17 posts tagged “cellphone”

Ringtones: What's yours and how often do you change it? 
Submitted by enrico.  

Right now, I am using the Metal Gear AC!D 2 Codec sound as my ringer as a tribute to my love of Konami's great Metal Gear franchise. Metal Gear almost duels another one of my favorite Konami franchises (Castlevania) for the top spot with how dynamic the story is. With ringtones, I like to use electronic or video game influenced ringtones as they show my love of mixed music or games. I don't change ringtones too often and when I do, it is not without good reason. Personally, I have been fond of Motorola's ringtones as they have brilliant artists to mix their default ringtones. I have found early on that using pop music is a bit cheeky for a ringer as a song can quickly fall out of style and you may get sick of it. With good default ringers, there's not much chance of it going out of style anytime soon.

Show us a gadget you can't live without

Please also see my edit about my new experiment with this headset. - Zero

A lot of sites (like C|Net's Review) gave this headset a terrible review complaining of the minor things like the weight of the headset was uncomfortable or the design was not adjustable. I felt those are more of "your mileage may vary" sort of commentary. At the time of this headset's release, not many phones had the A2DP profile, so that may have something to do with some of the unfavorable reviews. I will factor that the initial "buy-in" price ($130) during the headset's release rather expensive being another reason that the reviews came out so unfavorably on this headset. I would like to redeem this headset because I actually picked them up locally from a local retailer for half-off.

I originally wanted to pick up the Motorola HT820 headset, but when I read the poor battery life being the headset's failing with an estimate 3-4 hours of total over all life, I was a bit hesitant. The packaging doesn't even make mention of battery life, just that it's a stylish headset and functional at a price of $90. For me, a useful Bluetooth headset needs to have great battery life as being the first criteria and then design and function are the next criteria that must be fulfilled. The alternative that I was considering but hesitant on dropping the cash was the Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 with the earbuds and pendant style form, but with a poor design with great battery life it was not worth the retail value of $130. Close to the two headsets was the Jabra BT620s headset but with a dramatic price change from $110 to $60. It was a diamond in the rough, but saving $30 was not a bad idea and I figured "why not?" It was a gamble, but I felt it was a worthy gamble as my experience would prove from my experience.

Unpacking the headset proves easy and same for preparations. The headset takes about 3 - 4 hours to completely charge. Also with the AC charger, there is a USB cable that allows you to use the headset as a wired computer headset and charge the headset at a slower pace. I will give Jabra kudos for making a great indicator system. The headphones have two clear rings that have 3 colors that light up according to status. Here's how it breaks down from the manual:

Left side - Solid blue: Pairing mode
Left side - Flashing blue: Linked Phone mode
Right side - Flashing blue: Linked Audio mode
Flashing red (Both sides): Low battery
Solid Red (Both sides): Charging
Solid Green (Both sides): Full charge complete

If you don't like looking like a club light strobe, you can kill the blue flash by simultaneously pressing and holding the call and media buttons together for 5 seconds and it will turn them off until the next recharge. Pairing is simple, hold down the call key until the left status lamp turns solid blue entering "Find Me" mode. Ask the phone to connect to it and enter the passkey to sync to the headset. For musical use, my phone (P990i) immediately recognized all of the functions such as being used as a headset for calls, a music output device, and track control was the real shocker. The power to skip tracks, play/pause/stop playback was mentioned with "limited compatibility" to devices, so it was something to really celebrate about.

As far as sound quality and tonal range... I feel that the device is sufficient for your casual music listener. The tonal range capability is pretty wide and the headset's performance does not favor one genre over another. My phone's equalizer settings show dynamic changes in the headset as well! This excited me a great deal, as a good dynamic range and great sound quality are good things to see from this headset. The only caveat is sometimes the sound transfer has hick-ups and gaps, but this was a problem when the phone was separated about 5 - 6 feet away from the headset. A minor set-back if anything. The surprising part was on tapping the right ear piece, it automatically loaded the media player. Something that I also didn't expect to be supported, much like the track skipping compatibility with my phone.

