Utahcon.com

So T-Mobile today announced they are changing things up in the mobile world. They are dropping contracts (for service) and making people buy phones out right (sort of). Here are the real details of the programs. Be warned, my math is based on unlimited everything plans. There are other options, which bring down the price, but let’s be real and assume we are going to abuse the system like I do.

The big deal is there are no more contracts with T-Mobile. You are free to leave at anytime*. Yes, there is a * there, and here is why. Your shiny new phone, is locked to their network until you pay it off. At full price. So the bonus is, you are no longer going to sign a two year contract for a $0 phone for two years. The downside is you are paying for the phone at full market rate.

The salesmen of T-Mobile were granted a gift though, almost all high end phones are now affordable*. That damn * again. This time it is because the advertised price for a phone will be a down payment. This isn’t a new trick for T-Mobile, but it is one people are going to lament, I think. Basically you can get a shiny new iPhone5, or HTC One, or Samsung Galaxy S4 for only $99. That is a sweet deal. Oh wait, that is right, there is a $20 (YMMV) monthly fee for 2 years. Oh… so you are stuck with a phone… at full price, that only works with T-Mobile until paid off… over two years. Do you see what they did? They didn’t lock you into their service with a contract on the service, they locked you in with a contract on the phone. Sneaky. People will fall for it.

Alas, there is more. So… let’s assume you are paying the $99 down, and the $20/month for 24 months for a total of $579 for your new phone. They much be cutting the plans to something reasonable, right? Not really. Let’s keep in mind the MVNOs on T-Mobiles own network are charging $50/mo for unlimited everything (talk, text and data). To have T-Mobile proper, you are looking to pay $70 (for a single line) or $60/ea for a family plan of 2 lines ($120/mo).

Let’s add up the savings!

Single Plan

$579 for the phone ($99 down, $20 for 24 months)

$1,680 in service (assuming you don’t pay off your phone early and bounce)

Total $2,259 for two years.

Family Plan

$1158 ($198 down, $40 for 24 months)

$2880  in service (assuming you don’t pay off your phone early and bounce)

Total $4,038 for two years.

Lets’s compare that to SimpleMobile (a T-Mobile MVNO) with a outright purchase of a LG Nexus 4

SimpleMobile

$349 (16GB from Google Play, not including sales tax)

$1,200 ($50/mo for 24 months)

Total $1549 + Sales Tax or two years.

2 lines would be $3,098

So for single folks that is a savings of $710, and families save $940.

Instant Gratification 

Obviously the reason T-Mobile will continue to win here is the payment plans on phones. Because you will be paying less up front, and more over time. The big deal is the instant gratification.

Will other carriers come over to the “Uncarrier” side? Probably not. T-Mobile is taking a huge risk, one that other companies have actually told T-Mobile they tried, and failed at.

Where T-Mobile customers might win is with people who are good at spending wisely. Get a phone now for $99 and pay it off faster and bail on the network for an MVNO. I could see that being a killer market. In fact… maybe it is time to get into the game of selling LG Nexus 4s on payment plans.

Google announced their newest app today called Google Keep, followed by a bunch of internet people complaining about how Google Reader was amazing, and they are turning it off. Let’s look at that for a second.

Google is a business. Nope, you didn’t read that wrong. They are NOT a non-profit, they are not an education service, they are not your buddies working on cool projects in their mom’s basement, they are a business. In fact, they are a public business. They are responsible for making decisions that ultimately will make Google (and their share holders) money. They do NOT answer to the average user (or a few hundred thousand of them). They answer to bottom lines and share holders.

What does that mean? That means Google was RIGHT to shut down Google Reader. Let me explain why that is. Google Reader was a free app. You never paid a dime for it. Not one. Ever. They never showed you an ad on that site. Not one. Ever. Sure you saw ads, and technically they may have been from Google, but they were injected through the RSS feeds of the sites you followed. Those guys made the money on the ads being shown. (to a lesser extent so did Google, but let’s ignore that for a second). So did the ad networks, that could have been any ad network.

So let’s sum that up for a second. Google Reader potentially made money for other people, but never directly for Google. That is bad business.

