Why not an iPod Touch 3G?

When I got an iPod Touch a couple of years ago I absolutely loved the thing. It was small, about half as thick as the iPhone, stored all my music and I had access to all the apps in the app store. At least, when I was in range of a Wi-Fi signal. And that was the biggest downside of the Touch. Yes, it was useful outside of a Wi-Fi signal, but it really came into its own when it could connect to a network. I knew at the time that there was no way Apple would ever release a mobile data network capable iPod Touch. I'm sure both them and AT&T was concerned with it cannibalizing sales of the iPhone. But I don't think that's a concern anymore.

It's all about capturing all segments of the market. Some people are willing to pay the Cadillac price of the iPhone and its itinerant data plan. Some people are not. Why not capture some of them with a mobile device that does almost everything the iPhone does, but on a $20/month data plan like the iPad? Especially now that the iPad has blazed the trail. It will probably add a little bulk to the Touch, but I bet there are a lot people out there who would think it is worth it. And it would give AT&T another option while it loses subscribers to Verizon

What? My battery's dead already?

I got an iPhone 4 a couple of months ago and in general have been pretty happy with it. Then a strange thing happened in January - the battery was going dead in hours. I would go to sleep with a 100% charged phone and wake up to one that wouldn't even turn on. It acted like it was on all the time, even if it was in standby. Needless to say this was pretty annoying.

I talked to a friend at work, and it turned out he was having the same problem. After checking the internet he came across a solution - delete the mail accounts and then recreate them. Well, that made no sense to me, but it worked for him and I was desperate. I deleted the accounts, power cycled the phone and then recreated them. And what do you know, it seems to have worked.

So what's the deal? Apparently push notifications is a problem. I guess the phone gets stuck in a mode where it is always trying to get data even though there is none coming. And, the only way to fix it is to delete the accounts. Hopefully they will fix this in an upcoming release. Anyway, if you have an iPhone 4 and are having the same problem, here's a possible solution.

New post! So - How's that Ooma doing?

I was wondering if I could make it a year without posting. Oh, well. Since I promised to review the Ooma in that last post from November, 2009, I guess I better say a few words about it.

And, really, a few words is all I have. The short review is it works like it says it will. You get VOIP quality calls for free after buying the device. We have had no problems with call quality or dropped calls and the voicemail works fine. It took a couple of weeks to port our number over but that was it. Considering we were paying about $30 a month after fees and taxes previously, it paid for itself sometime in July, and now we are living in bonus time. Not having that monthly payment really feels good.

Here are some technical details.

• I have found it works best outside of our wireless router. So, our setup looks like cable modem->Ooma->Wireless Router. Originally I had the Ooma and the wireless router switched, but they were not playing nicely together (probably the wireless router's fault).
  
• Ooma comes with a 90 day subscription to Ooma Premier which adds a second line and gives you some other options. I let it expire and have not missed it.
• Ooma will email notifications that you have a voicemail, and you can also listen to them online.
• But, that's about all you can do online. MyOoma has some other management features and call logs and stats and stuff but I have not found any of it particularly useful

All in all, a good buy. Every month from here on out it's like putting $30 in my pocket, and that's hard to argue with.

Gotta love customer support

We recently purchased an Ooma (review to follow shortly), and so after transferring our phone number to it I got online with Earthlink to cancel our trueVoice VoIP service. Here's how it went down...

Welcome to Earthlink LiveChat. Your chat session will begin shortly. Feel free to begin typing your question.

Customer Support says: Thank you for contacting EarthLink LiveChat, how may I help you today?

Me: I have swapped phone service to Ooma and need to cancel trueVoice

Customer Support: I am sorry to know that you wish to cancel True Voice service.

So... how am I supposed to respond to that statement? I'm sorry you're sorry to know I wish to cancel? Or, I don't give rip how you feel about it just get on with the canceling? I settled for an awkward silence until the rep started typing again.

Customer Support: Please give me two minutes.

Me: thank you

Customer Support: Thank you for your time.

Whew! Got through that one! So, I think I'm going to have an easy time of it, but no - here comes the hard sale...

Customer Support: True Voice Service has directory assistance service helps find a phone number for the customer through an automated operator. EarthLink Voice allows you to decide whether your phone will be able to make directory assistance calls

Customer Support: Are you sure that you wish to cancel it?

Me: yes

Let's see... I just spent $250 on a device so that I don't have to carry a monthly phone bill anymore and now you expect me to keep spending my hard-earned cash on trueVoice because of Directory Assistance? I don't think so.

After a few minutes I get the cancel confirmation and notification that I just made my last payment and will not get charged again. But, wait a second, I paid Earthlink yesterday for the next month's worth of service. What happens to that money?

Me: Will I be refunded a pro-rated amount for the time I am not using through Dec 14th?

Customer Support: I will check what best could be done. Give me three more minutes.

Customer Support: Thank you for being online.

The "what best could be done"? What "best could be done" better be refunding the pro-rated amount. And, thank goodness, it is.

Customer Support: I will refund $21.62 to your Bank Draft updated on your account.

Me: thank you

Of course, I have very little doubt that had I not asked about it Earthlink would have been more than happy to keep my money for services never rendered.

And, finally after some more rig amoral and I think everything is done I get hit with this:

Customer Support: You are welcome. Is there anything else that I may help you with today?

