Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with mobilephone

If you were a G1, and you were born today, what cell phone would you be?

Greg Nog — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:10:38 -0800

I would like to buy a nice new cell phone with a physical keyboard to replace a broken G1. Please help me with any knowledge about the Droid or the Cliq or any other suggestions you may have! So my G1 recently died a horrible death, and although I quite liked both the phone itself and the Android OS, I'm wary about getting another G1 to replace it, given the age of the product.

I liked the G1 mainly for the easy access to my gmail account, the web browsing, and the easy access to Google Maps, which I used pretty much daily and which I was utterly delighted by, whenever they added new bells and whistles to it.

I've looked into the Droid (which seems like a nicely high-tech update), but I find typing on the keyboard to be unpleasant; the keys are all flat and flush, leading me to accidentally push buttons I didn't mean to press with my GIANT APE FINGERS. Is there some way I could mod these with, like, a tiny dab of clear epoxy on the center of each key to lift and separate them? (I realize this sounds like a five-year-old's solution to the problem, but that's generally how I roll in this lifetime.)

Another alternative might be the Cliq, but if my basic research is right, it's on the earlier iteration of the Android OS, yes? Will it be updated to Android 2.0? The keyboard looks much better on the Cliq, although I don't really care about all the social apps and whatnot that it seems to excel at. And if all I want is an old iteration of Android with a comfy keyboard, wouldn't I be better off getting the cheaper G1?

I'm also receptive to a caution that I should just wait; that soon enough, some new Android device will stroll along to replace the Droid, and that it may well have a better keyboard and physical push-buttons on the front.

I'm out of my t-mobile contract now (FREE, FREE), so I'm happy to switch to any carrier that will do a nice job of being good to me.

Did I mess up my phone's reception?

surenoproblem — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:36:09 -0800

Could I have messed up my cellphone's reception when I replaced its casing? I recently replaced the casing on my phone: taking my phone apart, unscrewing lots of things, then putting the phone into a new case. I just followed online instructions; I don't have a lot of experience with these sorts of things. I can't remember when it started, but my phone seems to say "Emergency Calls Only" or "No Carrier" quite regularly now, and I never noticed it doing this in the past. Is there something I can do to fix it? It's a SonyEricsson K660i, and I followed these instructions:

http://www.formymobile.co.uk/k660disassembly.php

Did I mess something up in the disassembly/re-assembly process? Can I fix my reception?

Using a Japanese phone stateside?

greasepig — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:28:12 -0800

Is it possible to use my Japanese Toshiba 810T in the States? I'm moving back to the states, and would love if I could use my little black phone to email my Japanese friends. It's Softbank, and does use some kind of SIM card. Basically I want to be able to use the Japanese input and also the handy dictionary. Is this just a pipe dream, something that will cost a lot, or just a plug-and-play situation? If it's no good, can I at least transfer the dictionary to a US carrier's phone, or is there anyway I could have a US carrier phone that would work with Japanese input?

How can I remember to always put my mobile phone on silent before meetings and turn it back on afterwards?

grouse — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:10:43 -0800

How can I remember to always put my mobile phone on silent before meetings or seminars? And to turn the sound back on when the meeting is over? Any useful tricks? I don't seem to have a problem remembering this in artistic environments, only in work environments.

How should I go about unlocking a Canadian phone for use in Iceland?

csjc — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:55:08 -0800

How should I go about unlocking a Canadian phone for use in Iceland? I have a compatible GSM phone but I have no idea how to go about unlocking it. I'll be in Iceland this weekend, and I'll need a functional cell phone. Roaming isn't an option. I took a look through my stash of old phones for those compatible with the Icelandic GSM bands (800/1900), and it seems like the Motorola V235 should do the job.

I'm planning on buying a prepaid starter kit on Vodafone Iceland, but of course I need the phone to be unlocked first.

I'm on Fido... how should I go about getting an unlock code? Will it cost me anything?

Momma needs a brand new phone

bunny hugger — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 06:29:13 -0800

Boyfriend is getting a phone upgrade and handing over to me (same company). Do I buy Internet package for his account or mine? Phone upgrade question (T-mobile). My boyfriend is offered an upgrade for a new phone at a significantly reduced price if he signs up for another two years. He is going to, so that's not the thing. When he gets the phone upgrade (to a blackberry), he will give it to me (also T-mobile) because he doesn't need a new phone and because he's awesome. I've done this for him before with no hitch. Question is: I will have to upgrade to an plan option with Internet included. But do I do that for his account or mine (since I'll be the one using the phone)? Don't really want to call T-mobile and explain this, since they might have a problem with it. I'm thinking it will just be my account, but just double-checking here. Thanks.

