im waiting for 2g iPhone

[madog]

How do you "connect" your phone to your MBP to get internet?
Does it require a data plan?

This sounds like a newbie question (i'm actually semi-tech savvy) but how would you do that?

Is there ANY way to connect a phone or PDA through bluetooth or something to get internet from the MBP to the phone/PDA?

Basically it involves using your mobile phone as a modem to connect your computer to the internet. It doesn't necessarily require a data plan though if you get charge for the minute or for data downloaded it would be quite pricey if you didn't have a monthly plan. You can either plug in your phone through USB or through bluetooth to connect it to your computer, and with the proper information on your computer you can connect to the internet wherever you are as long as you get a signal on your phone.

The settings necessary for your computer to connect differ depending on your service provider but it usually involves a special number to dial, a name, and a password. Mac OS X [the recent versions at least, 10.4 for sure] has an option when you connect a phone through bluetooth to set it up as a modem.

edit: It also would depend on the phone such as if you had a PDA/Smartphone with Windows Mobile on it I assume it would difficult if not impossible.

 

[MacbookSwitcher]

I think Apple knows the iPhone will never sell in Europe without 3G, which is why they're delaying it until December. They're probably taking the time to add 3G for the European launch.

 

[mkrishnan]

We don't have EDGE and 2.5G will not cut it for some of the features of the iPhone AFAIK so they'll have to offer the UK another option which could easily be 3G.

In the UK, is there *one* 3G data services standard that is interoperable between carriers, or do they use different standards? That is, if you have an unlocked GSM phone in the UK, can you take it from carrier to carrier and retain 3G data services? What's the service? Is it HSDPA?

Also, doesn't your 3G network have EDGE as a backup? I thought the 3G data services associated with GSM were all supposed to be backwards compatible with GPRS and EDGE devices.

 

[MacbookSwitcher]

In the UK, is there *one* 3G data services standard that is interoperable between carriers, or do they use different standards? That is, if you have an unlocked GSM phone in the UK, can you take it from carrier to carrier and retain 3G data services? What's the service? Is it HSDPA?

Also, doesn't your 3G network have EDGE as a backup? I thought the 3G data services associated with GSM were all supposed to be backwards compatible with GPRS and EDGE devices.

Nope. UMTS is not backwards compatible with EDGE.

 

[DrBunsenHoneyde]

I think some people need to stop forgetting about the quality of the lens involved also, I have a 2 year old 6megapixel camera that out performs quality wise any LSR for the same price as when i bought mine. This is not just lens of course but all the gadgets inside aswell. but just because you can crap watever amount of megapixels into a camera doesnt mean its going to be any good.

 

[timmillwood]

How do you "connect" your phone to your MBP to get internet?
Does it require a data plan?

This sounds like a newbie question (i'm actually semi-tech savvy) but how would you do that?

Is there ANY way to connect a phone or PDA through bluetooth or something to get internet from the MBP to the phone/PDA?

I have a Sony K800i on Three here in UK.

I download a k800 driver from somewhere then setup a bluetooth thing in internet connect.

Just search google

 

[buymeaniphone]

I think a 2 MP camera is plenty for a handheld device, its not like I'm going to be printing poster sized prints from it, I've never used anything higher than a VGA and I'm pretty satisfied with it. As for 3G access, I think I'll just rely on wi-fi for super fast browsing, anything is better than what I use on Tmobile now.

 

[apfhex]

If you can imagine using DSL to view a website, I don't think the iPhone should be dramatically worse.

Let's also not forget the iPhone can use Wi-Fi where available, which would be better than EDGE or HSDPA. But I too wouldn't be surprised if they launched in Europe with a 3G version.

As for the camera, lets wait and see how good the 2 megapixels look before complaining. Many phones still have pretty crappy cameras even if they are going up in MP.

And GPS — how many phones come with GPS these days? It could be a nice feature, but I don't know how much consumer demand there is.

 

[Vidd]

In the UK, is there *one* 3G data services standard that is interoperable between carriers, or do they use different standards? That is, if you have an unlocked GSM phone in the UK, can you take it from carrier to carrier and retain 3G data services? What's the service? Is it HSDPA?
Also, doesn't your 3G network have EDGE as a backup? I thought the 3G data services associated with GSM were all supposed to be backwards compatible with GPRS and EDGE devices.

My uncle uses an unlocked Nokia N95 "from" O2 for both 3 and O2 3G services. He's had no problem with that. That includes going cross-boarder.
There's no HSDPA here except for, apparently, a "square mile around London".

3G networks here use 2.5G as a back-up.
3 have a deal with Orange in the UK and Vodafone in Ireland to use their networks when their customers are outside of their service network. Other networks just use their existing 2.5G networks.

 

[mkrishnan]

3G networks here use 2.5G as a back-up.

Ahhh, I keep forgetting that GPRS is considered a 2.5G solution. I've never experienced anything slower than GPRS, nor would I ever care to.

 

[Thanatoast]

Okay, I actually picked up an Economist this weekend that has a special report on wireless. I tsays that "typical performance" of 2G (GSM/CDMA)cellular is 400Kb and 3G (HSPDA/LTE) is 14Mb (that's *bits on both). In contrast it labels Wi-Fi as 54 Mb, so "typical performance" obvioiusly means "standing next to the antenna". So, mkrishnan, looks like you're about right.

That's enough bandwidth for streaming music, but I don't know so much about movies. Definitely no MySpace...

Anyway, I hope they include streaming apps on the iPhone even if it can only used when in range of Wi-Fi. How much power is iPhone Safari gonna have again? I thought we were gonna miss out on a key web technology, like Javascript or Flash or something....

edit: Totally forgot to mention, it also lists the costs of the chips. It says that in bulk 2G chips cost about $5 and 3G chips cost about $6. I can't see why Apple would put a 2G chip in the iPhone when the 3G only costs a dollar more - especially with their profit margins. Maybe the iPhone really will be 3G and the new accounting changes will let them activate it for free when they decide enough of the US has access. I can only hope...

 

[aricher]

Maybe the iPhone really will be 3G and the new accounting changes will let them activate it for free when they decide enough of the US has access. I can only hope...

My guess is that they don't have the space inside the phone for both 2G and 3G chips. There will probably be 2 versions of the phone - 2G for the US, 3G for the rest of the world.

 

[yayaba]

How do you "connect" your phone to your MBP to get internet?
Does it require a data plan?

This sounds like a newbie question (i'm actually semi-tech savvy) but how would you do that?

Is there ANY way to connect a phone or PDA through bluetooth or something to get internet from the MBP to the phone/PDA?

Well, for me, I use Bluetooth to connect my phone to my Macbook. My Macbook then uses my phone's EDGE connection to browse the internet. It's easy to setup in OSX and it works great except I have to have a constant Terminal issuing "ping" commands every 30 seconds... otherwise the connection drops because of inactivity.

Speeds are easily sufficient. About 20kb/sec down and 10kb/sec up. Way better than 56k.

You need a data plan though b/c you're using your phone's internet so if you don't have one, you'll get charged like no other for using pay per use.

If you meant using your home Wifi and hooking up your phone to that, I think that also works but it depends on whether or not your phone supports that...

 

[cube]

As I said on another thread, streamed video over EDGE is done only with horrible image quality and terrible audio. I was told by the operator that it's not much better with regular UMTS.

I think there might be some hope for acceptable quality over HSDPA, but the coverage is minimal.

 

[cube]

My guess is that they don't have the space inside the phone for both 2G and 3G chips. There will probably be 2 versions of the phone - 2G for the US, 3G for the rest of the world.

Who said you have to use two chips for GSM quadband+3G dualband?