New old phone
I'm no longer a slave to Verizon Wireless. Two years ago, my college friend/housemate and I got in a "family plan". A couple of months after that, we added her boyfriend to the plan. He turned out to be a jerk and - to make a long story short and to respect other people's privacy - they broke up. Moral of the story: don't get in a family plan with someone you're dating. Or to quote the Bible, He who puts up security for another will surely suffer, but whoever refuses to strike hands in pledge is safe.
She dropped out of the phone contract later in order to sever all links with her ex - even paying the $175 early-termination fee - so I was stuck with being the account holder. It was ridiculous because the ex and I had 700 minutes/month between us. I generally used less than 200 and he didn't use an awful lot more.
What also sucked was that I got used to SMS-ing a lot in Malaysia. Hotlink Prepaid messages are 15 SEN. Verizon messages are 15 CENTS - yes, one of the skills you have to learn as an international student is to not convert currency otherwise you go crazy, but it's still damn ex.
I'm on Einstein Wireless now. It's a small Wisconsin-based GSM provider. I wanted to be on a GSM network so I could use my "new" phone, which is a Sony Ericsson T610 which I bought secondhand in Low Yat Plaza last year. Ironically it was already several years old at the time, but still far more advanced than the primitive Nokia that came with my Verizon plan...
At the moment I'm just trying out Einstein's prepaid cards. The nice thing about having an unlocked phone and using prepaid with no contract is that if you don't like your provider, you can switch easily.
Silly Americans =)
Farking Verizon >(
No idea why, but I can't receive incoming text messages even though I bought the Feature Card (for data), although I can send them all right. So, until Einstein customer support gets this sorted out, if you're a friend who knows my phone number you can SMS me from the internet here.
Labels: electronics
posted by xenobiologista @ 23:33
4 Comments:
The Sony Ericsson T610 is a really nice phone. For years, Vicky and I had T-Mobile (GSM/GPRS), so I was limited to the T-Mobile offerings. We went through the Sidekick, Color Sidekick, Motorola V600, and the Sony Ericsson T610. The SE T610 was a much better phone that the Motorola V600... fewer issues, same features, Symbian, and Bluetooth. I used the GPRS (data) connection to get internet on my Apple PowerBook when WiFi wasn't available.
Phones and PDAs tend to last about a year for/with me. I'm hard on both, use both heavily. I got a Nokia N800 a few months ago and absolutely loved it. Now I'm already looking to pass it off as a hand-me-down as I upgrade to the Nokia N810.
A long while ago, I found a website with charts and links for how to configure GSM/GPRS (which SMS uses). I was using it to configure all my devices. I couldn't find an entry for Einstein Wireless, but you're welcome to take a look.
You're likely having a configuration issue if you can send but not receive. Check your APN, check your login, and check your DNS settings. Is there an "Einstein Wireless Tech Support" who has all their settings memorized? =)
"yes, one of the skills you have to learn as an international student is to not convert currency otherwise you go crazy, but it's still damn ex."
It really depends on how you're doing the conversion. Conversion according to the international exchange rate is merely a measure of demand for Malaysian currency in foreign markets for the purpose of turning around and buying a Malaysian product, or for Malaysians to buy foreign currencies and products. This gets further distorted by governments manipulating the currency markets in order to achieve certain goals in imports, exports and interest rates.
Stuff like the Big Mac index means it not as bad in terms of real purchasing power, since the Ringgit is 50% undervalued according to that measurement. The exchange rate would be four Ringgit to the dollar, but the true domestic purchasing power is more like two Ringgit to the dollar.
And since you're being paid in dollars when you work here, there's no reason to worry about the official exchange rate. The Big Mac rate or gold prices are much more accurate measurements for your purposes.
Ken: what's APN? and DNS is something to do with WAP internet access right? Granted I don't know much about this stuff but isn't that a separate thing from SMS?
(I've come to the conclusion that, atm only other Einstein users can SMS me from their phones. Tech support is trying to figure out why.)
Eric: The issue isn't how much of an economic impact one text message has on me. The issue is that 15 cents for one SMS is FARKING DAYLIGHT ROBBERY.
APN is an Access Point Name. It's the gateway/relay through which all your web browsing, SMS, and everything-besides-phone-calls ("GPRS data") goes through. Typically APNs require logins to keep folks from other networks from logging in. APNs will also check to see that you're on the same network as they are (to keep a Cingular customer from using a Einstein APN).
DNS entries will help convert the APN name to an IP address, as well as all your WAP internet access.
All this stuff is the GPRS configuration of your phone, used for everything for besides voice calls (GSM). Having a bad GPRS configuration will impact your WAP, SMS, and every other feature that uses the GPRS settings.
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