Specifications

60 PC MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 6, 2007
JIM LOUDERBACK
Those T-Mobile support people are some
of the nicest folks around. Too bad they’re
so useless. Here’s my problem. I returned
from Europe with a snazzy new Windows
mobile phone available only on the Con-
tinent. No problem, as it works on AT&T
or T-Mobile’s GSM network here in the
States. I wanted to avoid AT&T’s iPhone-
saturated network, which made T-Mobile
the obvious choice.
My wife’s already on T-Mobile with
a Sidekick II, so the family plan saves me
a few bucks. The bad news? Compared
with the Sidekick, I’ll be paying 50 percent
more for unlimited Internet access on my
smartphone. And I had to sign a one-year
contract for the privilege of paying through
the nose for that service. But that’s all
beside the point, which was to rant about
T-Mobile’s emasculated support.
I already had a T-Mobile SIM card, so
the company activated my phone in min-
utes. But in trying to add unlimited Internet
service, I suffered through a steady pro-
gression of cheery reps, only to encounter
this Catch-22: Despite the fact that I could
make and receive calls, my SIM card num-
ber had been deactivated. “We’ll fi x it,” they
each insisted, “within 24 to 48 hours. And
I’ll call you if there’s a problem.”
T-Mobile reps, apparently, live no lon-
ger than fruit flies. Every two-day period
came and went with no calls and no Inter-
net access. It’s been weeks, and although
my voice service works beautifully, nary
an Internet bit has been delivered. My only
hope is that I just might get voice service
for free. But they’ll probably end up charg-
ing me double for all those service calls.
Foleo, We Hardly Knew Ye
I was crestfallen when I heard that Palm
cancelled its $500 Foleo just before launch.
Not because I had high hopes for this
tweener device, a halfl ing wedged between
notebooks and smartphones. Nope, I was
eagerly looking forward to buying a bunch
for $100 on Woot when they were finally
discontinued.
Palm did the smart thing, but why did it
try to buck history? Back in the mid-1990s,
HP had high hopes for its Omnibook. Alas,
with anemic storage, poor graphics, and
Microsoft Offi ce and Windows in ROM, it
failed to catch on. A few years later, Win-
dows CE devices with full keyboards and 8-
inch screens debuted but suffered the cruel
death of a thousand compromises. And
don’t get me started on Magic Cap.
Some companies never learn. Micro-
soft, Samsung, and others have recently
been pushing their $1,000 Origami/Ultra-
Mobile PC tablet computers that run a baby
version of Windows. Woot and Origami
will shortly meet. At least Palm tried to get
a reasonable $500 price. But the Foleo was
still a halfl ing, neither fi sh nor fowl, neither
a full-featured notebook nor a pocket-size
smartphone.
Why launch a third device class that
has to be synchronized, supported, and
serviced? Hats off to Palm for realizing
that the Foleo’s portability and battery life
just weren’t compelling enough to justify
the price. My only question is why the
company entertained the notion in the
fi rst place.
Beware Social Networks Bearing Gifts
Finally, a cautionary tale about the chang-
ing nature of spam. One of my coworkers,
a savvy Web professional we’ll call Rube,
unwittingly fell prey to an Internet scam.
He received an invitation from a new social
network, called Quechup, which sounded
promising. After filling out the requisite
personal information, the software asked
to check his contacts, to see if any of his
friends were already members. Rube prof-
fered his Gmail username and password,
and then the unscrupulous program took
him to the cleaners. Without asking or tell-
ing, it stripped his contacts out of Gmail,
and then sent e-mails to every one of them,
inviting them to join Quechup and spoof-
ing Rube’s e-mail address to make it look as
if he’d personally penned the message.
That’s wrong in so many ways. First,
Rube never should have given this pro-
gram—no matter how trustworthy it
seemed—his Gmail username and p
ass-
word. But that minor error is dwarfed
by the outrageous and possibly criminal
audacity of Quechup’s snarfing his per-
sonal contacts and then spamming them as
if Rube had personally authorized the mes-
sages. I know, because I received an invite
from Rube and went through the same pro-
cess, using a fake e-mail account to monitor
its behavior.
Quechup is the worst sort of malware
masquerading as a legitimate program. It
just goes to show you that even seemingly
legitimate Web businesses can’t be trusted.
So if you get a message from a friend invit-
ing you to join something, be aware. It just
might be a scam. Rube won’t let it happen
again. And don’t you fall for it either.
KEEP IN TOUCH Contact Jim Louderback at
[e-mail]. For more
columns: go.pcmag.com/louderback.
It’s been weeks, and although my T-Mobile voice
It’s been weeks, and although my T-Mobile voice
service works beautifully, nary an Internet bit has
service works beautifully, nary an Internet bit has
been delivered. My only hope is that I just might get
been delivered. My only hope is that I just might get
voice service for free.
voice service for free.
My Tech-Support Rant