For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting to
Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.
I am considering to buy a netbook but I wonder if spending on a decent
mobile would be a more cost effective and more portable as I would have with
me only one and smaller device. However, one thing I am not sure is whether
these smartpohes can, in effect, do all that a netbook can do as far as
E-mail and Web is concerned, but particularly the first of the two, over
Wi-Fi. Could I with any mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the
hotspots and home network as easily and essentially in the same way as with
netbook or are there any limitations? Could I use Skype or some other SIP
protocols using any of these smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way as
netbook? If the answer would be yes, it can be done, which would you suggest
I put on my shortlist. I would not want a contract, only PAYG phone.
Thanks
regards
divoch

divoch wrote:
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting
to Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.
I am considering to buy a netbook but I wonder if spending on a decent
mobile would be a more cost effective and more portable as I would
have with me only one and smaller device. However, one thing I am not
sure is whether these smartpohes can, in effect, do all that a
netbook can do as far as E-mail and Web is concerned, but
particularly the first of the two, over Wi-Fi. Could I with any
mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the hotspots and home
network as easily and essentially in the same way as with netbook or
are there any limitations? Could I use Skype or some other SIP
protocols using any of these smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way
as netbook? If the answer would be yes, it can be done, which would
you suggest I put on my shortlist. I would not want a contract, only
PAYG phone. Thanks
regards
divoch

IPAD!!!!!! It sounds as if it would be made for your situation...

"smurf" wrote in message
...
divoch wrote:
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting
to Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.
I am considering to buy a netbook but I wonder if spending on a decent
mobile would be a more cost effective and more portable as I would
have with me only one and smaller device. However, one thing I am not
sure is whether these smartpohes can, in effect, do all that a
netbook can do as far as E-mail and Web is concerned, but
particularly the first of the two, over Wi-Fi. Could I with any
mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the hotspots and home
network as easily and essentially in the same way as with netbook or
are there any limitations? Could I use Skype or some other SIP
protocols using any of these smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way
as netbook? If the answer would be yes, it can be done, which would
you suggest I put on my shortlist. I would not want a contract, only
PAYG phone. Thanks
regards
divoch

IPAD!!!!!! It sounds as if it would be made for your situation...
Well, it does not seem to be much more portable than a Netbook an probably
more than twice as expensive. I am not looking for the "best web experience"
for my foreign travels and I shall not read books on the device.

divoch

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:34:26 +0000, smurf wrote:

IPAD!!!!!! It sounds as if it would be made for your situation...

Then he'd have to carry a phone as well. As he has indicated just one
device would be preferable, it sounds like it's not really made for his
situation.

--
http://ale.cx/ (AIM:troffasky) )
17:29:39 up 11 days, 22:20, 5 users, load average: 0.02, 0.01, 0.00
DIMENSION-CONTROLLING FORT DOH HAS NOW BEEN DEMOLISHED,
AND TIME STARTED FLOWING REVERSELY

On Sat, 27 Feb 2010 17:31:46 +0000, alexd wrote:

On Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:34:26 +0000, smurf wrote:

IPAD!!!!!! It sounds as if it would be made for your situation...

Then he'd have to carry a phone as well. As he has indicated just one
device would be preferable, it sounds like it's not really made for his
situation.
I use an Eee PC901,with solid state hard drive, running the Ubuntu OS,
Netbook Remix version. It only weighs 1kg. I have used it in various
hotels abroad via the ethernet socket and via WiFi. I have used a SIP
softphone app on it (SJphone), Firefox & Skype (including video) and
messengers for MSN and Yahoo (no video). Withe Ubuntu Netbook Remix
everything worked straight off - camera, microphone,display/sound control
buttons - everything.
Buy the Xandros version rather than Windows as it is cheaper then install
Ubuntu Netbook Remix via a USB stick or USB hard drive. When everything
is working you can add 'Firestarter', for extra security, via the
installer application.





--
Please remove 'no_spam_' from email address

"divoch" wrote in message
...
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting to
Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.

i suspect you know the answer, as your in here, a phone group.

What sort of reply have you had in uk.laptop.netbook ?

I bet they have all said - hey, ****wit, you cant use them to phone people

HTH

divoch wrote:
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting to
Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.
I am considering to buy a netbook but I wonder if spending on a decent
mobile would be a more cost effective and more portable as I would have
with me only one and smaller device. However, one thing I am not sure is
whether these smartpohes can, in effect, do all that a netbook can do as
far as E-mail and Web is concerned, but particularly the first of the two,
over Wi-Fi.

I have a netbook and an old (Nokia N70) smartphone. In terms of web
experience the netbook is miles better than the phone, which has a small
screen and tiny buttons (I imagine a touchscreen would be even worse for
typing). The netbook has 3G, so there's always a network connection.

[A sidenote: IME 3G is far more useful than wifi because many commercial
hotspots charge silly-money (GBP5/hour). 3G costs too, but you only pay one
fee for the day or the month, as you need, and it works everywhere. For
certain values of 'everywhere']

I think modern phones have improved (I have no direct experience), but
there's still the problem of the small keyboard (operated by thumbs rather
than touchtyping) and small screen. The 9" netbook screen is small enough.

Depends what you want really. If you have a few limited tasks to do (check
your email or Facebook, look up train times), a phone should suffice. If
you're just randomly surfing, a phone should cope. If you're going to have
a sudden need to do something unexpected (online book a flight or a hotel
room, say) then a netbook will have the edge. If you need to do actual work
(write documents, serious web research, send a quantity of emails) I imagine
it would be a pain on a phone.

