I’ve been an AT&T VoIP client for 5 years now via their CallVantage service. But they just sent us a letter in the mail telling us that they are going to discontinue the service. First of all, why didn’t they email it to us? Or drop a recorded message in our voice mail boxes? Anyway, I absolutely love their rationale…

As AT&T continually strives to deliver new and innovative products… AT&T will be discontinuing AT&T CallVantage service in 2009.

So, let me get this straight… In AT&T’s quest to deliver new and innovative products, they’ve decided to eliminate the internet based VoIP service which delivers flat rate calling, digital access to voice-mail, online capabilities to manage and change services, and instead offer “wireless from AT&T and traditional voice service”? Brilliant.
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I just had to give up my Sprint powered PPC8800 for a Blackberry Curve 8310 so I could be on the communal rate plan and also have real-time Exchange access for e-mail at work. After doing so it forced me to do a lot of research on applications and ways to better my Curve.

I figured some other people are going to go looking for this info as well, so I’ve compiled what I learned here. Its not my most organized post, but there is a lot of information and I didn’t want to spend forever getting the post out. Hopefully if anyone knows of other cool, free stuff for the BB you’ll drop a comment below and let me know.
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I’ve been holding off on sharing this information, which is really mostly rumor and speculation, up to this point – but Google is supposedly readying the launch of a new cellular phone which will come GPS and have built in access to Google Maps, Gmail, Calendar and Docs.

Google previously bid for the FCC’s 700MHz wireless spectrum, one which could be used to operate a new Google cellular phone service, and as I previously reported they acquired GrandCentral (I handed out around 75 invites to the beta service), a unified messaging platform which provides “find-me, follow-me” service, voice mail, and other goodies.
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This video is both hilarious and sad at the same time. I don’t want to spoil it by giving the details, but suffice it to say that Stephen Colbert is giving an overview on the history and future of AT&T…
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The attached recording demonstrates one method of negotiating lower rates with Sprint PCS – even while you are under a contract. I’ve heard anecdotal stories from others that similar tactics work with the other major US cellular carriers as well as cable providers, but I’m not aware of anyone else having actually recorded and supplied a methodology.

The reason for my call is obvious if you listen, but basically we were paying around $135 per month on average for two phones and we aren’t even heavy users. I saw lower cost rates online that include even more, so I called just to get my rates reduced.

There are a few general things to note and listen for during this recording (which has been slightly edited from the original to remove personal details and blank space). Read the rest of this entry »

I recently found myself reading David Cowan’s personal blog as a result of researching my previous post on Dr. Dawkin’s letter to his daughter. As I perused his interesting site I found a post entitled “Net Neutrality is Politically Correct“.

If my interpretation is correct, David argues that the concept of Net Neutrality is misguided and will actually cause more harm than good. So, I thought I would take a few moments to issue a friendly, yet opposing view.
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I’ve seen a few speed testing Web sites in my day, but this new one from SpeedTest.net takes the cake!

This site is totally awesome! Everything from the animation to the test results are very clear and easy to understand. Select the image above to see my personal results which range from a download high speed of over 11.4 Mbps (to Dallas) to a low of just over 4.3 Mbps (to London).
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