Blog
Thoughts and things I care to shareT-Mobile Denies Customer Upgrade…
*rant*
Sensational – yes, but you have to admit the current practice of making new phones/devices available to “new” customers and not to loyal existing customers is one sure way of making them unhappy.
This is my case – I’ve been waiting for T-Mobile USA to carry Windows Mobile Pocket PC Phone devices for over 4 years. I’ve poked, prodded, emailed, called, suggested, etc… and now that the MDA is “available” through T-Mobile – I get the standard run-around that its not available to current customers “right now”.
However, if I want to start a new line of service I can get the phone. Will someone explain the logic to me? This is one of the few times Tmo has pissed me off. Customer service is good, and so are the pricing plans, but to not make a new phone available to your current loyal customers is simply unacceptable.
Well Tmo, Verizon is looking better – even if it costs more in data services, at least I can get the PPC 6700 right off the bat, or the Treo 700w. All it takes to make me happy is to sell me the phone that is on the web site for the price you are asking for it, without making me start a new line of service – is that so hard?
*/rant*
Wish I was in…
A friend from work is on vaction in Puerto Vallarta this week and emails me:
- 5-Day Forecast for Puerto Vallarta
- Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
- 80 ° | 71 °
- 80 ° | 60 °
- 80 ° | 71 °
- 80 ° | 71 °
- 80 ° | 71 °
- Clear Clear Clear Clear
Thanks Pat – have one for me!
Mobile & VoIP – My Take
The Wireless Report has an interesting post about mobile and VoIP communications taking over the world. I agree that the trend is moving in that direction, but what is fascinating to me is how long our country takes to catch up to the rest of the world. Our providers and the media do a great job of covering up what new options there really are for us to use and move to. To save money and gain flexibility – it’s only the web-savy “power-users” and folks in the IT industry that are “in-the-know” as it were.
While I find this very disappointing, its good to see these options start to pick up here in the U.S. – and I think the traditional telephony providers are dreading this very trend. How they will fight it I’m not sure, but I’ll put forth my $.02 and suggest that they simply provide the fastest, cheapest, biggest communications pipe to my house. That is all I want from them, I’ll find my content places that are focused on content, not as a means to attract me as a broadband or infrastructure customer.
Via: The Wireless Report
T-Mobile MDA – Now Available!!!
Ok, here is the phone I’ve been waiting for. T-Mobile’s version of the HTC Wizard – the MDA. Neat device, I was able to test this very unit back in October/November.
It has EDGE Quad-Band services which are much faster than straight GPRS bandwidth. The keyboard is a trade-off, but I was able to adapt quite quickly to it. The screen is razor sharp, bright and clear, sound quality was good, phone quality as well.
One handed operation was a little iffy – and was the source of most of my suggestions on improving the product. We’ll see if they incorporated any suggestions. The pull-mail features of Pocket Outlook were fantastic – I had it pulling mail every 15 minutes for 5 accounts. I also had a number of software packages that pulled data from the ‘Net on a regular basis as well – like weather, news and such.
Performance suffered a little with the 200MHz processor, but I think a person can adapt what they run. Overall a good phone when a person makes an effort to adapt to the device a little.
iLauncher 2.3 – Now Available!
Well, an update to one of the best Today screen Pocket PC program launchers is available. Among the numerous updates to iLauncher 2.3 are:
- Captions Support
- D-Pad Navigation Support
- Additional Look & Feel Customizations
- New Menu Replacement
- Enhancements to the iLauncher Settings
- Context Menu Enhancements
- New True VGA Hack option
- Additional Meters Path Selection
- Command-line parameters support
- Fullscreen Mode Changes
- Installer Changes
- Some bug fixes and enhancements
Looks like a nice update. Kudos to Jason, Amit and crew over at SBSH Mobile Software!
Oops…
Well that didn’t work. Ok, note to self… don’t try to change the base domain name for your web site when you are transfering it from one registrar to another.
Seriously, when I say it to myself that way, I realize how stupid it really was. You may have noticed that this site actually resolves to rickmahn.net, I own rickmahn.com as well and have it forwarding here. Its in the process of being transfered to my new hosting service, and well, I thought I could do a few things that just didn’t work.
The short of it is that it’ll just have to be forwarding to rickmahn.net for another few days until the domain has been transfered, then I’ll move the site from rickmahn.net to rickmahn.com.
Sorry for any confusion! Just my stupidity showing itself :).
Dave Winer: “Blogging is part of life”
I agree with Dave Winer’s analysis about blogging is a part of life. The notion that an enabling technology being the news is misleading – the technology is just a mechanism for each of us to communicate our thoughts and ideas, in an easier, faster cheaper way.
Each new enabling technology (PCs, Email, Internet, MP3s, Digital Photography, Digital Video, etc…) is just another tool for everyone to leverage in their day-to-day lives. Saying that blogging is “dead” makes no sense, as there are millions of new blogs created each month. While some of this may be a fad that draws people in, I for one have become intrigued by the blogosphere and the conversations within it. Just like I was drawn into using the Internet as a research and communications tool. Of course, blogging may not be for everyone, just like Instant Messaging isn’t for everyone.
And Dave is correct when he says that new businesses will spring from blogs – the communication & collaboration is what drives new ideas and concepts. What do you think new businesses start from? Nothing? Ideas are what change industries and the world, and when you have clear, simple communications (i.e. Naked Coversations – see Scoble), you have the necessary foundation to build on.
Via: Scripting News
Work – On Sunday?!
Yes its true. I’m not on the Operations side of IT, haven’t been for years, but every once and awhile, I get to do some work on that portion – especially when its “my” systems (technically, I’m the “owner”). So I’ll be up and in the office at a bright and early (and cold) 6am tomorrow.
What am I doing? VPN is all I’ll say.
3GSM – From a different perspective
Russell Beattie has a nice post about his observations at 3GSM this year. Don’t expect a lot of technical reviews – as he points out, there are a ton of sites to get the tech scoop. I’d like to thank Russell for giving a different spin, I’ve always wanted to go to 3GSM and this adds another perspective that I appreciate
Via: RussellBeattie.com
BlackBerry on Windows
Ok, so we’re exploring RIM’s BlackBerry solution at work, and I’ve been curious about how to integrate other platforms (I’m a Windows guy – remember?) and finally started digging this weekend. Aha! Here’s the link to BlackBerry Connect for Windows Mobile 🙂. Well. we will just be tucking that into our project folder for later reference, hehehe…
I hope the leadership of the Republican Party will take his word seriously. Because this is exactly right.
This is very simple: only Americans citizens should be allowed to vote in American elections.
The SAVE America Act is common sense, and we need to pass it now!
I don’t recall you complaining when gas was $5.00 under Biden.
Hypocrisy much?
Please RT!
This Middle Ages bullshit is a cancer on the planet👇👇🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