Listening To: Joe Pass - Just Friends
As you can imagine, my impossible mission to locate the right phone did have a conclusion... sort of.
All I can say, is that if you actually have some idea on what you want in a mobile phone, you are going to have to invest a fair amount of time researching unless you know exactly what phone you want. For me, I was after certain technologies and certain features with as little limitations as possible (see part 1).
Originally, I selected the Nokia 6620 - but found through Cingular's site that it wasn't available, here's where the first, 'hmmm' kicks in. The reason why the phone wasn't there is still unknown to me nor the people I later spoke to at Cingular. What happens, is that you must type in a zip code to contine - so I did, 92115 - but if I picked a different zip - the phone would display. It gets even more complicated... read on.
After accepting that I couldn't get the 6620, I then had to reasearch the phones that were there and find 'the one.' After weeding through the selection - I picked the Motorola V551 - and I complete the order over the phone - also picking up a V220 for my wife. The next day I see after browsing around, and trying a different zip code at Cingular.com, that the Nokia 6620 WAS available. So I call in, cancel the order - and both the Cingular operator and myself check to see that the order hadn't left the warehouse (i checked their site). But guess what... yes, you're correct... they shipped it.
So I call again - and this time they say I have to send it back to them before they can send the right product. This is after I had to prove to them that the 6620 was not on the site - and that I found that it was available in stores. It wasn't until the Cingular operator/manager visited their site and tried my zip, where she procliamed, 'ahhhh hmmmm - that's weird!'
I then call a local store to see if I can do a swap of some sort - and the guy says yes, so I just needed to wait another day and the package would show up. It shows - I'm off to the store - and guess what... the guy can't do the trade because my account was apparently locked. It seems we didn't talk long enough the day before - he was under the impression that I was going to upgrade through his store. No dice.
So I call Cingular again - and explain the situation - my call bubbles up to another person and finally... I get some help. She points out that the store I was at wasn't a "Cingular" store - that it was a contract store or something like that. So she points me to an address where I can finally swap the phone. Ten minutes later - I discover that the location she sends me to no longer exists... so I turn around and head home so I can call places on the Cingular.com website.
On my second call, I finally speak to someone who says yes, they'll do it and that they have it in stock. Another ten minutes later - I'm in the store - making the trade, paying the difference , and back out in 15 minutes. FINALLY!!!!
But wait - it doesn't end. It turned out after tests, that the Nokia 6620 used AMR files for ringtones and not mp3s - at least the unit I was using seemed to only work w/ AMR. So, after a few days, I went back and swapped the 6620 back for the Moto V551.
And how is the V551? Everything works very well except downloading files. It seems this unit, and several others, support a transfer tech: WTP-SAR (Wireless Transaction Protocol - Segmentation and Reassembly), which means it transfers files/data in chunks of 500K. Actually, this is both a bad thing and a good thing. It's bad because ArtistServer 'currently' can not serve media files as chunks - only constant data streams. It's good because I'm forced to work out the solution sooner than later since my 'testing' phone can't download anything from the site that is over 500K. Most likely, the solution will be a new serving/streaming object that MediaServer System will use to deliver media and talk to the database as opposed to
