iSpeed North Charleston, SC...

The North Charleston ATT store was deserted today, except for a few
irate customers wondering aloud if it wouldn't be better to get an
Instinct from Sprint than wait 2 more weeks for the FruitFone Vaporware.
"We won't have another shipment in until Wednesday, 60 more phones, and
they're all sold on the waiting list.", the sales humanoid stated flatly
to a businessman who looked like he really wanted one and was
unaccustomed to being told "no" by anyone below his pay grade.

After he stormed out, empty handed, I snagged one of the 3 demo units
that replaced the old 2Gs on the iPhone kiosk. 2 had crashed, so I
booted them both back up for them. Plugged constantly into their
docking stations, they were all charged up, so that wasn't the reason
for the crash. No 3rd party software had been installed, which I found
kinda sad with all the freeware they COULD have been displaying for the
App Store as a sales gimmick. I suppose they might have been
embarrassed over some of the more stupid freewares I found on the store
when I went there with their iphones for a looksee.

I put SPEEDTEST into Google in hopes of finding a FruitFone-compatible
net speed test website because the FruitFone won't play most speedtest
sites using JAVA or Flash. PC World, of all places, has a pretty neat,
though amazingly TINY buttoned FruitFone/sellphone speed tester it could
play, complete with latency and speed testing so I ran it 5 times over
the course of 10 minutes and averaged out some of the worst readings,
like a recurrent 2500 ms latency ping that kept popping up.

The main ATT store has such a shitty signal in it with no cheater
repeater to boost up the signals like Verizon does to their shitty
signals it may have screwed the testing up. I hunted around to the end
of my security-device tether stuck to the back of the FruitFone to make
sure I didn't steal it and found a hotspot at 4-bars of pilot channel
signal so did my testing holding the FruitFone above my head to the
curious onlookers panting over its very existence.

The fastest download I got was around 550Kbps with the average 3G speed
only doing around 350-400Kbps and the worst I saw was 230Kbps on one
pitiful test at 10AM on Monday morning. Latency varied between 300ms
and 2500ms something awful on the ping tests, not good if you're going
to play video or even the simplest gaming, which I suppose it won't do
anyway. The YouTube client played fairly well, but did balk a few times
to reload its buffer before continuing to play Ron Paul's rants to
Bernanke and the Fed shadow government. The YouTube app, unlike MyTube
on the Maemo tablets, doesn't get video processing to make the pictures
look better.

The web pages that would load without Flash/JAVA and the other toys it
doesn't support look pretty nice, UNTIL you multitouch the screen to
zoom in or out or slide it to another page. Then, it has to load that
page part like a tile on Google Earth does when you move suddenly from
the tile you're looking at to a new tile somewhere else....not a new
webpage, just a new piece of the existing webpage. This makes the piece
of webpage you're looking at now load faster, at the expense of having
to wait every time you move offscreen to a new piece of the whole
webpage, later as you read on through the spam. I want my browser to
load once then let me slide around without loading again, like Firefox
does on the Nokia Linux tablets.

Something I never noticed before on the old 2G FruitFone was the
"focusing" it does when I zoomed in or out. Boot Google News' main page
and wait for it to load. Now spread zoom to an area of the page you're
looking at, the only way to get the icons on Google News far enough
apart to click with your fat finger. Watch what happens to the "focus"
of the text. When you first zoom in (or out or move violently), the
text you're looking at looks like a video camera with autofocus does if
you move too fast....out of focus. Then, within a second or so, the
text "focuses" so you can read it, finally sharpening up into the font
the webpage dictated if it exists. I find it very annoying that I can't
zoom then start reading because I can't immediately see the letters.
Anyone know what's going on during this "focus period"? It must have
something to do with the display decoder and font codec conversions
between the display processor and the Samsung main processor. It's a
very noticable lag in focusing the fonts..and pictures.

I tried the Map program out to the end of the security tether and
couldn't really do anything because it never got a GPS lock from the
signals bouncing off the cars in the parking lot through the big plate
glass windows so can't see how the routing and GPS accuracy looked. I
wanted to put the map program in "overland mode" so it wouldn't process
out errors and always put you on the nearest road to its current fix and
see how accurate it was, but my keen-eyed ATT rep was in no mood to
untether something he couldn't sell me on commission, anyways, to take
out into the parking lot for some real GPS testing. The app is just
Google maps and Google satellite using GPS data if it can get a fix. It
looks curiously like a web based app with GPS overlay data. I wonder
how it will work, if that's what it really is, where ATT has no signal
and no wifi to connect it to.

