Tuesday, September 05, 2006
This update has to be split between progress on cellphones, and progress on watching mobile lectures. It just didn't work out to put the two things together.
Cell Phone Update
I returned the XV6700 and got my money back. I also returned to my original cell phone. I'm talking normal, non-pda cell phones though - seems like no PDA cell phone is practical for me. The phone I have now is just as good as all of the phones offered right now by Verizon. Why switch? So as of now, I am no on any contract, which is nice. I have the option to switch to Cingular or Sprint. I mention those two companies because they have VERY nice cell phone hardware.
The best phones I saw at Best Buy were:
Cingular-branded
- Moto SLVR
Sprint-branded
- Sprint Power Vision(SM) Multimedia Phone A900 by Samsung
- Sanyo Katana for Sprint
Not sure which one I saw at Best Buy of the two Sprint ones, but they both look like good phones. One actually made handwriting sounds, and had an animated pen for when numbers are typed into the phone. Sort of cute. The SLVR was faster responding when it came to searching through a long contacts list. But the SLVR's keypad was either bad, or hard to get used to in a few minutes of in-store fiddling.
That said, a review of JD Power (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/rd/cc/telecom/ratings/wireless/index.asp) shows that Verizon is rated the highest, with T-Mobile in a second place for the Western market. Sprint is abysmal, and Cingular is so-so. Easiest thing to do, it seems, is to just hang on to my old Audiovox phone with Verizon and see if any neat phones come in.
Lecture Update
I haven't given up hope on watching lectures on the train. Looks like the best remaining option to watch WMV's is with a PDA, specifically the Dell Axim x51v. This comes with a heftier processor, and a higher res. screen than the xv6700 had. It's got Wifi and bluetooth. I'd probably hold on to it until December, then hawk it on eBay, unless it's super useful outside of mobile WMV watching. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on eBay - they're going for around $350 shipped, NIB. This is what I paid for the XV6700, but I believe this PDA will have higher resale value come December. Also, I'm not stuck with the thing for some arbitrary 2-yr contract term as I was with the PDA phone.
Dell is selling the x51v for $374.
I posted on 3 Axim-related forums to find someone experienced in watching long videos on the Axim (battery-wise, quality, etc), but no reply yet.
Cell Phone Update
I returned the XV6700 and got my money back. I also returned to my original cell phone. I'm talking normal, non-pda cell phones though - seems like no PDA cell phone is practical for me. The phone I have now is just as good as all of the phones offered right now by Verizon. Why switch? So as of now, I am no on any contract, which is nice. I have the option to switch to Cingular or Sprint. I mention those two companies because they have VERY nice cell phone hardware.
The best phones I saw at Best Buy were:
Cingular-branded
- Moto SLVR
Sprint-branded
- Sprint Power Vision(SM) Multimedia Phone A900 by Samsung
- Sanyo Katana for Sprint
Not sure which one I saw at Best Buy of the two Sprint ones, but they both look like good phones. One actually made handwriting sounds, and had an animated pen for when numbers are typed into the phone. Sort of cute. The SLVR was faster responding when it came to searching through a long contacts list. But the SLVR's keypad was either bad, or hard to get used to in a few minutes of in-store fiddling.
That said, a review of JD Power (http://www.jdpower.com/cc/rd/cc/telecom/ratings/wireless/index.asp) shows that Verizon is rated the highest, with T-Mobile in a second place for the Western market. Sprint is abysmal, and Cingular is so-so. Easiest thing to do, it seems, is to just hang on to my old Audiovox phone with Verizon and see if any neat phones come in.
Lecture Update
I haven't given up hope on watching lectures on the train. Looks like the best remaining option to watch WMV's is with a PDA, specifically the Dell Axim x51v. This comes with a heftier processor, and a higher res. screen than the xv6700 had. It's got Wifi and bluetooth. I'd probably hold on to it until December, then hawk it on eBay, unless it's super useful outside of mobile WMV watching. I'm keeping my eyes peeled on eBay - they're going for around $350 shipped, NIB. This is what I paid for the XV6700, but I believe this PDA will have higher resale value come December. Also, I'm not stuck with the thing for some arbitrary 2-yr contract term as I was with the PDA phone.
Dell is selling the x51v for $374.
I posted on 3 Axim-related forums to find someone experienced in watching long videos on the Axim (battery-wise, quality, etc), but no reply yet.
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