PDA/Smart Phones - which one?

[Helevitia]

Hey Jam,

I hear good things about receiving TV on these phones. Can you comment on how it looks and works on a Treo 650?

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Wombat
There is no valid FAT patent.

That battle is still in court, though seems to be winning.

There is an ... interesting feature you can use with Sprint PCS. If your call drops for any reason, hit *2. It will record your location and time and credit your account something like $0.10-$0.50 for each dropped call up to $10 a billing cycle. They collect the data and use it to put up new towers or expand existing ones, and you get money back

Or if you have any specific places where your calls always drop, PM me and I have an internal wesite I can access to locate deadspots for repair.

Though with Nextels additional towers and spectrum (assuming the merger goes through) Sprint Nextel should be sitting pretty for the future.

Jammrock

[Wombat]

I didn't think those networks were compatible though? You'd still have to dual-fit the towers, or have phones that switched from one network to the other mid-call.

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Helevitia
Hey Jam,

I hear good things about receiving TV on these phones. Can you comment on how it looks and works on a Treo 650?

Unfortunately MobiTV is not Treo 650 compatible presently, which is a shame since the Treo 650 sports the fastest processor of all the phones, and it's the video processing capabilities which hold back the FPS of streaming video, not the bandwidth. Here's a list of compatible phones:

http://www.mobitv.com/get/sprintpcs.html

I can check with a few people and see if there are plans to get MobiTV for the Treo's, but currently I know of none.

Jammrock

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Wombat
I didn't think those networks were compatible though? You'd still have to dual-fit the towers, or have phones that switched from one network to the other mid-call.

They aren't. Nextel will switch to a CDMA shop, since it has greater capacity for data. Initially there will be tri-mode phones that can access all of the Sprint Nextel features while the Nextel stuff is grandfathered into CDMA tech. At least that's what I understand from all the merger talk.

The Sprint Nextel merger took place mainly because:

1) neither company wanted to get swallowed up by the likes of Verizon,

2) Nextel didn't have the data backbone or wireless technology needed to compete with the likes of Verizon (see Verizon Wireless Broadband, which Sprint has already soft released a competing product) and has the second largest, behind level3, data backbone in the US and networks in Europe and Asia and pipes across both Atlantic and Pacific,

3) Sprint didn't have enough spectrum to expand or the capital to buy it (spectrum is EXPENSIVE to buy or lease) while Nextel has tons,

4) Sprint has a lot of mass market (i.e. lower profit) customers, Nextel has a lot of business (i.e. high profit) customers, but not vice versa ...

So combined, Sprint Nextel becomes a very formitable opponent of Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile.

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by Jammrock
Unfortunately MobiTV is not Treo 650 compatible presently, which is a shame since the Treo 650 sports the fastest processor of all the phones, and it's the video processing capabilities which hold back the FPS of streaming video, not the bandwidth. Here's a list of compatible phones:

http://www.mobitv.com/get/sprintpcs.html

I can check with a few people and see if there are plans to get MobiTV for the Treo's, but currently I know of none.

Jammrock

Well that sucks. The sprint website allows you to check it as an option when buying the Treo 650 so I just assumed it would work with it. I even called Sprint last night and asked the lady on the phone and she informed me it would work as well.

[Helevitia]

I just talked with Sprint again and they tell me that the Treo 650 or any phone that supports SprintPCS Vision will work with the TV.

Also, I get a discount of 11%. I may do this. Still thinking...

[Wombat]

Talk to friends out there, Dave. SprintPCS doesn't have very good coverage out here, and once you're anywhere remote it sucks/non-existant. At least in CO, they're a bad choice.

[Helevitia]

Yeah, I've heard the same things from other people. By law, you have 14 days to try the phone and return it, no questions asked. You just have to pay for the minutes used, which is fair.

If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't even consider this deal.

It just pisses me off that I finally found a phone I like in the price range I want only one carrier has it for now.

Dave

[Helevitia]

Well, I ordered it, arrives Friday or Monday. I'm gonna do a lot of driving over the next 2 weeks and test it out. If I have many problems, I'll cancel.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Jammrock
That battle is still in court, though seems to be winning.

It's being appealed, yes, but the patent is nullified.

[Taz]

MobiTV is coming to the Treo

http://blog.treonauts.com/2004/11/mobitv_on_your_.html

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Helevitia
Well, I ordered it, arrives Friday or Monday. I'm gonna do a lot of driving over the next 2 weeks and test it out. If I have many problems, I'll cancel.

If you have a lot of problems after 7-days, call Sprint and tell them you're going to cancel if the dropped calls can't be fixed

Jammrock

[Helevitia]

Originally posted by Jammrock
If you have a lot of problems after 7-days, call Sprint and tell them you're going to cancel if the dropped calls can't be fixed

Jammrock

I don't think they will be able to help me out in such a short period of time, but I'm sure they will go to great lengths to talk me out of cancelling

I hate waiting for a new toy. I really want to like Sprint, but there is also something else. I hear the build quality of the 650 isn't that great. As it stands right now, there is about a 30-40% chance I will keep Sprint. If I really like the phone but not Sprint, then I'll just get a crappy phone from Verizon and upgrade when the 650 comes out. If I like Sprint, but not the phone, I'll cancel anyway since I can get a better phone on a better carrier.

It shouldn't be this complicated!

[Jammrock]

Originally posted by Helevitia
I don't think they will be able to help me out in such a short period of time, but I'm sure they will go to great lengths to talk me out of cancelling

I've heard of some pretty amazing things that have happened when people have called in complaining that they'll cancel service if the phone keeps dropping. It's a long explanation why Sprint seems to drop more than others, but we're implementing fixes and upgrades constantly. We just need Nextel's spectrum and towers to complete our plans for WORLD DOMINATION!!!!

Jammrock