iTunes Match
Driving to work this morning, I thought I would give iTunes Match another try. On my iPhone, I navigated to my songs and hit the shuffle button at the top of the screen. First song up played for 30 seconds then paused for about 10 before playing for another 20 seconds and pausing. So I turned it off, stopped for gas and gave Twitter what for.
I then resumed my drive to work and hit play one more time.
The next 8 songs played without a snag. Until I hit next too early, then it was play/pause/repeat all over again.
I want music on my phone. I don’t want to stream it, I don’t want to listen to previews, I don’t want a streaming service. I want my music. iTunes Match, for all of the awesome it can be, is still not living up to it’s full potential. At least it’s not for me.
So, off it goes.
Changing back
I guess I have an excess amount of magnetic energy eminating from my person. Perhaps I don’t properly worship the correct gods. Maybe I have the wrong haircut. Maybe, just maybe, I’m not cool enough. Whatever the case, I have the worse luck with mobile phones.
This Android device was perfectly ok until it started crashing after I finished each call. So it was replaced with another. The replacement was a newer device that lacked the build quality of the first. It also came preinstalled with the previous devices issues, and then some.
Sure it crashes when I end a call. Sure, if I pull the phone away from my face and put it back it disconnects the call. I mean, what phone doesn’t do this now. As a bonus, this phone also refuses to provide any notifications from any of the apps that I have installed like Facebook, Twitter, G+ (which I mostly blame Google for) and SMS messages.
These are all problems that I never read about. Problems that nobody else seems to have.
I’m going to be charging up the Storm tonight and activating it this weekend. It has crappy internet, but at least it will make a damned phone call and let me know when someone is trying to leave me a message somewhere.
I think the problem stems from the fact that I still use my telephone for voice communications. I know this makes me the odd man out, but I still use about 400 minutes per month talking to people, and anther 400 minutes talking with other Verizon Wireless customers (mostly family). Doesn’t anyone bother checking this kind of functionality anymore?
I’m going to end up carrying both devices for a time too. The Blackberry, which rules for SMS and email, is completely lame for everything else. Since I spend the bulk of my time in WiFi coverage areas, I’m going to keep the Dinc around (in Airplane mode) to use as my portable hand-held computer.
Lame, right?
What I would like is to be able to upgrade to an iPhone. From what I can tell, the iPhone doesn’t have any issues when it comes to making and receiving voice calls. At least none that I have heard about.
As I keep saying, my telephone, first and foremost, needs to have the ability to reliably make and receive phone calls with sending and receiving SMS messages being a very close second. Right now, the device I have doesn’t do either of those well or reliably so it’s time to switch back to something that does.
Working Toward Device #13
When last we spoke about my never ending problems with cell phones, I had just received my 2nd Droid Incredible (Dinc). The first was crashing after a call. No big deal. Replacement arrived 2 days early. I was up and running again in a little less than an hour.
Then, starting last week, this phone started acting up. It also exhibited the same crash-after-a-call problem that my last Dinc had. A problem that was easily corrected by putting the phone to sleep and waking it back up again using the handy dandy switch at the top of the phone.
That stopped working last week as well.
Today, after finishing a call with Verizon Wireless, my phone crashed so hard I had to do a battery pull to correct it. Luckily, I even got the sleep/wake switch to work as well.
I was on the call initially because I’m a few days behind on my bill, a fact I will be correcting on Friday. Since I had them on the phone, I figured it was a good time to review my plan since I’ve been making changes to it for the first half of the year (mainly not having teh lad on it anymore). My new friend at VZW looked at my minutes used for the past 3 months (less than 400 billable per month) and said I would be a good candidate to go to the $59.99 plan. Sweet! That’s $30 less than my existing plan, which will pay for my data (still unlimited BTW, but more on that later).
