Tag Archives: at&t

Finding a place in line…

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I’ll be doing a live blog this morning from the Apple Store in Memphis. Sure, I could have ordered for home delivery, but I actually enjoy the festivities at the store on release days. With a reservation, standing in line isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s become part of my summer routine. It’s a good day to nurture your inner geek. More to come after I’ve stopped for coffee and checked out how things are playing out at the store.

5:20: arrived at Apple Store. Wow. Not like other launch days where I got here an hour early and was 20th in line. I’m probably 200th in the “reserved” line. The walk-up line snakes out of sight in the other direction. Does that make me one of the lucky ones. Looking like the potential for a long morning here.

Don’t believe me? Here’s a shot if the parking lot… And at 5:40, there are definitely no other stores even thinking about opening yet.

6:30 – About to do the window reveal at the store. Can hear the cheers inside the building. Curtain drops… And predictably the crowd goes wild.

6:32 – seems like I’ve lost the content posted around 6:00 – the short version is: the ambulance showed up for a geek who was overcome, Memphis news is reporting live about a bunch of Anglos standing in line in the suburbs, and there is no parking anywhere in the mall lot. Good stuff.

6:59 – about to be open for business. The end of both lines now goes around behind both wings of the building. For the record. It’s a big building

7:03 – and we’re open for business.

7:30 – and we’re moving right along. I’ve probably moved half the distance to the store now, which isn’t awful considering volume. It’s awfully slow going for the other line, but I admire their optimism. Word from someone who just came out of the store is that activations are “going pretty slow,” a phrase that makes me more than a little nervous.

7:50 – Maybe I spoke too soon. The line hasn’t moved in 20 minutes. Not good.

8:18 – Looks like 45-50 people still ahead of me in line, but the number behind me keeps getting longer. Easily 200+ in the reserved line now, but it appears that the tail end of the walk-in line has wise up and people have started drifting off. Reliable ETA on being out the door is still too tough to calculate.

8:51 – 25 people +/- ahead of me now. Finally made it to the front of the store and back into the shade. Don’t fool yourself, the morning sun in Memphis will peel the hide off ya.

9:30 – front of the line. The look on the faces of those who didn’t preorder is priceless. See below:

9:33 – heading inside. That’s it from the launch in Memphis. I have a few stops to make on the way to the house, but there’ll be more updates once I’m all synced up.

Starting strong…

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If nothing else, I can say that I started the day strong. When others were getting booted and being timed out on the AT&T and Apple websites, I managed to reserve my iPhone 4 for pick up next Thursday. By 5:50 this morning, I had my confirmation email and realized, somewhat disturbingly, that I had reached what was likely to be the high point of the day. Seriously, on a work day, what’s going to be better then the moment you confirm that you’re going to have your hands on this summer’s neatest new toy?

All I need to do now is show up, hand over $199 + tax, sign a new two year contract that I have no intention of staying in longer than a year, and wait in line for the 7 AM opening of the local Apple Store. It’s like any other high holy day, except with bottled water and granola. And it’s possibly the only time of year when I don’t really mind standing in line and being forced to socialize with total strangers. Of course then there’s the inevitable anger when iTunes grinds to a halt under the volume of people trying to activate new phones. That’s part of the price of being a ridiculously early adopter.

Despite what I consider one of the better starts, the day ended, as most days do… with my being annoyed. However, I wasn’t violently annoyed in that wanting to bludgeon someone with a desk chair kind of way, so perhaps I’m making progress and getting through the anger stage into acceptance… or is that indifference? Eh, who can tell the difference anyway. See, I’m growing as a person.

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It’s all about the hype…

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Compared to the iPad announcement back in March, the expected announcement tomorrow the next-generation iPhone is just around the corner seems to be practically drifting gently into that good night. That’s to be expected, I suppose, as most people aren’t all that interested in new tech until they can actually hold it in their hands. That’s well and good. Tomorrow is more of a holiday for the early adopters among us anyway. Of course there are too many rumors to speculate on at the moment, but it would appear to be reasonable to expect a wholly new form factor, a higher resolution display, more powerful processor, two cameras, and, of course OS4. Most everything else seems up for grabs, including the date when it will actually be available for sale. Rumors on that are everything from the day after tomorrow to June 27th. My personal guesstimate is leaning more towards the end of the month. Any earlier than that and we’re almost certainly be hearing rumors circulating about delivery plan or other pre-sale groundwork being put in place. Hopefully mid-afternoon tomorrow, I’ll at least know when I need to schedule leave later in the month.

