yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] keimadix:
where can I find the [VPLAYER] ARMv6 to test my zte blade?
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
hi everyone

happy new year

i have a question and i hope you guys can help me

i have family in Germany and USA and i thought maybe i can buy a galaxy tab from there and they send it to me, because it's 800$ in my country and i can buy one for 399$ in the USA (AT&T) and 199Euro (O2 and vodafone) in Germany (with contact)

now i want to know whether it's possible to buy one and unlock it?

AT&T says it's 2 year contact. does it mean you have to pay monthly for 2years even if you don't use their services? can they sue you or it's ok if you cancel the contract and keep the device for 399$ you paid at first?

i don't want my uncle to get in trouble

and one more thing

if i get one and even if i couldn't unlock it, can i still use the device? like for video, office programs and most importantly it's wifi.

i heard you must activate it first. can i somehow ignore/skip it?

thank you so much in advance

i hope you have a great year
[Galaxy Tab General] foxmeister:
Yes, you can unlock it.

A contract is a contract, regardless of whether you use the services or not, so yes you are supposed to pay. If you wish to terminate early, you need to pay an "Early Termination Fee" (see here). I would guess this means the ETF for a Tab is $325, which would mean you'd have been better off paying $649 for the device in the first place.

And yes, they can pursue you for this - in order to get a contract phone in the US, you need a credit check which means a social security number is required, so they can track down whomever purchased the device relatively easily.

Note, I'm not in the US, so some of this information may be out of date/incorrect, but I know as of 18 months ago getting a cell phone on contract without an SSN was almost impossible!

Regards,

Dave
[Galaxy Tab General] Rapax:
If you get one in Germany, you can have it unlocked right there. According to German law IIRC, they are required to unlock it for you if you ask them. They are allowed to charge a small fee for it, usually around 50€. Still a good deal.

Maybe someone from germany can confirm or refute this?
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
thanks Dave and Rapax for fast answers

i think it's better if i buy an unlocked one

they both (AT&T and vodafone) charge for internet connections which i won't be able to use so it does'nt worse

Rapax, vodafone price is 199euro and 40 each month, you mean i can get the device for 199 and pay 50 more to unlock?

i'm not sure if it sounds right :P

you can have an unlocked galaxy tab for 250euro? i'm getting one immediately :D
[Galaxy Tab General] Rapax:
Don't forget that the contract will still run, unlocking doesn't change that. So it's 199+50+24*40 = 1,209€ Not such a bargain, is it?
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
i will definitly not buy one :D

i thought it's gonna cost cheaper that way

you guys don't know a better way?
[Galaxy Tab General] foxmeister:
Buy one from the UK for £407, all in with no contract and already unlocked.

Regards,

Dave
[Galaxy Tab General] LargePrime:
look on ebay.
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
thanks Dave, i'll see if i can find someone in UK

oh no, i have bad experience with used devices

but thanks
[Galaxy Tab General] LargePrime:
They have new ones.

Honestly you can get 4 used ones for that price. That's a lot of spare parts!

And returns are easy. But, As you wish...
[Galaxy Tab General] LargePrime:
You want GSM version only,right?
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
yeah i understand what you say but my relatives over there are not technology friends. they can't test the device to see if it's ok (just the look of it)

yes i want GSM version

actually i'm not gonna use it as a phone but GT is the only good thing i found that offers my need (light, small and touch). i'm paying for phone part but i won't use it

maybe i have to wait for ipad 7inch or maybe i should buy an Archos 70it

help me :confused:
[Galaxy Tab General] LargePrime:
Do you want to wait? If so there are some great things coming. We will see a doubling of power and storage within 6 months.

There should be a wifi only version out soon, which might meet your needs.

