Android for AT&T

ScottM

ScottM

Taxi to Parking
Joined
Jul 19, 2005
Messages
42,530
Location
Variable, but somewhere on earth
Display Name
Display name:
iBazinga!
Just to set the record straight. AT&T currently does not sell an Android model in the US. The Android I am using is a Motorola Milestone, Android 2.1, phone sold by Telus, a Canadian cellular operator. I am using it with an AT&T issued SIM card.

This is the phone:
http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/X...rvices/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-MILESTONE-XW-EN

attachment.php


This morning I opened the bi-lingual (English and French) box. In it was the phone, battery, battery cover, charger, USB cable, headset and instructions. I quickly discarded the instruction because if it is not intuitive to configure a mobile device then that device has poor human to machine interaction IMHO.

I slipped my ATT SIM into it, put the battery in and turned it on. I was almost immediately greeted by the Subsidy lock message. This is a little feature that many operators employ to stop users from buying a third party SIM card and using it in the phone. The phone will only work with a valid SIM from the selling operator who has paid for a portion of the phone. Many phones that are sold for <$100 really cost the operator more and then eat the cost and sell to you cheaper than they buy them. The idea being that they will get their money back as you use the phone.

But this can be dealt with. There are ways to generate an unlock code based on the IMEI of the phone. I obtained a unlock code through my sources, you will need to probably purchase one online.

Once I got my phone unlocked I started the configuration process. The first thing is to get corporate email working. It was surprisingly easy. Much faster than the WindowsMobile 6.1 software on my previous phone. A simple input of domain, email address and password. Plus knowing the secret server name and I was in. The phone fully supports 3G and the address book, email, contacts were all synched very fast.

I then needed to get vMail configured and that again was fast. All in all it took about 30 minutes to get up and running. Now it was time to start playing. I got ringtones set up, SMS likes, homescreen icon configs, and dislikes, FaceBook on the browser, background image, etc. It is now noon. I started at 10:15am with a few breaks to answer the phone, read a few emails and reroute a charger cord so that I can use the docking station for the new device.

I am now ready to play with apps. When I start doing that I will add more to this thread.

The first app to look for.....The Tricorder!
 

Attachments

  • motorola-milestone-telus.jpg
    motorola-milestone-telus.jpg
    74 KB · Views: 149
Last edited:
ScottM said:
Just to set the record straight. AT&T currently does not sell an Android model in the US.
Click to expand...
Ummm, yeah, they do.
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-sales/promotion/motobackflip.jsp

And the Dell Aero is coming
http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-sales/promotion/aero.jsp

The Motorola Milestone is a the Verizon Droid for GSM.
It's a cool phone but AT&T still sucks, and I'm getting away from them as soon as possible.

Can you tether (legally) without getting hammered for data charges? And don't forget, AT&T's "unlimited" data plan is actually 2GB.
 
I did download the tricorder app. I am in geek heaven. It was pretty easy to do. There is a 'market place' icon and that brings you to the android app store.

I should say that I am an Apple guy. I have 5 iPods, 3 of which are iTouches, a MacBook, and other cool Apple stuff. I am familiar with touch and haptic human interfaces. But this is my first chance to really play with the Andriod OS. So far I am mostly just having to learn the menu structures and where to find things on the displays. The email program is very similar to the way that Apple's iTouch works. I have yet to open the slider to use the built in keyboard and am just using the onscreen keys.

I think Grant and I will need to meet up for lunch to compare his Verizon version with the one I have. Supposedly there is a way to set this phone to tether it to a network. I will try that sometime this week too.
 
ScottM said:
I think Grant and I will need to meet up for lunch to compare his Verizon version with the one I have. Supposedly there is a way to set this phone to tether it to a network. I will try that sometime this week too.
Click to expand...
After Gaston's, we can meet at the restaurant that's opening where the University Club used to be. PdaNet is the tethering app.
 
Almost the first week of using the new phone and I have to say that there as least one feature that truly sux! The corporate email and calendar support stinks!

On my old phone running Windoze Mobile 6.1 when I would get a meeting invite I was able to reposnd that I would either accept, tentatively accept, or decline. My iTouch offers this feature through active synch as well. Plus if you accept the meeting it is entered into the exchange calendar.

But not Google Android!

All I can do is respond to the email. The invite does not load into my calendar. This means that then I have to rite down the info, go to corporate calendar and then manually enter it. Or what I have actually been doing is reaching for my iTouch and accepting the invite.

There is also no way that I can find to synch tasks between the exchange server and the Android OS either. Google needs to fix this. Or perhaps it is there way of selling Google Apps the Enterprise edition.
 
I haven't experienced the issue of making my Droid work with the corporate network. I pay for the phone service, they don't get the benefit. And, Verizon would charge me more per month to have the access. So my work issued computer accesses the corporate network and my Droid handles my personal stuff. Now if there was just a CDMA/GSM version like my Moto World Phone. That would be heaven!
 
Ghery said:
I haven't experienced the issue of making my Droid work with the corporate network. I pay for the phone service, they don't get the benefit. And, Verizon would charge me more per month to have the access. So my work issued computer accesses the corporate network and my Droid handles my personal stuff. Now if there was just a CDMA/GSM version like my Moto World Phone. That would be heaven!
Click to expand...
Work pays for my phone and data service, hence they should get a tool that makes me as productive as possible. I have been reading and it seems that this issue will be solved when active synch becomes supported on Android 2.2.

