Database Info

O2 UK Users - Web Bolt On

Has anyone got this Bolt-On from O2?
I'm interested in having constant access to the Net (or rather downloading stuff like Weather updates and uploading/downloading GPS positions on a live tracking system as well as MSN Messnger, email, etc.)
Does anyone have any statistics on what you can roughly do before they start to charge?
Is there a way to say, NOT use the net if you've reached a certain limit or up/download etc or some way of monitoring your monthly usage?

I'm with T-Mobile atm so no knowledge of this, but to monitor web usage I'd use Battery Status (can't find a link right now, but a quick google should find it). I think you can set a monthly limit in it, but not sure exactly.

Cheers mate, will look at BatteryStatus.

They dont have a limit on there internet usage anymore with there package, at over £35 a month you can have unlimted internet (what i have) and below £35 a month the bolt on is 7.50 a month extra.
last month i downloaded almost 300meg on my phone no problem.
I was told by O2 they no longer have a fair usage policy either, only an excessive use which means that they will warn you if your using it to much first, and the guy from o2 said that excessive use means that you will be affecting other users. So basically you cant go wrong.
I use mine to for weather, all my email including attachments, downloading mp3s & movies, watching youtube.
Never had a problem.

loomx, that's good to know. Thanks for that.
I'm on a £35pm contract, but only paying £25pm (o2's problems last year, I was gonna close the account but they convinced me to stay so got a good deal).
But I certainly won't be downloading/uploading a lot. Just live GPS tracking, weather updates, emails (nobody loves me that much so only a couple a day!! )
But that's good to know, thanks.

Yes, I have the bolt on. My phone checks emails every 15mins and I surf the internet sometimes. Never used more than 100MB a month.
I use the gpsd monitor software that came with your phone.

same here, using around 200 meg a month according to the free GPRS monitor software, and all fine. I've got POP3 checking every 15 mins, MSN Messenger on permanently, check a few sites every day, works great. (Had to switch off HSDPA though as my battery was suffering!)

There's no point in HSDPA on o2 personal non business contracts capped at 128kbps anyway
I have the bolt-on and I've no idea how much data I use, and don't care unless o2 send me an SMS

I took the free bolt-on with my upgrade and I made sure that I double checked the online terms and conditions and then again with their staff.
There is no download limit!
The restrictions are that you cannot use skype, IPSMS or other such features and you cannot connect another device to use your internet connection.
If you download 5Gb of video from the YouTube, thats fine
If you let your PC download 1Mb of videos from YouTube you are in breach
If you use skype thats a breach as well.

Biomehanika said:
I took the free bolt-on with my upgrade and I made sure that I double checked the online terms and conditions and then again with their staff.
There is no download limit!
The restrictions are that you cannot use skype, IPSMS or other such features and you cannot connect another device to use your internet connection.
If you download 5Gb of video from the YouTube, thats fine
If you let your PC download 1Mb of videos from YouTube you are in breach
If you use skype thats a breach as well.
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That’s good news BTW is that on a business or consumer tariff ?

Thats on the consumer tariff!

I have the bolt-on. I have only just started using it so I cannot comment on throughput. I will on occasion be using the internet sharing to hook-up my laptop but only a couple of weekends a year.
If they catch me I guess I'll suffer a warning or something, shan't be putting a lot through it anyway.

I have occasionally used internet sharing on my T-Mobile Web and walk pass which is not supposed to be used for tethering etc. Even after I download a few ROMs T-Mobile made no comment.

Is there Live Tracking Software?

I'm looking for live tracking software. Something that shows the location of another phone on a moving map. I know that there are tons of apps to send coordinates via sms or show it on a web site. What I am looking for is software that shows the other phones location on a map just like a navigation program shows your location. I am assuming that it would use a data connection and that's fine I have unlimited on all three phones. It would be extra cool if it would show my location too. I remember seeing commercials where older (non-PPC phones) would do this.
PS. pay or freeware, it doesn't matter.

try glympse its free, you can find it on marketplace or http://www.glympse.com/ this seems like what your looking for. it works great, you can send a glympse to anyone and they can see you live as your move. It works best when you load the link using skyfire so you can see the actual website version . But if the other person has glympse installed they can see you move in real time that way too.

