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A digression, if I may:

Do you have any difficulties send SMS (text messages) from US phones to abroad? I’m asking because my American friends had trouble replying, although they received my messages just fine.

Are there technical barriers that I don’t know about? Were my friends just having "finger trouble"? Or has that option been removed due to a request from Homeland Security?

Curious...

That's where the CDMA carriers are ahead. They have EV-DO with real-world speeds of 500-800k, often in the higher part of that range. T-Mobile is still stuck at EDGE speeds, around 130k. Cingular has some HSDPA deployment that is said to be close to 1mb, but since they have such a horrible customer service reputation (JD Power rated "D") I would not consider using them or recommending them to clients.


No, the CDMA carriers are just ignorant, arrogant, greedy bastards. There is no reason for this to be unreliable.

Here in South east Asia, you can stick most any SIM into most any phone, anywhere. Roaming (as long as the agreements between carriers are in place) is as easy as switching on your dog and selecting the carrier of your choice. At the airports herearounds, the Arrivals halls are a barrage of carrier ads, trying to get your custom. Loadsachoice - but do your homework on charges.

I visited the UK a few years back and made £80 of local calls and when I got back to Thailand, my carrier had ramped that bill up to (equiv.) £320 with "operator charges". I have a prepaid UK SIM now and use that. Much cheaper for the time I spend there.

We are having fun ATM with chronically overloaded networks and SMS sometimes arrive a week late. Bizarre, or what?

Roaming my Thai BlackBerry in the UK for a month cost me 25 quid in "operator charges" but I do get stacks of email, so I complain not.

My 2 Baht.
GB

Apple’s iPhone -- learning lessons from Sony?
 

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CNN has an interesting article on potential stumbling blocks, and in particular lessons a wiser Apple might learn from Sony’s mistakes.

Merry Crimble to One and All....

I hope Apple stay independent of a Carrier, or Carriers. Actually, I am sure they will. Sell the device in-store, just like the Nano, etc. Makes sense for them and would be more in keeping with the SJ strategy of controlling the user-experience.

I want on-handed operation and decent pda functions. That'll do nicely. An Appleised Blackberry, if you will.

Wait a minute, why does the Desktop icon of the iPhone mimic that of WinXP's Desktop icon?