Does T-Mobile use it though? I understand that their network is currently exclusively 1900MHz.

- James

2100MHz is not available in either the US or Canada.

Mod parent up.

Mod parent up. Installing DX9 is required to make Civilization 4 (and several other games) work on Windows 7. This is apparently due to missing DLLs which are not included with DX11 but are included with DX9. The whole concept of backward compatibility is a joke with DX.

I should point out that most GSM phone manufacturers now make it very difficult to enable Field Test mode -- to the point of even removing the functionality from phones. Nokia is one example of a GSM phone manufacturer that has done so. So your claim that field test is "enabled on virtually any GSM phone" is false. I should know as I used to be a field testing geek until I could not longer purchase a suitable GSM/UMTS phone to do field testing with.

Obvious solution: Virtual box under linux will let you run whatever windows you want. Its graphic drivers are not good enough for most new 3D games (yet), but it certainly will let you do online banking...

Or switch to a bank that allows you to use open-source software. If my bank told me that I could only do my banking with a certain browser I would be moving my business elsewhere.

I find it interesting that all the banks in New Zealand, where I live, supports (even if only unofficially) Firefox, Chrome, et al for their internet banking. Why do banks in other countries not do the same?

I'm not sure how debit cards work outside of New Zealand, however here in New Zealand it is impossible to use a debit card without entering in a PIN code to authenticate yourself to the terminal. In other words signing off a debit card transaction isn't possible. So if a bank were to post a pre-activated card out to a customer, there's no security risk since the customer would have picked a PIN code when they originally signed up for the card in the branch.

I'm with the ANZ Bank here in New Zealand and they post out replacement debit cards with the PIN already assigned to the card. As far as I know the PIN isn't loaded on the card itself. The bank just adds a record on their side saying this new card has the same PIN as the previous card. No security risk since only me and the bank's debit card system knows my PIN number. Someone stealing my card would have to guess my PIN.

Perhaps this is not the case outside of NZ. However I personally think the 'signature required' type of transaction should be withdrawn, leaving PIN as the only authentication method. We in New Zealand have managed to do without signature transactions for debit card transactions since EFTPOS was introduced in the 1980's.

Signature authentication is only allowed for Visa/MC/Amex credit transactions since NZ based merchants have to accept foreign cards which allow signature required transactions. So basically we only allow signature required transactions due to having to keep that security loophole open to allow foreigners to pay for goods and services in NZ.

From some people's point of view, filing a bug report for a feature like using the built in spell check is like filing a bug report with Ford suggesting they add a glove box to the front of the vehicle. It's a feature that Mac users expect from a native Mac application -- if it's not there then many Mac users will just drag the app to the bin.

I do agree that people should file reports for bugs, but there are some types of bugs which shouldn't happen at all in a production release. The fact Chrome does pretty well (despite only launching recently) suggest that there needs to be some changes in the direction of Mac development at Opera. For example, actually employing Mac OS X usability experts to polish up the GUI would be a good first step.

I think you're missing the big picture. The Mac port of Opera is very poorly designed -- with lots of really minor issues which, all added up, make the experience of using Opera on the mac worse than even Firefox. Look at Chrome for a better port -- they made a lot of effort to ensure that Chrome blended in well with the Mac environment. The result is very good -- to the point that Chrome looks and feels like a native browser.

Opera has had a Mac port for a long time now, so filing a bug report about a minor issue like not using the built-in spellcheck seems pointless to me -- Opera seems to not care about the little issues which stands out like a sore thumb to people who have actually sat down and tried using Opera on the Mac.

Have you looked at using FreeBSD's Linux Binary Emulation feature?

It's interesting to note that out of the three cellular networks here in New Zealand, the one with Huawei equipment (i.e. 2degrees) operates the most reliable network. Vodafone with their Nokia GSM/UMTS network has issues a few times a year and Telecom with their Alactel-Lucent UMTS network suffered multiple massive days-long outages during the end of last year and early tis year. 2degrees has operated flawlessly since they launched.