Friday, August 8, 2008

Eee Stick

I like Asus. Even before their Eee PC shenanigans, I've always considered myself an Asus fanboy. But what the hell is this? The Eee Stick? It's like the lovechild of a Nintendo Wiimote and Logitech MX Air. I'm not sure how I feel about this. The positive: it'll come bundled with select Eee PCs and desktop Eee PCs. The negative: the hell am I supposed to do with it?

Asus, like I said, I'm a fanboy, but let's go back to the original Eee blueprint and make Eee PCs that are cheap and good. No more of this funky Eee branding business.

Dream Phone

I'm in the market for a new smartphone. I've been rocking the same Motorola Q for the past 2 years now. It's time for a change. But I'm on Verizon so I don't have many good choices (my best bet right now is the BlackBerry Curve). My plan was to hold off till mid to late Sept when the new BBs come out, but I gotta say, I'm very tempted to jump ship right now and head over to AT&T. I know they're evil too, but in my opinion they have *the* best smartphone on the market right now, the Nokia E71. The iPhone pales next to this baby.

The E71 has a full QWERTY keyboard, aGPS, 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth A2DP, a 3MP camera, supports POP3/IMAP, and Microsoft Exchange, and has an insane (removable) 3-day battery. I know, that keyboard looks painfully small, but I used it and I actually found it to be very comfortable (and I have some pretty big paws). This phone is flying under everyone's radar right now — even more of a reason to want it. I'll have a phone few people have! So what's stopping me. The $500 price tag. I believe none of the carriers have picked it up yet (tho like I said, it'll work with an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card). Man, I so want this phone, but until some carrier subsidizes the price, I can't justify dropping $500 clams on a smartphone.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Comcast: Part II

I hate Comcast. So I called them up today asking about their new Triple Play/Wii promotion. The promotion is $99/mo for Internet/VoIP/Cable + a free Nintendo Wii. Sounds good, right? Wrong. Turns out existing Comcast members (of which I unfortunately am one of) must choose the $129/mo Triple Play plan (I didn't know there was more than one), which automatically includes HBO, Starz, blah, blah, blah. Plus — this is my favorite part — I have to leave a $330 deposit while they run a background check on me. Then I get the Nintendo Wii. $330, huh. Interesting considering the Wii costs $249! I tried inquiring a little more about the $129 plan (it jumps to $159 the second year), but my sales rep was a complete grouch so I declined the "upgrade." I'm not giving up on this tho. I'll call again another day till they explain why they need to run a background check (esp since I'm already a customer).