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# slef-reflections on phones
* ADSL
* Mobiles
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## Mobiles
### First week with the k608i
##### Posted by mjr 2007-12-12 (permalink)
I got a Sony Ericsson k608i. It's fairly old and I don't like Sony (rootkit
distributors that they are), but it was very cheap... if I didn't have the
opportunity to use that, I'd've probably got one of 3's 50-quid Skypephones
and ignored the Skype bit. I don't really know enough yet to buy smart and I'm
not a 3G Power Phoner, so I suspect the bog standard would be good enough for
me.
A week on, it works pretty well. 3mail seems to be free to receive and read,
so I can set my mail sieve to redirect copies from my heavily-filtered inbox
to it and then choose between 10p/mail replies or 50p/day unlimited internet
and use mujMail and MIDPssh. Typing on the phone isn't much fun, but it's not
too bad.
The speakerphone is good enough that I don't need to carry a headset around
with me and some of the free video like animated weather maps are quite fun,
but I'm not sure how much I'll use them. I usually have access to a TV, after
all. Even larger train stations often have TVs around. 2.50 for unlimited
access to BBC One, Three, News24 and itv1 may be useful if there's something I
really want to watch, but I'd expect it to eat battery. Also, the video seemed
to flake out far too easily when moving on local trains.
The camera seems OK, although I haven't figured out how to make it flash and
I've not yet copied pictures off to a bigger screen or a printer. I've got
bluetooth working, but I think I also need to install obex. I need more time.
Has anyone got either headsetd or alsa pcm type bluetooth working well? My
headset seems to have a very quiet microphone, is slow to start and has been
unstable so far.
* Comment on this
[Simon](http://sionide.net/) asked:
> "Is that actual television you get on that? My last phone was a Nokia 6680,
which you can supposedly watch TV on. Turns out it's not actual broadcast
television but clips which repeat, for example I'd guess the BBC News 24 would
just play the headlines on repeat... If you put BBC1 on my old phone and on an
actual TV at the same time, they'd be totally different programmes."
Well, [the TV page on the 3
site](http://www.three.co.uk/personal/products_services_/planetthreedetail.omp?cid=1139512467560)
says it's "itv's most popular shows can be viewed on your mobile at the same
time as they air on TV" but I've not paid up the money and tried it myself
yet, and the local video cell isn't letting me on again (weak signal area and
recent storm damage). Which network are you on?
Update: I checked once I had video coverage back. It seems that the BBC ones
are definitely a loop-service, with a 20-30 minute disconnect. Yuck.
There are also ad-supported free-to-watch video clips from firms like ITN and
a really awful football newsreel from EPL (English Premier League? Isn't it
called the Premiership now?)
* Comment on this
### Using a mobile phone to replace a laptop on short business trips
##### Posted by mjr 2007-11-29
I don't feel like carrying the 3kg laptop around on short trips of a day or
two any more (I must be getting old), so I'm pondering replacing my ancient
Motorola Timeport mobile phone with one that runs Java applications like
[mujMail](http://mujmail.xf.cz/index.php) and
[MIDPssh.](http://www.xk72.com/midpssh/) My servers are mainly ssh2 and
IMAP+TLS IIRC.
If it uses bluetooth and I get a headset and a dongle, I think I'll be able to
use the headset with the softphone at home too, instead of the cheapo yealink
test handset which has stuck around far too long. I'm looking at the Samsung
E250 or the Ericsson K608i, for various reasons. I think I'll need to unlock
whatever I get, as I hop between Orange and T-Mobile.
Are there gotchas to doing this? How much free software can they run? How have
you found mobile-phone travel for hackers, or why do you still carry a laptop
everywhere?
* Comment on this
[Evgeni Golov, heading for a E51 for christmas](http://www.die-welt.net)
comments:
> "What about the Nokia E61(i) or E51? The 61s even have a full keyboard. They
run Symbian, you get a lot of apps everywhere and it's usually faster than
Java ;) The E61i has a cam, the E61 does not - if you don't need one, get the
E61, it's much cheaper (about 200E here in germany, the E61i and E51 are about
280Euro)."
Why not Nokia? Well, I've got a bit of a semi-irrational dislike of Nokia
because they are the dominant provider, their early phones irritated the hell
out of me, they campaign for software patents IIRC and THAT RINGTONE MUST DIE.
It's worse than Crazy Frog, but at least Dom Joly made good comedy from it.
[Marius Gedminas](http://gedmin.as) notes:
> "Once I got a Nokia N800 (which fits in a pocket, but is not a phone), I
began leaving my laptop at home during short trips."
Thanks for the note. Doesn't N800 need a big pocket?
Erik writes:
> "I would buy a smaller laptop, I've seen people using SSH on smart phones
and though it's neat it's not really usable. Try eee PC instead, and a really
minimal phone ,there are some great small phones now days."
I think I should be seeing an eee PC next week and I'll report back with
comments if I do. I forget how much they cost.
[Nathan Paul Simons](https://hardcorehackers.com) comments:
> "I use a Treo 650 and it works reasonably well for me here in the states.
Granted, I haven't switched from Cingular since I bought it from them, but it
runs [pssh](http://www.sealiesoftware.com/pssh/) and it came with
[VersaMail](http://www.palm.com/us/software/versamail25/); I really haven't
bothered to look for another mail client as my only real complaint with
VersaMail is it doesn't support aliases (which I use heavily to avoid spam).
>
> I haven't really tested its Java capabilities yet; again, I haven't had a
need to. What I find really cool is I can write and run software directly on
it with [LispMe](http://lispme.de/lispme/index.html)."
I remember LispMe from the Palm IIIese. I never managed to write big stuff in
it, though.
