Re: [OT] android phone, possible to get a good deal?

Considered Cricket? They've been aggressively advertising 'now with
smartphones', and obviously it's a no-contract endeavour. No knowledge
about tethering; I'm saddled with AT&T, and didn't much care for the
Android phone I tried, so I am the one person using a Pre. :)


-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Bogart <timbogart@yahoo.com>
To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Sat, Sep 18, 2010 7:35 pm
Subject: Re: [OT] android phone, possible to get a good deal?



A little history... Remember, MCI went bankrupt and was eventually
bought by Verizon.  MCI was in competition with Verizon and tried
desparately (and unsuccessfully I might add) to enter the LEC (Local
Exchange Carrier) space.  But in order to do that, not having a local
infrastructure themselves, were reliant on leased lines from the
incumbent LEC, Verizon.  Verizon would stall, lose orders, and
generally not cooperate, and resort to ANYTHING to keep MCI out of the
LEC market during that time.  When MCI was restructuring its debt, it
was for sale.  Now, Vint Cerf used to work at MCI as I did.  There was
a reason Vint worked there.  It was because MCI had more global
internet infrastructure than any other company in the world and had by
far the largest global network by that time.  AT&T liked to think and
claim that they did, but MCI was able to force them to withdraw those
claims multiple times.  But, to the point... during the restructuring,
it was rumored more than once that M$ was considering buying MCI.  Now
think about that scenario for a minute.  Talk about a nightmare!  M$
owning and controlling the lion's share of the Internet by buying the
largest Internet common carrier there was?... Geez!  Just the thought
gives me the creeps.  I'd rather eat razor blades than think about it.  


My point being that common carriers using technological strong arming
to secure and maintain market space is commonplace.  It won't be until
somebody throws all the switches to the "on" position and uses that to
compete 'til all the others will be forced to do the same.  Like MCI
did with "Friends and Family" and including call waiting, call
forwarding, voice mail, caller ID, and all the other goodies in the
package.  What a lot of people forget is that all of these features are
included in the switching and routing equipment.  They keep charging
people for turning them on (and charging for connection fees, unending
service contracts, stifling early termination penalties and all other
sorts of heinous junk) until one company steps out of that mold.  It's
just a matter of time.  And it will probably be a new start up.  One
day some body's going to do it and then we will all be able to get the
combinations of goods and services we desire.


My $0.02


Tim


------------------------------------------------------------
From: R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com>
To: Main PLUG discussion list <plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Sent: Sat, September 18, 2010 6:53:29 PM
Subject: Re: [OT] android phone, possible to get a good deal?

On Sat, 18 Sep 2010, Jim March wrote:

> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176145
>
> To get Android 2.1 you have to spend almost $500:
>
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16875176195
>
> Wait just a bit and that should be upgradeable to 2.2?

Not being sold at at New Egg, but I see Archos 7 and 10 internet
tablets, for about $300, running Android 2.2 out of the gate, and
seemingly well supported as to following new releases at Angstrom

I have devices at older Android levels (it is not clear they have the
processor 'horsepower' and ram to support later Android levels, which I
imported directly from China) being a couple of essentially
unsupported, no-name development chassis. I will be seeing about
building trimmed down versions, and loading later Android versions over
the mext couple weeks, via the Angstrom builder

-- Russ herrold
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