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Cellular Phone Forum / Providers / Verizon / October 2006A tale of two technologies
I finally mustered up the courage to try to activesync my IPAQ 2490 PDA to my computer. Two hours later I finally got a connection, but couldn't duplicate the settings the second time around. The HP directions were indecipherable, and the instructions on the MicroSoft pages were even worse. Anyway, while searching the net for a solution I came across Skype for Windows Mobile, so I downloaded and installed it. There were no hitches in the download or installation, and amazingly it worked great the very first time I used it through my home wireless network. Fortuitously, HP designed the IPAQ with the speaker at the very top, and the microphone at the very bottom, in the front of the device. So I could hold the gizmo up to my lead as if it was a smartphone, and chat with my daughter who was on her cellphone downstairs. Imagine if the speaker was at the lower left, on the side, and the mic on the upper right, on the opposite side? What this means is I have another "telephone line" to use throughout the house on days when my family is home (we share my Lingo business line for family long distance calls because it's unlimited for $20/month). As Wi-Fi and Wi-Wi-Wi-Fi catch on it will be interesting to see how the wireless companies cope. Several major cities are already considering providing wireless to every home, every street, every square inch. It should not take long for individuals to figure out that they can call other Skypers for free, and any US phone for 2.1 cents per minute. To put this into perspective, VZW now charges $69 for 700 minutes, whether that time is used or not. Through Skype those same 700 minutes cost $15.40. There are obviously bugs to work out, and the PDA manufacturers will need to do something about their devices' horrible battery life and power management -- here I think they can learn something from the mobile phone manufacturers. As universal WiFi catches on Skype on a PDA will be a huge winner in the global telecom marketplace. I can't wait for studies funded by VZW, Sprint, etc. to "prove" that 802.11g transmissions cause cancer. Skype over PDA is a technology that makes tech junkies like me smile. Easy to get, free, easy to deploy, idiot proof. What a stark contrast with my bluetooth nightmare. Who the hell needs a slow Bluetooth connection anyway? It only works over about 30 feet and it's extremely slow. Tonight was the last time I will hit the Bluetooth button on my PDA. Bluetooth is so-o-o-o-o '90s. Angelo DePalma I left out a very important word in the first sentence, "Bluetooth". I finally mustered up the courage to try to activesync my IPAQ 2490 PDA to my computer over Bluetooth. Two hours later I finally got a connection, but couldn't duplicate the settings the second time around. The HP directions were indecipherable, and the instructions on the MicroSoft pages were even worse. Anyway, while searching the net for a solution I came across Skype for Windows Mobile, so I downloaded and installed it. There were no hitches in the download or installation, and amazingly it worked great the very first time I used it through my home wireless network. Fortuitously, HP designed the IPAQ with the speaker at the very top, and the microphone at the very bottom, in the front of the device. So I could hold the gizmo up to my lead as if it was a smartphone, and chat with my daughter who was on her cellphone downstairs. Imagine if the speaker was at the lower left, on the side, and the mic on the upper right, on the opposite side? What this means is I have another "telephone line" to use throughout the house on days when my family is home (we share my Lingo business line for family long distance calls because it's unlimited for $20/month). As Wi-Fi and Wi-Wi-Wi-Fi catch on it will be interesting to see how the wireless companies cope. Several major cities are already considering providing wireless to every home, every street, every square inch. It should not take long for individuals to figure out that they can call other Skypers for free, and any US phone for 2.1 cents per minute. To put this into perspective, VZW now charges $69 for 700 minutes, whether that time is used or not. Through Skype those same 700 minutes cost $15.40. There are obviously bugs to work out, and the PDA manufacturers will need to do something about their devices' horrible battery life and power management -- here I think they can learn something from the mobile phone manufacturers. As universal WiFi catches on Skype on a PDA will be a huge winner in the global telecom marketplace. I can't wait for studies funded by VZW, Sprint, etc. to "prove" that 802.11g transmissions cause cancer. Skype over PDA is a technology that makes tech junkies like me smile. Easy to get, free, easy to deploy, idiot proof. What a stark contrast with my bluetooth nightmare. Who the hell needs a slow Bluetooth connection anyway? It only works over about 30 feet and it's extremely slow. Tonight was the last time I will hit the Bluetooth button on my PDA. Bluetooth is so-o-o-o-o '90s. Angelo DePalma > Skype for > Windows Mobile Oh, oh....Angelo, quick! Put on your asbestos fire suit! The Verizon flamers are gonna have a field day....