Re: [Junk released by Allow List] Re: more on MS networking

["Robert Holmgren" holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to message from Lisa Kleinholz 
on Thu, 6 Dec 2007 07:29:39 -0800 (PST)


> Which GSM provider? This is exactly what I'd like
> to do, especially the rock-bottom rates when abroad.

AT&T. From the factory, their phones are locked. You can call
a special number, and AT&T will just give you an unlock code
(free). Then you can slip in other SIMs -- I have a Vodafone
account for when I'm abroad, and that's where the international
"rock-bottom rates" come from: another carrier's SIM (AT&T's
rates are no bargain, over $1/minute -- but! it does mean people
can call you from anywhere at your regular domestic [US] cell
number).

There are readily available tools to unlock the Carrier ID also,
so you can plug in a different ROM or cook your own. For thems
that don't know what I'm talking about, phones aren't like PCs.
On a PC, you install an operating system to the hard disk. On
phones, the operating system plus a bundle of applications are
"cooked" on a Read-Only Memory (ROM) chip, which is installed on
the phone -- you can't *alter* that, period. But (if you know
what you're doing) you can erase it completely and download a
different ROM bundle to the same chip. The phone I'm using (an
HTC 8925 "Kaiser" aka AT&T "Tilt") accepts up to 32Gb of dinky
microSDHC memory, for adding other apps -- that's the max size
of a standard PC hard disk just a few years back! Phone works
in Japan, too. The factory ROM includes MSOffice, Adobe Reader,
a GPS, all sorts of apps. Suppose you don't like all that --
you consider much of it to be "bloatware". The solution is to
extract all of these apps into individual CABs on your PC, cook
a new ROM with just the OpSys essentials, then load the apps you
actually want (as CABs) into the phone's read/write RAM
(Random-Access Memory). There are a ZILLION third-party apps!
Need a Flash player? Want to listen to XM Satellite Radio? You
can. Obviously, you can attach your phone to your PC, and xfer
data back and forth. If you want to watch a movie on a plane,
or listen to War & Peace, you can. Etc etc etc iTunes whatever.
OpSys is WinCE (appropriately named, aye? "Wince"?) aka Windows
Mobile 6.

I don't have the device yet (supposed to arrive today), but the
first app I'm going to install is MSDOS 6.22 (special version
for PDAs), and then Xy4. Phone has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard,
but you can also just use a fullsize Bluetooth kbd (or Bluetooth
headphones or etc -- Bluetooth is Bluetooth). Touch screen, the
whole shmear. $199 at Radio Shack... $299 from AT&T. The most
powerful Mobile device presently available in the US. (iPhone,
BTW, is locked and dangerous to tinker with. Plus you can't
hack the OS. PCMag panned it as a phone [poor reception], but
called it an amazing mobile entertainment center. Still, if you
can't hack it, what fun is that?)

-----------------------------
Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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