at&t phones that connect to your wireless router at home

[fusion5ny]

i am wondering if anyone knows if such phones exist, or i am i just thinking crazy....so what i'm asking is, are there anyone cell phones for at&T that can actually connect to the wireless router u have at home and access your home internet network for free...any feedback would be appreciated

 

[nboy22]

Most likely only the smart phones.. such as the Cingular 8525, the new 8925. etc... Most regular phones do not support wifi features.

 

[fusion5ny]

so if the device supports"wifi" it can connect to the internet u have at home through the router? and it will the full real internet? for example, lets say i wanted to play full tilt poker would i be able to

 

[Xellos2099]

iphone can do it

 

[pm]

The Apple iPhone, the AT&T 8525 PDA Phone, the new AT&T "Tilt" and the Blackberry 8820 are the only ones that I know of that are AT&T specific.

There are plenty of unlocked non-AT&T-specific cell phones (like most of the models from HTC, several of the ones from Palm and others) that have this capability and would be compatible with the AT&T GSM network (just put in an AT&T SIM card).

And there are plenty more rumored for release later this year - like the Blackberry Pearl 2 - that are rumored to be wifi-enabled.

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
so if the device supports"wifi" it can connect to the internet u have at home through the router? and it will the full real internet? for example, lets say i wanted to play full tilt poker would i be able to

Yes. Most likely, but you would first need to have a phone that enabled plugin downloads for the windows mobile software such as java or flash plugins.

Windows mobile is probably the best mod-able operating system you're gonna find on a smart phone.. I may be wrong (I'm fairly new to the whole smart phone thing) but it seems that way anyways, after all, windows has a ton of support and mods for it so it would make sense.

 

[fusion5ny]

i'm mad the razr 2 doesnt support wifi, the phones that support wifi are huge

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
i'm mad the razr 2 doesnt support wifi, the phones that support wifi are huge

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Pearl 8120 supports wifi and is 3.6oz.

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
i'm mad the razr 2 doesnt support wifi, the phones that support wifi are huge

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Pearl 8120 supports wifi and is 3.6oz.

my prediction is that it will be a while before we ever see a regular phone such as the razr 2 support wifi. It's just that companies are in it for the money, and they're pretty much gonna cripple even the phones that offer wifi. they will also cripple the features of getting free ringtones on your phone as much as they can. I actually had to HACK my phone in order to get ringtones on it for free.

The companies are going to cripple the phones so that you have to pay for the EVDO/EDGE internet connectivity on the phone. It's just business.

 

[pm]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
i'm mad the razr 2 doesnt support wifi, the phones that support wifi are huge

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but Pearl 8120 supports wifi and is 3.6oz.

I thought the 8130 wasn't on AT&T yet - I thought it launches in early Nov. AT&T aren't listing it on their website yet. And I thought the 8130 for Verizon that's available now, doesn't include WiFi (but has a GPS instead).


As far as why smaller, less expensive cell phones don't support WiFi, I think it's due to the cost and power requirements of the wifi chipsets. The earlier WiFi chipsets used over 350mA and cost over $20 for just the integrated circuit. You can't support either of those two in a low-cost phone that's intended for the consumer market. It's one thing to drop a wifi IC into a $500 smartphone that has a fairly big battery (like 1500-2000mAh), it's another thing to drop one into a small, inexpensive model like a Razr that has a 680mAh battery. As the WiFi chipsets gradually decreases in power requirements and price, they will eventually find their way into smaller, cheaper handsets - such as the small and light (but not exactly cheap) Blackberry 8130.

I don't think it's due to the fact that AT&T and Verizon make money selling EDGE/EVDO service - at least not in a large part. WiFi will be a popular feature for handsets and it costs AT&T nothing for users to have it. Most data plans in the US are switching over to a flat rate plan slowly... if someone pays a flat $20 (or $40 or $80) for EDGE/EVDO service, then AT&T and Verizon (and the rest) only can gain when users pay them and then use someone else's wifi bandwidth.

 

[fusion5ny]

well the pearl is really ugly and u need an electron microscope to use the keyboard......how about the new ATT TILT, it supports wifi and uses windows mobile....so it will support the REAL internet through my wireless router (i mean REAL like on the ipod)? will it support playing something like Full Tilt Poker on it?

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
well the pearl is really ugly and u need an electron microscope to use the keyboard......how about the new ATT TILT, it supports wifi and uses windows mobile....so it will support the REAL internet through my wireless router (i mean REAL like on the ipod)? will it support playing something like Full Tilt Poker on it?

It should, however you will still probably need to download a 3rd party plugin for it such as java or flash. You pretty much have to spend a lot to get the wi-fi feature.

 

[DivideBYZero]

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
well the pearl is really ugly and u need an electron microscope to use the keyboard......how about the new ATT TILT, it supports wifi and uses windows mobile....so it will support the REAL internet through my wireless router (i mean REAL like on the ipod)? will it support playing something like Full Tilt Poker on it?

Ugly? Are you high?

I personally find it hard to go back to any full qwerty device as, if you'd used one you'd know this, the keys are BIGGER on the Pearl than a full qwerty. The new 4.3 OS improves suretype to autocomplete words and has spell checking, etc.

You CAN view full internet pages on the new Pearl 2 using the wifi browser which now has a mouse pointer, but why would you want to? It's a small device with tons of powerful features, but I don't even really think browsing the web on my DS , with TWO screens, is a very good idea.

Anyhow, if you want to play poker get a poker game for the device. The graphics and sound will own any online crap. Who cares about 'full tilt poker'?

 

[nboy22]

Originally posted by: DivideBYZero

Originally posted by: fusion5ny
well the pearl is really ugly and u need an electron microscope to use the keyboard......how about the new ATT TILT, it supports wifi and uses windows mobile....so it will support the REAL internet through my wireless router (i mean REAL like on the ipod)? will it support playing something like Full Tilt Poker on it?

Ugly? Are you high?

I personally find it hard to go back to any full qwerty device as, if you'd used one you'd know this, the keys are BIGGER on the Pearl than a full qwerty. The new 4.3 OS improves suretype to autocomplete words and has spell checking, etc.

You CAN view full internet pages on the new Pearl 2 using the wifi browser which now has a mouse pointer, but why would you want to? It's a small device with tons of powerful features, but I don't even really think browsing the web on my DS , with TWO screens, is a very good idea.

Anyhow, if you want to play poker get a poker game for the device. The graphics and sound will own any online crap. Who cares about 'full tilt poker'?

I would probably have a pretty hard time texting on the pearl at first. I'd much rather have a full QWERTY keyboard or a regular keypad. The whole 2 letters per key thing is strange (I'm not sure if they still have it like that on pearl 2).

In addition, In the warranty center at AT&T we come across a lot of people with pearls, and a lot of people with blackberrys who have their trackballs stuck and/or not working in one or more directions.

I love it when I get someone on the line and they go, "yea yea, give me that blueberry phone, i want dat blueberry phone!"