As a rule, I hate to feel like I’m on the receiving end of a sales pitch, but for me at least, iPhone is a product that has basically sold itself. Given Apple’s iterative method of introducing product improvements, I’m really looking forward to seeing what extras are in store (multitasking, please? Please?). I’ve given the phone a pass on alot of things because what it does, it does so well, but I’m really needing this version to bring most of the loose ends together. Maybe that way I can continue to forgive AT&T’s god-awful service and crippling data limits.

AT&T… You fail. Again.

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Dear AT&T Mobility,

I just want to drop a brief note and let you know I’m thinking about you today. I’d like to thank you for doing your level best to cripple the wonderful new iPad 3G I bought less than a month ago with your new data usage plans. I was ok dealing with the idea that my “unlimited” data plan really meant that I had 5 GB of data available each month. But now, thanks to your apparent inability to expand your cellular network to meet consumer demand, you’ve thoughtfully dropped that limit to 2 GB. But hey, I’ll save $5 a month for getting 3/5 less capacity… unless of course I go over my 2 GB limit, in which case you’ll hit me with another $25 charge, in which case I’ll be paying an additional $20 for 1/5 less capacity. I’m not a fancy big city math major, but it seems to me that what you’re doing is charging almost twice the price, providing only 4/5 the service, and calling it a victory for cellular data users. You’re logical gymnastics are truly the stuff of legend. Very impressive.

Now the reality is that most months I won’t come close to using 5 GB of cellular data since I’m usually running over a wifi network, but during those times when I’m away from a hotspot, it was nice knowing that 3G could fill the gap and I would happily pay my $30 a month for having that capacity in my hip pocket when I needed it. All you’ve done with your new tiered pricing plan is reinforce the image of AT&T mobility as a somewhat fecklessly run operation whose network teeters on the brink of failure under its regular daily load. When you announced the $30 a month unlimited plan for iPad, I really had hoped that you’d finally gotten your act together. Apparently, not so much.

So, yeah, it’s good to know that the $100+ a month I’ve been paying you for more years than I care to remember has been going to do good works like building up network infrastructure and increasing bandwidth availability. You guys are really, really bad at this cellular stuff. The future of wireless is always going to be more data, not less. Trying to artificially hold down demand in the short term by raising rates may work in the short term, but your not going to change the nature of consumption. Each new evolution in technology is going to be more reliant on data, not less, and every month that passes is going to leave your network less able to meet demand.

Today you’re the only game in town, but those days are numbered. You’re on the wrong side of the argument and your customers know it.

Sincerely yours,

Jeff

Bold…

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It’s true, I crave neat new electronic toys like drunks crave their next drink or junkies their next fix, but come on now, you have to admit that the BlackBerry Bold is one sexy beast. Of course with the endless series of delays from our friends at RIM and AT&T, it’s been almost interminable waiting for this phone to actually drop. But now it looks like November 4th is the official release date. Yes, it’s election day here in the states and yes, I’ll be on the road, but you can bet your sweet bippy that once I get away from class that afternoon my first stop won’t be for a TV update on the election. I’ll be too busy looking for an AT&T store.

I Have Sinned… or The Devil Phone from Planet Hell…

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Let me start off by saying I didn’t mean to do it. My old service plan was up and I was going to the Cingular (Now AT&T) Store to upgrade to the 8300 (a.k.a Curve) but somehow I ended up getting distracted by the shiny black iPhone screen in the middle of the store. In my defense I’ve always been distracted by the latest and “gee wiz” technology… Well, technology and big boobs, but I digress.

Forgive me, RIM, for I have sinned against you. I cast aside the glory that is push email service and synchronization with Outlook, but I have learned the folly of my errant ways. I will be safe and warm in the fold of the true believers by noon tomorrow. Now, I’ve seen much of the rest of the world. It is brutal and cruel and dark, BlackBerry is the light. Your prodigal son shall return.

Snarl…

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Here’s a breakdown of three recent charges on my debit card…

– DirecTV = $170.15
– Direct Insurance = $168.75
– AT&T prepaid cell phones (3) = $87.93.

The problem is mainly that none of those charges was actually mine. So, currently I have $1 in my wallet along with a debit card that is deactivated. I have a police report that I can pick up tomorrow afternoon, and Bank of America looking into the situation. Fortunately, they were nice enough to credit my account after I filled out an affidavit and faxed it back to them this morning.

I talked to a “fraud specialist” with AT&T this afternoon who was able to tell me that the charges were made by someone using the name “Jackie.” They declined to give me any more information about the individual until I fax them a copy of the police report. So, Jackie, hear this… I’m coming for you. And when I find you, I’m going to latch on like a bulldog and make your life absolutely miserable. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to loose months of frustration on a singularly deserving target.