Speaking of wifi, there's this goddamned BOX that kept popping up every
time you went to do something because the store has a wifi in the demo
FruitFone's wifi configuration saved to connect it to, rather than let
you see how fast 3G ATT really is. I had to tell that damned popup
window NO, I DON'T WANNA CONNECT TO WIFI about 20 times every 10 minutes
while I was playing with it. I suppose this is ATT's idea to get the
damned FruitFone hackers OFF OUR DATA SYSTEM to reduce costs and
increase profits. The box had no way of telling the FruitFone to stop
asking me if I wanted to connect to the wifi and get off the 3G, of
course, making me further suspicious this is ATT-based thinking. I
asked my steeley-eyed ATT rep if he would turn off the wifi for a while,
but he lied and said he didn't know where it was. I hope ATT doesn't
hire men that stupid.

At about this time a man and wife came in with two dead FruitFones and
seemed a little unhappy from their loud voices across the lobby so I
fled the scene, releasing my handler to go into protect mode, in case
these irate customers had any weapons and the will to use them. I heard
one of the desk jockeys say something to the effect it would be mid
afternoon before "the server", whatever that means, might come back
online long enough so they'd have at least sellphone service once again.

Trying to sneak listen I perused the main sellphone kiosk in the center
of the room and simply fell in love with the new LG VU I stumbled across
that was playing ESPN sports channel off its little pull-out 700 Mhz
digital TV receiver. It has a beautiful picture that didn't balk a bit
in the middle of the store with all the other sellphones making RF
noises until I completely collapsed the TV antenna into the case and its
buffer finally ran out of data. Even then, when I moved my hand away
from the collapsed antenna, the TV resumed playing fine. I looked
around at some of the other cable channels this new TV plays and they
all looked great in landscape mode I wish stupid MobiTV would implement
on Alltel's Axcess TV offering on my ROKR Z6m so I could see the TV
picture. The VU has a great 3" picture with nice loud sound! I
supposed the rest of its smartphone features worked. I didn't check
them out because the man and wife had raised their voices 20 db by that
time and I didn't want to be in the line of fire, so I left the store
quietly as possible under those conditions.....(c;

My condolences to all ATT front line employees until someone gets the
FruitFones up and running without crashing much. They're certainly
catching hell for it in Charleston, SC, today....It's no wonder my
steeley eyed handler wasn't too friendly!

He probably would have let me have that demo unit if I'd brought him
some beer. He looked like he could use a few, chugalugged quickly.

Well, that's my OPINION and what happened to me this morning after all
the hub-bub and lines. I'd get a VU if I were going to be on
ATT....Cool American-only TV, but no World TV unless you can tether it
to the Nokia tablets.

Verizon is faster than Alltel but you can't use more than 5GB so what
does it matter. Alltel unlimited is much faster than ATT 3G, even in
the ATT store! Alltel still wins the data connection war, which is why
I'm a customer, for now.

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:59:44 +0000, Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:

>The North Charleston ATT store was deserted today, except for a few
>irate customers wondering aloud if it wouldn't be better to get an
>Instinct from Sprint than wait 2 more weeks for the FruitFone Vaporware.

I appreciate this account. It's very informative despite being
drenched in attitude. I can handle that. And I'm going to give you the
benefit of the doubt in assuming that you call it a "FruitFone"
because Apple is a fruit, and not because you want to cast aspersions
on the sexual identity of people who use their products. That would
lower the value of your stock tremendously.

Two questions: It's clear that you feel the iPhone doesn't
hold a candle, in the net access department, to the Nokia appliance
you favor. But is there any _phone_ that offers a better browsing
function? Second, I think you're running the Nokia N800 with a maemo
OS (iirc)? Will that allow multiple language use, eg:
Japanese/English? I believe it will, but perhaps you know.

