The Old Joel on Software Forum: Part 3 (of 5)

Nokia sucks :(

Nokia is the largest maker of mobile phones. Their mobile phones are good, but I can't find the combination of features I need.

For example, I need a phone with an e-mail client.

Every phone with an e-mail client also has a digital camera in it, and features live video streaming over high speed GPRS turbo-data-highway, or something.

:-(

I don't need a camera in my phone! I don't want to pay for this feature, and I don't want to have to take special care not to get the lens dirty, etc.

I'm checking out Erickson, now!

MX
Friday, December 19, 2003

I went to the Sony Ericsson web site. :(

Ever felt the need to beat up a site? I did!

It proves that you can have good images, use the latest technologies without any error, and the result can still be a very bad and unintuitive site. :-(

MX
Friday, December 19, 2003

I work for a large mobile phone company. Every handset manufacturer is going to include a camera in every new handset within a year. You will be able to get a cameraless phone only if you buy one of the more popluar old models still in production. Right now I'm liking my treo 600, but it is a bit expensive. Not sure where you are or what service you use, but you might want to think about a phone running the symbian OS, because symbian has a built in IMAP client.

Friday, December 19, 2003

Check out the Danger Sidekick. http://www.danger.com

Have been using it for a year now to get my emails (POP3 only unfortunately) and it does a reasonably good job at it...the keyboard is what sold me on it...it is eminently usable to type in even long emails.

And yes it did come with a crappy camera attachment to take photos but since it is an external atatchment you can always throw it away.

If only they had a outlook sync solution there would be nothing like it.....but even now I do not think any device including the treo 600 comes close to it in usability

Code Monkey
Friday, December 19, 2003

Phone companies have long decided that they are going to give you what they want, not what you want.

My cheapo Nokia phone has GPRS, email, (neither exist in Saudi) multi-media messaging (the network doesn't even allow me to send standard picture messages) and a skew of other things which make navigating the menus twice as difficult as when I had a 3310.

What I would like is a phone that could send text messages and function as a PDA that can sync via infra red, or better USB cable, with my PC so I can keep addresses there. I don't even want a keyboard; for the odd time I'm going to enter a message into the phone I'll use the number pad.

Now why is this so difficult? An $80 Palm will do all of these things and more except for the communication problem. All they have to do is add the phone and SMS capability. And it all could be in a case little bigger than a standard Nokia.

Stephen Jones
Saturday, December 20, 2003

Nokia phones might suck, but their tires rock! :-p

Brad Wilson (dotnetguy.techieswithcats.com)
Saturday, December 20, 2003

Stephen Jones - you want a Siemens S46 phone.

m
Saturday, December 20, 2003

I've not much confidence in the reliability of Siemens phones. In my experience Nokia phones are two or three times as reliable as most others.

In Saudi they are close to a monopoly, at least among Saudis. When we have exams we ask the students to leave their mobile phones on the desk. We normally get about thirty Nokias; it's a couple of years at least since I've seen a student with any other make.

Stephen Jones
Saturday, December 20, 2003

I can’t agree more with the original poster.

I want a high quality phone
I want I high performance phone
I DO NOT want a big color display that robs HUGE amounts of power
I DO NOT want a camera
I DO NOT want a cool daytimer
I DO NOT want a bunch of stupid games.

I do want a basic phone with bluetooth for sure. That way, I chuck the stupid phone into my bag, and simply use my palm pilot to do short messaging (sms), do my email, and browse the web. My palm T3 comes with all of the above software in flash rom anyway.

Further, I can then gab my notebook, and again as long as I am within 30ft of my phone, then again I am on the web. So, I do want a phone that web enables my pda, and also my notebook.

Of course, this just points out the fight for your space. By fight for space, I mean YOUR APPLICATION space.

Fact is the phone companies want the PDA market now, and thus are giving all kinds stuff like day timers, calendars, appointment mangers. The market is so huge, that no phone builder wants to take a chance being left behind. So, like lemmings, they are all running with huge features. They all want to be the next palm company!

Further, the issue is not so much the camera in the phone, but the fact that you HAVE TO SUBSCRIBE to the internet option that all phone companies offer. In other words, the internet on the cell phone has been A HUGE HORRIBLE flop in technology. Cell phone companies spent a lot of money to add internet to the phone stuff, and NO ONE is purchasing web access on their cell phones when the free web trial expires.

Integrating a camera means that companies CAN FINALLY get you to start paying for the internet packages THAT NO ONE is buying right now. After the 3 months of free email (ie: camera use!) is over, the hope here is that many will continue to pay additional fees to keep the internet alive. You need the internet option to use the camera!

