wireless - Gizmodo

posts about #wireless more →
New Palm Prices: Pixi at $25 and Pre at $80
Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
Why U.S. Wireless Pricing Sucks
AT&T's USBConnect Lightning Will Handle Their 7.2Mbps Network
802.11n Wi-Fi Adapter For Tivo Lands At The FCC
Droid Tethering on Verizon Is 30 Bucks a Month
Droid Does Tethering (Or Will, Anyway)
Atheros Wireless N for Smartphones Actually Uses Less Power Than Slowass G
Did You Wake Up Basked in the Warm Glow of Wimax?
Bang Bang, Nokia n-Gage: You're Dead

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elementary
11/19/09

In reply to New Palm Prices: Pixi at $25 and Pre at $80
Wow, that makes the Pre nearly $1000 dollars cheaper than the iPhone 3GS for an individual, even more savings if you have a family plan.

$30(per month savings)*24(months)+$220(savings on phone)=$940.

In my mind there is nothing the iPhone can do that justifies an extra $1000 over the Pre.

Of course both Sprint's and AT&T's coverage suck in Chicago (especially AT&T's) so I'm on Verizon.
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lolbrbnvm
11/19/09

@elementary: I dunno about that. Everyone I know who got a Pre when they first came out really, really regrets doing it, and everyone I know who has an iPhone (including myself) is so happy with it that they come off as shameless douches whenever they tell someone about it.

Lest we forget, the 8GB iPhone 3G is $99. And still a better phone than the Pre.

See, I kinda sound like a douche right now. I must be a totally satisfied iPhone customer!
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Saboth
11/19/09

@lolbrbnvm:

I'm betting the only reason your friends regret it is the fact they don't have nearly as many apps. As for the iPhone, if you like getting gouged on monthly rates, I suppose anyone can be happy.
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Fractal the Meek
11/19/09

@elementary: Incidentally, I find Sprint's coverage in Chicago is excellent.
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elementary
11/19/09

@Fractal the Meek: Sprint doesn't work in my condo, but seems to do fine elsewhere. Obviously that still makes it a no-go for me. Sucks, I'd be back with Sprint in a second otherwise.

AT&T on the other hand works fine in my condo, but elsewhere in the city, not so much.

As much as I hate Verizon, I've never been without coverage in the city.
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Edited by elementary at 11/19/09 12:08 PM elementary was starred elementary was unstarred

Monty
11/19/09

In reply to New Palm Prices: Pixi at $25 and Pre at $80
How long do I need to wait until they pay me to take one out of their inventory? A couple weeks? Well, some company had to be the basement of the smart phone business, it is just sad that Palm had to take that role.
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ho0lee0h
11/19/09

@Monty: You're misinformed.
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Monty promoted this comment ho0lee0h was starred ho0lee0h was unstarred

Monty
11/19/09

@ho0lee0h: Story of my life, friend. Not only am I misinformed, I take glee in spreading mis-information. In fact, this might be misinformation I am typing right now.
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weatherman
11/19/09

In reply to New Palm Prices: Pixi at $25 and Pre at $80
A deal? What happened to "The Palm Pixi's very existence is a cruel joke"?
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Hello Mister Walrus
11/19/09

@weatherman: What do you mean? $100 minus $5 is clearly $25. Wait, what...
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OCEntertainment
11/19/09

@weatherman: My guess is he was talking about the Pre, not the Pixi, ignoring its existence entirely. Kinda like how you treated the "special" class in high school when they joined you for lunch. I mean, I'm sure it's a wonderful phone, and it's not the Pixi's fault it was born without WiFi and is, if we're being candid, a little slow. Still...I mean, do you have to buy it? I'm sure the Pixi will be fine if you ignore it. I mean...it probably won't even understand that you're avoiding it.
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SQLGuru
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
I think we will be seeing something significant from Google in the voice recognition field in about 3 to 5 years. The reason for all of these voice related techs (Google Voice, VOIP, etc.) is that they are collecting data on what voice sounds like by a LOT of different people. Car, Kaaa, Cawr, etc. They'll be able to do something special with all of that data once they've analyzed it.
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Charbax2
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
How much does VOIP take in bandwidth usage? Perhaps as little as 20kbit/s. So for 1GB of data per month, you could have 111 hours of VOIP conversations on Google Voice. People don't talk that much on the phone, so Google could most definitely provide up to something like 50 hours of free Google Voice usage with a 100-dollar basic Android phone, and no contracts needed.
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DustyButt™
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
So... You use their search engine, you (potentially) could use their OS, and surf the web on their browser. To get a phone you submit to a credit check, so they then get you're vital economic info. While using their phone they can track your location real-time. Drop it all into one big information vat, and...

