WAR has come to my computer

Warhammer Online has hit my computer and sucked some time out of my nights recently. For those who do not know this is one of those MMO titles like the famous World of Warcraft.

I am not going to write to much at the moment about the title but did see this cool image on the main site today that made me laugh. Actually posting how many people had been banned for selling gold in the game is amusing. For those who do not know there are people who “farm gold” to sell to others for “real world money”. This is not something that most players like and certainly the game developers are not thrilled with. It can be anoying as the in game chat fills with spam from someone trying to get you to goto a website so that you can buy gold from them.

Well anyway.. back to work and then a bit more gaming. I have joined the Drunken Bastards guild on the Order side of the Monolith server. If anyone wants to join give me a shout.

Gshock Riseman in Orange

Looks like Casio has launched a new limited model of the Riseman that I picked up in Japan this summer. This line is called the Men in Rescue Orange. I am not sure if we will ever see these in the US.. (OK I am pretty sure they will never show up here) but they do look interesting. For those who do not know this watch has lots of functions least of witch is time sync with the atomic clock.

Is the Shine off of Apple?

Has Apple lost its shine? Not even going into the current round of issues with MobileMe (not so mobile but hey at least it is free), iPhone 3G and iPods there seem to be enough little problems that are keeping Apple in the headlines.

Here is a perfect example as to why Apple may be loosing its shine in the eyes of some users. I have a friend who recently had his first generation iPhone die on him. The touch screen had several areas that would not register any touches. This is certainly a problem making the phone unusable unless you only want to dial certain nunbers. As any of us would do he took it into the Apple store expecting to get it swapped out or at least some form of satisfaction given Apple’s reputation for customer service.

Upon arriving at the store he was greeted and told that while he did not have an appointment he could be seen since his phone was not functioning. After waiting for some time (understandable with no appointment) he was seen by a “Genius” This person told him that yes his phone was indeed dead and they would be able to replace it for him and it was still under warranty. Best of all this would be free. Great he though.. but here was the catch. While the “Genius” could look at it and tell him that it was going to be replaced he could not replace it for him..WHAT? My friend was forced to head home after making an appointment for later in the day. Lucky for him he could get an appointement for just before closing but if it had been a day like say today.. he would have been waiting a few days to get his phone replaced.

Is this the kind of service that we should know expect from Apple? Have the days of having an issue and getting it taken care of in a timely manor gone by the wayside with the sucess of the iPhone and other apple products. The real killer was that he was talking to someone who could have just replaced the phone for him but he was told to return with an appointment.

For my friend it has made him think twice about the whole Apple iPhone thing. He loves his phone but was not thrilled with the service that he received when something went wrong that was hardware related and under warranty. It seemed that the customers convience was not considered at all.

Well just some more thoughts on Apple. I am hoping that this is going to chage or it was only because of the rush of iPhone users recently.. but based on the appointment schedules I am looking at to replace a warranty power brick I am guessing this is not going to change anytime soon.

AT&T U-verse comes home

Yesterday I made the plundge into the U-verse universe. I was tempted by the channel linup as well as the favorable pricing structure compared to what the cable company offered. While I had been reasonably happy with the cable service it was starting to get more and more problematic.

So the AT&T tech showed up after calling to confirm the time and things got started. Luckly for me I was able to give him access to both the cable lines in the building but also the phone patch panel outside the building. This seemed to speed up the install process.

After a few hours and lots of cable work everything was installed and ready to be cranked up. I have learned that while there are a few simularities to the FIOS service offered by Verizon t here is one big difference. While Verizon has to get the fiber right to your house.. AT&T gets close but goes the last “mile” using copper lines. This means that while Verizon can offer the same speed of internet connectivity to all their customers.. AT&T has the same issue that all DSL providers face. The further you are the slower things get. Now since the AT&T building is right behind my building it is pretty safe to assume that I will get as fast as possible.

So far the Internet service has been quite good. While the cable was giving me faster overall speeds the consistancy of the service was terrible. I would have to call every few weeks to get something reset so that the speed would continue. So far right from the start everything is running as advertised with my AT&T service.

I am getting more HD channels now than I was before and the DVR is integrated over the net simular to Tivo so that I can login and schedule recordings and manage the ones that I already have. This certainly makes the device and service user friendly for anyone who uses the net.

As I explore a bit more and try more of the features I will post some more notes here.. So far I am happy with the service and do not have any regrets.. of course it has only been 1 day so far.

Hello Apple.. Is anyone there?

It seems that all is not perfect on the iPhone world. While the phones are certainly selling well many users and not getting the experianxe that they had hoped for. There has been a bit more complaining than when the first iPhone launched.

