Tag Archives: Phone

Failz to you Verizon, Failz to you.

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How I feel. :)

So my Droid Incredible started to act up. Things weren’t quite working, and the phone kept rebooting itself. It also wouldn’t update to the 2.2 OTA. So we call Verizon and they tell us to go into the vrizon store because they had “More information.” So we schlep all the way over to a Verizon store and they say the EACT same things that they said over the phone. So we leave with absolutely no help. So the next day we call verizon AGAIN and we finally get a replacement phone shipped. But this hasn’t been the last of your problems. First of all, they tried to ship the phone to some invalid address in South Dakota, wherever THAT is. They were off only by half of a country. So then they send it to the correct address. Nope, it gets BETTER. I open it up and turn it on and activate it and sync it and everything, so it all looks good. Until I make the mistake of opening up the camera app. Low and behold, the camera wouldn’t focus properly. At all. It just didn’t focus. I changed every single setting possible. SD card in, SD card out, hard reset, soft reset, reprogramming. Nope. So I call verizon again and I tell them the problem and they say “Well, we can send you a replacement phone,” and I just say “That would be great. Thanks!”

So here I am with 2 faulty Droid Incredibles, and one of then happens to be a certified like-new replacement. That’s odd, because like new phones aren’t usually faulty like that.

So verizon, FAILz to you. I Hope this one works. It took 3 calls, a trip to the verizon store, and 2 weeks to get a phone that STILL doesn’t work properly. First time in 10 years. Yup, my WHOLE FAMILY have been verizon customers for 10 years. But from the way your customer service is, I’m not sure if it will last to much longer.This is your last chance Verizon, and I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you get it right.

Recent verizon support call: the good and the bad

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So my Droid Incredible has been doing some odd things.

First of all, it didn’t update to 2.2 correctly. It tried and failed.

Second of all, it keeps rebooting itself randomly.

So we call up verizon support about both problems. Lets start with the bad:

The Bad:

We called and a nice lady answered who had us go through some simple procedures like a hard reset. We changed some settings to try and help the rebooting. As far as the update goes, she told us to go to our local verizon store because they had “more information”. So the next day we went and waited in line and everything and what does the guy say? There’s nothing we can do. You’ll just have to wait for the update. Now inferring logically, I argued that “The system has the phone marked as upgraded, even though it failed the install.” The guy says “WELL, it takes about a month to roll it out and everything.” He really didn’t get that we HAD gotten the update, it just didn’t install. Once again, “Well, you just have to wait about a month and see.” Thanks for the help. We schlepped all the way over to a verizon store, waited in line, and we get absolutely no valuable information. Great.

The good:

So after that, we call verizon again and someone knowledgeable picks up. We had to wait on hold for 8 minutes but let me say, it was well worth the wait. He asked about the water activation sticker and had us look at the firmware on the device. And he says (finally) “Well, the system has your device marked as upgraded, even though your phone says differently.” THANK YOU. I’M RIGHT. THE TWO OTHER PEOPLE WE TALKED TO WERE WRONG. So he asked if there was any physical damage and hallelujah, a replacement phone is on it’s way.

But the real question is, why did the two other people there have no idea what they were talking about? I mean, come on verizon. Why would you hire them if they aren’t knowledgeable? These are questions that may never be answered, but in the mean time, here comes a device with 2.2 pre-installed. Yay!

Wireless Tether with Droid Incredible

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So let’s just say that you are driving somewhere and you have your computer (or iPad or iPod touch for that matter) along with your droid incredible. Well now for free (actually, the expense of battery life) you can use your Droid Incredible as a wifi tether, so you can have an iPad on verizon.

Sadly, the speeds are dramatically reduced to a groping 70 kb/s. But I think it’s better than nothing. Can load pages, not so great for downloads and video/audio streaming such as youtube or pandora.

Step 1. Make sure your phone is rooted. Just do steps 1-4 of the tutorial HERE (continue the steps to install android 2.2, if desired!).

Step 2. On your incredible go to THIS LINK (try using chrometophone, review on that soon!)

Step 3. Once the link is downloaded open it and install the application.

Step 4. Open the application on your phone.

Step 5: Press menu and go into the settings and change around your preferences. change the SSID, and add a passphrase. Enable access control if desired.

Step 6: Press the big tether button.

Step 7: On your wifi enabled device go to the network selection and select the nework name that you had entered in the SSID preferences. Enter your asscode and Voila, you can connect to the internet!

One of the cool benefits of this is that you can be on the internet while in a car. Cool, eh?

