Jan 25, 2007 | blog
Some question why I stick with T-Mobile when there are so many other choices. Many mobile service providers have better phone selections or provide faster mobile data services.
One of the reasons is that the service I get from their support teams is unmatched. The other big reason is the very competitive pricing compared to the other national carriers. 3G will come along in due time – I have no desire (or the pocketbook) to pay bleeding-edge prices for mobile data. I’ve also got the phone that I had been waiting nearly 5 years for.
Though, 2007 seems like it will be a great year for T-Mobile again as they have the wireless spectrum to roll out 3G services. They are also focusing on bringing the best phones in price/performance to their lineup. Their work on getting the BlackBerry Pearl, and the Windows Mobile based Dash are examples of this. Affordable phones that fit the needs of their customers, not just the 1% that want’s the latest phone to hit the FCC website.
My T-Mobile MDA will be a year old in March, though I have been using one since Oct. 2005. It has been everything that I’d ever wanted in a phone since PDAs started morphing into the phone category. And with T-Mobile’s continued effort in customer satisfaction, I’ll remain a Tmo customer with their upcoming network upgrades and phone selection.
Via: Wireless Week – T-Mobile Ranks Highest in Customer Service. Again.
Jan 25, 2007 | blog
Ah, finally have the full skinny on the free T-Mobile WiFi Hotspot offer for new Windows Vista Users. The offer is for 3 months of service only starting this Friday. While the rumor of this news was spreading around the web this morning, there was no additional information on the length of the offer.
Even for 3 months this is a great chance to try out the hotspot service at your favorite coffee shop.
Via: Information Week – T-Mobile Offers Three Months Free Hotspot Access To Vista Users
Jan 17, 2007 | blog
I’ve had the worst problem with my T-Mobile MDA dropping calls about 4 minutes into a call. While the exact time of the drop varied (sometimes up to 10 minutes into a call) it was consistent to the point that everyone I talked to knew about when it would happen.
I’ve been searching all over the ‘net trying to find the cause of the issue and a fix/workaround for it. I finally found it! Not only are MDA’s having the problem, but many HTC Wizard class devices like the Cingular 8125.
The problem seems to appear after upgrading to the latest firmware from the provider – in my case the v2.26 ROM from T-Mobile (though I did see it as well with the 2.24 ROM for QTek on my device). The issue is that HTC had implemented a “feature” in the latest ROM that would help a data connection re-establish itself when it was unsure if the GPRS/EDGE connection was there. It would simply reboot the radio portion of the phone – whether a voice (GSM) session was in process or not!
The fix is to simply add a registry key that disables this new “feature”. Now that I know what the fix is, I needed to share it with anyone who passes by my blog. If you have this problem and use a HTC Wizard class device listed below, please check out the fix and the link to where I found it.
list
Here is the fix to the problem, and this page at XDA Developers clued me in.
Due to network conditions, signal coverage and some other factors, there is a small chance the data connection can become detached from the network, but the device is not aware of the detachment. This is normal in real world scenarios. Since data packages can be sent without any error being returned, the device may incorrectly think the connection is still valid. To correct this, HTC introduced a mechanism to watch for such conditions. After the device sends out data without receiving any network acknowledgment for a certain period of time, the device will try to detach from the network and re-establish the data connection. Usually this will silently re-establish the data connection without the user noticing it. Due to radio platform limitations, this task cannot be performed during a voice call. When both of these conditions are met (data being sent out for a period of time with no network acknowledgment, and an active voice call), the device will reset the radio to address the problem.
HTC has provided the following registry key setting to disable the auto-correction mechanism:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEDriversBuiltInRIL]
“GPRSStallWorkaround”=dword:0
I truly hope that this helps you with your HTC Wizard class device – I know I’m much happier now that I’ve found the fix for the problem.
Jan 15, 2007 | blog
Starting today, Cingular will start to publicly become AT&T in print, radio and television ads. Though not all existing adds will be changed immediately, you may start seeing the transformation. Also watch for signage changes at the Cingular stores, and on the billing and communications from Cingular.
So if you were a former AT&T Wireless customer, welcome back to the fold! Hehehe, once thing is for certain – the absolutely shitty service that the old AT&T Wireless service had prior to being bought by Cingular Wireless is, thankfully, only a painful memory.
So, what goes around, comes around – ‘ma bell’ is still around and is now you’re cell provider.
Via: PC World – AT&T to Replace Cingular Brand Monday
Jan 13, 2007 | blog
Michael Arrington of TechCrunch fame asks: Will the iPhone be a Serious Business Device. In this question, I have to answer simply: No.
It sure will be a convenience to those Apple Mac users that have been longing for a mobile communications device that will seamlessly sync with all the Apple Mac resources for information management, and entertainment. However, the idea that the iPhone will have better penetration to the enterprise market than the Mac did is a pipe dream, if only because of Apple’s inability to understand what the business user needs. Of course, part of this is because of the limitations imposed by the enterprise IT departments – since the Mac is not accommodated like Windows, Unix and Linux are.
Sure, the iPhone is a spectacular demonstration of where our communications devices should be heading – I would expect nothing less from Apple than a stunning device. But suggesting that a non-shipping phone that can’t have it’s memory expanded, has no input method other than your finger, without 3G data services, and does not support any of the popular push-mail services will be taken seriously by businesses is delusional.
Thanks for the chuckle Michael, I needed one this weekend.
Via: TechCrunch – Will the iPhone be a Serious Business Device?
