Free Movie Rental @ Redbox Kiosks

Redbox, the $1 a day movie rental kiosk company is offering a free movie rental every month if you sign up for text messages. You can use this link.

AT&T's New Ad : I like it!

Verizon sends a secret over-the-air update to Droid phones

ENgadget reports:

Motorola Droid Autofocus Camera Fixed In Secrecy

IF THIS EVER HAPPENED WITHOUT MY CONSENT TO FIX ANYTHING ON THE iPHONE I WOULD ENCOURAGE/JOIN/PROMOTE A LAWSUIT AGAINST AT&T!

How dare they fix something that I may not think is broken or is an exploitable hack that may be to my benefit without my consent or request to fix it?

Hey, you may get more coverage on Verizon - and you know why they have more coverage? They can control your phone like this.

[UPDATE] So here's where ENgadget's credibility comes into play - it appears as if there wasn't an over the air update after all - it's just a bug that "pops up" every few days due to a timestamp that the phone places with pictures in conjunction with the camera causing the camera to malfunction.

This is another reason I hate it when people quote ENgadget to me to prove their case - rarely can you count on them to give you a non sensationalist story - written solely for hits.

This said - this KIND OF THING wouldn't be beyond Verizon - and could very easily have been issued "secretly over the air" - this kind of control is not beyond Verizon. It just so happens they didn't do it this time. With the common outrage that has appeared in forums around the net - I'm sure they would consider thinking twice if they ever do decide.

That's not just an "Ouch" - it's a "YeeeeOW!"

As reported by MacRumors:

Earlier this month, AT&T filed suit against rival Verizon over a series of Verizon commercials attacking AT&T's wireless network, claiming that the ads were "blatantly false and misleading".

Late yesterday, Engadget reported that Verizon had filed a 53-page legal response to the lawsuit, and taken the opportunity to focus the case on what it claims is AT&T's failure to commit the resources to build out its network appropriately. The tone of Verizon's response is set from the very first sentence of its response's introduction:

AT&T did not file this lawsuit because Verizon's "There's A Map For That" advertisements are untrue; AT&T sued because Verizon's ads are true and the truth hurts.

Six pages later, Verizon concludes its introduction with a similar take:

In the final analysis, AT&T seeks emergency relief because Verizon's side-by-side, apples-to-apples comparison of its own 3G coverage with AT&T's confirms what the marketplace has been saying for months: AT&T failed to invest adequately in the necessary infrastructure to expand its 3G coverage to support its growth in smartphone business, and the usefulness of its service to smartphone users has suffered accordingly. AT&T may not like the message that the ads send, but this Court should reject its efforts to silence the messenger.

I hate that AT&T has been put in this predicament - it does have an inferior network to Verizon - I'm not sure that it matters to 90% of the people who have phones or even 90% of iPhone users - EDGE to me - especially when I weathered 56k speeds creating media rich web content in the 90's - is acceptable. In fact, my iPhone on EDGE, it seems quite fast. I think this is the main gist of AT&T's argument. Verizon is claiming that it's 3G network is better because it's bigger and has a fancy map to show it.

Several discussions have popped up here on this site over the last month regarding this ... Verizon is in a completely different boat than AT&T is or was - and continues to be.

First, AT&T's investment has been somewhat stunted by the Cingular, SBC, Bellsouth merger. I do believe AT&T is just now recovering from that internal accounting and network management fiasco. There was a whole lot of tower lease wrangling, image management, lawsuits from employees, taking care of severance packages, etc. This merger only happened 2 years ago! I am not apologizing for AT&T in any way for AT&T's network. When i got my wife an iPhone, the first complaint she had was about the dropped calls and slow speeds where we lived BUT it HAS gotten better.

Further, what a lot of people - including Verizon's lawyers - don't know is - AT&T has a few extra tidbits of evidence up it's sleeve to disprove those "there's a map for that" maps. (see my other posts below)

What They Call 3G?

Verizon's coverage of what THEY CALL 3G is in most areas the speed of EDGE or lower. Plus, Verizon's network doesn't allow simultaneous voice and data.

