Category Archives: Technology

Sprint PCS, For better or for worse!

Posted on by

I like Sprint, or at least I used to. They have a lot going for them. They have one of the best high-speed data networks in the area (I’m in New York, about 40 minutes outside the city) and they have decent pricing. Maybe I’m lucky because I’ve been placed into a great offer. I pay less than most of my friends for phone service and have a business data plan on a Windows Mobile phone. I often wonder if this is enough reason to stay with Sprint. Sprint has managed to fall short of basic expectations more and more lately. Here’s my recent story.

I went into the Sprint store to check out the Palm Pre and ask about the upcoming Android phones (While just rumors now, I do believe they’ll have one with in 2 months). While I was there I found out I was eligible for a replacement phone at the “new contract” price point. I was also told there would be no cost to have my phone replaced as it had a faulty directional-pad on it (not bad if thats all thats wrong after 2 years of use!). It wasn’t a big deal, but who was I to turn down a clean new phone. Especially since I wasn’t ready to drop $100-$200 or so on a new phone at this point.

A week later, the new phone arrived. I opened Pocket Internet Explorer and typed “wwwgooglecom”. After trying again, I realized the period (.) key was sticking and I had to press the key really hard to get it to register. I called sprint and they sent me another refurbished phone.

That phone arrived after a few days, and I was delighted. I activated it and went through the letters. Every one worked! NICE! Now I tried the numbers (you have to press a “Function” button to get the numbers and symbols to work). The Function button had the same issue as the period key on the previous mogul. Annoyed, I decided to bring the phone in to the Sprint Repair Center. This sunday, June 28, 2009, They looked at it and said the keys didn’t line up with the contacts right, but didn’t have a replacement or parts, so they ordered me another phone.

Another Mogul was delivered and I tested the keys.. They ALL worked! The keyboard, Directional Pad, and even the shortcut and side-keys all worked properly. I was so happy the whole ordeal was over, and then I made a call. The speaker crackled and clicked whenever there was any audio playing through it. This time I had one with a blown speaker. I couldn’t believe it. Third time is usually the charm! Not in this case.

I called up and here’s where Customer Service disappointed me. They did get me up to priority service since this was the third replacement. I’d heard that they usually offer the equivalent phone and was shocked to be offered the HTC Touch Diamond. The phone runs Windows Mobile, but it nowhere near the same phone. It does not have a slide-out keyboard, and does not take memory cards as the HTC Mogul (my phone) and HTC Touch Pro (the new equivalent) do. In addition, I would have pay the Shipping and Tax on the new phone which was over $100. I convinced them to upgrade to the Touch Pro, but they would not back off from the $100 fee. When I said I was not paying for an upgrade they told me I would have to file an insurance claim with the warranty service.

The warranty service advised me that there was a $100 deductable that I would be responsible for, and to top it off, there was a chance I would get a refurbished Mogul. I was not about to pay to have another refurbished phone sent to me, so I called Sprint back one last time.

I called Sprint back and the agent got me a supervisor who guaranteed me that I would get a working phone, so I said, bring it on! A few times she kept telling me that she was going to send me a brand new phone, but when I asked what model at the end of the order, she advised me they were sending another refurbished Mogul. I asked that the unit be inspected and tested prior to sending it out so we could avoid repeating this ordeal in another 3 days. She noted the account (which probably means it’s documented that I asked, but nothing will be done about it.)

I wish I could say that I’m happy with this, but i’m not. I have lost all trust and respect for Sprint’s repair department and can’t say that I have any faith that this next phone will work. I’d be happy with a New Mogul or a Touch Pro (the equivalent). Maybe I’ll change my mind… IF the next phone works.

If not, I need to seriously investigate other cell companies and phones, and I encourage others to do so as well.

I reciebe

Palm, Time to “Pre”-release the SDK!

Posted on by

This is my cry to ask if anybody has (and can send me) a copy of the Palm Mojo SDK for the Palm Pre. From what I can gather in the forums, there have been some people added to the early SDK program already, but palm has not opened their developer program to the public yet. I’m surprised that the development kit hasn’t popped up on BitTorrent or in the newsgroups.

You have to wonder what the holdup is. Palm has, what could be the next big phone, and the only thing preventing me from showing more interest in it is that there’s applications that I use that are only available for Windows Mobile at this time. If I had the ability to write my own applications (Supposedly very easy as Pre development is based on HTML5/JavaScript) I could easily see myself switching to their platform.

I have considered switching to Android, but have been unimpressed with T-Mobile’s connectivity options. I’m rarely in an area with WiFi and their broadband is mediocre when compared to Spring and Verizon’s. I’m with Sprint now, so the Pre was just what I ordered. An incredibly well designed handset based on open source software and technologies.

It would make more sense if Palm initiated a controlled release of the SDK prior to the public launch of the phone. Give their key developers time to create many killer applications for the device and have that all ready at launch time. Now that the phone is available to the public, it would make sense for Palm to open the SDK. There’s already a strong community about developing for the Pre, mostly relying on hacks and backdoors in the Pre. Palm is not taking a stance against the home brew community, but isn’t doing them any favors by holding back. If the SDK is ready for one developer, it’s ready for the community. If it’s not ready, offer it as a Beta to those who want to begin with it.

With competition like the iPhone, and Android based phones coming out, you would thing that Palm would try to step up to the established products as quickly as possible.

