Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
GSM has to have a SIM card, doesn't it? Not that that necessarily implies that it can be used with arbitrary telecoms providers, but it at least gives it the potential to be flexible.
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True in theory but as the Kindle shows that flexibility resides entirely on the theoretical side.
1) You cannot change to any provider you fancy there because Amazon has a special contract with certain providers.
2) On the Kindle the use of your mobile connection is limited severely by Amazon. You can basically only do what they allow you to.
Although I think the latter is not a serious restriction because I doubt that you can productively surf the web/download/etc. on an eInk device anyway.
With the txtr it'll be interesting to see how they are going to use the GSM connection. As they are nowhere near the size of Amazon I doubt that they can get special contracts from providers which means their portal should be optional.
On their homepage they promise the ability to run 3rd party "applications" (though I assume they would really be more like plugins than full-blown applications) on the device. If those applications can use the GSM connection that would really have the potential for some very useful mobile apps.