everyone that I overpaid
>> for the radio.

>Tell me it was a Moto HT-220 and I will surely be impressed.

That was the status symbol in the 1960's. Absolute rats nest of wires
inside. I had both the slim line versions and piggy back 12 channel
board version, with my life savings in xtals inside. I designed some
signaling accessories that fit inside (around the speaker). I used a
few of those through the mid 1970's but donated them to someone that
was willing to spend their spare time keeping them alive and on
frequency.

My current Motorola status symbols are various GP-300, GP-350, and
HT-1000. These are big and heavy enough to be useful for pounding
nails.
http://www.batlabs.com/pgallery.html

Please note that the true geek carries it all with him. Mounting your
satellite dish in the truck bed is a step in the right direction, but
unless you spend your life in the truck bed, you won't be recognized
as a geek. Perhaps if you wore the remote control or a GPS on your
belt.

To be a true Cingular cell phone geek, you need to have on your belt,
at least one cell phone, an attached PDA for tethered internet access,
an 802.11b/g access point to allow others to share your unlimited
internet connection, a GPS for posting your location on a internet,
and a web cam that posts pictures of your surroundings for all to see.
Anything less is just a wannabe cellular geek.

Don't forget the pocket protector full of pens, screwdriver, hemostat,
and spare flash drives. For historical accuracy, white socks, horn
rim glasses held together with a band-aid, and the remains of last
nights pizza on the t-shirt, are also helpful.


--
Jeff Liebermann [email protected]
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 22 Mar 2006 23:37:09 -0600,
Jer <[email protected]> wrote:

>John Navas wrote:
>>
>> In <[email protected]> on Wed, 22 Mar 2006 18:47:01
>> -0800, Dr. Anton T. Squeegee <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>In article <[email protected]>,
>>>[email protected] (known to some as John Navas) scribed...

>>>>The problem is that some wireless hotspots make it impossible to use VPN to
>>>>secure your connection.
>>>
>>> Quite true. Some open networks, for whatever reason, do not permit
>>>VPN traffic to go through. In most cases I've found of such, it was
>>>simply misconfiguration of the access point involved, in that the owners
>>>of it were unaware that they needed to actually tell the thing 'allow
>>>traffic on port x to go through.'
>>>
>>> No evil plots, no conspiracy to extract a premium for allowing VPN
>>>to go through. Just plain ignorance.
>>
>> In other cases it's based on being able to monitor all traffic, as I've found
>> in some public libraries.
>
>They can monitor me all they want - but watching my VPN payload is like
>watching paint dry.

VPN is blocked. Next time take the time to read the entire context.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Wed, 22 Mar 2006
22:21:05 -0700, "Scott" <[email protected]> wrote:

>"John Navas" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>>
>> Sure, but giving network resources away for free doesn't make sense for
>> the
>> carrier, unless the carrier has to give it away to make up for how
>> uncompetitive it is, as in the case of Nextel.
>
>So, the highest ARPU carrier in the industry is "giving" resources away?

Yes. Nextel ARPU is based on premium voice services, not data.

>Are you really that stupid?

No. And you?

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 02:37:23
-0800, SMS <[email protected]> wrote:

>Nextel is rather unique in that is offers a useful premium service that
>customers actually want, actually use, and are willing to pay a premium
>for. They also have a great barrier to entry of other competitors, at
>least for now.

In fact Kodiak PTT now available from Cingular is competitive with iDEN
(Nextel) PTT.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 05:45:33
GMT, Jeff Liebermann <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 04:45:31 GMT, John Navas
><[email protected]> wrote:

>>You mean like with cable TV? While it's not metered, I think the
>>principle is pretty similar.
>
>Yep, almost exactly, but for a different reason. With CATV, the
>"streaming" content is continuous and uninterrupted. The cable
>content bundlers assemble a package of entertainment, advertisements,
>announcements, and previews, that are streamed at the user
>continuously and without interruption. Hopefully, that won't happen
>with streaming content to a cell phone. However, it is possible that
>some brilliant cellular marketeer may decide that some of the data
>bandwidth be dedicated to some form of broadcasting. It wouldn't be
>bad if it were traffic reports, weather reports, terrorist alerts,
>sports scores, stockmarket numbers, AMBER alerts, and other useful
>items (similar to what the pager people have been broadcasting for
>many years).