(c; Skype works great, here, too: http://tinyurl.com/rj6cw The CIT200 makes a great Skype home phone from the main computer. Mine will make calls to its 1900 Mhz base station from 3 houses away from home. Check out Voxlib, too! http://voxlib.com/ Voxlib lets you run Skype from any landline or your cellphone when you dial into your Skype In phone number ($28/YEAR). It creates a conference call between you, remotely, and anyone on Skype or through Skype Out. If you call on your cellphone outside the US, it can reduce those $3.50/min ripoffs to pennies per minute. http://skype.com/products/skypeout/rates/all_rates.html Just dial your Skype In from your cellphone, Voxlib recognizes your caller id and answers with the menu, press 2 to make an outgoing Skype Out call to the country code/number from your Skype Out precharged account. Clear as a bell. You can also call anyone's Skype-to-Skype from your cellphone for cellular airtime...anywhere on the planet. Skype is cool stuff....(c; Sure hope they get the Direct-to-Wifi Skype handsets fixed so they can logon through wifi hotspot webpages, soon. The ones advertised now, won't logon at the commercial hotspots, so I carry the CIT200 and my laptop for now. Letting the pretty CSR at Verizon talk to Japan through Skype?....PRICELESS. > Oh, oh....Angelo, quick! Put on your asbestos fire suit! The Verizon > flamers are gonna have a field day....(c; Larry, my friend, I am with you, but not 100%. This is all very interesting stuff. The overseas calling deal is fantastic, a must-have for any sleeper terrorist cells who need to communicate with their brethren overseas :) And as I wrote, when Wi-fi morphs into wi-wi-wi fi, Skype (and its emerging competitors -- you can be sure there will be) will rule. The problem with the rest is that there are good alternatives that cost about the same, and which are already pretty well established. As a freelance writer I'm a pretty heavy phone user. I use Lingo for my long distance. For $20 a month I get unlimited calls to the US, Canada, and Western Europe, which is 99.5% of my calls. I've *never* had to call overseas when I'm on the road, so my VZW phone is perfect for travel. I have a cheap GE 900 MHz base station, which sits in my office, and a cordless extension two floors down in the living room. My family uses the latter for their out-of-calling-area calls, and it has a range of several hundred feet. Luckily, they are rarely home on my work days. During the summer they use their VZW minutes if they have to call long distance during the day. We never use up our 700 VZW minutes, ever!! For local calls we have a Sprint land line which costs us $17.50 a month -- hey, we need another line! I guess we can eventually switch to Lingo for that phone too and get the long distance, but it would cost a bit more. Since VOIP is only about 90% as good as copper wire, I will stick to the current setup for the time being. Way-cool as it was, my "discovery" last night has little practical value for me. I can't think of a situation where I'll be in a free Wi-Fi hotspot any time soon and not have my cellphone, or have to call France. I would probably not have my IPAQ with me, and even if I did chances are the battery would be dead or nearly so. "Ange1o DePa1ma" <angelodpnospam@nospam.gmail.com> wrote in news:Pv- cnV6XEedL1KXYUSdV9g@ptd.net: > The problem with the rest is that there are good alternatives that cost > about the same, and which are already pretty well established. Things got a lot more expensive for Skype, here, today....(c; I've been drooling over the new Skype phones since they started hawking them, wanting to have something in my pocket that would wifi connect direct with Skype running in it. But, I logon in many places that requires webpage logon. "The new Skype phones are expensive.", I told myself all after noon while heading for the Dell kiosk in the mall to play with the Dell 51V Pocket PC running Windoze Mobile 5. Damn it, Dell, you keep putting things on SALE! The 624 Mhz pocket mainframe dropped to $374 and I just couldn't help myself, what with Skype braggin' about its new Skype for Mobile software specifically for the Wifi/cellular PDAs under WinMob 5. It has Skype's speaker and mic already built in... So, I have the Dell Axim 51v on order: http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/axim_x51v? c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd I figured, "Why buy just a Skype phone when for a little more I could have a serious Pocket PC to replace my Handspring...that WASN'T all hobbled up by the damned greedy cellular phone companies screwing around with the operating system." My mobile will have ALL the Bluetooth working...