Thanks, DGI

On Jul 14, 5:30*pm, David G. Imber <im...@maniform.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:59:44 +0000, Larry <no...@home.com> wrote:
> >The North Charleston ATT store was deserted today, except for a few
> >irate customers wondering aloud if it wouldn't be better to get an
> >Instinct from Sprint than wait 2 more weeks for the FruitFone Vaporware.
>
> * * * * I appreciate this account. It's very informative despite being
> drenched in attitude. I can handle that. And I'm going to give you the
> benefit of the doubt in assuming that you call it a "FruitFone"
> because Apple is a fruit, and not because you want to cast aspersions
> on the sexual identity of people who use their products. That would
> lower the value of your stock tremendously.
>
> * * * * Two questions: It's clear that you feel the iPhone doesn't
> hold a candle, in the net access department, to the Nokia appliance
> you favor. But is there any _phone_ that offers a better browsing
> function? Second, I think you're running the Nokia N800 with a maemo
> OS (iirc)? Will that allow multiple language use, eg:
> Japanese/English? I believe it will, but perhaps you know.
>
> * * * * Thanks, DGI

Your nice and polite in dealing with the Nokia Ayatollah. That is
commendable. I too have noticed Larry has a fixation on fruit but I
figured that was a Nokia thing.

If Larry had really been that alert he would have seen there are not
one but two different spots he could have toggled off the WiFi radio
in the new iPhone OS version 2.

But I guess Larry was overwhelmed by the technical complexity of the
difficult to use iPhone user interface so we should all give him a
pass on that one. It does though make some wonder what else is Larry
missing?

On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:19 -0700 (PDT), 4phun <vic.healey@gmail.com>
wrote:

>If Larry had really been that alert he would have seen there are not
>one but two different spots he could have toggled off the WiFi radio
>in the new iPhone OS version 2.

Yes, that part of his account puzzled me, because I was almost
certain I'd read that you could easily toggle it off. Then, of course,
he drew conclusions about the service from his faulty observation.

But I have to take all that stuff in good humor. His account
was funny enough to keep me reading. I think the whole iPhone
discussion has become hugely entertaining, and now and then a bit of
real information slips out.

It's going to help me make an informed decision on my own
later on.

DGI

On Jul 14, 7:45*pm, David G. Imber <im...@maniform.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:09:19 -0700 (PDT), 4phun <vic.hea...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> >If *Larry had really been that alert he would have seen there are not
> >one but two different spots he could have toggled off the WiFi radio
> >in the new iPhone OS version 2.
>
> * * * * Yes, that part of his account puzzled me, because I was almost
> certain I'd read that you could easily toggle it off. Then, of course,
> he drew conclusions about the service from his faulty observation.
>
> * * * * But I have to take all that stuff in good humor. His account
> was funny enough to keep me reading. I think the whole iPhone
> discussion has become hugely entertaining, and now and then a bit of
> real information slips out.
>
> * * * * It's going to help me make an informed decision on my own
> later on.
>
> * * * * DGI

You again hit the nail on the head. I find Larry entertaining. He has
a away with words and I don't really mind the potshots

David G. Imber <imber@maniform.com> wrote in
news:6pgn7458hv2uojp30r72ciijnb0kpn7p1t@4ax.com:

> Two questions: It's clear that you feel the iPhone doesn't
> hold a candle, in the net access department, to the Nokia appliance
> you favor. But is there any _phone_ that offers a better browsing
> function? Second, I think you're running the Nokia N800 with a maemo
> OS (iirc)? Will that allow multiple language use, eg:
> Japanese/English? I believe it will, but perhaps you know.
>
>

One - No. Sellphones, by design, are implemented to work for the
CARRIER, not the customer. They are designed to SELL bandwidth but not
to USE bandwidth. This same phenomenon would happen if only computers
made FOR and sold BY Comcast Cable Internet could be connected to
Comcast's Internet modems. The computers wouldn't run any software that
actually used bandwidth the company appears to sell, like P2P
downloading, Usenet binaries, video streaming, VoIP, downloading
anything Comcast sells at a premium in other channels. That computer
would only download email and look at spam-soaked webpages....just like
sellphone internet devices do.

