[Mobile] Smart 3G network problem?

Last night, I was having trouble with my Smart postpaid line. I was on the bus when I took a peep at my Sony Ericsson P1i. At the status bar, an icon appeared. So I tapped on it, and a window appeared. It said that "Incoming calls not allowed" and a Settings button appeared. Tapping on the button led me to the Internet accounts settings page. I ignored it and went on with the trip home. BTW, I sent a text message, and at first the sending failed, but on the second attempt, the message was sent. It was 10 minutes before 6PM.

I got home by 7PM, and after dinner, I checked the phone again. The icon remained, and out of curiousity I made a call to our landline. So I keyed in the number and tapped Call. After two seconds the phone returned to standby mode. So I turned off the phone, took off the SIM, and inserted the SIM into a Nokia 3660. I made a call to the same number, and our landline phone made its usual ringing sound. So I inserted the SIM back into P1i, powered it on, and the icon was still there. Making the same call, and the same result - nada.

What I did was to set the phone so that it would connect to GSM network only. The setting before was 3G only. (To do this on P1i, go to Main Menu>Control Panel>Connections>Mobile Networks. On the Mobile Networks window, tap More and then tap on GSM/3G networks.) The phone disconnected and reconnected. The 3G icon was gone. I then made a call to our landline, and the landline sounded. At this point, I received a reply to the message that I had sent earlier; the message was time-stamped 6:10PM.

I set the mode back to 3G only, and after disconnection/reconnection, the suspect icon appeared again. So I set it back to GSM only, and then played Warcraft III: Frozen Throne for an hour. After playing, I set the mode back to 3G, and the suspect icon was gone. Content, I went to sleep.

End of story? Nope. Woke up at around 12 midnight and took a look at the phone. "Emergency calls only," the phone display said. Set the mode to GSM only, and the operator name appeared. Went back to sleep.

So at 8AM, I set the mode back to 3G, and no problems so far. Must be a problem in Smart's 3G network yesterday.

[Mobile] P11's menu in landscape orientation?

Last week, something happened on my P1i. The programmable key at the right of the phone was set to Main Menu (meaning, when you press that button, the Main Menu is displayed; default is Web browser for this button), and while I was taking some camera shots, I accidentally pressed on that button. What happened?

The menu did appear. In landscape mode.

I regret not installing a screen shot app for the phone. I cannot replicate it now, though the fact that it did happen means it can be replicated somehow. The menu was in grid mode, and the Back icon was on the bottom of the screen (since it was in landscape mode, bottom is the left edge of the screen). The Status bar and the soft keys were not visible. But when I get back to standby mode, the screen was restored to the usual portrait orientation. Going to the main menu, the screen shifted to landscape again.

When I restarted the phone, the main menu is in the usual portrait orientation.

Has anyone experienced the same?

[Mobile] Motorola buys into UIQ

This is not a surprise. Motorola will buy 50% of UIQ, which is currently 100% owned by Sony Ericsson. UIQ develops an alternative user interface for Symbian operating system, and is the UI for all Symbian-powered SE phones.

Motorola Z8 is a Symbian phone with UIQ as the interface, so the buy-in should not be a surprise at all. Both companies should complement each other, as Motorola is a relative newcomer to the UIQ space, while SE is getting ready to enter the Windows Mobile market.

Well, Nokia shares the s60 UI with Samsung (among others). Hmmm.....