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I had (fairly recently) bought a seimens sx56 which I used mostly just for keeping track of my schedule, but I used some other features too. I was very dissapointed when I found out I could not connect it to my wireless router for internet and missed out on those features. The other day, however I cracked the screen making it completely unusable!!
I now need to replace it. I want to get something that can take a sim card (I have tmobile, but unlocked is better for freedom), have wifi built in (or can use the cf memory card w/ wifi that I mistakenly bought thinking it would fit the sx56), and I dont currently use bluetooth, but I am guessing I will eventually need it for something. I would prefer a stronger processor to run anything I might want in the future (I am a live sound engineer and as programs come out for helping me in my field it would prove useful), but my main restraint is money! I would like to spend $200-$300 absolute MAX, and dont mind buying a used product in good condition.
It should work with Tmobile USA (I think that is 1900mhz, not sure) and have a good battery life as I will likely be using it as my main cell phone.
What would anybody recommend in my price range (remember, used is ok!)
Thanks
Also is anybody interested in buying a sx-56 with a cracked screen? Make any offer!
Thanks again -- AshayinFLA
Does any one know of a theft alarm that will give a warning when my mobile is away from the receiver (in my pocket) more than a certain distance? Maybe built on RFID technology or blue tooth?
Your question made me imagine a phone tied by a piece of string to one of your pockets, so if someone jerks it out without you noticing, it would also jerk your pants. lol
that would be the simplest solution; still, I prefer technology, a very tiny transmitter hidden in the mobile, preferably a passive RFID tag so it will not contain a battery which then will be paired to a receiver that can only detect this tag. If the mobile is out of range, a buzzer and vibrating alarm is activated in the receiver.
I know that this seems possible, however, current RFID readers are priced in Ks of $, and this will not make it feasible for every one to buy it.
There are some alarms in the market with the same idea but built on different technology, their problem is that the transmitter is noticeable and the thief can simply remove them the moment he picks the mobile.
http://www.tradekey.com/selloffer_view/id/887081.htm
ok so you are running late for work and forget to put the non mobile side of the detector on your person one morning, you get part of the way out the door up the street and your phone starts buzzing and beeping like crazy.... run back to pick up the chip???
yeah if you really want this that bad string sounds good.
cktlcmd said:
Your question made me imagine a phone tied by a piece of string to one of your pockets, so if someone jerks it out without you noticing, it would also jerk your pants. lol
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Also, if the phone slip of your hand, the string will prevent it from drop to the floor. Not a bad idea, expecially you get two protections for the price of one.
If you carved some gooves into the side of the phone you could make a yoyo too.
come on guys, where I live, 3 out of 5 mobile owners had their mobiles theft at least once, if we use the string alarm, I imagine every one walking down the street is screaming out of pain because a thief tried to steal his mobile and had to let go when he found it stringed, this sudden release hearts I think
phones are considered disposable technology these days, i remember a few years back when insurance companies in australia use to offer insurance on phone theft but no one really bothered with it much.
if someone wants my phone badly enough to try and take it from my pocket i garentee there will be some sort of weapon involved and they will want my wallet and keys too and that being the case they can have it.
also considering that most people are aware that a phone can be tracked via the cell network who would buy it? its not like you will pay $50 down the pub for it knowing that someone would have reported it stolen and ur average thief aint smart enough to know how to change the IMEI number nor would anyone who is stupid enough to buy a $50 phone at a pub with half a string attached to it (LMAO)
st3v3 said:
phones are considered disposable technology these days, i remember a few years back when insurance companies in australia use to offer insurance on phone theft but no one really bothered with it much.
if someone wants my phone badly enough to try and take it from my pocket i garentee there will be some sort of weapon involved and they will want my wallet and keys too and that being the case they can have it.
also considering that most people are aware that a phone can be tracked via the cell network who would buy it? its not like you will pay $50 down the pub for it knowing that someone would have reported it stolen and ur average thief aint smart enough to know how to change the IMEI number nor would anyone who is stupid enough to buy a $50 phone at a pub with half a string attached to it (LMAO)
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Obviously you have not been on any poor parts of the world, based on your opinion. But in reality, there are parts of the world where cell phones don't have insurance, and they do sell it on the nearby pub, and people actually will buy them believe it or not. Just my observation.
