Question: Scouting new mobile service 11
During my recent trip to London, I plugged my mobile phone charger into my UK power adapter and it blew the charger… leaving me across the world with no charger for my phone. It didn’t matter much because I couldn’t get coverage with my service with Verizon Wireless. My second two-year contract with them came up a few months ago… so I am now considering leaving them for something else. After four years… I would grade them a B+. I’ve always liked their web tools and since all of my close family and girlfriends family has used Verizon… the in-network calls have always been free. The coverage is generally good within the states… however, lack of international plans doesn’t work out well with my recent and upcoming travel plans for work. Also, I need to sneak my way over to the Nokia phones as one of our projects requires that it work with opera mini and the mobile version of mozilla. So… I’d like to test the application first hand. ;-)
Since you have all been so helpful in the past with open questions… who do you have mobile service through?
I would like to get the following:
- java-enabled for mini opera, ssh client!, etc…
- camera-not-so-important but useful
- bluetooth for getting an internet connection and sharing to my laptop while on the road
- lots of text messaging/email (server notices…)
- ability to use phone internationally
- wifi?
Who do you use and why do you like them (or not)?
Thanks!
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I really like T-Mobile. I used them in 2001 before I got a cell phone from work (which was Verizon and worked ok) but am back on them now for both my personal and business usage. They’ve always had the best customer service of any provider I’ve used and their actual cell service works well for me. I’m on a family plan with my girlfriend so we can share minutes. A side benefit of that plan is unlimited messaging (both text and picture) to anyone. At first I thought it was just between the two of us but it is indeed to anyone on any network.
Another good thing is that I only had to sign a year contract and we still got free phones. I have a Motorola PEBL and it does the bluetooth stuff you want and works well in general. It’s my first phone with a camera so I didn’t realize I would want to use it as much as I do…which makes me realize the camera on it isn’t all that great. I don’t think it does Java but I’m not sure…I’ve never used the net access on it.
Hope this helps!
I use T-Mobile with a Nokia 3660, which is a big-ass SymbianOS phone. Discontinued, sadly. Still, I like everything but its size.
I use Cingular and I have a HTC TYTN. Cingular has upgraded their wireless networks in much of the country to provide highspeed wireless access.
Cingular has a better network in the US than T-Mobile. Cingular has two contracts which isn’t a good thing.
The selection of mobile’s in the US is slim. I have T-Mobile, but they’ve gone backwards in their options for high-end/feature-rich handsets (unless you heart windows mobile).
They have great data plan ($5/month for EDGE), unlocked bluetooth as modem/sync, work internationally (either with your current SIM chip at $1/min, or you can pop-in a Europe pay-per-min simchip)
One suggestion, check out Amazon’s selection of Nokia’s – which then also lists what carrier in the US allows that phone.
Nokia 6682 is supposed to be nice (and available).
Nokia E70 was recommended to me by several Nokia employees who use it as their personal phone (until the next gens come out, which they say are awesome, but I digress)
Really, to get a good phone you’ll probably have to buy one straight out and then unlock it. That is, until the US market figures out how to actually be openly competitive rather than locked-in.
You lug around a charger? I just got given a universal USB charger kit – now I can charge my laptop and phone and iPod and…. with only one (laptop) power adapter …
If I go with a cough windows mobile device… I can use PcketPuTTY.
What other options do I have for SSH clients on a mobile device?
To gain the usefulness of a ssh client your giving up the size comfort of a mobile home.
This way lies madness!
To gain the usefulness of a ssh client your giving up the size comfort of a mobile home.
This way lies madness!
I run PuTTY on my Nokia (6680) – Look here.
Try the sharp zaurus 3×00 series, not a phone but a pda – full ssh (you can even install openbsd on it!), also runs ruby (fast) and rails (slowly) so a decent dev machine for on the road.
Might not be what you are looking for, but combine it with any bluetooth mobile and you have a linux box in your pocket. Runs full xwindows if you need also. I’ve gotten ruby,rails,apache,mysql,perl,php,python and loads of other stuff working on mine.
A phone with bluetooth connectivity plus a Nokia 770 is hard to beat. It’s nice to have a sane-sized phone and an 800×480 resolution Opera browser/ssh client in your pocket.