It's already happening -- see Motorola SCREEN3, now being deployed by
Cingular.

>>Attempts to do that in other areas haven't been very successful -- given a
>>choice, consumers have usually voted overwhelmingly for "free" ad-supported
>>content.
>
>That's fine. Then the advertisers shouldn't complain if people are
>willing to tolerate the ads. A few might find it sufficiently
>obnoxious to pay for a clean feed. For things I use often, I would
>probably pay.

The latest wild card is DVR like TiVO, which make it easy for customers to
whiz past commercials. Along with DVD, the old advertising model is being
seriously threatened.

>>Hides? Where? In a backpack? No thanks. This afternoon I was wandering
>>around with just my cell phone in a belt holster, and that's usually all that
>>I want to be carrying.
>
>Ok, so you're not a real geek.

That's a relief! Can I show that to my girlfriend?

>I have my PDA cell phone, flashlight,
>and tape measure on my belt.

I only load up when sailboat racing: wrist GPS, handheld GPS and sometimes a
hand-bearing compass in my pocket, PFD-mounted safety strobe and multi-tool,
and looking to add PLB (essentially personal EPIRB) and/or laser rangefinder.

>On the dash of my gas guzzler, I have a
>Panasonic Toughbook CF-M34 laptop that acts as a file server. It
>could just as easily be a multimedia movie viewer.

My IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T30 is usually in my car, and often on the boat.

>In my scenario,
>either the vehicle server or the phone downloads the video files, and
>play them to the display via UWB (wireless USB). No need to play them
>on the tiny cell phone display. However, if you're going into a
>restraunt, hotel, or airport, and you wanna watch your own movies,
>bring your own viewer. It's not that big.

When traveling, I use my ThinkPad with headset (wired or Bluetooth) for
multimedia.

>>I have buttons on both edges of my cell phone, in addition to the keyboard.
>>Methinks you need a slider form factor.
>
>Think voice recognition and control. The major functions remain on
>the keyboard. User defined buttons for creative applications. Voice
>control does the rest. Ideally, it should recognize and parse phrases
>and offer options. There's only so much that can be done with
>buttons.

I personally dislike voice recognition -- too many times when I can't talk,
and I find it more clumsy than keyboard control in any event.

>>You may be right. My own vision is high resolution heads up display and
>>speakers on my glasses, driven from the phone over your short range wireless.
>
>Yep. Take a giant step backwards and look at the cell phone from the
>standpoint of a user interface to the digital (and analog POTS) world.
>Is it a good interface? Does it do its job efficiently? Can it be
>done better? In my never humble opinion, the operation and cybernetic
>features of a cell phone are terrible. Only the basics like dialing a
>number are handled gracefully.

That depends on how flexible the phone is. One of the things that I like
about current Motorola phones is how easy they are to customize to my taste.
For example, I've reprogrammed the side "smart button" to launch Google Local
for Mobile, one "soft key" to bring up WAP shortcuts (bookmarks, which I've
customized to my tastes and needs), and the other "soft key" to bring up phone
shortcuts (likewise customized to my tastes and needs). There are dedicated
keys for the camera, my Cingular on-line account page, and voice recording.
I can't think of much that could be done to improve on that interface.

>For example, my vision of programming
>a phone is to use two shaft encoders (dials). One dial selects the
>function to be set, the other selects the value. Punch enter and it's
>saved. Total no-brainer to learn and no maze of sub menus to
>navigate. I once designed a marine radio that worked like that.
>Everyone loved it except the dealers. They claimed that customers
>judged the "value" of a radio by the number of knobs and buttons. The
>more the better. So, we added knobs and buttons all over the place.

I liked the jog wheel on my old Sony Ericsson smartphone, where you rotate to
scroll and press to select, but I didn't find it all that much better than the
customized Motorola interface.

