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Why I will never own anything Apple!
Apple won a decision today from the ITC in its suit against HTC. The complaint, being able to click on phone numbers or dates from the touch screen to make calls or open calendars.
Now I’m not a wizard when it comes to programming, but its not hard to write applications that look for dates and phone numbers, and hook an application api to call an app specific function. And I am sure there are several different ways to code it.
HTC already has 4G, faster CPUs, and just an all around better interface. But Apple would rather litigate than innovate. Granted,the iPhone was a marvel when it came out, but how many years ago was that.
But, I have never liked Apple, probably for the same reasons I don’t like Microsoft. Scratch that, there are many more reasons to loathe Microsoft. But back to the original point, Apple has always been riddled with proprietary hardware, multimedia codecs, and other software. Case in point, we still have not found a way to get music on my son’s Ipad2 yet, (which I did not purchase for him) short of jail breaking it. And I am not about to build a Windows PC just to put itunes on it so we can transfer his Amazon and Walmart MP3s.
Where to get those cell phone accessories…
Now I just hate to go into our local Verizon Wireless store anymore, you can’t seem to get in the door without someone trying to latch on to you and sell you everything in the store. And, when you politely tell them that you are just looking around, they seem almost insulted.
The reason for the visit was to find a new wall charger for one of the boys. It seems during one of the moves from the house, to the hotel and then finally the travel trailer, a wall charger got misplaced. Now this phone is not really that old, maybe 9 mos. max, but Verizon doesn’t stock any parts for it anymore. Since it’s not in their lineup anymore, they just stop stocking accessories for it. Of course, every 2 or 3 minutes, some sale person would interrupt my browsing, and wouldn’t leave me alone. Finding nothing I wanted, needed, or reasonably priced, I decided to try my luck online.
Amazon to the rescue…A quick search for Samsung Intensity, and for a little over two bucks each, I found not only the wall charger, but car charger and a siliconized hard phone case, all for about 6 bucks (the case was 88 cents). A single generic charger at Verizon is 19 bucks.
I also needed a rapid car charger for my phone. I found the OEM car charger for my HTC Thunderbolt, which was 5 bucks cheaper than the garbage chargers that Verizon will sell you. I’ve never had any luck with a car charger purchase from Verizon. First of all, they are not rapid chargers, and they do not last very long. I always opt for the OEM chargers whenever possible.
So for about the price of a single generic charger, I received a wall charger, 2 car chargers, and a phone case. You can’t beat that, ad using the standard shipping, I would have spent the same amount of money for gas just to get to the Verizon Store,
Cancel your asurion phone insurance…
If your are currently using “asurion” insurance on your mobile phone, you should consider cancelling it before they cancel you.
I have had “smart” phones now for over a decade. And with expensive phones, comes the insurance to protect them. Now, I’ve had my share of “mishaps”, but I have consistently kept my phone insurance up to date, and insuring every phone on our plan.
Recently, I have had a couple of accidents, starting about six months ago when a careless driver illegally cut through a gas station parking to avoid a traffic light, almost hitting me. I dropped the phone, which slid under his car and subsequently was crushed by his back tires as he kept driving on. To it’s credit, the Motorola Droid still worked, but the screen was so wrecked I couldn’t use it.
Now, I’ve been holding out on an upgrade, but since it looks like the Droid Bionic won’t be released anytime soon, I upgraded to a Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolt only lasted two days before it fell off the console in the car onto the carpet and put two large cracks all the way across the screen, but the LCD and digitizer, were intact.
Now with asurion, you get two replacements in a 12 month period. In the past, I just use to continue paying the monthly premium, and my phone remained on the plan, but I was not eligible for a replacement until the following calendar year. Well that is not the case anymore… apparently they decided to fire me as a customer. Asurion has made their money, all the monthly premiums and the deductibles I have paid over the years more than cover the replacement costs of the phones I made claims on.
So, I’m not taking this sitting down. Asurion made clear in the letter I received today that there was no need to worry, the rest of the phones on my plan were still covered. Well, not anymore, I cancelled all of my coverage. Instead, I will be using SquareTrade.
Those pesky 419 scammers aren’t getting any smarter…
For those of you that don’t know, a “419″ refers to the article of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud. The term originated from the Nigerian email scams that were also known as “advance fee fraud”. These scams usually required the email recipient to wire money to some offshore account, with the promise of huge rewards later.
