Monday, July 31, 2006

Cricket Cell Phone Service

Updated : Dec 28th 2006

Maybe you've heard of Cricket, they're the cell phone company with insane prices like $45 dollars a month for unlimited everything plus you don't need a contract.

So what's the catch ?

You pay full price for the cell phone.

Cricket currently offers 9 cell phones ranging in price from $100 to $300.

Note : Cricket changes their phone information often - please click the phone model to see their current phones and prices. Some phones are not listed until you enter your location !

  • Phone Name -------- $Store Price / $Web Price
Kyocera models :
Motorola models :
  • w315 ---------------- $140 / $120
  • RAZR V3C -------- $280 / $260
UTStarcom models :
Nokia models :
  • 6165i ---------------- $200 / $180
  • 6256i ---------------- $300 / $280

Your plan only includes calls made from your "home calling area"

What does this mean to you ? Here's how Cricket explains it in their "Terms of Service" :

(e) Cricket Rate Plans, upgrades, and service enhancements require outgoing calls be made from within your home calling area. If calls are made outside your home calling area, the call may not go through and you may be charged additional fees, surcharges, regulatory charges, taxes, and other amounts.

Please read the Crickets Terms of Service carefully because there is A LOT of important stuff in there that will effect you and may end up costing you money.

Conclusions

The Cricket prices look too good to be true because they are too good to be true !

Yes there is no contract.
Yes the calling plan prices are great.
No you will not get a great deal on a phone.
No this will not work like a regular cell phone service.

So if you plan on using Cricket mobile be aware that when you go out of town things may get a bit tricky !

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Saturday, July 29, 2006

What's up with MySpace ?

Never in all of my web browsing experience have I come across a site with so many errors. It seems I can't go more than a few pages before encountering some form of a MySpace error. Most disturbingly I don't even use MySpace during peak hours - I use it from about 2am CST on. Right now it's about 6:30am CST and I'm watching MySpace spit out DLL errors and the infamous :

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.


Well if that's the case the MySpace technical group must get 35 million emails everyday. Why is it MySpace can't get things working right ? Is it a lack of money (doubtful) ? A lack of desire ? A like of ability ?

Surely there are 10,000 technology companies who are dying to get part of the MySpace pie. So how is it that for months on end MySpace just can't seem to get the job done.

MySpace has turned into Microsoft

They think we need them more than they need us. MySpace has gotten so large that they think it's ok to just idle around and let these problems go on and on. However I'm not saying MySpace doesn't fix problems. I'm sure they fix a ton of problems.

MySpace's generic error message :

Sorry! an unexpected error has occurred.

This error has been forwarded to MySpace's technical group.

Has become the new blue screen of death for MySpace users. Everyone has seen it, it comes and goes mysteriously and most of the time you can just try again and the feature will work.

Are there not enough programmers in the world so MySpace can resolve these issues ? Right now MySpace is running two races :

1. Add new features
2. Fix broken features

MySpace needs to spend a lot more time on #1 or no one is going to be around to see #2.

The fact of the matter is that if MySpace does not even the balance out between adding new features and fixing broken features users will start migrating to their competitors.

Friday, July 14, 2006

So You Want a Whiz-Bang Looking Logo ?

If so you're part of a big club.

A good amount of web masters out there want a logo for their web site that looks like it was made with a SGI Prism cluster.

I can empathize with these web masters. You're merely trying to make sure your web site looks top of the line in a bid to attract and retain visitors. No harm no foul.

But let's take a look at something shall we ...

Let's take a little trip over to the Alexia Top 500 list. Now if you take a look at the current top 30 (see list below) you'll notice not a one of them has a Whiz-Bang cutting edge rendered with a SGI Prism cluster looking logo. In fact, most of the sites I go to have fairly plain looking logos.

What does it all mean ? I'll leave that one to you.


Taken @ July 14th 2006 @ 4:55 pm CST

1. Yahoo! @ http://www.yahoo.com
2. Microsoft Network (MSN) @ http://www.msn.com
3. Google @ http://www.google.com
4. Myspace @ http://www.myspace.com
5. EBay @ http://www.ebay.com
6. Microsoft Corporation @ http://www.microsoft.com
7. Live.com @ http://www.live.com
8. Amazon.com @ http://www.amazon.com
9. Passport.net @ http://www.passport.net
10. YouTube @ http://www.youtube.com
11. Blogger.com @ http://www.blogger.com
12. Google UK @ http://www.google.co.uk
13. BBC Newsline Ticker @ http://www.bbc.co.uk
14. Orkut.com @ http://www.orkut.com
15. Go @ http://www.go.com
16. Alibaba.com @ http://www.alibaba.com
17. Craigslist.org @ http://www.craigslist.org
18. CNN - Cable News Network @ http://www.cnn.com
19. The Internet Movie Database @ http://www.imdb.com
20. AOL @ http://www.aol.com
21. EBay UK @ http://www.ebay.co.uk
22. Xanga @ http://www.xanga.com
23. Flickr @ http://www.flickr.com
24. Google.ca @ http://www.google.ca
25. Friendster @ http://www.friendster.com
26.Megaupload @ http://www.megaupload.com
27. Adult Friendfinder @ http://www.adultfriendfinder.com
28. Geocities @ http://www.geocities.com
29. Hi5.com @ http://www.hi5.com
30. Comcast.net @ http://www.comcast.net

Monday, July 03, 2006

Cingular , More bars in more places

Some of you may remember this little event from recent history,

Cingular Wireless said Tuesday it would buy AT&T Wireless Services Inc. for about $41 billion, topping a rival bid from Vodafone of Britain in a deal that would create the nation's biggest mobile phone company.
...
The deal would make Cingular the largest wireless carrier, ahead of Verizon Wireless, with about 46 million subscribers.
...

The two companies said the merger will let them offer better service in 97 of the top 100 U.S. markets.

CNN

Ah the good old days when it was win win win. Here is my reality. I often spend time in and around one of the largest cities in America. How's my cell phone reception ? It sucks. More bars in more places ? I don't care how many freaking little bars I got on my cell phone , I need actual reception. Pretty little bars are doing nothing for me. I've dropped calls when my cell phone had bars.

So what's the deal ? Now Cingular and AT&T are a mega company but my cell phone service sucks. During conversations my phone cuts out entirely too much. Often times I can't go more than 5 minutes without having to ask the other person to repeat what they said. I've had calls drop while I was stationary supposedly because I lost my signal.

How ? Where did it go ? I didn't move, did the tower move ? Is the tower full ?

More bars in more places ?

Give me more and/or better cell phone towers.

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