Wow, a contest doesn’t get any easier than this! Hop over to Mobility Site for the full details, but all you have to do is vote and\or take a photo of your current MP3 setup. The contest is to celebrate the new site design which looks great. Run, don’t walk, over to the contest post here and good luck!
Hey, if YOU win, which would you pick and why?
A little off-topic from our normal mobile tech theme, but worth sharing. We’re about to pull the trigger on our third HDTV tonight; no, we didn’t win the lottery, this is a progressive upgrade: I’ve owned a high-def set since 2001 and due to a move, our new family room has outgrown the five year old 34-inch widescreen set. Our other set (2 years old) is a smaller 27-incher, and we’ve got to go bigger. So here I am all ready to do some big screen high-def gaming on the Xbox 360, when I get red lights on the console and it won’t boot. Uh, how do you explain that? "My gaming console won’t boot and there’s not Control, Alt or Delete keys here…."
The three lights indicate a hardware failure, so I’ve removed the external hard drive. She now "boots", but freezes after 3 to 5 minutes. Not good. Turns out the new Microsoft goodwill warranty just came into play and is going to save my wallet…a good thing since the new HD set will empty it.
Any Xbox 360s purchases prior to January 1 of this year get a one-time free fix. Since like so many other knuckleheads, I camped out for an Xbox last November (and even blogged my plans), I’m eligible and just in time too. I don’t have my proof of purchase, but the console itself has a production date of 10-12-2005, making it among the first (and glitchy) batches of 360s. My support rep indicated that even thought I don’t have the proof of purchase, Microsoft would be sending me a pre-paid UPS box to return the unit at no charge. Kudos for standing behind a product that was rushed out the door, not to mention the level of customer service!
iLounge reports of a special Apple press event on September 12th; the clear expectation is that new products will be launched, so for this holiday weekend here in the U.S., why not place your bet guesses before kicking back?
Here are my thoughts to start the creative juices: with yesterday’s Wal-Mart vs. Apple headline indicating that Apple will offer movie downloads at $14.99, folks are likely expecting a new video iPod. Even with only Disney, er Pixar, Disney on board, odds are pretty good on that. Factor in any one of several Apple patents that could (and should) be applied to an iPod for a larger screen and you might have a winner with that guess.
What about Apple Tablet PC rumors? As much as I (and many readers) would like to see that, I don’t think Apple is quite ready just yet. Believe me; I hope I’m wrong, but I think Apple will take an incremental step there by putting a touchscreen in another CE device first and then make the OS work with the screen.
Having said that, I’ll put my vote in for Merom-based Apple computers. I’d like to think that we’ll see the more efficient Intel chips in the MacBook and MacBook Pro line, but the Mac Mini is a nice trial platform for the new chip. End users will get a nice boost in performance and Apple can learn from the experience, so that’s my guess. Where does that leave us in terms of my thoughts and the odds?
Step right up and place your bets in the comments below. If you’ve got a blog, post your predictions; if you know a blogger, shoot the odds sheet over to them and let’s see what they think! Let’s see how many folks we can get voting on the Apple product predictions; hey, it’s a holiday, so let’s have some fun!
Oh Verizon, why must you make me ride this DSL roller coaster? First, I rejoiced when the the Universal Service Fee was removed from my account, saving me about $2.83 per month. Next you hammered my emotions and my wallet by adding your own $2.70 fee to help offset YOUR network provider costs, netting me a $0.13 savings over the old Universal fee. Today you finally came to your senses (or just got beat over the head enough) and removed the fee you just added.
Here’s the thing: I don’t like roller coasters. In fact, I like them as much as I like made-up fees to offset a service I already pay you for. If you created your DSL network and didn’t plan to charge enough for the service you provide, go back to your business model and see where you made a mistake next time. Thank you for not penalizing me; I don’t recall having input to your business strategies…go find those people and make up fees for them to pay. Thanks.