Tested Songs
"Apologize" Ft. OneRepublic by Timbaland
"Chop Me Up" Ft. Timbaland & Three-6 Mafia by Justin Timberlake
"Papercut/Big Pimpin" mash-up of Linkin' Park and Jay-Z
"Drumhead Pulsation" from the Guilty Gear Isuka Soundtrack
"What Hurts The Most" by Rascal Flatts
"Bloody Tears" from the Castlevania 20th Anniversary CD
"Adelaide" by Anberlin
"Bat Country" by Avenged Sevenfold
"Bodysnatchers" by Radiohead
"Humanity" by ATB

Edit about 24 hours later - I had a crazy experiment to try to listen to the radio while streaming the sound to the Bluetooth, but the only caveat is that my phone requires that you use the wired stereo headset as an antenna for radio signals. I would plug up the headset/antenna to my phone, then transfer the streaming radio broadcast to my headset for the experiment and I would be met with success. The funny part was there was no instances of skipping audio. I was listening to the radio for a straight 2 hours for a intensive test. The signal was crisp and clear with no problems. This leads me to a hypothesis that the Bluetooth chipset is not hindering the on board audio transfer and also that this is not a RAM related problem (aka memory leak)... I now personally believe that the Memory Stick Pro Duo slot is not reading the data fast enough for the data transfer to the Bluetooth stereo headset to properly process the sound. This problem may possibly be phone related and not due to the headset.

For calls... picking up calls and managing calls is rather simple. The calls come in stereo sound to the user resulting in very crisp quality. I would call two folks for test calls to see if I could debunk the poor reviews saying that the sound quality was poor on the receiving end. I would get called by my girlfriend Aurelia and later call my cousin Sol to do a test. Aurelia has a Blackberry Pearl on T-Mobile and Sol has a Sony Ericsson P910i on T-Mobile as well. Both reported that my voice came in very clear and without coming off as sounding tinney or echoing with reverberation. That pleased me a great deal.

The fusion of call and music management, I feel I would have to test multiple phones before I can offer a fair opinion on it... When a call comes in, the music immediately cuts out for my phone and I hear a beep tone letting me know a call is trying to come in. On picking up, the connection happens rather quickly... The only issue arises when the call ends and then the music resumes. Due to the poor amount of RAM that the P990i has on it (the primary culprit for many of its short comings), there's about a 5 second delay and the music then resumes. Not the smoothest transition unfortunately. This portion of the review, I really want to do a fair review on it... but I can't quite do it as I only have one available phone to test it out on. If you have a Bluetooth stereo compatible (A2DP) phone and would not mind me spending about 20 minutes to an hour to compile information on this portion of the review, please contact me, I can compensate for your time with food or something.

My closing thoughts on the Jabra BT620s are in favor of the headset ONLY if you pay about $60 or less for it. It definitely is not worth it if you're paying anymore than that price. The audio quality, simplicity, and design are great with the documented battery performance of 240 hours of standby, 16 hours of calls, and 14 hours of streaming music. The comfort level is debatable as some may feel the headphones are uncomfortable or too snug... This is the only "con" about the design as the "Street Style" (if you want to use Sony's name for the design) headphones are more of a "one size fits all" solution. Personally, I felt the headphones as very comfortable to my ears. With crisp sound quality from the musical part and clear calls on the phone side, the Jabra BT620 is a bargain buy for the gadget geek looking to get a value for cheap!

I offer a challenge to those who may be reading this and feel that my review was not fair: If anyone out there has a Motorola HT820 or a Sony Ericsson HBH-DS970 that they want me to do a "shoot-out" review, I am more than willing to take up the challenge and offer a fair "dissection" of the headset to the Jabra BT620s. The only part is, I cannot expense the purchase of the competing headsets. If you are willing to let me borrow yours or if you want to even spiff me one unit of the device for a link exchange or food and drink, I am more than willing to oblige. Contact me and we'll talk.

Well, today I had to check up on the status of number migration and finally got the message that things have finally been migrated over. There was only one thing that remained... Severing the other line that was now unused. I would have to seek AT&T's power to do that and that was what I had to do...

