The Dodge Retort

Someone was extolling the virtues of magicJack recently at a party. magicJack is the $40 gizmo you plug into any USB port. Then you plug in any conventional phone into magicJack and presto, you have land line phone for free – sort of.

I ordered a magicJack and it arrived promptly, but I never tried it. Why? Because, it was a great idea  - six months ago. The relentless pace of new technology marches on.

Now, Google has come out with Call, a free service where you can dial any phone in the U.S. and Canada from Gmail. Google’s international rates can be a bit pricey or cheap  - two cents a minute for Australia and 37 minutes for Algeria (Guinea Bissau was the most expensive I found at 75 cents a minute).

So I’ll stick with Google Voice or Call…it’s not clear what the name is…and Skype. I returned my magicJack for a refund…I don’t need another small piece of hardware to lose when the capability is already built into the five PCs I have.

One thing that irritated me about magicJack was how it boasted free service, but when I was ordering, magicJack was continually trying to up-sell me on expanded services and to buy other magicJacks. Somewhat ironically, magicJack’s splashy web site excerpts glowing reviews from the likes of New York Times, Boston Globe and CNBC.

“Skype and Vonage killer. Company must be watched,” gushes CNBC, the same network that gave us such horrendous  stock buying advice in 2008.

Much of this praise is undated and the magicJack reviews that are dated on a separate web page are mostly from 2007-08. In any case, it’s Google Call and Skype for me.

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I’ve been invited along with 600 others by the Verizon folks to watch the first NFL game ever broadcast on 3D TV. The game will be between the New England Patriots (my team) and New York Giants Sunday night Sept. 2.

The event is at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. It’s an away game – no crowds!! TDR (me) will file a full report about the experience.

For those already with 3D sets, it’ll aired on FIOS channel 834. Bring your 3D glasses. Here’s the news release from Verizon.

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NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                Media contacts:

August 11, 2010 See below

Verizon FiOS Scores First NFL Game on 3D TV: Giants-Patriots Preseason Match-Up on Sept. 2

Company to Produce and Broadcast the Game,

Exclusively for FiOS TV Customers

NEW YORK – Verizon is kicking off the football season with the production and broadcast of the first National Football League game in 3D on television for the company’s FiOS TV customers in parts of New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts andRhode Island.

The game is the Sept. 2 preseason match-up between the New York Giants and the New England Patriots, at New Meadowlands Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.  Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m., with Verizon FiOS1 pre-game, half-time and post-game shows – all in 3D.  The game begins at 7 p.m.

Verizon FiOS1 is producing the 3D broadcast, which will be shown on FiOS Channel 834 for FiOS TV subscribers in theNew York City area, including Long Island and Westchester and Rockland counties, as well as for subscribers in northern New Jersey, Mercer County, N.J., Massachusetts and Rhode Island.  Similar to previously offered 3D programming from Verizon, customers must have 3D TV sets, 3D glasses and a high-definition set-top box to view the broadcast.

The veteran on-air broadcast team includes play-by-play announcer Spero Dedes, analyst Howard Cross and sideline reporter Kimberly Jones.

“This is the next major step in our development of 3D experiences for our FiOS TV customers,” said Terry Denson, vice president of content strategy and acquisition for Verizon.  “Broadcasting the first 3D NFL game delivers on our promise to FiOS customers to provide a superior TV offering, including 3D, HD and VOD programming, as well as interactivity that cable can’t match.”

Giants Chief Marketing Officer Mike Stevens said, “The Giants are excited to host the first 3D broadcast of an NFL Game in our new stadium.  We have worked closely with our partner Verizon in developing new technology throughout the stadium for our fans, and now Verizon FiOS and the Giants will be taking the next step in innovation for our fans at home.”

In support of the 3D broadcast, Verizon will host customer viewing parties at New Meadowlands Stadium and at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.  Guests at Gillette Stadium will include youngsters from local Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

Verizon also is working with two popular sports bars in the New York and New England markets — Slate Bar in Manhattan and Snookers in Providence, R.I. — to give consumers a first-hand look at the power of Verizon’s 3D experience.  The company will set up 3D TVs at each location and hold promotional events there.

