The Ramblings of Ken

The news that AT&T is buying T-Mobile has got me thinking about how evil cell phone companies appear to be. There seems to be an evil side to a lot of corporations in America, but not all of them get to the level of trying to squeeze every cent out of Americans that they possibly can. This seems to be even more true when it comes to cellular phone carriers in the United States.

Of the remaining big 3 carriers in the US, only Sprint has not announced plans to get rid of unlimited data plans. Data and tethering pricing on cellular devices is the one of the largest forms of screwing over American consumers. My "unlimited" data plan with Verizon is $30 per month. Unlimited really means don't go over 5 GB a month. By comparison, my Comcast dedicated connection does not have these limits and I only pay $10 more a month. I get a connection that is at least 15 times faster than my cell phone that is always on for not much more money. Something is wrong with this picture.

When the iPhone 4 was released on AT&T, they announced tiered data pricing. You no longer get your "unlimited" connection, but you can get 2 GB of data for $20 a month. My mom uses 2 GB a month on her connection at home just checking her email. AT&T is screwing people over. They are going to make a lot of money on data overage charges

Verizon is going to do the same thing, as they have at least hinted that they will have the same kind of plans when they finish rolling out their LTE network. Why do they have to squeeze every last penny that they can out of their customers?

When the T-Mobile acquisition is complete, surely AT&T will find a way to get T-Mobile customers to pay the same rates that current AT&T customers pay.

So why do we even have cell phones? Why do we let the carriers push us around like we do? I am just as much at fault here as everyone else is. Can we not live without our mobile devices?

I want to hear from people as to why they pay what they do. Why do you have a cell phone? What phone and on what carrier do you have service? Do you have a smartphone with data capabilities? If you don't, is it because of the high premiums you pay for data? Have you considered getting one?

About a year and a half ago I bought my first Apple product, a 13 inch MacBook Unibody. I've used many laptops in my IT career. The PC laptops seemed like they were constructed very cheaply and had a lot of hardware issues. The first thing I did when I got the laptop, however, was install Windows. I didn't think that I liked Mac OS X in my limited experience with it. I just knew that I had a good solid laptop that wouldn't have hardware issues. I also considered myself an avid PC gamer at the time and still used my Windows desktop all the time.

Let's fast forward now. Now my work computer is a Mac as well. I quite like OS X, except when it comes to games. However, now that I am married I find myself gaming less than I used to. I also have an iPod Touch 3rd generation that I love. I still quite like Windows, especially Windows 7. However, am I an Apple fanboy? I find myself watching Apple news sites to see the latest on their new products and I always look forward to new OS X and iOS updates. I read about Microsoft and PC news less and less everyday. What is happening to me?

I used to blog. I had a site at www.tigrao.org. I stopped doing it mostly because I got lazy and didn't want to maintain my own web server anymore.

Getting married and starting a family has given me new perspectives on life. In January my first child, a girl, will be born. New perspectives and new ideas on life deserve to be published somewhere to be shared, regardless of whether or not they are worth anything to the world.

This space may not be updated regularly, but there just might be a new post that shows up here every now and then...

For those that have not heard yet, Google Voice is a new telephone service. It allows you to make free long distance calls, have unlimited text messaging, and provides voicemail transcription. It is awesome! Read more about it here.

By the way, you can use this button below to call me on my Google Voice number.

I was washing my hands in the men's restroom earlier today and as I went to grab some paper towels I stopped and read what it said on the dispenser. I don't know why I never have paid attention before. It says "Emergency feed on the side. Turn knob." Um... is there such thing as an emergency when paper towels aren't coming out of the bottom of the dispenser for you to pull on? Is your life at risk because the paper towels aren't working right?

Maybe it should say something like "manual feed on the side, turn the knob if no paper towels are coming out." Ha ha ha! Maybe I am wrong, and it should qualify as an emergency... I just have a hard time understanding I guess.

I made a recent purchase of a bluetooth car stereo! So far I love it! It is a Sony MEX-BT2700. It connects to my LG Chocolate 2 via both A2DP and HFP profiles. Music streaming works flawlessly with my phone and hands free calling is awesome via the car speakers and built in microphone!

Here is a video taken with my phone when I installed it...

(Image borrowed from cnet.com)