Well, quite a gap in blog entries, so I do apologize. This week at work has been incredibly busy and my freelance jobs have been keeping me busy after work so I’ve had very little free time! I’m hoping things will calm down a bit and that I’ll be able to write more during the week next week.
So, I finally took the plunge and bought an iPod. Got a deal through Audible.com. Unfortunately the things are backordered, so instead of getting it a weak or so ago as I should have, I won’t be getting it for yet another week! Argh! Any iPod owners able to offer me some good advice or resources? I’ll be using the thing not just for music but to listen to Audible.com audio books and radio shows that I’ll be downloading like This American Life. Because I was expecting to get the iPod last week, I had deactivated my Otis audio player and so haven’t been listening to books lately. I turned to just listening to the news but eventually gave this up as it was too depressing…
I read a thread just recently about the new color RIM blackberry (7230) on the Sidekick message boards at hiptop.com. It sounds really interesting although it appears that it won’t even be available in Tmobile stores until mid-late September! I’m trying to figure out if it offers similar functionality to the Sidekick. I know that it has great email and you can synch with Outlook. Supposedly the reception is a lot better, but honestly I can’t imagine how you could get worse reception that with a Sidekick! The two limitations seem to be that it only has WAP browsing (whereas the Sidekick has regular web page browsing, albeit without the ability to view any sites with JavaScript), and its IM interfaces is via SMS. But apparently this is not the case if you have a special Blackberry Enterprise Server set up on your corporate network. I don’t have such a beast but there is also the possibility that third parties offer such capability via a subscription fee. This would do away with the limitations. I have yet to find any of these third-party hosting companies however. The other “problem” is that the device has only 16MB of memory, which is the same as my B&W Sidekick, but just seems somehwhat limiting. Sometimes I will get some big attachments and then my entire memory is consumed! It is a tempting solution, though, since it’s now a what, 3rd or 4th generation device, is very rugged, and is built from the ground up as an integrated system (like the Sidekick but more advanced). I am definitely looking for some kind of replacement to my old Sidekick which I’ve had since last November. It is definitely has its plusses, but you don’t want to use it as your phone because the reception is horrible, and some basic features which were promised a year ago (like synching and the ability to download new third party apps), have yet to be provided (although the next upgrade to the OS which is supposed to happen in the next month or so is supposed to get around some of these issues). I also have been wanting to wait as long as possible so that I can take advantage of the new law to go into affect on November 24 that will allow one to transfer one’s number from one carrier to another. Not that I am that attached to my number – I’ve switched numbers (and carriers) 2 times in the last 4 years – but I just think things will get a lot more competative then. Sure carriers will still be locking people into contracts, but once the contract is over, there will then be no barrier for one to switch…
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There’s been a bit more info regarding the Color Sidekick’s debut. The dust is beginning to settle and here’s what things are looking like:
On Friday the CSK as people are calling it was made available at some CompUSA’s and through Tmobile. The price: $300 for new customers who are also getting activation for a new Tmobile account. With no activation, CompUSA’s price seems to be about $480, but some have reported that they have been restricted from selling it unless the customer is also signing up for a new Tmobile account.
Current Tmobile customers: normally, Tmobile (as other carriers) has two basic prices for their phones. They have a price with new activation an a higher price with no such activation, which usually equates with the retail price of the phone. Because their emphasis is on gaining new customers, their current customers who wish to purchase a new phone kind of get the shaft. Tmobile uses the list price of the phone as a base, then they give a discout off this usually pretty hefty pricetag based on how long a person has subscribed to their service, the cost of their subscription plan, whether they’ve been timely with their bill, etc. But the discount rarely gets as low as the price at which they offer the phone to new customers (or at least the price that can be had if one looks at other sources for the phone which have additional rebates – like Amazon.com or CompUSA). For the Sidekick it seems to be a bit different. They are starting at the price they are offering the phone to new users at ($300), and discounting from that point. However, so far the largest discount I have heard any current customer getting is about $80. That seems to be a ceiling no matter how long a person has been with Tmobile.
So, while this “upgrade plan” is pretty good compared to other ones from Tmobile, it still means parting with a pretty penny in order to get something which differs from its predecessor mainly by its screen. Potentially there are other improvements such as reception and build quality, but it is too early to tell about these. I’m still waiting. I think the jury’s still out – hell, it just came out! – and until there’s solid feeback and not just the initial impression and wow factor from the new screen, it’s just too risky. Many of us have had so many problems with the black and white unit, it just doesn’t make any sense to upgrade – unless of course one can get it for cheap (or can afford to plop down $220+ on a lark), which it seems ain’t going to happen, at least not any time real soon…
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Well, just found out that Tmobile and Danger announced that the new Color Sidekick is coming out tomorrow! Who would have thunk! Over at Hiptop.com, the most popular forum on the Sidekick, there has been extreme frustration with Danger over not getting any details on when it might come out. For the longest time it was supposed to be in the Fall, then there were actual units sited a month or two ago and talk of a late May/Early June release. But with no real answers coming from Danger, a lot of people got impatient and decided to go elsewhere for their new cellphone/gadget fix. I have yet to read the massive thread on Hiptop.com about the announcement, but you can read it here.
I still don’t know if I’ll get one. The monochrome one I have has terrible reception sometimes and the PIM apps (Calendar, To-do list, Address Book, etc.) stink and can’t be synced with anything like Outlook yet. Maybe if they offer a really good deal to those who currently have the older model – like $100 instead of the $300 retail price. But I don’t think I’d pay much more than that…
By the way, you might notice that this weblog looks a little different. I’ve been playing a bit with the formating and layout options that are available and trying to research the various tools I can put on the page. If anyone’s out there reading this and has a specific request, let me know!
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