Mar 1, 2006 | blog
So I suppose this article over at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will add more fuel to those people trying to keep everyone from using electronics on airplanes.
Not a very interesting article, though it will be interesting to see if there is anyting of substance to this study. I’ll not claim that it isn’t possible, but sometimes I think we over analyze things a bit too much. I guess what frustrates me is that several studies in the past 18 mos. or so have indicated that there isn’t much of a problem, that airlines have worked towards “shielding” sensitive equipment, etc… Though with the current financial state of many airlines today, that is a bit hard to believe.
Its kind of like butter – first its bad, then its good, then we’re not sure – or chocolate, same thing. Guess it’ll be one of those confounding mysteries, or urban legends – better call the MythBusters.
Feb 28, 2006 | blog
Still can’t get the MDA – the company still says that it does not have stock available to sell to existing customers (you know the ones who always pay their bills every month). Instead, all currently available stock will be used to lure new customers into 2-year contracts.
Nice.
Maybe I’m being selfish and shallow, but it still makes me a bit upset. I’m one of those darn pesky reliable existing customers. Its a shame that I have this peculiar idea that I should be able to buy a product that a company is selling. Strange, I know. Someday I’ll get over it – probably when I decide to switch phone carriers. The problem with that idea is that all carriers do the same dumb things.
Feb 22, 2006 | blog
*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*
Feb 22, 2006 | blog
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
Feb 21, 2006 | blog
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.
