T-Mobile Unleashed Is NOT So Cheap

At this time, my Early Termination Fees (ETFs) with AT&T are $155 for a line thats due in September of this year. Thats a prorated amount down from $350 in case you're wondering. Let me back up. If you've been following me on twitter, I've been fed up with AT&T's false advertising that sold me a few years ago for a service that CLEARLY said "Unlimited Data" for $30. I use FaceTime quite a bit,¹ stream my baby monitor from hundreds of miles away, and sometimes just soak up youtube so yea, I'll easily go over 5GBs a month and trust me, hotel WiFi is horrific! I hate that they expect me to use it in place of a service that I pay for! So back to the story.

If I sell my Apple iPhone 5 64GB White to T-Mobile for $300 and they pay my ETF at $155, that's "$455" in my pocket. The only way they will "Unleash" you is if you trade in your phone, no exceptions. Then I have to buy a FULL priced mobile phone, desirably an iPhone 5s 64GB, for $799. That means, I still have to shell out $344 so that's not that bad of a deal right? That's actually incorrect. Let me explain. I'd be shelling out $499 for my new phone after the trade-in credit followed by a Mastercard Gift Card in the credit amount of $155 in approximately 8 weeks. So I'm out half a grand to "unleash."

If I can wait, and probably will, for just six more months, I can unlock my iPhone 5, sell it on the market for maybe $400 or more, then buy a full priced iPhone 6. So yes, I'm still out $399 but, here's where I could save. I could then bring it along with me to T-Mobile, and pay nothing leaving me with just the $70 Unlimited 4G Everything Plan plus a $10 SIM kit. When it comes down to it, I'll be out money obviously later in the year with me upgrading my phone but ideally, I'd rather T-Mobile just pay my ETF now and I bring my current iPhone 5 with me. That's what the deal should have been in the first place.

disclaimer: I signed a 2 year contract with AT&T for a subsidized iPhone 5 so ultimately, with the "Unleash" deal, you still end up paying full price for the device. I could save a bunch of money and purchase Google's Nexus 5 for $349 unlocked online instead but that's a whole other story of iOS vs. Android, etc. I'm not going to go there just yet.

And yes, it's pretty awesome that with the unlimited 4G Data you get an additional 2.5GB of tethering capability.

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1. I use FaceTime about 1-5 minutes almost every couple of hours for a total of 30-60 minutes a day. Sometimes, I'm on for 20 minutes in a row. ↩

Clear for iOS is FREE! *TODAY ONLY*

If you like free premium paid apps for iOS, then today and today only, it's your lucky day! Realmac has re-released its award winning task list / to-do app Clear making it free for the next 24 hours. Take advantage of this today! I paid for it when it was initially released and I'm telling you now, take advantage of this!

National Weather Service San Diego Advisory for This Weekend!

If you boast about the awesome weather in San Diego like me, we're in over our heads starting tonight! Ever wonder where our local news meteorologists grab a lot of their data and forecasting models? Take a peak at the National Weather Service. I linked directly to San Diego's portal and have posted today's briefing (Wednesday's night) which you can watch below. I advise that everyone should watch it. These are the professionals that I always trust. Stay safe this week and drive defensively. I'm off Saturday night and Sunday and am hoping that when I fly home, the weather will be cooperating in normal awesomeness. I know we can use the rain, but this is posing to be an "epic" storm.

http://youtu.be/eMrDd9gVapc

There is a wealth of information on how to read and interpret the data that lies within the NWS website. Have fun and get lost in the site!

Tesla Reveals Gigafactory Plans

The Tesla Gigafactory announcement is here! I can't wait till the economies of this scale trickle down to everyone. One of the bigger questions is whether this awesome factory will be built in either Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona or Texas. I'm thinking that maybe Texas or Arizona might win this contract especially with how nice both states have been playing with other Silicon Valley companies. This about it. This Gigafactory will actually manufacture more batteries than the entire world does today!

As we at Tesla reach for our goal of producing a mass market electric car in approximately three years, we have an opportunity to leverage our projected demand for lithium ion batteries to reduce their cost faster than previously thought possible. In cooperation with strategic battery manufacturing partners, we’re planning to build a large scale factory that will allow us to achieve economies of scale and minimize costs through innovative manufacturing, reduction of logistics waste, optimization of co-located processes and reduced overhead.

The Gigafactory is designed to reduce cell costs much faster than the status quo and, by 2020, produce more lithium ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013. By the end of the first year of volume production of our mass market vehicle, we expect the Gigafactory will have driven down the per kWh cost of our battery pack by more than 30 percent. Here are some details about what the Gigafactory will look like.

via Tesla

My Favorite Undershirt: Calvin Klein Now 50% Off Today Only

I've been a fan of the Calvin Klein undershirts for the past few years after first discovering them at Costco. For a reason unknown to me, Costco stopped carrying them a while back and have yet to replenish my inventory. I wear them EVERYDAY and love the softness and quality of this shirt. Much nicer quality than the leading Hanes or Fruit of the Loom, I recommend CK in either the crew neck or v-neck just about every time I get the chance. Wear them out or around the house, the neck line stay perfect throughout the entire day and throughout multiple washes compared to other brands.

Featuring a folded neck band, arm openings and bottom hem, the Crew Neck T-Shirt 3 Pack will last wash after wash.

disclaimer: some of the more recent reviews have mentioned a change in quality but I have yet to observe that in the packs that I have ordered.

