Sprint Phone-as-a-modem
So I recently got a Palm Treo 700p and I loved it. My wife got a 650 and I have to say that with the exception of EV-DO (broadband wireless internet access) they are basically the same phone.
That being said I have been really happy with the phone. My favorite feature is the ability to use my phone as a broadband modem with the EV-DO network. I use Sprint (since they are actually cool about data plans) and pay an extra $40/month for unlimited broadband access.
Right now, for instance, I’m sitting in the airport waiting for a flight and I can surf the internet without paying the ridiculously high price the airport charges ($10/day or something). I also downloaded (and purchased for $35) PDANet which allows me to use my phone as a modem through bluetooth (meaning no wires). Sprint’s connection manager doesn’t allow this and seems a little bit flaky.
If you’re in the market for a new phone that will let you do email, web surfing and connect your laptop to the internet I highly recommend the Treo 700p.
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For those of you who might want to do this without paying extra for a “special” laptop data plan or software to allow you to use the bluetooth you already paid for, check this out:
Tethered mode hack (disables ‘tether’ bit so all usage appears to be from the device):
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=115986&highlight=sprint+bluetooth+dun
Sprint Bluetooth manager hack:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=63250&highlight=sprint+bluetooth+dun
The treo was designed to do BT DUN, but like all great things the corporate powers crippled it to try to squeeze more money out of you.
Also, the difference between tethered data and data to your device is NOTHING. A CSR once told me you have to pay extra because the screen on your laptop is bigger and therefore downloads more data. With things like MobiTV and EVDO it’s possible to use just as much bandwidth or more on a POS flip phone as it is on your laptop - so they have no grounds for charging you more.
Comment by Sam — August 30, 2006 @ 10:55 am
Sam, sorry, but it’s not true that the difference between tethered data and data to your device is NOTHING.
I tried this first because I was told the same thing. The Treo, however, has problems with Javascript and logging into a VPN - I could do neither with the two hacks that I tried. PAM (phone as a modem) allows me to do both.
Comment by admin — September 3, 2006 @ 8:14 pm
[…] I’m going to try to be good about sharing information that I pick up here. Apparently the show has free Wifi, which is awesome, but if that fails me I’ll just use my phone as a modem. […]
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