3G Notebook In Review 70
An anonymous reader writes "Just found this review of a notebook with integrated 3G. It looks like you just slide a 3G sim into the machine and you get 3g data connectivity, it even drops down to edge or gprs if there's no 3g. The rest of the spec looks pretty awesome too with a 2.16ghz core duo chip and 2gb of ram. I want one of these! " Given my recent woes of getting my Nokia 6682 to actually work as a UTMS/EDGE modem for my Powerbook, the notion of integration is a really nice sounding idea.
Dell announce four new laptops including 3G ready (Score:4, Informative)
3G - Does this mean it would work (Score:4, Interesting)
Depends (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Depends (Score:2)
Re:Depends (Score:4, Informative)
I did have to learn the hard way though that the US and Europe's UMTS frequencies are different. Which really kind of upset me since the Sony Ericsson V802SE is an overseas phone so of course it operates on 2100mhz. The band issue is because 2100mhz isn't available in all areas, so they had to go with 1900mhz. Go FCC!
Anyway, be careful when shopping for a UMTS phone as most of them will be for 2100mhz. To my knowledge, at the current moment there are only 2 1900mhz UMTS phones out which are the branded ones at Cingular. I just got the LG U340, works pretty well as a phone and fantastic as a modem. With my MacBook using bluetooth to connect to the Internet through UMTS, I get speeds of 35-40KBps and it bursts up to 45-48KBps. Not too bad for coming from GPRS which tops out for me at about 6KBps.
There are dual band UMTS phones planned... one of them is the Nokia N80. Looks like a sweet phone but me needing instant gratification, just went with what was available. So if you want a true "world phone", you'll have to wait for one of those.
Re:Depends (Score:2)
That's
Re:Depends (Score:1)
Nokia 6682 isn't a 3G phone. (Score:3, Informative)
You want the Nokia 6680 for that. It's the same phone with one of the GSM bands dropped for UMTS and a VGA phone in the front for video phone calls.
SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Just be glad you can even change it. I think there are some laptops here in the States, either currently in production or in the pipeline, which are designed for data use on Verizon's EV-DO network; Verizon, of course, doesn't use 3G and doesn't use SIM cards. They use CDMA and each device has a hardcoded identifier, lik
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Agreed (Score:2)
A builtin card is a step down, IMO, unless it could be cloned to use the same account as the phone, or unless for some re
Re:Agreed (Score:2)
you drain your cell battery if you work for 3 or 4 hours
you have to set the shit up
with windows sometime it works then you reboot and it wont
big issue if you work for 20 or 30 min in a train and you have to spend 5 minutes to see it failed then another 5 to fix it
i use a globetrotter umts / gprs / wlan card which is sold by the phone carriers with their logo on it
it works with windows and linux
i got no powerbook so i dont know about mac
the windows software is
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
I'm quite certain that EV-DO is considered a 3G technology. However, it is different than the WCDMA technology used by some other providers. It's just that EV-DO (and CDMA in general), seems to be designed to take advantage of the limited frequencies available in the USA/North America. (Namely, the signal needs to fit into a 1.25MHz band). UMTS/WCDMA was designed to use a 5MHz band, which was being opened up in Europe for this technology.
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:1)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:1)
Works on my two-year-old Powerbook. I assume all new laptops have this feature by now.
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:1)
Re:SIM slot in the battery compartment? (Score:2)
Re:I take a dim view of this. (Score:3, Interesting)
What wonders me more is why they did this. Are these 3G cards already so ubiquitous that fujitsi-siemens thinks the costs of adding it as a standard will be a selling point for a lot of users? Maybe they have a good view on the future but on the moment I'd say most people would rather add a pcmcia card to their lapt
Does it run Linux? (Score:5, Interesting)
I noticed that there's a Windows key on the keyboard, and in the absence of any other information I guess we're just left to assume that your only choice is the Beast From Redmond.
Pity, because I can't imagine they're going to sell enough of these at £1999 to people interested in Linux in order for a set of useful reverse-engineered drivers to be created, and thus you have a chicken-and-egg problem. Potential Linux users won't ever buy it because there aren't drivers, and there will thus never be the userbase to create the drivers.
What's more ironic is that Fujitsu is a member of the OSDG and sells a lot of high-end Linux stuff, but I guess (like IBM until they sold it off to Lenovo) despite their alleged commitment to it, you're SOL if you want to get a PC with anything except Windows.
Re:Does it run Linux? (Score:1)
In fact I was wanting to downgrade WinXP to Win2k as 2k seemed to be slightly less of a resource hog. However at the time there wasn't Windows 2000 drivers for the chipset (and the XP ones wouldn't sit right). The situation has improved, but you still have to accept a disc
Been using an Aircard for a while now (Score:3, Informative)
Speed in major cities such as Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary make use of their 1X EDO protocol which is about the speed of a slow ADSL connection. In order places you get simple 1X with vaying speeds but I can average 13Kbs in transfer rates for large files.
The problem with these things however is the cost of the connection itself. I've been moving from place to place for a while now so getting an Cable/DSL connection for a month or two at a time is just not worth it.
However with Telus, most of their plans charge by the meg and that does not take very long to break if your using even just straight IMAP mail. So your generally stuck with their 'unlimited' service which is about 100$ a month (50$/month for the first three months).