Conversely, find a ebay new product that will ship to you. Worse case you waste cash on shipping. still way cheaper.
[Galaxy Tab General] MahZi:
I read galaxy tab wifi-only version is comming in Q1 this year

it's great news for me

I hope it's 400 not 500

so i wait

in the mean time, do you guys know other options for me? i mean other devices
[Windows Phone 7 General] Kontagious:
DO we know if anymore new handsets are being released with WP7 something preferably 4G for tmo or sprint
[Windows Phone 7 General] Omega Ra:
we don't know, but there may be some announcements at CES in a couple of days
[Windows Phone 7 General] canadariot2312:
I know that the Asus phone is being released pretty soon and the HTC 7 Pro on Sprint (most likely it will be 4G).
[Windows Phone 7 General] makoute:
Highly doubtful it would be 4g, since WP7 currently doesn't support it.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Purple11:
I am buying ASUS phone the day its getting released.. its by far the most professional looking WP7 so far.. maybe after Dell Venue Pro..
[Windows Phone 7 General] Purple11:
I regret not buying ASUS P750 every single day of my life.. I went for HP Ipaq 614C which was a miserable choice.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Purple11:
Can anyone tell me what model, what company this Phone is???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr_n-aoohoI
[Windows Phone 7 General] PG2G:
Its the phone they use in a lot of their marketing materials, I don't believe its real.

Omnia looks closest though.
[Windows Phone 7 General] canadariot2312:
I am guessing that they will releases the Asus phone at MWC, which isn't too far away. Oh and Toshiba is releasing a WP7 phone sometime in the future, maybe an Acer phone.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Kontagious:
Well CES came and went and WP7 was barely a blip in the radar besides the update confirmatin coming this month. im starting to become a little dissapointed as MS, to me, is unfortunately not being aggresive enough following WP7 deployment
[Windows Phone 7 General] 937dytboi:
Yes, CES was a failure for WP7, not much news, very upsetting in my eyes, Android really showed their azz. Putting Wp7 to shame. I was expecting to see something.
[Windows Phone 7 General] nrfitchett4:
what were y'all expecting to see??? The OS just released, a little early for a huge showing at CES.
[Windows Phone 7 General] brummiesteven:
It was CES!!

The reason why there was little to no announcements on the mobile front from anyone (even the Android announcements were majority tablet based) was because MWC is just over a month away:

http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/

It is here where they will announce more phones, what's featured in the update to come, new games etc etc.
[Windows Phone 7 General] canadariot2312:
I kind of think tablets were the main focus. Even though AT&T and Verizon released a boatload of phones, not many phones were released for Sprint or T-Mobile and even those phones weren't so hot.

Well, last year they did unveil Windows Phone 7. I would expect something big this year.
[Windows Phone 7 General] OGCF:
Rumors are going around that Samsung could announce the first 4G WP7 at MWC next month. I'm not getting my hopes too high though. This is only a rumor which is based on 'hints' from a Samsung head.

http://wmpoweruser.com/samsung-hinting-at-4g-windows-phone-7-smartphone/

Besides that, I'm expecting Sprint and Verizon to have their WP7s by April and the second generation of handsets sometime between August and November.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Cruzer1:
I agree with MWC being next month where we'll get more WP news, and maybe new form factors (chassis 2 and 3?)

In the end, M$ needs to push really hard in getting the word out, I don't think much people even know about WP7 and what advantages it has over competing platforms. Once M$ can get more public awareness, will we see OEM's have more confidence in the platform, and produce more handsets.
[Windows Phone 7 General] pjcforpres:
We will see a lot more at MWC from WP7. CES is about a lot more than just phones, and is really a bad place to for a company like MS to focus on their phone platform. MWC is the proper stage to do that, and they will.

I think we see the big news being CDMA phones; and secondary to that will be the first update (either just released or to be released very soon), hints at the next update(s), and a glimpse of WP7 phones to be released this summer. Anymore, phones have about a 6 month cycle, so by summer the first release of WP7 handsets will be due for updates.
[Windows Phone 7 General] OGCF:
I'm not sure why people think MS will announce anything CDMA-related there. MWC is an international event and for the past number of years, almost every single phone announced there was GSM-only (i.e. requires SIM card).