Windows XP Free Edition

Posted on by

After last week’s announcement by Steve Ballmer that Windows’ biggest competitor is pirated versions of Windows, it’s amazing to me that Microsoft isn’t changing their ways. In many ways, they’re promoting piracy of their software.

As a PC builder, I get enjoyment out of the freedom to put together a PC a la cart. This Motherboard + This CPU + This Memory, and so on. In current times, you’ll usually match an equally powered name-brand PC, except you would not get an operating system with your build as you would with the store-bought PC.

Buying Windows will cost you $100 or more (up to $300) which puts you $100 – $300 beyond the cost of an equally-equipped OEM system. Is it worth it? No. What’s the solution? Don’t pay for Windows! Pirate it!

Windows is freely and readily available on any Peer-to-peer, Bit-torrent or newsgroup network and can be downloaded and installed quicker than going through the process of deciding which version of Windows you want (and can afford). Free alternatives (Linux) are just as easy to obtain, but are not as refined, and not as widely supported. Mac OS is not an option because it’s restricted to Apple hardware.

How else does Microsoft promote piracy? I have experienced one way first hand. I have a Zune MP3 player. I want to begin by saying that it’s a great device. I recommend it to everybody. But I will give this warning, If you don’t have windows, you have a $250 brick.

My home server runs Ubuntu Linux, and as that’s where I store all my music, I wanted to set up my Zune to sync with the server itself. I wanted something that could maintain my media any time. Both my desktop and laptop get shut down when they’re not in use, but the home server sits in it’s rack and doesn’t shut down. It’s the perfect machine to just plug my Zune into at night and go to sleep while it updates with podcasts and new music.

One problem. There is no way to sync a Zune in Linux. so I have to turn on my laptop any time I want to sync my zune. Unless i want to install Windows on my server. That would cost me at least another $100. More if I wanted to install any type of Windows Server software.

Many people will simply download and install the version of Windows that they need rather than turn on their laptop when they need to sync their MP3 player. Even Apple doesn’t restrict the iPod to MAC users only, and Microsoft shouldn’t restrict their customers to using Windows only. It just helps perpetuate and encourage piracy.

Microsoft needs to encourage people to use their software legitimately, rather than forcing them to use the software regardless of their ability or desire to pay for it! Lower the price of Windows and stop promoting proprietary hardware and you won’t be your biggest competitor. You’ll probably be farther ahead of your other competitors as well.

In True 3D

Posted on by

So for Valentines day, I was invited out by Vince and Gina to see My Bloody Valentine in 3D! I have been to 3D movies before, and was expecting something dumb such as, “when the killer raises his axe, put on your 3D glasses!” and then we’d get some cheesy 30 seconds of 3D video. I was mistaken.

The entire film was shown in 3D. The theater used polarized lenses to separate the images which is far superior to the Red and Blue lenses, and allows for accurate color representation.

Further research on this style of 3d imagery showed that this style of 3D imagery is created by two projectors each one fitted with a polarizing filter set at a 90 degree angle from the opposing filter. In addition, the screen must be made of materials that reduce the reflected light from altering it’s polarization. All this would explain why it could be very difficult to have a home theater set up the same way, although, I have a feeling that this is the principal being used by cutting edge “3D Televisions”. I’d have to look into that a bit farther though.

A week ago or so, I had announced to friends that i had ordered a pair of Anaglyph 3D glasses. These are the Red/Blue glasses. This was prompted by my receiving the Amber/Cyan Anaglyph glasses at Wal-Greens for the Super-bowl/Chuck 3D TV events on Super-Bowl Sunday. They were kind of cool but because of the amber tint, they weren’t good for the numerous Anaglyph You Tube videos I found, so I hopped online and spent $15 (including shipping) for a pair of GOOD 3D glasses.

So today I decided to try to make my own 3D image. I actually took 3 pairs of photos in my living room of various areas/objects. This one is my first (and ironically, came out the best.) If you have a pair of Anaglyph glasses (even the cheap cardboard ones) click on the image and take a look. It’s not bad and you can see the depth in the couch and on the animal’s body. Not bad for a first try!

No More Television

Posted on by

My family has always been very handy. My father and uncle both skilled craftsmen. My father did a lot of home repairs, and my uncle, being an engineer, handled a lot of the electrical work. Perhaps this is where I got my interest in DIY projects.

I remember working with my father and uncle years ago, putting together electronics projects. I was young and didn’t know what was going on, but learned at a very early age what electrical components were called, how to read resistors, and even picked up some general theory about electronics. It was back then that I learned to solder electronics, a skill I apparently still have today.

After what must be 10 or so years of not touching a soldering iron, I decided to assemble the TV-B-Gone kit I picked up at The Last Hope conference. I’d say it took me about 30 minutes to an hour to assemble, kinda pathetic considering it’s just 19 components. Then again, I had to re-acquaint myself to the equipment, and try to deal with my tremors, which were actually no problem at all. My hand was rather steady.

I took my time, and the TV-B-Gone is assembled and works. I was able to shut off my TV (Funny thing is, it turns it off, then on, then off again. I guess my TV uses the same code for on and off. Makes sense since there’s only 1 power button on the remote). The next trial will have to be somewhere where there’s a lot of TVs. Maybe Wal-Mart/Best Buy/etc…Maybe a bar. Who knows. I’m still impressed that it works!

I’ll have to look for some other electronics projects to pick up so I can get used to this sort of thing. Then, maybe next time my stereo breaks, instead of spending $600 on a new one, I’ll try to fix it myself.