Re: The Static Page: Mobile Phone Madness

I have a brand-new K610i. And it didn't cost anything but a new 24-month contract. The salesguy at my local Optus store was impressed I had done my homework - the K610i was in fact my second choice but they had run out of W810's.

Amongst the things he had probably not encountered from a customer before: yes, the joystick was sucky. It went unreliable on my T300, too. The K610 (and the W810) have proper little keys instead of a joystick. This I revealed after he tried to sell me a K800i (it has a joystick).

I also need it to support Bluetooth dial-up networking. Which it does. This is listed on the sales brochures as 'Modem', which I pointed out for his information. He hadn't ever encountered someone who had even used that before, though he wasn't surprised it was possible. It seems Sony Ericsson have a reputation for making fairly complete Bluetooth protocol stacks.

Actually, my original choise of the W810 was because it was not new: i.e. it's been around a while, so it's been popular, and would be less likely to have bugs in its firmware. The salesguy said the K610 is currently popular albeit newer so I decided I could take my chances on firmware bugs.

At least I could have back the borrowed Nokia 6610. Ugh. So much of a 'wannabe' phone from Nokia, but I'm not sure what it was trying to be. It actually had a user-un-friendly menu requiring lots of arrow key presses, unlike SE's keypad shortcuts, and tiny little icons indicating activity states unlike SE's nice colour ones. And a single-tasking GPRS stack: it did dial-up networking over IrDa (I wonder what model it really borrowed that from) but couldn't accept a call whilst connected.

Interesting other things: the K610 came with a data cable! I really didn't expect that, but it makes sense as the kind of thing to include if a key feature of the phone is a 2MP camera (though a longer lens would be nicer). I guess music playing took second string, as it doesn't come with a earphones. No loss to me; I'd normally prefer the data cable but Bluetooth file transfer is just as effective. It also has a Memory Stick Micro (aka 'M2') slot and card. This would be Sony's attempt to take on MiniSD and MicroSD.

Wade.

Post #269,599 by pwhysall 10/6/06 3:21:12 AM Reply	Re: The Static Page: Mobile Phone Madness 1. I had a K700i a couple of years back and it was nice, but the joystick was rubbish from day 1. 2. You broke your phone. 3. Phones are more-or-less non-user-serviceable these days. This non-mendable nature is, in my opinion, a by-product of the large-scale manufacturing processes that mean that we can afford these tiny miracles of integration at all. I've now got an Orange SPV M600; the P910i went on eBay for a respectable \ufffd100. Phone keypads are so last century. Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall\|A better terminal emulator]
Post #269,601 by Meerkat 10/6/06 3:51:31 AM Reply	Sorry but I still love my 6820's keyboard. I'm basically waiting for it to break so I can upgrade to the E70 :) Though it's become more useful of late, now iSync finally supports it. Two out of three people wonder where the other one is.
Post #269,604 by pwhysall 10/6/06 6:55:37 AM Reply	I use The Missing Sync from Mark/Space Top piece of software, costs next to nothing, and the developers are proper responsive on the support mailing lists. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that PocketMac is a pile of fetid dingo's kidneys. Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall\|A better terminal emulator]
Post #269,610 by boxley 10/6/06 9:00:31 AM Reply	you out of yer fscking MIND? $200 for a phone? I could picture spending that much on a car or a couple of hookers but $200 for a phone? bah, bill Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
Post #269,653 by pwhysall 10/6/06 3:24:37 PM Reply	Your priorities are not other peoples' priorities. SIM-free, unlocked handsets of the kind I have are about \ufffd350. I got it for peanuts because I'm on a contract. Peter [link\|http://www.no2id.net/\|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link\|http://www.kuro5hin.org\|There is no K5 Cabal] [link\|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org\|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes! [link\|http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?pwhysall\|A better terminal emulator]
Post #269,866 by static 10/8/06 8:18:12 PM Reply	Well the story ends well. I have a brand-new K610i. And it didn't cost anything but a new 24-month contract. The salesguy at my local Optus store was impressed I had done my homework - the K610i was in fact my second choice but they had run out of W810's. Amongst the things he had probably not encountered from a customer before: yes, the joystick was sucky. It went unreliable on my T300, too. The K610 (and the W810) have proper little keys instead of a joystick. This I revealed after he tried to sell me a K800i (it has a joystick). I also need it to support Bluetooth dial-up networking. Which it does. This is listed on the sales brochures as 'Modem', which I pointed out for his information. He hadn't ever encountered someone who had even used that before, though he wasn't surprised it was possible. It seems Sony Ericsson have a reputation for making fairly complete Bluetooth protocol stacks. Actually, my original choise of the W810 was because it was not new: i.e. it's been around a while, so it's been popular, and would be less likely to have bugs in its firmware. The salesguy said the K610 is currently popular albeit newer so I decided I could take my chances on firmware bugs. At least I could have back the borrowed Nokia 6610. Ugh. So much of a 'wannabe' phone from Nokia, but I'm not sure what it was trying to be. It actually had a user-un-friendly menu requiring lots of arrow key presses, unlike SE's keypad shortcuts, and tiny little icons indicating activity states unlike SE's nice colour ones. And a single-tasking GPRS stack: it did dial-up networking over IrDa (I wonder what model it really borrowed that from) but couldn't accept a call whilst connected. Interesting other things: the K610 came with a data cable! I really didn't expect that, but it makes sense as the kind of thing to include if a key feature of the phone is a 2MP camera (though a longer lens would be nicer). I guess music playing took second string, as it doesn't come with a earphones. No loss to me; I'd normally prefer the data cable but Bluetooth file transfer is just as effective. It also has a Memory Stick Micro (aka 'M2') slot and card. This would be Sony's attempt to take on MiniSD and MicroSD. Wade. "Insert crowbar. Apply force."

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