[quote=“Ah Q”]As mentioned, if you use the internet mostly for plain text emails and googling stuff or checking the news, you’re unlikely to use up monstrous amounts of data. Just don’t go streaming anything.[/quote]In my experience, checking the news and doing a fair bit of Googling does use quite a lot of data. It certainly pushed me over my 399 NT. But for the months when I mostly just checked e-mails and did the odd web search for a restaurant or something, 399 was usually enough.
I use a mobile version of my favourite news site, which is text based and avoids any heavy (image) loading unless I specifically click on a link to do so. That might have helped me limit my data usage.
It’s a good idea anyway to check if your favourite websites have a mobile version (often they put an ‘m’ in front of the address, so, for example, m.forumosa.com).
I use a mobile version of my favourite news site, which is text based and avoids any heavy (image) loading unless I specifically click on a link to do so. That might have helped me limit my data usage.
It’s a good idea anyway to check if your favourite websites have a mobile version (often they put an ‘m’ in front of the address, so, for example, m.forumosa.com).[/quote]Yeah, that does save bandwidth, definitely. Google has a lot of good mobile-related stuff. If you use Google Mobile search, the default behavior is that any links you click from there on are formatted by Google until you specifically select the full HTML version.
The Google Mobile Reader is also set up really nicely, with just the minimum text needed, and with numeric keypad shortcuts to save your fingers.
Still, my advice to everyone is to not switch to the 99 NT rate thinking that you’re not going to use much data any more and then go ahead and read a bunch of blog postings and stuff anyway! 
I know CHT offers a combined 3G/WiFly tariff, I dunno about Taiwan Mobile.
CHT also offer different rates for 2/2.5G and 3/3.5G and they even have different voice plans depending on which type of contract you want and I think their 3G deals includes the option for video calls.
This is their 3G plans and this is their 2G plans and as you can clearly see, the data charges are quite different and so is the top monthly fee.
I never said you got voice calls thrown in for free with the unlimited 3G tariff, but again, their voice plans for 3G are quite different to their voice plans for 2G.
You don’t need a data plan to use either, but you end up paying more per MB than if you got a data plan.
From what I remember having seen, the WiFly add-on is something like NT$300 or 400 a month, but that might’ve been a special deal with 3G dongles.
It seems like you can just sign up for WiFly and they got a range of different deals, but I can’t really read it so… but it’s all here.
For some reason it looks like they’re charging a fat premium, for PDA, phone, PSP and iPod Touch users…
Edit - Ok, I was wrong, it’s FarEastTone that has the joint 3G/WiFly tariffs… got it mixed up…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]I know CHT offers a combined 3G/WiFly tariff, I dunno about Taiwan Mobile.
CHT also offer different rates for 2/2.5G and 3/3.5G and they even have different voice plans depending on which type of contract you want and I think their 3G deals includes the option for video calls.
This is their 3G plans and this is their 2G plans and as you can clearly see, the data charges are quite different and so is the top monthly fee.
I never said you got voice calls thrown in for free with the unlimited 3G tariff, but again, their voice plans for 3G are quite different to their voice plans for 2G.[/quote]I guess the solution is to not use CHT if you want 2G/2.5G data services! That seems like a hugely complicated pricing structure, and as far as I can make out, there’s no unlimited data plan as such and the maximum data charge is always 4000 NT! Unless that’s old information and they haven’t updated the website or something.
I find TWM’s pricing a lot easier to understand.
[quote=“joesax”]That’s quite a high monthly rate for phone calls/SMS’s. If you don’t spend that much then why not go onto a cheaper plan anyway?
Do you mean that you’d send e-mails instead of SMSing? I wouldn’t be able to do that. When I send an SMS it’s usually because I need to make sure the other person gets it straight away.[/quote]
My mobile phone bill is frequently in the range NT$1500-2000, but a big part of that is SMS. I have a tendency to dream something up and need to tell someone about it. With that bloody full keyboard, a ‘quick’ message easily becomes 600 characters, and it’s not unknown for me to send more than one like that. The recipients are usually people who could also receive emails on their phones. But we don’t communicate by email because… no good reason.
Actually the real reason is that nothing is simple. The Treo versamail thingy synchs with Outlook and I use Thunderbird. There may be other options but they’re not readily available. You can’t just call TWM and say ‘let there be internet,’ you have to negotiate plans and stuff. And the whole world of Wifi is a complete mystery to me. I’m a classic example of ‘customer inertia’ in not adopting new technology because it’s being introduced by people who are doing everything for their convenience instead of for mine.
If what Joe is saying is also true for me - email only and not much bandwidth required - then it’s probably a fair proposition to drop my call plan to $800-1000 and spend the extra on internet access.
But here’s a question: How fast is internet access for a desktop computer using bluetooth and 3G phone? My landline contract is almost up, and I don’t even have a phone at home. The line is only for internet. Is it feasible to give up having a land line at all and rely on my unlimited internet for $800? (I don’t leave the computer doing anything online when I’m not home?