Well, back to making fun of Microsoft

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Unless of course you live under a rock, you have heard about the terrible antenna problems the iPhone 4 has been having. Basically, if you put your hand over the left black line, all of your signal drops. Apple was having a PR disaster, but today Apple held a press conference and it seems that the truths were revealed.

But I must say, Apple wasn’t playing fair here.

First, Steve Jobs ponts out how all of the smartphones antennagate. He showed test videos of many popular phones including the BlackBerry Bold. This is simply putting down the competition and saying “we can’t go against the laws of physics… yet.” [Steve Jobs]. Fine.

So I got curious and asked I wonder if my phone does this…

Well, I gutters its back to making fun of microsoft…

Traitor? I think not.

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Some people have said some hurtful but understandable things about me, as said in the title of the post.

Well, allow me to say, that I’m not switching over to chrome OS. I’m not switching to windows either, I’m just switching over to android.

What’s the big difference between Mac OS X and iOS? Well, I mean other than one is a mobile operating system. Mac OS X allows development to run in the background. Mac OS X also allows applications to manipulate the core of the operating system (although not preferred).

iOS is completely shut off. For example, people can’t even use their own APIs! It is a closed off system and it is completely CLOSED source.

Android on the other hand seems more like Mac OS X. It is open source, so people can use their own APIs to do whatever they want. Apps still need to be accepted into Android Market, but there is an option to allow other applications that weren’t approved by the app store to be installed. And that’s what makes the difference.

So I’m not exactly a traitor, I’m just supporting what I believe in and personally is best for me. I’m sure I’m not the only one…. Anyone?…….. Comments welcome.

AT&T is the data devil

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AT&T has been having network problems for a long time.

But their solution to solving it is to make people stop using it…

Hence, AT&T is the data devil.

They will be removing the unlimited data option and replacing it with a 250mb a month for $15 and 2GB/mo. for $30. The new plans will take effect on Jun 7…

Wait isn’t that the same day as something else? Hmm… Let me think… Hmm… OH yah, the iPhone. So basically what this is saying is that SOMETHING on the iPhone will take a lot of data… like.. I dunno, TETHERING? Now I find this funny. For tethering you have to pay an extra $20/mo. on top of the data plan, and you are still restricted bandwidth-wise. Another thing is I don’t know, VIDEO CALLING? This takes up an average of about 84mb per minute, so after about 4 minutes of video calling your data plan will be up. *Edit: the video chatting requires WiFi, and if I have WiF i’d rather be chatting on my computer… just sayin… I dunno, but this seems kinda devilish…

Now currently on verizon I have an unlimited plan, and I’m guessing I use more than 2GB becasue of my tethering (which im not paying extra for). Also, I get coverage at my house, which might come in handy. So even if I switched over to AT&T and got the new iPhone, I don’t know if I would be able to cap my data at 2GB. I’d rather be free with verizon.

So basically, here we have a data hungry phone that AT&T has put on a diet (nice metaphor, eh?). I don’t know how this will go over, but I can’t wait to read all of the complaints becasue people go over their bandwidth limit.

Oh, AT&T…

picplz

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We all have twitter accounts.

What is twitter for? It’s for sharing what you are doing right then in less than 140 characters.

picplz is similar, but it uses pictures with tags and captions instead of just text.

Sorry guys, but the app is only available on android. :(

So here’s how it works:

Open up the app and you are instantly greeted with the view of your phone’s camera. Tap the camera button to take a picture. If you have foursquare configured, tap the venue that you are at. You can then tap someone/something to tag them in the photo. Then you can click edit details and enter a caption and decide which services you want to post it to (twitter and foursquare). Then click post and your picture will be posted! This is great because you can see which pictures you’ve taken at different foursquare venues. Your profile will be located at picplz.com/user/username. Check mine out here!

Droid Incredible: First impressions

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You may have read the post about me getting a new phone. Well I got it, and after about a day of use I’ve gathered some opinions. First of all, the thing is high off of a 1 ghz snapdragon processor. Even with widgets and widgets running, the thing is still extremely snappy. Another great thing is HTC sense, which allows a cool interface with some added features. HTC also packed in their own keyboard instead of the defaultandroid keyboard and it allows easier typing. Only thing I don’t like is the haptic for the keyboard because if you type really fast you have a buzzer in your hands. Another thing I love is the notification system. It makes a sound and buzzed but unlike the iPhone the notifications are at the top if the screen and you can continue doing what you are doing. Another big plus is the built in gps with turn by turn navigation. Sweet! And that adds geotagging to the 8 megapixel camera with dual led flash. It is now officially my only camera. You can also broadcast live to ustream with it.

Although there us so much good, there is one big bad. Although it’s the Droid incredible, the battery life is not so incredible. I want to get an extended battery but $80? I don’t think so. I’ve never made it a full day even with it off for most of it. The battery life is indeed a failure.

