Comments (6)

By Sarah, July 20, 2009 8:53 pm

I have to take this opportunity to whine about something. What else is new, right? But let’s be real – what the heck is up with AT&T? I’m totally butt crazy in love with my iPhone but I am on the verge of a nervous breakdown thanks to the ever-so-flaky service. I’ve recently found myself spending quite a bit of time on the phone, whereas before, I primarily used my phone for texting, the web, and the apps. I’m more convinced than ever that AT&T is trying to ruin my life.

If I were a boxer, this would be my inspiration.

I totally get it, though – I live in a highly urban area, in an old, brick building that doesn’t allow for superb cell reception. But what I don’t understand is how every other call, literally, can fail. Call failed. Call failed. Ooh it’s ringing! Nope, call failed. Even when I can get a call through, the static is unbelievable. Nevermind the mysterious voicemails I get days late from phone calls I never received, that never showed up on my Missed Calls log. It’s endlessly frustrating and I’m finding myself more convicted than ever about the future of my relationship with my iPhone!

It wasn’t until I actually began using my cell as an actual telephone that I noticed just how awful the service is. You really can’t compare anything to the seamlessness of all other aspects – the aesthetics, the syncing, the convenience of having all my calendars, accounts and applications working in perfect harmony. But the cell service is total crap. What do I do?

It’s not like AT&T isn’t aware. The lack of service in Austin this past March for SXSW was the topic of many a conversation. The service just seems to be getting worse, and I’m sure I’m just one of the millions who are taking to their blogs to rant about dropped calls. What is keeping AT&T from getting their act together? I know you’ve got the fundage, the monthly bill for an iPhone is atrocious.

I noticed myself longingly gazing at my good friend Jason’s G1 on Sunday at church (yeah, shame on me for being distracted during church). Surely it wouldn’t be so bad to be the only one of my friends without an iPhone. Dare I risk not being one of the cool kids and allow myself the luxury of having access to a functioning cell phone? Could I possibly turn my back on the iPhone? That Pre is looking really nice about now.

The truth is, if the G1 or the Pre were available with Verizon, the Godfather of wireless providers, I would probably take the plunge. But I’m not totally sold on the reliability of T-Mobile or Sprint at the moment, definitely not enough to break my iron-clad contract with AT&T. The Pre WILL be available through Verizon in ~six months, but by that time, maybe I should just wait to see what Google has happening? Will G1 v2.0 be better? Perhaps by that time my long-distance boyfriend will be in LA and proper cell service won’t matter as much to me? What’s a girl to do?!

I am lost, and frustrated, and based on Twitter’s trending topics and the heated article on TechCrunch, I’m not the only one. One thing is for sure – AT&T is surely working doubletime to extend that contract with Apple, because once they switch providers, their customer base is going to be more sparse than hair on Homer Simpson’s shiny bald head.

FIX IT. Or I’m leaving. I mean it.

Comments (4)

By Sarah, July 15, 2009 1:52 pm

So mean. I’m not even a Palm Pre user and I still think this sucks. Apple released iTunes version 8.2.1 today, and with it comes a nice little blockade preventing Pre users from syncing their music libraries. Now that’s a low blow.

The release notes include a blurb stating, “iTunes 8.2.1 provides a number of important bug fixes and addresses an issue with verification of Apple Devices.”

I suppose fair is fair… but still, this is pure evil. Dieter from precentral.net suggests Pre users check out doubleTwist for music syncing until this gets worked out, if ever.

I’ve only heard good things about the Pre, which we shall call “iPhone #2,” and although I wouldn’t give up my iPhone for anything, there are many times when I want to punch AT&T squarely in between the eyes for its lack of service.

via precentral

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By Sarah, October 16, 2008 10:40 pm

It’s about freaking time. We have apps for everything from language translators to bubble wrap. Location-based social network BrightKite allows users to broadcast their location to their friends (with photos!), but it has been lagging in the iPhone application department. Thankfully, all that is changing.

Click here to watch the Brightkite iPhone app tutorial.

What advantage does BrightKite have over the many other geo-enabled social network iPhone apps? It is available worldwide, while many of it’s competitors are not.

Great. Yet another reason for me to get sucked back into BrightKite.

via TechCrunch

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By Sarah, September 23, 2008 1:42 am

Technology trend forecaster Aul Saffo was quoted in a recent New York Times article claiming that text messaging actually makes people dumber. Really?

“The act of texting automatically removes 10 I.Q. points. The truth of the matter is there are hobbies that are incompatible. You don’t want to do mushroom-hunting and bird-watching at the same time, and it is the same with texting and other activities. We have all seen people walk into parking meters or walk into traffic and seem startled by oncoming cars.”