The broadcast marks Verizon’s third major 3D initiative this summer.  On July 10 and 11, the company broadcast the first Major League Baseball games in 3D, between the New York Yankees and the Seattle Mariners.  And on July 15, Verizon announced that it will carry 3D programming on FiOS TV Video on Demand from WealthTV.

“We are committed to bringing our customers a consistently high-quality TV experience with the best programming available over the country’s only all-fiber network,” added Denson.  “And there’s so much more yet to come, with new programming, applications and other enhancements that only FiOS can deliver.”

FiOS TV offers a broad collection of programming, with more than 565 all-digital channels including up to 142 HD channels and 18,000 monthly video-on-demand titles.  FiOS also provides next-generation interactive services including an advanced interactive media guide; social networking, news and entertainment widgets; remote DVR management via broadband or cell phone; and more.

In addition, with NFL Mobile only from Verizon, Giants and Patriots fans can get news, scores and highlights all season long on their Verizon Wireless smartphones.  For information on how to download, customers can visit www.verizonwireless.com/nfl.

For the latest news, updates and information about FiOS TV, visit www.verizon.com/newscenter andhttp://www.verizon.com/athomeblog.

By now, everyone and their mother has heard about the Bloomberg story yesterday that Verizon will get the iPhone by early next year. We’ve heard this before.

Here’s the top of the story.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment.

I was just on the phone with Verizon Blackberry support tech, who out of the blue offered me the iPhone – in jest, of course, but it was bold offer by a guy whose ilk are usually pretty scripted. This guy was good technically and spoke freely. “Both [Apple and Verizon] denied it so it must be true,” he said (they actually had no comment, which is even more of a loaded non-response).

“Let me tell you, it has been a roller coaster. Yes [we going to get it], no (we’re not going to get it], yes, no, yes, no. Our CEO has told Apple “we are waiting for you…we’re ready when you are…we want it,” he said.

Assuming it’s as powerful as the iPhone 4, the new addition would be one more step to Verizon’s domination of the U.S. wireless market. The Bloomberg story guesstimates Verizon could sell 12 million iPhones in the first year and it fair to assume many would be defections from AT&T’s inferior network.

“We can put AT&T out of business,” the Verizon spokesman volunteered (I was not playing my reporter self – this guy wanted to talk about this as we established a rapport). Coincidentally Verizon just launched it Rule the Air ad campaign to drive home that its network is superior to arch rival AT&T’s. The massage? To make sure “the signal is strong so the most important transmitter is you.”

Last week, I blogged about the blitz of phones Verizon is unleashing, which is hedging its bets if it doesn’t get the iPhone. Today’s expanding crop of Droids do just about as much the iPhone so that base is covered. The iPhone would be just one more red hot offering to Verizon’s 92.8 million wireless customers (to AT&T’s 85.1 million).

How can Apple ignore Verizon’s huge installed base any longer? Fact is, it can’t. Outlook for AT&T? Gloomy.

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Like me, you may have had something to do that prevented you from watching the U.S. versus Ghana World Cup match on TV. I had a wedding that started at 1 CDT in Minneapolis suburb Wayzata, Minn. Two hours for pictures and the ceremony would prevent from situating in front of the TV for the duration.

And representing AT&T....

Smartphones to the rescue. Not really. It was AT&T 3G and an iPhone v. my Blackberry Curve and Verizon 3G. Neither performed admirably. My son had the iPhone and for 30 minutes tried to get a video feed over the Internet and specifically over iTunes. That did not work. Waaaaaaay too slow. My aging Curve doesn’t do video.

So he abandoned that effort and went to live blogging at Guardian.co.uk. I opted for the ESPN live blog of the game which provided minute-by-minute (and very opinionated) updates. My live blog worked well for the first half, but completely shut down in the second. My son’s live blog worked throughout (yes, AT&T prevailed over Verizon).

