Phone Firewall Stuff

I mentioned in my first post that I was going to use a software called Advanced Call Manager (ACM) to filter my calls and messages on my Sony P1i.

Well after scouring the web for opinions and reviews, I came across this other software which is highly recommended by quite a number of users. Its called Mcleaner and its available for the UIQ3, Iphone, Symbian OS and many other platforms.

By the way, these types of software are also known as mobile phone firewalls. Pretty slick term for a built in function in my Samsung ..... ok pardon my sour graping again.

Anyway, the advantage this one has over ACM is that it filters both SMS and calls. It also has a neat feature called scheduler along with profiles which makes it very easy to set up your phone.

If you're interested in trying it out you can download an evaluation copy here.

I'll try out the ACM too, they have a version for my 6120 classic so i'll update this post with my thoughts on ACM and my experience with Mcleaner.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sun Double Unlimited User Review

I signed up for the DOUBLE UNLIMITED plan of Sun Cellular about a month ago. The deal goes like you sign up for two plans, a SunTel wireless landline AND a Sun Cellular Plan 350 pre loaded with 24/7 Call and Text Unlimited. For signing up, you get a Samsung C5212 Active Dual Sim phone for FREE.

First, a bit of disclosure I don’t work for Sun or any of its affiliates. I have been a loyal subscriber ever since they started. I have 3 lines, all with SUN because I feel they offer the best value in the industry. Had it not been for them, the Globe and Smart giants would be having a heyday charging P1 for text that used to be free. Yes sometimes its hard to call, but for those of us who remember how it was with Smart when it first launched here against Globe and Extelcom, it’s the bargain of the decade.

When I first got my Smart, it would take HOURS before you would get through. It was unbelievable. The phones for some time, were next to useless. Not to mention the mess these telecom companies made out of interconnection and making it difficult for competitors to call their networks. Believe me, Sun, for all its problems, has been and still is the best value for money and it’s a company that we all should sign up with to ensure that the industry will not be complacent and unscrupulous again.

Anyway let’s move on to how my Double Unlimited thing is going.

The Samsung C5212 was highly acclaimed in the preliminary write-ups on GSM Arena so I had great expectations for this unit.

In the interest of brevity, here are the Pros and Cons summarized:

SAMSUNG C5212

PROS:
- Nice form factor, bit large but fits well in your hand
- Good sized screen
- Polished interface relative to the old D900’s
- Easy SIM management
- Good ergonomics particularly the keyboard
- Excellent call handling unique to Samsung, you can blacklist SMS and/or calls.
- SMS alerts is now user customizable

CONS:
- Battery life is quite short
- Dual band only
- Has a problem acquiring and keeping signals
- Quality control issues, unit has two stuck pixels already
- Inadequate bundle, no memory card, no usb cable (which happens to be Samsung proprietary)
- No CD installer


Now about SUNTEL, first of all, it is a good deal. At least on paper.

You get a landline for P450 with unlimited call to numbers in the 02 service area. This beats out the metered service of PLDT and is dead even with the new Bayantel Wireless P450 plan.
However, the signal in quite a number of areas is unstable despite the reassurance of the SunTel Customer Service that the network is ok in that area. In those areas, it’s so hard to connect and when I do, I can hardly hear the other party and they can hardly hear me. It’s embarrassing particularly in view of the TV commercial about such network problems.

Furthermore, the SUNTEL/ SAMSUNG combination is unusable to me. The SAMSUNG could hardly get a signal in the areas I frequent and even in my house where I get strong SUN signals. What is aggravating is I get better reception and audio from my old Motorola Timeport! When I transferred the SUNTEL sim to my old phone, I was able to call from my work area where the SAMSUNG/SUNTEL combo could not.

Going further, I saw that the signal was still not that good despite being able to call so I transferred the SUNTEL Sim to my 3G Sony K810. To my surprise, it was able to get a 3G signal, a strong one at that. So after making a call and establishing that the connection was the best among the 3 phones, I decided to leave my SUNTEL sim in my K810.

So is the SUNTEL network ok now in the K810? It’s easier to make calls now but signal still needs a bit of improvement if they are to approach the usability level of the Bayantel Wireless which by the way was notorious for signal problems before but sad to say, its better. I know because we have one.

I think the network engineers should test the units they provide to SUNTEL users because landline users have more expectations from their units. We expect reliability and accessibility from our landlines otherwise its no different from an ordinary cellular service.

SUNTEL

PROS:
- Low price
- Good audio quality
- Flexibility since its sim based and will work with most phones with qualifications (see comments above)

CONS:
- Unstable signal
- Congested network in my area (Batasan Hills)
- Cannot connect with some food delivery hotlines

So in the end what would I recommend?

Well I would have said if you want a really good deal for a dual sim bundled with landline and cellular services, this is the way to go. But right now I can’t, because as I said, a good deal on paper fades when confronted with the reality of uselessness.

Most people who buy into this deal obviously are into one thing: COMMUNICATION. That is what I expected. I expect to be always (within reason) within reach of my clients and family. And this is what I don’t get from the SAMSUNG / SUNTEL combo.

The network is wanting and the phone reception needs to be addressed because its pathetic when a nearly 8 year old unit outperforms a newly released one in its primary task of making calls.

I have of course relayed my concerns to both Samsung and my local Sun shop. Samsung has relayed that they have neither the parts nor the software yet to service my phone so I can’t take it back yet for another month or so.

