Mobile posting to weblogs in China (or Beijing, anyway)

[roddy]

Just been playing with this today . . .

Most foreigners I know in China just use pay as you go mobile services, usually Shenzhouxing. This is fine for basic calling and SMS service. It's now possible to get certain data services on Shenzhouxing. To do this, dial 1860 from your mobile, then press 2 - 2 - 1 at the menu prompts. You should then get an SMS confirmation.

Service costs 15Y a month.

Now I hadn't quite figured out what this could do - I seem to be able to browse China Mobile's version of the internet - basically very small pictures of Chinese pop stars and Xinhua headlines, and send picture messages.

However, I now find that I can send picture messages to email, and from email they can go directly to weblogs - I'm doing it via flickr, and you can see the trail of destruction I wrought today at my own website.

Basically, if you have a weblog on one of the major platforms - MT, Wordpress, livejournal, etc - you can get mobile to weblog posting set up fairly easily via flickr. There are probably also more direct ways, but flickr (which I'd actually resisted using for ages, as I can run my own websites very well, thankyou ) actually does seem to make it all very friendly.

I may move Signese.com over to one of the above platforms in order to allow the masses to post directly from their mobile phones.

Also, if anyone has managed to use a Shenzhouxing card to do other stuff - ie to set up an internet connection for proper internet use which can be then shared via Bluetooth) - then I'd be interested to hear.

The above is true for Beijing. Not sure if it applies elsewhere.

Roddy

[smalldog]

I'm browsing this site with my laptop connected to the internet via my mobile phone. I have a China Mobile sim card (a local one, not shenzhouxing) with GPRS enabled at 200 yuan for 500 Mb per month, and an infrared connection between computer and phone. It's slightly slower than dialup and quite expensive, but I'm in the middle of nowhere without even a fixed phone line.

China Mobile offers two types of GPRS service: cmwap for browsing the internet on your handset, and cmnet for sharing the connection with other devices. It sounds like you are paying 15 yuan/month for unlimited cmwap (the same costs 30 yuan here). Basic cmnet costs 0.03 yuan per kB unless you buy a monthly allowance (套餐). If it's possible on shenzhouxing you should be able to activate it online at www.chinamobile.com.

I would have gone for Liantong's CDMA service but that's only available in certain areas. It's about 3 times faster than dialup and only 130 yuan/month for unlimited usage.

[babygodzilla]

I have China Mobile. I would like to have internet service (be it WAP or GPRS) on my phone, but i dont wanna pay monthly. just for when i really need it, or when im really bored. what are my options?