Computers & Mobile

Keylock has an interesting post about cell phone ownership in other countries in response to the Verizon crippling of our phones – “In Qatar I pay a security deposit and then my mobile phone is billed like a landline phone. I pay for the calls I make–no limits and full access to all my Nokia 6230’s features (like bluetooth) without being billed for it. The coverage in Qatar is good (albeit a small country) but it is also an all digital network. The USA is a mix of analog/digital because the companies that put up the analog towers are trying to wring every dollar out before they have to replace them. The USA is behind in the cell phone market considerably…don’t believe me? Check out Nokia’s website and click on the Middle East. I’ll bet you’ll find phones that you haven’t even heard of over here. I bought my buddy a Nokia 6600 cellphone while I was in Qatar and brought it back for him. It works fine over here and his bluetooth chip wasn’t disabled and he isn’t billed when he transfers his photos, movies, music, etc…” Link.

Pretty unfortunate. I suspect we’ll see a hack to work around this soon – “So you just bought a Windows Mobile Treo with EV-DO service and you want to use it as a modem for your laptop? Forget it. Verizon Wireless says you must buy a second 3G subscription and they have the technology to back it up. Specifically, while the device, which has well-reviewed, comes with Bluetooth, Verizon has disabled the Bluetooth dial-up networking capability that would enable the Treo 700w to act as a modem for laptops.” Link.