A phone however is always 'there', so it's in your pocket if you need it.
You have to remember to carry the netbook, and you get a limited battery
life (2-10 hours). So you probably need to carry the charger too.

Could I with any mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the
hotspots and home network as easily and essentially in the same way as with
netbook or are there any limitations?

Some mobiles can't cope with the interface to drive commercial wifi hotspots
because it's Javascripted (eg those at airports where you need to enter your
credit card number before you're connected). I imagine iPhone OS and
Android are better at this.

Could I use Skype or some other SIP
protocols using any of these smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way as
netbook?

I haven't tried, but vanilla SIP and Skype should be OK if the apps exist.
If you need to do anything complex (port forwarding, for example, to defeat
hotel port blocking) it might get trickier.

(Android may allow more ability to poke the internals, though I have no
experience)

Are you looking for a phone that can surf the web a bit and send the odd
email, or a web platform? That's the key question.

Theo

In article , Divoch wrote:
Could I with any mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the
hotspots and home network as easily and essentially in the same way
as with netbook or are there any limitations?

There are certainly physical limitations -- some smartphones have only
software (on-screen) keyboards on which you may find it inconvenient to
type, and even those that have physical keyboards have only very small
keyboards that may not offer all the characters you want to use.

Apart from that there are no reasons why the two types of device
shouldn't offer exactly the same facilities, though in practice they may
not. The software that you get varies from phone to phone, and not every
phone will necessarily do exactly what you want in the way that you want
it ... though something as straightforward as collecting EMail over WiFi
shouldn't pose any problems.

Could I use Skype or some other SIP protocols using any of these
smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way as netbook?

Yes, certainly, as long as the phone in question has VoIP software --
and you may find that VoIP over cellular is cheaper than an
international phone call as long as the network you're using doesn't
block it.

I can't really recommend a specific phone as I haven't used enough of
them to form an opinion. Google may be helpful ...

Cheers,
Daniel.

"BOFH" wrote in message
news

"divoch" wrote in message
...
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting to
Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.

i suspect you know the answer, as your in here, a phone group.

What sort of reply have you had in uk.laptop.netbook ?

I bet they have all said - hey, ****wit, you cant use them to phone people


I did not try uk.laptop.netbook but I suspect you are right as to what
answers I would get. I think the answer will be to get a netbook for
foreign travel + continue to use a standard mobile with foreign SIM - as
right now I do not have a Smartphone with Wi-Fi and I may need to do more
than just receive and send mails while abroad. On the next upgrade I may
get at least a phone with Wi-Fi built in for those situation , while abroad,
where I need not do anything more than to be "on receive" for e-mails from
time to time and so do not want to carry even a netbook with me.
Thanks
divoch

"Theo Markettos" wrote in message
...
divoch wrote:
For my travels abroad I would like to have my own means of connecting to
Internet and Mail using Wi-Fi.
I am considering to buy a netbook but I wonder if spending on a decent
mobile would be a more cost effective and more portable as I would have
with me only one and smaller device. However, one thing I am not sure is
whether these smartpohes can, in effect, do all that a netbook can do as
far as E-mail and Web is concerned, but particularly the first of the
two,
over Wi-Fi.

I have a netbook and an old (Nokia N70) smartphone. In terms of web
experience the netbook is miles better than the phone, which has a small
screen and tiny buttons (I imagine a touchscreen would be even worse for
typing). The netbook has 3G, so there's always a network connection.

[A sidenote: IME 3G is far more useful than wifi because many commercial
hotspots charge silly-money (GBP5/hour). 3G costs too, but you only pay
one
fee for the day or the month, as you need, and it works everywhere. For
certain values of 'everywhere']

I think modern phones have improved (I have no direct experience), but
there's still the problem of the small keyboard (operated by thumbs rather
than touchtyping) and small screen. The 9" netbook screen is small
enough.

Depends what you want really. If you have a few limited tasks to do
(check
your email or Facebook, look up train times), a phone should suffice. If
you're just randomly surfing, a phone should cope. If you're going to
have
a sudden need to do something unexpected (online book a flight or a hotel
room, say) then a netbook will have the edge. If you need to do actual
work
(write documents, serious web research, send a quantity of emails) I
imagine
it would be a pain on a phone.

A phone however is always 'there', so it's in your pocket if you need it.
You have to remember to carry the netbook, and you get a limited battery
life (2-10 hours). So you probably need to carry the charger too.

Could I with any mobile with Wi-Fi capability connect to any of the
hotspots and home network as easily and essentially in the same way as
with
netbook or are there any limitations?

Some mobiles can't cope with the interface to drive commercial wifi
hotspots
because it's Javascripted (eg those at airports where you need to enter
your
credit card number before you're connected). I imagine iPhone OS and
Android are better at this.

Could I use Skype or some other SIP
protocols using any of these smartphones over the Wi-Fi the same way as
netbook?

I haven't tried, but vanilla SIP and Skype should be OK if the apps exist.
If you need to do anything complex (port forwarding, for example, to
defeat
hotel port blocking) it might get trickier.

(Android may allow more ability to poke the internals, though I have no
experience)

Are you looking for a phone that can surf the web a bit and send the odd
email, or a web platform? That's the key question.

Thanks for a comprehensive reply. It seems to me that the way forward will
be to get a netbook which, in combination with a standard mobile for sending
and receiving SMS and for emergency, may be better bet in terms of usability
and cheaper. Right now, when I travel to Czech republic, where I was born, I
lug with me a standard laptop. This is useful as I have everything on it
what I may need but it is pain to carry around.

Best regards
divoch