So I would call them up and basically navigate through their TERRIBLE IVR system to finally find the option of "Closing a Line". But in classic fashion, I had to hold for 10 minutes just to get a representative. The T-Mobile call I had before to double check the status of my number translation was short and sweet with only waiting 3 minutes flat for a representative to connect me. For customer service urgency, AT&T never had the same amount of speed in the 2 years I had been with them. This phone call was an interesting one though... Let's dive into the details.

The rep was a upbeat sales person basically asking why I was not continuing with AT&T because I had selected the "Close a Line" service. I basically told him my grievances:

• Wait times for Customer Service take about 10 - 30 minutes on non-peak times
  
• Customer Service reps on technical or billing issues are far from helpful
• I have been told that I don't "deserve" an upgrade even though I have had a loyal 3 year history with AT&T (after understanding that I was marked as an LTV1 customer from a question on upgrades)
  
• Of all the times I was sent "incentive" offers to get "better phones", the deals were the exact same as a new customer signing with AT&T (as noted in one of my earlier posts in August)
• The plan pricing is a plain criminal rip-off compared to the competition

The rep would just try to apologize on behalf of the bad experiences I have had with the company. He then decided to go into more detail on my dissatisfaction on the upgrade incentive I was offered. I told him that I wandered into a few shops and basically my "incentive" was for a selection of free music phones which any other customer could get... But also the matter that I was using a Palm Treo 680 at the time and the incentives on smartphones and PDA phones were a far cry from a good deal and downgrading to a free music phone "upgrade" wasn't my intentions... He then asked about what I got from my T-Mobile dealer. I just told him "I was given a T-Mobile Wing at no cost out of pocket for me". The AT&T rep was taken aback... but he decided to pull out all the stops to try to keep my business. "Zero, I am willing to give you a FREE AT&T Tilt Pocket PC phone (a $500 value) and one month of Pocket PC internet on our blazing fast 3G network just to try to keep your business!" I just flat out told him no, because as tempting as that deal is... I have no doubt that I'd have to sign up for a ridiculously expensive plan to get that sort of a hook-up.

Had they offered me something like that back when I was teetering either way on AT&T and on that Treo 680... I would have been convinced. Sony Ericsson's devices have worked marvelously for me and the tri-band nature of them running 900/1800/1900 make for the perfect harmony on T-Mobile or any other networks should I choose to be the "world traveler" on vacation. My phone does what it does well and I don't think I'll be upgrading at any time soon... Plus the fact that I have a spare phone for times when I'd rather not take my smartphone with me to the gym is nice.

AT&T, I hardly knew ye... Learn to save a sale early before it's too late.

I would like to reflect a moment of my life where many people in my life have always asked me...

Why are you so obsessed with mobile phones and even PDA phones?

I can say it goes back to the days as a kid when you had cartoon heroes like Dick Tracy who had the super communicator watch or your gadget masters like Q from the James Bond 007 movie franchise. When laptops finally hit the market in a "fashionable" form, they were still big. Mobile phones just got big for consumers at this era and they were a little bare in features... I knew that mobile phones would get big with time and that maybe they would be a step to the "communicator of the future". It was something big that I was about to witness in my lifetime.

It wouldn't be until the GSM era that I would witness an explosion of improvements. You would quickly have music phones that could carry about a CD or two in the early days and now... you can carry up to 8GB of music on phones like the Nokia N-Series Internet Edition phones. The only thing that was hard to see evolve was the phone operating systems... because face it: early phone operating systems were rather inflexible, especially when lacking Java. Once the processors got faster, the operating systems got more advanced. Now, even your consumer phones have operating systems are very much like miniature computers on some aspects... But I digress.

I have tasted just about a lick of every phone brand you can name out there as far as GSM goes. I have not, however played with a $1,000+ phone or owned one... simply from the price is too prohibitive of an expense for me. The most I have spent is (so far) $300, but since I have learned to play by means such as eBay (not so much anymore) and my local craigslist postings for "newer" phones rather than shelling tons of cash to a hardcore seller trying to make a shot for profit.

