I’ve had my Samsung i320 for over 9 months now, and I have to say that I still love it! For thsoe that know what kind of gadget fiend I am, will be surprised. Usually by now, I’d be itching for something newer and better. I admit I was rather envious when the Cingular Blackjack came out. But I just didn’t think that the HDSPA or Wifi made up for the slower processor and shorter battery life. My friend Kenny is probably even more of gadget-afficionado. When I met up with him a few weeks ago, I wasn’t surprised that he had a Blackjack. With first hand experience, Kenny told me that the Blackjack’s problems were a horribly short battery life (unless he turned off HDSPA) and that the key-response was very slow.
A few days ago, I stumbled across Kooldesignz, which that lots of great looking (and free!) skins. Essentially designed for the Motorola Q, they also work great on my i320 (because the two devices have the same resolution and screen size).
Everytime I travel overseas, I turn off my unlimtied PDA data plan. And then have to turn it back on, when I get back to the US. The problems arise when speaking with Cingular Customer Service. Whatever system they use, don’t seem to be able to handle non-Cingular phones when it comes time to add/remove data plans. I’m not sure why that is, and when I mention “Samsung i320″ they always seem to go into a tail-spin. They don’t have an issue with me having a non-Cingular phone, they just don’t know how to enter it into their system. They insist on needing to know my IMEI number, and even their system doesn’t seem to want to register it.
Anyway, I’ve since learnt that you can move past this stalemate by telling them one of two things:
The second option (telling them that it’s a “Cingular Blackjack”) is the much faster and smoother option, but I’m not sure if I have an ethical dilemma with not being completely truthful…
Well, I’m not going to waste your time or mine, trying to catch you up on the past 36 years of my life. This blog is about the stuff I learn going through life, from today onwards.
As the Internet-fueled global economy and marketplace expands, it is easy to buy an “unlocked” phone to work with your current cellular provider. I did just that a few months ago, picking up one of the latest Windows Mobile 5.0 devices (Samsung i320N). Of course, one of the things you don’t really think about when scoping out that cool new phone, is how to actually get the damn thing to work with your cellular provider! An unlocked phone doesn’t have all the access point codes, username and passwords required to actually connect it to the Internet!
After much searching, I pieced together information that worked with my provider, Cingular. This is what I learnt…
GPRS SETTINGS (connects to EDGE where available… not sure about HSDPA as my phone can’t do that) Description: MEdia Net GPRS Connects to: The Internet Access point: wap.cingular User Name: WAP@CINGULARGPRS.COM (typed in UPPERCASE) Password: CINGULAR1 (typed in UPPERCASE) Primary DNS: (leave blank) or all zeros (0.0.0.0) Secondary DNS: (leave blank) or all zeros (0.0.0.0) IP address: (leave blank) or all zeros (0.0.0.0)
PROXY SETTING Description: Cingular WAP Connects from: The Internet Connects to: WAP Network Proxy (name:port): wireless.cingular.com:80 (type in lowercase) Type: HTTP User name: (leave blank) Password: (leave blank)
Internet connection: Automatic Work connection: Automatic WAP connection: Automatic Secure WAP connection: Automatic
INTERNET EXPLORER SETTING Internet Explorer -> Menu -> Options -> Connections: uncheck (Automatically detect settings.) Select network: WAP Netwok
MMS Profiles Name: Cingular MMS MMSC URL: http://mmsc.cingular.com WAP Gateway: 66.209.11.32 Port: 80
Smith