Sun on the other hand has not replied yet nor have I been informed about any testing being done in the problem areas I pointed out.

I would expect that the network would be reviewed as well as the suitability of the SAMSUNG C5212 for the SUNTEL network. For existing subscribers such as myself, I would expect that SUN would either recall the handsets to replace them with ones better matched to the network or maybe they can offer the Desktop Handsets such as the Huawei ETS-3023 at a discounted price to serve as base units for subscribers with signal problems in their homes. Actually I called asking about this but there are no units available for sale.

So in the end I suggest that potential subscribers to this service adopt my stand first which is wait and see. This post will be updated as feedback is received.

The Samsung Upset

I am so disillusioned today. It began when I started receiving nuisance calls from people who desperately need to get a life. I mean why would you call and text the same number day after day sending messages that border on insane practically begging for attention?

Anyway, so I pull out my formidable P1i and first thing I do to prevent further disturbance is to screen my calls, choosing to accept calls from a predefined list. This is just to buy me extra time to set up the phone to reject outright the calls from the nuisance number only. And thats where I got disillusioned. For all its bells and whistles, my mighty P1i cannot be setup to reject or block calls or sms from a particular number!

I would not be this upset if I had not known that the budget Samsung E250 actually has this feature! The Samsung allows you to make a list of numbers whose calls or sms you wish to block. That's 2 separate lists! All this from this budget slider which I had passed on to my daughter.

I do have a Samsung c5212 dual sim which also has this feature but this phone is not exactly ideal to be the main phone for me. Actually my main phone used to be a Sony Ericsson K810 which was relegated to be my 2nd tier phone, after the P1i. I did come across this software that can at least reject my calls the way they should be, the Samsung way, but I just feel bad that I need to install a software on my smartphone to do what my budget slider can do.

Anyway the software is called Advanced Call Manager which I'll probably try out. However, this turn of events just might lead me to reconsider exchanging the P1 for a Samsung i780. Or at least, I might decide to forego geting a Nokia N82 to replace my K810 and just replace it with a Samsung like the G800 or possibly the 8800 Pixon..... Oh and I forgot to mention, the Nokias, at least my 3110C and my 6120C both cannot do what the Samsung can either. Talk about an upset.

The truth is I really do intend to change to two Samsungs, the 8510 Innov8, and the Omnia. But budgetary constraints demand prudence so I have to go back to my spreadsheets and check how I can justify a change of phones.

Whatever happens, one thing is certain, one of the 3 phones I carry will be replaced by a Samsung.

Kudos to Samsung. And watch out Sony and Nokia.

First post and links related to my P1i

What is this blog all about?

Well, this blog will be updated with all things tech that I encounter in my daily forays on the web.

Bookmarks just don't cut it and sometimes I'd like to access my data from remote so putting it on a blog I can access from anywhere seems like the perfect idea now.

A side benefit is that I get to give back to the community whenever someone benefits from the links and commentaries made here.

And that after all is really the essence of the World Wide Web.

So today, I've been surfing all over trying to get some stuff to setup my newly acquired P1i.

Yes the post date is correct, its June 6, 2009. And yes the P1i was released around July 2007 and some would say (though I disagree) is an obsolete model.

But obsolescence to me is dictated not by age or features but by how well the device can fulfill the users needs. I certainly would love to have the latest and the greatest but as an old teacher of mine liked to say, "make the most of what you have" And one question I kept asking myself was "what do you need it for" and "will you use".

Let me say just a little bit about the P1i.

I turned over my hardly used P990i to my son and this is the replacement. Actually prior to this I was pining for a Nokia E71 but the price is still prohibitive for me at 16K to 18K. It took a lot of soul searching on my part, a lot of research and a honest inventory of what I need, what I have and what I can afford.

I came from the P800, then acquired a Palm Lifedrive, after which I got the P990i. The P800 is with my youngest son, while my eldest has my P990i and I still have my Lifedrive.

My primary reasons for wanting the E71 was the HSDPA access and the PDA functions and the GPS. The HSDPA was the primary thing as I just got a Sun Broadband Wireless and I wanted to be able to write and work from remote.

However I just got a free phone from Sun, the Nokia 6120 classic which has HSDPA too and since at that point I had a non existent budget, I decided to try hooking up my lifedrive with the 6120 and was able to get it to work after a few minutes of tinkering.

Imagine my elation at this point! I have a free keyboard for the Lifedrive and so I had a much more competent setup for remote working. I had a bigger screen and it was touchscreen at that!

Now since I don't work on remote that often, I decided maybe I should just get a cheap second hand smartphone so my candidates were the P1i, E61i and the Samsung i607. You see my budget was absolutely topped out at P8K.

So it was a serendipitous event for me when I saw this P1i with complete accessories selling for just under my budget. And how lucky can I be, there was a "buy it now" button so I proceeded to buy it. There were some problems with the phone which were accidentally overlooked by the seller but he was so quick to rectify the situation by offering a rebate so now I'm very happy to be the new owner of a pre-loved P1i.

So without further ado, here are the links I followed today.

Walkman 3 for the P1i

Symbian Developer Network

Skype etc for the P1i

The Symbians

E-buddy

IP Mart Forum -

Sony Ericsson P1i Blog - Excellent source of info about the P1i


Sony Ericsson Philippines


The Sony Ericsson Satio aka Idou Page on GSM Arena