Back up...
To answer Christopher's question from the last post, I am back up, at least mostly. I'm going to be writing about what I'm up to on OfB, so I guess I'll save it until then, but it's kept me busy!
And it all started because of a phone. I hinted about cell phone service issues a few weeks back and intended to follow that up sooner than I did. Verizon Wireless had, after over a year and a half of fighting, still failed to provide me with a number that actually could be reached from many phones in the metro area. They had also, earlier in 2003, managed to lose my voicemail for about a month and then somehow switch my number over to “pay as you go” (which of course caused it to be terminated, since I didn't have pay as you go minutes — I had a monthly plan!).
At any rate, they finally relented and let me out of the contract. I'm now with Cingular Wireless and have a new Nokia 3600 phone (the GSM 850/1900 MHz variant of the Nokia 3650). So far things have been good with Cingular — good coverage, good customer service and a great phone. The Nokia 3600 is a camera phone that is powered by the OS that's somewhat of a cell-phone/PDA blend: Symbian. It has a 100 MHz processor, is capable of running Java and Symbian applications (of which there are a ton!) and can play wave and polyphonic midi ring-tones. Battery life seems to be 4-5 days of standby and light usage, or 2-day with moderate Bluetooth usage (leaving Bluetooth on all the time seems to lower that to around a 24 hour battery life).
One feature I really liked about the phone, other than the 640×480 camera (which is nice for when you don't have your normal camera with you), is the inclusion of Bluetooth. That's also how I ended up taking on a major project in trying to get my contacts, that are on my GNU/Linux box, to my Mac (which has Bluetooth) and then to the phone. sigh
At any rate, it's a good phone. IMO, the future of wireless is on a GSM network, so if your looking to get a new phone, this nice Nokia 3600 GSM phone might be a good choice.
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RE: Back up...
I was considering a GSM phone, but my pastor got one and kept dropping signal all over the place in our area. He traded that in for a gate phone that does both GSM and digital… but the only ones cingular offer are big and ugly… so I am sticking with what I have… Your phone looks cool though,
RE: Back up...
I did some research, and it seems that Cingular is converting its old CDMA towers to GSM towers, thus why they are using the 850/1900 MHz wireless spectrum rather than the European 900/1800 MHz spectrum. The upside seems to be that they are building the network quite quickly. The only bad thing is that a 850/1900 MHz phone can’t be used as a “world phone,” although the 3650, which seems to be harder to find, supports both North American and European frequencies.
GATE phones are pretty nice, although I agree they are a bit big and ugly.
RE: Back up...
I just bought a gate phone Nokia 6340i it is tri-band analog, digital and GSM. I have had Cingular for about 10 years now and have had good luck. You can read about my other cell phones at my blog if you want to know more.