10.17.06
Mologogo, Boost Mobile, and Big Brother
I bought my first cell phone that isn’t a Sidekick. Did I run out and
buy a treo, a blackberry, some crazy new smartphone? Nope. A cheap
little prepaid i415 phone from boost mobile, scored off of ebay for $55
after adding the car charger and data cable. Boy does this phone suck.
It took me 3 minutes to enter a url on it that I could have typed in 5
seconds on the sidekick. (I’m never buying T9 phone for everyday use)
It’s screen is tiny and horrible resolution. Not to mention the thing
is just plain ugly. So why did I get it? It’s the cheapest internet
enabled gps receiver I can get my hands on.
For $0.35 a day I’ve got unlimited data, which can also be tethered via
usb for laptop access at dialup speeds. I hear you scoffing already,
why not bluetooth? This phone has no idea what bluetooth is. Like I
said, it’s a terrible phone. But coupled with the free mologogo software it lets me upload
my location to a nifty little google maps page. It also gives me an
excuse to learn and play around with the Google Maps API, and it will
help let everyone know where we are when I make the great road trip to
San Francisco next month. So after $55 for parts (cheaper than just
about any GPSr I know) and $0.35/day, I’ve got a new geek project to
play with (as if I needed another).
Btw, a huge thanks to exiva for all the info since he’s already played
around with mologogo.
For those that want to see the div tracking page (still in development):
http://www.edrabbit.com/where/youat.php
