If you are thinking about buying the HTC Evo 3D on Sprint, the first thing you should do is ignore the 3D.The phone’s namesake features — a glasses-free 3D display and dual cameras to shoot your own 3D content — amount to tiny more than a cheap part…

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A key factor in the the Bell monopoly was the government’s hijacking of the wireless spectrum. By controlling and regulating both the wired and wireless markets, the government prevented any sort of meaningful competition from forming. Imagine the sort of communication technologies that we could have today if free-market innovation and competition had been allowed to flourish in the early 20th century! Conversely, imagine the glorious green DOS screens we would be using today had the government regulated the computer industry in the same way they regulated the communication industry.

To expect that the government can “rescue” us from the wireless carriers is foolish. You might as well expect Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and The Tooth Fairy to do so. If you think the wireless market is bad now, just imagine what a mess it would be once the government got more involved. I think the old joke regarding government policy is “if it ain’t broke, fix it ’til it is”.

A good summary on the history of the Bell monopoly can be found here:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cjv14n2-6.html

On the bottom there was a little sticker that said the phone was the “Property of AT&T” and some statement that Western Electric owned the “insides” and the consumer owned ONLY the decorative housing.

Probably one of the more bizarre things I recall was when visiting my folks that they only in the last 10 years stopped using their old phone that they thought the phone company still owned and for which they were paying a monthly charge.

In regards to this, as I have read, France and some other European countries prohibit carriers from selling locked phones. To sell the iPhone in France, Apple had to develop an unlocked phone.

Same for the BlackBerry Pearl, some countries have unlocked phones.

The root of the problem with locked phones in the U.S. is that Washington [the federal gov] does not understand tech and legislators are greatly influenced by special interests, lobbyists and the carriers. And the current Bush Administration is so pro business, the FCC and others will not do anything to change the current cozy relationship between them.

Here in California they finally made mandatory using a headset when talking on a cell phone in a car. That was resisted by the carriers for years. But they successfully “paid off” various legislators to where the fine for violating the law is $20 and one cannot be stopped and ticketed for violating only the headset law. That’s basically saying the law can’t be enforced, weak as it is.

It took forever for cell phone number portability legislation to pass [where you can keep your cell phone number regardless of carrier.] Maybe it will take just as long for phones to be unlocked and for the customer to enjoy the full range of cell phone technology, such as a fast network even if a “DSL speed” connection will compete against a carrier’s residential high speed service.

It’s all in the hands of the politicians. Get rid of the cell phone lobbyists and their money given to the lawmakers and things will change quickly. Carrier money buys the status quo. Take it out of the equation, phone tech will improve.

One of the worst phones for anyone who wants freedom. Unlocked your iPhone? Software update will fix that.

Installed your own apps? Let make an update which breaks that!

Why have you not mentioned Nokia with many Series60 smartphones or even SonyEricsson with its P series devices and UIQ?

With my N95 I have my own browser installed.

Opera Mini and Opera for series 60 are amazing browsers for phones. Other software I CHOSE to use include Quickoffce S60, Garmin Mobile XT for my GPS, EmTube for youtube videos….

There are choices out there but for some reason people seem to be drawn in to the iPhone…

A fancy UI does not make a great “open” phone.

You’re off about open phones that move from carrier to carrier when it comes to most non-smart phones.

The problem you face, which Europe doesn’t, is that we have at least 3 different wireless technologies which are incompatible: CDMA, GSM and Nextel’s.

All are incompatible. Within the CDMA space, the phones can technically move from one company to another, but it’s not easy. I work at a small carrier and a co-worker bought a used Verizon phone off of ebay and it took a week to figure out how to get it to work on our system.

If that phone was a Sprint phone, and it was unlocked, you’d then run into the problem that Sprint uses Java for applications, while Verizon and my company use Qualcom’s Brew platform, which AFAIK are no compatible.

Going the other way may be possible as I believe that Verizon does have a Java Virtual Machine on their phones.

Where you’re wrong is when you say changing browsers is hard and requires a techie to do it.

All it requires is a phone that is capable of adding java applets, which is every phone I’ve used since 2001 (all sprint). The browser is operamini and all you need to do is download the software and it’ll automatically install.

It may be your only option, but it’s not hard if your phone has web access.