Random thought exchange

I’ve been debating switching over to Rogers for about 3 years. I’ve called in several times to see what they could offer me, and nothing has been able to beat my Bell plan.

Over the last week or so, I decided to start calling in to sign up and port my number from Bell to Rogers, so that I can take advantage of the 6GB data plan for $30 before it expired on October 6th.

After calling about 15 times to different reps, and about seven-hours on the phone I finally got a CSR that was able to come pretty close to the Bell plan that I’m on with my HTC Touch. This was yesterday evening – I was getting anxious as it was getting pretty close to October 6th!I had to leave to meet up with some friends, so the CSR said that he would call me today around 5 p.m. to go over the plan details that he was going to work out for me. He said that he was going to spend about an hour trying to come up with the best plan that he could for me. Since I didn’t already have a mobile phone with Rogers, he was having a difficult time, because apparently he needed to create a mobile phone on my account to play around with all the pricing and plan details. That’s where we parted, and I was a bit concerned that he wasn’t going to call me. He was really nice and seemed quite knowledgeable. I was pleased that I finally got a CSR that was willing to help me get something as close to the plan that I have now.

5:45 p.m. came and I hadn’t heard anything from him. So I called Rogers, and after about 20-minutes of listening to bad music I got to speak with a rep. I let her know that I was looking for the person that I spoke with yesterday. I was told that he was in meetings or something, and that they would pass a note on to him to let him know to give me a call.

At 7:14 p.m. I got a call from a really friendly rep saying that the person I spoke with yesterday wasn’t at work today, but that he left the notes that he wrote down for her to follow-up with me. 104-minutes later all of the documentation and plan details were worked out.

So, despite the early termination fee I need to pay Bell, I’ve taken the plunge and have started the process to port my mobile number to Rogers.

Now it’s just a waiting game. The iPhone’s are out of stock, and when they get their next shipment they’re going to ship one to me.

I’m hoping that my Bell cell doesn’t get disabled before I get the new phone – I’m not too sure how the whole porting actually works when a phone is OOS.

I’m also a bit skeptical of the billing – I’m somewhat concerned that all the discounts and bonuses that were applied to the new activation aren’t going to actually be on the account. Having said that, the CSR that I just dealt with said that she’s going to be following-up on my account in a few days to make sure that everything is going ok with the porting, and that if I don’t have the new phone within a week she’ll be calling me to let me know what the status is.

Kudos to the CSR’s for stepping up, and offering me an outstanding plan. The closest plan that I was able to get up until this point was about $30/mo more, once you factor in taxes.

Once everything is settled, and the billing is all proper, I’ll post the full plan details. For now, I’ll leave you with this… the plan has more features that I have with Bell, and is only going to run me $5 to $9 more a month – that is… if everything goes according to plan and the billing isn’t messed up!

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Ok – not sure why Microsoft decided not to make this an option in their software. Actually, it’s something that’s annoyed me for about 2 years now. There’s no option (per e-mail basis) that allows someone using it to set a read receipt for an e-mail. It’s pretty basic functionality that’s been available on various e-mail applications since I can remember (1991 is when I started to e-mail).

I’ve finally found someone that created a “tweak” (thanks for the word Evan) in the form of a script. Once installed, all you need to do is hit CTRL-ALT-T, and it enables it. Having said that, it will enable it for all e-mails sent. So just hit CTRL-ALT-T again, to disable once you’ve sent the e-mail. You can also enable/disable this function from the scripts menu.

Pretty simple.

Thanks and PROPS go out to Rob Buckley for developing this.

Head over to his site to get the Entourage Read Receipt script.2

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So the new Apple wired keyboard is amazing.

I ordered it last week, and it was delivered today.

I’ll be posting a full review over the next few days.

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I got it all working… if anyone else is having the same problem with the isight or audio… this is what I did..

1. uninstall parallel tools from windows xp (winxp)
2. restart winxp
3. shut down winxp
4. uninstall parallels from the mac
5. your VM should still exist after you do this. I backed up my winxp VM just in case it got deleted. I suggest you do the same if you have the space on your system.
6. restart the mac
7. delete the parallels application folder – if it still exists
8. install the latest version of parallels (ver 3 rev. 4560)
9. start up winxp
10. reinstall parallel tools in winxp
11. restart winxp

That should resolve the problems for you. That did for me. The isight and audio work just fine now. I guess the problem is that I did the upgrade to v3, instead of uninstalling and reinstalling. I would imagine that some of the old v2 parallel tool drivers aren’t working properly with v3.

if you’re having the same problem, give this a shot – let me know if it works for you.

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I’ve been having a problem with audio since I upgraded to Parallels v. 3 rev. 4120. It just doesn’t work. Also they claim that the iSight works in v3. Not the case. Mine doesn’t work. Maybe the next version will work properly.

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Despite what Steve Jobs announced shortly after the debut of the iPhone – is a partnership with Microsoft.

Based on what I just saw on the Apple site, it seems that they’re fighting back against the Vista advertising.

Take a look at the screen shot of the Apple site.

They look like they’re enjoying their new-found friendship – seen here laughing and ‘enjoying’ eachother’s company at the WSJ conference dinner.

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Well, Apple finally announced the product launch of the Apple iPhone. It’s an iPod, Telephone, and internet communicator all in one. It looks somewhat similar to the Dell Axim, but this is also a telephone!

iWant one of these… it’s the ultimate in geekdom. The phone runs a version of OS X, which means that it would be fairly easy to develop applications for it – similar to WM2005 or WinCE.

So, what’s the problem? I’m in Canada! Yup… Apple finally released a product that’s been speculated about for years, and it’s not going to be available until June, and apparently only being released in the US via Cingular.

What’s the other problem? It’s only being released in a GSM version.

Why is that a problem? I’m with Bell Mobility which is CDMA. You cannot use a GSM phone on a CDMA network. Bell – GET WITH THE TIMES!

So why not switch to Rogers or Fido? I can’t do that because in Canada the CRTC has not made phone number portability possible – yet anyways. Supposedly this is something that will be in place come March 2007. Check out the CRTC press release from December 20, 2005.

So why not switch when the phone is available in Canada as it will be after March 2007? I’m on a corporate plan that I doubt Rogers would be willing to match. The last time I spoke with someone at Rogers, the best they were able to do was $15 more a month than what I’m paying now.

Phone specs:

• 4GB ($499 US) or 8GB ($599 US) versions
• 3.5″ screen
• 320×480 @160ppi
• Quad-band
• Wifi (802.11b/g)
• EDGE
• Bluetooth 2.0
• 2MP camera w/ video
• sync via iTunes on either Mac or PC
• 4×5″ x 2.4″ x 0.46″ = 115mm x 61mm x 11.6mm
• 4.8oz = 135gr
• playback of music, photos, and video
• rotate the device, and it goes into widescreen – part of the built-in sensors
• calls, voicemail, sms
• Safari, e-Mail, live maping via Google maps, widgets

Fallout since the Apple annoucement

• Cisco announces that the iPhone trademark belongs to them, and is launching a lawsuit against Apple
• The day of the announcement RIM stock dropped $14/share
• Announcement day Apple stock went up 8%

Anyways, check out the iPhone… it’s HOT!

Relevant links:

• Apple – iPhone
• Bell mobility
• Cingular
• Rogers

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