Typically equated with industry high fees and rigid contracts, Verizon Wireless might finally be listening to all the mobile masses who glibly chant "Can you hear me now?" The wireless voice and data company is making changes that break from the traditional company approaches that appear to bully customers around. Instead of the standard and time-honored full cancellation fee for customers that terminate the contract early, Verizon Wireless will prorate that fee to adjust for what I like to call "time served."
Instead of treating new and potential customers better than existing customers, Verizon Wireless will also look to allow handset upgrades at new-subscriber prices. To qualify under the new handset upgrade rules, you’ll need to have a calling plan at $50 a month for 12 months, which appears to replace the "new every two" plan currently in place. OK, now who’s scopin’ out a new Smartphone as a result?
(via Phone Scoop)
-kct
While I’m restoring Sammy to his factory defaults, I had some time to review the advertisements that hit the newspapers tomorrow. Circuit City will be dishing out 1GB Sandisk SD cards for only $29 after a $12 instant savings and an $18 rebate. This was too good a deal not to pass along for folks that have SD card readers in their notebooks, cameras, phones or other mobile devices!
-kct
I must have been under a rock for the past two years. Mobility Site is running their third annual Case-A-Day giveaway contest and it starts today! The rules are fairly simple and you get the opportunity to win a mobile device case from their sponsor, Cases.com, so run (don’t walk) over to their entry post for the details!
-kct
I really don’t want to part with my Dell Axim X50v, but as they say: "if you love something set it free…" I nabbed this VGA device as soon as it went on sale, probably around December of 2004, so it’s not a brand-new device. In fact, Dell refreshed this device to the X51v, so you can’t buy it new. However, this device easily keeps up with (or exceeds) many of the current devices on the market and got decent reviews. Since I have the new XV6700 WM 5.0 phone, I simply don’t need this any longer. Wow. It took a lot for me to say that.
Anyway, I’ll place this on eBay if nobody wants it here, but I thought to offer it to any interested jkOTR readers first. Here’s what you get:
Dell Axim X50v, cradle to synch and charge both the Dell and a second battery, the included battery, and the manual. Extra bonuses included: 256 MB CF card, second battery, form-fitting custom leather Sena Case.
Basic specs:
This device did take a slight fall and therefore has some small nicks in the casing in the front upper right, but its functionality wasn’t impacted. There are no dead pixels that I know of either. I can take some pics or provide any additional info, just ping me at kctofel@gmail.com with questions or to make me an offer. If you are interested, make me one single offer and after a few days, I’ll ship it at my expense to the person with the best offer. If nobody’s interested, I’ll place it on eBay next week. Thanks!
-kct
Yup, back on May 17, 2004 we saw something every mobile maverick needs: a way to blend in with surroundings to become virtually invisible. I suppose this could come in handy if you wanted to lift your best bud’s new handheld or Tablet PC without getting caught. Either way, the Optical Camouflage project site is still alive and kickin’ and it’s well worth a look at the very last video of this happy camper dancing in front of a flat panel TV. The premise of the technology is to project an image onto a person so that the individual appears to blend in with their surroundings.
So when will we see a practical application of Optical Camouflage? Well, I reckon if the product works as advertised, we’ll actually never see it, now will we?
-kct
It’s funny how much mobile technology can change in just a short year or two. I thought it might be interesting to occasionally, or even daily based on your feedback, "go back in time" and see what was happening on this day a year or two ago. Let’s look into the hourglass and check out jkOnTheRun on this day one year ago, May 16th.
On that day, James eye-spied the TabletKiosk Mojave i-Tablet that was "Coming Soon". We never did see the Mojave, but TabletKiosk today makes some solid Tablet PCs and even a UMPC in the eo. One year ago, if someone had told you that TabletKiosk would have a 7-inch touchscreen handheld running the Window XP Tablet Edition, what would you have said? Ironically, we never got the Mojave small slate, but the eo certainly qualifies, no?
- kct
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