I haven't used it, but from what I've read, Google LATITUDE will do that.

SecretAgentMan said:
I haven't used it, but from what I've read, Google LATITUDE will do that.
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latitude only sends updated gps information every 2 minutes. glympes send out information in real time and also tells you how fast the person your tracking in mph

i use GPSToday from geoterrestrial.com, depending on your settings and the availability of a cell signal you can update at 1 minute intervals with a fairly high degree of accuracy. i enjoy having my wife track me from home as im out roaming about.

ottomatic28 said:
i enjoy having my wife track me from home as im out roaming about.
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rescu2000 said:
I'm looking for live tracking software. Something that shows the location of another phone on a moving map. I know that there are tons of apps to send coordinates via sms or show it on a web site. What I am looking for is software that shows the other phones location on a map just like a navigation program shows your location. I am assuming that it would use a data connection and that's fine I have unlimited on all three phones. It would be extra cool if it would show my location too. I remember seeing commercials where older (non-PPC phones) would do this.
PS. pay or freeware, it doesn't matter.
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Try GPSToday (free)
http://www.geoterrestrial.com/
or download straight to your device at http://m.geoterrestrial.com/
After installation you can create a private group from one phone, and invite the other 2 phones to join it. Then all 3 phones can see each others location on the map and also share points of interest/pictures etc, privately.
The group map can also be viewed on the desktop after logging in at the website.

Another GPStoday user here. It also Geotags your photos and you can write log files.

SecretAgentMan said:
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Google Maps Latitude tracks everybody I have on my friend's list and I use CoPilot Navigator 8 and it has the capability of sending via text right down to the coordinates your location; good enough for me!

[APP REQUEST] Tablet-to-Phone integration (see post)

There's been similar App requests before but mine is a little different.
I want my phone to seemlessly with one app (ideally):
- Tether my phone's 3g with my tablet
- Allow me to browse my phones files with my tablet:
- See photos in the gallery off my phone​- Listen to music files on my phone's SD card on my tablet​- Be able to make phone calls off my tablet through my phone including contacts integration​- Have documents written on my phone or tablet be saved on both, so if I only have my phone on me I still have all my important documents/homework with me.​
I could go on and on, but I think this tight integration with smartphone and tablet is the future, especially with the Transformer since its more of workhorse and the phone is more of a personal organizer.

I want my phone to seemlessly with one app (ideally):
- Tether my phone's 3g with my tablet​
Enable Wifi Tethering on your phone. Easy.
- See photos in the gallery off my phone​
Easy, make sure you sync/upload all your camera pictures to Picasa Web Albums (All Google account come with it) And it'll show up on the Transformer in the stock Gallery app. You can use a program like Pixelpipe to auto upload every picture you take on your phone to upload to Picasa. Or you can do it yourself, check mark all your photos, share, select Picasa.
- Listen to music files on my phone's SD card on my tablet​
Why store music to your sd card? Get Amazon Cloud Drive (Free 2 gigs, buy an album and you get 20gigs free), upload your music to Cloud Drive, and use the Amazon MP3 app to listen to your music! Or, run AudioGalaxy on your computer, point it to your mp3 folder, and use AudioGalaxy to listen to your computer's music on your tablet/phone.
- Be able to make phone calls off my tablet through my phone including contacts integration​
Contacts integration is already done with Google Contacts, auto syncs as long as your Google account is logged in. Making phone calls on your tablet? Seriously? Just grab your phone. This is sorry, but a stupid request
- Have documents written on my phone or tablet be saved on both, so if I only have my phone on me I still have all my important documents/homework with me.​
Keep your documents on Google Docs. Download the Google Docs app on your phone/tablet and you can have it on both.
Or better yet, Get DropBox also free. works on phone/tablet/pc/mac/everything. Modify one, and it comes across EVERYWHERE.
I could go on and on, but I think this tight integration with smartphone and tablet is the future, especially with the Transformer since its more of workhorse and the phone is more of a personal organizer.
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All the stuff you want to do is already doable and easy to do. Most important thing is moving away from local storage to cloud storage, that's the future and we're seeing already with Amazon/Google/DropBox.