(c; I stuck an AVI movie on a memory card before going up there. This thing will also make a valid movie viewer, in full stereo through the headsets, when you turn the picture sideways, really nice....and it will logon to webpage-based wifi hotspots anywhere for Skype and play...(c; Dude, Ah'm gittin' a Dell! Dude, you're a funny guy, a gadget freak like me. Wait until you see how crappy movies look on those lousy screens, or play a movie and the damned battery runs out after 25 minutes. If you're home you'll wonder why you just didn't plunk Napoleon Dynamite into the danged DVD player. If you're on a train, you'll wish you'd taken that issue of PC World to read. Yes, you're a lot like me. Your $400 PDA will live mostly on a shelf, collecting dust, or under a pile of junk on your desk, as most PDAs do. You'll wander around looking for Wi-Fi hot spots so you can call some relative from your PDA (like I did today, just for fun), but they'll be out. Finally, if you're like me, after about six months you'll wonder why the hell you spent the money, since you don't know anyone in Hungary to Skype. > "Ange1o DePa1ma" <angelodpnospam@nospam.gmail.com> wrote in news:Pv- > cnV6XEedL1KXYUSdV9g@ptd.net: [quoted text clipped - 32 lines] > > Dude, Ah'm gittin' a Dell! I've had a Dell Axim X3i for a few years. It's great. It will run Skype, it gives internet access via wi-fi and it's small. Unlike a laptop which will do these things and more, the Axim is small enough to go more places and do it more conveniently. The real downside, as I see it, is the short battery life when using wi-fi. I searched ebay for "battery extender" and found one for most PDAs and many cell phones. It's an external battery pack using 4 AA batteries. There is a similar battery extender with interchangable tips from gnomadic. That allows you to buy one external battery pack and then spend $5 for the tip for each device. Since I already use rechargable AA and AAA for many other devices, the external battery pack is a pretty good idea. One thing to keep an eye on with the Dell Axims is the snych connector. They have a reputation for being very fragile. Make sure you never torque the connector when connecting a synch/charge cable. After I had to replace the synch I am now much more careful. For example, I now place my Axim and synch cable flat on a desk and then press them to connect so as to avoid bending the connector. It only takes a little attention to avoid breaking the connector.  SignatureScott > I've had a Dell Axim X3i for a few years. It's great. It will run > Skype, it gives internet access via wi-fi and it's small. Unlike a [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > for "battery extender" and found one for most PDAs and many cell > phones. It's an external battery pack using 4 AA batteries. The Dell guy in our mall kiosk gave his wife the new Axim 51v with the Dell extended battery for Christmas. She's getting a little over 5 hours of business use out of it without charging with a 4G memory card socketed. I'm also told Mobile 5.0 and the new Intel processor in the 51v does a much better job than the SE operating system, sort of like XP compared to Win98SE. I suppose time will tell. I've spent a lot of time on the various forums and newsgroups reading problems with the 51v and older Axims and the problems people have had trying to upgrade to Mobile 5.0 units it wasn't designed for. Thanks for the info on Skype on your Axim. I use Skype in a lot of places with commercial webpage-logon wifi access, here. The new Skype phones just aren't going to work right as they have no webpage support so won't gain access. The Axim, now on sale, are only a few dollars more, and will work on all the unsecured hotspots. It's all about the toys, right?....