This years Macworld brought news of what is sure to be one of the hottest gadgets of 2007, Apple’s iPhone. It was also announced that Cingular would be the only cell phone company carrying the phone for a long time. Douce is here to fill you in on what Cingular has planned for its release.
I’m sitting at CC’s drinking a cup of coffee and pecking away on my laptop when I hear a guy and a girl sitting one both over from me talking about Apple’s new iPhone. I’m going to use fictitious names because even though I was eavesdropping, I have no clue what their names are. I hear Pete tell Sue that he can’t wait until the iPhone comes out in June. Sue says she’s seen it and she can’t wait to pick one up either but she’s not sure if the phone will work with her T-Mobile service because the phone will be exclusive to Cingular. Pete assures her that if she just goes in to a Cingular store and purchases one at retail price then he can get it unlocked for her. Pete goes on to say that he has Cingular service but isn’t eligible for an upgrade until the end of 2008, meaning that he renewed his Cingular contract at the end of 2006 for two years and received a discount on a new cell phone. He will not be eligible for another discount for two years.
As I listen to Pete and Sue make plans to get the iPhone in June, I can’t help but snicker to myself for a number of reasons. There are a few kinks in their plans that I wanted to make them aware of but I didn’t because it was so darn funny. Here is what Pete and Sue will find out about the iPhone sooner or later, but hopefully sooner.
1. Cingular is not allowing the purchase of the iPhone WITHOUT a two-year contract. In other words, you no get Cingular service, you no get Cingular iPhone from Cingular store.
2. Even if you currently have Cingular service, if you are not eligible for an upgrade then you cannot purchase the phone. Again, no two-year contract, no iPhone. Retail purchase is not an option.
Cingular may decide to change these regulations as the release date gets closer, but as of right now, all I can do is snicker at Pete and Sue and shake my head.
Poor Pete. Poor Sue. Cingular raised that bar even higher. I hope you can jump.
I’m sitting at CC’s drinking a cup of coffee and pecking away on my laptop when I hear a guy and a girl sitting one both over from me talking about Apple’s new iPhone. I’m going to use fictitious names because even though I was eavesdropping, I have no clue what their names are. I hear Pete tell Sue that he can’t wait until the iPhone comes out in June. Sue says she’s seen it and she can’t wait to pick one up either but she’s not sure if the phone will work with her T-Mobile service because the phone will be exclusive to Cingular. Pete assures her that if she just goes in to a Cingular store and purchases one at retail price then he can get it unlocked for her. Pete goes on to say that he has Cingular service but isn’t eligible for an upgrade until the end of 2008, meaning that he renewed his Cingular contract at the end of 2006 for two years and received a discount on a new cell phone. He will not be eligible for another discount for two years.As I listen to Pete and Sue make plans to get the iPhone in June, I can’t help but snicker to myself for a number of reasons. There are a few kinks in their plans that I wanted to make them aware of but I didn’t because it was so darn funny. Here is what Pete and Sue will find out about the iPhone sooner or later, but hopefully sooner.
1. Cingular is not allowing the purchase of the iPhone WITHOUT a two-year contract. In other words, you no get Cingular service, you no get Cingular iPhone from Cingular store.
2. Even if you currently have Cingular service, if you are not eligible for an upgrade then you cannot purchase the phone. Again, no two-year contract, no iPhone. Retail purchase is not an option.
Cingular may decide to change these regulations as the release date gets closer, but as of right now, all I can do is snicker at Pete and Sue and shake my head.
Poor Pete. Poor Sue. Cingular raised that bar even higher. I hope you can jump.
Labels: Apple, Cingular, Douceswild, Gadgets, iPhone, Upgrade
If I was ever going to play WoW 
As you play, you’ll level stats that boost your strength and agility, which enables you to jump higher…I’m talking bionic-high and toss objects like vehicles at your enemies. You almost get a Spider-Man-esque feeling when jumping from rooftop to rooftop minus the wall crawling. The demo provides you with enhanced stat advancement that allows you to experience some of your character’s abilities earlier than you’ll be able to in the final release. The free-roaming environment is that of, of course Grand Theft Auto.
I speak, of course, of my gaming rig... 
So what's in my gaming rig you might ask? Well, in what has now become the "Tower of Older Power" we have the Xbox 
In the main arena I have my PS3, XB360, and Nintendo Wii tucked away under my 42" TV from 
Yes! Coming to a store near you, the Customer Service Paladin! Not only will he aide in all your buying needs but he will also smite the wicked! (Nominal Fee required for any smiting done in or around the workplace.)
