After months of receiving Dodgeball check-ins from Erik, I finally took the plunge and sent my first check-in. I nervously punched in the coded message "@hideout" and sent an SMS flying through mobile network. Almost immediately I received back my first friend-of-a-friend message. While messages from friends are sent using the cheaper SMS protocol, the friend-of-a-friend message came back as a much more expensive MMS multimedia message complete with a picture. When I returned home there was also an email waiting for me explaining what this message was and why I got it, just in case I was confused.
Mobile Technology: November 2005 Archives
When I purchased my Motorola ROKR and switched wireless carriers to Cingular, I signed up for Cingular's MEdia Basic package. This seemed to be a good value that combined text and multimedia messaging with a whopping 1 megabyte--yes that's a whole 1024 kilobytes--of internet bandwidth.
One of the first things I tried with my new phone was a Java applet that tried to bring Google Maps to cell phones. It wasn't very stable but it did consume bandwidth like crazy. I quickly switched to the unlimited bandwidth plan, but was too cheap to add a text messaging plan as well.
I didn't think I would be using too many messages, so a pay as you go plan for messaging seemed just fine. However, after I switched I noticed that I was no longer receiving text messages. This took a while to figure out because I get so few messages.
Last night I finally decided that I had had enough of this nonsense and went in to the Cingular store to add both text and multimedia messaging plans to my account. My wireless bill will now be insanely expensive but I figure that as a technology guy what better way is there to spend money than immersing myself in the new digital lifestyle.
And so I am now once again message capable and with 200 text messages a month I should be able to withstand the onslaught of Dodgeball checkins from Erik. Last night, in fact, I did receive two chekins from Erik, one at 11:30 and the other at 12:45. Unfortunately, by that time I was long asleep. I might have to start taking a nap after work so I can be prepared to act on any late night messages.
