Posts filed under 'technology'
I stood in line for 2+ hours yesterday at the Pioneer Place mall in downtown Portland, Oregon for an iPhone 3G. I hadn’t planned on buying a 3G iPhone because I honestly felt, and still do feel, that the original iPhone is still a pretty damn good phone. However, I have technology lust syndrome and the allure of having the new “shiny” was too much to resist.
While I stood in line at the Apple store I was unaware of one extremely bizarre hiccup in my quest for technology glory. An individual can not purchase an iPhone 3G from an Apple Store if they have an existing AT&T account that is linked to a corporate account or has a FAN number associated with it.
I was a wee bit shocked to hear this news after already standing in said line for 30 minutes. I immediately summoned an Apple employee stalking the line and drilled him for answers. He offered up no solution other than to walk away and visit an AT&T store. I informed him that I would do nothing of the sort because AT&T doesn’t have any iPhone’s and I’ll get mine from your store come hell or high water.
Reaching for my current iPhone I dialed 611. After being transferred to business customer care (seriously awesome folks by the way) I speak with someone about my predicament. She informed me that she could remove the FAN number from my account, I buy the phone, then call back and have FAN reapplied. Problem solved.
I summoned the Apple employee again. I informed him of my good news yet he was already keenly aware of this solution. He is instructed by Apple NOT to give this information out to consumers. They can only inform them that they can’t buy a phone from the Apple store and instead only directly from AT&T. Excuse me? Why would Apple turn people away when there is a very simple solution to the problem? I’m baffled as to why Apple would turn those away with “special” AT&T accounts.
Since Apple isn’t shipping AT&T any legitimate iPhone 3G stock, if you have a corporate or FAN AT&T account the best way to get an iPhone is to remove it right before purchase. I walked back into an AT&T 1 hour later and had my FAN account back.
July 13th, 2008
I’ve been a user of Apple products since grade school where I fell in love with them. When I was 13 my parents gave me an Apple II+. 20 years later I still use Apple products on a daily basis.
The recent release on the iPhone was an exciting day for me. I’ve used previous smartphone products before the last being the Samsung Blackjack. That particular phone got so much wrong I returned it the next week. During my return I told the Cingular rep that if Apple were to ever make a phone product I’d buy it on the spot.
Here we are 3 months and 3 software updates later. While I’m very happy to see software updates for a phone, I’m disappointed in your lack of willingness to supply end users with DRM free ringtones, flash drive support and UI customizations.
At this point I have a virgin iPhone running 1.0.2. I have no intent of upgrading until one of the following two things occur.
#1) Apple stops pandering to the music industry in regards to ringtones. I have custom ringtones on my iPhone now from songs I own legally. I refuse to pay Apple one cent more for the priviledge of having a ringtone. That is just absurd. There is absolutely no technical reason why iPhone users can’t use any AAC/MP3 file for a ringtone. You’re forcing users down this rabbit hole for the music industry and your own profits. Stop the madness, your ringtone solution sucks.
#2) The user community comes up with a solution to allow custom ringtones as they work today on firmware 1.0.2. I have tremendous faith that the user community will shine again and hack your “secured” firmware. Just like other companies who have failed in their attempts to stop their respective user communities (Microsoft and Sony) you will fail as well.
While we’re on the topic of customizations let me discuss some features I’d like to see in the iPhone. I’d like my custom wallpaper to be displayed on the springboard and not just when the phone is in a call or locked. What UI designer came up with that stupid idea? Scary.
How about showing a little more feedback about calendar events. This is a smartphone after all, so let’s have it act a little more intelligently regarding events. Show a visible number indicator on the calendar icon for the number of events currently listed for that day. When alerted about an event, allow me to snooze the event for additional time. It should function just like Outlook in this regard.
Allow customization for the order of springboard icons and allow customization of which icons reside in the dock. Again, how could your UI designers miss this? Why would that be locked down?
I’m glad to hear that your allowing rotation of email attachments in 1.1.1 firmware but why stop there. Allow for the rotation of all applications like Mail itself, Google Maps, and Notes. The ability to rotate really improves the keyboard not just the screen width.
I personally could care less about iPhone games or iPhone hacking, but I do want simple yet meaningful features that are in almost every other smart phone. Apple, stop the madness. Stop catering to the music industry and refocus your attention on the true fans of your products. We buy your PowerPC Macs, then switch to IntelMac’s. We buy your iPod’s and iPhone’s yet this is how you repay us? By forcing silly restrictions on content we’ve already purchased.
I’ve already started using Amazon’s new MP3 service. I bought a DRM free album today in fact that you also carry. I paid a dollar less on Amazon and I got DRM free and account free music. It’s time to stop sleep walking Apple and to start paying attention to your paying customers. Stop ruining the iPhone.
September 27th, 2007
I spent a good deal of my morning researching the my Apple iPhone Credit issue, even with a nasty hangover (Neighborhood parties FTW!). After trying multiple times to get the credit via Apple’s online web app, I decided it was time to take my iPhone back to AT&T and see what they could do for me.
