Category: phones

Goodbye, Landline

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

I cancelled my landline with Comcast today. I’ve been thinking about it for some time and — since I have a cell phone anyway — there was little reason to keep the landline. Really, what kept me from cutting it off even sooner was DirecTV. Since it needs a landline (for DirecTiVo especially), I hesitated to cancel the landline and lose that option.

It didn’t help that Comcast Phone offered no means of auto-payment each month nor any means of online payment (sure, Comcast Internet Access has both of those, but it seems that two subdivisions may as well be separate companies). I mean, if they had auto-payment that billed my credit card for the $24 each month, I probably could have put up with that. Compared to paying online, I’d rather not have to go through the effort of writing a check and licking a stamp each month.

The final straw was their recent form letter about an upcoming 19% price increase on residential service (up two dollars). Well, forget that. Of course, DirecTV would be a bit of tougher option now ;). But, my primary interest there was just for HBO (since it’s not available in my area without moving to digital cable). And, Mike has a Netflix subscription so we can probably get most of the good shows (Sopranos et al) on DVD through there.

Palm and Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Cooperation

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

From Palm InfoCenter, Palm and Sony Ericsson have annouced their plans for Bluetooth interoperability:

The two companies plan to work closely together to enable out-of-the-box compatibility between Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Palm Powered handhelds. Users of future Bluetooth-enabled products will be able to more easily access information, entertainment, and communicate across a wide variety of devices — without cumbersome cords and wires.

For example, a user could select a phone number from a Palm Powered handheld device and have it automatically dialed on the SonyEricsson mobile phone — via the Bluetooth wireless technology. […]

Now that’s cool. I suppose I may just be buying a Sony Ericsson for my next mobile phone ;).

Wireless Minutes

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

Looking over CNN.com, I found this article on “What to do with all those wireless minutes?”. And, I can relate to much of what they speak about.

A more extreme solution for using free wireless minutes has been to ditch the wires altogether and use cellular for all calls, whether local or long distance. But less than 2 percent of Americans have ditched their regular phone and gone all-wireless, according to Diercks.

Ah, that would be me ;). Actually, I’ve arranged with Jason to split the landline with him. Previously, I only used my mobile phone for all calls, but I figured that the quality of a landline may be handy for job interviews and such.

One way to address such issues, at least partly, is to attach a cell phone to a docking station that connects with a regular telephone to mimic the experience of a normal call. Such devices can also come with a special antenna to improve wireless reception indoors.

“If they didn’t have quality issues in the home environment, people would optimize their cell phone minutes,” said Mark Isaacson of WHP Wireless, a Melville, New York-based company that makes one such device, the CellSocket.

Another base station named VoxLink is produced by Vox2 of Northborough, Massachusetts. Both products, which sell for $100 and up, only work with a limited but growing number of cell phone models.

Those devices sound quite convenient — almost giving the best of both worlds, if you will. But, given my current state of (non) employment, I’m trying to cut down on my spending. So, I won’t be buying either the Vox Link or the CellSocket at the moment.