How can I be certain my iPhone doesn't send or receive data except phone, text and Wi-Fi?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:01:38 -0800

How can I make sure my iPhone 3G doesn't transfer *any* internet data while retaining phone, texting and Wi-Fi capability? I'm getting an unlimited (3G) data plan next month but until then I'm stuck with my current plan which only supports GPRS data-wise, at a hefty per-MB rate.

Right now I have SBSettings (jailbreak) installed, which allows you to disable 3G and EDGE manually. I did that; will that be enough?

GPRS is 2G I believe so I 'm a little confused about the terminology maybe. I would like to just use the Wi-Fi at home until I get my unlimited data plan, and make calls and send SMS of course.

I'm in the Netherlands if it matters.

Thanks in advance, guys!

When do UK mobile providers change their prices on newer phone models?

K.P. — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 04:08:22 -0800

When could I expect contract price for the new iPhone and HTC magic to come down (UK)? It's time to renew and upgrade (I'm on Vodafone) and I'm torn between a new iPhone and the HTC Magic. But they're both fairly new, and the minimum monthly charge (or monthly+ initial cost) is outside my range (I'm not a heavy phone user).

Presumably this will change: Vodafone will make the HTC available in progressively lower bands, and a few reviewers have said the prices for the new iPhone are surprisingly high and should come down fairly soon. But can one predict when either of these things would happen?

(I know as a customer considering leaving Voda, I can negotiate a better arrangement than what's on offer to the public or initially offered to me personally. But I hate having to play that game and don't want to, say, spend the time & effort doing it now only to have the same deal that's offered to everyone 4 weeks later. Especially if "everybody knows providers restructure their prices on the 1st of September" or something like that. That's the kind of answer I'm looking for.)

Bonus cookie to anyone that can accurately predict when Voda will have the HTC Magic in black.

Yes, I've asked the company. Officially, it's impossible.

embrangled — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 02:56:11 -0800

A question for IT and telecoms boffins: Help me understand voicemail. Specifically, what would need to go wrong with a mobile phone company's voicemail server for it to randomly connect customers to the mailboxes of complete strangers? Is it more likely to be an isolated technical glitch, a systemic network security problem, intentional foul play, or something else?

Mobile (cell) phone for sync with google calendar without a phone data tariff?

monster max — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:46:23 -0800

Advice on a new phone please. Main criteria are (1) needing to be able to add calendar events while out and about and (2) being about to sync the phone calendar with Google Calendar when I get home. Can it be done? My old SonyEricsson P910i keeps going ditsy and failing to find any signal so I need to replace it. It's great for adding calendar events (handwriting recognition on its touchscreen) and then I can sync these with Outlook on my computer at home (though not Google Calendar as it's such an old version of Outlook).

Out of the millions of phones out there, there must be one where I can:

1. Add items to the phone's internal calendar (ie not into google calendar via web access on the phone, as I don't want to have to pay for this) when I'm out and about - hardware keyboard, onscreen keyboard, handwriting recognition all OK
2. Add items to google calendar whenever I'm at a computer
3. Sync the two via a USB cable (not via web access on the phone - see above) when I'm at my home computer and have things sync'ed in both directions.

Surely?...

Bonus points for a phone that's:

1. available on PAYG (I don't make a lot of calls) in the UK
2. Won't cost the earth

I don't mind which network it's on - I have no particular loyalty to my current PAYG provider.

What's the UK's best combination of iPhone 3G S tariff and phone capacity?

jaffacakerhubarb — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 15:39:59 -0800

What's a better deal for a contract iPhone — pay more per month and get the phone cheaper, or get a cheaper phone? I'm in the UK, and I want to get an iPhone 3G S. I already have a first-generation iPhone, and all the things the matter with it — a bit slow operationally, very slow internet, not-so-great camera, lack of video and MMS — are all fixed in this one, so it's time to make the jump. I'm not on contract now, so I'm free to choose whichever and I'll be subsidised whatever way. The difficulty lies in picking a plan and, subsequently, the phone capacity.

I'm looking at the 24 months, partly because someone said I'd then come right up on the iPhone to be released two years from now, and partly because it's only another six months but the upfront cost of the handset drops considerably.

£34.26 a month, then, means the iPhone 3G S 16GB and 32GB will cost £87.11 and £175.19 respectively. If I go on £45, the 16GB is free and the 32GB costs £96.89. What I'm not sure about is whether it's smarter to go onto a higher tariff in return for a significantly cheaper handset, or pay more upfront and go on a lower one. At the moment, I'm looking at the 16GB on £34.26 a month; I'd like the 32GB, but I've survived for a while with 8GB and I'm not sure if paying £175 for the phone is particularly financially sensible. There's an element of judgement here, to be sure, but am I missing a particularly compelling combination of tariff and phone size that's a much better deal than the others?