For me its worth it, even though Halifax is still on plain 1X. But its certainly not for everyone!
Re:Been using an Aircard for a while now (Score:1)
Just another side note, a guy came into the store I work in (The Source, Telus Mobility Dealer) And he had purchased a new Kyocera card (reportedly faster
Re:Been using an Aircard for a while now (Score:2)
Err, what's the problem? Well, other than the cancellation fee - which you could kick up a
Re:Been using an Aircard for a while now (Score:2)
Re:Been using an Aircard for a while now (Score:2)
That's a little optimistic. I'd be surprised if you saw Rev B before very late 2008, and much more likely 2009. Rev A is only being rolled out as we speak to small areas of the US.
Not sure if I'd want it (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been thinking of getting a separate EDGE PC-Card so my laptop always has access, but then I realized it is more of a hassle and a cost than necessary. I think this laptop will have similar problems.
First
Duplicating SIM cards (Score:5, Interesting)
Back in the day (early to mid 90s) it used to be fairly easy to find someone -- in my area it was always Israelis, don't ask me why -- who would clone certain brands and models of cellphones for you. Basically they could take a second phone, and make it appear to the network like a second instance of an already-existing phone. This was how a lot of crooks stole your phone service, but it was also handy because you could buy a second handset, and attach it to one number. Basically, just like having two phones in your house; two extensions on the same number.
I never actually did it, but I knew some commercial users that had it done, or said they did, and seemed to like it. I haven't heard of it being done in years though so I assume with the digital changeover the phone companies figured out some way to prohibit it.
I gotta imagine though that somewhere, in between designing new xBox mod chips, somebody has been working on making a reprogrammable SIM card that you could reflash and give a new address to, so that you could effectively duplicate an existing SIM. Assuming it wasn't so common that the network checks to see whether there are multiple instances of a particular SIM active at the same time, it seems like it would be able to give you the "multiple extension" effect. You could have one 'extension' as your computer, and another as your voice handset. Just set the computer to ignore incoming voice calls, and you'd be all set. You'd only have one service plan and you'd work off of the same pot of minutes using both phones.
I can imagine the cellular carriers would frown on this though, since they don't get to squeeze you for the extra dough on the second service plan.
Anyone ever heard if this is possible? It seems like something that somebody must have put some thought into, either on how to do it, or how to prohibit it.
Re:Duplicating SIM cards (Score:2)
Re:Duplicating SIM cards (Score:2)
This sounds so much like an Urban legend.
Re:Duplicating SIM cards (Score:2)
It's also possible to crack some (but not all) SIMs to get "Ki", the shared secret. Having done this, making a duplicate SIM
Re:Duplicating SIM cards (Score:2)
One of the other respondents mentio
Re:Not sure if I'd want it (Score:2)
Data charges (Score:1)
Re:Data charges (Score:2)
I cancelled my contract with them the same day (the reason I was considering upgrading was that I had received a flyer
Cold day in hell (Score:2)
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=convert+1999
Re:Cold day in hell (Score:1)
But I agree, who is buying these expensive assed laptops? It all seems pretty over the top to me. I'm sure I could find another solution for my four grand.. though to each their own.
Re:Cold day in hell (Score:2)
IMHO, that is insane... no wonder he got the camera here.
Re:Cold day in hell (Score:2)
not neccesarily (Score:3, Informative)
Re:not neccesarily (Score:3, Informative)
Did you know there's a Bluetooth profile for dial-up networking? Just keep the radio hardware in the 'phone and transmit the data via BT. That way you can replace your 'phone and keep your laptop when you upgrade to 4G, or whatever the next mobile buzzword happens to be.
Re:not neccesarily (Score:2)
Absolutely there is. Of course, if you get your phone through (m)any of the networks in the US, you'll often find that that feature has been disabled in firmware. You could take the phone to a service center for a firmware upgrade, but guess what, you'll get the Verizon/Cingular/Sprint firmware back on the phone, they won't flash it with a factory firmware.
Latest Addition (Score:2)
A 15 month old review of the GSM Enfora CF card [mobiletechreview.com]
Those products, though very cool at the time, don't seem to have gone anywhere. Is the 3G and integration of this Lifebook the key to the revolution? Is it even usable as a voice phone?
Not especially useful (Score:2)
Re:Not especially useful (Score:2)
Telcos should subsidize the machine (Score:2)
They could afford to subsidize a substantial part of the machine and still make their money back when they're charging that much.
Re:Telcos should subsidize the machine (Score:2)
FYI... Fujitsu-Siemens LifeBook E8210 (Score:1)
But where is the 3G antenna? (Score:1)
If its in
IBM has been shipping 3G laptops for months (Score:1)
So who's the cheapest network (uk) ? (Score:2)
I didn't originally buy a phone for this type of use, but it's pretty capable. I am on a pay-as-you-go sim with virgin mobile, and they charge 0.5 pence per KB. At first, I didn't worry about that, as I had no real idea how much simple e-mail usage was going to work out costing me. Anyway, one day, I was checking the mail, and the AVG popped u
Re:So who's the cheapest network (uk) ? (Score:2)
Laptop with 3G (Score:1)
EVDO on sprint (Score:1, Informative)
The problem though.... (Score:1)
I believe that your real problem will come to light when you trade your Just Works(tm) OSX for something evil - simply to get integrated 3G.