...is awesome with 3.0! I just bought an inexpensive (70k/=, about $33) unlocked simple Nokia phone for my voice number, so now my Grameen SIM (for the GPRS modem) can reside in my iPhone. It now has unlimited EDGE data, so I can get email on it (I'm very pleased to turn Push and Fetch back on), and now, thanks to 3.0, as soon as I plug it into my computer it turns tethering on, and does exactly what the GPRS modem did, albeit with better service. It probably takes more power, but at least it also has a battery, and if the computer's battery is low and I don't want to charge the phone from it, it works over Bluetooth, too. This is handy in case I forget to bring the iPhone's cable, too.
Anyway, that solves the problem of data for my phone -- now I don't need to get a second connection, and I can get a lot more good out of Grameen's money. After all, they pay for the whole month of unlimited data (in theory -- I'm sure it's limited in practice, but at the speed it gets, I doubt you could ever approach its limit), so I might as well use it. This way I don't need a second piece of hardware, and I can carry my email, Evernote notes, and so forth around with me all the time, which is helpful. I always carry a paper notebook, as well, now, but still, there are definitely bits of info in my email that I occasionally need at a moment's notice.
This means sometimes carrying two phones, but I can also leave the iPhone at home when I'm going someplace where I'm uncomfortable carrying it or just don't need it, much like when I used to carry a phone and my N800/810 -- except now the second device has a persistent data connection (moreover, one I don't have to pay for).
In any case, I'm pleased with the setup, and the fact the iPhone OS 3.0 supports tethering (instead of using PDAnet or other 3rd party, jailbreak software, that was always pretty cumbersome) makes it really convenient. Of course, MTN isn't an iPhone carrier, so I had to go to a 3rd party site to generate a Profile file for it, but that was painless.
Anyway, I'm pleased with the setup and testing it out now. The little Nokia is nice and feels well-made. It's probably the simplest phone I've owned; it's a bit simpler (and substantially better made...) than my old Samsung flip phone I got the summer before I started at Cal. Now all I have to do is get used to a phone with buttons again...
Once I have some more time and energy (today was very exciting and eventful and I don't quite have the energy to write about it right now -- but it's definitely worth writing about) I'll write up the actually interesting parts of my day instead of the dry techie parts. Apologies for now.
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Good stuff one the tethering. I'm looking forward to that whenever almighty AT&T gets its act together.
ReplyDeleteYou'd never know it from my TSW work, but for everything else I actually carry around one of the super-thin moleskin notebooks pretty much all the time. It's helpful.
Yeah, the tethering's awesome, and getting a second phone for my voice line was definitely a great choice. BUT, as discussed above, the USB-ethernet-ness caused an unintended side effect in the form of the sleep/wake issue. D'oh!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yeah, I'm not usually one to write a lot of stuff down, my little spiral notebook has become indispensible, and I suspect I'll remain in that habit to an extent upon my return.
Hey, stumbled upon your post . . . I'm a UC grad student working with an IGO in Kampala through December. I'm not quite there all the way with tethering my iphone's MTN data plan to my laptop, but not sure if it may be one too many things to go wrong (and possibly difficult for MTN service reps to help me solve-- I'm not THAT tech-savvy). Perhaps you're willing to trade some tethering help for a beer sometime?
ReplyDeleteHey, yeah, definitely. If you've got 3.0 on your phone (or an iPhone 3G, I have the software images for it; any other would take a looong time to download) it's pretty easy to set up and I could help you do it in a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, just shoot me an email at nat[at]questionbox[dot]org or nat[dot]futterman[at]gmail and we can coordinate. I work 9-5 during the week, more or less, out of Kitintale. I'm pretty free outside of that and on the weekend.