MS could just drop some general info about when CDMA phones will be available, but I seriously doubt they will go into any further details and will instead launch more devices for international markets.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Kontagious:
i really really really really hope that is not the case. Give me something HPSA+ capabilities soooon.
[Windows Phone 7 General] canadariot2312:
This coming update will provide drivers for the new snapdragon chips. The ones that are capable of 14.4 mpbs down. I am guessing we will have HSPA+ really soon.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Ganondolf:
looks likely that the Asus E600 will be shown and probably released in feb or march as there has been lots of leaks of the handset today. i also think sumsung will release a omnia handset with a slide out keyboard.

ps. on the Asus phone i like the front but hope they change the back cover.

Link:

http://wmpoweruser.com/more-asus-e600-leaks-has-video-out/
[Windows Phone 7 General] Niiceg:
Well, from looks it's Omnia7 :) With some small changes
[Windows Phone 7 General] vangrieg:
MWC is looming, and we don't have any leaks apart from the Asus.

Doesn't look good.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Niiceg:
Well, I have Omnia7 and I'm very happy with it :] Not going to change to anything ;] And Asus phone looks like crap...
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
Well consider all current WP7 devices pack only a two-year old Snapdragon CPU. The GPU on them are really weak (you can see plenty of game demos comparing Snapdragon vs OMAP or Hummingbird on Android phones).

I'm hoping for some Tegra 2 based new handsets.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Niiceg:
Well, these years I will spend with Omnia7, which doesn't have snapdragon. Next year I think world will be ready for dual-core, just not this year. But I will always wait for new Samsung phones :]
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
You may want to really research on the stuff you own:) Omnia 7, same as Samsung Focus, has Snapdragon, not Hummingbird.

All the first batch of WP7 phones have Snapdragon only, probably because that's the only graphics driver written for WP7.
[Windows Phone 7 General] efjay:
Game demos are one thing, actual gameplay is another - The Harvest, Rise of Glory, Need for Speed, ilomilo, PES, all seem to contradict the often quoted "GPU is weak" argument but would seem to confirm optimised drivers trump higher specs alone.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
There is nothing wrong to have both 2x GPU power and optimized drivers. You have to have varity of hardware to compare with.
[Windows Phone 7 General] naplesbill:
That is quite an exaggeration don't you think? The first snapdragon phone available was the TG01 and that was around August 2009. The first snapdragon phone in the US was the LG Expo and that was Dec 2009. Both of these devices were running Windows Mobile. The Nexus One was the first Android device with a Snapdragon processor and was released in Jan 2010.

So, in reality, the Snapdragon processor has only been available to the general public for 15 mos. It has only been in available in the US for 13 mos, and only been available on a capacitive device for 12 months. When you consider the point in time when the WP7 devices were being designed, the Snapdragon was only a few months old. Considering all the WP7 devices are new designs, it is completely reasonable for them to have the Snapdragon at their core.

The good news is, now that WP7 devices have been designed, upgrades and improvements should start coming at a faster pace. I am perfectly satisfied with the performance of my Focus and it's Snapdragon core.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
I'm not saying Snapdragon is not up to task. Just saying it is old. This is year 2011 and all the new high end phones come out this year will be dual core and much faster GPU, this applies to both the upcoming iPhone 5 (4x GPU power than iPhone4) and new Android phones. If WP7 wants to compete and survive, it better has a range of Tegra 2 based handsets in the pipeline and releases soon. I'm just hoping MWC will give us some good news.
[Windows Phone 7 General] naplesbill:
Now that I can agree with. But, I don't know how much we will hear about at MWC. I hope, like you, that we get some good prospects for later this year. Of course, none of the devices with the more advanced processors are actually available yet anyway. It is more of a need to at least show these things are coming.

