Cell Phone

I remembered a page I came across a while back soon after I got my current cell phone, a Sanyo 8100 from Sprint. It was about using it under Mac OS X. I was able to find it, and with a USB data cable from Radio Shack that had a sticker warning you to first download and install the USB drivers, I just plugged it in to my iBook, and it was recognized without any problem. The networking settings had it in the list of devices to connect with. I just had to set it up as a Sprint Vision modem with just the data access phone number. Worked like a charm. Now I can connect with wired Ethernet at work, wireless ethernet at home and some hot spots, and cell phone anywhere else (in a digital area). The only one left out is through a cell phone via Bluetooth, but then Sprint seems to be Bluetoothless, and if they continue, I may reluctantly have to switch carriers.

Although I can use the phone as a modem, of course, it doesn't do anything fancy like sync with iSync. I did manage to find a sourceforge project of a phone utility program to upload and download the phone book, pictures, etc. It even had an OS X version. It didn't work though. Maybe someday soon. No biggie for me though.

Update: the phone is sometimes not recognized as being plugged in to the computer. The workaround noted on the helpful site that showed me how to connect it up and that it was possible, is to plug the phone in before turning on the computer. This seems to work.

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