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Message Digest
Volume 28 : Issue 312 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Google poised to become your phone company
David Pogue (tech journalist) discovers serious VZW issues
Dell unveils Android-based Mini 3 smartphone
Re: I'm looking, sigh, yes, for a "ring tone"
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Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:41:31 -0600 (CST)
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Google poised to become your phone company
Message-ID: <alpine.OSX.2.00.0911132240440.482@John-Maysons-iBook-G4.local>
(Wired) -- Google is set to become your new phone company, perhaps
reducing your phone bill to zilch in the process.
Seriously.
Google has bought Gizmo5, an online phone company that is akin to Skype
but based on open protocols and with a lot fewer users. TechCrunch, which
broke the news on Monday, reported that Google spent $30 million on the
company.
More here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/13/google.phone.service/index.html
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:16:01 -0500
From: danny burstein <dannyb@panix.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: David Pogue (tech journalist) discovers serious VZW issues
Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.64.0911132312540.29502@panix5.panix.com>
[NYT column] [a]
Verizon: How Much Do You Charge Now?
Starting next week, Verizon will double the early-termination fee
for smartphones. That is, if you get a BlackBerry, Android or
similar phone from Verizon, and you decide to switch phones before
your two-year contract is up, you'll be socked with a $350 penalty
(it used to be $175)
...
What bothers me more, though, is another bit of greedy nastiness that
readers both inside and outside Verizon have noticed.
...
[quoting a customer]
"Virtually every bill I get has a couple of erroneous data charges
at $1.99 each - yet we download no data.
"Here's how it works. They configure the phones to have multiple
easily hit keystrokes to launch 'Get it Now' or 'Mobile Web' - usually
a single key like an arrow key. Often we have no idea what key we hit,
but up pops one of these screens. The instant you call the function,
they charge you the data fee. We cancel these unintended requests
as fast as we can hit the End key, but it doesn't matter; they've
told me that ANY data - even one kilobyte - is billed as 1MB. The
damage is done.
---------------
rest (and make sure to check out the comments):
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/verizon-how-much-do-you-charge-now/?ref=technology
[a] Mr. Pogue is an independent writer, usually tech stuff, who
also gets paid for periodic columns in the NYTimes.
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dannyb@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:39:05 -0600 (CST)
From: John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Dell unveils Android-based Mini 3 smartphone
Message-ID: <alpine.OSX.2.00.0911132238100.482@John-Maysons-iBook-G4.local>
(CNET) -- Dell said Friday that it's ready to enter the smartphone
business with the Android-based Mini 3.
Long rumored to have such a device in the works, Dell said that the first
two carriers to sell the Mini 3 will be China Mobile and Brazil's Claro.
More here
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/13/dell.android.smartphone/index.html
--
John Mayson <john@mayson.us>
Austin, Texas, USA
Date: Sat, 14 Nov 2009 08:29:14 -0500
From: "Gary" <fake-email-address@bogus.hotmail.com>
To: redacted@invalid.telecom.csail.mit.edu
Subject: Re: I'm looking, sigh, yes, for a "ring tone"
Message-ID: <hdmbba$1fg$1@news.eternal-september.org>
"Thad Floryan" <thad@thadlabs.com> wrote in message
news:4AFDCA93.5090004@thadlabs.com...
> I may make that WE2500 bell ringtone my new
> default since I'm retiring this year and don't/won't need to be able
> to answer a phone 24/7/365. :-)
In that case, maybe you should make the "SIT Tone" your ringer. :-)
-Gary
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End of The Telecom digest (4 messages)
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