Wednesday, December 17, 2008
On The Go WiFi
I am not a huge fan of the New York Times, but I do like their technology columnist - David Pogue. He has a great write-up this week on three devices that convert your cell phone data service to wifi. The advantage of doing this is that you can use multiple computers on a cell phone data plan, and you are able to use wifi devices that cannot accept a wireless card.
Labels: cell phone, wireless
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Car Charger Eliminator
As cell phones have included more utility including web surfing and email reading it is becoming more difficult for the ever-shrinking batteries to keep pace. That is why we are always forced to purchase yet another car charger when we upgrade to a new handset. Their some help on the way, though.
Many handset manufacturers are beginning to offer stand mini-USB charging ports. This standardization is welcome in that it can ostensibly lower the number of chargers lying around. Navigation unit manufacturers also seem to hopping onto the band wagon along with some MP3 player producers. This trend also makes it possible to charge your devices on the road with a notebook computer. That is great if you have ever tried to find an outlet in a hotel room. There is nothing like dragging furniture around a hotel room to find an outlet, and then forgetting the out-of-view adapter.
I have found a handy, low-cost addition for the car that makes the task even easier. This adapter from Amazon actually adds a couple of USB port outlets. This way you can charge USB cord charging devices without the need for a special car charger. One device that comes to mind is the Apple iPod. They use a USB port to charge, but you must use the Apple supplied connector. The cost is low, and the installation is very easy.
Many handset manufacturers are beginning to offer stand mini-USB charging ports. This standardization is welcome in that it can ostensibly lower the number of chargers lying around. Navigation unit manufacturers also seem to hopping onto the band wagon along with some MP3 player producers. This trend also makes it possible to charge your devices on the road with a notebook computer. That is great if you have ever tried to find an outlet in a hotel room. There is nothing like dragging furniture around a hotel room to find an outlet, and then forgetting the out-of-view adapter.
I have found a handy, low-cost addition for the car that makes the task even easier. This adapter from Amazon actually adds a couple of USB port outlets. This way you can charge USB cord charging devices without the need for a special car charger. One device that comes to mind is the Apple iPod. They use a USB port to charge, but you must use the Apple supplied connector. The cost is low, and the installation is very easy.
Labels: Amazon, cell phone, USB
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Nokia 6086
Nerdrobin left a comment regarding problems in syncing my Samsung t409 handset...
I saw that you mentioned issues with syncing with Outlook and that you also switched to the Nokia 6086. I have the same phone and have found a way to sync it directly with Outlook. You need to go to Nokia's website and download the Nokia PC Suite for the 6086 and get a Bluetooth adapter for your PC. After setting it all up, the Nokia PC Suite provides direct syncronization with Outlook through Bluetooth as well as many other nice features.I actually had not switched to the Nokia, but my two sons do use the Nokia handsets. I am going to grab one and try this out. I must say that the Nokia phones are much more open than the Samsung handsets. They are able to easily load custom ringtones, while the Samsung prevents this entirely.
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, Nokia, Samsung, T-Mobile, VOIP, wireless
Sunday, December 23, 2007
The Move To A Digital World
As we continue our march towards an all-digital world, we are going to have to make changes as old analog systems go away. As companies have perfected digital communications systems, they are eager to phase out the older analog systems. The reasons for the desire to fade out older analog systems is that companies want the frequency spectrum that is currently being used in an inefficient manner and they want to stop spending funds to maintain the older equipment. This has taken place in out-of-sight public safety (fire and police) communications and in high-profile cases such as broadcast television.
The next guidepost in the digital conversion trail is the cellular telephone system. The FCC will allow the carriers to shut-off the old analog cellular phone system in February 2008. What will be affected? I have listed below some of the common devices that will no longer function.
The next guidepost in the digital conversion trail is the cellular telephone system. The FCC will allow the carriers to shut-off the old analog cellular phone system in February 2008. What will be affected? I have listed below some of the common devices that will no longer function.
- Cellular Phones - It is speculated that their are 1 million active cellular phones in the United States that still use analog service. You are safe if you use a handset that is newer than five years old. The big and possibly disastrous effect could be on 911-only phones. Check if you or possibly your parents have one of these old 911-only devices. I know that my father has kept a 911-only phone in his glovebox for years.
- Car Communitions - General Motors OnStar, TeleAid from Mercedes-Benz, or Lexus Link will be affected for cars of fairly recent vintage. The manufactures are pointing out that most systems in 2003 or older models will no longer function. OnStar is offering to upgrade systems in 2004 and 2005 models for a small fee. The older models do not appear to be eligible for upgrade. This could affect up to 700,000 cars.
- Home Alarms - Check how your alarm system communicates with the central monitoring station. Many systems still use analog landlines, but some advanced systems used the analog cellular phone systems as a primary or backup. Any system older than 2006 should be inspected. These systems are generally not upgradable, so you will most likely need to purchase a new main board or communications panel at the least.
