Lets see....

Full-Duplex connection 39.99

Half-Duplex backboned on Full-Duplex 49.99

Being able to press a button to make a clicky sound anytime of the day on the other end.....

COMPLETELY FREAKIN POINTLESS!

I don't get it. I have the family plan now so I can talk to my wife for free with my unlimited cell to cell time, but they want me to pay an extra $20 a month to do the samething, just in a much more annoying method. Why?

Because it caters to what every 13-17 year old wants nowadays. Have you SEEN the people carrying Boost cell phones? Have you seen the commercials? Have you seen the TYPE of service it is?

It's pay as you go (so there are no contracts or age limites per se)

So what you have is a million and 10 high schoolers, all with walkie talkie cell phones. Seriously, go check the plan out. There are basically 2 types...a completely pay as you go where they say you should 'chirp days, chat nights' and another (oh God), premium plan where you get unlimited everything and 200 daytime minutes. This is what I suspect is the infringing horrific 'chirp' causing high schooler buying issue. It's 50 dollars. They're in school all day anyway, and as soon as they get off that's when the chirping starts.

So, why? Cingular wants a piece of that action. And I'm guessing that 20 thing is temporary until they get a rival scheme ready for nextel/sprint/boost.

I think the name of the company is Kodiak Networks..

http://www.kodiaknetworks.com

Ringtones only annoy me in theatres. But then again, any sound coming from any place other than the cinemas speakers bother me in the theatre. In public however, yes....those nextel phones really irk me. I mean, come on...who needs to use the walkie talkie function at 9pm at night....in a restaurant or lounge...or GOD, ANYWHERE, AT 9PM?!!! *Sigh*.

When Nextel started the whole direct-connect via your phone phenomenon many many years ago, it was intended for business use and due to the high cost for service vs. any other cellular carrier at that time, that's the way it was used. People who work in teams or groups such as contractors or consultants could easily talk instantly with each other without burning up those expensive cellular minutes. Then as the cost of the service went down, they started buying phones for their spouses and children, next thing you know other carriers are jumping on the bandwagon to claim their piece of the pie. It's just like all technology, it eventually trickles down to the personal consumer level. I've had Nextel service since the early 90's and I love it. I'm an IT consultant and I regularly work with groups of engineers and contractors and being able to communicate back and forth without using up my phone time is great, especially when I'm assisting hands-on with a project and one of my partners is assisting me from say the other end of a client facility.

I think in the scenarios you're describing, the service would definitely be beneficial.

Problem is people are misusing it and just making it into a complete annoyance. I just don't understand those people who feel the need to use this service in publically open areas. It is completely annoying and there should be a fine for it.

Man, there are few things I hate more than those stupid waklie talkies. In fact, one of the few things I can manage to hate more is the person using it.

I just don't get it. NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR YOUR CONVERSATION LET ALONE THAT STUPID CHIRP.

I was in a library last month and a woman was actually using it right beside me. IN A LIBRARY FOR PETES SAKE!

This thing needs to be banned or I think hunting licenses for people using them ought to be sold at the local dept of fish and game.

Didn't VERIZON file to copyright the use "Push To Talk" a couple of years ago? Many of us saw their TV commercials. I rember that NEXTEL owns the words "Walkie-Talkie" and not generations of kids, who used this slang term for generations since the 1950's.

Just another example of American corporate greed in action. Come to think of it, the prudes can get copyrights for those nasty words; and then file lawsuits against roadcasters, who use them (on the air) without permission. A wayu to get rich indeed...

I find public walkie-talkie and chirps annoying and disrespectful as ringtones. What you do in the privacy of your own home is your business but the public is a different matter. Why should I have to listen to someone's conversation of who their cousin's friend's brother is boning? It seems people have to yell to have a coherent conversation anyway. Why should I have to listen to someone's latest 50 cent or Kelly Clarkson ring tone? Is that person trying to say they have no taste in music or that they can afford a cellphone and want you to know it?

I don't have any problem with the ring tones. Actually to be quite honest (and I KNOW you're going to find this shocking and downright blasphemous, but I really don't care) I'd rather hear what a person picked for their ring tone than listen to a default "ring". I like personalization, thus I like ring tones. I have one, I turn it off ASAP when the phone rings, though, as I did with my old old phone's ringer as a common courtesy for others.

Not to mention the fact that when I hear *MY* ring tone, I know it's a 999/1000 chance of being MY phone. Every time the former ring tone-less phone would ring, I'd look at it and 1/2 the time it wasn't mine b/c so many others had the same phone and ringer as I.

