Archive for the ‘Gidgets and Gadgets’ Category

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Why I hate Barnes and Noble

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

Or why I love Borders and Books.

Listen guys, when you sign up for the rewards clubs for both, they all promise discount coupons.

Both companies send me coupons every week, the difference is that Borders sends me straight 30% coupons for ANYTHING I want, while the Barnes and Noble coupons are for crappy books that they are trying to push.

Barnes and Noble, you want me in your store ? Fine I am telling you, send me a 30% coupon on Monday for any one item line like Borders does. I will be there.

Actually the heck with it, I will just go to Amazon where I don’t need a coupon and get a better price.

Oh, crap my daughters wants her book today, crap, Borders here I come.

sigh

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What are we paying for ?

Friday, January 22nd, 2010

You know if you poke around the internet you can see some interesting things.

Looking at the Apple online store, you can find a 32 gigabyte iTouch for $299 while the same search for a 32 gigabyte iPhone (unlocked) is $699.

Hmm, that seems strange, what to you get for that $400 difference. A camera and a cellular modem inside. So for $50 dollars worth of chips they are fleecing you for $400.

Sounds border line illegal doesn’t it ? As we all know the REAL reason they are charging all the extra money is that they don’t want you to have an unlocked phone, so they rack up the price enormously.

Well, Apple being Apple, they get a free pass.

sigh

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Native Silverlight for the iPhone ?

Wednesday, January 20th, 2010

Hmmm, sounds stupid doesn’t it ?

There are rumors moving around that Apple is thinking of replacing the Google Search as the default with Microsoft’s Bing. Makes sense, since Google and Apple are squaring off in the mobile space.

Buy how about this for a rumor, Microsoft insisting on bringing Silverlight (Microsoft’s flash want-to-be) natively to the iPhone.

What a coup that would be.

But then again, the chances are better of a Republican winning Ted Kennedy’s old seat in Massachusetts.

har

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Don’t go to Radio Shack

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

I hate to single them out, but I also hate being screwed.

I had to get an HDMI cable before a big presentation, its a long story but the large screen display they had did not have a DVI port that was on my computer and the VGA output look horrible on the screen.

Also on my emergency list was a USB to AC power adapter for my Verizon MiFi device. The only store within distance was a Radio Shack.

I figured ok, they will screw me for $30 for the HDMI and I saw the list price for the Apple USB  power adapter was $29 on the Apple Store web site.

I got into Radio Shack (Oops, I mean “The Shack”) and the cheapest HDMI cables they had were $50, they also had the notorious Monster cables for $129!

The sales guy went into his speech that these cables are premium and the superior picture, then I told him about the Consumer Reports articles how the “The Monster” cables and the $4.95 import brand had no noticeable signal loss. He told me Consumer report is biased. Like I had a choice, I had to get them.

They also had the Apple USB to AC converter for $39, ten dollars ABOVE Apple’s outrageous list price.

Listen people at “The Shack”, you want to stay in the game, at least don’t try to screw everyone coming into the store.

BTW, I would have kept the cables is they were reasonable, but I paid the 15% restocking fee and just returned them, I told the guy the picture on the monitor was fuzzy with the HDMI cable, consider it a rental.

sigh

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Keep missing the mark

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

I keep hearing the cry to lower the prices of smart phones, well I have one for you. Lower the prices of their monthly plan.

If you put your money down for an iPhone you are going to pay about $70 a month for a two year plan (yes that comes out to $1680).

Granted it comes with unlimited data on the abysmal AT&T network, but it is usable. If you buy a Blackberry from Verizon it’s mandatory that you get a data plan and if you want to switch phones the “Blackberry data plan” is not the same as the “Android data plan”.

I went into a Verizon store last week, my daughter has an  enV Touch, and my wife who hasn’t had a new phone in years wanted to upgrade her old flip phone. I went in and asked for the month to month price on the phone, because I don’t want to extended my contract 2by two years they told my $409, I told them OK, then they said that this phone has a mandatory $9.99 a month data plan. What ? My daughter’s enV Touch has no such attachment. I was informed it is on all new enV Touch phones from November 2009 and onward.

Crap, ok keep sticking it to me. I walked out.

Another thing I noticed, that when buying a song on Amazon, it was $1.29. wait a minute, I though the music industry only made Apple’s iTunes raise their prices ? Not true says Amazon, the recording industry has a scaled pricing for all the music platforms.

Crap, again, where is my BitTorrent client?

No, that’s illegal, I cant do that.

sigh

Oh, wait, happy birthday Sir Isaac Newton.

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The shift is on (Again)

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

I was looking for one event in the past year for me that stood out in the High Tech events, and one thing that did rise above the rest was a one day trip I took to the Bay Area and I left my laptop behind and only took my Apple iPhone 3G. This may not sound like much, but it was monumental.

