Re: What iWindsurf-compatible cell phone to buy?

Hi,

Ok, I have to jump in with a defense of the Treo 600/650. These are really good devices if you work in an office environment where having access to your calendar and email and phone in a small mobile device is useful. I suspect that if I worked on my own, like Andreas, I'd find the Treos that useful. But since I work in a large bureaucracy, attend lots of meetings, and spend most of my time communicating in one form or another, it's invaluable.

I use the Cingular/AT&T service and it works fine for me in the SF Bay Area, and up and down the coast, in the Gorge, and just about everywhere else I've tried. I do believe that Verizon coverage is better, except that folks are saying Verizon doesn't work in the Gorge.

For iWindsurf it's wonderful.

But I agree with Andreas that it's overkill (and likely to be overly expensive) if you don't have the office bureaucracy thing to deal with.

As for the Treo 700w, it's WindowsOS instead of PalmOS, so I'm highly suspicious. I'm told that the WindowsOS finally figured out how to store contacts and start-up information on Flash RAM, so that now you can have your battery die and not lose absolutely everything. That is good, if true. But the last time I tried WindowsOS (in a Samsung pocketPC phone device) it was next to unusable because of all the bugs--freezing up, mysterious crashes, totally mystifying start-up process... We've ordered one, so I'll have a more educated opinion in a while.

   Thanks,
         Cliff


a_macke@xxxxxxxxx wrote: 
Kevin,
I've been going the low-tech (and low-cost) route - cheap yet sturdy
Nokia non-flip phone from T-Mobile. T-Mobile, as it's the cheapest way
to get WAP service (they've got an unlimited plan for about $5/month,
as opposed to the metered plans the competition has, unless of course
you pony up for full-on 3G for data-devices at $20+ a month), and
because it's seamless traveling to Europe (GSM and such). Non-flip,
cause it works best in an Aquapac. Works great for iwindsurf, except
lately the cookies don't persist between sessions anymore, so I have to
log in everytime I start up a session. Takes about 10 seconds, as
opposed to the 3 seconds it used to take to get to my iw report page.
That's a provider issue, I believe, as cookies are stored on the
gateway.

Some observations:
Verizon has no network of their own in the Gorge; they'll give you
voice service there (via a roaming partner), but no data service. For
iw in the Gorge, Verizon is out.

Cingular has some peculiar rules and pricing on their WAP access. If
anyone here has been usign them happily, please clue us in.

T-Mobile coverage tends to be excellent right on or near freeways, and
in major population centers. In the boonies, they're usually one of the
first to drop the ball, though. If you're traveling a fair bit, and
doing lots of coastal road trips, that's a consideration.

As for all the funky data devices - I don't know whether you're
traveling enough, and whether your job warrants having to put up with
the pain of thumb-typing. Treos, Blackberries and such tend to be huge
sources of repetitive strain issues. If I had to be a road warrior, I'd
much rather deal with a data modem on a laptop (especially something
that boots up quickly like a Mac or a Linux laptop) and just live with
slightly longer periods off the grid. Do you really need to check email
more than once every two hours or so (which, to me, is the only reason
to get something like a Treo or Blackberry).

Call me old school - I'm not a big fan of phones masquerading as PDA's
- there's just not enough functionality there to really justify the
bulk (like you, I like to keep my phone on me). Just like I don't have
much need for a camera phone, an mp3 phone, etc. WAP is about the only
thing other than voice I use on my phone.

Whatever you end up doing, keep us updated on how it works out.

/Andreas

.

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