Author: dssstrkl

v-moda death

Well, today marks the untimely end of my second pair of v-moda vibe duos, the nice (and nicely median-priced) iphone earbuds. The first pair suffered from some manufacturing defect that has since been corrected and were replaced under warranty without issue. I really have to comment v-moda’s customer service for being polite and professional.

Unfortunately for me, this ~~probably~~ isn’t covered under the warranty:

After work, I went to the Starbucks closest to my job for a nice cold lemonade to enjoy the nice day. Nice days are a rarity in summertime SF, so time MUST be taken to enjoy them. Anyway, I got my drink, and as I was walking to my table, my headphones caught against one of those stupid racks they have everywhere and managed to pull the right cable from the junction.

So I’m emailing v-moda support to see if they’ll cover that. Probably not, but its not as if emailing them can hurt!

UPDATE
That was fast! No, stupidly destroying your headphones is not covered under warranty. (Stupidity rarely is)

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Addendum to my Gadget Lust

Post author By dssstrkl
Post date July 10, 2008
No Comments on Addendum to my Gadget Lust

Or: Why it pays to do some basic research before bitching about stuff.

Yesterday I vented my feelings about how while I very much want an iPhone 3G, I won’t be getting one. The big reason basically boils down to the cost of the family plan. The Death Star lists their family plans starting at $129/mo for 2 lines with 700 shared minutes. I was under the impression that that was one 3G iPhone and one regular phone. I also thought that there was no plan with fewer minutes, as my and Nicky’s combined anytime usage averages less than 100 minutes/mo. Add the whole texting thing and I was looking at a huge bill, which I am just not willing to pay.

So guess what I did today?

After shopping at the local Victoria’s Secret (yum!), we walked over to the Apple store so I could chat with one of the retail goons. The goon I caught pointed out to my surprise that the listed family plans assume two 3G iPhones. I’m not sure of everyone else in the world caught that or not, but if I don’t know it, its news to me. So come the questions about going from my plan to a family plan and switching phones between two people and I confused the hell out of the goon, who was as clueless about AT&T’s policies as I. (I should point out that this guy was actually very polite and helpful; I just call all retail people goons. It’s how I felt when I was a retail goon).

Anyway, now that my interest was piqued, I headed over to the closest AT&T store to get some more info. And of course, here’s where the problems begin. It seems as if I can use the lower plan, add a line and switch the phones, but only if one or the other of us gives up a number and the 2G iPhone loses its plan.

Sigh.

This isn’t what I’ve heard from other sources, including official Death Star communications, so I get to figure out what to do. I think that I’ll combine our numbers into a family plan first, then upgrade myself to the 3G and hand down the 2G to Nicky later. Perhaps splitting all the complex BS into steps will lessen my pain, but in any case, my resolve has gone from “Not gonna happen” to “Wait and see.” That’s much better.

I’m also going to see how well MobileMe works in the wild. That calendar sync and idisk will be damned useful to the two of us, but I want to see how well it integrates with the various Google services I use before I plunk some cash down.

personal

Gadget Pain

Like many other early adopters, I find myself faced with a decision. The problem is, I shouldn’t. There should be no conflict or even a question. However, my reptile brain finds itself still lusting over a shiny new iPhone 3G. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my current cell phone (an original iPhone, natch), its just that the new one is slightly better, and I do mean that. Just like all the rumors predicted, the 3G iPhone is last year’s phone + faster internet and GPS. My phone still gets all the nifty new software updates, and probably will for as long as the 3G gets its updates, since they have the same specs, excepting the radio. I had even decided, pre-WWDC that I was going to skip this update, since faster internet was not worth spending $400 to replace a $600-$100 phone that was a year old!

So what happened to make this an issue?

$199.

$199 is an impulse buy. A rare impulse buy, for sure, but that’s an amount of change that I would have no regrets over. So I had it all worked out. I figured that I’d just hand down the old’n busted iPhone to the SO, set up a family plan, get a MobileMe account, and everything would be awesome! But then the Death Star revealed their prices, including the family plans, which I found so unacceptable, I just dropped the whole thing.

But the shiny new goodies, they beckon.

So, I’m going to hold out, for now. I managed to wait an entire three days before succumbing to the siren’s call last year. This year, I already have awesomeness in my pocket, while is a software update away from awesome x2, so I think I can contain my enthusiasm. I need to see about a cheaper family plan (since neither of us really use that many minutes anyway), and I’d really like a 32GB version. Yeah, that’s it. I’ll just tell myself that I’m waiting for that.

But its still $199……