Help me with moblie office?

Gonna buy a laptop

Gonna buy a mobile printer

Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
sort

Gonna do all soon.... before next fall.... before
college starts. But since time is always on my side
when buying hi tech hardware I not gonna do it TILL I
need it.

Now.... can someone tell me how I can "tether" my smart
phone to my laptop to get Net service no matter where
I'm at?

Anyone doing that?

If yes.. what plan and service for cell phone you have
and does "tethering work OK?

wrote:
>
> Gonna buy a laptop
>
> Gonna buy a mobile printer
>
> Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
> sort
>
> Gonna do all soon.... before next fall.... before
> college starts. But since time is always on my side
> when buying hi tech hardware I not gonna do it TILL I
> need it.
>
> Now.... can someone tell me how I can "tether" my smart
> phone to my laptop to get Net service no matter where
> I'm at?
>
> Anyone doing that?
>
> If yes.. what plan and service for cell phone you have
> and does "tethering work OK?

Check out Sprint, Verizon, and their respective newgroups
(alt.cellular.sprintpcs and alt.cellular.verizon).

Notan

Notan wrote:
> wrote:
>
>>Gonna buy a laptop
>>
>>Gonna buy a mobile printer
>>
>>Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
>>sort
>>
>>Gonna do all soon.... before next fall.... before
>>college starts. But since time is always on my side
>>when buying hi tech hardware I not gonna do it TILL I
>>need it.
>>
>>Now.... can someone tell me how I can "tether" my smart
>>phone to my laptop to get Net service no matter where
>>I'm at?
>>
>>Anyone doing that?
>>
>>If yes.. what plan and service for cell phone you have
>>and does "tethering work OK?
>
>
> Check out Sprint, Verizon, and their respective newgroups
> (alt.cellular.sprintpcs and alt.cellular.verizon).
>
> Notan

The site I'd recommend for anything mobile phone related is HoFo
(howardforums.com).

On Wed, 17 May 2006 16:00:23 -0500, wrote:

>Gonna buy a laptop

OK

>Gonna buy a mobile printer

Why?

>Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
>sort

I'd compare a smartphone vs. a dedicated cell and dedicated PDA.

>Now.... can someone tell me how I can "tether" my smart
>phone to my laptop to get Net service no matter where
>I'm at?

How much money do you want to spend?

>Anyone doing that?
>
>If yes.. what plan and service for cell phone you have
>and does "tethering work OK?

The details depend on provider.

If you only need e-mail access, a Treo 700w, 650p, or 700p can do the
trick.

If you want full 'net access then you can get a laptop card from a
provider such as Cingular for ~ $79 / month if you want unlimited
access.

I would compare that price with whatever "data plan" you can get for
accessing via smartphone.

I tried the above plan for my trial month and then decided it wasn't
worth the cost.

Right now I know where open hotspots are and they serve my needs. Many
schools have good free wireless, so if that's the case for you then
you might not need extra service.

I have a Treo 650p which I can use to access my gmail, charter, and
aol (which I will cancel soon) e-mail. I can either get it on demand
or have it checked every so often (which I rarely do).

Sprint and Verizon will be the first to get the Treo 700p.

The 650p, 700p, and 700w all sync well to MS Outlook contacts.

I would check the groups that the other people posted about and think
through your needs and costs before signing a contract or buying an
expensive smartphone.

FWIW,

Journey

journey <> wrote:


>>Gonna buy a mobile printer
>
>Why?

Am downsizing and going back to college this fall.
Will get laptop and mobile printer so make it easier to
lug around

Bottom line.... I'm just doing this in all areas of my
life.... getting rid of stuff that's NOT mobile.

>>Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
>>sort
>
>I'd compare a smartphone vs. a dedicated cell and dedicated PDA.

Why

>If you want full 'net access then you can get a laptop card from a
>provider such as Cingular for ~ $79 / month if you want unlimited
>access.

So you feel that "tethering" or eve getting a broadband
card for your laptop is just NOT worth the expense?

>I have a Treo 650p which I can use to access my gmail, charter, and
>aol (which I will cancel soon) e-mail. I can either get it on demand
>or have it checked every so often (which I rarely do).

Why are you canceling your Treo?

What will you do for cell phone next?