My next step was to actually use the pho...device to make a couple of long distance calls. I found the keypad actually nice to use as the keys were backlit [good] and the numbers much larger than the letters on the keypad. This helped me tremendously as I am used to the layout on my Treo smartphone so most phones that do not have QWERTY keyboards piss me off to no end. I have no love for multitap interfaces, period. I still don't like multitap for this phone, but I understand it's not mean to be a smartphone so I'm not going to hold the multitap against Helio. The keypad layout is nothing new, nav button in the middle flanked by the call approve/deny buttons, two buttons at the top in the left and right hand corners as "menu" and "select" options. This part of the pho... device is nothing remarkable. What is worth noting are what are on the sides of the device, that's where some of the fun stuff resides when it comes to the Kickflip. 
For me, the greatest fun that I have had while using the Kickflip has been in taking pictures. Because I can hold the device horizontally like I am used to with my digital camera, and use the button on the side to quickly enter picture mode, it's extremely easy for me to take pictures with the thing on the go. Add to this that the camera in the Kickflip is 2 megapixels, can take a single image at up to a 1600x1200 resolution or a series of "snaps" at 320x240 with a flash, and ninja is a very happy little girl. I love being able to take a snapshot of things as I'm on the go because weird shit seems to happen all the time in my area. [Especially when I'm in the district] So having a camera that I can snap a picture or series of pictures with and immediately send it to a friend so they can share in my WTF? moment is just plain cool. It's at this moment of playing around with the device [haha, got it right that time] that I start understanding what Helio means when they say this thing is not a phone... and I do agree with them on that. When it comes to being a phone, the Kickflip is lackluster. 
This right here is sleek as hell and has more response than it should. The sound is like you would expect from Klipsch, clear, sweet, and with enough boom to fill up your room. This is really surprising given the fact that the setup is a 2.1 system. The one thing I have learned from all the audio that I have been listening to is that 5.1 can be overrated. Bear with me now. I always thought that 5.1 or even 7.1 was the holy grail of home theater setups. I want to be bombarded with a wall of sound, a wall so dense that when I talk trash to the poser that my player character is currently tbaggin' and can almost feel his pain. Taste my nutz you bastid!
The most impressive thing that I saw today actually wasn't functioning. Razer has been hard at work on a new speaker system that [once you have a unit not missing the power cable] may damn near eliminate the speaker sound bounce problem without sacrificing look or audio quality. 
The last thing that I looked at from Razer today was their new 1800dpi infrared mouse. This thing looks and feels the balls. I should have one in for review shortly, so I'll hold off my final verdict until I've put the thing through it's paces... but the silicone/rubbery membrane type texture of mouse "buttons" alone made me want to get all freaky deaky on some PC games... and y'all know how I don't do that.
I'm rolling around Pepcom last night, doing that "intimate one-on-one thing" to learn more about the new tech that we all should desperately crave with all our souls and the things that are so "meh," and I come across a booth for VooDoo. 
As I type this, I prepare my luggage for it's inaugural "covering [insert event name here] for ESH" trip. Yes, my journey to Las Vegas will be my first actual outing covering an event for ESH. Be on the lookout starting next Monday for tidbits, news breaks, and all around cool ass stuff coming from me and Evermore next week.
As of late I have been getting into watching cancelled tv shows. Some of them are great and I can't imagine why they were cancelled, but some of them, as could be expected, are terrible. 
Cleopatra 2525 has a host of recycled cast and crew from other sci-fi shows. Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert created this series right after Hercules: The Legendary Journeys ended, and it has the same low budget tongue in cheek feel to it that the Hercules, Xena and Young Hercules shows all shared. Some actors that the avid sci-fi watcher would recognize are Gina Torres from Firefly (she guest starred on Hercules), Victoria Pratt from Mutant X (a similarly short lived show, guest starred on Xena), Jennifer Sky and Danielle Cormack (both had recurring roles on Xena) and even Kevin Sorbo's body double Patrick Kake and Strife AKA Joel Tobek. Now, I know everyone remembers Strife. He was the irritating one that always hung out with Aries and Discord looking like a bad Edward Scissorhands impersonator, until of course he was killed by Callisto. So Joel's career has gone from Johnny Depp wannabe to a 
Now you can. Although Verizon has nothing to do with this post, it's appropriate to use the Can You Hear Me Now guy. You see, we have gotten a new tool to help our podcasts sound better. You can hear it in action in our newest podcast (