Last days of Cingular TDMA

Mar 23, 2006 | blog

According to this RCR Wireless article, Cingular Wireless will be shutting down their TDMA and analog networks in 2008.  This will be the beginning of the end for consumer analog cellular phone service, as it fits in with the government’s timetable for analog to digital transition.

Cingular’s plans are nothing new, as the migration of the user base from analog to digital has progressed for many years.  The announcement is the start of the implementation plan and will probably get a little tweak here and there as customers either start migrating sooner, or add their comments, concerns & complaints to the companies plans.

What this really brings to Cingular (and other carriers as they phase out analog) is the reclaiming of needed wireless bandwidth to support the new GSM/GPRS/EDGE & UMTS/HSDPA networks that replace them.  In the end, it’ll be a good thing and you will see additional coverage even out some of the existing “dead” or marginal spots.

Russ on PayPal Mobile

Mar 22, 2006 | blog

Kind of get the impression that Russell Beattie likes PayPal’s new mobile service.  I’ve been waiting for a service like this to finally make it to the US, should be kind of neat.  Should be interesting, but I’m a little hesitant to jump right into the service – I’ll probably watch and see what some others think on the experience.

Thanks for the tip Russ!

SBSH Pocket Weather

Mar 18, 2006 | blog

So I’ve been using SBSH’s Pocket Weather (PW) for about a year and a half now – from way before SBSH picked up the product and its creator Adrian Oliver. While I’ve always been fond of the app, it has recently been even more useful then ever.

From its roots as a simple app that grabs the current conditions and forecast off the ‘net, to the current version that is highly configurable with custom radar & satellite maps, animated maps, and large number of locations to configure. The community has embraced it as well with numerous skins, themes, icons, buttons, etc… to help mesh with the overall look a person may be going for on their PPC.

Since I have the T-Mobile MDA, it has become very useful – simply because PW now does not have to connect to my phone over bluetooth and dial the ‘net, the data connection is built in. This of course applies to all such applications that access the Internet, but I’m talking about PW right now. The current conditions now update every 15 minutes, the weather maps every 30 minutes. I can whip out the MDA at any time and give everyone a quick full-featured weather report when needed. Talk about awesome!

This application alone has driven a few people to consider a PPC Phone like the MDA or other HTC Wizard based platform. And don’t forget the integration with SBSH’s PocketBreeze program that allows multiple Today Screen plug-ins to use the same screen space – highly recommended! There is much more but I’d recommend reading a review on Pocket Weather, and visiting the exceptional SBSH support forums for this and all their programs.
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