First post and - How I switched from Sidekick to N73 on T-Mobile USA

C

crackfuct2001

New member
Hello.

I have been with Sidekick T-Mobile since the first black and white version. My SK2 was pretty beat up and I needed a change. I ordered the N73ME edition and it came in yesterday. I was a little nervous switching to an 'unsupported' phone and switching from Sidekick Data specific plan. This post is mainly for those who want to take this step and are a little nervous about it. For those of you (20,000 posts and avove ) who are regulars here this could be a little boring. In case I posted this into a wrong category, feel free to move this.

Phone came in the morning Fedex. Great. I popped my Sidekick SIM card out and inserted it into the N73. Then the battery, 2GB memory card and plug into the charger. Turned the phone on. It picked up the signal immediately. I tested sending and receiving calls. Flawless.

I tried to go on the net. Wishful thinking. No connection. It is because Sidekick uses different data plan. The sidekick data actually gets parsed and optimized by Danger servers. The internet performance is awesome on the sidekick.

I installed the Nokia software and updated firmware and software over the net and synchronized with my outlook, transferred some music and tested playback. Tested radio reception. Awesome. Took a walk to a local grocery store while listening to NPR on my way. At the store I tried to hook into T-zones = again, wishful thinking. I received a call and utilized the headphones. No problem. It works very well and it is a welcome change from the Sidekick's excuse for a phone. Sidekick is awesome internet device but it's phone functionality is pretty weak.

I thought I would just use the N73 for voice and synchronize everything on the PC. Well, that thought lasted about 2 hours and then I was on the phone with T-Mobile Customer Service. The CS was very helpful. I was able to switch to another voice plan and data plan for about $25 extra from the sidekick. I realized what a bargain the Sidekick is. The good part of T-Mobile CS was that they were absolutely ok with me using an unsupported phone. They actually commented that it is a cool phone The switch to data was supposed to take up to 72 hours. Mine started working almost immediately.

I connected to the net. It was definitely slower than the Sidekick. I downloaded and installed Opera Mini. It appears to run faster on this browser. I added 4 POP3 email accounts. Great. Sidekick only allowed 3 POP3 accounts.

I have also tested uploading images directly into Flickr. The setup was very easy and it worked very well.

Overall I would say that the transition was smooth and easy and T-Mobile CS made me feel welcome.


I still don't understand a few things: I tried to download and install a few apps which send the installation link directly to your phone. For example http://www.juicecaster.com
The link arrived in my SMS and clicking on it brought me to T-Zones page and no further. Is this something that is unsupported in the US or can I set the default 'go to link from SMS' to go to a regular Browser or the Opera Mini?

Thanks,


Brambor
 
1. links followed from SMS are opened in the regular WAP browser. For most sms links, this is fine. For some, however, it's best if you copy and paste them into the Web browser.

This, however, is difficult because to copy and paste, you have to open the sms containing the link, click options - forward, and then copy and paste from here. This is a huge pain, but it's just how it works for now (to copy/paste you hold down the pencil key and highlight using the joystick.)

You cannot set the default to a different browser, unfortunately.
 
welcome to the S60 party, may I take your coat sir . I remember my first S60, the nokia 3650 I only had it for about a day and returned it for another nokia non-smartphone. I eventually got a 6620 which is still the best performing s60 in my opinion.

Anyway to my point is, you would be better off staying away from Java apps if there is an alternative available, they tend to not run as well as native S60 software. You should realize that you have a small computer in your hands right now which is completely open and not closed like the Sidekick, on my E70 I have over 15 pc- like applications running. I would recommend using Shozu (www.shozu.com) for the juicecaster like applications like publishing to flickr,youtube etc.
You can browse directly to the website and download or use PC suite in most cases.
 
FYI - the $6.99 TMobileWeb plan will give you almost full internet access. There are some ports blocked (like VPN I think), but I can browse the web and and get my gmail on it.
 
Data on the N73 should be waaay less than on the Sidekick. You may want to look into that. All you should need is an unlimited t-zones plan and the phone's built in browswer or opera. Welcome to s60 by the way! What a great phone to start with.
 
T-Zones will not give me connectivity away from Starbucks ;-) I'm new to this but aren't T-Zones basically hot spots throughout the city? The unlimited internet plan kicks in when you're not close to those hot spots. I hope I'm not wrong with this as I would hate ponying up more money than necessary.

The Sidekick plan I was on is 200 minutes and unlimited weekends with unlimited data and North American messaging. You get charged for SMS from overseas. That plan was 39.99. That is a very good deal.

The T-Mobile plan I switched to is 29.99 for 300 minutes plus unlimited weekends and 29.99 for unlimited internet data plan which also included T-Zones (pretty much everyone gets T-zones free)
 
T-Zones is just T-Mobiles word for their internet service. It sounds like you are the wrong plan. What you may have is something else that gives you HotSpot internet. HotSpots are wifi areas and the plan for those is different and more expensive. So you only need unlimited t-zones basically.
 
There is a $5.99 add-on called TmobileWeb (used to be called T-Zones) that was intended to be used with WAP browsers. Fortunately for us, it works with the full web browser as well. At least here in SoCal, I get full EDGE access through it.

Now it does use a proxy and those settings have to be correct. Your phone may have autoconfigured the tzones access point when you plugged your SIM in, but I have mucked with my setting so much, I'm can't tell you what it was originally called. maybe someone else can.
 
Interesting. I have asumed that TZones are hotspots as yesterday I could not use them at home and could use T-Mobile Internet. Today on my way home I stopped next to T-mobile store to check my e-mail and I selected TZones service. It worked great. It might just be a coincidence. I will test both for about a week and then if I can get T-Zones working everywhere I will drop the data plan. That would be sweet.
 
It is peculiar. Here is the page for my data service. It lists Sidekick service which can not be changed yet I do not have sidekick anymore and there is no listing for T-Zones service to choose from.
 
I know that some of the options only appear if you have your phone set appropriately. If you change your phone to something like a Motorola PEBL, you might get different options.

I'm not really an expert on this stuff...you might have better luck in the Tmobile USA forum. This is a standard topic over there and there are tons of threads on it.
 
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