Been a long time - Quick Update

Apologies for the disappearance - things have gotten crazy around here:

Short update:

- The S5 is a miracle and the whole WiMax phone thing works. Wimax is fast enough and stable enough for crystal clear phone calls.

- Biggest issue in the way? Bluetooth drivers that work with the S5 and vitaero or blubell so I can use it as a phone without a corded headset. I'm working on resolving this and then getting CLEAR again and using it as my primary phone.

- Smaller issue? No inbuilt wimax on the Viliv - so it's either modding time or I find a creative way to tuck the modem away nicely

Pre-ordered a Viliv S5 F-log

I've reached Korea and am a kilogram lighter having obsoleted my P1510D to my parents. I have purchased instead, a Viliv S5 F-Log which I will use to continue the experiment. Once it arrives, just out of sheer necessity, I will start using it as my phone although with WiFi since I have WiFi access everywhere (I think). If I need to start using WiBro, that will have to be a USB attachment although I am not too concerned since I am planning to carry the device around with a spare battery in a belt pack to stay connected for a full day's worth of work. I hope the device will stand up to being always on and I expect to have to muck around with a low power Linux distro to stay always on without burning a hole through the leather case.

Pics and other info to come next week.

Cheers!

Viliv S5 with WiMAX

Quick update as I get ready for my trip to Korea. After a lot of thinking, I am almost definitely getting myself a Viliv S5 as soon as I can lay my hands on a WiMAX version. I thought there already was one and asked Viliv sales for the model information and I received this:

Hi Vigneshwar,

We are grateful for your interest in viliv S5 Wimax version.viliv has a plan to introduce viliv with integrated Wimax function.At the Computex, Taiwan in June, 2009, Intel was showcasing our viliv S5 with Wimax (Intel’s Wimax module built in).Two cyber girls were up & downloading live video of the show floor through our S5 with Wimax.Please keep your eyes on our products introduction.

Again we thank you for your interest.

Viliv USA Sales

Looks like I'll have to wait a bit before I can get the S5. My mother will be inheriting the P1510, so until the S5 with WiMAX is launched, I'll be using a cheap netbook to supplement my PC while in Korea.

Forum for Wimax as a cell phone

Matt sent me an e-mail after seeing this on /. with the idea of setting up a forum for using WiMAX and netbooks to substitute your phone. He's set up a nice forum over at Ringing Free Forum where I will also be spending some time and concurrently posting about things I find using.

Of course, time has lately been a premium with my plans for Fall up in the air. I've got a chance to go to Korea (national scale WiMAX FTW! w00t!) in August and I am trying to finalize some details. It will work out wonderfully for the experiment (and me) if this goes through since I'll have the excuse of going to a different country to not carry a phone and in the meantime test out some more appropriate hardware (with in-built WiMAX hopefully) to do the 'experiment' with. More on everything soon!

Planning for WiMAX

Looking at the available plans from Clear, I noticed that they have a 6/0.5 unlimited plan for 'home' usage available for $40 a month and a 4/0.5 unlimited for 'mobile' usage for $50 a month. Not sure if the different listed bandwidths will make a difference, but seeing as the WiMAX receivers are no different in the router as they are in the USB modem, how can they charge me differently for the interface from my chip to my computer (how would they know/why does it matter)? Hopefully, this is simply an advertising gimmick hoping to get corporate users to sign up for the 'Mobile' plan. I am going to confirm that there aren't any arbitrary terms (like "No more than 3 hops in a day") for the 'home' connection in the ToS when you sign up.The ToS on their website doesn't have anything relevant but it indicates that a lot of the terms of the service will be listed on the 'order confirmation'.