All bandwidth-using softwares and ports would be permanently sealed so
the customer would have no chance of using up 50GB/month downloading
anything, bypassing the Comcast Telephone Service, streaming free
movies, music, television the cable radio/TV department bleeds the
customer for.

Only approved software sold BY COMCAST could be installed on the Comcast
Computers. No freeware or third party software, not sharing its profits
with Comcast, would be allowed. A special server at Comcast would be in
constant contact with the Comcast Computers across the system to make
sure no foreign software had been installed without paying Comcast to
use it.

These computers, just like the sellphones, would, of course, have
special software to install from the "Comcast App Store" that would SELL
you various streaming TV, Radio, Music channels, XM/Sirius radio
channels, premium movies, online games and other bandwidth data
intensive services ONLY available to Comcast Computers.

Does this sound like a familiar scam? It should.....(c;

Two - Yes, Maemo Linux comes from Nokia in Finland. It supports a world
wide range of different languages. It is also supported by a world-wide
community of open source developers in intense competition for top
bragging rights...what makes Linux tick.

http://gjiten.garage.maemo.org/
"This is a port of Gjiten, the GNOME Japanese dictionary, to the Hildon
Application Framework for the Nokia N800 and N810. Gjiten contains word
lookup in both Japanese and English with advanced features such as verb
and adjective deconjugation as well as a kanji dictionary that can
search on any combination of a stroke count, included radicals, or an
explicit search key, including phonetic readings.

OS 2008 (chinook)

* The main Gjiten application (also installs edict and kanjidic,
the basic English and kanji dictionaries).
* Additional dictionaries (installed size: 44MB)"

Please see http://gjiten.sourceforge.net to obtain individual dictionary
files and updates. Gjiten was written for GNOME and has been ported,
like many Linux apps, to the Hildon Framework (touchscreen, keyboards,
interface) of the little Linux tablets by the Maemo community.

It doesn't have Japanese text, probably because noone has asked, but I
see a fantastic app, Xournal, could be very useful in any kind of
graphic language environment. Xournal imports, layers upon, then
exports pdf files to/from Acrobat. It has no character converter, but
you could read and write Japanese with the stylus, and use pdf files
emailed to/from anyone with Acrobat Reader to annotate or produce
Japanese text by hand. Xournal is one of the neatest useful programs I
use on the tablet. I hooked a friend on it in his construction
business. His office has pdf manuals, drawings, etc., stored on their
server for a wide range of items, say an air conditioner unit that's
giving them trouble. His secretary emails him the appropriate service
manual, directly to the tablet in his pocket on the roof of the current
project. He boots Xournal and the drawing and uses it to troubleshoot
the unit. He makes notes and chooses part numbers he needs to complete
the solution to the problem. The unit serial number is simply entered
at the top of the Xournal page so this becomes a permanent record on the
company server for future use. The final annotated document with his
hand drawings and notes on it is emailed back to the office for parts
ordering and any solution resolution necessary......all without climbing
down to the laptop in the truck, 8 stories below. Xournal is really
neat. It also erases and has a highlighter for note takers.....(c;
http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/xournal/
it comes also from Linux
http://xournal.sourceforge.net/
It would be useless on a FruitFone with no stylus and no high definition
touchscreen.

Check the user webpages and news:
http://maemo.org/
which is where the open source freeware and community relations between
the Linux geniuses and us common users is posted.
http://garage.maemo.org/ is also open to more adventurous users who
simply can't wait for anything stable to be posted to the user section
before trying it. Developers post the bleeding edge alpha quality apps
here so the wide community of hackers across the planet can keep up with
the maemo app development cloud. Maemo is to the tablet what
sourceforge is to the Linux community. It is sponsored by Nokia, but is
run by the developers, not company bureaucrats who would be in the way.
Nokia's only input appears to be a warning popup window when you go to
install stuff warning you Nokia had nothing to do with it and won't be
responsible for its recovery. They wash their hands of apps they have
no control over.....like the Wii Remote drivers that are hell bent on
destroying productivity in my business. Good that's addictive.

