Customer Service Goes Above and Beyond

I have to applaud the Apple retail lady who picked up my phone call yesterday at Fashion Valley, San Diego. She truly went above and beyond. I inquired about an order that I was placing online for "In-store pickup". Specifically, I had an iPhone 6 Plus in Gold 128GB AT&T for my wife in my cart but ran into a small problem. Apparently by the time I had connected with her on the phone, she advised me that they had just run out.

I told her that I was flying out to work and she continued the awesome service by asking where. It was a little odd at first but after I told her Dallas, she found two different Apple stores that had the 128GB in Gold AT&T and Silver AT&T around town.  She told me that if I placed the order I would have 7 days to pick them up so that wouldn't be a problem at all. You're asking why AT&T? I'll talk about that in a later post. Yes, I'm still heavily contemplating T-Mobile but yeah… in a later post.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel like flying around the country for the next few days with $2k worth of phones on me after my iPad debacle in Miami so I politely thanked her and said that I'd continue to play the game in San Diego when I get back.  I also thanked her for her amazing job and told her that she was awesome.

Kudos again to Apple Fashion Valley. Happy October!

It's 60 minutes past Midnight and Apple.com is still Offline

Looks like I'm going to sleep without the pre-order. I've been seeing on twitter that ship times for the iPhone 6 Plus are getting pushed back to Mid October and the Apple Store App that some people have been able to get through on is show ZERO inventory for every model.  Hope everyone had fun.  I'm going to sleep and not going to worry about it. Chalk this one up for two strikes on this week's Apple vs. the web.

https://twitter.com/DanFrakes/status/510336419181518848

Texting In-flight via T-Mobile & Gogo Air

Want to keep in touch while you fly—for free? You got it. Starting September 17, T-Mobile partners with Gogo® Air, making T-Mobile the only wireless company whose customers can text, picture message, even check T-Mobile Visual Voicemail at 30,000 feet. The sky is now unlimited.

- via www.t-mobile.com

Part of John Legere's Uncarrier 7 announcement today unveiled this awesome benefit for all his loyal fans and subscribers. You can bet that when November 15th comes, I'm taking my business over. I'm done with throttling.

Also as part of the announcement, coupled with Apple's iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch, T-Mobile will be offering everyone free Wi-Fi calling. They'll even give you a T-Mobile Personal CellSpot free of charge!

https://twitter.com/JohnLegere/status/509808691185340416

Apple's Failed Live Event Stream was Their Own Fault

The bottom line with this event is that the encoding, translation, JavaScript code, the video player, the call to S3 single storage location and the millisecond refreshes all didn’t work properly together and was the root cause of Apple’s failed attempt to make the live stream work without any problems. - via Dan Rayburn - StreamingMediaBlog.com

Waiting for Apple's Live Stream was just in and of itself exciting. Watching it was a whole other story. From the Chinese overlay and the delays in video, Dan Rayburn explains the shortcomings of yesterday's failed video stream. In essence, Apple should have left the live blogging to the the professionals like The Verge. 

Fragmentation and Instagram's Hyperlapse

There's a reason for the sanity developers posses in releasing an app on iOS first. Take Instagram's latest.

Hyperlapse from Instagram features built-in stabilization technology that lets you create moving, handheld time lapses that result in a cinematic look, quality and feel—a feat that has previously only been possible with expensive equipment.

If a developer were to design an app for iOS, they have a choice of supporting only a few select devices. In this case, Hyperlapse was created to be compatible with a 2-year old device (iPhone 5) and up running iOS 7. Simple as that. You can bet that with the adoption rate that 90%, that users with at least an iPhone 5 will be downloading or have the ability to try out this fantastic app. Wired has even compared the app to a "$15,000 video setup in your hand."

From a developer standpoint, that's a huge audience! Think about it!

Now comes in Android. There isn't an app yet and here's why... in bold: FRAGMENTATION.

The article from Open Signal clearly highlights the flaws and the obstacles that developers have when creating apps for Android. From different flavors of Android, to various hardware and sensor kits, screen sizes and adoption rates / operating system update delays from manufacturers, it's not the ideal launch vehicle. Hell, it even took Instagram a two years before they released their Android app and only after more than 30 million people join via iOS.

If you've been following me, I've been an Android 4.4 user since my Samsung Galaxy S5 trial and am still not satisfied with the experience. I've even lost precious moments due to the camera locking up or phone not responding. It's just a mess especially with all of Samsung's included bloatware on top of AT&T's mesh of products. I can't wait until November 15 for when I can go back to iOS. Of course, when September 9, comes around, you can bet your bottom dollar that I'm pre-ordering the iPhone 6 on T-Mobile.

