Mobile Phone Help

[JammyJim]

Basically i just got a call from dad in a panic because the hotel hes staying at has not yet left the stone age communication wise.


No Fax.
No Printers.
No Net access.

etc


Now his laptop is currenlty in a state of repair and has had to be sent away. As such he cannot easily get email.


SO


heres the thing

i want to know if its possible using latest phone gadgetry wizzyness to log onto hotmail. access mail. read it. send new ones. and if its also possible to open things like Word attachments or excel attachments.



And if it is then which phones do it and do they have to be in 3g coverage or not?

Any help would be most appreciated.


p.s. Hes on Vodaphone.

[Stew]

I may have missed something but what phone model?

[JammyJim]

thats what im asking....

what phone can do what i want it to do
(its so he can upgrade to this)

actually let me expand

The phone has to be able to :


Access the Net (by itself and be able to view hotmail etc WITHOUT a laptop connected to it)
Has to be Triband (so it works in america)


plus all the other things listed above


his current model is an Ericsson T39m which is a tad 'outdated' heh

[SYMM]

I used to use Hotmail occasionally with my old siemens (c25 I think?) about 3 years ago when WAP first launched, so that shouldn't be a problem with any phone bought in the last 3 years...

[JammyJim]

downloading attachments.....


word
excel


THESE ARE TEH IMPORTANT BITS TOO!

[Tomkat]

I don't think any phone can access Word or Excel, can it?

Can't he go to an internet café or local library, if it's that important?

[NEWSBOT3]

Originally Posted by JammyJim

downloading attachments.....


word
excel


THESE ARE TEH IMPORTANT BITS TOO!

without a laptop connected you can **** right off tbh.
Theres no easy way your going to be able to view attachments even if you -could- download them over gprs or whatever. In theory you -might- be able to download attachments but i doubt it.

Depending on the web browers on the phone you can probably log in to hotmail BUT any site that uses ANY glimps of complicated layout looks ****ing awful on phones. These forums for example are un-usable, nevermind the load times.

If you had a non-hotmail this wouldnt be a problem, i can check my imap/pop3 mail with my phone by adding the settings to the email client.

This all prob depends on the phone ofc , with mine i could maybe check hotmail but no way is downloading attachments possible, if it was pop3 account i can get the attachments but whats the ****ign point i can't open them.

without a PDA/laptop your going to be pretty screwed on that front.

the funny thing is, in -theory- everything you want to do should be possible.
You can buy pocketOffice from MS , run it on a smartphone (but as far as im aware smartphones with pocketIE can't download shit), but frankly the screen is so damn small you'll spend half your life scrolling around, never mind the lack of processing power.

Now maybe in a more dedicated solution you might get this to work, say a HP ipaq using a grps phone as a net connection, but again the ipaq will need pocketoffice and shit on it.

With just a phone, you are kind of asking the impossible tbh.

[roadrunner_0]

you could always get something like an O2 XDA2 but its O2 only, im sure that there must be phones like it on the other networks though

[1-X]

remember last year when some of us became quasi-qualified microsoft pocket pc salesmen to try and get some free stuff (that never arrived)... well anyway, didn't they do the sort of thing needed here?

[NEWSBOT3]

Originally Posted by 1-X

remember last year when some of us became quasi-qualified microsoft pocket pc salesmen to try and get some free stuff (that never arrived)... well anyway, didn't they do the sort of thing needed here?

no, they don't.

I happen to own one :P

[Alki]

i believe if memory serves me right, the erricson E800 (i think) had word and excel on it, not 100% sure whether u can send attachments out, worth a look though

[Rids]

Nokia 9500.

Does everything you've asked.

Also has WiFi.

[cubass2]

Look at the new o2 XDAIIi

[JammyJim]

cheers rids.

thats precisely what i was looking for i think :-)

[JetLinus]

Something BlackBerry compatible?

[Dead_Meat]

Why doesn't he just stay in a decent hotel? Is this concept too difficult for your father to work out?


Is he a businessman or some sort of clueless tourist?

[JammyJim]

he doesnt choose the hotel. the client does. (its business)

normally they put him in nice places but this time the place he was at was in the middle of nowhere so its not 'ultra modern'. it does also depends on the client.

[djbass]

it's already been said but either the o2 xdaII (and no it doesn't require use with o2 network, we don't even have that here in aus), or a smart phone (less of a pda and more of a phone, but still runs windows ce).

[NEWSBOT3]

a smart phone cannot do it.