Wishlists from developers and users starts here:
http://maemo.org/community/wiki/appl...g2006wishlist/
later here:
http://maemo.org/community/wiki/appl...g2007wishlist/
a group forms of interested developers and an initial posting is put up
on the garage announcing the group, inviting other geniuses to join the
coding with their own ideas. Here's a new example:
https://garage.maemo.org/projects/n800-s2ram/
This one isn't a new app at all but a modification to the OS, itself, to
give us a fast sleep mode the tablet lacks, sort of like Windows
Hibernate mode, storing the ram's image to one of the two storage cards
for safe keeping. I just found it looking for this message and will try
it tonight!..Great ideas, these.

On Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:54:48 +0000, Larry <noone@home.com> wrote:


>Japanese text by hand. Xournal is one of the neatest useful programs I
>use on the tablet. I hooked a friend on it in his construction
>business. His office has pdf manuals, drawings, etc., stored on their
>server for a wide range of items, say an air conditioner unit that's
>giving them trouble. His secretary emails him the appropriate service
>manual, directly to the tablet in his pocket on the roof of the current
>project.

This is all extremely interesting and useful information. I've
checked all the links and will go back later, because I've been
reading about the Nokia tablet everywhere. It's tremendous. I happen
to be in the market for a phone device of some sort now, but at
another time I'm going to want to look into this.

I may have missed this, but in the example above, where is
your friend pulling his signal from?

Thanks again for your thorough reply.

DGI

David G. Imber <imber@maniform.com> wrote in
news:qs6o74hj9jjikc0j4e0ekvb1hh5r87jr2i@4ax.com:

> I happen
> to be in the market for a phone device of some sort now, but at
> another time I'm going to want to look into this.

Save some money in the long run if you're gonna get a tablet and make
SURE the new phone (not an iPhone) has a Bluetooth system that supports
BT DUN tethering, not just headphones. The tablet autoconnects here to
a Motorola ROKR Z6m on Alltel's unlimited EVDO data for $25/mo because
it's not a smartphone. Z6m is a great MP3 player, a fairly nice quicky
picture and movie taker, has a 2GB microSD card in it that I can use BT
FTP from the Nokia tablet to move files on and off the phone if I
disconnect the DUN connection first, letting me take the pictures off
over BT to the tablet or put new music on from the tablet's twin 16GB
SDHC memory monsters.

But, for internet connections over BT, the PHONE and CARRIER must
support BT tethering to be nicely usable. A little advanced planning
could save you an extra 2-year contract enslavement if you get the right
phone for tethering to begin with...(c;

>
> I may have missed this, but in the example above, where is
> your friend pulling his signal from?
>
> Thanks again for your thorough reply.
>
>
His company is all on Nextel, well at least as long as Nextel is still
on the air, which won't be long I understand. But, once they saw what I
was trying to do for him on the N800, his big boss just said to follow
me to the Alltel office and buy the same phone and setup I had just for
tablet data connections because it worked so well on Alltel EVDO. They
bought 6 tablets and 6 Z6m on Alltel, just to test it. I think they've
got more, now, but I only got my $25 finder's fee on the first 6
accounts, so far...(c; It's a big construction company and sellphones
are peanuts in relation to the money involved.

So, in answer to your question, he gets his signal from Alltel EVDO
using BT DUN to a ROKR Z6m sellphone in his pocket. Works great even in
the boondocks of SC. It also finds use as primary communications
because Nextel's coverage isn't anything to brag about and has never
been....backup comms.

Lemme know when you get the tablet and we'll take it to email for some
really neat stuff I've found. We've started a little tablet breakfast
group at a little diner that has decent wifi from the bar next door.
Everyone brings their new toys and we all compare new stuff and fix
problems and misunderstandings, especially involving screwing around
inside the OS with the ultimate video game....root access and Xterm...
(c; If you lose THAT game, it's back to square zero for a reflash,
which is very simple. You can't brick the tablet, only scar it...(c;

BTW, I found extra batteries on the net for $18 with free shipping.
They're regular Nokia sellphone batteries, not some special expensive
nonsense.

KMplayer running live TV using the WorldTV99 playlist engine some
smartass uploaded to Maemo has taken its toll on production this week,
already. Too bad I'm too stupid to speak more than English, some Farsi
and French. Someone came back from Prague and someone else asked him if
he learned any Czech while he was there. He replied, no, not anymore.
Everyone speaks English to anyone who will listen....(c;

The net takes its toll.....