Google Reader required a lot of resources. Don’t believe me? Go write an RSS reader of that scale. My personal reader list has over 100 RSS feeds. That is 100 RSS feeds that Google has to check every few minutes to see if I have anything new to ignore, I mean read. If there is anything new, Google has to store it for me, until I ignore it, I am sorry, read it.

So let’s keep the tally going: No money coming in, and paying for bandwidth and storage. That makes this now a negative value.

If you can’t understand why Google has shuttered Google Reader, you are not living in this reality and you should probably go have your mental state analysed.

Look, I am not going to come right out and say these stats are completely false, or wrong… I am just saying, I don’t think they are 100% accurate from a single night (roughly 4 hours) of gaming.

This morning was the straw the broke the camel’s back, and here is the result:

This morning tipped the scale of what I feel is mistake and just plain lack of caring.

Over the last few weeks I have been visiting your restaurant (Store #3320) and have been assaulted with plain poor service.

One visit (about a week ago) I was given through the drive through window drinks that were actively draining soda into my lap. The girl at the window (a portly woman with a napkin under her headset) acknowledged they were leaking, handed me the drinks (which I held out of my car until) she slammed the window shut, and then ignored me while I attempted to get her attention about the drinks. I was then forced to take the drinks across my lap (spilling soda on my pants and coat, along with my car interior), so that I could pull forward to a parking spot to return into the building and ask for a replacement drink. Here I was met with stares of disbelief and bewilderment. I had to ask twice for a new drink, and never did an employee apologize or even speak to me! They all simply moved like robots with no concern or sympathy.

This morning took the cake when I ordered oatmeal and was handed a cup full of over watered oats. It literally was like soup. There was no thickness to it at all. I returned to the store to ask that my oatmeal be replaced. The manager took the cup from me (again with out saying a single word) and asked another team member to make me a new cup of oatmeal. The gentleman proceeded to do so, and handed me another cup that was too full of water that the oat and water ratio would never work out. I rejected this second cup and asked for a third. The manager (again not talking to me) asked yet another team member to make a new cup of oatmeal. This time a slightly older lady took the charge and made a cup with the appropriate amount of water, and turned and mentioned to me to give it a moment and the oats would rise. This time the oat to water ratio was more acceptable. However, and to no fault of the employee herself when my wife ate the oatmeal she said it tasted old, as if the oats were stale. Not a good experience.

Something needs to be done! These people are ruining your customer experience. The lack of caring in this morning location is astounding! No one talks to the customers, no one cares if the orders are correct or quick. No one cares when you bring in a bad cup or soda, or oatmeal to offer an apology. To look the customer in the eyes and say “Sorry that happened, let me fix it”. Instead I am met with what feels like a dark sense of avoidance. Get the customer out of here quickly, don’t make eye contact, and don’t for the love of all that is holy let the customer know we care.

This needs to be fixed.

This morning around 1AM Eastern Apple pulled the 500px app from their Appstore claiming it was too easy for users to find nude photos through the app.

The current version of the app has been on the Appstore for months! 16 months since it was added to the Appstore, and in November (2012) there was an update to the interface, but the search components didn’t change, says their COO.

Technically the claim is right, that you can search for nude images. However, the app starts all search in what is called a “safe search” mode. Making it hard for users to actually find the nude photos.

It amazes me that developers, and users, are willing to accept this kind of one sided control. Do I want there to be porn apps in the Appstore, no. Do I care? No. I have the parental controls to keep things like that from falling into the wrong (child) hands. As a developer it would infuriate me to have my app rejected because it could possibly be used for entertainment values that a specific group (in this case Apple) finds to be immoral.

Let’s clarify here too. 500px is NOT a porn site. They are a photography hosting and sharing site. They discourage their own site being used for porn. You aren’t allowed to upload porn. You are allowed to  upload tasteful and perfectly legal nude art imagery.

This reminds me of another app that suffered at the extent of the user submitted content. A friend of mine runs a dating site. Their app was held up in review because user could possibly upload images that were inappropriate, and users could arrange to meet up for what Apple deemed immoral activities (sex). Who is Apple to tell people what they can and can’t do with their apps? With their phones? With their lives?

Apple, mind your own damn business.