...Ohhh boy...
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nutbastard
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
hmmm... if i had more money, i'd get an iphone. as it stands, i carry an ipod touch and a nokia shitbrick on cheap t-mo prepaid.

if i got a google phone, i don't think i'd forgo the shitbrick - but how much are we talking here for a data plan?

as much as i'd like to have the internet everywhere, having the wikidump on the ipod seems to suffice, at least for finding things out.

on the other hand, i'd be carrying 3 devices that are all kinda sorta doing similar things. ideally, att would offer a fixed rate data plan on an iphone and let voice remain prepaid, but i dont see that happening... and i only use about 1500 minutes of voice per year, ($150 on t-mo) so i can't justify switching to anything at this point.
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@MrMrazberry
11/18/09

@nutbastard: you didnt notice the thing about VOIP did you?
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nutbastard promoted this comment @MrMrazberry was starred @MrMrazberry was unstarred

nutbastard
11/18/09

@Decad3nce:

oh i did, but VOIP is useless to me, as broadband isn't available where i live (ironically im 20 minutes from both apples and googles HQs)
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nutbastard
11/18/09

@Decad3nce:

er, wait, are you saying that it'll do VOIP over 3G or something?!
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@MrMrazberry
11/18/09

@nutbastard: That's where all things are heading.. inevitably; whether the telecos want it or not.

#tips
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nutbastard
11/18/09

@Decad3nce:

well that, sir, is a horse of another color. shit - it isn't even a horse any more.
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@MrMrazberry
11/18/09

@nutbastard:
It's more of an Iguana than anything at this point..
#tips
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Monty
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
It goes without saying (which means I will type it anyway) that if a Google Phone arrives with data support only (VOIP) it will not be the first hardware like this. NetGear and other companies had WiFi / VOIP phones available years ago. In fact, the original iPhone name was not owned by Apple (was it Cisco?) and was used on a VOIP phone. Obviously, Google is going to take this concept many steps further but the hardware that has come before it did not turn the world on fire. Hopefully Google's device will.
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OCEntertainment
11/18/09

@Monty: To be fair, many other devices and ideas came about that failed to set the world on fire before a following idea did. While it's not a gadget per se, the most ready example I can think of is Wolfenstein and Doom. Wolfenstein, for all intents and purposes was the original first-person shooter. Doom, however, made the genre popular. And as I head home to play Half-Life 2 again, I am thankful to both.

Additionally, it also goes without saying....
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Monty
11/18/09

@OCEntertainment: Correct, you and the other folks commenting are all absolutely correct. I just find it interesting how it is rarely the first to market that is successful, it is the slightly altered version that comes down the road that is often the one that finds success.

Of course, I hope we can still get charged per text message sent just to re-live the good old days.
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yantelope
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
VOIP was set to replace land lines and would have quickly if cell phones didn't already. It makes perfect sense then to be using VOIP for cell phones simply to preserve BW. If there's only so much spectrum to go around we should use it as efficiently as possible and if that means switching all of it to data and then running calls and internet in the same spectrum then I am all for it. Prioritizing voice traffic would be the difficulty especially when it may conflict with net neutrality.
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ossuary
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
I wouldn't mind one if it allowed me to cut out the telcos altogether... Forget the "data plan". Just give me one with VOIP via wifi and I would be happy.
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ossuary was starred ossuary was unstarred

PhineasJW
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
Google. Frenemy of the telcos.

Love it.

Can we make it a reality show? Like we lock Google VP's and telco CEOs in a house and give them different tasks each week...then at the end of each episode the dumbest telco representative gets kicked out?

Would watch.
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Gundem
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
*sigh*

Google will run the internet soon and after that...the world.
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SpardaFatalis
11/18/09

@Gundem: soon? haha... :[
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Gundem
11/18/09

@SpardaFatalis: I could just imagine when Chrome OS is realeased.

Google = Skynet
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SpardaFatalis
11/19/09

@Gundem: skynet will have nothing on google, they prolly own mars already... poor martians...

#speakup
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Gann
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
I heard a rumor that Nintendo is releasing their next DS with a "free" 3g connection bundled into the initial cost of the unit - kinda the opposite of the typical cell package where the Initial cost is dispersed across monthly fees.

I wonder how far fetched it would be for the Google to develop a phone using Nintendo's pricing structure. Pay for the phone, and you get a free 3g connection for all your internet-based services.
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robotonist
11/18/09

@Gann: but who would provide the 3g connection ?

similarly, what carrier would want to sell this rumored google phone ? unless they attach a sizable monthly data fee i don't see it as being a likely business venture anyone would want to take on.
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Gann promoted this comment robotonist was starred robotonist was unstarred

Gann
11/18/09

@robotonist: From the article: "whenever someone gets on the internet, Google stands to make money."

For the (crazy) idea to work, google would have to decide it was worth subsidizing the connection to get you on the(ir) internet.
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met2art
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
That sounds more likely, given Google's prior statements to the effect that they had no direct interest in handset manufacturing. However, given their obvious interest in VOIP and Google Voice, this sort of alternative makes more sense.

Google seems more interested in playing with data, whether that is in the form of an OS, interface or a system of aggregation or routing. A data/VOIP device fits that style, whereas an in-house designed cellphone does not, and as a side benefit, doesn't directly compete with the people they are courting for cell phone handsets.
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BergenCountyJC can't beat MW2
11/18/09

In reply to Screw the Voice Plan: The Rumored Google Phone May Be Data/Voip Only
It's about time these mega telephone giants start quivering in their boots. However don't be surprised when you their defensive lawsuits against the GooG ultimately shoot the idea down.
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