Also, don't get too hyped about the performance claims of manufacturers. These claims rarely prove true in real world applications. Nevertheless, performance will improve, how noticeable that is to the end user depends on a lot more than just the hardware.
[Windows Phone 7 General] The Gate Keeper:
i would say that we would see near to no new devices at MWC. there will be a lot of talk of the possible road map to come for windows phone, but that's about it. i would expect to see more devices come towards the middle of the year around the august/september major patch.
[Windows Phone 7 General] vangrieg:
The issue isn't with replacing the device you have.

The issue is that without new shiny devices the platform won't get any real traction.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
If that's the case, I'd consider the platform is dead on arrival. They need steadily pumping out shiny new phones to attract those otherwise may go buy an Android phones. You see new Android phones announce every week or two.
[Windows Phone 7 General] The Gate Keeper:
and i agree that they need to get devices out there (not DOA), but at present you don't see any FCC stuff going through for windows phone. they're all going through for android, so therefore, one can only assume that there won't be many/any new devices at MWC.
[Windows Phone 7 General] agp64:
If there are no new phones I hope they at least have a few more models with 16GB plus memory, WiFi tethering and GPS software that will work for those of us that don't live in the USA.

If we can have these simple features I will get my first WP7 phone, If not I will have to go with Android even though it is my second choice.
[Windows Phone 7 General] circleofomega:
Omnia 7...its the best!!
[Windows Phone 7 General] emigrating:
The thing is though, you only need so many WP7 devices. They are all technically identical anyway and it makes no sense (business wise) doing a HTC here and releasing two or more near identical looking devices (Trophy / Mozart).

I can understand HTC releasing the HD7 alongside either the Trophy or Mozart (or possibly even the Surround) and the 7 Pro. Those three handsets would cover all bases, one with a bigass screen, one suited for everyone and one with a physical keyboard.

I don't see Samsung coming out with anything new as they have their bases covered with the Omnia7 and Focus. The 4" screen makes for a great universal device that fits all.

LG could probably do with a larger screen in their portfolio, but if the recent interviews with LG are correct I doubt they'll bring anything to market until they have seen higher sales.

So that leaves any potential newcomers like Asus, Acer, HP, SE, Nokia etc. The only one we've heard of so far is Asus and personally I no longer purchase their products :)

In any case, what I hope does not happen is that we get a whole lot of new devices announced/released with better processors, front facing cameras, more internal storage and so on. That would pretty much render the launch devices SOL and all the early adopters high and dry. While I want all these features as much as the next guy I really hope they are left out of the loop until we get a major update of the OS late, which I'm guessing will be late fall, early winter this year.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
I'm speachless.

If that's really what's going to happen, it can only tell me one thing: Microsoft is giving up on WP7 and the platform has no traction. Your lauch device will be your first and very last WP7 device.

The new smartphone life cycle is about 6-month. A 3-month old phone is typlically considered outdated. If you can't keep up with this pace, you're not trying hard enough. The only way to survive is keep innovate and stay in cutting edge. No one, other than WP7, released any phone using Snapdragon in 2nd half of 2010. All the new HTC phones use new generation of chips from Qualcomm that improves both CPU and GPU.

For the record, I already have a Samsung Focus and will have another upgrade this spring for my wife. I'm not interested in any existing WP7 launch devices. If there is no new devices out or announced soon, I will just have to look into iPhone or another Android phone.

P.S. I wouldn't mind they skip Tegra 2 and jump directly to quad core Tegra 3 that nVidia is going to anounce in MWC :)
[Windows Phone 7 General] emigrating:
Outdated after three months? Really? The iPhone (which is the closest competitor to WP7) releases new hardware once a year. I'm not saying "Do not release new devices", I'm saying "Do not release new devices with significant changes in HW specifications".

In terms of actual hardware, the device is really out of date at launch as it takes months upon months to integrate the SoC and so on. Looking at the QSD8x50 currently used in WP7 this has been "on the market" for 24 months, but only available in actual devices for about 15 months.