A few days ago I was made aware of a product for men that helps us stay fresh. Fresh Balls is a lotion that turns into a freshness product, well… let me let them explain it.

PROBLEM:
99.9 % OF ALL MEN SUFFER FROM THE PROBLEM OF SWEATY BALLS.

SOLUTION:
FreshBalls was created to take care of the problems the other companies forgot about. Here at freshballs we take pride in using natural products that not only solve the problem, but they are good for the skin.

So there in a nutshell you have the problem and solution. Does it work? Should you get some? YES!

I immediately ordered Fresh Balls from Amazon.com (it is Prime Eligible BTW) and two days later I was in business.

True to their claim it keeps things fresh. The lotion has a pleasant smell (not girly) and feels soft. Once the lotion drys, things stay fresh. Real fresh. Depending on what you do during your day you may need to freshen up, but Fresh Balls certainly makes a difference.

Go get some Fresh Balls today!

I realize I am late to the game, but this is actually the first time I have encountered Add-on items on Amazon.com. I am currently looking at moving to a new MVNO (more about MVNOs here) and Amazon had a great price on a Net10 Sim card kit, only $0.49. Supposedly this contains the SIM I need to switch to Net10. This is perfect, $0.49 per phone to switch my wife and I to a new network. Deal! Oh wait, I have to spend $25 to get this item… what the…?

So apparently Amazon launched Add-on Items back in July (2012). The idea is, items that are cost prohibitive to ship alone can be added onto regular orders of $25 or more. Neat idea, except maybe I don’t need $25 worth of useless crap. Ever think of that Amazon? Or course you did, you just expect people to find another $25 worth of crap to purchase.

The regular (or going) price for the SIM card packs are $9.99 (from Net10) up to $15 (Walmart). So you can see where getting the card for $0.49 would be awesome! So now I am forced to choose, find $24.02 more of something I “need” or suck it up and buy the card locally for a considerable amount more.

Guess I better start shopping.

It has been exactly three months since I started using a standing desk at work. I LOVE IT! I can’t say it has been the easiest thing to change in my life, but since I just dove in and did it, it has really changed things about me. I actually really appreciate sitting now, but often find myself wishing I were standing. Which is weird.

The first few weeks were tough, and there are some things that have really felt good and bad as I have done this. Immediately the back pain I was experiencing daily was gone. I attribute that pain to having chairs and desks that didn’t quite fit me. I have had a change in the pain in my feet. I am still experimenting with shoes to see what feels best while standing. So if you have suggestions, please feel free to throw them out here.

My manager did pick me up a standing mat (not that actual mat, but like it). That made a HUGE difference in the pain I was having in my feet. I also often take my shoes off because it feels better. This had made the need for slip on shoes for work kind of important to me.

Calves and knees have their days. I am not sure why but some days my calves feel like rock attached to my legs. I need to get to the gym more often to work on my legs. I think it will help in my general overall quality of life, and standing.

I am a software developer, and so at work I go LONG stretches without sitting (up to 12 hours), and take few (sitting) breaks. I have one meeting a week that I attend, it is one to two hours on Monday mornings. That meeting is a great break after a weekend of sitting. I sit for breaks. I sit for lunch. I sit at home, though I have found I am more likely to get up and move while at home.

I have taken note that the design I chose to use has actually had some really great benefits in being easy to disassemble to route wires and cables. The shelf isn’t attached and so I can just pop it off and move things around. This came in handy when the company gave us new computers and I had to run all the cables again. I also have a nice little storage area under the desk, so I can put things there, which is out of my line of sight.

Folks around the office are giving me credit for others following me lead. I didn’t preach the idea to too many people (just my immediate cubicle team) but others around the office have taken the cue and  have built their own standing desks. One guy at my office actually built a home treadmill desk. I could see myself heading down that route in the future. Jeremy Hanks ( a local business man) has a great blog post about using a treadmill desk. I just might buy a Fitbit soon too.

Overall I am proud of myself for sticking with it. There were days when my legs burned so badly I just wanted to quit, take the abuse from those who knew I sat, and accept it. I have stayed strong, and plan to stand for many months, years, decades to come. Thanks to everyone who has been supportive about the journey, you have made this that much more fun.