I was talking about this, but actually that may only apply to Android tablets. And when it comes to tablets, I'm holding out for an XO-3 :-)
Plans: dude, I am the last person you should be asking for advice on mobile phone plans. I went with Vodafone: £30/month, 1Gb data, 300 minutes, "unlimited" texts, phone included in price. One of my colleagues (who has an HTC Desire) has a data-only contract with T-mobile for around a tenner, and uses Fring to make very occasional calls; I've had only bad experiences with VoIP, and make a lot more calls than him so decided not to risk that. I looked briefly at SIM-only contracts, couldn't find any that grabbed me and didn't like the thought of the £300 capital outlay, and went for the contract described above before the despair overwhelmed me. The way I see it, I probably didn't get a very good deal, but I am at least better off than I was before and attempting to get a better deal would probably have led to my giving up.
No worries! I have only a vague idea of what's available, and need to do my research, but some idea of what other people use is what I'm after -- based on the general principle that if it works for you it may work for me :-)
I'm on a 40/month plan with t-mobile. More inclusive minutes and texts than I can eat, and (crucially) unlimited internet. I like being able to walk around town while listening to streaming radio ;)
For streaming radio there's "streamfurious" and "a online radio".
I've been using connectbot for ssh, which did some useful key-remapping on my old G1 and still seems pretty easy to use on my Desire. It'll save sessions (so I can have them as one-click buttons on my desktop) and manage SSL keys (no passwords...) and port forwarding.
In combination with another app called "IRC Radio", which comes with a built in speech synthesizer, this means that in two clicks, I can be logged in to my persistent IRC bouncer (which only serves localhost on my server) listening to the natter on my favourite channels while walking around town. The speech multiplexes nicely with the music apps too, so I can listen to that /and/ cool ambient choons. All of which is silenced when someone calls me, of course.
A notepad app is more useful than you might think. I use one called "notepad".
I installed a notepad app, which appears to be essentially the one from the Notepad tutorial. It's not very good, and I'll try to find something better.
Streaming radio: iiinteresting. I'll see how near I go to my bandwidth cap this month...
Argh, shurrup! I am overcome with desire for some such gizmo, but, have decided on principle[1] not to replace my Perfectly Nice Phone Which Satisfies All The Criteria Of Being A Phone until it breaks.
You reckon one can pay very little for basic phone-usage functionality? Did you have a strategy for this?
[1] Principle in question presumably involving the carbon etc embodied in making all our lovely devices? Or just general puritanism?
The strategy would have involved keeping my old phone and getting a low-end SIM-only contract. I didn't investigate these very thoroughly, but they're generally (AIUI) of the order of £10-15 per month. You can probably do better if you shop around.
You can also pick up basic phones for under a fiver now. Or rather, you pay £x+4 and get £x worth of pay-as-you-go credit.
Carbon etc: don't forget the conflict minerals :-( Yes, eco-puritanism would have had me hanging on to my old phone until it broke completely (the speaker was a bit unreliable). I am not a perfect saint.
Congratulations on overcoming that Ugh field. I feel for you with the whole transferring thing, having finally decided to stop being a sheeple and move from the provider I've been with since I bought my first mobile. Unlocking was not too painful after all (except for the £20 fee), so all I have to do now is move my number.
I don't remember being charged, but they did hang about for a week (and not the required two days), insist on sending it to me by post, fail to send it to me by post, and force me to call them up three times before they finally sent me my code by text.
I have this very same Ugh Field, despite having the same phone for the last five/six years with a joystick that doesn't really work. I got halfway to solving it about four months ago by upgrading to a HTC Hero, which turned up and promptly broke as soon as I attempted to insert a SIM card.
So I'm now on a better contract deal, but I haven't sorted out getting a replacement Hero yet. Silly me.
Yeah - the SIM card holder snapped off the first time I tried to insert the SIM, so I phoned Orange and sent it straight back (they were generally helpful apart from one woman who tried to insinuate that as I had broken it, they shouldn't be replacing it). I just haven't got around to arranging a new one to be sent out!
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The very existence of CyanogenMod is, IMHO, a pretty good proof of openness.
What plan are you on, if you don't mind my asking? Once I'm back in the UK properly I'll be after a data plan for my N1.
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Plans: dude, I am the last person you should be asking for advice on mobile phone plans. I went with Vodafone: £30/month, 1Gb data, 300 minutes, "unlimited" texts, phone included in price. One of my colleagues (who has an HTC Desire) has a data-only contract with T-mobile for around a tenner, and uses Fring to make very occasional calls; I've had only bad experiences with VoIP, and make a lot more calls than him so decided not to risk that. I looked briefly at SIM-only contracts, couldn't find any that grabbed me and didn't like the thought of the £300 capital outlay, and went for the contract described above before the despair overwhelmed me. The way I see it, I probably didn't get a very good deal, but I am at least better off than I was before and attempting to get a better deal would probably have led to my giving up.
So, yeah, can't help you much. Sorry.
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I've been using connectbot for ssh, which did some useful key-remapping on my old G1 and still seems pretty easy to use on my Desire. It'll save sessions (so I can have them as one-click buttons on my desktop) and manage SSL keys (no passwords...) and port forwarding.
In combination with another app called "IRC Radio", which comes with a built in speech synthesizer, this means that in two clicks, I can be logged in to my persistent IRC bouncer (which only serves localhost on my server) listening to the natter on my favourite channels while walking around town. The speech multiplexes nicely with the music apps too, so I can listen to that /and/ cool ambient choons. All of which is silenced when someone calls me, of course.
A notepad app is more useful than you might think. I use one called "notepad".
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Streaming radio: iiinteresting. I'll see how near I go to my bandwidth cap this month...
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You reckon one can pay very little for basic phone-usage functionality? Did you have a strategy for this?
[1] Principle in question presumably involving the carbon etc embodied in making all our lovely devices? Or just general puritanism?
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You can also pick up basic phones for under a fiver now. Or rather, you pay £x+4 and get £x worth of pay-as-you-go credit.
Carbon etc: don't forget the conflict minerals :-( Yes, eco-puritanism would have had me hanging on to my old phone until it broke completely (the speaker was a bit unreliable). I am not a perfect saint.
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So I'm now on a better contract deal, but I haven't sorted out getting a replacement Hero yet. Silly me.
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I think a lot of people have this Ugh Field: it's probably responsible for a large fraction of mobile phone companies' profits...
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