Posts Tagged ‘phone’
Tuesday, January 11th, 2011
I am not sure if I should be happy or start crying. On good side I am probably eligible to upgrade but on the other hand the worst carrier in San Francisco Bay area will get more traffic when many people who were waiting for this get iPhone or switch from other carriers. I cannot make or receive phone calls at my workplace in Palo Alto using this “most reliable” network. It does not work at home in Mountain View without extender either. Friends on any other networks here do not have this problems. Now I am stack for one more year and I am sorry that I switched.
IPhone 4 on Verizon
Tags: att, carrier, cdma, cell, celluar, coverage, iphone, phone, reception, service, tower, verizon, zero
Posted in Apple, iPhone, Verizon | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010
Couple months ago I moved from Cupertino to Mountain View. In my new apartment I could not make a phone call so I decided to change cell carrier from AT&T to Verizon. It seems like instead of zero bars I got one. So making calls is not possible either. I am stuck with them for next two years so I had to by their Network Extender so we can use our phones at home. Just in case of emergency I also got us land line, you need internet and electricity to make calls so it would not not work if we got some disaster. Land line should have higher survival potential 
The second part of the story is my workplace reception. AT&T worked great there, while it is a dead zone for Verizon. I can barely send text message. I was wondering why all other carries could work in this area while “nation’s most reliable” network is completely dead. It looks like Verizon got only 2 cell towers in whole South Bay. Wonderful, even T-Mobile got more 
Verizon Cell Towers in SF Bay Area
You can visit CellReception site to check what are locations of cell towers in your area.
Tags: att, carrier, cell, celluar, coverage, phone, reception, service, tower, verizon, zero
Posted in Hardware, Internet, News | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
As usually I have learned about update from third party site, Verizon does not have any updates notification in place. Searched their site, searched Palm’s release notes page and nothing. I downloaded it this morning at home while I was still on my WI-FI and in network extender range. It took more than advertised 15 minutes but update was non-problematic so far.
webOS 1.4.5 update
I do not know if GPS issues are resolved so I used GPS Fix before my morning bike commute and it seems like nothing is better than it was before.
Tags: 1.4.5, carrier, celluar, fix, geolocation, gps, navigation, phone, pre, receptionpalm, smartphone, update, verizon, webos
Posted in Palm, webOS | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Palm introduced webOS 2.0, the next generation web-based operating system! We’ve got lots of new and updated
features to make your apps more powerful and flexible. New features include:
- Stacks – grouping related cards in stacks, reducing clutter, and making it even easier to move quickly between task
- Quick Actions – Start an email, create a message, update your status, search your favorite websites—all without having to launch an app
- Apps can have custom Touchstone at-a-glance views with Exhibition
- Synergy is opening up to developers
- HTML5 and Javascript support is much improved
- Hybrid PDK/SDK apps will be fully supported
webOS 2.0 SDK Beta
Tags: celluar, developer, palm, phone, pre, release, sdk, smartphone, webos
Posted in News, Palm, Software, webOS | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Google Voice has become a part of Gmail. You’ll need to install the Google voice and video chat plug-in. Calls to the U.S. and Canada will be free. International calling rates are available here. Dialing a phone number works just like a normal phone. Just click “Call phone” at the top of your chat list and dial a number or enter a contact’s name.
Google Voice in Gmail
Tags: call, chat, contact, dial, free, gmail, Google, Internet, number, phone, voice, voip
Posted in Google, Internet, News | No Comments »
Monday, August 9th, 2010
For a while I was not able to use GPS hardware on my Palm Pre+. Some people suggested that it might be crippled by Verizon since they want to sell subscriptions for their GPS software – Verizon Navigator. I read reports claiming that when you start Navigator first, GPS working in other apps auto-magically. This thing was probably inspiration for writing a small app called GPS Fix. GPS Fix is designed to wake your GPS, then keep it alive by continually pinging it at a set interval. I got following recipe to make possible to use SmartRunner to track my cycling rides.
- Start GPS Fix and enable it
- Call Verizon Navigator from GPS Fix and wait until it will ask you to purchase this app.
- Start SmartRunner.
- Wait. I figured out that it takes a while to sync with satellites. Unlike my PhotoTrackr device it cannot really sync when I am moving. That was always problem cause I am used to start and let it sync while I am riding. This is not working with GPS hardware from Pre+. Once you are synced you can start tracking in SmartRunner and GPS Fix will keep pinging hardware to make sure it will be running.
Tags: 3g, carrier, celluar, digital, fix, geolocation, gps, navigation, phone, pre, receptionpalm, service, smartphone, verizon, webos, zero
Posted in Cummute, Cycling, Fitness, GPS, Palm, webOS | 1 Comment »
Monday, July 19th, 2010
This is my first smartphone so I cannot compare to my past experience. I decided to have Palm device cause I wanted two from the same manufacturer after we switched to Verizon due to reception problems in our new apartment. Also I wanted a smaller form factor than most of present smartphones. My wife was not very interested in smartphone so Pixi for her was also kind of compromise.
Palm Pre
Pros:
1. It is fast. GUI is really responsive and you only wait if you are connecting to outside world
2. Multitasking. You really can do many thing at once. Did not try if you can make calls while doing other things but music playing with surfing work.
3. Works as USB drive.
4. Syncs with my Gmail address book.
5. Video. Shoots better video than point’n'shooter even if it has less megapixels.
Cons:
1. Keyboard is pretty small or my hands are too big.
2. Entering numbers is a nightmare.
3. Battery life is very short.I would say it is more like 5h instead of advertised 8h. Do I really have to switch everything off?
4. No way to filter out Facebook contacts.
5. Photo. I am not so impressed with still camera. I need to do more test but built-in flash is not very good.
Tags: 3g, Apple, att, carrier, celluar, coverage, digital, iphone, palm, phone, pre, reception, service, smartphone, verizon, webos, zero
Posted in Hardware, Palm, Software, webOS | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
I was tempted to buy new iPhone 4 but I decided to wait till end of July for resolution of all problems reported by early adopters. In meanwhile I moved to Gemello neighborhood in Mountain View just to find out that AT&T got no reception there. We got two phones there and we cannot call each other cause we have zero bars and phones do not even ring. According to AT&T map it should be good reception there but I do not think zero is good.
Gemello AT&T Coverage
The only real alternative seems to be Verizon. Their map shows that they have this area covered all in red which should be best reception for voice and digital services. In reality after switch we can talk but 3G is almost not possible to get. It’s just pathetic. In the middle of Silicon Valley both major carries got mediocre services.
Gemello Verizon Coverage
If rumors are true Verizon will have iPhone next year but now I am on two years contract and two Palm phones. So until iPhone 6 will be released I will be testing webOS on my Palm Pre phone
Palm Pre Plus
Tags: 3g, Apple, att, carrier, celluar, coverage, digital, iphone, palm, phone, pre, reception, service, smartphone, verizon, webos, zero
Posted in Apple, Hardware, Internet, iPhone, News, Palm, webOS | 1 Comment »
