Works Great: Powerbook 12" + Samsung A900 USB or blueto

deginde · EVDO Newbie Joined: 27 Aug 2005 Posts: 4

Purchased an A900 from Sprint ($199) got the phone in 2 days, ported my number in 2 hours. The box includes the phone, travel charger, wired headset and a very nice USB data cable. This cable does indeed work great for data connections but NOT for charging. There is a $17 cable available that supposedly does both (mine should arrive shortly) from http://www.gomadic.com/samsung-sph-a900-mm-a900-blade-straight-power-hot-sync-charge-charger-usb-cable.html.

I decided to try USB first and plugged the phone in and went to Network Preferences and sure enough there it was as Samsung CDMA technologies. According to several posts at Sprintusers.com the way to set up the port is leave username and password blank - the phone sends these automatically - and use #777 as the telephone number. I went ti internect connect and clicked on "connect" it contacted the PPP server but could not log on. So after a few tries I called Sprint and it turns out even though I added the Phone as modem plan for $25 I didn't really have it. Hmmm, well they added it and said to wait 4 hours. Next morning still NO connection. I called and asked to speak to the Power Vision help desk. They informed me that I didn't have the plan yet!!! I asked to add the $25/mo plan and they said that I needed the $40/mo plan to tether EVDO. Fine - they added it and a few minutes later I was on. From home I got 1 MBit download!! My office is a bit more remote but I still got a connection and was at ~0.25 Mbit download - more than enough for my needs. One interesting thing - when I took the phone to my office I got NO Sprint network connection - NO voice or data. Restarting the phone fixed that.

So I moved on to bluetooth - and it worked just fine too - but at slower speeds of course. Just be sure to start the pairing process from your Apple bluetooth menu, usually next to the airport signal meter. You also need to go to the A900 main menu -> settings -> bluetooth and make the phone visable.

You can transfer your Address book contacts using the Apple bluetooth menu too. You need to "Export" individual vcards to a folder by selecting a range of cards in address book the DRAGGING them to the folder window. This creats individual cards not one giant vcard. Then go to the bluetooth menu again and "Send file..." to your newly paired A900. Not a real sync but hey it saves on doing tedious data entry.

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

Just purchased my A900 few days ago. It also works with Powerbooks, both USB and Bluetooth. I see they have the extended life battery available too. Thanks for the Power USB cable link. Why would Samsung/Spring leave something like that out? I had no idea until after I purchased the phone that it would not charge via USB. Hopefully the Power USB will allow me to charge and work on the internet simultaneously with the phone? Any news about this before I buy this USB cable?
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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

Incredible...I just clicked on menu/settings/optimization in the Sprint connection manager and put the setting on "Fastest". Venturi has nothing on this; web pages fly onto the screen. I was happy with my A-900 but now I am truly impressed. This is comming from someone who just terminated his contract with verizon running a KPC650.
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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz

urrl78 · EVDO User Joined: 26 Sep 2005 Posts: 81

I expected downloading a webpage full of pics at such speed would have looked deteriorated (like with Venturi) but the photos are totally crisp and clear. Amazing.
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Sony T250 1.2 Ghz & 17" Powerbook 1.5 Ghz