P.S. I'm fully aware I may be overthinking this, and it should be more a case of 'If you can afford it, go for it' but two years is a long time and I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a trick.

I want my damn 3G...

twine42 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:45:50 -0800

Is there any (genuine) way to improve my cell/mobile phone signal? The house I'm preparing to move in to is in a little valley at the top of a hill - kind of like someone hit the hill with a massive axe. Everywhere around here gets great cellphone / mobile phone coverage on all the major UK providers, but in the valley it turns into crap.

There are two or three places in the house where I can get 2 bars of signal, but if I put the phone to my ear, or walk away a few feet, the signal vanishes completely.

Is there anything I can do to improve the receiption inside my house? Either phone specific or location specific?

It's kind of important, since I want to work from home but I design websites for mobile phones, so it's kind of a deal breaker if I can't make it work.

[besides, you can pry my SMS from my cold dead fingers...]

Don't push that button.

Sophie1 — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 08:47:01 -0800

I have been accessing twitter on my mobile (Palm Centro) for months and today, I accidentally hit a button that said "View in Standard". I can no longer access twitter. The message it is now giving me says "You cannot use the Twitter website without having JavaScript enabled on Your web browser. Please re-enable JavaScript and refresh this page."

Problem: I have absolutely no idea how to do this. Help please.

iSync and RAZR V3xx

dondiego87 — Tue, 26 May 2009 10:47:34 -0800

iSync 3.0.2 won't sync with Motorola RAZR V3xx. Looking for a fix. So I recently got my Motorola V3 replaced with a V3xx through my carrier's insurance program. I had used iSync all the time to sync the phone's calendar with iCal and its contacts with Address Book (also both ways). However, the V3xx is unable to sync with iSync 3.0.2. When I try to add it as a device, I get an error message saying "This device is not supported by iSync."

I have found two plugins for iSync that allow it to sync with the V3xx (at http://tinyurl.com/pjrbpp and http://tinyurl.com/qlelxz), but unfortunately neither of them work with iSync 3.0.2 (which I have on my Macbook running 10.5.7). When I try to start up iSync with either of those plugins in the "PhonePlugins" folder in my library, I get an error message saying "The following plug-in doesn’t work with this version of iSync."

Does anyone know of a plugin for iSync 3.0.2 that would allow me to sync with the Motorola RAZR V3xx? Or alternatively, does anyone know how to modify the plugins I found to work with iSync 3.0.2?

Seeking broadband + phone + mobile consolidation options (UK).

BrokenEnglish — Sat, 16 May 2009 04:41:05 -0800

I'm spending about UKP65 on phone, cell/mobile phone and broadband Internet each month. How can I consolidate all these options into something cheaper but just as reliable? I'm in the UK and about to move house. My current Internet provider is Zen, who are great but a bit pricey at UKP35 per month. I have a mobile phone which costs UKP14, and about 14 months of the contract still to run on that. I also use BT for voice calls, although I hardly use this and keep wondering if there's a decent broadband-only package I could use. Is it even possible to have broadband without paying the BT tax?

So: I have to keep the mobile for now, need a reliable broadband provider with no frills (preferably generous download limits), and would like an alternative to a BT line. Interested in options and your own experiences rather than links to broadband comparison sites. Thanks!

Making my laptop behave like a phone over bluetooth

d7415 — Thu, 14 May 2009 15:16:17 -0800

I've noticed that mobile phones have a much easier time talking to each other than to most laptops/PCs. Is there any software out there that can make a PC behave like a mobile phone? For some reason I'm expecting mostly open-source, but anything is welcome.

Mobile software for the mobile traveller?

zaebiz — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:30:18 -0800

What applications/software for your mobile device did you find useful/essential for travelling? I will be travelling initially around Europe and then who knows.... I have an iMate JasJam phone running Windows Mobile 6 but would acquire another device if this will be more suitable for running useful applications.

typing SMS from laptop

pompomtom — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 20:16:44 -0800

I have a macbook and I have a nokia N95 8gb. Is there any way I can type SMSs with the big keyboard?

Microcell or cell phone booster?