Neither feed worked inside the church where the ceremony was held. Divine providence, perhaps! We only got reception in the vestibule, which improved near the windows.

By no means is this a definitive test. This was just my experience and where I happened to be when I REALLY wanted connectivity.

The inability for 3G to provide video and consistent connectivity reminded how badly we need 4G before the potential of the latest smart phones can be realized. Follow me on Twitter.

Verizon, which offers more  Smartphones or cell phones for that matter, added the Droid X to its expanding stable of hot Android phones. [Follow me on Twitter.]

The new Droid X has a BIG 4.3 inch display.

Motorola’s Droid X not only competes with its intended target, Apple’s iPhone 4, but other Verizon offerings such as the HTC Droid Incredible, which if you ordered today would not be shipped July 22nd. I chatted with “Charity” on the Verizon Wireless’ site and she offered me $30 off the the Incredible if I bought an accessory. Discounting a phone I can’t get for month!? Seems weird.

Verizon’s strategy is simple: blitz the market with powerful Android-based smartphones, which offer a great web experience, cam/camera, video, music – you know, the stuff brought to us first by the iPhone – and get all those customers to sign up for two years of Verizon wireless. Verizon could care less which phone you buy. It wants to send you those monthly bills which include a data plan.

When I asked Charity what the difference between the Incredible and Droid X, she said she was “unsure” and seemed intent on selling me an Incredible. From the looks of it, the main difference is bigger display. Note that HTC’s Evo 4G from Sprint has a 4.3 inch display – bigger displays is where smartphones are going.

It’s the razor blade strategy on steroids. Give the phones at a discount, which could be lot steeper, by the way. Here’s the Droid X details lifted from the Verizon press release (hype removed) that came out today.

“DROID X [offers] a 4.3-inch high-resolution screen (compared to the Incredible’s 3.7 inch display – TDR)  for viewing movies and video from BLOCKBUSTER On Demand^®presented by V CAST Video, the newest addition to the Verizon Wireless V CAST application, which also includes access to favorite TV shows.  The DROID X video capabilities let customers capture spontaneous fun, combining a dual-flash, 8-megapixel camera, HD camcorder, as well as DLNA and HDMI connectivity to download, stream and share personal HD content.

DROID X also [offers] Android 2.2 and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 with an over-the-air update in the latter half of the summer.  With the update, the Flash Player will allow mobile users to experience hundreds of sites with rich applications and content inside the browser, including games, animations, rich Internet applications (RIAs), data presentations and visualizations, ecommerce, music, video, audio and more.”

Boy Genius liked the Droid X – a lot, according to its first impression. I hope to get my hands on a review unit very soon. Here’s Boy Genius’ summary:

“Our first impressions are very, very positive. Between the phones impressive stat sheet and our initial tests we can’t wait to start really putting this thing through its paces over the next several weeks.”

By the way, a site called Shrinkage is Good sent me a handy chart comparing total cost of smartphone ownership when you commit to a phone and the service agreement that go with them.  Verizon is the most expensive of the four for both unlimited data plans and the minimum plans, which goes to show how relatively inconsequential the price of the phone is: it’s the phone bill, stupid!

The Droid  X isn’t on the chart, but would cost the same as the Droid Incredible. The chart is accompanied by a blog post which explains the usual apple to oranges comparison:

source:  Shrinkage is Good.

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I wish I could tell you this is my first post composed on my new iPad, but its on-screen keyboard doesn’t come when I use WordPress 3.0 in the Safari browser.

That’s just one example of things I can’t do on the iPad that I can on my netbooks, notebooks and tower PCs. Actually, I just found WordPress in the iPad App Store and with a couple tweaks, adapted my blog editor to the iPad. But going into WordPress straight through Safari was a bust.

Apple's WordPress app for iPad

So this post was half-composed with the iPad and I am still figuring out details like embedding links and that sort of thing.

Don’t get me wrong: there’s plenty to like about the iPad:  it’s a great reader, photo and video viewer with a fantastic display, but to three decade PC vet like me, it feels quirky. And the tablet metaphor has some drawbacks.