What I'd like is to be able to control the tablet with my phone. Especially now that I have Plex, as being able to link my tablet to the tv and stream video with plex but sit on the sofa with my phone as a remote would be awesome.

AFK_Matrix said:
What I'd like is to be able to control the tablet with my phone. Especially now that I have Pled, as being able to link my tablet to the tv and stream video with plex but sit on the sofa with my phone as a remote would be awesome.
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This would be a very useful function...

What I'd like is an application to send/receive SMS/MMS from my tablet through my phone.
YES, I have Google Voice, but using that sends from your GV number. I'd actually like the sending and receiving to be done by my Droid X, but have a client application on the tablet that can interface with the SMS client on my phone.

FrayAdjacent said:
What I'd like is an application to send/receive SMS/MMS from my tablet through my phone.
YES, I have Google Voice, but using that sends from your GV number. I'd actually like the sending and receiving to be done by my Droid X, but have a client application on the tablet that can interface with the SMS client on my phone.
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Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.

I suggest that you might have more luck posting this request in the general Android apps forum here.
You might also give an indication of how much you'd be prepared to pay for such an application!
Regards,
Dave

nxt said:
Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.
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Those of us not in the US have issues with that though :-(
It should be easy for Google to do though, as they could route all SMS as data to a phone on your Google account, then send it as SMS from there using the phone's regular contract.
An SMS app for the tablet that meant I could recieve texts on it and reply whilst keeping the phone in sync with what's being sent and received would easily be worth a fiver. And that's Stirling, too

nxt said:
All the stuff you want to do is already doable and easy to do. Most important thing is moving away from local storage to cloud storage, that's the future and we're seeing already with Amazon/Google/DropBox.​
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The thing with your suggestions is that its a ton of different apps and lots of hoops to jump through.
I want one. single. app.​

nxt said:
Port your number to Google Voice. I did, love it. Also no contract line with T-Mobile.
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That only circumvents the problem partially... then if I want everyone who has my (current) cell number to txt me directly to my phone (I can't hear the notifications I set in GV on my DX worth a crap!), I'd need to give them another number.
I think a client/server type thing that would let me interact remotely with the SMS app on my phone would be ideal.

FrayAdjacent said:
I think a client/server type thing that would let me interact remotely with the SMS app on my phone would be ideal.
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Try this out.
I think what the OP wants is definitely coming. But, read all of the posts by the OP on the thread I posted for the Sync SMS app and you will see some of the difficulties placed on the devs for such a project. Add in the large number of device manufacturers(custom software implementation b/c they refuse to use vanilla android)/different hardware (DroidX for example doesn't support infrastructure Wifi - only ad hoc) and types of connectivity (BT/WiFi/Cellular/USB) and it will become a very complicated project. I'm not saying it won't be done... I think it will be done. But, it is just a little ways farther off from happening. It'll take awhile for the software devs to work out the kinks and with Android/Honeycomb constantly evolving/constant hardware changes.... It makes this a daunting project for a single dev/small group.
Also, when it does come battery drain (constant polling for change in data) and data usage (carriers moving to tiered data plans) issues will have to be addressed. Many of the push API's are being figured out by devs so that will decrease the polling - but, data usage is only going to go up. I only had my TF for one day and I was having to watch my data over 3G because I knew if I continued to use it without worrying about getting onto Wifi I would go over my 2GB cap.....
The Sync SMS app dev has some good ideas and has been hard at work. I suggest reading his posts to better understand the difficulties.
@OP - it'll come with a little patience. In the meanwhile you can do what the second post suggested and use multiple solutions.

I'll never understand why Text messaging still hasn't evolved beyond text messaging!

We're still stuck where we cannot send video or photos over a standard text, I always have to download some alternative that never works to be able to send something that doesn't say there is a max file limit. Like why can't it just send through 3G? I have unlimited data, just so annoying that I have to go to the trouble of uploading the thing somewhere else and then sending a link and then they have to go to the trouble to of doing the same.
What really annoys me is where are text message games? They still don't exist...
There is one game for the PC called Frozen Synapse, it's basically like chess where you send your moves in at the same time and then you see the results. The beauty of it is you can send your move in and someone can do it whenever they want. The game isn't played in real time and then you have games like chess where it is one move and then theirs... like why can't we play these games over text message apps?
I know you can download separate apps but it is such an effort to get someone to play a game that way. It would be so easy and seamless to have it built into where you text, so you can send a text like pick up the milk on the way home but also your move in a turned based game.
I'm just so bored with how the software side of things just isn't innovative, it seems stuck like 5 years in the past.

