WTG CambridgeSide Galleria!

Last time I checked the CambridgeSide Galleria was charging for Wi-Fi access, but here I am at the mall, waiting for Corinna to finish shopping, using their wireless for free in the food court. I love free internet. =)

Going to see MirrorMask with the film club in an hour or so, which hopefully won’t suck.

Since I had time to kill here at the mall I decided to do a little preliminary shopping for a replacement for my Sidekick II. My contract with T-mo doesn’t end until May, so this is truly premature, but I had nothing better to do here, so wtf. The problem seems to be that nobody offers unlimited data service as cheaply as T-Mobile. Right now I pay $60/month for voice and data. And to be honest, I could probably drop down to $40/month (I only bumped it up because I was using the phone quite a bit while I was laid up with my leg.

I am addicted to having good data service on my phone, and so I’d like to score a Treo. AFAIK, the only (non T-Mobile) providers offering the Treo are Verizon and Cingular. Cingular’s cheapest voice plan is $40/month with another $40/month for the unlimited data plan. Verizon’s cheapest plan seems to $40/month for voice and $50/month for unlimited data. This sucks… Update: I forgot to mention that I get some pretty decent discounts from Cingular through work… I think I get 30% off on the phone and 10% off on the plan, but I don’t know if that applies to data as well.

Do you think that with the upcoming Zorro sequel we will have to endure more Bryan Adams?

11 thoughts on “WTG CambridgeSide Galleria!

    1. Heh, I forgot completely about Sprint… I used to be a Sprint customer, but their customer support sucked so badly… Is it any better?

      That said, T-Mobile has put Sprint’s badness to shame, so at this point I’d probably consider returning… has Sprint and seems to be happy.

      Thanks for the heads up!

    2. Does sprint pull any shenanigans like Verizon restricting Bluetooth, etc? I’d fancy being able to use the data service on my powerbook over Bluetooth for when I’m out of free Wi-Fi service.

      1. I’ve (luckily) never had to call Sprint support, and their in-store people where I bought the phone were helpful.

        The updated firmware revisions enable bluetooth dial-up-networking support, but I haven’t really spent any time trying to make it work with FreeBSD, although there are forums out there with people reporting it works. Although, unlike T-Mobile, I don’t think Sprint “officially” supports it… I had a T-610 with T-Mobile, and called them up and they helped me configure it with my Powerbook.

        1. I’m less concerned with them supporting the service as I am with them actively trying to prevent.. As long as they allow it, even if it is unsupported, I can figure it out…

  1. Sorry, this was posted anonymously by accident the first time.

    I switched to Cingular a few months ago, and quickly recalled why I left them in the first place. They have horrid customer service and in the two billing cycles I’ve had since resubscribing, they’ve misbilled me twice. Things that “just worked” or were free with T-Mobile take CS intervention or cost an additional fee. All this at a price higher than T-Mobile charges. If Amy lived in an area with better T-Mobile coverage, I wouldn’t have switched back at all.

    Honestly, I’d recommend getting an unlocked device on eBay and choosing which ever provider suits your needs best.

  2. T-Mobile CS has fucked me six ways to sunday since ’02… I think cell providers are like Operating Systems, they all suck… I’m sure that I will have to change providers every few years, but without switching they will never have any incentive to get better.

    What would an unlocked phone buy me? I’m still going to be contract bound, no? And I still have to worry about GSM vs. CDMA vs. PCS nonsense, no?

    1. I’m sure it depends on the provider. Some providers may tell you to take a flying leap if you’re not using their equipment.

      An unlocked phone means 1) you don’t need to be concerned about the providers “enhanced” firmware which really means that you lose features that the retail firmware would provide. For example, my Cingular branded RAZR is loaded with places where I can go online and buy stuff, but most useful features are either disabled or buried in illogical places. 2) you aren’t bound to any particular provider, at least technologically.

      Of course you need to still worry baout CDMA vs. PCS vs. GSM. I guess I don’t consider that a drawback since I do a fair bit of international travel and would only consider GSM devices anyway. Besides, all the “cool” devices — some of which aren’t even available from any provider in the US — are GSM since that’s what the rest of the world(tm) uses.

  3. Do you think that with the upcoming Zorro sequel we will have to endure more Bryan Adams?

    does anyone care?

    A conversation we had in the theater, before Wallace And Gromit:

    [linus] George Harrison was the best Zorro
    [me] I think you meant “George Hamilton”
    [linus] heh. yeah.

    1. I care in the sense that in the hour or so I’ve been sitting in this food court I’ve had to endure like 2 bryan adams songs and I’d hate if they had a bigger pool to draw from…

      Now that I think about it, they very well could have been the same song, I couldn’t really tell…

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