Power Outage : Smartphone helped me this time...

[Kris Kumar]

Well during the Massive NE US Power Outage (which ended for me 30 mins ago), the Smartphone helped me..

Since the Power Outage occurred while I was on the road, I got home hit the Remote button to turn ON the TV, only to find no power !!

I pulled out the Smartphone...went to the local news site...and there was the news..then CNN...and pretty soon I was the one providing reliable information to my fellow Apartment Bldg neighbours...Everyone awed at the power of Technology...especially when u can see the Pix of Traffic Jams...

Okay this time the phone helped...the network cooperated.

But only couple of days ago...there was a shootout in a Bank in our Office Complex...and everybody was huddled into Safe Zones...Basically an area away from windows/doors...and in the center of the Bldg. This was done becoz the killer was armed and loose. So while Police searched the grounds, the employees were stuck inside the bldgs for 6 or more hours..
Again I had the phone out...and searching news...coz in the safe zone we didnt have access to PCs/Internet intially. The phone worked well for the first 5 mins..I finally found the news article that I was looking for and lo!! lost access to the net..and from then on for the next 4 hours the phone refused to connect..restarted...tried clearing cookies..everything in the book..but nothing worked..the signal strength was fine..And the best part..I could send and receive mail..use IM...but no internet :-)

Bottomline..the technology is cool..cutting edge...has potential...but has pitfalls...or areas that need to be smoothened out..

So have u guys had some experiences where the "smartphone" helped or did not help?

Kris

[aussie]

Glad it worked for you Kris but here in Toronto the GSM/GPRS coverage pretty much went bust - even now with the power coming on all over the City the coverage is still spotty.

The thing that bothered me the most is the same issue that you raise - for a while I could connect to Messenger but would get page not found in Explorer.

Also some of the other GSM/GPRS phones seemed to pick up the spotty coverage a bit better than my Red-e

[Jason Dunn]

Wow, that's a great story! Awesome! :-)

I've also seen that strange behaviour when one Internet app will not work (Inbox) but another will (IE). I can't figure it out....!?

[MultiMatt]

Kris,
I mainly hang out on the Pocket PC Thoughts board, but occasionally pop on over here, so pardon my ignorance when I ask: How do you have a Smartphone working in Rochester?!
Which model are you using?
Did you purchase it abroad or something?
What service are you connected to?
I ask these things because I would love to try one of these out, but I thought they weren't even available or useable here!

Do tell!
Matt

[Kris Kumar]

Answers...

1. T-mobile provides the GSM/GPRS service..not the best coverage when compared to Verizon. Since my movement is restricted to city limits. The coverage works out fine for me. When I do travel, I am travellilng to big cities...so it works fine there.
2. Microsoft Dev Kit phone - Red E SC1100, marketed by www.everlinkwireless.com
3. In US, from the site I mentioned...also available on microsoft.com/smartphone
4. T-Mobile.