RikiTikiTavi — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:03:03 -0800

Which will work better for me for improving my cellphone coverage, a microcell unit or a booster? I have a 3G iPhone in the US on AT&T. My coverage inside my house is abysmal (the stucco siding probably doesn't help), I can get marginal coverage in certain rooms, sometimes I have no coverage anywhere. The coverage on the roof is excellent, so a booster could be an option (I have followed the previous booster threads with interest). Another option is a so-called microcell, which has the disadvantage that is isn't actually available right now, but is supposedly going to come out "any day now". So, pricing information for this is unknown, although I've looked at T-Mobile's pricing.

For what it's worth my current broadband connection is 1.5ish megabit DSL through Speakeasy (although I'm considering a switch to UVerse), and I have no landline. I'm looking to cover two phones at the moment.

The way I see it, the microcell has to be programmed to add handsets which is an advantage (neighbors don't steal the bandwidth) and a disadvantage (guests don't use your link either without adding them). It would probably be a good idea to allow people like my parents or babysitters to actually be able to use the phone in an emergency.

Besides the above, the other considerations I guess are bandwidth (how much does each connection take?), how many simultaneous connections are allowed, and (of course!) how well each solution actually performs, coverage wise, in the house.

Are there other things I should consider? I've seen booster users weigh in on the other threads, so I'm especially interested in any microcell users here.

Is there any program like Adblock for mobile devices such as my Blackberry?

gman — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:38:43 -0800

Is there any application like Adblock for mobile phones? Whenever I load up a feed (source) on my Blackberry, the first few pages are useless links or ads. Are there any programs which can make my mobile browsing experience more enjoyable?

French mobile phone.

Neiltupper — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 02:53:22 -0800

Is it possible to buy an inexpensive mobile phone in France along with a prepaid SIM card?

Cheap calls please

djgh — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 06:52:36 -0800

UK Mobile phone monthly contract recommendations? My current contract with T-Mobile is up next month, and it's costing me way too much.

I need roughly 3 hours and 300 texts a month, but I also need to be able to make short calls and send texts to abroad relatively frequently.

I also travel to Europe and North America around three or four times a year, so ideally roaming would be somehow included or cheap.

Currently I'm also charged for calling Voicemail, so if that would be included, great.

I pay around £45 a month at the moment, but bills have gone up to £70 with roaming. I'd ideally like to reduce my payments.

So, on the basis of that, what can you recommend? I stopped into the Carphone Warehouse, and the guy basically said O2 was pretty good, but didn't really develop anything beyond that.

Mobile phone for 5~ months in Berlin?

cmyr — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 03:19:25 -0800

My girlfriend and I are going to be living in berlin for the next 5 months, and we're going to want to grab german SIM cards. I'm having a hard time however finding any useful information. Which of the major carriers makes the most sense for us? We don't use our phones too too much, and have skype etc for international calls.

Does anyone offer short-term contracts? Are we stuck with pay-as-you-go?

Is there any chance I could get some sort of data-package without a multi-year contract? I have a 1st gen iphone and would like to be able to use the maps app while exploring around the city.

How does intra-euro roaming work? I'm going to be doing some traveling, and would love to have reasonable use of my phone during that period without having to keep getting a new number.

Thanks in advance, mefi.

Help me save my poor little phone

jhighmore — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:03:47 -0800

Last night, a friend accidentally spilled a drink over my mobile phone. Now it sort of works. What can I do? Although it was in my pocket at the time, I'm pretty sure the phone got a good old gulp of the vodka and coke I was enjoying (until it got knocked out of my hands, that is). Now it sort of works, but the backlight is well and truly gone meaning I can barely see the screen. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some software problems too.

Are there any quick-fix solutions to this, and does the fact it was a sugary drink have any bearing?

FYI it's a Nokia 6500 slide. Please help!

Help me txt and call around Europe without breaking the bank.

atmosphere — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:11:26 -0800

Best Europe wide roaming prepaid sim card? I am travelling through Europe for an extended period of time and am looking for a prepaid sim card that has decent roaming around Western Europe. I will only be staying in one country for a few weeks max at a time, so buying one for each country I visit isn't very practical, especially because I am travelling on a budget. I'd like mainly to be able to txt other European phones and call European landlines.

I recently purchased an Orange prepaid sim card in France where they told me it would work fine all over Europe, and they told me the fees which I now forget, but which were not bad. However, when I went to Spain, I could no longer call from my phone. I could txt / sms to France, but I could not call to mobiles or landlines in Spain or France. I was fortunate enough to return to France, where at an Orange store I was told they do not offer any roaming services, and that this is why I could not call. It doesn't feel like this is correct, but I don't really know where to go from here. The Orange website is hard to navigate when translated through google.

I am totally willing to buy another sim card, or fix whatever the issue is with my current one, either way thanks for the suggestions and advice hivemind.