YouTube on Sony Ericssons's k790a

Today YouTube announced a mobile version of YouTube which appears to be a Java midlet that works with Sony Ericssons's K800. I'm surprised they didn't officially throw k790a into the mix as well, as the phones are very closely related.

m.youtube.com/app

It looks like the unsigned Nokia version will work with the K790a: k790a YouTube App


The signed version should work for Nokia's (N73, N95, E65, 6110, 6120 officially): Nokia's YouTube App


I posted on the Esato board as I was trying to figure this out. Let me know if you find anything else about this topic --

GSM unlocked and unbranded

Luckily, T-mobile gave me the unlock code to my first GSM phone. I had to enter a special code that they emailed me, and enter a password and that was it. T-Mobile I think is one of the few carriers in the US that allows this(They want you to use your T-Mobile phone overseas too on their networks there). My t68i was a great phone, but it actually lacked one of the frequencies used by North America, especially in rural areas.. Worked fine in the city... I also am a Cingular, Pay as you go customer... I just need to pop a different SIM card in, and I'm on Cingulars network. I have found this handy in a few dead spots up in the mountains.

My k790a unlocking was a bit trickier. I really got hooked on Sony Ericsson's phones, they are loaded with really useful features.. This one has a 3 megapixel camera and loads of other features. One problem, this phone was only available in Canada, and it was locked to a canadian carrier. So I bought it off ebay, locked, it was a few hundred dollars cheaper than the unlocked version.

Then the fun begins, I still had my t68i but one of the buttons started to act up.. I got a new Blackberry Pearl from T-mobile, wait a few weeks and unlock it, sell it on Ebay brand new, and it all comes out in the wash as an upgrade to the phone I actually wanted, not the one the carrier is pushing to sell.

Unlocking the k790a took a bit of research... If you are not technical, have one of your tech friends do it or visit any non-carrier gsm reseller and pay a guy to do it. The phone came with a USB cable, so that was key, I knew I could somehow use my computer to unlock it. I used Davinci Teams software to unlock it, and Mobile2Mobile.net's software to unbrand it.

time to try an iphone, yet?

Two years ago I wrote about the I-phone, noting that Apple is a smartly run business and while they could have included more features in the original I-phones that were already standard in other smart phones but they opted to hold off – and milk more money off of the market before releasing ‘new’ features. 2009 and the I-phone finally includes copy and paste and a2dp bluetooth wireless music – two features that I really take advantage of and am glad to see have made their way into I-phone’s OS v 3.0.

So what other features of my k790a have I grown to love and would find it hard to live without?
#1) Sync with Google Calendar / native calendar application
#2) Yahoo Mail / Contact sync
#3) Google Maps
#4) RSS feed reader
#5) Java Applications / Opera browser / Shozu Flickr uploader

I believe I should be able to do most of these things with the I-phone, although if I will be able to do it on T-mobile’s network paying only 5.99$ per month remains a question to be answered. I also believe the I-phones camera to be sub-par to my two year old Sony Cybershot camera phone, but perhaps the fact that pictures are geo-tagged with gps data may be fun to play with. I do wirelessly tether my laptop, and enjoy speeds fast enough for web-browsing and email, and I think that should be posssible with a jailbroken device. I like that the I-phone accepts a standard 3.5mm headphone jack, although still wish it would have a now near-standard mini-usb jack for data connectivity and charging.

I would like to wirelessly stream music from my collection at home, a feat which was barely successful through the k790a with MFRadio and SlimServer. I would like to run on T-mobiles network, and any GSM network while overseas travelling. I find it hard to believe that MMS picture messages were not supported in earlier I-phone OS versions. It also seems strange that Bluetooth or WiFi file-transfers are not supported out of box, but require hacks to perform. Lastly non-removable batteries, and non-expandable memory card slots are also features which I would like to have seen – but back to my first point, that limitation is just a business decision of planned obsolescence and forcing you the lucky Apple customer to get the latest and greatest device within a few years time.

So, is it time to at least give it a try? For 99$ or maybe even less used -- it's a compelling question.

Wireless Photo Printing with Kodak Kiosk and Sony Ericsson k790a

So I walk into CVS yesterday with Melissa.. She had a few things to get, and I didn't really need anything. I walked up to a Kodak Kiosk and notice a Bluetooth icon on the machine.. and think, cool...

So I hit a few buttons on the screen, select a picture out of my phone, and beam it over to the machine.. I make a few 29 cent prints, and am on my way...

Good stuff! Nice work Kodak and Sony Ericsson for making it that easy....

Heres the picture of Nibbles I printed!!

Power Use - Advanced features of k790a

After playing around with my new phone for a few weeks, I've explored some of the advanced features of the phone.

Java Applications
Google Maps(traffic updates!!)
Salling Clicker - Use your cellphone as a remote control for iTunes, PowerPoint, etc.
MFRadio - Wirelessly stream music from my collection at home
vNes Nintendo Emulator - Playing classic Mario and Zelda is great!
Opera Mini browser!

Calendar Sync - SyncML
Using GooSync's free service to sync my Google Calendars with my phones Calendar automatically.

Rss News Reader
Gloucester daily times, Google News, Weather and Forecast
Animated Radar images

Bluetooth
A2DP - Wireless tunes! You can now have headphones with no wires, no cables between your home stereo and your tunes...
Modem - Using my laptop to surf the internet is always easier than viewing on a small screen, and typing on a small keyboard.. EDGE Is a bit slow(20-50k/s), but still usable in a pinch. And a data plan for 6$ per month fits the bill. Thanks for the setup scripts Ross Barkman.
File Transfer - A breeze with OS X, just drag and drop the files to/from the mounted drives.. Adding mp3 ringtones, wallpapers, taking pictures/videos off of the camera is a breeze..

cell phones - New phone! K790a

So back in the day(2005), I wasn't able to take a picture with my phone. I wasn't able to instantly upload it to my blog. I didn't always carry around a 3-megapixel camera.

This photo was uploaded directly from my phone to the web, know what that means? You'll probably start seeing less text and more pictures! I'll try to add text and stories after the fact, cause you know how much fun it is to T9 or type text message style --

Check out technical specs...

This post, really one up's my first mobile blog-post... I guess my ole t68i can now retire after 4 great years of usage...

i-phones

What I like about the i-phone, is what I like about Apple. They don't make the best products always, but they encourage the whole market to look at them for a minute, before they going back to creating their competing products....

Take i-tunes/ipod for example, mp3's were out for a long time before itunes/ipods came along... But back in they day, turning a CD into mp3 tracks was something that took the average computer most of a night to do... making playlists and setting up your mp3 player for a listen, took some advanced planning before you could enjoy... Then along comes the ipod, plug it in, and you have your music... (ok, almost that easy) But it encouraged the masses to move their audio from their cd-racks to digital files and competing companies to pay attention to the things they did right.

The i-phone is OK. But of course their model that worked for i-pod already may work again, incrementally make updates and people will buy the next new one when they are ready. If i-phone packed in all the features that they could have today, why would anyone upgrade next year? What i-phone points out to the masses is two things, data services are prime time with phones.. You no longer need to be tied in any way to your desk, home, or laptop to get the information you want. And secondly, multi-function devices that the whole world can use are here to stay. I'm talking about your device, which connects you to your people & calendar/music/photos/work... and that the rest of the world can use, thats right, they built it on GSM standards so you can travel from country to country and switch from carrier to carrier with the flick of a SIM card.. Sorry Verizon/Sprint, join the rest, stop being stubborn.

Honestly, my Sony Ericsson k790a is much nicer than current i-phone releases... but i'll save that discussion for another time.