For the curious... here's my phone timeline for the curious:

Circa 2002 - Motorola V60 (under parent's contract)
October 2004 - Nokia 3120 (Unlocked by myself)
October 2005 - Motorola RAZR V3 Black (Unlocked by Cingular)
January 2006 - Motorola SLVR L6 (Unlocked and hacked to quadband)
April 2006 - Motorola MPx220 Windows Mobile smartphone (unlocked)
May 2006 - Sony Ericsson T637 (Cingular locked)
June 2006 - Motorola SLVR L7 (Unbranded, unlocked, no iTunes)
October 2006 - T-Mobile MDA (Unlocked and custom hacked with super firmwares by myself)
January 2007 - Nokia E62 (Crippled and locked by Cingular)
July 2007 - Palm Treo 680 (Unlocked by Cingular/AT&T, updated with newest firmware)
October 2007 - Sony Ericsson P990i (unlocked smartphone) and W300i (AT&T locked music flip-phone)

I think I have found my niche with Sony Ericsson as far as phones go... just I hope phones continue to evolve and push the envelope on innovations. I loved just about every phone I have owned... but on some of the phones I had the most issues with were the Motorola phones ironically. Though Sony Ericsson's latest approach of form with function has been pretty slick... Their new phones have great looking shapes and even interesting functionality... The thing I am most in admiration is their team project with Fossil for the Bluetooth watches.

Check out their promotional page for their new watches here: Sony Ericsson presents "TimeMasters 3"

I have been terribly backlogged in stuff and haven't had time to write a proper review on things... so... I would like to get that squared away.

Strapya World [Legend Cross] Collection Phone Charms
I am one of the people who falls into line with the Asian (primarily Japanese and Hong Kong Chinese) belief that a person should have a lucky talisman around them. Talismans are thought to be a trinket or charm to give the bearer protection or have properties to positively influence the lives of their users. In the modern day, Asian societies have had a thing for putting cell phone charms on their mobile phones as a means of protecting themselves or boosting certain aspects of their lives. Things like anti-evil wards, money blessings, empowering health, and even charms to boost ones romantic life or for making a wish. I was looking for a charm or strap to put on my next phone, because when I owned the Nokia E62 and the Palm Treo 680... these enterprise communicators just simply lack a place for phone charms or wrist straps. I was initially looking to get a phone strap that had a charm that senses the cell phone tower waves when the phone receives a call, for the few times I put the phone on "silent" mode on my desk, face down with out the vibrate.

To my dismay, the selection for those type of charms is rather limited. But Google would eventually lead me to Strapya World. It is one of my favorite places for getting something unique for the people and friends I care about dearly after my great experience there save for one small imperfection. Their selection is unique and huge so it's pretty easy to find something for everyone. There was one section that had me interested... the luck and magic charms section. I liked the designs in this particular section mainly from how interesting they are. The Legend Cross series piqued my curiosity as the design is unique, but the price won't break wallets. I liked the designs so much that I bought all 5 designs. The nice part is that they looked far better in person than the online pictures give them credit for.

The only imperfection with my set was that on the "Pledge of Peace" or "Gladius" (which is on the package) cross... The blue "gem" wasn't glued on properly and fell off during the shipping. I managed to fix it, so no harm there. I really liked the "Red Devil" or "Chaos" cross the most, personally, as it fits with how I am the "black sheep" of the family. I will post pictures of the charms later on with better detail and post repairs for the "Gladius" cross. Each cross was about a little over $4.50 USD, but totally worth it.

Playing Around with a LIVE T-Mobile version of the Motorola RAZR2 V9
With October 15th looming in the horizon of T-Mobile USA's launch of the RAZR V9, people are hyped over the phone's release to T-Mobile. Initially, people were pissed that T-Mobile's rendition was going to be the weakest of them all without expandable memory card access being the buzz kill... Until there was a shocking change in plans. The T-Mobile version got tweak with 2GB of flash memory built into the phone! The fun didn't stop there... The T-Mobile one uses the newest version of the pure Linux operating system. As far as the features go, nothing has changed from the other versions for Sprint, AT&T, Verizon, and so on.