Hi, see you below under quoted text. It helps to know you're going
back to college and going with a "mobile lifestyle". For everything
below assume the qualifier "for me", i.e. that is what I would do.

On Thu, 18 May 2006 10:14:37 -0500, wrote:

>Am downsizing and going back to college this fall.
>Will get laptop and mobile printer so make it easier to
>lug around

I would have a quality printer back in my apartment or dorm room. I
would never lug around a portable printer. If I have a need to print
something on campus, I would print to Acrobat .pdf or Microsoft
Digital Imaging .mdi, save that to a flash drive, and then print using
a campus printer.

>>I'd compare a smartphone vs. a dedicated cell and dedicated PDA.
>
>Why

Because dedicated PDA's are more powerful (bigger screens, faster
processors) usually than smartphones. With everything there are
tradeoffs, and this is one option to consider. An Axim X51v is more
powerful than a Windows smartphone. A Palm TX is more powerful than a
Treo (although Palm skimped and didn't include voice recording).

>>If you want full 'net access then you can get a laptop card from a
>>provider such as Cingular for ~ $79 / month if you want unlimited
>>access.
>
>So you feel that "tethering" or eve getting a broadband
>card for your laptop is just NOT worth the expense?

I feel that it is not worth my expense right now because I am not a
student. If I were a student, and if free wireless hot spots were not
where I would do a lot of my work, then the solution I would most want
would be a laptop card with unlimited access. The Cingular one I
tried worked very well with good speeds.

I wouldn't tether myself using a cell phone as a modem. It would be a
pain to have to worry about two batteries (the phone and the laptop)
and chances are the connection wouldn't be as reliable as with a
dedicated laptop card. I would only use a phone as a modem if I
needed it to check e-mail occasionally.

>>I have a Treo 650p which I can use to access my gmail, charter, and
>>aol (which I will cancel soon) e-mail. I can either get it on demand
>>or have it checked every so often (which I rarely do).
>
>Why are you canceling your Treo?

I am cancelling AOL not the Treo. I love the Treo. Because my life
isn't that complicated now, the smaller screen of the Treo for
calendar, contacts, and to-do's is just fine. I am going to sell some
PDA's on ebay or maybe Craig's list with portable keyboards and cases.
I will still have a Zire 72 (Palm PDA) if I should decide that I want
a PDA in addition to the Treo

>What will you do for cell phone next?

My Treo is my cell phone. I get unlimited service for $69 / month and
can call anywhere within the U.S. (not sure about Canada) for free
regardless of what time it is. That enabled me to drop my Cingular
cell phone and my home phone. I am currently paying $10.00 a month to
be able to use their data services unlimited so I can surf then net
using my Treo (who would want to, not me) and get e-mail. I am just
going to find out an easy way to get weather forecasts, news, stock
prices, movie times, etc. I need to find a source of "web pages" made
for PDA screens. Maybe Avant Go has something dynamic, I don't know.
Using Google I am sure I can find something useful.

My needs / wants may be totally different from yours. Hopefully this
has given you some info. / ideas to come up with a solution that will
work well for you.

Journey

journey <> wrote:

>I would have a quality printer back in my apartment or dorm room. I
>would never lug around a portable printer.

Agree

Poor choice of words on my part I guess. I want a
portable printer cause it is smaller and more compact
and "transportable". I didn't mean to imply that I
would carry it with me EVERY day. Just that it would be
easier to transport. I would still use campus printers
and USB key.

>My Treo is my cell phone. I get unlimited service for $69 / month and
>can call anywhere within the U.S. (not sure about Canada) for free
>regardless of what time it is. That enabled me to drop my Cingular
>cell phone and my home phone. I am currently paying $10.00 a month to
>be able to use their data services unlimited s

So you find the email via Treo indispensable but think
surfing web pages on it a real pain?

Question..... could I access my Google email acct using
a Treo? That's the only email I use anymore... web
based

I think Journey posed some good questions, and I'll answer from my
perspective (I just recently finished my BS in EE, and will likely be
back in a couple years for grad school).

wrote:
> journey <> wrote:
>
>>>Gonna buy a mobile printer
>>
>>Why?
>
> Am downsizing and going back to college this fall.
> Will get laptop and mobile printer so make it easier to
> lug around
>
> Bottom line.... I'm just doing this in all areas of my
> life.... getting rid of stuff that's NOT mobile.
>

I agree with Journey, I'd say it's much more valuable to get a decent
computer. Virtually every campus will have printers abound, and worst
case you can always hit kinkos on the road. You never mentioned your
job, but if you're doing true field work and the probability of finding
a printer is low (but your confident you can get a power source) well
then maybe I'd consider a mobile printer in that case.

