Niri | Blog

I guess AT&T has had enough of Verizon poking fun of them with their ads recently. They posted the following press release on their site today. Not pulling any punches they address all the points hinted at from Verizon’s ad campaign.

“AT&T’s wireless data coverage reaches 303 million people – or 97% of the U.S. population, where they live and work.

AT&T is the #1 network for smartphones, with twice the number of smartphone customers than Verizon, our closest competitor. Some of the reasons include:

Most popular smartphones. Unlike Verizon, AT&T offers the most popular smartphones in the industry.

More wireless apps. Unlike Verizon, AT&T customers have access to more than 100,000 applications, more than with any other wireless company.

Talk and E-mail at the same time. Unlike Verizon, AT&T’s 3G network lets wireless customers simultaneously talk and surf the web or do e-mail.

Fastest 3G in the nation. Unlike Verizon, AT&T has the nation’s fastest 3G network.”

Fight! Fight! Fight!

Does this mean tethering for the iPhone is postponed until the dust settles…?

att.com via TUAW

The Wall Street Journal has a great article showcasing why AT&T killed Google Voice recently on the iPhone. Andy Kessler writes a really sobering article on our archaic and ludicrous phone companies and their ancient policies.

Don’t miss his 4 step-solution to the problem which is ingenious. [Link]

I give you – the i.Saw! The world’s first USB-powered chainsaw.

Oh yes. A real, fully functional, USB-powered chainsaw. Be sure to watch the demonstration video. I think the most disturbing portion is probably this section of the website:

Operating Environment
Home and office use
(Standard precautions apply)

How is this a good product? What exactly are you cutting that is within a USB cable’s length of a computer?!

UPDATE — As it turns out the i.Saw is of course not real. It’s a prank, a hoax, but a clever one with a purpose. If you pre-order the i.Saw you’ll receive this e-mail:

Hello.

We love that you liked the i.Saw enough to pre-order.

Truth is, you already own a chainsaw. Your keyboard.

Help save more trees by cutting down on unnecessary printing. Download PaperCut, a free application that plays the sound of a chainsaw each time you press Ctrl-P.

Available for Mac and PC.

Thanks for the support. Help spread the buzz, if you will :)

PaperCut Team
(formerly known as i.Saw Team)

[i.Saw - The World's First USB-powered Chainsaw]

theWPresser has a great article highlighting 10 really useful plugins for your WordPress blog that addresses some of the common quirks (read: headaches) with WordPress.

If you’re currently developing a blog or you’re on the lookout for useful functions to add to your shiny blog I recommend reading it.

[link]

WordPress 2.8 came out today so I had to install it of course. Upgrade was pain free and pretty quick. I’m running Thematic as my framework so I went ahead and upgraded that to version 0.9.5 as well. Ian‘s code is solid and with the exception of the search bar CSS on the main page here we’re looking good!

I was pretty disappointed with Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference ’09. Clarification, I was disappointed with the iPhone section. The rest was pretty nice.

No really, it's a new phone.

I missed the hint before the conference stating it would be software focused, which it ended up being. That’s OK, but Apple did not bring much to the iPhone party and with all the rumors floating around before the conference I think many were expecting great, new hardware.

Instead we got an identical looking phone with the ingenious name of iPhone 3G S. The S stands for Suck Speed. Even the name makes it clear; there’s not a lot of new here.

To add insult to injury AT&T has made sure current 3G owners will not be getting this device cheaply (Read: most won’t bother). If you want the new 16GB S model you’ll have to shell out $599 and if you want the 32GB S model be prepared to fork over a ludicrous $699 PLUS a $18 upgrade fee. WHAT?!

AT&T Reps are even recommending 3G customers cancel their current phone and sign up for a new one. It’s cheaper eating the early termination fee than paying what AT&T is asking. Completely ass backwards.

On top of that AT&T won’t be ready to support MMS when iPhone OS 3.0 comes out June 17th. Not until the end of summer will they have MMS available for their customers? Huh? How long did they know this was coming? They’re the ONLY carrier in the US!

Then there’s tethering. Now supported on the iPhone thanks to the 3.0 OS, AT&T won’t have anything to offer customers there either! It’s coming later and when it does they say it might cost about $70, and that does not include SMS. In your dreams AT&T, I’m not touching it

I’m getting by without a compass and video features for now. Yes the new phone is faster and has more memory (600Mhz, 256mb RAM) but overall it’s just a refresh of the 3G. If AT&T will reconsider subsidizing it at same rates as the 3G last year I’ll reconsider buying the 3G S.

So have you heard about Bing? Can you hear yourself saying “Hey, I’m gonna Bing that!” ?

Bing is Microsoft’s latest search engine, the be all of what’s cool. According to Microsoft and their promotional video Bing will give you much more sensible search results and bring you closer to the information you’re looking for.

MaximumPC has posted a must-read for all PC geeks about BSoD. You know what BSoD is right? Blue Screen of Death. This might look familiar unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade and a half.

Check out their awesome article then go lay down or something.

Most of my car chargers are bulky and annoying. They stick out too far, the cable is flopping all over the place and most often the plug is not as good as the one the phone maker gives you.

Now check out this little guy. This is the Belkin Micro Auto Charger. It’s tiny, has a USB connection which will be perfect for my iPhone and it sits almost flush in the dashboard. Since I don’t use my charge port for anything else it’s basically like a nice mod to make the plug look like it came with the car. You know what I mean?

It’s coming out in May ’09 at about $15. [link]

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I caught this over at Reddit.

Looks like Google has it’s own Torrent search engine. Makes me wonder if Google is so big and have so many high paid lawyers it doesn’t have to fear the RIAA or MPAA when it comes to torrents.