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, phone, Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon
Friday, October 19, 2007
Trouble with T-Mobile
We have been early customers of T-Mobile's Hotspot at Home service. I still think that it is revolutionary, and surprised that a competitor has not hopped on the band wagon. I have heard rumors that Sprint was introducing a similar, but less versatile, service. I have not found proof on the Sprint or credible sites.
As a follow up to other's cell phone horror stories and my T-Mobile service experience, we have had one small problem with T-Mobile. Last month, we noticed that we were quickly using our anytime minutes and we did in fact go over five dollars. The strange thing was that no matter how we altered our phone usage we could not stop the hemmorage of minutes. Being a parent-I blamed the kids first. They swore they were not burning minutes. I began to suspect a problem with T-Mobile's billing system.
This month, I waited one week into the month so that we would have a variety of usage but not an overwhelming amount of data. Score one for T-Mobile that they allow customers to download current minute usage to Excel or similar spreadsheet software. I was ultimately able to manipulate the numbers to show T-Mobile that a problem existed. I was never able to pin down the problem, but the customer service representative was able to do so in a nearly one-hour telephone call. She discovered that T-Mobile was not crediting two users HotSpot at Home usage correctly. The usage was being subtracted from our anytime minutes.
The end of the story is that they refunded the overage last month, corrected this month's usage, and I apologized to the kids.
Epilogue: Do not ever pay T-Mobile late. I think that it would be cheaper to skip the mortgage for a week or two. The late fee for T-Mobile is $20 per line. That is right. Four lines = $80 late fee.
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Reader Feedback to Sprint Post
Last month I posted an ARS Technica story about Sprint disconnecting some customers because they called customer service too many times. Here is the original post. Erica Ortiz of the Horsepower and Heels Racing Group commented about her personal experience with Sprint, and I wanted to post here for others to enjoy...
Wow. I'm close to that call volume, and I just joined sprint! (because of their good pricing on data plans.)
Monday, July 16th
Activated 2 new phones from Sprint Store. I was given a temporary phone number until I could return with my Cingular account information to get my 407- number ported over.
Tuesday, July 17th
I return to the store to give my Cingular account information. She initiates the porting process, and tells me it could be up to 24 hours before the changes are complete.
Wednesday, July 18th
No changes have been made to my phone except that the temporary number is now no longer working, so I return to the store. customer support discovers that an error had been made in the transfer documentation, and that it must be corrected and resubmitted. I am again told that it will take up to 24 hours.
Thursday, July 19th
My phone is still not working, and now the Cingular number has been ported over and the message says its now a Sprint PCS mailbox. I return to the store again, and discover that a National Sales Support person has activated an UNWANTED 3rd phone line for the ported over number instead of porting it over to my device. I spend several hours on the phone trying to cancel the 3rd line, and move the device and the plan over to my number. I leave the store and was told it would take 4 hours for the phone to work correctly.
Friday, July 20th
My data plan is still not working, so I call Sprint to try and get some tech support. customer care says that my browser settings may need to be reset. Store walks me through the process, but it still gave the Error message and cannot connect. Customer support told store that service was down in the area, so after waiting all afternoon, I bring my phone into the store, and was told again that it would take 4 hours. After 4 hours, it was still not working, so store told me to bring the phone in the next morning so she could try and reset the phone again.
Saturday, July 21st
Return to the store and try to reset the phone, but it is still not working. She spends several HOURS on the phone with tech support and doesn't find a solution. She exchanges the device to see if that's the problem, but it still does not work. She finally contacts a rep to start a Work Ticket on the problem, who tells me that she cannot do anything until 4 hours after the new device is setup. The customer support rep tells me that she will call me back in 4 hours to see if it is working and to open a ticket. I never hear from her.
Sunday, July 22nd
My phone data is still not working, and I am highly upset that the customer service rep did not call me back. I call the toll free tech support number for Sprint and spend 38 minutes on hold before someone named Jeremy answers. He promptly hangs up on me. I called back and sat on hold for an appauling 45 MINUTES before the system cuts me off again.
Longer story short, its another 4 days before my phone works correctly. And then I STILL Get a bill for 3 lines instead of two. SPRINT employees hate their own customer service....
Monday, July 16th
Activated 2 new phones from Sprint Store. I was given a temporary phone number until I could return with my Cingular account information to get my 407- number ported over.
Tuesday, July 17th
I return to the store to give my Cingular account information. She initiates the porting process, and tells me it could be up to 24 hours before the changes are complete.
Wednesday, July 18th
No changes have been made to my phone except that the temporary number is now no longer working, so I return to the store. customer support discovers that an error had been made in the transfer documentation, and that it must be corrected and resubmitted. I am again told that it will take up to 24 hours.
