Cell Phone Blues Redux
Okay, so reading over my old post, I know where I left you, and now I’ll fill you in on the story so far.
(How’s the poll coming along? I hope you did it before you started reading this. >_>;; )
Just caught Tally eating off the plate behind me, have to take care of that. I’d completely forgotten I’d set it behind me a few minutes ago and he was going to town on it. The tell tail sound of the fork moving as he licked it alerted me.
Anyway. Last we saw our intrepid hero, I’d been going to get a new phone. So Wednesday morning I get up at around 8 or so, eat some breakfast and start reading reviews. My primary target had been the Pantech Duo, but a lot of the reviews didn’t like it. From there I turned my attention to the Blackjack II and the Motorola Q. I put together a microSD card of Word docs, PDFs, jpgs, mp3s and movies. I wanted to test the performance on the different hand helds. At around 12:30 I was ready to go and play with the phones.
I spent the next five hours playing with five phones. I did check out the two I was interested in, the Pantech, the iPhone, and the AT&T Tilt. I played the movies I brought with me, the sound files, opened the word docs, and the pdf. Well, I couldn’t do any of that on the iPhone so I just sort of… held it… and poked at it.
I’d only had a bagel at this point, so I headed to the food court for a burrito.
Upon my return, I decided to take the plunge and got the Tilt. What eventually sold me on it was the Transcriber input method on its touch screen. The phone is very much a pda as well, something I’m hoping to put to good use.
So we converted my account, turning off my old SIM card and getting a fancy new one for the new phone. The new SIM doesn’t work in my old phone, as it’s a “different carrier” and the old SIM was turned off, as no account is connected to it anymore.
That evening I stopped off at Anne’s and we tried to watch shows but they were all in reruns still. Anne worked on her Café Press store and I started an argument. There was much venting and then I went home.
The next day, I started right in on the phone. I got it hooked up to my computer with Bluetooth and was sending files back and forth. I called the AT&T CS rep and got the unlocking code for it. I was in the process of putting in all of my appointments and making a to do list on it when I started to have problems figuring out how to do some text editing.
While researching how to do text highlighting in Transcriber, I did a Google search. I checked different blogs, the MS site, and stuff on sound file to text transcibers. I read articles on an old version, I found references to the APIs and how to program in the framework.
Eventually, I was so desperate, I clicked on an Amazon link because I thought maybe the review covered it. (Big mistake.) I found that Amazon had my phone for about $100 less, and with no rebates, and less tax to pay. So I went and took my phone back to the store.
Before it went back I got everything out of it, including the new SIM… that … didn’t work in my old phone… hmmmmmm. At least I wouldn’t be without a phone for too long. Amazon has two day shipping.
Coming back, I called AT&T to double-check I could order my new phone. I find out that it would take a week or so to get the paperwork filed. Until then, I wouldn’t be able to get the Amazon phone and still qualify for the upgrade account path. Uh-oh.
Looking over the phone on Amazon again, I noticed fine print that I’d missed earlier. The phone would require a very expensive data plan for six months. The AT&T store also required the data plan, but they’d let you cancel the plan as soon as the register had chimed. At $240 for those six months, the phone was actually more expensive from Amazon!
Whoops.
So just to make sure, I checked another website I know that sells phones. They had it for more than Amazon, less than the AT&T store, but required a more expensive voice plan to take advantage of the discount. Again, not a winner.
So, yesterday I bought the phone, today I took it back, and tomorrow I’m going back to the store to buy it again.
And people wonder why I don’t buy things!!!!
(How’s the poll coming along? I hope you did it before you started reading this. >_>;; )
Just caught Tally eating off the plate behind me, have to take care of that. I’d completely forgotten I’d set it behind me a few minutes ago and he was going to town on it. The tell tail sound of the fork moving as he licked it alerted me.
Anyway. Last we saw our intrepid hero, I’d been going to get a new phone. So Wednesday morning I get up at around 8 or so, eat some breakfast and start reading reviews. My primary target had been the Pantech Duo, but a lot of the reviews didn’t like it. From there I turned my attention to the Blackjack II and the Motorola Q. I put together a microSD card of Word docs, PDFs, jpgs, mp3s and movies. I wanted to test the performance on the different hand helds. At around 12:30 I was ready to go and play with the phones.
I spent the next five hours playing with five phones. I did check out the two I was interested in, the Pantech, the iPhone, and the AT&T Tilt. I played the movies I brought with me, the sound files, opened the word docs, and the pdf. Well, I couldn’t do any of that on the iPhone so I just sort of… held it… and poked at it.
I’d only had a bagel at this point, so I headed to the food court for a burrito.
Upon my return, I decided to take the plunge and got the Tilt. What eventually sold me on it was the Transcriber input method on its touch screen. The phone is very much a pda as well, something I’m hoping to put to good use.
So we converted my account, turning off my old SIM card and getting a fancy new one for the new phone. The new SIM doesn’t work in my old phone, as it’s a “different carrier” and the old SIM was turned off, as no account is connected to it anymore.
That evening I stopped off at Anne’s and we tried to watch shows but they were all in reruns still. Anne worked on her Café Press store and I started an argument. There was much venting and then I went home.
The next day, I started right in on the phone. I got it hooked up to my computer with Bluetooth and was sending files back and forth. I called the AT&T CS rep and got the unlocking code for it. I was in the process of putting in all of my appointments and making a to do list on it when I started to have problems figuring out how to do some text editing.
While researching how to do text highlighting in Transcriber, I did a Google search. I checked different blogs, the MS site, and stuff on sound file to text transcibers. I read articles on an old version, I found references to the APIs and how to program in the framework.
Eventually, I was so desperate, I clicked on an Amazon link because I thought maybe the review covered it. (Big mistake.) I found that Amazon had my phone for about $100 less, and with no rebates, and less tax to pay. So I went and took my phone back to the store.
Before it went back I got everything out of it, including the new SIM… that … didn’t work in my old phone… hmmmmmm. At least I wouldn’t be without a phone for too long. Amazon has two day shipping.
Coming back, I called AT&T to double-check I could order my new phone. I find out that it would take a week or so to get the paperwork filed. Until then, I wouldn’t be able to get the Amazon phone and still qualify for the upgrade account path. Uh-oh.
Looking over the phone on Amazon again, I noticed fine print that I’d missed earlier. The phone would require a very expensive data plan for six months. The AT&T store also required the data plan, but they’d let you cancel the plan as soon as the register had chimed. At $240 for those six months, the phone was actually more expensive from Amazon!
Whoops.
So just to make sure, I checked another website I know that sells phones. They had it for more than Amazon, less than the AT&T store, but required a more expensive voice plan to take advantage of the discount. Again, not a winner.
So, yesterday I bought the phone, today I took it back, and tomorrow I’m going back to the store to buy it again.
And people wonder why I don’t buy things!!!!