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where I live, it is exactly as what cktlcmd described, a phone may cost the salary of several months to some people, police can not track all of them and they get stolen only when you loose your attention for one moment (it takes less than 30 seconds of not paying attention to loose your mobile as per statistics), so may be a theft alarm does not sound feasible where st3v3 lives, but here, it sure is. Besides, loosing the data and having someone looking at your personal data is what hearts more.
hatamata said:
where I live, it is exactly as what cktlcmd described, a phone may cost the salary of several months to some people, police can not track all of them and they get stolen only when you loose your attention for one moment (it takes less than 30 seconds of not paying attention to loose your mobile as per statistics), so may be a theft alarm does not sound feasible where st3v3 lives, but here, it sure is. Besides, loosing the data and having someone looking at your personal data is what hearts more.
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point taken but having the phone vibrate and beep still isnt going to act as much of a deterant, a running thief will just keep running!
hatamata said:
Besides, loosing the data and having someone looking at your personal data is what hearts more.
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Backup frequently (automatically - see my Backup Bible at http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1270&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 ) and use a Secure Information Manager. The four best are:
CodeWallet Pro (Developer One, Inc., www.developerone.com)
eWallet Professional (Ilium Software, www.iliumsoft.com)
FlexWallet (WebIS, Inc., www.webis.net)
Spb Wallet (Spb Software House, www.spbsoftwarehouse.com)
st3v3 said:
point taken but having the phone vibrate and beep still isnt going to act as much of a deterant, a running thief will just keep running!
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Not the phone that will vibrate, it is the receiver which should be in my pocket
As for Menneisyys's back up idea, it sure will save most data but not all of it, still, it will not prevent others from seeing my sensitive data stored on the phone.
hatamata said:
where I live, it is exactly as what cktlcmd described, a phone may cost the salary of several months to some people, police can not track all of them and they get stolen only when you loose your attention for one moment (it takes less than 30 seconds of not paying attention to loose your mobile as per statistics)...
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Click to collapse
I know that there are countries where a phone cost a few months of salary.. but I'm pretty sure that in those countries, there are always cheaper alternatives. E.g. India's gazillion-aire may buy an A380 as private jet.. build a tower as his own house.. but they do have pretty cheap cars (as I heard, £1,000+). Hence, I don't really understand when people are willing to spend several month of salary on a phone. If that's the case, then probably that's a risk they have to take. E.g., you don't get a convertible car in China unless you are prepared to hire body guards.
AND, if that phone is going to cost the person buying the phone x months of salary, I would think it would cost y (where y > x) months of salary for the person who is stealing it, and some beeping gadgets will not do the job. The beeping gadget will probably make a `theft` to a `robbery`, I think.
Anyway, cute beeping gadget .
hatamata said:
Not the phone that will vibrate, it is the receiver which should be in my pocket
As for Menneisyys's back up idea, it sure will save most data but not all of it, still, it will not prevent others from seeing my sensitive data stored on the phone.
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You can encrypt everything on, say, your card in the background - WM6 already supports this. Also, there already are Remote Wipe solutions.
I am in the market for a new phone(we are switching from Sprint to AT&T) mainly because of dropped calls and no service in many areas with Sprint. I have decided I am either getting the AT&T Tilt or the Apple iPhone. I will explain my usage habits and hopefully you readers can help me decide which one would be best for me.
I am a commuting college student who works part time. The degree I'm working on is in Computer Science. I get wi-fi access at work, school, and home. I still live with my parents and have two jobs. I am contributing 30% of one of my jobs' paychecks to a 401k and am about to make a large one-time investment into a Roth IRA for retirement. I have a good bit of time imbetween classes and it would be nice to have something to do either for fun or productivity. I will be getting $5/mo phone insurance with whichever phone I get. Another plus would be an easy-to-use calendar so I can get rid of my paper calendar. Using the T9 texting method to enter things into my current phone for the calendar function is just too tedious, so I don't even use it.
Apple iPhone:
-Nice touch screen interface
-Very intuitive and easy-to-use
-Good battery life
-Internet access should be easier to use than with tilt due to interface
-App store makes finding new applications much easier
-Can use one-handed
-Multi-touch technology
-Ambient light and proximity sensors
-It would be nice to have something in my life that "just works" without hours of tweaking
-Required to pay $30/mo for a data plan
-Phone Cost $200, Data plan $30/mo*2 yrs=$720, Final cost 2 yrs $920
AT&T Tilt:
-External keyboard
-Could take notes in class with Microsoft Office and an external bluetooth keyboard(wouldn't have to lug around my laptop or as many spiral notebooks)
-Okay battery life
-Could use wifi and not have to pay $30/mo for internet access
-Can take videos
-Many complain it's more of a two-handed phone
-Sucks at playing videos or gps navigation due to driver issue htc will not fix
-Takes time to learn to use
-If purchased, I would not get a data plan, although it would be nice to have internet anywhere, it's not necessary
-Phone cost $150(refurb) $300(new), Final cost 2 yrs $150, if there's a problem because it's refurbished after 3 months, $125 extra(insurance deductible)
Both have:
-Phone
-Music device
-Accelerometer
-Slide to unlock(could be downloaded for Tilt)
Other points:
-I know it may be going out on a limb saying this, but the iPhone is going to cost me $645-$770 more in the 2 years that I'd have a contract for it. Internet access anywhere would be nice, though(especially on vacation, long drives, and waiting).