Thursday, July 19th
My phone is still not working, and now the Cingular number has been ported over and the message says its now a Sprint PCS mailbox. I return to the store again, and discover that a National Sales Support person has activated an UNWANTED 3rd phone line for the ported over number instead of porting it over to my device. I spend several hours on the phone trying to cancel the 3rd line, and move the device and the plan over to my number. I leave the store and was told it would take 4 hours for the phone to work correctly.
Friday, July 20th
My data plan is still not working, so I call Sprint to try and get some tech support. customer care says that my browser settings may need to be reset. Store walks me through the process, but it still gave the Error message and cannot connect. Customer support told store that service was down in the area, so after waiting all afternoon, I bring my phone into the store, and was told again that it would take 4 hours. After 4 hours, it was still not working, so store told me to bring the phone in the next morning so she could try and reset the phone again.
Saturday, July 21st
Return to the store and try to reset the phone, but it is still not working. She spends several HOURS on the phone with tech support and doesn't find a solution. She exchanges the device to see if that's the problem, but it still does not work. She finally contacts a rep to start a Work Ticket on the problem, who tells me that she cannot do anything until 4 hours after the new device is setup. The customer support rep tells me that she will call me back in 4 hours to see if it is working and to open a ticket. I never hear from her.
Sunday, July 22nd
My phone data is still not working, and I am highly upset that the customer service rep did not call me back. I call the toll free tech support number for Sprint and spend 38 minutes on hold before someone named Jeremy answers. He promptly hangs up on me. I called back and sat on hold for an appauling 45 MINUTES before the system cuts me off again.
Longer story short, its another 4 days before my phone works correctly. And then I STILL Get a bill for 3 lines instead of two. SPRINT employees hate their own customer service....
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, Sprint
Monday, July 30, 2007
Time for Summer Vacation
Yes it is that time for the family summer vacation. These really stress me out, but we need to get away as a family. We did not take a summer vacation as a family last year, because of an illness and ultimately a death in the family.
The stress is whether anything will break while I am away, and will I have cell phone or Internet access to address the problem. I have been checking T-Mobile coverage maps, and it appears that I will be in coverage areas during weekdays. By the way, T-Mobile has the most usable and responsible coverage maps of any cellular carrier. If there is an problem feel free to file a support ticket or call me.
We were initially going to fly, but we opted for what I call "The Great American Road Trip." It is just a more fun and relaxed way to travel. You do not need to worry about TSA checkpoints, schedules, or crazy weather delays. I get to keep my shoes on.
We will be visiting Atlanta, Knoxville, Smokey Mountains, and maybe one more east coast city between August 1st and the 9th. Highlights of the trip include Georgia Aquarium (Atlanta), The Blue Plate Special (Knoxville), Sister-in-law's house, Dollywood (theme park), and all that Smokey Mountain tourist trap stuff.
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, family, T-Mobile, vacation
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Sprint Drops Abusive Customers
You may have seen this story in the mainstream press in the past week. As Paul Harvey would say Jon Stokes of Ars Technica has the rest of the story.
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, Sprint
Friday, July 13, 2007
Continuing with T-Mobile HotSpot @Home Service
I have found a problem with the phone book on the handset. As I have written about before, I had some difficulties in synchronizing the contacts from the my.T-mobile.com web site to the handset. I have discovered that none of the telephone numbers transfer from the site to the telephone. The problem appears to be a mapping issue. The site offers phone numbers such as Work 1, Work 2, Mobile 1, etc. The handset only has the fields of Work, Mobile, Home, etc. Since none of these match up then the numbers are unable to transfer to the handset. One bright spot is that any numbers entered into the Samsung handset do transfer to the online database.
We are going to begin using the one other handset that is available for the HotSpot @Home service, the Nokia 6086. This handset is a bit larger than the Samsung T409, but it offers a music player, expandable memory, and an integrated FM radio.
I will keep you up-to-date if any other issues that develop as well as how the Nokia handsets function. If you are interested in using this or other T-Mobile services be sure to contact my corporate representative. I am unsure if he will do so for anyone, but he did waive the activation fee for our service. Here is Richard's contact information...
Rich Kling
T-Mobile USA
Business Account Executive
4640 East Colonial Drive l Orlando, FL 32803
MOBILE: 407.970.0203 l FAX: 407.264.8779 l
Business Care: 1.800.375.1126
Labels: cell phone, Cellular, HotSpot, T-Mobile
Friday, June 29, 2007
Consider the Irony
It is strange irony that Americans are lined up to purchase a $500 to $600 telephone, and Iranians are lining up to purchase a couple of liters of fuel.
Labels: cell phone, iPhone, phone
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Trouble Calling Free Conference Calling Services
If you have experienced problems using free conference call services such as FreeConferenceCall and FuturePhone, you should be able to use them now. The reason for the trouble was that many carriers were blocking access to these services.
Jacqui Cheng has more information in his article.
Jacqui Cheng has more information in his article.
Labels: cell phone, conference call, wireless
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]