Alternative question: I know it’s kind of pointless, but could a phone connect to your home wireless network and get online that way? Erm… maybe less pointlessly, could your computer connect to your phone using wifi instead of bluetooth, and from there to the internet via 3G?
My ingredients :
HTC Touch Diamond (I change my Smartphone- PDA each 6 months)
a “3G” plan from Fareastone “All you can eat” @ 675 NTD/month (unlimited connection )
Skype mobile (free calls thanks to the above 3G support)
An inluded GPS receiver with maps
4Gig of music and video’s
…and all the other software which you might need or dream of.
Leaving aside the rate plan thingy, here’s another question.
I have six years worth of my life stored in my current phone. It’s also backed up and visible on my desktop computer, and I’ve managed in the past to transport this data between various devices all running the same Palm software.
But that software hasn’t been supported for years, which is a pity cos I like it a lot. So now I have to buy something else and worry about converting my data over. Is there a nice tool anywhere that offers the “import Palm data into your Symbian thingy” option?
I started to look at this a while ago and learned that to go from Palm calendar to iCalendar format I needed to export, import to Yahoo calendar, export again, import to Google Cal, and export again in iCalendar format. Naturally, you lose data along the way and the thought of doing this fills me with the screaming heebie-jeebies.
There’s a slight improvement on this available now, using gcalsync.com/ to enable 2-way synchronization between a Google calendar and phone. This is brilliant stuff, if you’ve first copied everything over from Palm. But what about contacts, notes, to-do lists, and all that?
I want it all to work together, the way God intended when she gave us those sheep genes. No thinking required.
OK, I can convert Palm contact data to Outlook format. I have no idea if I even have Outlook on my computer though. Then I guess I can import it to Symbian. Ngggghhh!! This is the sound of me biting through my own top lip.
Here’s something: A friend of mine has been playing with a business-card scanner, which will read both sides of the card, in English and Chinese, and even store the logo. It puts everything in a database that can apparently be exported to Outlook, although I think you need to play with language settings a lot to make everything work OK. I have this silly fantasy that I should be able to run a weekly or monthly scan of all the cards I’ve collected, click a few buttons, and have all those contacts appear in my phone. I dare anyone to tell me it’s possible.
Also, I use a secretarial service to handle appointments for my teaching and consulting gigs. They also chase payments, etc. So I need someone in an office looking at the same calendar I use on my home computer and on my phone, and we both need to be able to edit that calendar. We’ve tried putting the Palm software on a computer at the company, but that requires me to go into their office in order to synch calendars. Currently, we’re using an online calendar viewable through my website. This is good because it allows different people to see different ‘views’. (eg public and private events) I could also use this software to allow people to register for events, etc. But I’ve held off on doing anything because this calendar won’t synch with the phone.
As there’s no mobile template for the calendar it’s no good just looking at it from the phone. I’ve hunted around for different options, but none of the versatile calendar apps are geared up for mobile users. My favourite was Thyme - extrosoft.com/ - which in theory can function as a great co-ordination tool for people who are working together. But no mobile interface, and no synch with phone calendar apps. The latter is confusing for me, because the website makes a big deal about being iCalendar compatible.
iCalendar is supposed to be a standard for calendars to enable information exchange, adopted by many people including Google. (iCal, on the other hand, is an Apple product using iCalendar.) I found apps that enable Google calendars to synch with iCal and Outlook, but if this is all done with the iCalendar standard then why do you have to be using Google Cal? Why not Thyme, on your own server?
GoogleCal is fairly limited, and I also don’t like putting all my personal data into their hands. Forgetting the latter, I’m still not sure if I can embed a Google calendar on my site that will display selected events to some people and everything to me. It’s all frustratingly almost possible but never quite what you want.
The best bet so far seems to be funambol - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funambol - but at the moment it’s a nerd-thing. I looked at it, and my secretarial service is interested in setting up their own funambol server, but it’s still too butt-ugly and non-intuitive. If they or someone can make it sexy it’ll mean Blackberry-style push-email on any phone and interoperability between everything. That’s what they tell me anyway. I can’t understand half of it.
Anyway, I’ve forgotten what I was asking for at the start. Can someone remind me of the important questions?
[quote=“Loretta”]
Alternative question: I know it’s kind of pointless, but could a phone connect to your home wireless network and get online that way? Erm… maybe less pointlessly, could your computer connect to your phone using wifi instead of bluetooth, and from there to the internet via 3G?[/quote]
My company makes a Wireless Portable Hotspot just for this kind of situation: global.level1.com/products2.php? … PC1thId=11 (Please forgive our website, it’s going through a big redesign!)
All you need to do is plug in your 3G SIM card to a USB modem and then the internet juice is sent over the air wirelessly. So not only can you access the internet, you can also share it. Anyone that comes over to your house will be able to access it using WiFi on their laptop or their phone. It also has a LAN port so you can create a pretty robust home network, all built around your 3G internet service.