The T-Mobile shop had one to play around with today (October 13th) and frankly... I am impressed that Motorola is finally in a positive step forward for progress. The new system that the phone is based on is pretty quick and responsive, unlike the Java/UNIX fusion system or even the problematic P2K system. The fit and finish of the phone is very sharp. It is a cut above how the RAZR of the past was and even the "upgraded" versions such as the V3i. Once again, it has the flash and wow effect that the predecessor (the V3) had on the market when it first came out... I can already see eBay or craigslist sales go wild over the RAZR2 much the same vein as the RAZR did back in the day. Personally, the 2GB built into the phone is a great move for those who aren't technologically knowledgeable, because they don't have to go "What memory card do I need?". It's just a plug-n-play affair. This is a godsend for folks like my father who is not the most technologically advanced guy when it comes to phones... but he does love music.

As it stands, my father may be getting one when I sign up... so you may be seeing some live photos and a more detailed review at some point. Keep an eye out here if and when the phone comes in.

Sony Ericsson HBH-PV705 Bluetooth Headset
With family blowing up my phone every now and then, they usually have had an ironic timing to notify me about something before I come home or leave a place. Stuff like me doing a stint in a grocery store and then to see my phone ring on driving home... I don't like picking up my phone while I drive, so I just ignore the ringer and just drive. When I get home, it's a situation of "Didn't you get my message? I was trying to call you and ask you to buy this one ingredient for us" and I end up doing a second trip for posterity. So I figured for my own sanity and my family's sanity, I should pick one up for cheap. Found this one for $20 off of the "retail" price that the SonyStyle Online shop was selling it for.

After the headset charged up, I would do the pairing. It was rather painless. After the pairing, the phone worked with the headset well. Once the authentication is configured, the headset automatically pairs to the device immediately. This is much better than my experience with the experience I got from trying to pair a Motorola headset with a RAZR V3, that was actually a really sour experience. The sound quality is crisp and clear, easily a "bang-for-your-buck" deal. The headset is not compatible with MP3 ringtones and the headset had a great little chime that's sure to get your attention. The buttons have a good tactile feel and make a satisfying click so you know that you're not hallucinating if you clicked something or not. With a documented battery life (from the manual) of 12 hours of talk time and 300 hours on standby. That's pretty good for a down to business headset that is simply no-nonsense and just does it's job sort of issue. Sure, it's no Jawbone... but for a basic headset, it's one hell of a deal.

Lately I have been on a Sony Ericsson kick as far as phones go... I don't know why, but they have won me over with their recent slew of phones for reliability factor and features. I mean, your "function and fashion" contenders like Motorola and Nokia should take note... You don't have to build a super complex phone and mark up the price or sacrifice functionality and design just to drive price down. They have proven that very well as of lately. Nokia used to make pretty devices for cheap and great functionality, even to this day, I am fondly reminded of my first mobile phone that I bought myself... a Nokia 3120 tri-band GSM phone.

But nowadays... there's a terrible schism between the cheap end and high end for Nokia. Get loaded up on features and you'll pay a fortune for the phone (N95 or N-Series in general) and the same if you go for the prettiest phone (the 8800 Sirocco edition). Go too low end and Nokia begins gutting things out like MP3 ringtones or even quality materials for a good fit and finish.

Motorola ever since they moved past the "triplets series" (V600 being one of the hallmarks) and into the RAZR's market (fashion). I will give Motorola some credit to bring fashion to the masses, as the RAZR is almost a cult icon of pop culture. Don't believe me? See Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Cloud's RAZR-esque phone as one example or the number of companies who have emulated it. Just Motorola's terms in development of user friendly phone software is a tad... dated? At first it was a P2K system which had its issues... I still remember my RAZR crashing back in the day. Heck, my girlfriend's ROKR has severe stability issue such as crashing in midst of a phone call with her friend! They would delve into the smart phone business with a Linux based system to try trumping the Symbian S40/S60, Symbian UIQ, and Windows Mobile crowd, but there was one problem... They made claims that developers could jump in, but they didn't really release a software development kit (SDK for short). The new consumer phones now use a hybrid Java/Unix environment which isn't much of a step forward, at least in my opinion.

Ericsson and Sony made a joint venture in 2001 merging the Ericsson mobile phone manufacturer with the Japanese consumer electronics company for those curious, as referred to their Wikipedia entry.