-The refurbished tilt is currently "temorarily out of stock." I think it'll probably come back in though. If not, it'd cost me $300, making the iPhone $495-$620 more over the 2 years I'd have it under contract.
I know all of my information is a bit strown about, but which phone do you guys suggest I purchase and why?
Tilt. Because.
i don't think the tilt has an accelorometer... never had or played with a tilt, but i'm pretty sure it doesn't
I have been contemplating getting an I-phone because the newer version is very nice and since you only pay $30 for internet, I would interchange the sims and use the internet on my tilt. The tilt does ahve video but it usually sucks along with the camera unless you have the ideal lighting... The I-phone is limited in what is does such as taking pictures and sendign it to friends. Your friends have to log online just to see your photos. It's pretty sad... However even though the I-phone is limited, what it does do; it does very well. The MS office suite is very nice and has helped me out numerous times during college as well as the WiFi. So my bottom line answer is this. If you want to use it for work, business, college then I would go with the Tilt or even a newer version such as the diamond and use a different Rom. For fun I would go with the I-Phone. The downside is that you cannot change roms though. It is almost like getting a new phone everytime you put a new rom onto your Tilt which is still not utalizing all the drivers at this time. Thanks to the hard working people in in these forums, that is close to being changed. I hope this helped.
tilt...
only cause its the balls!
With the iPhone, what you see is what you get. It works very well, but everything comes from Apple.
The Tilt can do virtually anything. It may get buggy sometimes, but pretty much, if you can think it, you can do it.
honestly?
iphone.
tilt's old.
now if you ask "diamond or iphone", you know my answer.
Thanks for the insight guys. I decided to go ahead and get the iPhone simply because it'd be nice to have something that "just works," not to mention I don't have the time to mod it the way I want it. After running several linux servers and desktops, some of you may see where I come from(where nothing ever works like it should!). I ordered the iPhone from the AT&T store(business account, can't use apple store) and they said they'll email me when it arrives in 7-10 days.
It would have been nice to be able to get a wireless keyboard and type notes on my phone like I could have with the Tilt, but I think for a phone the iPhone fits my needs better. If I had the time, though, I'd get the Tilt in an instant. I'll probably be buying an Asus EEE for note typing so I don't have to carry my 15" laptop or a bunch of notebooks around all day.
This reply might be a bit late ... but ... what about the Touch Pro?
never heard of the touch pro until you just said something about it.. too expensive anyway though since it won't be subsidized by the cell carrier for a service contract
Hello everyone,
I looked around all of the internal forums and general appeared to be the best.
In short I am looking for a good dual sim phone that doesn't need a soft reboot to switch between sims. I have to be able to get calls on both, essentially looking like call waiting is working.
Here are must haves:
Unlimited ring tone assignment (the dual I have now limits me to 10 ringtones). I have a ton of referral sources calling as well as personal calls and I need to know who I can ignore by sound and who I have to answer.
External memory SD or Micro (for the ringtones) unless it has a large enough internal
Dual sim of course...
AT&T service currently, and would prefer to stay but not married to them. Lesser of 5 evils basically (1900MHZ)
My preferences:
I've had my fun playing with all of the stuff from here for windows mobile, but I just can't take the slow speed anymore. I am open to a smartphone or non smartphone, but if it is a smartphone I need it to react nearly instantly.
I would prefer a flip phone, mainly because I'm getting frustrated with applying new screen covers to protect my screen so often. So I guess I should say, if it's a touch screen non flip then I'd like to be able to buy 50 precut screen covers out the gate (not really concerned about price). (currently have a Fuze and I'm sick of the snail speed and still can't find the precut screen covers - although I have determined how to increase speed, and will do so once I get my new phone... drive 80 MPH and throw it out the window!)
I really think that about covers it. When I do a Google search for a dual sim I just end up at one of a hundred Chinese wholesale sites, and most of their phones have their own OS with tons of limitations.