>
>>>Gonna buy me a new cell phone...smart phone of some
>>>sort
>>
>>I'd compare a smartphone vs. a dedicated cell and dedicated PDA.
>
> Why
>
I totally agree, with Journey; although they are similar devices, each
has its own advantages. Personally I'm not a big fan of the form
factors of most smartphones (IMO way too large), I do like the Nokia
9XXX series, but my carrier doesn't offer it.
>
>>If you want full 'net access then you can get a laptop card from a
>>provider such as Cingular for ~ $79 / month if you want unlimited
>>access.
>
>
> So you feel that "tethering" or eve getting a broadband
> card for your laptop is just NOT worth the expense?
>
The cost for tethering varies per carrier, with a couple (most noteably
Verizon) having loopholes which let you do it fairly cheap (although in
the Verizon case there are numerous horror stories of gigantic bills
when Verizon got wise of someone). Also keep in mind that tethering
ties up your phone line, so having a dedicated laptop card may be an
advantage. Also note that some of the new machines have ExpressCard
slots as opposed to PCMCIA slots, so be sure your cellular provider
offers the appropriate type of card if you go down that route. Also,
the $80 price Journey quotes is quite accurate for dedicated data plans
(it's the same for Verizon); the carriers with better data deals are
T-Mobile and Sprint.
>
>>I have a Treo 650p which I can use to access my gmail, charter, and
>>aol (which I will cancel soon) e-mail. I can either get it on demand
>>or have it checked every so often (which I rarely do).
>
>
> Why are you canceling your Treo?
>
> What will you do for cell phone next?

Personally I'm not too impressed with the Treo (again I don't care for
the form factor, but I also don't like its OS). However I do know
people who use them and like them a lot (same can be said about
Blackberries, but if you're not using an exchange server for your email
it's not that useful).

wrote:
> Now.... can someone tell me how I can "tether" my smart
> phone to my laptop to get Net service no matter where
> I'm at?
>
> Anyone doing that?
>
> If yes.. what plan and service for cell phone you have
> and does "tethering work OK?

An article comparing wireless plans from the major cellular providers
just made it to slashdot, you might find the discussions of value, as
well as the linked articles:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.../05/18/2151219

On Thu, 18 May 2006 21:10:33 GMT, Nicholas Andrade
<> wrote:

>Personally I'm not too impressed with the Treo (again I don't care for
>the form factor, but I also don't like its OS). However I do know
>people who use them and like them a lot (same can be said about
>Blackberries, but if you're not using an exchange server for your email
>it's not that useful).

I'm not yet sure I'll keep the Treo; I have until the 26th to decide.
I have a good belt-loop case from Nutshell (a New Zealand company that
makes the best PDA / phone cases at least for my needs).

I'll end up with one of the following:

- Treo 650 and not using the Palm funtions for "project management".
Bonsai, an excellent outliner is unusable for me on the Treo due to
the small screen.

OR

- Nokia 6230 cell (it's great, and unlocked) with Palm TX. The thing
missing is voice recording. I don't want to carry my Sony digital
recorder too. I love the big screen of the Palm TX.

OR

- Nokia 6230 cell with Palm Zire 72. The Zire has voice recording
which is important to me (as things occur during the day I simply
record it and then at the end of the day I go thru the recordings).

OR

- Nokia 6230 cell with Axim X51v. I would have voice recording,
digital ink, but the software is slow and doesn't have the "Zen of
Palm" (which is quickly starting to resemble the old mainframe
green-screens).

-------------------

I think I am going to end up with the Nokia 6230 cell with the Palm
Zire 72. I get a good cell, and a useable Palm with voice recording
and limited ink notes. If I need hotspot wireless access or something
more powerful I'll just use a laptop.

Then I will sell the Palm TX with the universal wireless keyboard and
cases to some lucky soul for around $200, and the Axim X51v with
bluetooth keyboard and cases for around $250. And, I will be saving
the $ that the Treo would cost.

Journey