Sony Ericsson has been one to make pretty reliable phones, the early ones just couldn't keep up with the "big guns" of the fashionable consumer cell phone industry. While Motorola just pushed faster and faster with more features in smaller shells, people just got bored of the Sony Ericsson phones being too "boring". But it wasn't until Sony Ericsson had a unique idea... why not marry together a Sony product line into a phone? At the time this idea came to fruition... no one really liked it as "integration" devices seemed to be such a niche market. The Motorola ROKR E1 failed because they tried to muck up the P2K system with a bloated Java iTunes app and even some of the ROKR's were selectively quadband and most were triband in similar vein to the previous ancestor... the Motorola E398. With this fact in mind... They carefully fused the great parts of the Walkman line and merged with the reliability of the Sony Ericsson line for one hell of a fusion product. The media player side was simple and to the point. No clunky Java app, something natively based within the phone's operating system. Combine that with a shell that was emblazoned with the Walkman colors of white, black, and orange containing a stable operating system and there you had it. The birth of the Walkman phone by Sony Ericsson. On looking back with Wikipedia's entry... that was back in 2005! Then there was last year (2006) when Sony Ericsson did the same fusion for the Cybershot line introducing high end consumer camera parts into a cell phone

They have a wide line of phones now and the one on feature being the W300i. Unfortunately, mine is locked to AT&T, so I can't get too in-depth about the software side of things, from AT&T butchering the firmware to death. The phone's shape is very friendly and has a great tactile feel to it. It has a "throw it against the wall and not give a damn" sort of build that reminds me much of my first Nokia. I am not about to mar up the phone and test it, because I rather like it. It has a monochrome black and orange screen on the exterior being the only "downside" to the modern phones out there, but it works rather nicely to display simple information. Not like you need to display their entire data or life... The camera on it is a simple VGA one, so don't expect intense 3.2 megapixel quality that you'd find from a Cybershot (K-series) phone or some of the newer Walkman phones. There is a dedicated "Walkman" button to launch the media player which is just plain simple. Much like my P990i, this phone can also tune into the radio provided you have the wired headset plugged in. It can do RDS so you can see song titles as long as the station uses RDS to send out the information.

The phone has some "unique" features that really stand out for the type of device it is. There is an infrared port to beam things over, that's more of a "business" device item for shooting over digital business cards. There is also the matter on the memory card support. Sony makes claim that the largest supported size is a 512mb Memory Stick Micro (or M2 for short), but buyers from private shops and some forums say that the W300i can read all 4GB from a 4GB card. That is awesome on its own right, because the phone is as small as an iPod nano but albeit a little thicker. The "spine" of the hinge is like a loop, so it allows the hanging of a neckstrap for those who work at the gym or run, it makes carrying the phone a little easier!

Expect me to elaborate more on this phone after I degunk it of AT&T's grubby software and make it as good as the unbranded international edition.

I know some people remember about June of 2006 I had a Sony Ericsson T637 that I sourly hated because it was still conformed to MIDI ringers. I would end up loading the MIDI version of the Mega Man X prelude level song just to deal with it. I will give that phone one thing... The stability was a nice change versus the pains of the slow and dated P2K system that my previous Motorola SLVR L6. It wouldn't be until after that when the newer Sony Ericsson phones would be much more well rounded and even robust as devices. My cousin would end up getting a P910i which he loves to death even to this day. Many of my friends have jumped on the bandwagon with the Sony Ericsson Cybershot K800i 3.2 megapixel camera phone and have had nothing but praise for the phone.

After many dead fish in the water about buying my Treo just because it lacked a sync cable, I ended up expensing $4 for it and finally got serious biters. One of them being an offer for a Sony Ericsson P990i as a straight up trade. Sure, it required a drive to Watauga/Fort Worth, Texas, but it was more than worth it for being lost about 1 hour on the cluttered web of highways. I would get to the trader's home and would receive a complete suite of goods unlike the stale offers online for the same phone but it would only be the charger cable, sync cable and nothing else. Here was the contents of what I received:

• Sony Ericsson P990i smartphone and built-in-stylus
• Keypad flip removal kit and replacement hinge plate
• Wired stereo headset
• USB data cable
• OEM replacement charger cable
• Desk cradle
• Extra stylus
• Full size Memory Stick Pro Duo to Memory Stick Pro adapter
  
• 512MB Memory Stick Pro Duo (by SanDisk)
  
• 2GB Memory Stick Pro Duo High Speed (by Sony)

I was rather impressed by the completeness of this kit, and I have been rather happy with the trade. Enough on that whole bit, let's get to the good stuff and talk "essential" specs! Specs are from the Sony Ericsson P990i digital manual.