I usually get several of these types of emails a week, but none are stupid as the one I received today, so I thought I would share it with you.
The email contained a PDF from the FBI, well the Department of Homeland Security to be precise. But it was on FBI letterhead…. ??? and signed by the FBI Director… ???
OK, I was intrigued. Upon further examination, my contact’s name didn’t have just two first names, but three. It is the practice of these scammers to use fake names usually using two common first names, for example Robert David. Throw on a title like Doctor, Barister, or their favorite, Reverend, and there you have it. My contact was Rev. Frank Tim Kelley, I hit the trifecta.
Reading on, I was threatened with arrest or detainment, and, my personal favorite, “jailed as terrorism, drug trafficking, or money laundering”. The english over there is “not so good”. The letter, which was not addressed to me, or made any mention of my identity what-so-ever, demanded that I send $350.00 to clear some documents through customs, along with personal information including my name, address, home and mobile telephone numbers.
I was given a time frame in which to comply. 48 hours was the initial time limit which changed to 24 hours at the end of the letter. I’m thinking he was getting a little confused, what, being a Reverend and a “Principal Legal Advisor U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)” using FBI Letterhead (I’m guessing the initials are for dramatic effect???))
My failure to comply would result in the Rev. Frank Tim Kelley sending an agent to my house. Wouldn’t that mean, they already knew my address? And by agent, the letter was not specific as to which kind of agent, FBI, DHS, or maybe someone from the Choir.
The letter, apparently a forgery, was full of grammatical errors, and misspellings, but it does contain a signature of the current Director of the FBI Robert S. Mueller, III.
Verizon and deceptive advertising
Beware of Verizon’s latest marketing campaign. If you have a mobile phone that has recently gone up for renewal on their new every two plan, there’s a good chance that you will receive this offer as well.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the new phone offerings on the Verizon Network since early March. Knowing that one of the phones on my plan was eligible for upgrade in May, I wanted to make sure I did my homework before choosing the new phone. I have been following the Android phones, with particular interest in the 4G capable ones. I have been waiting on the next Motorola to come out before I make my final decision, which I am guessing will come with the same hefty price tag as the Samsung Charge, $250.00.
So in the mail today I received their “By Inivitation Only” “Private Sale” for their “Valued Customers” full color Mailing. On the other side it read “INSIDE: Exclusive savings!”. As I said before, I have been keeping track of phone prices since early March. The “$50.00 off the new 4G LTE Thunderbolt” claimed by the mailing, is just the discounted price for new every two and nothing more. I took a look at the other phones listed, there was no change. The Thunderbolt price was $199.00 before the “Exclusive” sale, and as of today it’s still $199.00.
Don’t be fooled… there is nothing “Private” or “Exclusive” about this sale. This is deceptive advertising to designed to persuade you to get your phone upgraded.
As a result of this mailer, I will be holding off on any new phone upgrades. I think I will wait untul the novelty of 4G wears off, before I upgrade again, especially if it is going to cost me $200.00. Or, I may just change to Sprint when the rest of my contracts are up next year.
Camping in the Hill Country
Inks Lake looks pretty in the dark. We arrived after the Park Closed, and no sites were set aside for us. Given the fact we are a youth organization, you would think the Park Service would snap to. assigning us sites together Fortunately the camping gods were good to us this weekend.
Posted in Random Thoughts
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House Keeping…
I moved all of the Android related content to my old company website. We have just been keeping the domain name around, so I figured “why not just use it”. If you have been following my Android posts, you can find them here http://www.dt-corp.com/.
Posted in Site Information
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Spammers… [Updated]
Just one of several RANTs for today. I have noticed an increase in the number of SPAM hits on all of my websites. Now these are not your ordinary email spammers, these folks are trying to raise their web rankings on the search engines by post comments on Blogs. You see the more times they get their link out there, the higher the erectile dysfunction medication clearinghouse website they are hawking get listed on the page. I really like some of the comments, usually complimentary, but always off topic. Usually it’s a BOT (automated script) that is doing the posting.
Hey, I know you idiot spammers aren’t reading the Blog, but I’ll post this anyway. KNOCK IT OFF! You don’t get past my Askimet filter, and your SPAM comments never see the light of day because I DELETE THEM as soon as I get them.
Ah, but those those who may actually read the Blog and want to post a comment, I don’t delete legitimate comments.
Edit: It seems we are a big hit for Polish Spammers these days… yeeesh…