Using Cingular BlackJack with a Mac to connect to 3G HSDPA network

Not long ago I replaced my wireless Windows Mobile phone (a Cingular 8125) with the latest Windows SMARTphone offering from Cingular – the Samsung BlackJack. The Windows Mobile SMARTphone OS has faired pretty well for me in other phones I’ve owned like the Cingular SMT-5600 and the Cingular 8125 (both are manufactured by UTC). I’d recommend both of these devices but neither of them offered the thin and light form factor of the BlackJack, it’s great looks, or more importantly, it’s ability to connect to Cingular’s latest 3G high-speed wireless network – HSDPA.

Due to the high connection speeds offered by HSDPA, browsing the Internet on the BlackJack is now practical. With all my previous wireless devices using a browser was relegated to an act of desperation when NO internet connection was available and I needed some critical information off the net while on the road. Of course, given that I’m primarily a Mac user (coming up on 2 years with my PowerBook G4) you would question why I would invest in another Windows phone device. Especially with rumors of an Apple iPhone around the corner. The answer to that is that there are no other good options RIGHT NOW. Further, who is to say if Apple will 1) really release an iPhone soon and 2) if it will be on Cingular. The Palm Treo that does have good Mac connectivity is known as one of the worst phones for sound quality. It isn’t offered in a 3G HSDPA version on Cingular either. I have friends who own Treo’s and it is really hard to have a phone conversation with them due to the horrible RF reception that the Treo’s have.

The first thin and light 3G phone with Windows Mobile to come out on Cingular was the Samsung BlackJack. So far, with the exception of its poor battery life and the lack of an industry standard connection port for USB and audio, it is a great device. The other major shortcoming isn’t one that I can blame on Samsung. Which is to say that connecting any kind of windows device to a Mac is almost impossible. There are hacks, and there are hacks – no support is offered. While that hasn’t changed, I was very surprised to find a working hack to connect a BlackJack via the HSDPA network to my Mac. When I found the article over on tuaw.com with a link to detailed on instructions over on Mobility Today I didn’t expect them to actually work on a PowerPC based Mac G4. Background: There are lots of windows hacks that work perfectly on the new Intel Mac’s since they share the same processor as a regular PC, but not the old PowerPC based G4′s. I struggled for a few minutes with the instructions offered on both sites but both were very helpful overall. Mainly, I didn’t know how to install the phone scripts on my Mac and neither article mentioned how to do that. Fortunately, there were readme instructions that came with the phone scripts and that got me over the hump. It would have also been nice if either of the articles clarified that this hack works for PowerPC based G4′s which is one of the reasons I’m linking this post to the original articles.

Only my zeal for untethered high speed wireless access got me to invest the time to try it out. The whole process took me no more than 15 minutes. My first connection to the network didn’t work, but when I tried it again, it worked like a charm. I also experienced slow speeds when I first connected even though I’m sitting in the same spot right now. After a short time though, my pages started to pop with a speed that made me start to forget I wasn’t on my 6mbps cable connection. I fired up my favorite bandwidth speed tester on speakeasy.net and ran the test. The results are shown in all their glory below: 1154 kbps down and 308 kbps up. Pretty amazing. You could say that I’m hooked on wireless HSDPA, my BlackJack, and my Mac. I’ve used my ftp client on the connection to upload the photo in this article and I’m posting this on WordPress all while using my connection. I’ve also had no problems with accessing e-mail or other web based applications. Now, when I’m on my long park visits with John and Julia and I’ve got something that I really have to do online I can whip my phone out along with my usb cable and get my work done. Soon, when Apple releases their next major OS, it should have the Bluetooth profiles needed to also connect my BlackJack via the built in Bluetooth so it will be a truly untethered experience. Until then, I can handle a small cable for the benefits that 3G wireless speeds offer me.

p.s. The best thing about the hack is that the modem scripts are made for a BlackBerry. BlackBerry is now suing Samsung for using the name BlackJack. Gotta love the irony.

[tags]Cingular BlackJack, Apple, Mac, PowerBook G4, HSPDA, Cingular, Connect BlackJack to Mac[/tags]