As for the world phone. There is very little demand for those. It is a real niche. Only three operators in the world have ever asked for them. KDDI (Japan), Verizon, and Sprint. KDDI is a special case of CDMA to begin with, it is a niche within a niche. They were the ones that many years ago had me working on what was called R-UIM. Basically a SIM card for CDMA. It is dual provisioned with a GSM account on it. When you travel to a non-CDMA county you just plug that R-UIM into a GSM capable phone and you are roaming. Buying a Japanese CDMA phone and a GSM phone was cheaper than anyone could make a dual mode phone for. Later China Unicom became interested in R-UIM as they were running a dual mode network. But they too stuck with selling two phones to people who needed coverage in both systems. Some other smaller networks have deployed it too. The R-UIM has evolved into the CSIM on the UICC which is basically next gen SIM cards.

Verizon and Sprint got world phones, but the demand on them is really small, no one sees any reason to continue to develop platforms that will only sell a few hundred thousand. When one considers that most phone models are selling at a couple of hundred thousand a month you can understand why.
 
ScottM said:
Work pays for my phone and data service, hence they should get a tool that makes me as productive as possible. I have been reading and it seems that this issue will be solved when active synch becomes supported on Android 2.2.

As for the world phone. There is very little demand for those. It is a real niche. Only three operators in the world have ever asked for them. KDDI (Japan), Verizon, and Sprint. KDDI is a special case of CDMA to begin with, it is a niche within a niche. They were the ones that many years ago had me working on what was called R-UIM. Basically a SIM card for CDMA. It is dual provisioned with a GSM account on it. When you travel to a non-CDMA county you just plug that R-UIM into a GSM capable phone and you are roaming. Buying a Japanese CDMA phone and a GSM phone was cheaper than anyone could make a dual mode phone for. Later China Unicom became interested in R-UIM as they were running a dual mode network. But they too stuck with selling two phones to people who needed coverage in both systems. Some other smaller networks have deployed it too. The R-UIM has evolved into the CSIM on the UICC which is basically next gen SIM cards.

Verizon and Sprint got world phones, but the demand on them is really small, no one sees any reason to continue to develop platforms that will only sell a few hundred thousand. When one considers that most phone models are selling at a couple of hundred thousand a month you can understand why.
Click to expand...

It costs $20, but I would suggest Touchdown. Excellent Exchange Active Sync app for android...use it on my Moto Droid.
 
JeffDG said:
It costs $20, but I would suggest Touchdown. Excellent Exchange Active Sync app for android...use it on my Moto Droid.
Click to expand...
I did run into that. I was not willing to fork over $20 for something that I knew not if it worked and something that my employee should pay for. But that is good to know. Android 2.2 is supposed to be out by August of this year, so I will wait.
 
ScottM said:
Work pays for my phone and data service, hence they should get a tool that makes me as productive as possible. I have been reading and it seems that this issue will be solved when active synch becomes supported on Android 2.2.

As for the world phone. There is very little demand for those. It is a real niche. Only three operators in the world have ever asked for them. KDDI (Japan), Verizon, and Sprint. KDDI is a special case of CDMA to begin with, it is a niche within a niche. They were the ones that many years ago had me working on what was called R-UIM. Basically a SIM card for CDMA. It is dual provisioned with a GSM account on it. When you travel to a non-CDMA county you just plug that R-UIM into a GSM capable phone and you are roaming. Buying a Japanese CDMA phone and a GSM phone was cheaper than anyone could make a dual mode phone for. Later China Unicom became interested in R-UIM as they were running a dual mode network. But they too stuck with selling two phones to people who needed coverage in both systems. Some other smaller networks have deployed it too. The R-UIM has evolved into the CSIM on the UICC which is basically next gen SIM cards.

Verizon and Sprint got world phones, but the demand on them is really small, no one sees any reason to continue to develop platforms that will only sell a few hundred thousand. When one considers that most phone models are selling at a couple of hundred thousand a month you can understand why.
Click to expand...

I understand. Before I head over to Milan next month I'll get on the phone with Verizon and make sure I don't mess up in shutting down my Droid and turning on my world phone for the week. They told me how to do it once, but that was a couple months ago and their web site isn't "intuitively obvious to the casual observer" as an old friend used to say.
 
All I have to say is WOW SUCKY BATTERY LIFE!

Grant how does the CDMA version do with battery life?

I have my UMTS version configured to use WiFi when available, BT is seldom used except in the car. I took my phone off of the charger today and after a typical use I needed to charge it this evening. My Q would do 2 days with the small battery before needing a charge.
 
I can usually use my Droid for 2 days without charging. WiFi on BT off.

It seems to be very dependent on signal strength. Sitting in my closet on my belt maybe 24 hrs till auto-off, out on the road 2 days and I'm just getting below 40-50%.

There is a screen that tells you where the battery charge went.

I like the usb charger cause I've got the laptop on a lot.
 
I haven't done much to try to optimize battery life. I typically get about a day out of the battery with moderate usage. That's GPS, BT, and WiFi all on, and listening to about 2 hours of podcasts. If I forget to plug it in at night, my alarm doesn't ring in the morning!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top