jstephens84

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T-Mobile G1 with a cracked screen. I was doing durability testing with it and at 3 feet I can say it can't with stand the force or Concrete.

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Earth 1 G1 0 (Thank god I got insurance on it)

jiml8

I *think* that all cellphones now have gps chips in them.

You obviously have confused our current crop of planners and politicians with people who actually have intelligence and can consider consequences.

Sorry, but that just isn't true.

As for phones, I have a Nokia flip phone. It takes and receives calls. I even have text messaging disabled with the service I use. Works for me.

GrapefruiTgirl

The bold highlighting above, is my own doing.

It wasn't my intent to imply that the two bold items are synonymous. If I gave that impression, my apology.

What exactly isn't true? Which part?

Sasha

TBC Cosmo

I've had a treo 650 and now a treo 755p. I've been considering a pre for my next, but I'm on the fence. For one thing, the pre feels flimsy and cheaply constructed. I hate that, since I'm clumsy. I need a phone that can be dropped, skidding across most surfaces. I've considered doing away with all PIM functions in a phone and going back to the plain ol' flip phone. At the same time, my treo has saved my can in customer data centers, where there is no outbound access to internet.

I also have an uncanny ability to forget things. So I also like having reminders and birthdays, wedding anniversary (speaking of which) all coming at me. So I'm conflicted here.

stoggy

I hate phones because they tend to ring and then someone wants to talk to me and usually i don't want to talk to them. In 34 years I can remember 3 exceptions to this.

I ride motorcycles and the freaking cagers seem to try to kill me because they cant see with something pressed against the hole in their head. I am not sure if they try to see out their ears or if the cell phone blocks the hole in their ass, having seen how firmly most peoples heads are planted in their ass, it could be either. Cell phones + driving should be illegal! They all have the gps stuff why cant they disconnect them if they are going more then 20 mph? I guess that would suck if you were running 20+mph and talking on your cell phone. Of course all the gold medals you would win in the olympics would make up for it. Driving while intoxicated use to be legal too. It took hundreds of thousand of people dieing before they ever did anything about it.

None of the cell phones seem to work very well with linux, even the linux phones, go figure...Why buy a device, pay a service fee, so you can use windoze? Now add Windoze to the cost of using the device.


I like the idea of mobile internet though. I'll pass till I can run slackware on them. If it rings, I will find the nearest trash can and dispose of it properly... Unfortunately I have bills to pay...

My work is making me get a cell phone. I think im going to get a droid. Can i `rm /dev/ringer; ln -s /dev/null /dev/ringer`? Then its not linux. From what I have read the phone is open source but google is threatening suits of some guy that is trying to program for it, because he included their apps. So its like they are saying you can program for it if you do it all. WTF???

Astro007

I have looked at an open phone project called OpenMoko that runs Android. All the phones specs are public domain so your apps will never go out of style.
The PRE does run a Linux Derivative called Web OS although according to Wired Magazine has captured a full 0% of the market. So I'm on the fence with you along with the rest of the domestic market. I like iPhone, although nothing is cheap about iPhone (easy n fun yes so maybe iPhone is it), idealistically I like the idea of Android, although most of the Droid phones out there are pretty junky and I have been less than impressed by them, starting with the first G-Phone that went into production.

lewc

what an amusing thread, bet nobody would feel comfortble saying any of that in front of loved ones lol, CSI GPS tracking, it's a phone I can triangulate your position based on your IMEI alone whats next living in a farriday cage. Anyways... after alientating everyone (Hi i'm new and only joking) I like LG phones, Iphones and hve an Ipod nano with Linux on it and I can sync m phones to my PC before flashing them with anything, btw has anyone else noticed the lack of mobile drivers and flashing tools in Linux (specifically ubuntu, redhat, suse and sabayon). Maybe a link to a good phone distro. also has anyone mentioned XDA's and palm-pilot enabled GSM phones, some of these come with Linux built it closed source though

salasi

and @ lewc
No, you can't. You can identify the 'phone based on IMEI, but you need other information in addition to the IMEI to triangulate the phone (the IMEI is printed on a little label in the phone and if this was strictly true and the IMEI remained valid it would mean that some force was keeping it in the position determined from the IMEI).