Good phone, camera, gps, and more, but not so good battery life.

Expect more in depth reviews is everything mentioned above!

P.S. I wrote this using the incredible. Sorry for typos!

New Phone!

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It is time.

You may have noticed that I got an enV2 a little while ago.

It’s not a bad phone, and even after dropping it in a creek along with my iPod touch and HD camera it lived (unlike the others). The thing is incredibly durable but all it does is text and phone.

But now that I’ve saved up a bit of money, it’s time for an upgrade.

Sadly, I’m not upgrading to the new iPhone thanks to AT&T’s exclusive agreement with apple that says that the iPhone can’t be carried on any other carrier until 2012.

SOOO,

I’m getting the htc droid incredible.

This thing is running android 2.1, with ht.’s sense UI. It has a dual led flash with an eight megapixel camera (pretty good if you ask me).

I’m also gong to be getting a data plan with it, and I should be able to broadcast live from it (when I do, you can check out the feed by clicking live up there ^^^).

The phone only costs two hundred bucks with a two year contract (the cancellation fee is more than the costs of the phone itself) on verizon. Many deem it as the best verizon smartphone and is the one to get instead of the nonexistent iPhone on verizon.

Plantronics Discovery 925 Headset

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Well, I have actually never had a headset before, but I do say, I like this one. I remember my first phone- old and clunky, as expected for a first phone. But for a first headset, this is recent, comparable, and most importantly stylish. Let’s start with the obvious. It looks like a Tony non-functioning piece of plastic, and I would never guess it was a headset. Just the general shape of it looks so elegant. The headset is available in many different colors, but I have the black one which is shown in the picture above.

I must say that the quality is great, for a headset with the range it has. The input is great (other people say), and I must say that it is just plain great.
It has the standard setup and configuration for all other headsets, with a passkey of 0000.
So, why would you want to get this headset? Let’s count down the reasons.
3. It’s SOO much sleeker and MORE AWESOME (awesomer?) than those round ones with that thing that flips out, or than the ones that go over your ear.
2. Super easy bluetooth setup (in fact, I now use it with Skype on my Mac. Sorry PC users!), default config for most all phones.
1. Great battery life–kinda hard to believe when the battery is probably a tiny bit bigger than a hearing aid battery. But this has a feature that many bluetooth headsets don’t include: A charger in the case. The case is nice and leather, and has a plastic fitting inside that is molded to the shape of the headset. But inside the part that fits the bigger part is the same plug that is used to charge it. It’s a little hard to explain, but pictures can explain anything.

As you can tell, there is a mini USB port on the side, which when you plug it into the case the plug inside the case is inserted into. The big plastic thing hat fills the space where the headset doesn’t is actually a battery that charges the headset. On the bottom of the case is another mini-USB port that you can plug in the headset’s charger to. You can also charge the headset directly. But this provides a full charge that i almost guaranteed to last through the busy businessman or businesswoman’s day.

So in the end,

Pros: Sleek, wireless, good battery life
Cons: Umm…Not made by Apple?

***** Outstanding!!!




LG env2

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I must say, the last phone I had was definitely not the nicest one in the world. and It was SO not the nicest one in the world that I barely used it. Now, all of that has changed. I now have a very nice phone, which is running on verizon. Now, as you can see it’s not an iPhone. And I have a very good reason for that – AT&T. When it comes out for verizon I will have it about instantly. But the phone I got is still a nice phone, when it comes to verizon. As you can see by the title it is the env2. Flip, with an internal and an external display. Full QWERTY keyboard, as well as a keypad on the front. Black, with a funky USB slot (not something I appreciate). The env2 is definitely a cool, affordable phone. I have just pretty much explained it. But something I didn’t mention was the camera. The camera is 2.0 mega pixels, and unlike the original env, is flat with the surface so it now lays flat on a table or hard surface. Also, compared to the original env the env2 is a little bit more square (shorter and wider). Sadly, I don’t have a micro SD card inserted, but of course it does still have some internal memory (I have no idea how much). The speakerphone is average quality, but when using the phone normally (no speakerphone), the quality is great. I can very clearly hear someone talking from across the country. I don’t have a headset, so I wouldn’t know if it changes the sound before it goes through the headset port. Also, the charging ports are completely different. I don’t even know if the charging port on the original env is even a USB port. It is pretty much just a hyped up and prettier env. Below are some visual comparisons from the original env, which happens to be my sister which she has dropped many times, and it still works. Sadly I hear the env2 is not quite as durable (I wonder if they did that on purpose to get more purchases).