Category Archives: Personal

800 Miles with Android

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I just finished driving 800 miles on a family vacation to Florida. Armed only with my Google Android phone for navigation, we made it safe and sound. Although I recognized Google Navigation and its awesome integration with Android as an asset, I didn’t truly realize just how awesome it was until today.

My Nexus One handled the load like a champ: streaming podcasts over bluetooth while simultaneously sharing its internet connection to my daughter’s iPod Touch as well as providing me turn-by-turn directions for 800 miles was great. I was relying on the Google car dock to keep the juice flowing, and it didn’t let me down.

We decided somewhere in Georgia to go “off the beaten path” to High Falls State Park. Even with only an EDGE connection, it handled the directions appropriately and got us back to the interstate with no issues. However, I was most impressed with it when I was sitting at Cracker Barrel having dinner in Gainesville, Florida trying to decide where we were going to stay for the night. A combination of Google Maps and Navigation provided easy access to nearby hotels, user reviews, rates, phone numbers, and directions. My wife attempted to` locate the same information on her iPhone, and that really highlighted the power of a “with Google” phone because of the deep integration with Google services and the Android operating system. The basic map functionality of the iPhone paled in comparison to the vast amount of information available on Android.

As I tweeted earlier today:

God is my copilot. Google Navigation is my navigator.

I also brought my Sprint EVO along for the ride, and got a chance to try out 4G in Atlanta. This was a huge disappointment. Speeds were no better than Sprint 3G speeds, and only 1/3 of the speeds my Nexus One was pulling down on AT&T 3G. I’m not sure if my EVO is just defective; I LOVE the form factor and hardware, but my experience on Sprint has been terrible. The EVO was roaming about half the time, and it chewed through the battery while sitting unused in the windshield mount. This thing is definitely going back to Best Buy when I get back.

EVO 4G Sprint Atlanta

Nexus One AT&T 3G in Atlanta

On to Mickey Mouse tomorrow!


GameFly Sucks

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GameFly is a service which is supposed to be NetFlix for games. I began using GameFly a few years ago, and thought it was pretty cool. Unfortunately, as they grew, they didn’t invest in the games needed to keep up with the demand of their subscribers, and due to the long wait times to receive a game, I cancelled my account.

Recently I decided to start my subscription again because I figured after 2 years they surely would have made improvements. Boy was I wrong.

In the past 2 months, I have only received 2 game titles, and seem to be spending more time waiting for games to ship than I do actually playing them. Every recently released title in the past few months shows low availability, and it takes forever for the game to even ship (on top of the 3 days it takes to arrive after it ships).

The last game I sent back was Splinter Cell: Conviction and that was on April 26th. After a few days they acknowledged receiving it, but they have yet to even send another game in my queue. Granted, I only have 2 games in my queue, but if I wanted to play old games it would be cheaper to buy them. I decided I would have a chat with them (since you can’t actually call the company) to see why there was such a delay (9 days now).

What I found was an exercise in frustration and a support agent relying too heavily on copy/paste.

Chat Transcript 05/05/2010 07:23 AM
Hi, my name is Carlos C. How may I help you? [07:03:54 AM]

Bill: I sent back a game over a week ago, and you still haven’t sent me another game. [07:04:16 AM]

Carlos C: One moment please as I review your account. [07:04:45 AM]

Carlos C: In reviewing your account I noted that we are unable to ship you another game immediately since you have two released items in your GameQ that are currently high in demand.

GameFly strives to send you your highest ranked game, however, if it is not available at the time of shipment, we will ship you the next available game on your GameQ to minimize the time you are without one. Therefore, I recommend you place more released games in your GameQ so you do not miss out on receiving titles. [07:06:19 AM]

Bill: I know how it works. Why is a game that was released 2 months ago still low availability? Those are the games I want to play, and what I signed up for. If I wanted to play old releases it would be cheaper just to buy them. [07:07:14 AM]

Carlos C: New releases are still very popular after a few months of the released date. [07:08:18 AM]

Bill: Why do you not increase your inventory? [07:08:31 AM]
Carlos C: We pay close attention to our inventory levels and re-order key titles regularly to minimize the number and duration of unavailable games. [07:09:15 AM]

Bill: From a customer perspective (this customer) you are doing a poor job of it. This is the reason I cancelled 2 years ago and it’s just as bad now as it was back then. [07:09:54 AM]

Carlos C: I do apologize for the inconvenience and do appreciate your feedback. We are currently attempting to locate one of your games. Once we are able to locate an available game we will ship it out to you. [07:11:47 AM]

Carlos C: Please note that by placing only your top game choices in your GameQ, you will be guaranteeing a shipment of those games. However, GameFly cannot guarantee a timeframe for those shipments. [07:12:30 AM]

Bill: I know this. By waiting at least a week for them to even ship, I’m basically paying for half of month of gamefly for absolutely nothing. Netflix has no issues like this. I used to recommend gamefly to my friends, but now I can’t recommend it to anyone. [07:13:50 AM]

Carlos C: We are correctly attempting to ship a game as soon as possible. [07:16:49 AM]

Carlos C: Is there anything else I can assist you with today? [07:20:42 AM]

Bill: no. I guess I will just cancel again. [07:23:06 AM]

Carlos C: I do apologize once more the for the inconvenience and once a game is shipped we will send you an email notification. Thanks for contacting us! Should you have future questions, a great GameFly resource can be found at -http://www.gamefly.com/help [07:23:40 AM]

‘Bill’ disconnected (‘Concluded by Agent’). [07:23:42 AM]

Buyer/renter beware.

Energizer Induction Charging Pad for Wii

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I just picked up this Induction Charging Pad for my Wii console. It’s a new product from Energizer that runs $49.99, and it allows you to easily charge your Wiimotes without hooking up any wires or removing the silicon sleeves or Wii Motion Plus; just lay the Wiimote on the charging pad after inserting the included battery. If you’ve seen the Palm Pre’s Touchstone charger, this works the same way.

This is a quick unboxing and look. Once I’ve had a chance to use them I’ll update.

The Simulcast Jr.

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brianna

Today I decided to sit down and record a mini podcast with my 7 year old daughter Brianna for TheSimulcast.com. She is surrounded by technology, and we spent a little bit of time talking about the tech she uses, what it’s like living with a really nerdy dad, and she even gives some holiday gift buying tips for kids.

This was a really fun episode to record – Brianna has an affinity to the microphone so I’m sure you’ll see more of her.

P.S. I didn’t pick the opening song. My apologies.

The Simulcast audio feed is available via iTunes, RSS, or direct download here or you can use the player below.

[audio:http://media.libsyn.com/media/t4show/simulcastJr.mp3]