I’d be curious to know how exactly Saffo arrived at the number 10, but I’d be lying if I said the statement was entirely false. I can’t count the number of times that I have nearly run straight into someone – or started heading off in the wrong direction – simply because my head was buried in my Blackberry or iPhone (lets just be thankful California now requires hands-free devices while driving!) So if we are so completely absorbed with what is going on in our handheld devices, can we really be aware of what is going on around us? And are we dumber because of it?

Perhaps not, and we are just excellent multi-taskers.

I’m not so sure we are, and the recent train collision in Los Angeles helps prove it. With the overwhelming surge of mediums by which we can connect with our peers on – are we spending just as much time maintaining these networks as we do actually connecting with one another and discussing what we came to talk about in the first place?

I successfully spent two full days in Las Vegas without really seeing much of it at all. You might be wondering how that is even possible, considering the amount of time spent going back and forth from Convention Center, to casinos, to clubs, to the airport with all the BlogWorld Expo attendees. Plenty of time to take in the sights, right? Wrong. Once again – my face was buried in my iPhone, reading tweets, checking e-mail, responding to text messages, finding out where everyone was. And I know I wasn’t the only one. There was so much #bwe08 traffic on Twitter, even those that were unable to make it to conference could still participate in the action.

So yes, it’s blatantly obvious that we have developed an addiction to mobile computing. With the wide variety of choices available to us – from smartphones to PDAs to teeny tiny laptops – in addition to the never ending flood of slick new applications and programs, it’s virtually impossible to avoid giving into the trend. And considering the impact services like Twitter are having on business development, it could be a mistake not to get involved!

So where do we draw the line? How much networking is too much? And is it really making us dumber?

Comments (0)

By Sarah, August 14, 2008 2:51 pm

I’m literally going to the Apple store in about 5 minutes to get the new iPhone 3G. As if the Twitter, AIM, Facebook, and all the other helpful apps weren’t enough, you can manage your Netflix account from the iPhone too, too?!?! This is just too good to be true. You hear that? It’s the sound of me caving.

Dashbuster is a free app that allows you to manage your Netflix or Blockbuster queue from your iPhone. Right now, it doesn’t have the functionality to add new movies, but according to this update, it probably will in the future.

I’m stoked to be able to move my queue around at any given time!!

via geeksugar

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By Sarah, July 30, 2008 12:37 pm

Oh my GOODNESS, yes I am still alive. I recently started writing another blog – for SocialVibe – and I have been a horrible mother to TechDarling. Please forgive me? I’m back. I will update on the regular I swear, just please don’t leave me.

Ok I’m done begging. Let’s see, lots of new tech stuff happened in the last month or so, including the iPhone 3G – which I’ve had the opportunity to play with. For the first time in my life I actually WANT one, which is crazy, because I’m a die-hard iPhone-Hater. Maybe it’s because of the fabulous accessories that you can dress it up in. But I’m more interested in the fabulous accessories INSIDE of it. They have all these amazing applications, for Facebook, Twitter, etc. That and my Blackberry Curve has been acting a fool the past few weeks. It’s only a year old!

Moving on, we had an earthquake today here in LA and I’m going to be honest, I’ve never experienced something so exhilarating/terrifying in my life. I was on the 11th floor of a high-rise and the entire building started swaying and shaking. I thought for sure I was going out the glass wall that I was sitting a mere six inches from. But alas, I made it out alive.

The aftermath was the crazy part…. almost instantaneously, all of my social networks began going off like firecrackers with updates about the earthquake. “Did u feel that?!?!” “Earthquake!” “That was at least a 5 or 6-er” Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, I had at LEAST 20 IMs in 10 minutes. The actual quake wasn’t that bad, but the flood of communication that came after was what REALLY shook us up. The cellphone networks weren’t working for hours afterward.

It’s true what they say… the future is mobile. Web 3.0, my friends. I know this because I am a victim of this disease. Every time I go somewhere, do something funny, see something unusual, etc, immediately I want to let my network know. I met Magic Johnson a couple of weeks ago and the first thing I did was post it on Twitter. My entire office is on Twitter and sometimes I catch us using it for inter-office communication! It’s not just Tweets that have got me and the rest of the world crazy… there are countless other devices and applications that make computing-on-the-go easy as pie.

And in keeping with the mobile theme of this post, I’d like to talk about out a very smart alarm clock.

The Tyrant, by Alice Wang. It is a damn tyrant, because if you don’t get up when it starts ringing, it kindly picks 3 contacts from your mobile address book at random and calls them every 3 minutes to let them know just what a lazy bastard you are. My friends would haaate this, as would the countless other random contacts in my phone. And since I am a regular at sleeping through my alarm, I’m going to guess it would happen quite often. What? I’m just not a morning person.

Thanks to my very good friend Matt for telling me about this one. I think he thought of me because he used to be my roommate and witnessed me sleeping literally all day on the regular.

via Engadget