Posts tagged dongle

Don’t know who Bob is? Well, he’s the misinformed robot fellow at the centre of this YouTube mobile broadband public service announcement from 3.

Judging by his first reaction to the word dongle we should have got him writing for 3mobilebuzz…

House-sharing can be a minefield at the best of times, so when johnboy over at Riot Act needed to sort out a new internet connection, he ran into numerous problems with line-rental ownership, previous internet contracts and no takers to sign on the dotted line with a new ISP.

Fortunately he’s able to resort to that modern saviour of no-strings-attached internet that is the 3 Mobile Broadband dongle, but before parting with any cash, wants the low down on the service namely speed, service and the competition.

Jump across to see what’s been suggested.

Can anyone offer some advice getting a 3 mobile broadband to work on Ubuntu 8.10?

Jo’Bo posted on LinuxQuestions.org that he’s having trouble getting his ZTE MF622 modem to work on the Intrepid Ibex version of Ubuntu. 3mobilebuzz stepped in to dish up some links to guides we found elsewhere, but has anyone got first-hand experience of this issue? If so, drop us a comment or follow this link to the original discussion.

The End of Year Most Popular Posts post is a blogging tradition that goes right back to the digital dark ages (“when men were men, women were men and children were FBI agents”, as RBX excellently put it on Yahoo Answers). Not only is this approach a great way to look back over the past 365 days and find out what you’ve been up to, it’s also quite a lazily cunning way of recycling old content. Well, we’re not above that at 3mobilebuzz so here’s our offering…with a bit of a twist that befits our style…

2008 was the year 3 brought us the mobile dongle, the Skypephone S2 and (more recently) the INQ1. With affordable, social media-centric devices even on PAYG and tariffs that made a mockery of the £1 for 1MB nonsense that totally buggered the mobile internet in its early days, 3 continued to focus on making the untethered web accessible to all. This was all, seemingly, welcomed and sparked a lot of conversation – some of which ended up on here.

So, to usher in 2009, 3mobilebuzz look back on the year that was and ask, “What were the most visited links we pointed you towards in 2008?”

Continue reading…

Reminiscent of troubles dealt with by Aaron Heath, richdawe has been fighting a compatibility issue between his 3 dongle and Macbook Pro. Thankfully though he has it solved!

His Macbook, a US incarnation running Tiger (10.4.x) was feeding back the message ‘internal error 5370’. However, after some help from an in-store 3 techie and perusal of forums, things started whirring into action. It’s worked every time since.

If you’ve had a similar problem find the full richdawe fix process here.

Tech venue Cnet has reported on the latest development for 3 Australia, prepaid mobile broadband for 12 months.

Prepaid mobile broadband is available through other operators, but only over a 90 day period as the maximum. 3’s offering of a year paid up front for mobile broadband is a first in Australia.

Style is as prominent in the technology market as anywhere else, arguably even more so recently. Has anyone noticed the influx of fashion orientated programming arriving through the tube recently? It’s definitely a movement.

Mobile Broadband Blog has asked, whether the USB Dongle a fashion accessory? This is because in Sweden, the appearance of your dongle has been tied in to the latest offer. Signing up for any 3 Mobile Broadband contract for 18 months allows a choice of skin for your dongle at no extra cost. It’s a deal that the fashion conscious and colour co-ordinated must surely be pleased about?

Any preferences? I’m kind of all about the paisley, but have to say the black and white offering is tickling my fancy.

The grumblings relating to the financial state of our country are referenced in this Mobile Today article that discusses the latest figures regarding 3’s consumer base: “3 UK emerged from the difficult first half of the year with a net addition of 390,000 customers“.

Good news indeed, and the reason? Well it’s down to that most lovable of mobile, gadget-y critters, the broadband dongle. It appears that high speed internet on the move is want the people want. Despite this increase, the financial squeeze has been felt with 3 customers average spend dropping. An undeniable sign of the times?

In this fast-moving, modern world, fifteen minutes is just too lengthy a time in the spotlight; far too much to occupy the attention of the next generation of ADD-addled youths who demand instant gratification streamed directly into their grey matter. It’s with this in mind, that we thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for 12seconds.tv.

12seconds is perhaps most easily described as the Twitter of video. You’re invited to record and publish short (12 seconds short, in fact) updates about, well, whatever you like. For example, have a look at Neville Hobson posting about activating his 3 dongle at the end of this post.