Me: That will do it. Thank you for your help

Customer Support: You are welcome. I have a good news for you, your account has been selected for a 30 day free trial of PC Fine Tune service and it is a software which will solve the problems you are facing with your computer.

Customer Support: PC Fine Tune fine tunes, protects, and optimizes the computer. It is also called as PC Optimizer. It increases the speed, fixes disk errors, removes unnecessary files. It is EarthLink's 1-click solution that allows customers to easily optimize their system for better performance. PC Fine Tune which will increases the Internet download speed. It improves the performance of the computer. PC Fine Tune will defragment your hard drive, remove cookies and unnecessary files, fix errors in your computer's registry, and even detect early signs of hard drive failure, all in one easy-to-use program!

Customer Support: Right now, we're offering a FREE 30 day trial of PC Fine Tune, which you can continue at a low monthly rate of $4.95 per month with no commitment! Once the 30 days free trial is expired, the billing will start automatically. PC Fine Tune really boosts your computer's speed and performance.

Customer Support: May I go ahead and add PC Fine Tune service to your account?

Me: no

Customer Support: Okay. No problem. If you wish to subscribe PC Fine Tune service in the future, please contact us, we will order it for you.

Evidently upselling services while the customer is canceling other services is good business. I don't think so.

All I can say is, "TrueVoice - you and your monthly payments won't be missed." Next stop? Reducing that cable modem bill by ditching Earthlink altogether.

FM Radio on the iPod Touch?

This kind of thing ticks me off.

Rumor site 9to5Mac reports that Apple is on the cusp of releasing an FM radio application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. And get this: it will be for the current models, not for some new hardware revision. According to the rumor, Apple will awaken the slumbering FM transceiver already dormant within the devices, currently only used to talk to the Nike+ widget.

So, here I have had an iPod Touch 2G for almost a year, and that whole time FM capability has been lying dormant within it. I do everything with my Touch. Yard work, exercise, driving - it's always there. Of course, to do any of that stuff you have to download what you want to listen to first since you won't have any WiFi available. However, if Apple had just activated the hardware that I had already bought, I could have been listening to sports radio without any worries or additional devices.

Here's a good example. I was reseeding the yard this weekend and wanted to listen to the NCSU game. I can still pick up a WiFi signal in my yard, so I thought, "Hey - I'll find a webcast of the radio station (101.5 FM), and listen to the game using my iPod Touch!" Uh, no. They are blocked from streaming the game over the web, even though they are broadcasting it over FM. If you want to listen to Wolfpack games on the web you have to buy a game pack from the website, which at that point I was not inclined to do. And now I find out that all along the solution to this little problem is a tiny chip packed inside my Touch, the capabilities of which I have already purchased and yet Apple thinks I don't need to use.

Thanks, Apple - that's very kind of you. Let me guess, to enable this I will have to pay another $10 dollars to upgrade my Touch, just like I had to buy v3.0 to enable Bluetooth?

I'll take two

And give one to my wife. This is one of the best concepts I've seen in a while.

It feels like the whole world is holding its breath for the Apple tablet. But maybe we've all been dreaming about the wrong device. This is Courier, Microsoft's astonishing take on the tablet.

You have the same portability as a netbook, and twice the screen real estate. It's just begging for some e-reader software. And if it was double hinged, two people could work on it at the same time. Or play some cool head-to-head games. If you didn't want to write, one screen could show a soft keyboard for typing with the word processor on the other.

Please make it Microsoft. From reading the comments at Gizmodo, you'll have plenty of takers.

via Wired.

So long TomTom, I hardly knew ya

Like many sad stories, this one has a happy beginning. Once upon a time I bought my wife a new Dell laptop. It just so happened that they were running a sale where you could get a TomTom GPS device for half price with a laptop, so I grabbed one of those as well. My wife was skeptical, but over the following weeks she came to love it. In fact, she became addicted to having maps, points-of-interest, and directions at her fingertips whenever and wherever she needed them.

But then tragedy struck. While driving to a doctor's appointment in Cary, a pothole became the TomTom's undoing. The bounce popped the device out of its holder and it fell to the floor of the CRV.

This was the result.Now, I'm sure you are thinking, "Just call customer service! I'm sure they would replace it. You have only had it a couple of weeks, it was damaged in the course of normal use, and any holder that would fail going over a normal pothole is not the best design in the world anyway." Well, you would be wrong. I did in fact call customer service, and was told that this is 'physical damage' and not covered under warranty. I pointed out that it was being used properly. They said, "It is physical damage, and the screen is not a repairable item."

I replied, "So, you're telling me you won't replace it and my only option is to buy a new one."

Customer Service said, "That is correct. Good bye."

So, good bye it is. Personally, my feeling on the matter is that this is a 'design flaw' not 'physical damage'. But, that argument did not sway TomTom. So, I bought a new GPS unit. And, no, it is not a TomTom. I will not buy their products ever again. And after this experience I would recommend you do not either.

Instead I went with Magellan.This is the Magellan Roadmate 1440 which we will immediately stress test on our trip to Williamsburg this week. It has a nice, robust holder attachment and I think it would take an earthquake to shake it loose.

So, all I can say is, "So long TomTom, I hardly knew ya."