For instance, I recline using my netbook and notebook. With the display flipped up, I plunk the notebook down on my belly or chest and type with two hands. The tablet requires one hand to hold it up (it feels heavy at one pound, six ounces), leaving only one hand with which to peck away. For me, this is a downside of the tablet.

I have this idea for a sling like device attached to the iPad and fastened to my forehead. That would free up my left hand for typing. Or I could really grow mountainous beer belly and lean it against that.

No Adobe Flash on the iPad also means I can’t play my favorite Facebook game, Word Twist. And funneling everything through iTunes onto the iPad (save a the Camera Connection Kit, which my Apple store seems always out of) is a pain. iPad like Macs are closed systems.

I  like the iPad the more I understand its trove of features, but I won’t be giving up my PCs any time soon.

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Deciding when to upgrade your mobile phone is not automatic when you become discount eligible. Far from it. If you commit to the wrong phone, you’re stuck with it for 12 months unless you replace it at pay full price.

As Verizon customer support just told me, you have to “ride out the phone.”

That’s the case with Veriz0n, my provider. The phone I am eying is the HTC Droid Incredible which is $199.99 discounted for re-upping with Verizon for another two years. With no discount, it’s $529.99 which I doubt many are going to pay. Customers are conditioned to paying the discounted price.

But I don’t like getting locked into further two year commitments, which has prompted to me look at  no-contract providers like metroPCS with its “all-in pricing, additional taxes and regulatory fees included, no contracts, and no hidden surprises.”

Sounds great, but is it purely value I want? I returned a Palm Pre Plus to Verizon a month ago because while it was a great value at $50 with free mobile broadband, it wasn’t the phone I wanted (I became eligible for my 12-month upgrade in March). MetroPCS has very basic phones compared to Verizon. It has only two SmartPhones. Verizon has 26.

Some day, I’ll do the math about whether switching carriers is worth it. Verizon maximally charges between $175 to $350 per line, but pro-rates it depending on when you bail. For the four lines, my early termination fees today would be $460.

Another subtle gotcha is that my family members have all upgraded on different dates, which individually resets the contract for each line. That means, I am not free and clear of early termination fees when my line’s contract runs out next March 12th. I have to wait for all four to expire.

At least, Verizon has not abandoned its unlimited data program like AT&T, but that’s story for another day.

As much as I like the Droid Incredible, I may delay gratification 18 months until November when Verizon gives me $50 off a discounted phone for re-upping. And I can see what alternatives come along (4G?) to the Incredible and most likely, it’s discounted price could go down.

Bottom line? Mobile phone decisions should not be this difficult, convoluted, trap-ridden and remorseful. Verizon Wireless bombards us with new phones and then says we can’t them at a reasonable price unless we indenture ourselves. Contracts are full of gotchas and companies like Verizon have excessively inserted themselves into their customers’ lives.

In the end, companies with an approach like metroPCS’s could win this war.

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Picking up your land line phone and calling anywhere in the world is cheap, right? After all, the competition are freebies like  Gmail video chat and Skype.

Wrong on the first point! I blithely picked up the phone recently and dialed an Australian cell phone to do an interview. The charge just came in for the 22-minute call – $123.30 including tax.

The good news is Verizon forgave me for it because an understanding customer support person believed me when I told her the long distance operator informed me there’d by no charge. The operator had taken pity on me because I could not dial it direct, but did not follow through on erasing the charge.

The irony is the guy I interviewed – banking technology expert Brett King – was in New York at the time of the call – a mere 230 miles away from me in Boston.

I was surprised to hear from a Verizon call checker a couple of weeks ago to check if I actually made the call because  I have never phoned anyone Down Under before. At the time, the charge was $87 so somehow it grew to the billed amount of $123.30. The Verizon customer support person gave me an explanation, but I’ve already forgotten it.

The Verizon customer support person was in Andover, Mass. ,  a mere 15 miles from me. She was terrific. Had that person been halfway around the world, I highly doubt the charge would have been dropped.

