The Samsung Katalyst, T-Mobile's latest Hotspot @Home phone

The rumored t739 Katalyst from Samsung has gotten official today for T-Mobile, shoring up a Hotspot @Home lineup that presently features the lowly Nokia 6086 down in the basement and the BlackBerry Curve 8320 up top. The t739 is the first slider certified for T-Mobile's WiFi-enabled calling service, giving it an instant dose of street cred among folks that love the UMA concept but can't stand clamshells. In fact, with a 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth, and a 220 x 176 display, the Katalyst is essentially a slider rendition of the t409 with the addition of a microSD slot. Yeah, we'd still like to see a little more meat in the lineup -- a 3.2 megapixel camera and 3G would get us to shut up, just as a fr'instance -- but in the meantime, we're always happy for a little choice of form factor. Grab it for a penny shy of $80 on a two-year contract.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Dec 10th 2007 2:07AM]

You mean "showing" instead of "shoring"?

[Josh Rosenbluh @ Dec 11th 2007 10:04AM]

They're using it to mean prop-up or support the hotspot@home program which hasn't gotten great reviews or much press at all, save a guarded Pogue piece in the Times at its inception--the same week that the iPhone was released.

http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict2&Database=*&Query=shore

[Owen V @ Dec 10th 2007 2:21AM]

I think more handsets should get their names from chemistry

[plaka999 @ Dec 10th 2007 3:19AM]

I think you mean from Kemistry

[Nando @ Dec 10th 2007 10:24AM]

LOL! Like "Mortal Kombat."

[John Rudd @ Dec 10th 2007 4:16AM]

as I said on the engadgetmobile side of this announcement:

Right now, until T-Mobile announced 3G, any other announcements they make are just pissing in the wind.

[cortiz1679 @ Dec 10th 2007 8:55AM]

This sucks no phone should come out w/a 1.3 megapixel camera any more. I had a similar phone 3 years a go. I got this service back like in June because reception sucks in my apt thinking sweet they will be rolling out phones pretty soon. I was wrong I was sure that the shadow would have @home on it I was wrong.

[Lawrence Waters @ Dec 10th 2007 10:37AM]

With all the great phones available from Europe and Asia, why should we have to settle for this crap?

[Gregg from Encino @ Dec 10th 2007 9:53PM]

HotSpot@Home Hell
I am now into the second week of no connection @home or anywhere else via wifi. When it does come up, it's only for awhile. I called Customer Care three times. They acknowledge there are MAJOR issues going on. Has anyone else know anything?

[Ken in Irvine @ Jan 2nd 2008 10:48PM]

I think it's very interesting that Customer Service acknowledged problems. When I called them yesterday to ask about any reports of problems with the Linksys router or the Katalyst (a very broad way to ask, intentionally), they told me there were no reported problems with either of these. That's a quick way to tell whether or not they're being honest -- there's no hardware out there without some issues.

I've had the Linksys router and the Katalyst for just under two weeks. After one week the Linksys wouldn't permit VPN connections. The Katalyst may or may not connect to the @home base station. Lately it requires a restart before it will connect -- yesterday we had to restart it three times!

The latest problem is that it stops responding to the buttons. It won't complete a connection or it won't disconnect, and the only thing I can do is pull the battery.

Anybody else find these gadgets not ready for prime time?

[Shane @ Dec 11th 2007 2:10AM]

As an FYI, the Samsung T-409 was the first certified slider for @Home.

[Marj @ Dec 13th 2007 1:50PM]

i was waayyyy to excited when i heard about hotspot @home because like a lot of people, i get no coverage in my house. but as it turns out, the hotspot is very inconsistent and i'm becoming more and more impatient. the chick at customer service gave me 200 extra minutes for my troubles, but if i can't use my phone at home, what the hell is the point?!?!?

[snowbound @ Jan 3rd 2008 2:02PM]

These are the first negative comments I've read about @home. All over the web, users are talking about how great it is and how seamlessly it works with tmobile's system. There are somewhat complicated settings you need to get adjusted on your handset and router (if it's not already set up). Check out tmobile's online help, it's pretty good.

[Reid @ Jan 11th 2008 1:12AM]

Every time I try to connect to ANY wi-fi network, I get error. W006.8, or some other 6.x error.
Why is it that I cant get a phone that's worth a crap? The last time I had a phone that worked well was at least 6 years ago!