Mobile Phone Apps

[sean1279]

I know this has been brought up before, but I think it deserves another post. Can someone in the know put together a FAQ?

What is the possibility I could use Pandora as a mobile phone? Could I get a wireless internet adapter from my mobile phone carrier that would work on Pandora? What are my options for calls? Text messages? Could I accept calls if the Pandora is shut? If so, how might I add the vibrate feature?

thanks everyone!

 

[magicman5421]

This has been talked about before. I believe the consensus was that it was possible, as mobile broadband will work on the Pandora, but it may be more trouble than it's worth. Mobile broadband doesn't have the coverage that regular cell phones do. In terms of texts, you could get a Google Voice number and text from that. It's possible that you could receive calls while it was shut with a bluetooth headset or something, but it wouldn't be nearly as portable as a cell phone, because you'd have the big wireless adapter sticking out of your Pandora. Hardly portable. You might be able to buy some usb vibrate pack, but I don't know how you'd set the phone program to notify you through that. Answer: It's possible if you really put the work into it, but probably not worth it.

 

[kagato]

Using it as an actual mobile phone, as in regular voice calls & SMS from a normal voice-plan sim card? No.
As far as I know, none of the 3G dongles support the normal communication features, just data. So even if appropriate software could be put together, the hardware doesn't offer the support.

You could cobble together some amalgamation of software solutions for use over a plain data connection (VoIP, SMS gateway etc), but you'd always need to have an active data connection, which could get expensive using 3G.

The lid switch behaviour is software driven. Default behaviour will be suspend (when implemented), but you could change it to a low-power mode instead (screen off, slow CPU speed).

There are a variety of vibrating Bluetooth cellphone accessories (bracelets, earpieces) that you could probably pair with the Pandora, but I think the difficulties of maintaining a permanent net connection make the idea unappealing as a full phone replacement.

 

[gruso]

There was this project:

http://pandorapress.net/2009/06/19/pandora-the-clamshell-cell-from-hell/

It's on hold for now.

 

[Nation.A.List]

Video of an Android app giving IP phone function http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2sgTm2MU9g on a SmartQ 5 ARM device