Ruahrc

The point is not to get a cheap smartphone. I don't want a smartphone. The whole reason I want the 207 in particular is that it is NOT a smartphone, and does NOT have a camera. I could pick up similar models like the Nokia 301 which seems easier to get but they have cameras. I thought I would try to have my cake and eat it too and get the 207 which is cameraless.

Guess I'll have to keep looking or settle for a black one from amazon.

At&t can get you a new sim for free and transfer your info. Even though that is a cheap phone. It might cost you more then a more equipped smartphone to get one here. Plus you will probably have to pay for a smartphone data plan with the asha. If your not very techie you may want to look at a windows phone 8 device like the Nokia 520. Which is usually always on sale for $50 to $60 bucks. They are extremely simple to use. The app selection isn't as big as Android or Ios. But it still is a good size.

I don't see why I would need to pay for a data plan with this phone.  Just take my current SIM and put it on a mini, no changes to my service that is all I want/need.  ATT would not even know I had changed the phone.  I do not intend to use any of the "data" features of the phone anyways.  My current service does not include data plan although my phone has basic browser, etc.  They just don't work when I try to launch them.  Yes I'd be paying a little more but at my current rate of one phone every 9 or so years I think I am OK .  I could get a low end smartphone but part of why I want a candybar phone specifically is that it has real dial buttons and minimal fluff.  Oh and a lot of smartphones nowadays are huge.  I only use my phone to make voice calls, that is it.  No texting (well I receive but never send), and no data, which is why this phone appeals to me.  It's not that I am not techie (quite the opposite really) I just like this form factor for my phone and the way I use it.

 

Um there are oversea seller on ebay seller selling them unlock.  

Never seen one in white.  If you found a listing let me know.  I have almost caved several times and settled for the orange one I see on ebay, or the black one I can get from Amazon UK... but I am trying to see if I can find a white one.  Even the cyan/blue would not be too bad.

 

The other shortcoming of using that phone here is it would only get 2G because it lacks the frequency bands for 3G used here. If the phone is only used for calls and text then that may not be an issue but in the future the 2G network will be shut down and 3G does offer some enhancements to call quality.

 

I do agree though the basic phone choices has diminished greatly and the few that are readily available are of poor quality.

According to the Nokia website, the phone is quad band 3G, so it does support US 3G GSM bands, and should work fine with 3G here.  Although if you are not doing data I really don't understand the purpose?  According to the specifications, 2G gives better battery life and talk time.  Regarding 2G being shut down, ATT already told me >6 months ago my current "2G" cell phone would stop working last November but I haven't had a problem yet...

 

Ruahrc

I also want to sell my G74. It runs fine, it's just the hard drive I'm worried about. What are the chances someone with enough technical abilities can retrieve stuff from my harddrive, even if I re-format it? I've sold used hardware before, but never a harddrive or something with a harddrive in it.

Do you have access to a mac?  Able to put the laptop HD into a USB case and attach it to a mac?  If so you can use the built in Disk utility to secure format the drive.  It writes random ones and zeros to the entire drive, if you are extra paranoid you can have it do 7 or 35 passes of the same.  Even after one pass is probably well beyond any end-users' capability to recover the previous information.

 

Or probably the easier route is to find a windows freeware utility that will do the same .  I am sure they are around I just don't know of any specific ones.

Not exactly related to a "CE Guide" but I pre-ordered the Diablo 3 book of tyrael from Amazon about a month ago. Originally when I preordered the book said it would be released on Oct 31, 2013. Then a few days ago I got an email saying that the ship date had been changed, and that I was supposed to receive my copy on the 9th. That got me curious, so I logged on to amazon only to find that the book was actually listed as in-stock! Apparently the book was released on Oct 1st.

My question is, if I preordered the book, wasn't I supposed to get it on release date? Why would they delay shipping the book to me even though I preordered, even I could have ordered a 2nd copy right then and (with my Prime shipping) received it before my pre-order book even arrived? Doesn't seem like a stock or backorder issue, since the book is listed right there as being in stock on their website.

Is that kind of thing common? I was tempted to just re-order the book and cancel my unshipped pre-order, but I did see that the current in-stock price was slightly higher than the preorder price I got, and it's coming in a few days anyway so I will just wait. I'm mainly just curious if this kind of thing is common when pre-ordering?

Honest question here- the bandwidth may be good but how is the latency?