(c; My Alltel cellphone runs Skype, anyways, from anywhere using Voxlib (www.voxlib.com) on the main computer with Skype In and Skype Out. I don't really NEED the new Axim, but became addicted just playing with it at the mall. It's a really neat product UNENCUMBERED by stupid cellphone company bureaucrats disabling most all its features they're trying to sell you on hobbled up PDA phones. No thanks.... SignatureThere's amazing intelligence in the Universe. You can tell because none of them ever called Earth. > One thing to keep an eye on with the Dell Axims is the snych > connector. They have a reputation for being very fragile. Make sure [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > press them to connect so as to avoid bending the connector. It only > takes a little attention to avoid breaking the connector. The 51v comes with a cradle to charge and sync. Like my Handspring Visor Edge, it just sit in the cradle, not really attaching to it. Your problem reminds me of the fragile connectors on Motophones like the V60i with that cheap little plug on the bottom with the wire pins..... SignatureThere's amazing intelligence in the Universe. You can tell because none of them ever called Earth. >> One thing to keep an eye on with the Dell Axims is the snych >> connector. They have a reputation for being very fragile. Make sure [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > reminds me of the fragile connectors on Motophones like the V60i with that > cheap little plug on the bottom with the wire pins..... The cradle is the best possible way to connect to the synch/power connector. I've had very good luck finding very useful and much less expensive accessories for the Axim on ebay. I really like the clamshell aluminum case. I see that now the same case is available for use with the extended battery. I'd highly recommend a suitable case and screen protector. I've used my Axim daily in a work truck for about 3 years. Other than my breaking the synch connector, after about 2 years in a harsh envorironment, my device is my trusty sidekick. SignatureScott > The cradle is the best possible way to connect to the synch/power > connector. I've had very good luck finding very useful and much less [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > about 2 years in a harsh envorironment, my device is my trusty > sidekick. Hmm...I opted for the zippered carrying case I could also carry other stuff in. Handspring Visor Edge got it right long ago. The case is already aluminum with an aluminum cover that flips all the way back over the top when you're using it. It's so thin it carries in my shirt pocket. It has the drop-in sync-charger cradle, too. To sync it, you don't even have to turn it on, just push the sync button on the cradle and away she goes to Palm Desktop. The plastic hinge on the Visor is cracked but still works after all these years. You only have to charge the Visor about every two to 3 weeks with its very compact Palm OS, so little memory to support and simple, monochrome screen using natural light not sucking the battery dry. I'm gonna miss that feature. Thanks for the heads up on Ebay for accessories. One thing wrong with buying the bleeding edge of technology is the lack of cheap stuff for it. SignatureThere's amazing intelligence in the Universe. You can tell because none of them ever called Earth. > Way-cool as it was, my "discovery" last night has little practical value for > me. I can't think of a situation where I'll be in a free Wi-Fi hotspot any > time soon and not have my cellphone, or have to call France. I would > probably not have my IPAQ with me, and even if I did chances are the battery > would be dead or nearly so. Thats exactly what Larry doesn't seem to get. You can't compare sitting at a Wi-fi hotspot to a service than allows you to access it from most anywhere. "George" <george@nospam.invalid> >> Way-cool as it was, my "discovery" last night has little practical value >> for me. I can't think of a situation where I'll be in a free Wi-Fi [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > Wi-fi hotspot to a service than allows you to access it from most > anywhere. The convenience of cellular *telephone* service is their major selling point. Why does my family spend THREE TIMES as much for 400 minutes of "crappy" cell service as we pay for two basically unlimited land lines? So I don't have to guess when my daughter's tennis practice is over (and waste half an hour waiting for her); so I can ask my wife what she wants for dinner when I'm in the supermarket (and avoid "CHICKEN AGAIN?" complaints and subsequent arguments); so my son doesn't have to wait around on a corner with perverts and drug addicts after his movie lets out. I must applaud Larry for being an idealist and recognizing that there could be, and some day probably will be, something better. I look forward to his posts. But until Skype and related technology improves or becomes more universally accessible I will continue to be "ripped off" by Verizon Wireless. In fact, since we don't use too many of the additional features like movies and special ringtones and games, I don't feel like I'm getting stung at all. Angelo |
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