Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Cingular 8125: I Should Pay My Employer for Letting Me Work!


As I was preparing to leave one of the sites where I provide computer support, I was stopped by one of my users. Her new PDA was here, and she wanted to know if I had a ticket assigned to me to do the setup. She was prepared for the usual "call it in" response, and I, mindful of all the other requests waiting, was phrasing it in my mind, until I saw what she had. The 8125 and I needed no introduction. I'd been staring at a picture of it at the Cingular site yesterday, adding it...removing it...and adding it and removing it from my shopping cart only about 6 times, while I toyed with the thought of leaving the only wireless provider I'd ever had (I would have done it, too, if Sprint had balked at giving me Cingular's price for the PPC-6700!). I gushed. I grinned. I made my user carry it back to her office while I followed, just to make sure it got safely to her desk. After she'd heard how many PDAs I'd dropped and killed (my friends used to call me "Ace"), she took it without hesitation. Oh lucky, happy techie, to have such a vocation!

Back in her office, I whipped out the installation CD, only to discover that her snazzy new laptop had no CD drive. I made a mental note to speak to whichever one of my co-workers ordered her machine, but it didn't hamper me at all. No stranger to ActiveSync, I Googled for the direct link and got the synchronization software from Microsoft. Years ago, when I set up my Dell Axim X5 for the first time, Microsoft's AS didn't have the correct drivers to allow my computers to recognize my PDA, but I had no such trouble from the 8125.

What I did have trouble with was GoodLink. Seems today was the day for me to learn the hard way what the difference was between a Windows Mobile Smartphone and a Windows Mobile PDA Phone (hey, I know what I need to know, and I couldn't afford either before). I started to catch on after downloading the Smartphone versions of the app a couple of times and getting nowhere in the setup. Once I got past that hurdle, I spent lots of precious minutes wondering why GoodLink wouldn't get past authentication, even after I reset the phone. I'm embarrassed to say I had to call the resident GoodLink expert on that one. Of course it was only after I got on the phone with my peer that Pocket IE decided to give me some helpful information as to why it wouldn't connect: the data services hadn't been activated. Why the heck couldn't it spare me the humiliation and tell me that an hour ago? Alright, so activate already! The way I was whooping and cheering after that, I'm sure my user knew she'd done me a favor, instead of it being the other way around, though she had to laugh at me when I sarcastically muttered, "No, I went through all that so you wouldn't install" when the setup program asked me if I wanted to install GoodLink.

The 8125 wasn't mine, but the novelty and challenge of setting it up, even if it was for someone else, made the agony of waiting for mine go away for, oh, hours. I consider it practice. Unfortunately, since GoodLink would cost me three times what it's costing my user, I'll be praying that I can still use Server ActiveSync for my Exchange account...I think; as you might have noticed, I'm not exactly up-to-date with what's going on in the PDA world , so I'm not sure what all the options are, even if I have been told what to expect in terms of support from the admins.

You know what? My day only got better after I looked in my queue and saw a ticket for setting up a physician's Palm LifeDrive! Oh lucky, happy tech! Gurgi Techie is filled with paroxysms of delight over all the synchings and linkings and inkings!

2 comments:

Fred Beiderbecke said...

I'm with Sprint too. What did you have to do to get them to give you the Cingular price on the PPC6700? I don't see it listed on the Cingular site. What was the price?

Thanks,
Fred

The Miniature Mage said...

I am by no means an expert on the topic, but I do not believe you would find the PPC-6700 at Cingular. From what I've read, the 8125 and the 6700 are both rebranded HTCs. I even saw "HTC" on the 8125, so I've verified part of that with my own eyes. The Cingular site currently lists the 8125 for about 350, and there's a $50 rebate.

Also, I had to wait until I'd had my current phone 24 months. That was the hard part. I was tired of that phone 2 months into the relationship. The Nokia PM-6225 is nice, but I had settled for what I could get, not what I wanted. There will be no settling this time!