Thanks ahead of time! (btw price isn't a big issue, although less cost is always better)
So in browsing through old posts here I found Expansys and in looking at them I found this...Samsung B5702 ... it may very well be what I want. The price seems pretty over the top for a non smart phone, but I'm guessing it's cheaper elsewhere... Does anyone happen to have this phone who could give me their take on it? Thank you,
So I bought the LG Ks660 from Amazon... could have paid about $30 less through another lesser known, but I figured it's worth the $30 to know I'd get it and it would be easy to return if it blows.
I paid $260 for it, which is about $160 more than your typical dual sim/dual standby Chinese cells but I hope it has what I need. The one dual I have from China limits the ringtones, which to me is a must these days on phones.
I'll post the results of my first few days of testing in case anyone else has two cell lines but is sick of carrying the two phones. Due to arrive tomorrow... I had to choose impatient shipping...
I haven't found any discussion about using Android devices without a phone carrier at all, is this possible or must the device be activaed on a carrier before it does anything at all? What I'm thinking of is basically the Android equivalent of the iPod Touch. It's still a smart device, still does wifi, still runs all those apps, but there's no phone service at all. More than blocking data plan that I have seen discussed, I want no voice plan either.
I know that some people think it's stupid enough to want a smartphone with no data plan on a carrier, you guys will probably think I'm retarded to want to leave out voice service as well. Well, I'd use it as a phone if I didn't have to pay for data plans and stick to wifi, as those other discussions want to do, but now that the monthly fee is absolutely mandatory on my carrier, well, I'm just not willing to pay that much. I've thought about buying an iPod Touch to compliment my dumb phone, but I'd rather have the Android equivalent so I'm not limited to apps approved by Apple.
I suppose some might say the Phillips GoGear Connect is what I should get, but I'll be annoying and say I want a front facing camera so maybe Evo 4G with no carrier service is even better so I can video skype with it. Would the Evo 4G work for me, or is it a useless zombie util it's activated on a cell carrier? What about other smartphone devices, do they all work or all not work?
Well you can buy uncontracted devices like I have and there are also plenty of tablet android devices that dont come with a plan. as for actual phone devices most of them come with a plan because its presumed that you will use it to make calls. Thats where tablets come in, usually contract free (Galaxy Tab exception) and allow for full use of the device using WiFi or another connection source.
Captainkrtek said:
Well you can buy uncontracted devices like I have and there are also plenty of tablet android devices that dont come with a plan. as for actual phone devices most of them come with a plan because its presumed that you will use it to make calls. Thats where tablets come in, usually contract free (Galaxy Tab exception) and allow for full use of the device using WiFi or another connection source.
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My only problem with tablets is they are too big. I want something phone sized or iPod Touch sized. (which is about the size of a phone)
As long as the device is running 2.0+ (I think) , you won't need it tied to a carrier to use it. You can do it with older FW too but it would need a data plan so you can sign in and get to the home screen and use it. Newer FW, you can activate wifi during setup so you can log in to your gmail account.
Once logged in, you can use it like a iPod touch, download from the market, etc.
I have a Captivate, Incredible, and a Fascinate that I've been able to use while not hooked up to a carrier. I've even had a G1 without a carrier. Just had to borrow a friends SIM to log in to my gmail for activation but then works after that without it.
Did this with my HD2 running Android
So I'm an adventurous 19 year old guy living on Maui in Hawaii. I'm also a sponsored almost professional scooter rider. So I look up behind me and what do I see? a 10,023 foot tall volcano called Haleakala. So I was looking around for something to do and saw my scooter. The nearest skatepark is too damn far so I hiked 13 miles up this volcano all the way to the summit at 10,023 feet and took pictures then bombed down the perfectly smooth paved rode 28 miles to the bottom at about 45 miles an hour on my kick scooter.
Blah blah blah, anyways...
I jumped over a nice dip in the rode and my HD2 which was just bought the day before flew out of my pocket at about 25 miles an hour and hite the ground once on the corner then flew off in to the grass. I found the battery, cover and phone itself after about 30 minutes of looking. The screen was good besides a few deep scratches and a nice sized dent in the battery cover. The plastic of the phone was pretty scratched as well.
Mad? Nahh not at all. I was looking for a reason to get a new phone already after 24 hours and this gave me a good reason to go get that sexy looking G2 I saw...
So Now I am happy with my G2 and also use my HD2 as my mobile computer with the Ubuntu and android OS on it. Ubuntu is for word processing since I am a writer. Android is for my camera and music and games. It works out amazing and I love the look of peoples faces when im messing around with two phones on the bus...
Go for it. You wont be dissappointed and it beats the IPOD touch hands down. Sorry I capitalized ipod, it didnt deserve it...
Now that's a story! You better take care of your G2, did you sell your HD2?