I know for a fact that the Verizon commercial maps are wrong just for my state. I have personally verifiable coverage in a wide area around me - there is no blue whatsoever ANYWHERE close to me on the Verizon commercial maps. Furthermore - by my own experience - I cannot even get Verizon 3G in my area - but Verizon DOES SHOW 3G in my area with their red areas.

PPPLE.COM Domain Name For Sale

PPPLE.COM FOR SALE

Ideas:

PPP is a networking term
(see this wikipedia link for more description = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point-to-Point_Protocol)

PPPLE = a cool way to spell PEOPLE - an excellent twitter-like catchy domain - perfect for social networking. The term "PEOPLE" spelled in this way could fit ANY business - especially an internet business

PPPLE - I personally have used this domain for four years as a business called "The Apple People" ... You can have that name and idea as well with this domain. It's one letter different from APPLE.COM - one of the most popular domains on the internet! It's pretty cool as an Apple tech to put your name like this: myname@ppple.com.

3 Pattersons 1 Levin - a law firm or a company started by 4 or five people? Could stand for initials?

A Pie maker - have a logo with three pies then the LE

Available 5 LETTER DOMAINS that are reasonably priced AND that make sense are RARE! Just try thinking of any four or five letter word - it's taken. If it is up for sale it's VERY, VERY expensive.

Not only am I giving you the domain, but I'd be happy to give you some more ideas! Maybe this domain can spark some ideas for your new business.

You Don't Want It "Free".

From The Consumerist:

"... Meet David Free, the man behind QMS, a company that sells and sometimes even ships an aluminum mousepad called the "MacPadd". When the guys at TomsHardware.com started asking why [their order] hadn't arrived, they discovered that Free does business his own way. Or sometimes not at all:

Free then exclaimed, "Get out of my f***ing life!" And hung up on us. By now it was becoming clear to us that we weren't going to receive the product we paid for.

Tom's Hardware pointed out that Apple owns the trademark for the name "MacPad".

You can view Apple's trademark/copyright policy here.

The whole MACPADD.COM website seems suspiciously "Jack Campbell-esque" in nature.

For instance ... look at this claim from the MACPADD website:

This text is cleaned up considerably for grammar and spacing for easier reading

MacPadd is the cleanest mouse pad you will ever use. Other mouse pads gather DIRT and BACTERIA and cannot be cleaned. This spells trouble in mission critical environments that require highly sanitary conditions.

1.MacPadd can be disinfected with a sanitary wipe.

2.Clean your work station and MacPadd daily.

3.MacPadd does not contribute to the spread of dirt or bacteria.

4.MacPadd will help you keep your hands cleaner longer.

5.MacPadd is ideal for work stations in hospitals or clinics that has multiple users.

6.MacPadd can be put into an autoclave and then ready for use after its cleaning (special non stick surface available)

7.Neoprene mouse pads collect materials that contribute to an unsanitary office environment

MacPadd: Sanitary and Effective

MacPadd’s Sanitary Surface is Ideal for;

• Hospitals
• Research Laboratories
• Dental Offices
• Medical Clinics
• Medical Offices

One Swipe with an antibacterial cloth and its sanitized

MacPadd

H1N1 RESISTANT

I have my own stories about QMS, Inc of Canada:

I can't say for certain, this happened 7 years ago, but I believe this guy (below) worked with QMS, Inc:

From a previous FIXYOURTHINKING blog entry (7 years ago):

I sent $120 to a "Canadian" - no shipment received in 30 days - I filed a Paypal complaint - he typed in a tracking number - that appeased Paypal - I received a brick via FedEx. Yes folks, a brick!

And then, more recently, I sent this cease and desist to QMS, Inc in Canada which was returned to me after two months of attempted deliveries.



I sent this because QMS was copying my auctions for Apple Compatible Ethernet Adapters.

DO NOT UPDATE SNOW LEOPARD TO 10.6.2!

This is a note to everyone out there and everyone that I have helped over the last few months install Leopard onto netbooks:

DO NOT UPDATE TO MAC OS X 10.6.2.

If you do, your system will not boot.

You may install any security update / iTunes / Quicktime updates.