>Bluetooth hang it on your ear headsets is another kludge. It would be
>so easy to make one that folds flat and fits in my pocket instead of
>being a big, lumpy, fragile, and light weight ear hanger. Mine would
>unfold, expand to something like a normal headset, and get put away
>when not in use.

YMMV -- I'm pretty happy with my Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset.

>However, the real problem with Bluetooth is pairing. Bluetooth
>headsets can only pair with one device at a time. This makes it
>useless for fast switching between a cell phone and a computer. 4000
>companies in the Bluetooth Sig and nobody thought a headset might be
>used with more than one device.

I see these as different devices. My single ear cell phone headset is
optimized for voice quality (send and receive) in difficult conditions.
(Noise canceling is so good that I can use it on the boat in the wind.) In a
computer headset I'm interested in good stereo music.

>Add a VR display (or something similar) will only solve the output
>problem. The device still needs to be controlled and that's where
>methinks the problems hide. Think wearable computers where one of the
>wearable boxes is a cell phone.

Perhaps, but I've been impressed with "nod" interfaces on some VR headsets.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 10:09:00 -0400,
Derek Broughton <[email protected]> wrote:

>John Navas wrote:
>
>> My Motorola V551 does quite a bit better than that -- even with steady use
>> of multimedia I still get a few hours of battery life.
>
>I've just been considering a V551. Can you sync the phonebook and calendar
>to any PIM via bluetooth? I can ditch my Palm if I can do that. The manual
>says you can send individual calendar or contact entries to another device,
>but nothing about a full sync.

I sync with Outlook using Motorola Phone Tools. TrueSync supports Lotus Notes
and Palm Desktop.

BTW, the current version of the V551 is the V557.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:11:21
-0800, Jeff Liebermann <[email protected]> wrote:

>Don't forget the pocket protector full of pens, screwdriver, hemostat,
>and spare flash drives. For historical accuracy, white socks, horn
>rim glasses held together with a band-aid, and the remains of last
>nights pizza on the t-shirt, are also helpful.

I'd say black socks in white sneakers, and a tie printed on the t-shirt.
A Jolt cola is also helpful.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

Jeff Liebermann wrote:
> Perhaps if you wore the remote control or a GPS on your belt.

Nah, GPS too inaccurate for me. I use my topo maps on laptop.

> an attached PDA for tethered internet access,

Haven't figured out yet how to tether my iPaq to my phone.

> an 802.11b/g access point to allow others to share your unlimited
> internet connection,

Already have a mobile AP with extendable 30' mast.

> a GPS for posting your location on a internet,

That would get me into trouble.

> and a web cam that posts pictures of your surroundings for all to see.

Already have a saddle mount for my web cam when I go trail riding in the
grasslands. (Makes note to get a metal case for laptop, horses like to
rub against trees)

John Navas wrote:
> I'd say black socks in white sneakers, and a tie printed on the t-shirt.
> A Jolt cola is also helpful.

Please don't tell me you did that.

[POSTED TO alt.cellular.cingular - REPLY ON USENET PLEASE]

In <[email protected]> on Thu, 23 Mar 2006
20:35:14 GMT, DecaturTxCowboy <[email protected]> wrote:

>Jeff Liebermann wrote:
>> Perhaps if you wore the remote control or a GPS on your belt.
>
>Nah, GPS too inaccurate for me. I use my topo maps on laptop.

My GPS is accurate/repeatable to about 15 feet.

--
Best regards, SEE THE FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS AT
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>

John Navas wrote:
> My GPS is accurate/repeatable to about 15 feet.

Of course it is.

>
> I sync with Outlook using Motorola Phone Tools. TrueSync supports Lotus
> Notes and Palm Desktop.
>
Yeah, but do you need the USB cable, or can you do it with the Bluetooth?
I'll get the cable if I must, but I'd prefer not.

> BTW, the current version of the V551 is the V557.
>
No surprise. My cell company hasn't had a state of the art phone in the 10
years I've been using them...
--
derek