How are you using aliases to avoid spam? I mostly found I got 17 copies of the
damn stuff, one to each alias, which negated the other tricks I was doing - I
could detect it, but it pushed up the data transfer charges too much.
[Jon Åslund](http://jon.aslund.org) reports:
> "I bought a Nokia E70 almost for the same reasons you have. I wanted
something that wasn't a big laptop, but still usable.
>
> Plus: Very nice keyboard when you flip it open. You can use putty for ssh
(very good). It has a decent browser, webkit based. Google maps. You can
program it with Python, although I have never done it.
>
> Minus: Low RAM, pictures won't load on big webpages. Very slow. Joystick
gets stuck easy after a few weeks and wiggle hell begins.
>
> I use it mainly for ssh, and then it is very very nice, but when you switch
programs, browse the web for a while, moving around with the joystick, you
feel the bad sides. Not that many other current devices are better on the
hardware feel fast part except for the iphone."
I've never liked joysticks for browsing. Something like the lynx numbered-
links interface or at least tabbing would be better, wouldn't it?
[Michael Maclean](http://weblog.mgdm.net) comments:
> "I haven't any experience with the phones you mention, but I do have a Nokia
N95, which runs a variant of Symbian OS. It can run Java apps as well as
native ones - there's a port of PuTTY available, which works quite well in my
experience. The in-built IMAP client isn't too bad - it does everything I
require, including StartTLS on both IMAP and SMTP. The Nokia N and E-series
phones are probably worth a look, they are all similar in this regard. I also
have a Bluetooth keyboard (a Nokia SU-8W) which lets me type in a relatively
sensible fashion. I don't know anything about how much they cost though, mine
came with a contract. In case you're wondering, I have no affiliation with
Nokia, I just like their kit."
[Simon](http://www.sionide.net/) writes:
> "I've recently upgraded to the Nokia N95 8Gb which for me, is the best
"laptop replacement" phone out there. The killer feature is built-in wifi, of
course meaning you don't have to pay through the roof for 3G/GPRS Internet
access on the move as long as you can find an open wifi network.
>
> As far as Free software for it goes, don't hold your breath. I've got Putty
installed on mine, also mIRGGI an IRC client. Opera Min (especially the latest
beta) is a better web browser than the built-in one and with 8Gb of disk
space, the phone is also my mp3 player (sadly not been able to get it working
with .ogg files as yet but I'm sure there are media players out there for
Symbian which support it.) However, [Nokia are getting into Open
Source](http://opensource.nokia.com/) so we'll see!
>
> So... if you bought a bluetooth keyboard for it, the Nokia N95 8Gb is
definitely laptop replacement material!"
Seems like the N95 might be worth a look, even despite my Nokia reservations
above.
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## Newsletters
### June: paperless billing and post offices
Just got my copy of [the
Connection](http://www.thephone.coop/about/press_docs/newsletterjun07.pdf) for
June in the email today. Highlights: expansion of paperless billing and
putting savings into a new sustainability fund that will be used to "green"
the co-op further; profiles of [Emerge,](http://www.emergemanchester.co.uk/)
[Cycle Training UK,](http://www.cycletraining.co.uk/) [Low Carbon
Lifestyle,](http://www.lowcarbonlifestyle.org/) and [Resurgence
Magazine;](http://www.resurgence.org/) **not** following BT's introductions of
charges for 1571 (£1/month), non-DD payment and late payment (up to
£7.50/bill); free line transfers until end of August; new mobile phone
services; [previously-posted](http://mjr.towers.org.uk/blog/2007/phone#adsl)
ADSL charging plan changes. (Note: I'm a member of this consumer co-op and [my
main company](http://www.ttllp.co.uk/) is [Phone Co-op agent
471](http://www.ttllp.co.uk/phone) if you'd like to join through us.)
An interesting question is how that new sustainability fund will be allocated.
I can't see an answer in this newsletter, but I've signed up for the extra
paperless services anyway. I have mixed feelings about that: it may be helping
save trees and fuel, but is it also [further harming my rural post
service](http://www.cwu.org/default.asp?step=8&CamID=32) by reducing the
amount of post sent to me?
Then again, it looks like the government has caused most harm to rural post
offices by moving social service payments to banks and slowly reducing the
number of services at rural sub-offices, while the Post Office themselves are
doing
["ludicrous"](http://www.lynnnews.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=1000&articleid=2738256)
things like [moving main post offices out of historic buildings and into the
backs of newsagent
chains](http://www.news.royalmailgroup.com/news/articlec.asp?id=1928&brand=Post_Office_network).
I care more about the offices than the delivery service and they don't seem
very connected here.
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## ADSL
One of my co-operatives, [The Phone Co-op](http://www.ttllp.co.uk/phone
"affiliate redirect" ), has set clear monthly data allowances from 5GB to 20GB
on its residential ADSL Max packages. If you exceed that, you get emailed (a
bit before you hit the limit) and then billed GBP1.50 for each extra gig.
When telling me about this, they wrote
> "Unlike other ISPs, we will not impose any other restrictions to your
service or how you use it"
which surprised me. Are heavy users still TOS'd off the network by other ISPs?
They also announced a pound a month discount for combining ADSL and line
rental, which suits me fine!
I notice that [Brane Dump: Wanted: A Telco That Doesn't
Suck](http://www.hezmatt.org/~mpalmer/blog/general/wanted_a_telco_that_doesnt_suck.html)
is roughly where I was a couple of years ago, when BT were raising the line
rental and including "free" minutes that I didn't use. I do wonder how you put
grocer's apostrophe into Southern Cross. Southern Cros's?
sdf commented:
> "i guess they mean they don't use traffic shaping to restrict speed on the
usual p2p-ports"
Maybe, but is that within the retail ISP's control or would it be done by the
network provider?
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This is copyright 2007 MJ Ray. See fuller notice on [front page](/).