Playing with new mobile tech...

November 9, 2007 10:58 AM

I am hoping folks here can impart their wisdom on how to play with the latest mobile tech for an extended period of time. For instance, let's say I wanted to play with the T-Mobile Shadow for awhile but don't have an account with T-Mobile. Is my only option to pay $300.00 for the phone and sign a two-year agreement? Or are there other ways to play? The thought of several contracts with several providers scares me away from it...
posted by tcv to technology (11 comments total)

Look online for an unlocked version, you will pay more but that is your only other option.
posted by BobbyDigital at 11:04 AM on November 9, 2007

You could start a tech blog and then companies would send their stuff to you for free.
posted by delmoi at 11:20 AM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Why do you want to play with lots of different mobile things? Do you want to review them? Do you have a need for lots of different phones? Do you have a job (or want a job) in the industry?
posted by Happy Dave at 11:22 AM on November 9, 2007

The last time I went to a T-Mobile store, they didn't even have a working demo unit of any of their smart phones. I tell the guy, "I want to see what web browsing is like on this thing" and he's like, "well, you could buy it, and there's a three-day (or whatever) return period". Fucking amateur hour over at T-Mobile, man.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:27 AM on November 9, 2007

What are you trying to do? For testing software and SMS delivery, I'd happily recommend DeviceAnywhere
posted by Leon at 11:46 AM on November 9, 2007

*sigh*. I can't type
posted by Leon at 11:47 AM on November 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Thanks guys.

There's no underlying motive here. I'm a gadget-freak. Every now and then I'll see a handset on some other mobile carrier and I'd like to try it. But $40/month here and $60/month there and soon you're talking about real middle-class money. I figure other folks who like to play with toys have run into this dilemma. Maybe I'm wrong, however.
posted by tcv at 12:46 PM on November 9, 2007

For instance: I see that you can buy unlocked phones and that they are generally more expensive than the store models, but what do you get for that? Don't you still have to sign a multi-month contract with a carrier?
posted by tcv at 12:53 PM on November 9, 2007

Well, in that case, I think your answer lies in either getting in to the tech blogging market, or gadget mag freelancing. Both are crowded markets, but if you can write well, and have a real passion for your subject, you'll get to trial a bunch of stuff, and for free.

I think a first step is to get yourself a cool url, maybe something like 'handsonmobilegadgets.com' or something, then email the PR/marketing firms of a few mobile manufacturers and tell them you're hanging out your shingle as an independent reviewer of mobile devices. Most will send you things on a return basis, and you can track trends and write other stuff between reviews. You might make pizza money on ads after a while, and if you're a good, thorough reviewer, you could get a gig on CNet or Engadget eventually.

Just a few ideas, none based in experience, maybe more of the gearheads on here can chip in with more solid ideas or experiences.
posted by Happy Dave at 12:53 PM on November 9, 2007

Don't you still have to sign a multi-month contract with a carrier?

You can get prepaid SIMs with a pay-as-you-go service, just buy a top-up card whenever your balance is running low. Really though, if you're mainly interested in GSM phones, if you already have a contract with T-Mobile or At&T/Cingular you can just pop your SIM card into any unlocked GSM phone and use it straight away.

delmoi and Happy_Dave's advice is well-meaning but unsound—I was an editor at Gizmodo for a while and trust me on this, the gadget blog market is already extremely over-saturated. Unless you plan on starting one as a full-time job, you're not going to ever get to borrow any of the schwag you actually want because PR people for big companies do not lend things to sites that don't already have a significant amount of traffic, like, a few hundred thousand hits a month.
posted by lia at 1:11 PM on November 9, 2007

Yeah, I fullly expected that area to be saturated and I don't have any real time to devote to blogging. I was more hoping for ways to save money instead of pay top dollar for everything -- contracts, phones, etc.
posted by tcv at 2:36 PM on November 9, 2007