It seems the further away,  the less empowered and sympathetic they are. Certainly, far flung customer support people are hard to understand over what are often poor connections.

As it turns out, I do not have a international calling plan which would allow me to direct dial internationally…that’s $4.95 a month. In fact, the Verizon customer support person told me I am now blocked from making the $3- a-minute international calls through the long distance unless I get this plan.

Who’d want to? With the $4.95 direct dial plan, the charge drop to about 15-18 cents a minute. But it’ll be Skype or Gmail video chat for me when my daughter goes to school in Australia this Fall.

Anyhow, Verizon’s understanding on  the charge is commendable. Thank you, VZ.

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As the Apple iPad touched down in nine more countries, I trekked to my local Apple Store today in Salem, N.H. to buy one. My wife has expressed interest in one so it was time to spring.

No luck. There’s a 3-4 four week wait for the 64 GB 3G model, two to three weeks for non-3G models. With wide access to WIFI, I  had intended to skip 3G and maybe go for the 32 or 16 GB model, but I usually end up regretting low balling myself.

You also can turn the $30 a month AT&T mobile broadband on and off at will so for extra $130 over the non 3G 64 GB model, why not. It’ll be good for longer trips in the car.

Buy a case, wait for an iPad

So I gave them my iTunes login and password to get on their notification list.  I have 24 hours to claim it after it arrives in the store. No deposit necessary, but I feel, at long last, committed.

No iPads are sold unreserved and just off the floor. The notification list swallows them all.

Is becoming an Apple customer just a matter of time? In my case, it’s taken decades. After all, I wrote about PCs for the better part of my career.

But someone please tell me if there’s a whiff of anything exciting coming down the PC-Windows world besides some  loooong-talked about tablet wannabes.

Granted, I’ve argued both sides of cheap PCs versus Apple’s superior technology.

Interestingly, the Apple salesperson tried to lock me in a bit more. iPad cases are scarce and they had some in. Buy one now, he advised. Cart before horse, I retorted, being Dodge.

The newly ‘iPadded’ countries are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, U.K., Spain and Australia.

So I wait.

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PC Pitstop has published the results of a pretty interesting PC security survey and found the two least effective anti-virus programs are the ones many of us use – McAfee and Symantec Norton. I use McAfee and as far as I know, there’s nothing sinister on my PCs.

That’s not to say McAfee and Symantec Norton don’t have their strengths:  Symantec was tops in Spyware protection and McAfee was second. The most prevalent threat is spyware. But the pair didn’t distinguish themselves like Kaspersky, which ranked first in protection against viruses and rogue security software.

In other words, no one program does it all. Here’s Pitstop’s conclusion:

“No one security provider is good at protecting against all aspects of security. As the analysis suggests, each vendor has some strengths and some weaknesses.”

A whopping 23 percent of the 50,258 PCs that Pitstop analyzed had no security protection at all and 14 percent had some sort of  ”high level security threat.”

I’ve always found it annoying that I have to pay close attention to viruses and spyware that are so prevalent in the Microsoft Windows world when Macintosh users get off scot free. But the delta between Macs and PCs remains so great that I’ve stuck with the later (I am typing this post on a very good HP Pavilion dv4 that I bought for $290).

Before you rush out and start loading up on Kaspersky, Symantec or any other security programs, check out another study that I blogged about at SmartPlanet.com. It says that many of the security measures we take and pay for are often a waste of time.

The eye-opening study was done by Microsoft researcher Cormac Herley. Maybe Microsoft wants us to think the threats its software seems to attract are not so threatening, after all. While there may be some self-interest here, the study is work a look.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Users are never offered security, either on its own or as an alternative to anything else. They are offered long, complex and growing sets of advice, mandates, policy updates and tips. These sometimes carry vague and tentative suggestions of reduced risk, never security. We have shown that much of this advice does nothing to make users more secure, and some of it is harmful in its own right.”

Still feel insecure, confused and scared into buying these security programs? I wished the Pitstop study told us how the `unprotected’ 23 percent are doing.

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