Since I had (have) a hangover, I felt I’d give AppleCare one last college try. I spoke with a very nice woman who was very understanding of my frustrations. She even seemed to believe me when I told her that there must be a mistake somewhere in a database between Apple and AT&T because I truly have never returned my iPhone or acquired a replacement. After placing me on hold several times to speak with different people and departments, she deflatedly told me I have to call Apple Customer Relations. “They’re only open Monday through Friday”, she said. So that sucks. But, she gave me a case number this time and told me to call back as early as I could. Ok, fine. I can wait until Monday.
While messing around with our new iMac downstairs, I fired up Safari and gave Apple iPhone Store Credit one last shot in the dark. It’s not going to work I told myself. I was bored so what the hell, right? I enter in my cell number and the iPhone serial number, which I’ve committed to long term memory at this point. Click on the blue “Continue” button and sigh.
Wait a minute… WTF IS THIS! OMG! “Please enter your SMS code.” Success! YES! After waiting a few moments for my SMS code, I plug it into the site and boom, I’ve got my $100 store credit. Wow, unreal.
I truly believe that the nice woman I spoke to continued to work on my case even after we hung up. She went out of her way to help me in the first place, the typical response I’ve been getting from AppleCare support was to email iphonestorecredit@apple.com. Instead of that canned response, she setup a case and worked to close it. Excellent job!
All in all, it was a frustrating experience attempting to get the credit however in the end Apple again pulls it out. This is why I continue to buy their products. They didn’t even need to offer a credit in the first place but they did. And even though I had trouble getting access to my credit, I was successful at the end of the day and that’s what counts.
September 15th, 2007
Update: Apple now says that I’ve had my phone replaced. Haha! How could my phone have been replaced when the IMEI number on my original receipt and the IMEI on my iPhone match? /boggle
Apple says my iPhone isn’t eligible for the credit because I no longer own it. You see, Apple says I returned my iPhone to the iPhone God’s.
I beg to differ.
So, Apple… where is my $100 credit? I’ve been on the phone with you guys 4 different times this afternoon plus I’ve sent my email to iphonestorecredit@apple.com. I’m pretty upset by this whole process. I know that a majority of people have had success, including my brother, but I’ve had the complete opposite. I talked with Apple Sales, AppleCare, AT&T Business Care (I am a business customer after all), and finally an Apple Store employee. No one can tell me what to do other than send an email to an address that replies with an automated response:
Dear Customer,
Your email has been received and your information is being reviewed.
We are making every effort to respond quickly to your inquiry. Please expect a response in 48 to 72 hours.
Thank you for taking the time to write to Apple. And thank you for your patience.
Sincerely,
Apple Inc.
I spent $3500 two weeks ago in my local Apple Store. I love Apple products. I’ve never had any issues with anything like this before. So, I’m blaming AT&T for this mess with my iPhone. Why? Because I bought my phone from AT&T instead of directly from Apple. BIG MISTAKE.
In the meantime, I’m waiting for my $100 credit so I can spend even more money at an Apple Store.
September 14th, 2007
Blogging. Back in the early years it was fresh, cool, and exciting. Being able to tell your friends and family, even the world, what you were doing at a moments notice was great. I don’t know about you, but I feel as though blogging has lost it’s excitement, it’s luster to now other methods of real-time communication.
Twitter. Simple and fast. I love being able to post a quick message and have it show up in real-time as I’m doing something in real-time. I expect to leverage this quite a bit while we’re in Hawai’i. Twitter didn’t exist last time we were in the great island state. I made close to daily blog posts about each days events and activities. I uploaded pictures and videos. It was very time consuming to spend upwards of an hour a day blogging all this information. Twitter will allow me to send quick messages as we’re doing or moving to a new activity. In real-time I can say we’re on a boat, etc, etc. At the end of the day, I can upload quick videos or pictures minus the lengthy post.
Facebook. This one I haven’t quite got my head around yet. I joined today to see what all the hub bub is about. What exactly is Facebook? A blog? A twitterish real-time communication tool? A photo sharing site? A community? I believe it tries to be all of these things but I’m not quite sure yet when that’s helpful. This blog has all of those features plus I can add or integrate other ones easily. Facebook seemed very busy, lots of things to click and add text to. I’m not even quite sure yet how to post a simple message a la Twitter.
Flickr. I’ve been a big user of Flickr for quite sometime now. I use to use Gallery on my own server before I realized that I was mostly sharing my pictures with only a handful of people. With Flickr I can share my photos with a large community and then my family photos with just my family. The ability to post pictures while on the go is very important to me and Flickr provides a great interface for doing so. I’ve thought about moving back to Gallery several times but for daily photos and sharing Flickr is the way to go.