Cell providers want everyone to use data instead. Back when I had only a basic phone, I used to use Dotgo, which serves some website content over texts. I would use it to get the weather, sports scores, and news headlines. It was actually a pretty nice service and is still around. Smartphones have made a lot of the stuff you describe obsolete.
It would be nice to modernize texting to allow for longer messages, better muitimedia support, etc but with all of the legacy devices out there (especially non smartphones) it wouldn't be easy to implement new features.

might be this a reason
since what all the msg can be counted and while data it cannot be counted that much and also it provides more bucks than the msg

Using Old Galaxy Tab A as Photo Frame

My Dad is in a care home without WiFi available. Visiting is difficult due to distance and health restrictions.
I would like to set him up with some sort of "digital photo frame" that my siblings and I can add photos to. I have an older Tab A with LTE that I figured I could rig up with Google Photos and a shared album we can all add photos to.
Unfortunately that doesn't work quite as seamlessly as I'd hoped. I can make the screensaver run a slideshow from a Google Photos album, which does what I need, but I have to actually go into the album and add the shared photos to it before the screensaver picks them up.
I've found a few digital frame apps that claim to be able to use a Google Photos album but so far no luck making them work, and the visiting problems means I can't regularly update photos in person.
My Nest Hub nicely does what we need (running a slideshow from a shared Photos album), but with no WiFi, it can't connect to that.
I figured if I could remote into the thing, I could force those updates, or just upload photos into a proper digital frame app... but this is too old (Android 5.0.2) for TeamViewer, and so far the only other thing I've found that claims to do what I need is Rescue+, which requires the tablet user to enter a code.
Can anyone suggest either another digital frame app that can pull photos from a shared online album, OR some kind of remote-access app that will work with this older device?
Yes, I've also thought of some kind of WiFi hotspot to provide internet for a proper digital frame, but I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible on-site and keep the equipment count down.

Soundy106 said:
My Dad is in a care home without WiFi available. Visiting is difficult due to distance and health restrictions.
I would like to set him up with some sort of "digital photo frame" that my siblings and I can add photos to. I have an older Tab A with LTE that I figured I could rig up with Google Photos and a shared album we can all add photos to.
Unfortunately that doesn't work quite as seamlessly as I'd hoped. I can make the screensaver run a slideshow from a Google Photos album, which does what I need, but I have to actually go into the album and add the shared photos to it before the screensaver picks them up.
I've found a few digital frame apps that claim to be able to use a Google Photos album but so far no luck making them work, and the visiting problems means I can't regularly update photos in person.
My Nest Hub nicely does what we need (running a slideshow from a shared Photos album), but with no WiFi, it can't connect to that.
I figured if I could remote into the thing, I could force those updates, or just upload photos into a proper digital frame app... but this is too old (Android 5.0.2) for TeamViewer, and so far the only other thing I've found that claims to do what I need is Rescue+, which requires the tablet user to enter a code.
Can anyone suggest either another digital frame app that can pull photos from a shared online album, OR some kind of remote-access app that will work with this older device?
Yes, I've also thought of some kind of WiFi hotspot to provide internet for a proper digital frame, but I'm trying to keep things as simple as possible on-site and keep the equipment count down.
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The simple solution is to just buy a digital frame that is already made for that purpose, otherwise, more than likely you won't be pleased with the results you get with what you are currently trying.

Droidriven said:
The simple solution is to just buy a digital frame that is already made for that purpose, otherwise, more than likely you won't be pleased with the results you get with what you are currently trying.
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Okay... do you know of one with LTE?
If not, it's still not a "simple solution."

Soundy106 said:
Okay... do you know of one with LTE?
If not, it's still not a "simple solution."
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True. If it is a tablet that can be activated on a mobile plan/prepaid network, that would reduce the amount of hardware and it could be set up to access remotely to update or add photos.