at&t, not Sprint, is buying T-Mobile

So I guess we were outbid... or something... because last I heard the plan was for SPRINT to buy T-Mobile. Then that rumor died and now the next thing I hear, my NYT app on me iPad flashes me this breaking news. Well, what does this mean really?

1. at&t will now gain another 40 million customer lead on Verizon
2. HSPA may become more real for at&t users rather than just a pipe dream
3. T-Mobile users will actually see LTE in the foreseeable future
4. at&t users will be astonished that it's possible to have even worse network performance on GSM than their own (last week I went into a T-Mobile store near Seattle to play around with their 4G phones and so some speed tests and despite the fact that they all had nearly full bars, I got astonishing 50 kbps speeds! T-Mo 4G is reeeeaaal..... right....

5. BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY this now makes Sprint the underdog. The smallest national carrier (save Metro PCS and the like)

6. I think this makes Sprint a possible purchase target for Verizon

125 dollars regained

Once again I am amazed with how great Sprint CS can be. I explained the situation and they credited me my port-in credits.

Not too shabby.

mythical 125 dollar port in credit vaporizes if you procrastinate for 3 days

"Request for service credit must be made at sprint.com/switchtosprint within 72 hours from the port-in activation date or credit will be declined. "


AAAAAAAARGHHGHGHGHGHGH


I've always been a procrastinator... but rarely has it bitten me in the ass for $125.


I ported in my mum's number a few weeks ago (after already knowing about the credit promo) but thought, oh what the hell i have like 60 days to request it right? NO I HAVE 3 DAYS... it turns out.


oh btw thanks for telling me, C.S.

European style RMA

You know how on every carrier in the US, if something goes wrong with your phone within the first year, and it's not your fault, you can use your warranty and just bring it in to a store and they will swap it out with a new one?

Well... in an unprecedented cost-cutting measure, last September, Sprint did away with this measure. Now you are blackmailed into signing up for equipment protection for that to take place. If you don't pay your monthly blackmail fee, you have to pay the nerds in the back $35 to "diagnose" your phone. How did I find this out? Well... I found it out the hard way when the speaker on my EVO crapped out and blew out.

I said to them... WTF dude this is some kind of blackmail? I'm not paying for this garbage, are you familiar with everyone else's policies? To which he said if I don't wanna pay $35, I need to contact HTC directly, you know how they do in Europe... (then the fucker tried to convince me that other carriers work the same way, but that didn't fly too well with me)

Essentially, instead of X amount of money going to pay for in-store swaps (if for nothing else then to match Apple), Dan, the Genius, Hesse decided to employ 3-5 nerdy dorks in the back "to repair and diagnose your phone".

Well Dan, at least you are tackling America's unemployment problems head on!

P.S. I ended up paying big brown $28 to ship this thing to HTC in Texas. They fixed the phone and sent back the original (TIMES ARE TOUGH RIGHT?). And I was without phone for 2 weeks. I guess you got me Sprint. You Win. Joke is on me.

iPad 2 Announced

Let me just say right off the bat. I think I'm pretty certain I'm gonna go and pick up one of these bad boys.

Look yeah I dumped the iPhone... I dumped it because of the UI. I dumped it because I wanted widgets and I wanted to be able to see more information at once, without having to go into each app.  I dumped it for the better notifications and the less obtrusive, more powerful design of the UI.

HOWEVER: While I was itching to pick up an Android tablet (of some sort) I quickly realized that all I would be getting is just a bigger screen version of my phone! There is no new content specifically designed for Galaxy Tab or even Xoom. The only optimized apps are New York Times and Financial Times.

Other than that, it's rough out there.

There is one thing the iPad brings that an Android tablet doesn't. New content.

Until that changes, Honeycomb has no chance.

Sprint's Big Announcement is Kyocera Echo? WTF?

Kyocera Echo? WHAT??

What the hell? David Blaine, wtf.... what does he have to do with the Kyocera? There's no magic there. The thing is a piece of shit. Sprint is once again the laughing stock in the headlines.

Look, after a BLANK CES with no real announcements and nothing to look forward to, while the other 3 announced several Tegra 2 devices, I was REALLY counting on Sprint to come through big with this announcement. Instead they deliver this?

If I was Dan Hesse, I would be fucking embarrassed.

Look it's not that the phone sucks (altho if the Zio is any benchmark, we can expect a non-functional touchscreen and underperforming hardware)....

It's that it is horridly underpowered by a last-gen processor that has trouble driving one WVGA screen on an EVO.

It's that it has a stupid bezel between the screens, and Kyocera couldn't use some kind of special lens glass on the LCDs to eliminate the bezel...

It's that it's nearly 3 years old thick! (18 mm).

It's that it has no 4G (not that Wimax is real anyway, trust me it exists only in myth)

It's that it has no front facing camera.

It's that it's a Kyocera....

Look. This device SHOULD have featured Tegra 2 or at least the new Snapdragon v2 with Adreno 205. It should have had a gig of ram. It should have had lens refraction and no bezel between screens.

Then, then I would not be laughing. What an embarrassing day to be a Sprint customer.

P.S. Why are the buttons on there twice again?