Glad you checked on the TWM situation with the Nokia E71. My contract has long expired so all the data rate info you guys have uncovered is really useful. I figured I’d have to buy this phone outright. Maybe that’s better because usually the phone + plan deals make you sign for another 2 years.
Gonna read through all that 3G info again to make sure I know what rate to sign up for.
Rumors say the HTC Dream will be released in a couple weeks.
This is a Google Android based phone.
The Dream is US only for now afaik, although there’s a rumour about it going on sale in the UK as well.
However, there’s the HTC Touch 3G and even more interesting, the HTC Touch HD coming, so for those that aren’t in too much of a hurry…
Some networks sell the E71 here, but I guess if you want to keep your current number, then that could be an issue…
MyPhone has a promotion this month. The HTC Diamond is free if you sign up for a new number/2 year contract. FREE! I’m really tempted to sell my Sony Ericsson and get a new phone number… I would not use the new phone number, I’d just keep using the old sim card. I wonder what the monthly minimum fee would be if I never use the sim card. Must resist temptation…
marboulette
[quote=“marboulette”]MyPhone has a promotion this month. The HTC Diamond is free if you sign up for a new number/2 year contract. FREE! I’m really tempted to sell my Sony Ericsson and get a new phone number… I would not use the new phone number, I’d just keep using the old sim card. I wonder what the monthly minimum fee would be if I never use the sim card. Must resist temptation…
marboulette[/quote]MyPhone’s TWM, right? I looked at that deal. You’ll be paying a total of around 2,500 NT per month to get that “free” phone. Alright if you already pay a lot every month for your phone and data charges, I guess.
[Edit: if you still want to use your old number you might be able to swap it over for a small charge, though.]
You can only do that if you’re on the same network afaik, it’s not as easy to transfer your number here as in other parts of the world.
And phones are never free here and 2.5k a month is a lot to pay in this country, so in other words, you end up spread the cost of the phone over two years…
Just saw this if anyone dares buying a Moto with Linux on it 
At least it’s cheap, but I’m not sure if it qualifies as a smartphone as it doesn’t have 3G or WiFi from what I can see…
[quote=“TheLostSwede”]Just saw this if anyone dares buying a Moto with Linux on it
At least it’s cheap, but I’m not sure if it qualifies as a smartphone as it doesn’t have 3G or WiFi from what I can see…[/quote]It’s got a touchscreen though. And “smart” enough, surely? I haven’t seen any definitions of “smartphone” that restrict it to 3G/Wi-fi devices only. Surely anything qualifies that does e-mail, browsing, media, and some document processing; and is fairly easy for third parties to develop for?
Yeah, I know that last requirement puts the first gen iPhone in an interesting position… 
But actually I’m more thinking of Nokia machines with S40 (featurephones) versus S60 (Symbian OS smartphones).
I looked it up. You’re right, it’s not free. Not even close… It’s NT$ 19,000! No wonder I thought it was a sweet deal. :s It’s free if you sign up for two years, but it’s only free until you get your first monthly bill… I looked it up. Sorry for lapse of reason… The NT$ 0 advertisement says 0% interest on the credit card (participating credit cards only), not NT$ 0.
That company always has a model or two advertised as free if you sign up. I thought this was a nicer offer for a change. I was dreaming. I guess I’ll have to make due without for a while. That’s waaaay over my budget.
marboulette
[quote=“marboulette”]I looked it up. You’re right, it’s not free. Not even close… It’s NT$ 19,000! No wonder I thought it was a sweet deal. :s It’s free if you sign up for two years, but it’s only free until you get your first monthly bill… I looked it up. Sorry for lapse of reason… The NT$ 0 advertisement says 0% interest on the credit card (participating credit cards only), not NT$ 0.
That company always has a model or two advertised as free if you sign up. I thought this was a nicer offer for a change. I was dreaming. I guess I’ll have to make due without for a while. That’s waaaay over my budget.
marboulette[/quote]
Well, there is a totally “free” one, with that 2,500 NT monthly plan. And there are a couple of options in between. 19,000 NT sounds alright, actually, if it doesn’t require you to take on any particular higher rate data or voice plan. You still save a couple of thousand NT on the list price, right?
Well I might still be a bit confused. But I thought I was told that it was not exactly free at all. But yes, there is a substantial discount for signing up. Good for someone who is in the market for such an expensive phone and who needs to renew a contract with a phone company.
marboulette
Don’t know if you’ve seen this site: www.sogi.com.tw (shou3 ji1…ha ha ha)
But it lists pretty much every phone and where to get it and what the price would be with different contracts.
For the E71: sogi.com.tw/price/productpri … ro_no=4217
Just go to the drop down menus below the photo and you can choose:
- Location
- Cell phone provider
- Your desired plan (3G, 688/month, for 12 months is what I think will work for me)
Then you get a huge list of locations around Taipei where you can get the phone as well as see the prices.