My motto is - if ain't broke or mandatory don't try to fix it.

[UPDATE] There are other notes around the web of MAC Mail app issues and sound problems after thus update.

John Gruber at Daring Fireball suggests that this may simply be a bug in the 10.6.2 update.

Further, a small ethical debate has ensued in the comments to my article that's worth a read.

[UPDATE] A court has decided that installing Mac OS X on NON APPLE hardware is not allowed according to Apple's licensing terms in Psystar vs Apple.

Barring appeal - I suppose I'll not help anyone install on netbooks anymore, and by help in the past, I mean I pointed people in the direction of a tutorial that's easy to find on the web and told them to read a review on XLR8YourMac on which netbook to buy. I don't feel I was encouraging, just not discouraging. In my cases, I always recommend Apple hardware, but sometimes the budget does not allow it - even if a refurb can be had. The lure of netbooks - good ones - at $299 - is well ... alluring. I have a black Macbook - I'd like to have a Dell Mini w/ built in TV tuner triple booting Ubuntu, XP, and Snow Leopard. Hopefully Apple recognizes this segment - maybe they will - maybe this is what "the tablet" is.

A followup to the "There's A Map For That" Fiasco.

I've found two reasons Verizon's map is different:

1) Because of the breakup of AT&T (landline) and then recombination / merger of AT&T (landline AND wireless) many towers across the country went from AT&T ownership to third party lease. All three companies that merged gave up tower leases to meet regulatory approval. Verizon's map does not include any third party lease towers.

AT&T was formed by partial mergers of Bellsouth, SBC, Cingular (a Bellsouth subsidary), and portions of the AT&T wireless network and the AT&T landline and Networking divisions.

2) In certain areas, such as my own, AT&T wireless operated under third party companies or MVNO's (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) such as Suncom Wireless. Suncom was purchased by T-Mobile in 2008. In MOST places in the country TMobile is on a separate band for the 3G wireless coverage - but in the south - they operate on the same band. AT&T & T-Mobile actually share a sort of data roaming agreement. Certain towers in my area (and I'm sure others) are "special towers" used to dole out signal (voice and data) to T-Mobile (former Suncom Wireless customers) and to AT&T (former Cingular customers).

Neither of these facts are taken into account with Verizon's "there's a map for that" maps.

Combined with the fact that Verizon used older 2008 maps where they DID have more coverage - this is the reason there's such a huge discrepancy.

Verizon is trying to "trick" all those iPhone customers that have complained about AT&T's poor signal. While I have had my share of problems with AT&T and had my share of signal issues - it HAS gotten better over the last year. Better than Verizon would have you believe.

Movie Reviews: The Box

I was interested in the premise of this movie:

A strange man comes to your door and offers you a million dollars if you simply press a button on a small box. The caveat, he says,

"When you press the button, someone who you don't know in the world, will die."



In the movie trailer ... we get to see Norma (played by Cameron Diaz) sitting at the table discussing it with her husband and then slamming her hand on the button after desperately saying how much they could use the million dollars.

* Movie trailer for The Box

What we don't see is Arlington Steward (expertly and eerily played by Frank Langella) returning to retrieve the box with the million dollars in hand and saying, "Here's your one million dollars as promised, the box will now be reset and given to someone who you don't know."

If you think I've given a way the plot, you're wrong. I have given away the most thought provoking part of the movie.

I'm sad to say that this would have made a great 30 minute episode of the Twilight Zone - having left out a lot of unnecessary plot twists. Instead, director Richard Kelly decided to make this one of the most puzzling and absurd movies I've ever seen.

When I got out of the theater with my wife and friends we had thoughts such as,

"Do you get the feeling that the director saw that movie a lot differently than we did?"

"That would have been good if they had left a lot of the background story to the viewers imagination."

"You know, I wanted to walk out, but I just couldn't, I wanted to see what could possibly top weird scene after weirder!"

On the way home from the movie theater, my wife and I settled on giving the movie a 4.5 out of 10.

It isn't worth the ticket ... it's not worth renting when it comes to video ... don't fret too much if you miss it when it comes to TV.