For now, enjoy the sample video of Instagram's Hyperlapse or better yet, go out there and make your own! You can also follow me on Instagram: elijahnicolas

A 6-month Android Journey: The Beginning

On Thursday May 15th, I embarked on a journey that many have written about. This is my foray into the six month ownership of an Android powered Samsung Galaxy S5 Mobile Smartphone. [hashtag: #elijahsgalaxyxp] All this, in search of a full understanding on why my few remaining Android friends are still ranting and raving. Granted, I also have a small group of friends (read: 3) that have also switched to Android. I've owned and used a 2012 Google Nexus 7 tablet since it's debut but more and more I've found myself frustrated with the lag and short comings from what I can deduce was aging hardware. I can't recall being happy with it at any point in time except for the initial excitement and unboxing. To prepare for my journey, I pre-ordered a Spigen TTough Armor Case and a 64GB micro SD card.

Note: Upon accepting the device, I found myself with 24 hours on Wifi only before I was able to insert my Nano SIM Card due to adapters not being readily available. I called Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T and even Best Buy, Fry’s Electronics, Radio Shack and a few iPhone repair shops and none, absolutely no one had an adapter that would take my Nano Sim and size it for Micro Sim Card slot in the Galaxy S5. I found a few on amazon, and paid $3.99 for one day delivery ending up with the Nano Sim Card Adapter.

Still, day one was not a wash as I was able to do almost everything via Wifi. Here is my early breakdown.

Hour 1: I needed to find my must have apps. I needed 1Password, Simpletnote, various social networks apps such at Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, Instapaper and Clash of Clans. Come to find out, 1Password's Android app is just a reader app, Simplenote is pretty much the same, Tweetbot was nowhere to be found so I chose to go with the official app, Instagram is so large on the phone but pretty, Facebook is pretty much the same but the workflow very different and Clash of Clans was beautiful in syncing my iOS progress.

Hour 2-8: Still adjusting to the sheer size of the device, I ended up configuring the Samsung Fingerprint Scanner and let me tell you, that is one crazy nuisance. After my second attempt of programming it, I could never get the phone to unlock at a consistent scan. Infuriatingly, I scanned the same fingerprint again designating slot #2 and even #3 to the same finger, but it still refused to recognize it. After a few attempts, the phone alerts you that you have tried too many times and defaults to a backup password that you create during the initial setup but just click back twice on the phone and it allows you try again… and again and again. The phone never once locked me out nor prevented me to stop trying. I thought that to be bizarre. Needless to say, I turned it off after a few hours.

I continued to download quite a few apps that my friend Jeremiah mentioned such as Muzei enabling live wallpaper updates, Google Camera, and HD Widgets. I also downloaded HBO Go, Tivo, 8tracks, Amazon Kindle, Dropbox, Metam, Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Waze, VSCO Cam, and Snapseed. Amazingly, I did all this while connected to the Karl Strauss Wifi and the speed was awesome.

I didn't play with it that much further but I was already beginning to miss a few iMessages from my iPhone friends. So far, so good, but still difficult.

Comixology Kills the Impulse Buy

Just barely one month after Amazon acquired Comixology, Jeff Bezos and team managed to screw the pooch. From Co-founder and CEO David Steinberger on the initial sale to Amazon:

ComiXology will retain its identity as an Amazon subsidiary and we’re not anywhere near done “taking comics further.” We are confident that – with Amazon by our side, who shares our desire for innovation and a relentless focus on customers – we’ve only just begun.

Flat out, he lied or didn't know what was coming. Taken from past buy outs, this isn't something new to Jeff Bezos and company.

Comicbook author and creator Gerry Conway posted a great article on comicbook.com on his views of the latest development.

You don’t make quick entertainment hard to access. You may it simple and easy — an impulse buy.

Comixology’s in-App storefront did that. It provided quick and easy access to comics from the majors to the indies, one-stop shopping at the point of sale, at the moment where the customer is most vulnerable to the casual pitch: while he or she is actually reading a comic, and is in the comic-reading frame of mind, and is mildly (or intensely) interested in another nibble of brain-candy.

I wholeheartedly agree that this change voids my impulse buys. This app was the medium that lead me to discover great comics and various new indies. Browsing a store front without the hassle of leaving the app, going onto the web, buying, then going back to the app, clicking on a "Cloud" tab then downloading it, was the way to go.