Do you have a 12seconds channel? If so, share your username in the comments below Neville’s video…

Dongle activating on 12seconds.tv

3 have given the opportunity to all those creative types that know how to handle vectors, layers and filters a chance to earn some moolah while flexing art project credentials. You can check panicjames’ post over at the Designers Talk forum.

The prize is a extremely pleasant £500, and the task - “we want you to create a personal, unique piece of work representing freedom, communication, locality or whatever you can draw from 3’s Mobile Broadband dongle.” Simple right? Maybe, maybe not, but the challenge is part of the fun. Besides the cash incentive there is also a little prestige up for grabs. The winning entry will be placed alongside the work of three established artists, being made into limited edition posters to be distributed throughout East London. Plus the piece will also be exhibited in the Truman Brewery!

Should such artistic endeavours be your bag then you can find out about it further here and check out the brief (scroll to the bottom). You can also watch to see entries as they roll in until the competiton reaches its closing date for entries on the 28th September.

One of the features of the new 3 Skypephone S2 is that it can be plugged into your laptop and used as a dongle for getting mobile broadband. Neil decided to give this a whirl, and he’s written about it under the title 3 Skypephone S2 + Laptop = Mobile Broadband.

The process of getting the S2 functioning as a dongle is as straight forward as things can get, something Neil commended; “Set-up was a breeze, well for PC users (more on that later), as all you need to do is plug the supplied USB data cable into the bottom of your phone and the other end into your computer.” It is this simple because the setup software is all contained on the S2 itself.

As alluded to in the above quote, the setup on a Mac was less easy, which is something that Neil discusses in the post. However, he has nothing but good things to say about the newly designed connection interface and it is these words that send him headlong into the conclusion; “For the price - I really cant fault it, why get a Mobile Broadband Dongle, when you can have this AND make calls?”

We’ve covered mobile homes before on 3mobilebuzz with the excellent online community at Motor Home Facts forum. However, now it is the turn of the entirely water-bound home to demonstrate dongle versatility, belonging to, in this case, Sue and Vic.

Sue maintains Retirement with No Problem, a blog about the ongoing adventures experienced as they spend their days cruising Britain’s waterways. No Problem is actually the name of their boat and it is hooked up with broadband, which is due, possibly, for a change after Sue saw the now unfortunately expired 3 mobile broadband offer through Quidco.

It appears that Sue will be keeping an eye on the 3 mobile broadband deals as they arise, impressed by the credentials of the service. You can see what she makes of them in detail here, as well as learning a little about life lived on a narrowboat. Moored up at Mailers Meadow sounds like a particularly pleasant way to spend some downtime…

Contributers to Talk3G have been discussing the Skypephone S2 and the fact it has peeped over the horizon, and will be reaching us come August 18th.

Initial reaction comes from Ben, who is happy the device is finally on its way to shelves, and vehemently hopes that it can “build on the success of the original”. The following debate centres primarily on the use of the handset as a dongle for accessing mobile broadband when you have it wired into your laptop.

This is followed by HandsOn and 3GScottishUser talking Amoi, before offering possible reasons for the reduction of the previously obvious Skype branding that existed on the first.

If you’ve something to add, or just want to read the finer points, jump in here.

3 have announced that their service users are now pushing 500,000 strong across the UK, which accounts for half of the million people on their mobile broadband contracts across Europe!

The news comes via Mobile News International and is also on Mobiles4u.net. Both quote 3 chief executive Kevin Russell, who addressed the issue of the price rise in voice minutes, which is a result of having to subsidise other network operators because of termination rates. “As a consequence of putting prices up, we have seen a 20 per cent fall in voice minutes on our network. However, our data usage is up 600 per cent.”

Broadband Expert have covered the story in a little more depth, making note of the lay of the land in the mobile broadband market - basically extremely competitive and growing. Just the way the consumer likes it.

Mobiles4net has given a brief outline about one of 3’s latest laptop deals; the one featuring the HP 530 Notebook.

The deal costs £30 a month and for that you get the laptop, a dongle, 5GB limit and 150 texts per month. This fellow is at the lower price point of their current laptop menagerie. There are also £35 and £40 month options. At the mid-level the laptop is a HP 2133 mini-note UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC), with the 5GB data allowance, dongle and 200 texts. Then the daddy of the family is the HP dv6910 Pavillion, again with the dongle, 5GB allowance and 250 lots of 140 characters to pester your friends with. The Pavilion also needs a £49.99 fee up front.

Currently the mobile broadband technology hasn’t yet integrated, but 3 are doing their best to take steps toward it. And this is a healthy stride in the right direction.