Journal Shakrai's Journal: Anyone out there with the Motorola Droid-X? 8
The only reason I haven't yet gotten a smartphone is because of Verizon's nickel and diming. I primarily want one for the usual smartphone functionality but I'd also like the ability to tether for some lightweight usage. Not looking to use tethering as a replacement for my home internet connection or even for web surfing. My desire is to be able to ssh and/or rdp into the office when I'm in the field. It seems kind of absurd that I should have to pay $30/mo extra for the ability to do something I could easily accomplish with a POTS line and modem. It's also absurd that Verizon expects you to pay more for the privilege of talking to an Exchange server. I guess the data packets from Exchange weigh more than the packets from a pop3 server or some such.
I've been told that the Exchange data requirement isn't actually enforced for non-Blackberry devices. Found a few posts on various forums where people claimed to successfully sync with Exchange on the $30 data plan. I've also been told that you can tether Android devices using third party applications such as PDAnet without paying Verizon's additional $30 fee. It's against their TOS but they won't find out about it unless you consume an "excessive" amount of bandwidth. Not real worried about doing that with the occasional ssh/rdp session. Can anyone confirm these two points? If they are indeed true then I'll probably be ordering the Droid-X soon.
Arrrrrg Verizon! (Score:2)
I personally have WinMo and Android devices, the EVO being the best of all. But each has its own virtues: winmo although falling behind, has a lot of experienced programmers behind it. Android has its get up and go easiness to use. Although very similar, I prefer android for daily use (except no keyboard!) and wi
Re: (Score:1)
I despise Verizon. They are just the best of the worst. AT&T is more evil than Verizon -- they are just as arrogant regarding customer service and have made changes to their network in the past that broke service for existing customers (dedicating 850mhz to data services at the expense of those who were relying on it for voice connectivity for instance) Verizon has never done anything that shitty. T-Mobile is a great option if you live in an urban area but they get squashed in the coverage departmen
Re: (Score:2)
If you're really desperate, check your home internet plan - a lot of them used to include 10 hours of dial-up with their high-speed plans - maybe you still have it? After all, for shelling into a box, even 33kbit/sec is more than fast enough.
Yep, I just checked with mine - 10 hours of dial-up included. So if you have a lappy with a modem jack, you should be okay.
Re: (Score:1)
The problem with that is that you don't always have access to a POTS line.
I loved my old T-Mobile Motorola phone. Using Motorola's software it had the ability to act as a modem. It could only connect at 9600 baud but that was ample for telnet or ssh. All it cost you was minutes. Heck, I even used it to surf the web a few times when I was in a pinch and needed to look something up. Just turned off images in my web browser and was good to go.
Data plan (Score:2)
FWIW, the only devices that actually require the high tier data plan are Blackberry devices connected to BES (and even that is changing). Anything else talking to Exchange is going to be doing so over http/https, so barring VZW implementing some kind of DPI to specifically block these connections (which sounds like a money loser any way you slice it), you're not going to have problems.
BTW, I agree with you about VZW... it's like that South Park episode, "The Entity." Yeah, you're getting fucked up the ass
Re: (Score:1)
BES is some scary shit when you learn what it's capable of doing. If your employer desires they have the ability to log every single SMS that goes through your phone. All fine and dandy when they own the device but all of the people I know with Blackberries use their personal ones to connect into the system at work.
I couldn't figure out how they'd enforce the Exchange requirement either unless it was done with software on the phone. Kinda hard to block ssl and still have a functional device.
I liked T-M
Re: (Score:2)
No joke. Internally, we handle that very simply: anyone who wants to use a personal blackberry is informed about what we can do, and that once they enterprise activate... their phone basically
Re: (Score:1)
I have a friend who has a certain less than legal habit [wikipedia.org] and whom uses SMS to supply that habit. The look on her face when I told her about BES was priceless. She bought a droid the very next day.....
At least your company is honest enough to tell people this. Kudos to them for that.