Xbox One Already Lowering Price

"We're doing this because it will generate sales, absolutely," Eagle told GameSpot. "I think it's a great deal for people in the UK to get a next-gen machine for £399 including Kinect, including Titanfall, in the box. Yeah, it's a great deal and hopefully lots of people will take up the offer."

So they're not having trouble outpacing Sony's still hard to find PS4? I'm thinking that although this deal is for the U.K. only, we'll see it soon here in the U.S. closer to Titanfall's release. Hell, I'm honestly contemplating it too but after seeing my 360 collect dust, I'm not holding my breath.

update: looks like its official that Microsoft is releasing a digital download version Titanfall bundle for $499.99 ultimately saving $59.99 for the game.

Samsung Galaxy S5 Obviously Includes Fingerprint Reader

The Galaxy S5’s design is a minor evolution of the Galaxy S4 — in fact, the two are almost indistinguishable from the front. The S5’s display is ever so slightly larger at 5.1 inches, but it’s still a 1080p, Super AMOLED panel that doesn’t look very different from the S4’s screen. Below the display is a new home key with integrated fingerprint scanner and capacitive keys for multitasking and Android’s back button.

If they really just wanted to copy Apple again, I guess they could have just added a fingerprint scanner and updated health programs. Oh wait...

via The Verge

Do You Take #selfies?

Selfiecity analyzes Instagram data for visual cues like head position, emotional expression, gender and age, in order to get a clearer picture of how (and how often) people actually take selfies in different cultures. “The idea was to confront the generalizations about selfies, which are not based on data, with actual data,” says Manovich. “We wanted to look at what the actual patterns are.”

It's not surprising that people from São Paulo are the happiest.

Major Airlines Creating Their Own Pilot Shortages

This is one of the most comprehensive views on the current state of the airlines in the United States. Read the article in its entirety. I'm living it along with some of my best friends and it's getting rather ugly.

The nation's big airlines want you to know that there's a dreadful pilot shortage and they apologize profusely if their commuter-carrier partners cancel flights to your hometown airport due to the debilitating shortfall.

The nation's big airlines don't want you to know that their commuter carriers, which operate half of all the nation's commercial flights, often pay pilots so little that it's often financially wiser to drive a truck or flip fast-food burgers than fly a plane.

A first-year co-pilot at a commuter airline may earn as little as $19 per flying hour. After five years with a commuter airline, the average salary is just $40 an hour. For the lowest-paid pilots at a carrier such as Mesa Air Group, which operates flights for both United and US Airways, a 60-hour work week means an effective pay rate of just $8.50 an hour. That's barely above the national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour and below the more than 10 bucks President Barack Obama is making federal contractors pay their workers.

At American Airlines, senior management that came from US Airways to run AA netted $79 million in stock sales during the last month. At the same time, however, American pressed for another concessionary contract at American Eagle, its wholly owned commuter airline.

#Hashtag2 With Jimmy Fallon and Jonah Hill Is #Awesome

This has been a stellar week for Jimmy Fallon hosting The Tonight Show. This time, Fallon brought on Jonah Hill to star in round two in his latest Hashtag skit. It's quite hashtag awesome. Check it out for yourself. You still hash-tagging those Instagram pics like mad #iam #crewlife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwq_GraOC9E

If you haven't seen the original one, check it out here starring Justin Timberlake. It's just as #awesome!

Inside a Wall Street Dinner

From the inside it rains foie gras and rack of lamb. These are the people our government now depends on and bails out during time of crisis'. Don't get me wrong, I have no personal qualms, but that's just how it is these days. Below is just an excerpt but you can read Kevin Roose's new book, "Young Money: Inside the Hidden World of Wall Street's Post-Crash Recruits" out today on Kindle or Hardback for more juicy tidbits.

The last thought I had, and the saddest, was that many of these self-righteous Kappa Beta Phi members had surely been first-year bankers once. And in the 20, 30, or 40 years since, something fundamental about them had changed. Their pursuit of money and power had removed them from the larger world to the sad extent that, now, in the primes of their careers, the only people with whom they could be truly themselves were a handful of other prominent financiers.

Perhaps, I realized, this social isolation is why despite extraordinary evidence to the contrary, one-percenters like Ross keep saying how badly persecuted they are. When you’re a member of the fraternity of money, it can be hard to see past the foie gras to the real world.

Here's a full list of all Kappa Beta Phi members as well that was just published two days ago.

via NYMag

Need New Tunes? Discover Some Every Monday at Noon Pacific

A great new music site that I just discovered released a new iOS app for only $1.99. If you're like me and love discovering new music and tunes to listen to, check it out! You can always subscribe via e-mail to Noon Pacific and have that awesome playlist sent to you every week. Either way, since I travel quite a bit, bringing them with me on my iPhone is the way to go. It's more of a chill vibe that's totally reinvigorating me in writing more!

Noon Pacific is a great way to find new music to listen to, and while the playlists are hosted on 8Tracks (and you can always use their app and follow them), the Noon Pacific app packages them up nicely, lets you play each weekly playlist one right after the other, shows you which songs are playing, and lets you scroll back through all of the past playlists easily. It's a universal app as well, and the iPad version looks good on its large screen.

Built and curated by Clark Dinnison every week for your listening enjoyment. Better than Beats Music in my mind.

via LifeHacker

37% Unemployed?

Just some of the real statistics that are, most of the time, left out from the "unemployment rate" numbers. More shockingly, why are there people who think that they don't need to have a job? It's definitely one of my pet peeves.

Many Americans just aren't looking for jobs. In fact, about 91 million adult Americans don't work, and aren't looking for jobs. They make up 37% of the population -- the highest level on record since 1978.

via CNN