Using Forms in the USA

[Dieterich Lawson]

Hey everyone,

I've been trying for the past several months to use the forms client in the United States, and have hit several snags. My goal is to build up a list of configurations that work for users in the US.

Question 1: does anyone know of a good GSM modem for the US that works with forms? I've tried the USBConnect Mercury from AT&T, and a Huawei E220 that I had shipped over from Singapore (inadvertently). This modem MUST still be in production and ideally should be available in the USA (so no SAMBA75, unfortunately). If you guys prefer USB connected phones to GSM modems, let me know.

Question 2: does anyone know of a good phone to use with the forms client? This is what I'm having the most trouble with. Apparently on most Symbian phones in the US there is an issue with giving 'unsigned' applications SMS access. Basically, you can install the forms client on the phone but you can't allow it to send text messages which renders it completely useless. I have yet to see a single phone in the US that will let you bypass these settings.

Ideas?

[kiwanja]

Hi Dieterich!

I'll leave (1) to anyone who's tried it, but the SAMBA should work (and should be available). Check with Josh.

With (2), I'd be inclined to avoid Symbian altogether and just get regular J2ME-enabled 'dumb' phones. Phones we know work are listed on the site, so maybe you could just look on eBay or in shops for these?

http://www.frontlinesms.com/resources/frontlineforms/

Hope that helps. The US is a strange market, for sure.

Ken

[Dieterich Lawson]

Ken, thanks for the post.

Let me clarify about the SAMBA75 - it works great, and is available from eBay, etc... but isn't in production currently (as far as I can tell). I think I'm going to end up making a call to Falcomm to check this out further, but everywhere I see "Out of stock - discontinued" and other similar notifications put up. I was looking for a modem that we could readily recommend to new users that they would be able to easily obtain and would probably be around for a while.

As far as non-symbian java-enabled phones go - that was what I was afraid of. Most of the non-symbian java-enabled phones that I come across are smart phones or blackberries or something like that. There are a few really old ones like the Nokia 8210, but that isn't on your compatibility list.

I've heard that Seimens and Sony Ericcson have several mid-level phones like this. Do you have a recommendation for a cheapish non-symbian Sony Ericcson phone?

Thanks a bunch, Ken

[kiwanja]

Hi Dieterich

I heard that SAMBA's were being made available again, and think it was Josh who told me. I might be wrong. In terms of modems which work with Forms transmissions, the main requirement is that it support Binary messaging. All should, including the Huawei E series so you should be safe to go with those.

As for Forms clients, I'll need to leave this to Alex to comment on. We do need to source and test a range of newer handsets, and we plan to soon. Alex is away for the next week or so - feel free to ping him when he's back. Sorry I can't suggest anything right now.

Hope some of that helps.

Cheers.

Ken

P.S. Any chance of a profile pic? ;o)

[Morgan Belkadi]

Hi Dieterich!

For testing forms in the office, we often use SonyEricsson phones (like the k800), which work really good. I think a lot of Nokia phones work too.

Hope that helps!

Best,
Morgan