The Ipad Feature I Want

I've spent some time thinking about the iPad from Apple. In the nutshell, it is an overgrown iPod Touch, and is hampered, at least for now with its smartphone OS. Apparently, it is a pain in the butt to do any real typing on with the touchscreen keyboard. It would be an ok product for half the price, but at $500 to start, I think only the Apple faithful will embrace the thing.

However, there is one "feature" that I would love to have. That is the 3G, at that price. While wireless 3G, from any of the carriers runs $60 a month for the "unlimited" 5 gigs plan, how can the iPad offer it at $30? While I can't justify $60 each month for the time away from the computer, at half that it becomes a far more tempting offer. On top of that, the 250 mb plan of $14.99 a month, might be just what this digital doc needs.

Unfortunately, there is no word if any other 3G gadgets will get that type of pricing. I hope they do, as we shouldn't have to pay the "Apple Tax" to get a fair price on a wireless 3G plan for those of us that don't have access to WiFi 24/7.

Jonas

Verizon LG VX8360

I've gotta love the Verizon sales strategies. Since the summer I've had the Verizon LG VX8360 around the house. It is a traditional flip phone, which is quite boring by today's smartphone standards. However, not everyone wants mobile data on the move.

There is a major problem with this phone however. Even after reading reviews of it, I got stuck with one. When the phone is powered off, the battery drains. If left off overnight, the battery will go from fully charged to one or two bars.... totally unacceptable. In some other industries, they might recall the product, and make it right. Not so in the world of cellphones!

On my first trip to the Verizon store to complain, they claimed major ignorance on the issue. I told them that it was well documented on both the LG and Verizon forums. I was told they had never heard of this; it must be me. I did mange them to swap out the battery, but it did not change anything, and the problem persisted.

On another trip to the store, for the same problem, they did offer to swap out the phone... for a refurb. As mine is in pristine condition, I hesitated, and declined. Probably a mistake in retrospect, but my workaround was to keep the phone on all the time. Does this sound like the way things should work from "Big Red?"

Today, I was back at the store once again. This time they didn't disagree with me, and offered another refurb of the same lousy phone. This time I took it as even with being on, the phone went from 4 bars of battery to dead overnight. I also got a new battery out of them.

We will see if the problem persists, but all signs point to that it will. I think they just hope you get bored with the process, and get beyond the one year guarantee on a 2 year contract. I can just hear it coming next summer "You're not due for a new phone yet, but this one is not working...."

Stay tuned! I have already decided that if this how LG stands behind their products, I'm not buying their junk again.

Jonas

Netbook No

Ever get the feeling you are not supposed to buy something...? I'm feeling that way about a netbook.

I had decided that if I found a good deal on a netbook, I would splurge on it. My budget was less than $250, and with the sales I did not think this was gonna be that hard.

First was the NewEgg deal on Black Friday. They had an Acer Aspire AOD250 for $190. Unfortunately, everyone else tried to get it, and they probably had like 3. NewEgg's servers crashed, and while the item was in my cart, the sale got canceled. Hey, not everything works out.

Undaunted, a few days later, I found a Compaq at Best Buy. This time it was going for $180, but it was a 3 cell. Still, at that price I couldn't pass, but it had to be picked up at a local store. The next day, all 5 Best Buys in my area were out of them. Ok, I figure I will keep looking online.

This last week, I found an Asus 1005HA refurb at B&H Photo. It was going for $260 with the shipping and tax, but I figured I needed to expand the budget a little bit. Besides, it was blue. I am not sure, why, but I would like a blue netbook, and this one met that requirement. I ordered it, and I have not dealt with B&H before, but I figured they have been around. Two days later, I am checking on my order to track the package, and literally simultaneously, they are calling me. They tell me that while the item was on the site, they have nothing to ship me. They offer me free shipping on something else, but I doubt anyone will remember by the time I would order anything. Somehow, I wasn't shocked by this phone call.

