Friday, April 22, 2005
Does Your Pocket PC Phone Drive Nearby Electronics To Buzz?
Posted by Ed Hansberry in "THOUGHT" @ 12:00 PM
http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/000622.html
"I've written here before about my (still fairly) new Treo 650 phone, and how much I like it. I've almost forgotten what life was like without it. But it's developing a lousy reputation around the PC World offices for a reason I never would have anticipated. The problem is this: When the Treo is doing data--which it often does in the background, since it's set to grab e-mail for me on the fly--it causes any monitor or speakerphone in close proximity to make a weird intermittent buzzing noise. It kind of sounds like Morse Code, circa 2005, and it's both mysterious and annoying. "
Well, it isn't just the Treo. My PDA2K does it as well, but only when it is actually transmitting data over GPRS. Just having the GPRS indicator on doesn't do it nor does a GSM phone call or SMS message. But as soon as data starts moving back and forth over the GPRS radio, nearby speakers begin this strange electronic hum/buzz combo, and the pitch changes with the amount of data being transmitted. I can put it next to my speaker and tell when an email attachment is coming down versus just headers being pulled or NewsBreak is syncing my RSS feeds. It isn't Cingular as the article suggests either. I have T-Mobile and I am not roaming. Have you noticed this?
"I've written here before about my (still fairly) new Treo 650 phone, and how much I like it. I've almost forgotten what life was like without it. But it's developing a lousy reputation around the PC World offices for a reason I never would have anticipated. The problem is this: When the Treo is doing data--which it often does in the background, since it's set to grab e-mail for me on the fly--it causes any monitor or speakerphone in close proximity to make a weird intermittent buzzing noise. It kind of sounds like Morse Code, circa 2005, and it's both mysterious and annoying. "
Well, it isn't just the Treo. My PDA2K does it as well, but only when it is actually transmitting data over GPRS. Just having the GPRS indicator on doesn't do it nor does a GSM phone call or SMS message. But as soon as data starts moving back and forth over the GPRS radio, nearby speakers begin this strange electronic hum/buzz combo, and the pitch changes with the amount of data being transmitted. I can put it next to my speaker and tell when an email attachment is coming down versus just headers being pulled or NewsBreak is syncing my RSS feeds. It isn't Cingular as the article suggests either. I have T-Mobile and I am not roaming. Have you noticed this?