And since she was so helpful, I thought I would bring my telephone woes up to her. She said I would need to call back on a different phone to do troubleshooting and texted me the number to call. While that was happening, I think she was reviewing my account a little bit more (besides minutes and data used) because no sooner did I get the text message with the 800 number to call I received a 2nd with her email address.
She said to me, when I’m ready (about 2 weeks), to email her back and she would get me going on an early upgrade!
Did I ask? Nope. Did I get angry? Nope. Was she super professional, very nice and extraordinarily helpful? YES!
I swear I never get bad service from VZW. I’ve said it here many times before. Anytime I have a problem they fix it, more often than not the first time without having to talk to more than 1 person. Ever.
[SHORT VERSION]
I’ll be getting an iPhone sometime in July. Stay tuned for details
Hello, Phone #12
I’m still putting the finishing touches on the new theme, but this just couldn’t wait.
In the mail today I received my 12th replacement mobile phone from Verizon Wireless. Twelve times I’ve had problems with a phone. Twelve times I’ve had to call 611 or visit my local store. Twelve times I’ve had to reinstall apps and restore from backup.
Twelve.
At first it was comical. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm, I was pretty angry. By the time I got to my 5th Blackberry Storm I was giggling. When I bought the HTC Droid Incredible last August, 6 months BEFORE the iPhone became available on Verizon, I thought my nightmare of crappy phones was over.
And my nightmare was over. At least it has been for the past 10 months. Up until then, the Dinc has been problem free. Then it started crashing after ending a phone call. Turns out, the sensor that controls the screen when you pull the phone away from your head was going out. “No problem” says my guy at the Verizon Wireless store. We’ll sort you out.
Which they did, in record time as usual.
I will say that it is easier to recover on an Android Phone than it was on the Blackberry. From hard reset to complete took less than an hour and that includes setting up all of my apps and adding my 6 email addresses and 6 Twitter accounts back to the phone. I would imagine that it is equally easy on an iPhone.
I’m just getting tired of doing it. I am told that there is a chance I might qualify for an early upgrade in August instead of having to wait until next April. At this point, it really doesn’t matter. I’m just tired of swapping phones.
Verizon iPad
Verizon Wireless has announced that they will be selling the iPad starting October 28th.
Verizon Wireless will offer three bundles, all featuring an iPad Wi-Fi model and a Verizon MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, for a suggested retail price of $629.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 16GB + MiFi, $729.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 32GB + MiFi and $829.99 for iPad Wi-Fi 64GB + MiFi. Verizon Wireless is offering a monthly access plan to iPad customers of up to 1GB of data for just $20 a month. In addition, Verizon Wireless will also offer all three iPad Wi-Fi models on a stand-alone basis.
That is to say that you will be able to walk into your local Verizon Wireless store and purchase an iPad. You can get a standalone unit just like you can at the Apple Store, BestBuy, Target or wherever, or you can purchase it with a Verizon MiFi. Apple is not producing a CDMA iPad (CDMA is the technology VZW uses), but allowing VZW to sell it bundled with a MiFi.
If you check the pricing, you will see that they have priced the iPad + MiFi the same as the GSM iPad. It means that VZW is selling you the MiFi off contract for 50% off the regular price and will also sell you internet access in 1GB chunks for $20 per month. In comparison, the AT&T service gives you 2gb of access for $25 per month.
With the VZW Plan, you do get a device that you can use to tether up to 5 devices to for internet access. You can’t do that with the AT&T 3G iPad. Of course, if you have an Android phone running 2.2 with hotspot capabilities, you can do this already.
I’ve dealt with pay-as-you-go internet access with VZW and it was easy to do and never had any trouble with over billing or stopping the service, and that was before there was an app to do it automatically.
Anyone planning on taking advantage of this? Anyone think this means, for sure, that Verizon will be getting the iPhone in January?. Comments are open, let us know what you think.
Update Turns out you will need to sign a service contract but can still go month-to-month without any termination fees. And the data pricing only applies if you buy the bundle.