YouTube. I’m not a big YouTube user at all. I’ve posted two videos to YouTube and watched about 100 total videos in two years. I see it more as a community of people trying to out do each other than one that is about sharing experiences. I know there is a video blog community within YouTube and also quite a few FAQ type videos, which are what I’ve watched most. Overall though, I see a lot of competition towards users and posting the next “big thing” on YouTube. The thing is, I need a video sharing site. I’m becoming more and more interested in shooting short videos about my life and things I experience yet I don’t have a good place to publish them yet. I’ve been referred to PhanFare but I’m not sure I want to pay for a photo sharing site which does video since I’m an active member of Flickr.
Viddler. Learned about this site today in fact. After signing up it appears to have some promise. Not only can I post videos but it will link my Twitter and Flickr accounts on my profile page which is a nice integration touch. Another cool feature is it will post a tweet when I post a new video, just like Wordpress will post a new tweet when I post a blog entry. Viddler will also post a blog entry for me when I post a new video. These are the types of features I need. I don’t need to feel that joining an online community forces me into a cave. It’s needs to integrate with existing and upcoming tools.
Community Overload. I’ve discussed seven community based tools that I’m either actively involved with or thinking about using in the near future. This is completely ridiculous in my opinion. When blogging was at it’s peak, that was all you needed to stay connected. Nowadays blogging is third or fourth, perhaps even more reduced on the list of community based tools. So what is a fairly internet savvy guy suppose to do? I’m leaning towards continuing the path of blogging occasionally, twittering actively, and continuing to user Flickr for photo sharing. I really need a video solution though so I’m open to any suggestions (Although I think I may have found Viddler to be that solution).
August 17th, 2007
Signed up for Twitter today. Seems like the cool thing to do. Especially with the iPhone since there are already some mobile apps written to take advantage of both.
Perhaps now that I’m mobile again I’ll find more time to banter. Typed this whole post on the iPhone. The keyboard isn’t that bad at all once you get the hang of it.
July 9th, 2007
And I seriously thought I’d be able to resist the temptation to own an iPhone. Haha! That lasted about 12 hours after the official release on Friday.
So far the phone has been fantastic. I really didn’t buy it because it’s a phone, I consider that a really nice bonus. I’ve been wanting a new MacBook Pro for awhile mainly for playing games. But then I came to realize (duh) that I have way too many games. Why do I need another laptop for games? What I really needed was a mobile device that was small and portable. Enter the iPhone.
With the ability to get all my email, surf the web using a real web browser, and play music + movies this was the device. Plus it makes phone calls!
As with any new toy, it’s getting a lot of use right now. We’ll see how that pans out over the course of the next couple months. Will I continue to use it daily or will it turn into a typical phone? I’m hopeful I can start using the iPhone instead of my Powerbook for daily tasks.
July 6th, 2007
NASA-Funded Scientists Discover Tenth Planet and yet it doesn’t seem to be a very popular news story. Pretty interesting to me, I’ve always enjoyed looking up at the stars. When I was much younger we had a telescope powerful enough to see distant stars and planets.
July 29th, 2005
Update 2: Download the 2.0 firmware from Sony.
Update: I’m gaining a lot of traffic to this article. I’m assuming you’re coming here for the PSP 2.0 Update file. Find it here.
The PSP 2.0 firmware was released on July 26th much to my anticipation. After reading reports about the new features, I had no choice but to download it and install right away. Of course, I figured Sony wouldn’t be to thrilled with me installing the firmware on my US PSP. Turns out, they’re now recommending NOT to install it unless you have a Japanese PSP. Great. Too late.
In a nutshell the new features include:
- A web browser.
- Support for wallpaper.
- WPA-PSK added for wireless security.
- AVC codec support.
There are a bunch of other little changes that were included as well, IGN has the full list.
I’ve been playing with the browser quite a bit and I’m impressed. Sure beats surfing from my cell phone which I actually do quite a bit. The only downside with the PSP is it lacks Bluetooth. If the PSP had Bluetooth I could surf the web on the PSP via my cell phone and have a really nice display wherever I go.
The wallpaper feature is also nifty. I was getting a bit tired of the rotating colored backgrounds, one for each month. Currently I’m running a Penny Arcade PSP specific wallpaper. Not bad Tycho. For more PSP wallpapers check out InterfaceLIFT.
Meh, but now with Sony stating not to install the firmware I hope I can install the US version when it’s released. Otherwise, I may have a $250 paper weight in the future. So, if you are contemplating installing the firmware, heed my advice, DON’T DO IT.
July 29th, 2005
Upgraded the photo gallery to the latest version of Gallery, G2 beta 4, code named Flippin’ Sweet. Seems to be a tad faster, although I ran the maintenance tasks which rebuilt all the photo thumbnails boosting the loading speed. That took about 3 hours though… yikes.
I’m slowing adding more photos but lack of time is the main limiting factor right now. And no, it’s not because of me playing World of WarCrack. I quit that game. Seriously.
July 25th, 2005
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