Why Wait for the Verizon IPhone?

Quietly for the last year or so, while waiting to kiss Steve Jobs’ butt for a Verizon version of the iPhone, the world’s largest phone company was planning a surprise Apple biting with HTC, an underrated telecom product maker with a so-so track record. The incredible story of the Droid Incredible played out over the last few weeks, when even some who drank the Apple koolade realized that this device was faster, easier and better looking with better battery life than the latest IPhone.

In addition, while not claiming as many as the IPhone , it had better, more useful “Apps” and a much better U.S. 3G coverage area.

Using the latest and greatest Google “Droid” operating system instead of a still not ready for prime time Windows Mobile or other second rate system, Verizon and Google have a terrific device.

The multi panel home screen with a wide selection of activated programs works easily with easy access to 30,000 Google applications.  The best part for me was the 8 megapixel camera and the sharp video. However, the videos are not easily transferred back to your email or PC.  I always seem to have search, audio, shopping and game programs working at the same time and the speed of this processor was way better than any Blackberry or IPhone and even more efficient than Nokia, the world wide leader in smart phones. And the built in Wi-Fi was as fast as I’ve ever experienced. The few questions I had did not require Verizon customer support; one call HTC took care of any technical issues and their support agents even explained some of the network issues better than Verizon customer support ever did.

After a few weeks using the “Incredible”, I realized that thanks to the close to 8 megapixel camera, sharp video player and other way better than IPhone features,  this was now my favorite multimedia smartphone with an incredible vast bag of tricks.

Droid Incredible customers will need to subscribe to a Verizon Wireless Nationwide Talk and an Email and Web for Smartphone plan.  Nationwide Talk plans begin at $39.99 for monthly access.  Email and Web for Smartphone plans start at $29.99 for unlimited monthly access.

Switching to and from Cable can be a Dream

All of a sudden, Cablevision seems to have gotten the message. I wish the same can be said for Time Warner. In the small condo I have in New England, I dropped AT&T’s DSL and Ma Bell’s TV service is so bad in our area, a plain antenna might be better than AT&Ts Uverse TV service. What’s more infuriating is that AT&T could not even come up with a budget plan. With taxes and other fees, what they offered was not a good deal.  I decided to re-up with Cablevision for basic service and Internet and phone. Because of the security system at this condo, you have to a have some form of phone…and we also need some basic Internet. While AT&T wouldn’t make a deal for me to keep me as a customer, after a few calls Cablevision lowered its rate for all three services (phone, TV and Internet) and even gave me a premier TV level for six months and a second HD box for free.  But that’s not what sealed the deal.

No matter what service I’ve used there for a few years, my bandwidth seems to die at certain times, especially when I am streaming Netflix, VuDu and other services, even though we’re in the middle of the woods and hardly anyone lives near me. Cablevision took the time to find a small bug in their own system and fixed it, a problem that AT&T was never able to find and fix.

Back at my city apartment, I’ve had Time Warner for nearly 20 years. The last four have been horrible. Their cable-boxes break, their own cable-cards, which hardly  work in the new TiVo and many new TVs, crash twice a week and their rate increases were not warranted. My Verizon DSL has never been great, but it was reliable but now Verizon’s phone service has gone down-hill too as they try to sell off the POTS (Plain Old Telephone Lines) and get out of the phone business.

FIOS * finally arrived here, so after hearing there was a two year special package and no exit fees and a final cost way lower than Time Warner’s 3-in-1 service, I jumped at the chance.  Since I’ve been a reporter and Verizon consultant I expected a long  FIOS install  so I allocated a day for that. And while I wasn’t happy about the third party construction company that did NOT do a clean job of installing the fiber optics in this big building, I was impressed how Verizon’s FIOS installers (unlike Time Warner) knew what a cable card was and knew it was not an easy process to install. But at the end of the day, I had FIOS 3 in 1 service up and running. I can see why Cable companies are panicking when FIOS gets near their territory. But a reminder,  FIOS related TV listings and customer website are so bad they must have outsourced that work to Time Warner. More on that next week.

Where Microsoft Beats Apple and Why!

I recently had some unusual issues with my Mac. I do not use the Mac as much as my PCs because there are just not that many great programs and it’s slower than my PCs. Nevertheless, it’s relatively more reliable than any Microsoft based product I use.
I have a three year service agreement with Apple, which doesn’t live up to its hype. Apple’s tech support is pretty good at solving Apple issues.  But they don’t solve third party product issues, even when you’ve purchased those products from Apple. Apple demands that you call the software and accessory manufacturers yourself. Not good.
Here’s how Microsoft handles a problem that Apple support won’t.

I recently upgraded my oldest PC to Windows 7 because I have some really good productivity and edu-tainment products that don’t run on any Mac. The problem: while Win 7 installed easily, the device drivers for that machine were not to be found, so my speakers didn’t work, I couldn’t get online and even my keyboard went splooey.  All these would be considered third party Apps by Apple and they wouldn’t touch them. Microsoft, not only answered quickly and knew of the issue (several Compaq-HP models seem to have some Win 7 issues). The Microsoft support team people, a couple of determined, polite and confident folks from the Philippines, not only took over my PC to find the drivers, but when it was apparent that some of the accessories might not work they asked me if they could spend some of their own research time and discover some fixes that HP-Compaq should have provided.  I said yes knowing full well that no customer-tech support people ever really call you back (especially Apple’s).

But I was wrong! An hour later Microsoft called back, took over my PC with my new Win 7 OS and voila, it works! Total cost: nothing!  I am still waiting for my $139 Apple support team to call me back. Not holding my breath.

Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Saves Time and Changes My Mind

Last year I praised Microsoft for building into its operating system an easy way for the average person to burn CDs, make and edit their home videos, and send and customize their digital photos. I trashed companies like Roxio, for bundling and/or selling deluxe editions of multimedia editing and creating software on most PCs that crash your computer.. And while other software makers like Nero and Arcsoft have been around for years selling or bundling their multimedia editing software with digital cameras, camcorders and PCs, not one company made an easy to use multimedia program for the masses.

To this day, outside of some computer nerds, all I ever hear from readers and viewers is that Roxio just did this or that to my favorite photo, or locked up my PC or lost my family video or cut the music on my CD in half. So I was reluctant to try Nero 10, which claims it has solved all of these issues.

Oh my goodness, Nero 10 really did solve almost all the issues! It goes beyond what comes with Windows 7, helping you make a DVD or even a Blue Ray disk from your family video collection. It easily converts your music downloads into a CD, and makes it easy to edit and improve your digital still pictures. And Nero 10 did not crash my PC. For less than $100 (and I’ve seen it much cheaper already), the program does take a while to install but once all the pieces are in place it’s very easy to use. Nero 10 also has terrific data recovery and backup features, just in case you or the program has problems you won’t lose your videos, pictures and music. I am guessing that the great features in Nero 10 will spur its arch rivals to make their multimedia editing programs easier and better.