Signal Bands: GSM 900/1800/1900 and UMTS 2100
Extra connectivity: GPRS and 3G, no EDGE, 802.11b, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support
Storage and Expansion: 60mb on board, Memory Stick Pro Duo readable up to 4gb
Imaging Devices: VGA video phone camera and a 2 megapixel camera with flash and auto focus
Operating System: Symbian 9.1 with UIQ 3.0
FM Radio Connectivity: 87.5 - 108.0 frequencies, 20 channels may be memorized.

The phone is well rounded, but well with my final days of AT&T, it's hard living with a tri-band world phone without an 850 frequency on the baseband chips. Some spots where the the 850 signals rain supreme, AT&T fans will have an issue with this. I don't mind it, because I am leaving for T-mobile anyhow so it is a small price to pay for a well rounded smartphone. The UIQ 3 interface is rather clean in shape and style in addition to simple for users of smartphone devices. Some who have used Windows Mobile devices may either find this clean and simple or feel they are in a dumb down interface. The Sony Jog-wheel is nice to shoot through the device settings with one hand, but the only thing counter-intuitive is the keypad lock. It's not a pair of keypress combinations anymore like on my cousin Sol's Sony Ericsson P910i... it's a physical slider key that you have to slide. Not too much of a bother, but I will agree with others on the web on that one... it is a little annoying.

Feature wise, it is well equipped. Phone book and calendar have limitless capacity for phone book entries and events, The alarm clock is pretty loud for me, which is VERY good and highly essential. The media player functions are rather robust and show the foundations for the Sony Ericsson Walkman series PDA phones as there are a list of equalizer settings on various modes to enhance the music from it. The P990i is the first phone I have owned to have a radio feature and it's really somewhat nice to have. It comes in handy for me, as sometimes I do wish I had a radio in my room, but the feature solves the problem and keeps the noise level down for my family. The camera does the job, but it's by no means a Cybershot series phone with only 2 megapixels and an LED flash/lamp.

Things I have not tested are the capabilities of Bluetooth 2.0 like wireless stereo or multi-linking devices, 3G video phone calls because I just don't have the capabilities to do that just yet. The Bluetooth thing, I will need a stereo headset for that which will cost a chunk of coin. The video calls won't happen until T-Mobile unrolls out their 3G network stuff later this year or early 2008. The 3G isn't compatible with AT&T so I miss out there. I really like the phone, just I can't really give it a fair review when my provider doesn't like to support one band of service... Expect me to do a more fair review on call quality when I shift over to T-Mobile on October 27th.

Most of you all who know me personally know that I am counting down the days until October 27th when my contract with AT&T (informally know as the "Death Star" from various online blogs). I am sure that most of my readers are well aware of what all my grievances are with terms to customer service, competitive pricing, and (most of all) death-sentence plan tiering. T-Mobile's open plans and JD Power and Associates award for service are almost a god-send in comparison to the Death Star.

Like all of the tech hungry folks, I too am addicted to new technologies and other advancements. Just my vector is in mobile technologies such as phones, laptops, or ultra mobile PC's (UMPC for short). T-Mobile has not been known for technological "strength" as it is rather lacking on their phones save for the RIM BlackBerry devices. Everyone almost knows T-mobile for being rather fashionable in phones, like think of the Sidekick line of phones or even the promotional ones. Lately, T-mobile is finally getting better with their game as they are getting some really neat phones. Notable names in phones are the Sidekick LX, Sidekick Slide, RAZR2, HTC/T-Mobile Shadow, and HTC/T-Mobile TyTN II/Kaiser. The Sidekicks (both the LX and Slide) and RAZR are more iconic fashionable phones for people who must have the inside track to looking food on the street. Now, the later two are more for the technologically inclined. I still remember some of the gadget blogs like Engadget, Gizmodo, and others still ripping T-mobile USA for releasing the T-Mobile Wing which is an incarnation of the HTC Herald with the pathetic 200Mhz Ti OMAP processor while AT&T had the inside line with their 8525 (an incarnation of the HTC TyTN).