Quite few years ago, I abandoned my desktop for a laptop as my main computer, it worked out great (it sounds blasé now but at the time people called my crazy). I would have my Desktop as the spare home base computer and my laptop would go everywhere with me. This year, I have my laptop as my home base computer and my iPhone as my “go everywhere” device. You see  this trend accelerate into the new year. With a quick few gestures I can check my email accounts, scan the social media sites for trends before my laptop would even boot.

On my son’s birthday last week we had a few people over the house for the day. As the evening progressed the older guys started watching the evening news, I thought it was funny, it was the first time all year that I had watched Television to get any kind of news. They were talking about the news hosts for this that and the other thing and I was completely lost. When it comes to the tech industry, when you subscribe to the better Twitter or Facebook feeds you can actually get better trends analysis than by going to the established tech sites. Of course people still think I am nuts.

sigh

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I have to give them credit

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

When I saw the BETA version of Microsoft Office 2010 was out, I first thought I would like to try it but who needs the hassle.

In previous versions I needed to overwrite my old Office install and that would goof things up when the BETA trial ended.

This time around what they have done for the Microsoft Office Home and Business 2010 Beta is wrap it up in a technology called Click-to-Run. This is awesome, it lets you try the real copy in a virtualized sandbox. Everything runs perfect and up to speed but it runs in its own little world, not effecting your previous versions of Office. Highly recommended.

I have been watching with amusement the AT&T vs. Verizon TV ads. Basically Verizon’s shot first with “The AT&T 3G access stinks” ads and then AT&T sued Verizon in court and then placed their own ads. Yesterday AT&T dropped the lawsuit because the judge basically threw out the lawsuit. I have both networks, AT&T service stinks. The Verizon’s ads are correct. Hey AT&T smarten up ! Your network stinks, the only reason I have you is because of the iPhone.

Lastly I have had my Verizon Mifi device to access the internet for almost 2 months, now, and its is truly amazing. I can connect any WiFi device to this thing, anywhere on the Verizon network and I can get connected. I was worried I would go over their 5 gigabyte month limit, but I am not even close. I originally got it for the kids when we are out and about, but I quickly started using it at work. The internet speeds here are abysmal (don’t get me started).

You want to really get depressed about the condition of the United States ? Click here.

sigh

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Apple iPhone Approval Process

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

Many people in the media are complaining about the iPhone application approval process, its takes to long, to arbitrary, not good for people , blah, blah, blah.

If you ever needed a reason why the approval process is there, take a look at this “Knocking” application. It was denied approval, then the developer send an email to Steve Jobs begging for approval. He got it, but you look at the comments on the application and its all about crashes and the program not working.

Apple please, just make the approval process quicker that’s it. Don’t change you approval processes for buggy software.

Thanks

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I am not a crook

Friday, November 13th, 2009

I just wanted to thank Disney, Pixar, Apple or Steve Jobs (thanks a joke, they are all the same). We buy a few DVDs and most of them have Digital Downloads now, well as you know that is a joke. The Digital Downloads are usually in some obscure Windows Media DRM laced digital format that can NOT be played on an iPhone/iTouch or any iPod (or the Zune for that matter) it was basically useless.

When we got the new Up! DVD from Pixar/Disney  I was hopeful and actually tried it. You know it worked flawlessly. It supported both iTunes and Windows Media formats. It launched my iTunes and downloaded the digital copy of the movie and it went on my iPhone and iTouch without a hitch.

No need to RIP the DVD and hassle with file formats it just worked.

Thank You

Its a perfect example of how, if you don’t not punish people that buy this thing, they will come back.

Now lets tell the rest of the studios

sigh

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Microsoft Store Opening

Friday, October 30th, 2009

photo Well, it came and went. We got to the Mission Viejo Microsoft store about noon time. It opened at 9am, the sales people where telling me the there where lines outside the store before it opened. I am not a complete fanatic about it. MY son on the other hand reminded me constantly about our noon time appointment. Lucky for him they had no school that day.

We got into the store it was EXTREMELY noisy there were so many people. The only Microsoft Executive I recognized was Ray Ozzie. Of course it looked a lot like the Apple Store just down the mall from it (even the employees where wearing color coded shirts), but the Microsoft store was bigger and more sterile looking. They had a Microsoft Surface running a pumpkin drawing program for the kids and a ton  of computers. There where 3 Xbox 360 stations set up in the rear of the store near the Theater.

I never saw so many “cool, hip” people at the mall… EVER, there were a lot of people checking out, obviously many of the people were not from this area. Microsoft had banners and signs throughout the mall, even the Cupcake store had employees wearing Windows t-shirts and cupcakes saying “Welcome Microsoft”. I should have strolled down the Apple store to see if there were any sign of Microsoft there, but one has to work.

We are going back to the store this weekend to take a closer look when the crowds thin out, because there were lot and lots of computer on display to try and of course the Zune and (ugh) Microsoft phones.

They were giving wrist bands out for a concert by Justin Bieber at 5pm. I had no idea who he was. Evidently my 14 year old daughter knew, her friends were there since the morning.

sigh

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