OTOH, grapefruit girl is not being paranoid enough. You can, plus or minus 85 - 100 feet or better, depending on cell density, triangulate a phone from the cell signal without it having a GPS chip. This isn't anything like a best-case (or even median case) GPS accuracy, but if you don't want 'them' to know where you are, you have to leave your 'phone at home...or have a 'phone that isn't traceable to you (which is the 'career criminal' approach, I believe).

It does depend a bit on who is the 'them' you are worried about; if its your boss, that shouldn't be a problem (but who is checking that the network operators really stick to the rules?) but emergency services and people with badges from three letter agencies would be a different matter. And who could tell what would happen if someone with criminal intent tried to bribe someone at a low level at the service operator? And, if you were a parent and had bought the 'phone for your kid, you'd probably think it was legitimate to use it as a tracker, but at what age do they acquire the right to privacy?

GPS does make this problem worse by increasing the accuracy, but the problem doesn't go away just by not having GPS.

I do not know what the US plans are for satellite replacement, but there will be the European system up by then (theoretically...although I haven't heard anything of the Euro system for a couple of years...is it still on track?) and that should be even more accurate than GPS. Pity that existing GPS devices won't work with the European system...

lewc

Hmm...

actually I defintely can. did you know your mobile phone transmits through free air and waits for a response from the repeater/relay station, by finding the times the signal was intercepted by the relay stations closest to you I can pinpoint your location within 5minute window with ease. I can rather expensively calculte where you are at any given point in time and the only reason I wouldnt bother is because my life is too interesting to do so. I used to run a check on an online service for keeping track of children that would tell me where colleagues had been. Unfortunately because of abuse off the service by people like me, needy prtners and private investigators the free service was taken offline but the paid service remains.

The only thing you can do to stop this is to remove the battery as most phones with power still transmit and need a signal transmitted back to them which is why when I first got my mobile in the 90's we could not use them abroad or in europe.

I think personally your whole paranoid delusions of your own importance stems from some mental ailment, why would a low level criminal pay for your phone records, they could set up a registered company and buy electoral role data or better still hacck your friends or family's facebook and find where you live...

in the real world however nobody cares where you were when you made aa phone call unless you are doing something very very wrong
like luring young girls away to your basement. The government is well aware that people commit crimes and nobody retains their innocence but unless you physically get more people watching than are being watched such efforts prove logistically unsound

anyway back to the discussion this is hijacking this thread far too much, PM me if you wish to he a sensible discussion

salasi

I'm not arguing whether it is possible to triangulate the 'phone - that's easy enough- but whether you can do it just from the IMEI number alone which is what you asserted. As, if you knew anything about this, you'd know that the IMEI number is a number assigned at the time of manufacture to identify the 'phone, you'd know that this wasn't possible without other information obtained from the phone, so it is interesting that you keep arguing the contrary position.

Maybe I should give you the IMEI number of a phone and no other information and you can tell me where it is? Here's one: 350324-45-211926-5
I can the phone in the mail, so it moves somewhere else and the IMEI number won't change so it would be interesting how just this number alone gives you the information on where it is.

(my italics) and you don't think this raises suspicions?

I'll leave it for others to judge who sounds as if they have paranoid delusions, in the light of your admissions earlier, and your clearly unbalanced obsessions. In passing, I will note that we were discussing Grapefruit Girl's desire to remain untracked by her phone, and, although I have not known her long, she really, really doesn't sound like the unbalanced kind of individual who commits the unpleasant acts in which you seem interested.

With you? I'm sure that you are trying to be most kind, but really, no, thanks.

lewc

two points firstly the IMEI is invalid but looks like the beginnings of a Sony Erricson IMEI, secondly I resent alligations I am in any way shady, I have never broken the law using these services and at the time I was working with vunerble youths so my colleagues understood I needed to be able to monitor their actions remotely for both their safety, the safety of the youths and obviously my own peace of mind.

discussion point over you are entitled to your own opinion and I am entitled to my past experience.

Has anyone seen any linux mobile devices supporting multiple sim devices, how does this work? and are there any problems?