At 18 Jul 2008 14:18:46 +0000 Larry wrote:

> > I'd like a smart-phone with WiFi. That limits me
> > two two choices from Verizon. Neither has a good browser like the
> > iPhone, but actually what's more important to me is the ability to
> > create, edit, and store Word and Excel documents.
>
> None of the Sellphone carriers are going to be selling anything that does
> more than email, SMS and webpages they can control and RESELL.

Here we go again....


> If they let
> you have word processing, database access, big spreadsheets of important
> numbers, that will use BANDWIDTH, which Sellphone companies now oppose
> because they cannot sell it for a dollar a megabyte any more. So, they
> simply don't sell any device that uses serious bandwidth.

You do realize that a very good number of smartphones include the ability
to edit and create documents out of the box, right? The WinMo phones do,
as do most Palm-based phones.

Unrestricted access to POP/IMAP e-mail is also a function of smartphones.

> They put useless
> little browsers on the phones that won't really display a real webpage
> BECAUSE a real webpage, with all the spam Flash movies, giant moving GIF
> files, ad after ad after ad of huge color pictures and embedded
> JAVA/javascript USES BANDWIDTH. That's why WAP was invented. It uses no
> bandwidth and has no ads to suck up the sellphone revenue.

WAP was invented as a workable web solution when phones had 128x128 pixel
monochrome displays and connected to the web at 14.4kbps. Plenty of phones
have decent browsers, although most not up to iPhone qualit - IE Mobile on
WinMo, Blazer on Palm, Blackbetrry, Opera's Mini and Mobile, etc.


> The only mobile solution, so far until WiMax or something similar
emerges,
> is a tethered device, cable or bluetooth, to get the computer out of the
> clutches of the sellphone company bean counters...or is that byte
> counters??


How does that help? Most carrier restrictions are at the network level-
blocked ports, download limits, etc. Most carriers (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T)
also charge extra for tethering.


> Sellphone carriers have been very successful in thwarting this
> end run around their control by removing any tethering firmware and any
> Bluetooth interconnecting protocols, such as DUN, from the phone's
> capabilities.


No, SOME CARRIERS. Others do not remove capabilities, or at least do not
on high-end phones.

And, as you've been told dozens of times, GSM carriers don't restrict the
handsets you can use to their own branded handsets. You can buy uncrippled
handsets, never touched by the carrier's "enhancements" or sofware,
directly from manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola or HTC and use them on GSM
networks.

> Verizon seems the worst hobbler in the den. Most users
> aren't savvy enough to hack the phones to restore functions, but for the
> few who do we'll let the system keep a sharp eye out for "abusers" and
> convince the dumbest amoung us that if they see an "abuser" using
bandwidth
> he's, somehow, going to trash their own service, a tactic that seems to
> work very well.
>
> $20 to $60 for email and webpages is very profitable. You can sell the
> same bandwidth to a thousand people because they get really bored with
the
> webpages fast and TURN IT OFF, exactly what the carriers want.
>
> They don't have a good browser for a REASON, not because they're not
> capable of running it. Hell, I'm running Firefox 3 for Linux on the
Nokia
> N800, plugins and all!

Good for you. For the gazillionth time, look at the celular world beyond
your own carrier and it isn't as restrictive as you think.

My handset (an AT&T Tilt unlocked on T-Mobile) can edit documents, send
unlimited e-mai , has four different browsers on it including one that does
flash, and, beside "webpage spam and e-mail" handles NNTP (usenet,) video
and audio streaming, and runs both Skype and SIP VoIP- all on the device,
all without tethering. All on a handset sold by a big, bad, "sellular"
company.

But you know that, because you been corrected before. It just doesn't fit
your "sellphone conspiracy theory" so you ignore it.