Cellular Phones and Plans

So my contract is almost up with my cell phone and I'm looking for something new. Any advice that anyone gives is greatly appreciated.

1) Cell service: Cingular is my current service and they're great outside of Gville, but anywhere in the vicinity of Gville they're awful. Can anyone recommend a cell service that is reliable in and out of town.

2) Smartphones: I'm looking at smartphones and blackberries and other cellular pda type things. Any advice? What I'd love is a phone that runs on a satellite service as well as allowing for wifi access when indoors. What would be amazing is one that can run on voice over ip for calls as well, but I think I'm just dreaming at this point.

3) 3G service: I know Cingular just gave Gville 3G service for I guess it's satellite based net, but anyone know about the reliability and speed of this and other similar services from other cellular companies.

Thanks and hope everyone had happy holidays!

End of Semester and Iraqi TV

So as the semester comes to a finish, I'm just taking a short break from completing my book review and final paper. Besides blogging, I'm watching an absolutely amazing show that I TIVOed from Discovery Times Channel on TV in Iraq. It's amazing how media and technology has changed over there since the fall of Saddam Hussein. One girl spoke about how the day after Saddam's fall, there were satellite dishes everywhere when before they were illegal. Satellite retailers were selling $100 dishes for more than $400. Where under Saddam's rule there were two channels, both run by Saddam, now there are over 30. Before all you could see was Saddam on TV, and if your TV broke all you had to do was "put up a picture of Saddam" and you wouldn't miss anything. Now they have game shows, soap operas, sitcoms, stand up comics, and even their own version of American Idol called Iraq Star. They even have a show called Labor and Resources that is basically a home improvement show for houses that were bombed.

What's really amazing about all of this is that it's all going on even though death and war is all around them. The finale of Iraq Star had to be moved to Beirut for fear of bombings in Baghdad. During the filming of a soap opera, the cast and crew were told that one of the cast members was arrested for being an insurgent.

I don't see any other showings of this program this week, but if you get a chance, make sure that you watch this. (EDIT: I've just found a link that might show it. It's a RealPlayer file though so good luck. ^_^ http://www.journeyman.tv/?lid=56089) It's absolutely fascinating and really shows the effects of technology and media on the world. The last line of the program sums it all up: "Iraqi's have taken television, a tool as powerful as any weapon into their hands."

6 Words

Problem-solving
Impact
Media
Multimodal
Inconclusive
Productivity