I guess what I'm saying is SOME people like to break up the ring tone monotony, you old fogie :-P.

As far as the Push-to-talk, Two-way, Direct Connect, et al are concerned, Nextel and the other providers (after months/years of poking and prodding) decided it'd be a good idea to allow the phones to be placed in "silent" or "private" mode so others can't hear everything both parties are saying. Unfortunately the people that these services think it's a status symbol to be able to two-way as loud as they freaking can/are too DUMB to be able to place their phone's in silent mode.

... I'm sure they're also the same people that can't remember to place their phone on vibrate even when their baby's daddy calls in the middle of class/meeting/work EVERY FREAKING DAY.

... I'm sure they're the same people that put their phone at the bottom of their purses / book bags / (for guys) in the most distal pocket on their body to make the annoyance/disturbance all-that-more annoying and disruptive.

You mean that these rude people can force us to hear their dirty laundry. On the other hand it's illegal to manufacture, import, sell or use an 800. megaheretz receiver which eavesdrops on obsolete analog car phones. True indeed. These are still sold in CANADA.

Faced with similiar legislation, drafted by industry lobbyists Australia's parliament gave them a warning. The service providers had one year to replace their analog systems with encrypted digital ones that people cannot hear...

NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo...

Darn you Nextel.

Darn you Cingular.

Darn you Samsung.

Darn you LG.

This is a black day indeed.

May I ask why?

Just out of curiosity and all that....

I hate those things.

*chirp*

They're sooooo annoying.

*chirp*

I hear them everywhere I go already.

*chirp*

And now, I'm going to hear them 3X more than I already do.

*chirp*

That's why.

*chirp*

(wasn't that annoying?)

(*chirp*)

I have and use a nextel. Is is perfect for what I need.

The damn chirping sound is still annoying, we don't care if you get benefit, we don't want to hear it.

Spoken like a true U.S. citizen.

(I'm not saying I disagree though... lol)

Nah, the true U.S. Citizen says "I don't care if I'm causing you any inconvenience at all, I'm doing what I want". Just like all the SUVs running around that you can't see around and they decide to cut you off because "I have the size advantage".

If for just one day, everyone in the U.S. would actually consider someone other than themselves in their daily lives you might very well see a huge mentality switch towards courtesy....you know, that thing we used to have once but lost when the babyboomers started acting like the world revolves around them and their children. That way of being raised has brought us to where we are today.

You do realize it's possible to turn the chirping off, right?

I own a Nextel, and unless I *absolutely* need to hear the other person very loudly or for others to hear, I have it set to "private".

That means it works in the same way, but only I can hear it. The chirp is both annoying to me, and everyone else.

The rest of the public are just morons.

That stupid bird chirping noise is just somebody's walkie-talkie automaticly switching to another frequency.

You get the same sound with the new "trunked" commercial radios and the big city police too. Those change channels; when you let up on the PTT button. "Chirp".

This sound effect goes way back to the old SAC B-52 bombers (flying around 24-7) during the Cold War. Their short wave radios chirped from channel to channel.

Yes; this actually looks like a text print out of a two-way conversation on a "trunked" radio system. The "chirp" follows, when letting off on the transmit button. The radio switches to another channel and talk continues...

Umm... why would "walkie-talkies" need to change channels after EVERY transmission?

The noise is just to let them know that transmission has completed.

Doesn't matter if one person knows how to turn the chirping off.

There are millions of people out there who, even if they do know how, don't turn it off.

Take a pill. I'm sure allot of things annoy you.
You are annoying me with your whining, but you don't see me whining about it.

...you just did.

And don't take things so seriously. Yes it's annoying, but I'm not crying over it.

In the end, it's really not a big deal. It's just fun to make jokes about it.

It's true, most of the people don't want to turn it off. I despise them for that.

I just don't like it when some people bash every Nextel user for the majority of s***heads out there.

No kidding. I live in Indiana where it's relatively flat. There are tons of people around me that driver around these HUGE SUV's. What is the point in purchasing a Land Rover or an H2 if you aren't going to go off-roading? How about that pristine Jeep Wrangler Sahara with the HUGE tires on them? I drive a Saturn because it gets friggin 34~37mpg on a 120 mile/day drive. My wife walks the block to work instead of driving our Trailblazer. Yes, I own an SUV, but I only use it when taking LONG trips that would otherwise be uncomfortable with full gear + 2 friends in the Saturn, or when then weather is to bad (and I don't mean 2" of snow on the ground...sheesh).