At this point, I can purchase the netbook, but it was cost closer to $300. At that price point, I will just wait for CES. The N450 Atom chip promises a smidge more performance, and even lower overall power consumption. And who knows if Tegra is coming out for real this time in a smartbook.

At any rate, when these same retailers complain that sales are down, perhaps they should look at their own practices and not wonder why...

Jonas

Nothing To Buy

I'm not sure if it is a function of knowing too much, the products not being quite right, or just a down economy having me skittish. However, for the time being, I just can't seem to buy anything, even with Black Friday just around the corner.

For example, we can start with Blu-ray players. Nope, never bought one. I am still using my DVD player, a Sharp, from 2001. Sure I might like one. While the prices have come down, of course, the longer I wait, my expectations go up. Now, not only do I want the player, but also something that can play NetFlix, and YouTube, oh and Hulu would be great too. Never mind nothing does the Hulu part, but hey, I can hope, right. Clearly the $149 Blu-ray at Wal-Mart is not gonna do it.

Move on to a new HDTV. This time I'd like a 32" LCD. 720p is ok, but I would like for it to not only offer awesome picture quality, but also be internet connected. I've accepted that whatever TV I buy will be the last one for several years. Hence, I want it to be the very latest and greatest. Last year, very little new came out in this area, just some mild incremental improvements. Therefore, I've skipped over this purchase for a year, and wait to see if anything piques my interest at CES this year.

On to GPS gear. I would like a new one, but not truly need it. My maps are from 2005, but with the cost of the update, I could just put it towards a new unit. With MSN getting ready to abandon their service, the GPS companies have to be doing something to make their units better without it. I also notice that Garmin hasn't come out with something for a while which adds to the curiosity. There are units that have free ad supported traffic now, but I'm wondering what the next big thing will be. Network traffic like the Dash Express pioneered? Time based traffic patterns? Better integration to Google Maps? Or something even better? Yup, keeping the wallet closed on this as well.

Which leads us to netbooks. I would love one that could do the following: all day battery, 11" screen, non Win XP OS, can display PDF's, under 3 pounds, and decent processing power. By decent, I mean faster than my Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor, which the current N270 is not, and the Z520 is even more notches slower. Oh, and before you suggest a CULV, I would like this unit to cost around $250 or so. Ok, this might be a pipe dream, but I want something powerful enough to justify lugging it around, but cheap enough that I won't be heartbroken if it disappears. It is not a matter of being careful, but there are times when I just can't have it with me at all times at work. While I've been watching for a sale, I realize that what I want is just not happening for now. Once again, I've gotta wait as the coming wave of smartbooks may fulfill most of this, although, I may have to go to a 10" screen. Check out the video below to see what should be coming in the next several months that may eat the current crop of netbooks for lunch.



At any rate, for now, it just appears that there is nothing quite right to purchase. Perhaps it is just me, or the greater economic times. Here's hoping to better stuff in 2010!

Jonas

What a Cable

After my foray into streaming content to my HDTV, I was hooked, and wanted more. Not just in quality but in quantity as well. Clearly I needed a new cable.

After going through Amazon, I settled on one. It had a VGA connection on both ends, as well as a mini-RCA for the audio. It is 15 feet long, and was under $13 with the shipping figured in. These places often make the wire cheap and then overprice the shipping, so I just calculate the TCO = total cost of ownership, and this was still a good deal.

I hooked up the cable. Turns out that on the back of my HDTV, there is a dedicated audio out jack that goes with the VGA that I hadn't even noticed until I really got behind the TV set in the daylight hours.

While I had gotten this to work on Vista with no prob, with the Windows 7 upgrade, it was anything but simple. I had to seriously play around with the dual display settings, and also redo the resolution to something that my 720p HDTV didn't choke on. However, when it was done, I had high quality video, and full audio, and it was well worth the effort. For anyone who doesn't have a notebook with an HDMI out, a cable like I linked to below can get the job done.

Jonas