[aprssig] New Cell Phone

[Stan Coleman]

Stan - N0YXV

Yes this is APRS related. :-)

I'm thinking about purchasing a 'Motorola Moto Q' and I was wondering  
if anybody had any experience with it and APRS. I'm looking for both  
pros and cons.

One thing I was wondering is will it work with Blue Tooth GPS devices?  
I know it has Blue Tooth but my experience with Blue Tooth is that not  
all advertised features work with all Blue Tooth devices. One review I  
read said that you couldn't use the Q as a modem for say your laptop  
via Blue Tooth. [Why couldn't Blue Tooth be just like Ethernet ... if  
it says it has Ethernet you know anything else with Ethernet will talk  
complete Ethernet to it.] Isn't there some kind of GPS built into most  
phones now? If so can you use that with APRS?

What APRS software is out there for it? I noticed the APRS/CE looks  
like it works with most 'Windows Mobile OS's'. The fact that the Q  
doesn't have a touch screen might be a problem.

I can almost hear it now...why pick the Q? Because my phone provider  
(US Cellular) only has the Q and two Blackberry's to choose from.  
While I probably could figure out how to get another brand to work  
with my carrier I'd like to save some dough by getting a reduced cost  
phone with a new 2 year contract. [Who came up with the stinking 2  
year long idea anyway...I thought it was bad when I signed 1 year  
contracts.] If I wasn't stuck buying a phone from US Cellular what  
phone would people recommend? My only real requirements for a mobile  
phone is that it be more like a computer with email, Internet, large  
screen and hopefully be able to run APRS and/or other Ham Software  
when I'm away from my radio. Would really be cool if I could integrate  
both a GPS and a TNC with the phone.