Now, for me, I will be taking the poor track to greatness... I may have a buyer for my Treo which I honestly hope to have by today. The price of $220 would free me up for debts I need to finish off. For me, the price of "free" or as little as possible is better than nothing. The only "conditions" that I am looking for are an area for a phone strap and a great alarm clock function. The alarm clock function is somewhat a given, now... the second is more my Asian side showing up. I like having a charm for luck as an amulet and most of my phones have had areas to hang charms off of my phone. Except the recent phones I have had did/do not have areas to hang charms, those phones being the Nokia E62 and the Palm Treo 680. With all respect, those two devices are enterprise devices and not phones for the masses. My past history of phones with things like the Nokia 3120, Motorola RAZR & SLVR (Both L6 & L7), and the HTC/T-Mobile MDA being the only ones with a place to hang charms off of. The one that stands out as the "oddball" of these is the MDA, because it is a very powerful Pocket PC phone for the enterprise/corporate person who wants power in their fingertips. The funny part is even with HTC's newer phones still have the strap areas.

Enough with my tangent on charms... I will resume. With my lacking budget, I will be seeking cheap phones. Here are my potential "targets":

• Samsung T629 slider phone (Can't beat free and with a strap area)
• Samsung T429 slider phont ($50 is not bad)
• Motorola RIZR Z3 ($100, a decent mid point)
• Nokia XpressMusic 5300 ($100)
  
• Motorola KRZR K1 ($150, the highest point)

The Samsung's listed get decent reviews as a for-a-phone type device. I like a reliable phone as reliable phone has been a thing I have enjoyed lately. The Nokia is dead simple and stable as a brick. The Motorola's are on the list from the fact that the new Java/Linux OS is rather stable unlike the crippled RAZR/SLVR/ROKR E1/V Triplets (v180, v600, etc). The bonus of these devices are that they are not eye sores which typically most free phones and cheap phones end up being. With the matter that technology drops off in price rather quickly, it almost makes it almost worthless to buy the "hottest" phones. What's the point of buying a hot phone for $300 and then find that it is reduced to almost $150 in almost 6+ months? Great example being the KRZR K1 as it was released in the first quarter of 2007 for almost $300 after rebates and now it's $150.

Sure, it's quite a blow to go from a Treo to a free or discount phone, but I will say I don't mind the extra cash.

Some who know me remember that one of my first jobs was working in an anime shop in town. The one thing I loved about that job was the availability of the Japanese niche items. Sure, they were odd but there wasn't anything similar in America. One item I remember remarkably was my lost Inu Yasha keychain pocket watch, as it looked like an old vintage pocket watch with a leather-like cover made of plastic and the watch was a digital one. I like intricate things and well I was looking for phone charms because I am going to be hopping over to T-mobile soon. I couldn't find any interesting ones until I ran into Strapya World off of a Google search. They have all sorts of straps and charms as well as other knick-knacks of Japanese culture. The most unique of things being pure solid gold Chinese animal zodiac charms (at $279.99 each) and the Ghost Detector charms.

I kept searching through and through for something characteristic of me for a good while. I would find this set of unique LEGEND Cross Pendant series of charms and order one of each. Strapya World is interesting as they make limited runs of the charms and then they are sold out. Some of the designs do return if popularity is shown, like the one where you pry open a preserved clam for a pearl that's been trapped in a metal pendant cage! My girlfriend spotted it for about 400 Japanese Yen (about $4) for it, but I could why it'd be so popular as a romantic gift. I ended up getting her a cute Stitch one (from Disney's "Lilo and Stitch" fame) and the price was more than fair for all the charms I got. I'll give everyone an update when the charms come in.