Good cell phone to use as modem with Debian? cable? bluetooth?
Hello all,
My old cell phone (an ancient Audiovox CDM-8100) has died. I used it to
connect via ppp, at 14.4k, through an RS-232 cable, to the internet via
Verizon's #777 and qnc login. The cofiguration wasn't easy to set up
but once done, it worked. And yeah, I'm cheap: I don't need verizon's
fast data service at $80 a month.
Today's phones are a totally different breed. There are so many more
options. With a couple of hours of research I've already discoverd
that Verizon's web site is not very accurate about what features are
available in different phones and that they routinely cripple the
firmware so you can't (for instance) use bluetooth to transfer files.
I started with a careful look at the LG VX8100 and Motorola E815.
Given that these phones have bluetooth, I figured I'd use that to
connect the phone to the laptop instead of having to buy a $50
data cable every time verizon forces me to upgrade or the phone dies
and is no longer available/supported. This might also be useful to
not have to buy a new headset (assuming compatible protocols) with
every phone change.
So the first question is: is it possible to use the bluetooth
connection to establish a ppp connection between the debian laptop
and these phones? any other phones?
I have serial ports on both laptops I use (Dell 8600 and IBM thinkpad
600E) so if I have to buy a cable it would be a serial cable, unless
it is preferable/easy/possible to use USB cable with Debian and a cell
phone. Has anyone done this?
Is anyone using one of these phones with Debian? as a modem? how do you
transfer files (pictures, mp3, phone lists) given the sorry state of
the crippled bluetooth software? Is bluetooth crippled on every
verizon phone? Is there a way to change this?
Since all phones have a GPS these days, is it possible to access the
GPS data from the Debian laptop to use, say, in geographic programs such as
GPSdrive and/or gpsd? Has someone done this? via bluetooth? via cable?
I have a PDA (Handera) that I keep synced with kpilot and the IR port.
Is it possible to sync the phone list to these phones? how? If not
these phones, what verizon-compatible phones do people use that can
do this? I'd rather not re-enter every phone number manually.
IR seems to be falling by the wayside...
Any pros/cons about the removable memory? I understand there are
adapters to plug the trasflash/miniSd cards into a PCcard slot,
correct? How does this work with Debian? Given that these phones
use/create different files, it would be nice to sync/DL them to the
laptop. Any phone specific software in Debian or are these phones
recognized as storage devices? I presume if a USB cable is used they
should be, but what about a bluetooth connection? How is the memory
handled with a serial (rs-232) cable?
Any other suggestions or info on using a current generation cell phone
with Debian would be welcome. http://www.mobiledia.com has good
descriptions of the phones and reviews. Any recommendations? other
phones? Is it reasonable to expect that firmware shortcomings might be
improved via firmware downloads? or is this not at all possible?
Many thanks.
Augustine
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