What would happen if WP7 all of a sudden started supporting dual-core processors? Developers (who are generally early-adopters) would utilize this extra power in their apps and/or games and a game written with a dual-core CPU in mind would be unplayable on any of the launch devices. This would bring us right back to WM/Android territory where fragmentation is king and you never know if your phone is up to the task of running the latest games.

Re-reading my post, I see I was a little unclear, so let me break it down; I'm all for getting higher quality cameras (photos - not videos as that is directly dependant on the CPU used), 32/64GB storage, even FFC's would be fine, but please don't come up with a new chassi spec this early in the game with requirements of dual-core processors, 1GB RAM, 1080p video-camera and so on. It will not end well.

Microsoft made a choice about strict hardware guidelines, and while I don't think they made a very wise choice; it's done. Opening the platform for high-end devices after being on the market for four months will drive consumers away rather than attract them.

The better option here would be to announce a road-map, saying that in October 2011 WP7.5 or WP8 or whatever they decide to call it will be released along with a batch of new phones; these will require a MSM8x60 SoC, 1GB RAM, 1080p video, front-facing camera, qHD (or higher) displays and so on.

Sure, a game developed for these new devices would still not be playable on launch devices, but the fragmentation would be controlled. In a very similar fashion to what Apple has done with the iPhone. They release new hardware along with a new major version of the OS once a year, rendering older devices, while not entirely useless, not far from it. Consumers can live with this - they can not live with having their brand spanking new phone becoming obsolete mere months after purchase.

They have done a great job on the OS so far, but in order to gain consumer trust they need to stick to it. For this same reason I'm very dubious about the chassi 2/3/4 specs we have heard rumors about, running WP7 on a HVGA or QVGA display sounds completely nuts to me.
[Windows Phone 7 General] Niiceg:
Why do you want new phones? To get camera? "Better" processor? Have you seen those Android ****s, that uses Dual-core processors? Their speed hasn't increased much, just a few seconds to load browser. Graphics are slow as always. OSes must be customized to get the best from dual-cores, but now they are useless... Just to say, that your phone has dual-core... It's ****. And MS should also think about upgrading phones to newer software, so they can't let manufacturers to make everything they want with WP7. I think, that new phones are not needed now, because what WP7 has is the best now. And Android can say it has phones with dual-core, but it will be slower than let's say WP7, because that power is not used
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
emigrating,

Smartphone is not gaming console. On gaming console business, they sell the console for a loss and make the money from game sales. In the Smartphone business, from Microsoft point of view, they make money by selling more phones and hopefully make some money from app market (but that's not there yet until there is big enought user base). Try to keep the hardware spec on the WP7 down is going to be a losing strategy. And as far as I know, WP7 hardware requirement is for minimum hardware spec., not the upper limit. I can understand why launch devices are limited to Snapdragon chip only because the time to write and optimize new graphics drivers for other chips. If MS is serious about pushing WP7 platform forward, it should already have finished drivers for other popular mobile chipsets now.

Innovation is what keeps you alive. Drag your feet is what makes Windows Mobile platform the status of today, e.g. dead.
[Windows Phone 7 General] foxbat121:
I got bored with whatever phones I have in 6 months. Many others do the same.

Phone hardware can't change once you bought it but OS and software can. If you can't grasp that concept, you shouldn't use Smartphone in the first place.

I own and still use my Android phone. They reminds me of the old WM. Yes, they are fragmented, not because of hardware, but beecause they choose the WM model of OS release (Google->Phone Maker->Carrier->End user).
[Windows Phone 7 General] vetvito:
Spouting bull**** as usual. Dual core is not about OS speeds. You can't get any faster than instantaneous app opening when touched. Its impossible to do that any faster. Dual core is for gaming and media. Heavy graphics and PC and console gaming engines.

Main reason why Apple is going dual cores, their OS doesn't run like ****, but the newer games do. Not to mention the games on the way.