Sunday, July 11, 2010 at 4:07PM There was some fanfare when Starbucks made their VIA instant coffee packets available a few months back. Its pretty good, although I prefer iced coffee. So I was pretty excited when they made an iced VIA flavor available this month. It is pretty good and couldn't be easier to make - empty the packet into a bottle of cold water, and you have a pretty good "iced" coffee.
Saturday, June 5, 2010 at 4:40PM As much as I enjoy my iPhone, like many others, I've found AT&T's coverage to be less than satisfying. While it certainly has gotten a bit better, the fact that I have dropped calls in my own home is an annoyance.
So I was excited when AT&T announced a home "microcell" device some time ago. This is a consumer version of the expensive in-building solutions cellular providers install in shopping malls, convention centers, offices, and stadiums to blanket the area with cellular coverage.
It took a while, but AT&T has finally rolled them out in my home area. At $150, it isn't cheap, but it does work. The device is only slightly larger than your typical home WiFi router. Included in the box is an ethernet cable, power supply, and instruction manual.
Each microcell has a unique serial number used to register it. Using a fairly easy tool on their website, I was prompted to enter the serial number and enter my home address where it would be located. AT&T needs to know the location of each device for E911 and regulatory purposes. I also had to authorize the cell phones that I wanted to be allowed to use my microcell.
The microcell is then connected to my home router and power. AT&T recommends placing it near a window as it needs a GPS lock to work to verify its location.
It took some time to boot up. About 20 minutes later, I received a text message from AT&T indicating it was activated, and a few minutes later, my phone's signal indicator went from displaying "AT&T" to "AT&T M-Cell".
Call quality was great, about what you'd expect on a normal 5-bar cell phone call. I also authorized my Blackberry, and it connected right up.
I did have a few issues. My first activation attempt didn't work. The lights on the device came on, but neither of my phones would change to the "M-Cell" network. AT&T recommended deactivating the device via their website and then reactivating, but this ended up requiring a call to customer care and about a 24 hour wait for the call to be escalated to the proper engineer. Once I reactivated, though, it worked like a champ.
The other issue really comes down to cost. AT&T should be handing these out; even if only in response to a large number of dropped call reports. I shouldn't have had to invest more money to fix their network. Further, the backhaul for the calls is my own Internet connection, but AT&T still deducts minutes from my account (or text message credits) for calls I make while connected to my own microcell. For an additional $20/month, I can sign up for a plan with unlimited calling while connected to the microcell. The pricing is steep and doesn't earn AT&T any goodwill, but the bottom line is that the device works pretty well to improve coverage in areas with low or no AT&T signal.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at 8:55PM Our friends at AT&T announced new data plans for smartphones today, including the iPhone. Currently, for $30/month, they offer unlimited Internet access. They now have two new plans, for 2GB and 200mb at $25 and $15/month, respectively.
When I first read this, my reaction was that my bill was about to go way up and this is how AT&T will increase profits. However, after poking around the AT&T website this evening, I found they have a pretty nice usage reporting feature. I ran my data usage for the last 6 months. On average, I use about 250mb of data - a lot less than I thought, and only 1 month when I had a large amount of travel did I ever go over 500mb. This is all without doing any spur-of-the-moment budgeting - its unlimited, so I use it.
While I certainly won't complain about a price reduction (since I can easily "handle" the $25/2GB plan, and maybe even the $15 plan) I'm still trying to understand the move on AT&T's part. I use my iPhone quite a bit and considered myself a heavy user. I don't do a tremendous amount of streaming audio or video; primarily web surfing, email, twitter, etc, and some occasional photo uploads. I also take advantage of WiFi a lot, so I suspect a good portion of my usage is offloaded.
The problem is, AT&T (and Apple) have both said iPhone users use a tremendous amount of data. While I'm sure there is a subset of users in the 2GB+ club, based on my own usage I'm guessing the majority are not - so why make such a huge change that potentially upsets a lot of people but will only change behavior or drive additional revenue from a small percentage of customers? I'd almost rather they keep the 5 bucks a month and make the network not drop every other call. (or heck, throw in unlimited texting since it costs them nothing anyway)
Of course, after writing this, it occurs to me AT&T collects $30 a month from me to transfer what would fit on a 1999-era ZIP disk, but maybe, just maybe, they could do it a tad faster.
Monday, April 12, 2010 at 9:13PM I recently learned about Gazelle, a service that will buyback a wide variety of used gadgets. The website works like a "reverse" Amazon.com. You search for electronics that you own and want to get rid of. For each, you are asked a few questions to rate its condition, then add it to your "box". You are given an offer for each item.
Depending on the total value, they may send you a box or you can use your own. Gazelle provides a ship-back label that you tape to the box. Once received, they check the gadgets out, ensure everything matches the condition you specified, and then pay you. They offer payment in multiple forms, including PayPal, Amazon gift card, and check by mail. For items with no resale value, Gazelle will recycle it in an environmentally responsible manner for free.
Overall, the process is pretty easy although I ran into a few snags. On my first order, I chose Amazon.com gift card as my reimbursement method, but the gift certificates never arrived via email. After a few contacts via their online customer service chat, the agent was able to manually email me the claim code. On my second order, I returned a working iPhone 3G. Their inspection indicated they couldn't make a call with it. This lowered their offer price and my choice was to accept the lower offer or they would return in.
Again, I contacted their customer service via online chat and indicated the phone was working and requested a second check. The rep indicated it was unlikely the decision would be changed but requested re-inspection - and as it turned out, the SIM card they used for testing was not activated properly. They restored the original offer price. It took a little over a week for the check to reach my mailbox in this case.
Despite a few minor snags, I'm pretty pleased with the service. As the service grows, I hope they clean up the process a bit but in the meantime they offer a good alternative to old gadgets collecting dust in the closet.
Monday, April 5, 2010 at 8:53AM After a few days experience, I'm still very pleased with my iPad acquisition. Many have called it a huge iPod touch, but after the last few days, I think the iPhone/iPod touch is actually a small iPad.
While it is still early, I think we'll see a major difference between the apps available for the iPhone/iPod and the iPad. On the smaller form factor devices, there is limited display space and more of a need for immediacy - user wants to start an app, get the info they need, and get out. Great for a phone.
I think the iPad will prove to be a more casual device. What brought this to mind for me was after looking for an official Facebook app for the iPad. After searching for a few minutes, it hit me - duh! - open Safari, go to www.facebook.com, and login. There's not really a need for a Facebook app.
The web browser really is so good that apps that are essentially scaled down versions of websites for the iPhone/iPod don't need apps for the iPad. If you don't need an app on a desktop PC - you probably don't need one on the iPad. The main exception - so far - seems to be video, but as more sites adopt HTML5 and H.264, even those apps will be unneeded.
Where iPad apps really have a chance to shine are offline content reading, highly interactive user interfaces (see Google Maps), and games. Now that developers have a chance to see their apps on actual iPads, not simulators, we will see some very innovative new applications.