We have seen connectivity issues talked about all over the net. 3G is quite nice when you can keep the phone connected to it but staying connected seems to be a big problem. There are reports that the signal strenght is not what people were hoping for. I myself have seen many areas where the signal is not as strong as I have experianced with other 3G phones.

Then there is the battery life. Let’s just say the for a device where you can not remove the battery this is a problem. With what I would consider standard business use there is no way that you will last thru the day without a recharge. This is certainly not great when the low battery warning hits you away from an outlet.

I will not go into the app issues in this post as that topic deserves it’s own post. Just know that those Windows Mobile reboot have struck the iPhone as well.

Apple has been quiet about all of this. We all hope it is because thet are so hard at work on fixing things that they have not even had time to look up. This is what the hope was a month into the launch but we have now gone over that time frame and still no real news from Apple. Hello Apple… Is anyone at home?

Test from iPhone

Flight to nowhere…

Well I boarded my flight from Boston to San Diego last night around 5pm Boston time and everything looked good. We got a bit delayed at the gate due to weather along the route but finally pushed back and taxied for take off. After heading out and lining up we heard one of the engines shut down and then the pilot came on over the loudspeaker. He told us that the plan behind us had seen something leaking from the wing and a crew was coming out to see what it was.

After about 30 minutes the crew got there and started trying to figure out what was going on. The second engine was shut down and the plane lost power so we were stuck out here with no AC or lights (not so fun). After about 45 minutes of this (was getting quite hot in there) we were told that we would be towed back to the gate. The stuff was fuel and they did not think it was serious but needed to be fixed back at the gate. Once we got hooked up for the tow the AC came back on which was very nice..

We got back to the gate and they announced what they thought the problem was. it sounded logical enough and that as soon as they got confirmation that this was the problem we would be heading out again. Of course if you did not want to go you could get off and re-book a flight.

An hour or so later we were back on our way. As we pushed back it seemed like this time things would go smoothly. We had been giving a credit or some sort that should get emailed to us next week and free movies for the flight. As the plane powered up the engines to start to move on its own power we were finally heading out.. BUT.. we moved about 100 yeards when the plane stopped and once again the engines were shut down. The same thing was going on and this time it seemed much worse. Fire trucks etc came over and we were once again towed back to the gate.

This time they let us de-plane but were not sure what we would be doing. It was now 9pm and we had been sitting on the plane for 4 hours for a 5 and a half hour flight and had gotten nowhere. I had had enough at that point and rebooked for a later day.. It them too the next hour and a half to get my bad back. The flight eventually left at 11:30pm for San Deigo but I was not on it. Who knows if they landed in San Diego (since the airport closes early) or if they got diverted to LAX and then took the long buss ride down ( I have had that happen before).

Oh well.. maybe Friday I will actually get to San Diego.

Cell phones everywhere…

So we all know that most people in the US have cell phones. And most have finally figured out how to use more than the calling feature but still calling seems to be the primary way most of us in the US use our cell phones. Here in Japan it is much different…

Over the years I have seen people all over in japan using their cell phones. This trip it seems that everyone no matter how your has their face burried in their phone. They are using email, web surfing and text messaging back and forth to others. It has been so much a part of the society now that even at meals many leave their phones open while they eat so that they do not miss anything.

Calling seems to be much less used than in the US. Email messaging and the web are big over here.. Even posting on social sites like Mixi (the big social site over here) have become selling features for the various phones out there.

Having seen this I am very curious to see how well the iPhone does over here. Most of the providers over here release new model phones like the fashion industries release new fashions. Currently they are all touting the Spring models but soon the Summer models will be here and with them the iPhone. I am sure the Shibuya and Ginza apple stores are ready..

GrandCentral Phone

Well I have had a GrandCentral account for a long time now and the funny thing is that the recent outage kind of reminded me of that fact. I figured it would be the perfect time to give it a try again. Kind of a strange way to get back to using it. This number will make the perfect business line as it will ring my Skype phone along with my Cell and keep all the voice mail in one place for me.

So far in one day of testing it seems to be running pretty smoothly. I have gotten a few calls on my Skype phone (more about that toy later). Because of the way that you need to answer the phone none of the other services (cell or skype) will pickup to voice mail as you need to select to answer the call before it is transfered to the device. This keeps all of the voicemail in once place which is quite nice.

The biggest problem that I have heard about is that people will generally add the number you call from to their address book and since you can not call from this service getting people to use the GrandCentral number could be an issue. I will see how that all works out.

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