It is a real shame, as 99% of the people I know who have these phones AT MOST USE the function to save phone numbers, and that is it. I know of no one who actually even puts in a persons address.

Further, I looked at some of the brand new top of the line phones, and their screens are simply crap compared to my palm t3. Not even remotely close in terms of quality, brightness, pixel resolution, and the real small size of these screens is even more appalling.

Of course, you can get a phone that is a palm based os pda. However, I don’t want a battery eating phone using up my pda power, and the reverse is even more true. Who wants a pda eating up valuable phone time/power? Worse, is I want to be able to upgrade my pda independently of my cell phone. No wonder the cell phone guys are back peddling on bluetooth. Bluetooth is a means to use your cell phone with other pda’s!

A few of my friends where talking about how their last digital cell phones would easily run more then 1 week with normal use. Some even said they can get two weeks. With the new colors screens, huge ram, power robbing processors and a bunch of stuff you don’t need, you get a real drop cell phone battery life. What a mess!

I do believe that the future may hold a phone + pda combo. But right now, just give me a good basic phone and let it talk to my pda and laptop.

Albert D. Kallal
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
kallal@msn.com
http://www.attcanada.net/~kallal.msn

Albert D. Kallal
Saturday, December 20, 2003

Try a 6310i (European name?)

No color.

No camera.

Battery will last 2 weeks w/ no calls . . . (li-po0

None
Sunday, December 21, 2003

The Siemans S46 is only availiable in the US and Canada anyway.

Albert you walk around with a briefcase and jacket. Eight months of the year I have a T-shirt and jeans, or dress shirt and chinos. I don;t have space to carry around a phone, PDA and wallet. This is why I want a phone that will act as a basic PDA. But, as I want the phone to be small, I don't want one of those fiddly keyboards. What I do want is the ability to carrry my Outlook contacts on the phone PDA, and to transfer the stuff from the computer.

And I don't see why I should be paying more than the price of a mid-range gamers desktop for a phone. I've seen pocket PC's with modems, that, although inordinatley large, will do the trick, but why should I be paying $700 for a phone and address book? I can get the Palm PDA for $80: I can get an overpriced phone, with loads of things I don't want for $120. Why the hell should I be expected to pay $600 + for a combination of the two?

Stephen Jones
Sunday, December 21, 2003

I have the 6310, and I love it. No camera or other fancy useless stuff.

Looking at getting one of the Treos though. Want an all in one.....

Tapiwa
Sunday, December 21, 2003

Bought a Siemens M55 just recently. Small, looks good, has an amazingly good organizer for a phone. I do want games on my phone though. Oh, and the email feature is awesome too.

Btw, Siemens S46 for 850/1900MHz networks = S45 for 900/1800MHz networks.

Flasher T
Sunday, December 21, 2003

Details about all the Siemens phones can be found at:

http://www.my-siemens.com/MySiemens/CDA/Index/1,1652,HQ_en_0_product%253AMW%252FHD%252FHD,00.html
or
http://www.club-siemens.com/

My question is - are these phones as solid as Nokia phones are?

Is the software bug-free, or it keeps locking up like the Mitsubishi phones do?

Thank you!

MX
Sunday, December 21, 2003

There is also http://www.club-siemens.net, which is a lot more organized.

MX
Sunday, December 21, 2003

The Siemenses are rock-solid phones, as evidenced by their popularity in Central Europe, all the way from Germany to Russia.

For about an year of use, I've never had the software of my ME45 crash. It feels solid as if you could hammer nails with it. The battery keeps going for a week with quite heavy talking on my part.

Of course, nowadays you should take something newer, like the S55 or M55.

Unsigner
Sunday, December 21, 2003

Problem is, the 6310 doesn't include GSM 850.

My five requirements for a phone (in order) are:
1) good signal
2) good battery life
3) GSM 1900
4) GSM 850
5) bluetooth

The best phone I could find that came close to these was the SE t616. But if I could find that phone in black 'n white, without the camera, I'd have picked it instead.

Michael Kale
Monday, December 22, 2003

How about the Nokia 6100? It has most of the standard features of a Siemens S55, but i'm not sure which one to get, I'm currently doing a research on GPRS network for a company and not sure which phone to recommend and also does anyone know what software is required for the communication from the company's network to the GPRS mobile station? and I have found an open source of OpenGGSN but not sure what this is, can anyone provide me with any information with openGGSN and what are the hardware and sofware requirement and what exactly is it.

Some very confused person

Nolee
Thursday, July 8, 2004