Impulse is still the best way to find the latest and greatest or even those that might pique your interest. Now, I'm heading back out to my local comic shop. It's not that I'm going to boycott Comixology, but who am I kidding… delete.

Don't Listen to Them! iPad Sales Don't Disappoint!

MG Siegler is concise and right on. iPad sales this quarter was only disappointing to those who thought that Apple would sell more than 19 million units. Seriously though, think about it… Apple still sold 16 million iPads... in 3 months! The fact that this product category is only 4 years old and in total have sold over 210 million, that's quite a feat!

As a standalone business, just based on the last 12 months of revenue, the iPad would be in the top 100 companies in the Fortune 500. Think about that for a second. The iPad alone is bigger than almost all Fortune 500 companies.

For a full breakdown of sales, head over to 9to5mac.

Halo 2.0

Nows the time to take advantage of the Halo 2.0 with only a few days left is a VERY successful Kickstarter campaign. I wouldn’t be posting this if I didn’t back it!

Goes great on kids too especially around Disneyland at night!

Specifically for my motorcycle friends and enthusiasts, this is a tremendous product!

http://youtu.be/kpYClk58iR0

AT&T's Fiber Bluff

AT&T up to their usual antics again. Scamming, promising and under delivering. I'm just glad to have gotten off their internet and television service. Can't wait to disconnect my mobile phone service from their crappy "unlimited" LTE plan.

Before you get too excited, you need to understand that this is a bluff of immense proportion. It's what I affectionately refer to as "fiber to the press release."

Ever since Google Fiber came on the scene, AT&T's response has been highly theatrical in nature. What AT&T would have the press and public believe is that they're engaged in a massive new deployment of fiber to the home service. What's actually happening is that AT&T is upgrading a few high-end developments where fiber was already in the ground (these users were previously capped at DSL speeds) and pretending it's a serious expansion of fixed-line broadband.

via DSLReports

WiFi Tablet or LTE Enabled Tablet, Now the SAME Price!

T-Mobile has been truly living up to its latest marketing campaign of being the "Un-carrier" launching Operation Tablet Freedom today. In part 2 of 3 in a barrage of promotions, you can now head on over to T-Mobile and expect to save the $100 to $130 for an LTE enabled tablet. Now, you don't have to decided whether or not it's worth it to go for the cellular enabled tablet because WiFi or LTE, they're the same price!

Beginning April 12th, customers can get nearly 1.2 GB of free 4G LTE data every month through 2014 on America's fastest nationwide LTE network.

Have a T-Mobile voice plan? Bring, buy or trade in a tablet and get:

• Up to 1GB FREE 4G LTE data per month through 2014
• PLUS up to 200 MB FREE monthly 4G LTE data for as long as you own your tablet
• Existing T-Mobile voice plan customers: Get our 1GB plan FREE after a $10 credit

And for further clarification, you'll still have the ability to take advantage of their 100% free 200MB data plan on the LTE enabled tablet that is owned and registered with T-Mobile once the calendar turns 2015. And you're still unsure about your T-Mobile coverage, head on over to their awesome map!

PSA: Change and Secure ALL Your Passwords NOW

With the recent security flaw in OpenSSL, now dubbed the Heartbleed bug, every major website is alerting you the change your passwords. Just this morning alone, I'm sure that most of you will have to go about and I advise that you do so now, change your Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Tumblr, GoDaddy, Dropbox and Soundcloud passwords just to name a few. Do it now and make sure that no two are alike! Lucky for me, I use AgileBits's 1Password which, by the way, is now multiple platform, so generating that 8-16 or even 24 character password is automatic. If you haven't read the various sites that are listing the vulnerable web services, I suggest your head over to either here, here or the master list and start working!

3 things you can do to protect yourself Wait for an official announcement from any secure website or service that you normally use regarding a security update.

After you've confirmed that the site or service has installed a security update, change your passwords.

For at least the next week, keep an eye on any of your sensitive online accounts (banking, webmail) for suspicious activity.

In the meantime, while websites are installing the latest version of OpenSSL to fix the bug, it would be a good idea to wait for confirmed updates on your favorite websites and services and then change your password, just to be as safe as possible.

Sesame Street Anytime, Any Place!

Hundreds of episodes of Sesame Street and Pinky Dinky Doo that can be instantly accessed from your PC, Mac, smartphone, or tablet.

Awesome timing now that my daughter is almost two! Pair it with Levar Burton's Reading Rainbow and she'll have access to my entire childhood! Wait, where's Today's Special?

via SesameGo