Re: About the Samsung i730 (Verizon, 3G, CDMA) Re: Well, it has kindled a lot of discussion, hm?
Just to be clear, the phone in question 'already' has Wifi built in. (This is one of the few touch screen, PDA, Wifi, Bluetooth, Cellular internet, and qwerty keyboard phones that Verizon ever released. Sorry no Camera.. but to some of us, that's actually a feature too). The trick is to avoid the hefty dataplans to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership to a fraction of what it costs to buy a modern PDA/phone which don't have a way to turn off the Cellular Internet. The procedure: I slightly exaggerated for effect (it's not quite a 5 second procedure), but it's really quite easy and most folks can follow these one time instructions in under a minute or so. ------------- Step 1: In File Explorer (on the phone), browse to MyDevice/Windows/Startup Step 2: 'Cut' (using the right hand 'Menu' Then 'Edit' then 'Cut' choices) the file named "CDMACSP" from the directory. Step 2a: Go up one level and 'paste' (using the right hand Menu then Edit, then Paste) the file to the windows directory. (This step is optional if you want an easy way to put the program back in the startup folder, or to temporarilly re-enable the cellphone internet). Step 3: Now, on the phone menu, go to 'Settings'. Then choose 'Connections' tab, then choose 'Connections' icon, lastly choose 'Manage existing connections'. Step 4: Edit each of the two shown connections and change the phone number to #### (or anything really) instead of #777 and #7772. -------------- That's it, you are done. The phone is now incapable of connecting to the cellular internet system. NOTE: Verizon does require you to 'select' a data-plan when you activate this phone. Simply select the (outragous) per Kb charge of 'pay as you go' or something similar (but remember, you've already disabled internet. - there will be no 'as you go') You now have a $75 ebook reader / cell phone with no data plan, that is WiFi enabled, a full function PDA, and a windows mobile device. This phone will also work just fine with the cell phone radio turned completely off. If you just want a cheap portable ereader/wifi device, you don't even need to signup for anything with verizon. Verizon also offers a 'Data-block' option that you can ask for via customer service, but I don't trust them to always/continue to offer that, or to get a tech on the phone that knows how to enable it on their system. This way, all the control is on your end of the data pipe. For those technically interested, the program we removed from startup 'fixes' the phone numbers at startup if you ever mess them up. If you are ever stuck somewhere and MUST get internet, and there is no 802.11b wifi available. you can go back to the windows directory, run the CDMACSP program, and then connect to the internet through the cellular network. Change the numbers back to something useless when you are done. I learned this trick (and many others) for this phone here http://pdaphonehome.com/forums/samsung-i730-i830-i830w/ I recommend this website for any discussion of 'how do I do what I WANT to do' with just about any brand of phone or PDA. There are updates and software packages to allow playback of DivX, WMP, and Tivo recorded TV shows. You can even load your unencrypted itunes or amazon music purchases. The only true limitation is that it cannot read an SD Card larger than 4GB, and it also doesn't have a 'slick' iphone/ipod like interface. At the moment I have 4 hours of TV from my tivo, 8 hours of Divx video files, 4-5 albums of music, and 460 ebooks loaded; The card is 75% full. Amazon and Apple do have one thing figured out. The ability to grab a book on the fly is 'priceless'. There is nothing so futuristic, yet here today (here for several years actually), than browsing to a website (feedbooks.com, fictionwise.com, webscription.net) and downloading a new book straight to your reader (no cables, cards, or laptops required) while sitting in an airport because you want to read the next book in a series, or another by the same author. Cheers Kevin On 5/14/09, Michael S. Hart <hart@pglaf.org> wrote:
About the Samsung i730 (Verizon, 3G, CDMA). . . .
How do you rename that file to make it wifi???
Thanks!!!
Michael
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You mentioned calling Verizon and setting up a no data plan, or the like, but if you don't want cell service, this is not necessary??? You don't need activation, right? Just to do wifi. Michael
Can this be also looked up on eBay under the Verizon name? The name in the subject line doesn't seem quite right. . . .
If you don't want cell service, you don't have to call anyone. You can even turn off the phone radio so it doesn't use any battery power looking for a signal. As for finding it on ebay or elsewhere, search for "SCH i730" There is also flip phone that uses the i730 'name' from Motorola that would be a horrible reader phone, so make sure you get one that says 'SCH' or 'Samsung'. Once you see the pictures, you will know you are looking at the right one. Google finds prices as low as $40.00 up to the original new price of $650.00. Ebay finds buy it nows prices of $53.00 up to $99.95 on the first page of results. One last note. This phone originally shipped with windows mobile 2003, but there is a free upgrade to Windows Mobile 5 available on the verizon website and elsewhere for download. I highly recommend the upgrade if you get one that still has the 2003 software on it. - Kevin On 5/14/09, Michael S. Hart <hart@pglaf.org> wrote:
Can this be also looked up on eBay under the Verizon name?
The name in the subject line doesn't seem quite right. . . .
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On Thu, May 14, 2009 10:00 pm, Kevin Pulliam wrote:
If you don't want cell service, you don't have to call anyone. You can even turn off the phone radio so it doesn't use any battery power looking for a signal.
Actually, almost every single handset sold today still communicates with the towers, even when you interactively tell them to disable the radio. Some handsets even visibly show the radio as off (i.e. no "antenna" icons or similar), but they're still sending and receiving commands from the towers directly. Also, you might as well disable GPS on the device as well, because that communicates with the towers also (A-GPS, or "Assisted GPS"). The GPS will triangulate your position through the use of nearby cellular towers, even when the radio is off! So yes, you can disable the radio and feel safe, but the only way to be sure, is to pull the battery, because most handsets will lie to you.
participants (3)
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David A. Desrosiers -
Kevin Pulliam -
Michael S. Hart