Pre3/Nokia c3

my Palm Pre3 is down. The GPS stopped working. On some advice from the forums at webosnation I downloaded the webOS doctor for webOS 2.2.4.

Now, I changed SIM cards from AT&T to T-Mobile; a pay as you go "no data" card. $100 for a thousand minutes. I use about a hundred minutes a month and AT&T was costing me $62 per month. I got a Wi-Fi hotspot from TMob as well.

So, the Pre3 finished initializing and I had to sign in to my Palm profile. Oops. Cannot sign in without a cellular data connection.

Dead phone. Dead until I get a SIM card in it which has some kind of data. I use google voice to have a permanent phone number. The number which I tell people to call is my Google number, not the number on the SIM. This became a problem with the Straight talk Moto flip phone I got at Wal-Mart. The Moto will not accept the Google authorization. Don't know why, I type in the authorization code but Google never hears it.

So I ordered a Nokia C3 next day delivery from Amazon. Wal-Mart does not stock the Nokia E series that Straight talk shows as available.

I went back and forth as to whether to get an E5 for $165 or the c3 at less than $100. C3 uses S40 rather than the S60 symbian system. They say it is a "feature phone" system rather than a "smart phone". No GPS on the C3. I ended up getting the C3. It is a solid phone with a much better full keyboard than the Pre. No touch screen. It has a good texting system. I am using texting for the Taxi biz so I wanted an easy to use text phone. Not email, texting. Text does not use the data channel on a SIM.

Now I have to break down and get a full plan for the Pre2. I have used nothing but a Palm Pre since June 2009. Got this pre2 in June 2010. I have a square trade warranty on it so I can get it replaced.

Problem with this is that I pay $30 a month for the data on this T-Mobile hotspot thingie. It works very well, quite fast with HSPA+. I mostly use the phone in my car, doing taxi biz, or at home. Wi-fi everywhere I use the phone.

I just now fully realize what a data hog that webOS is. And what an energy hog. The C3 uses a small fraction of the power and has a bigger battery.

Palm should not have completely ditched PalmOs, nor the PDA concepts that it used. There are people who went back to a Treo from a Pre because WebOS is not as good at being a PDA. Palm even took out the compatibility layers to allow the PalmOS Classic emulator to work on a Pre. Big mistake, especially with the dismal hardware reliability record of the first Pre units.

I see more Palm Centro's being used on the street than WebOS devices.

Anyway, I am happy with the Nokia C3 as a second phone. Very well made. Solid keyboard. Harder to figure out how to use the thing, but geeks can figure this stuff out.