I have one, i know.
maybe a smartphone using not IE, but as far as I was aware the smartphone platform is ms driven and thus thre isnt anything other than IE for it.

[meglamaniac]

Bluetooth enabled phone.
Bluetooth enable computer.

Option 1: Use phone as dial-up modem
Option 2: Use phone's GPRS connection

[JammyJim]

megla :


yes this is the 'normal way of doing things'

but every so often something ****s up and hes without a laptop. its rare but when it happens it costs money

TIME= MONEY
BUSY BUSY BUSY

etc


so it would be good if he could do everything on a phone too.

ill look into the Nokia 9500 and also the O2 jobby.

[Dead_Meat]

Originally Posted by JammyJim

he doesnt choose the hotel. the client does. (its business)

normally they put him in nice places but this time the place he was at was in the middle of nowhere so its not 'ultra modern'. it does also depends on the client.

That's retarded.

Even if the customer chooses the hotel, I always make sure to ask if it has at least 'some' facilities for this kind of thing, and to ask if there's an alternative if it doesn't.

I've stayed at hotels that are 25miles from the customer, if that's what it takes not to be in a fle-pit with no access.

[Little Timmy]

A couple of things he could actually do. He could get his phone to be used as a modem therefore still attach through his PC..........however GPRS networks are slow for bulky mail items.

He could get a 3G datacard again in 3G coverage areas its a really good download speed but is slow over GPRS.

He could get a 3G phone and do as the modem solution above.

Alternatively he could get a Blackberry 7100v this is a prosumer device that can be connected to web email. It can read word/exel attachments. It can also be used as a phone. Although the car kit is a bit dodgy atm but it works fine with an earpiece.

I would add that for hotmail, i believ you might have to pay MSN for something called Hotmail +

Fianl solution is to look at the smartphones.....the qtek (already mentioned here ) is ok. But to be honest with you i would wait a few more months before getting a smart phone. The battery life isnt great
.

[Rids]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I think JJ is in the states, and therefore, you can forget any kind of 3G access until the useless yanks pluck their fingers from their arses and embrace the 21st century.

[JammyJim]

Originally Posted by Dead_Meat

That's retarded.

Even if the customer chooses the hotel, I always make sure to ask if it has at least 'some' facilities for this kind of thing, and to ask if there's an alternative if it doesn't.

I've stayed at hotels that are 25miles from the customer, if that's what it takes not to be in a fle-pit with no access.

i dont think he knew that this one was so monumentally shite before he got there and it was 'too late'

normally hes put up in quite nice places. nm eh

[JammyJim]

Originally Posted by Rids

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I think JJ is in the states, and therefore, you can forget any kind of 3G access until the useless yanks pluck their fingers from their arses and embrace the 21st century.

the phone has to work over there too (not for email etc..- just as a phone)

(im not in the states atm)

also 3g access isnt throughout the UK. so its not 'essential' i have it.. as long as theres decent phone reception signal i want to be able to get email etc.

The nokia 9500 looks (so far) to be the phone to use.
im going to sort it out next weekend when i head home and ill talk to the good poeple at vodafone about whether it can read word/excel etc and if its good enough to access tth enet like you would on a pc or whatnot.

[XeeThot]

http://www.palmone.com/us/products/smartphones/treo650/

Hope it's not too late.

[Rids]

As I work for Vodafone, and have one.

It does do Excel and Word. The browser is about the best on a phone so far, if a little slow, any questions drop me a line, heh.

[JammyJim]

would it look pretty much the same as doing it on a laptop/pc etc?

just smaller and wider on the screen?

[XeeThot]

Originally Posted by JammyJim

would it look pretty much the same as doing it on a laptop/pc etc?

just smaller and wider on the screen?

The Treo? Almost like using a PC, just different OS, and the small keyboard. But it is rather easy to use as it is made for executives and such people that know squat about those gizmos that let me carry my documents with me and get porn email on the go.

[XeeThot]

Oh yeah, if you have a bluetooth cellphone, I suggest to get a Tungsten T5. Better processor, bigger screen, more memory and more fun.

[Dante Hicks]

I have a Blackberry phone, and I just get my Gmails autoforwarded to my phone. A lot easier than faffing around with browsers (and much quicker too).

edit : Personally if I wanted to open Word / Excel docs on the move I'd get a Dell Axim (we bought a few at work which I've been playing with) and then just use bluetooth (via a phone) to connect to the net. They're only £180 or something.