With the race for Smartphone supremacy, there becomes a point where the manufacturer's stop being driven by consumers and driven only by the competition. In this case, Apple is battling Samsung for SmartPhone supremacy. The problem though is how big of a screen does one really need. In my opinion, the iPhone 4s, 5s and SE were some of the best devices Apple ever made. I particularly liked the pocket friendly size, feel and ability to operate it with one hand easily. The only bummer on these models was the tiny screen. We all know Apple built a better mouse trap and their iOS was always more stable and secure than Android. Apple should realize that they will never be able to competitively compete with Samsung. After all, how could they? Apple buys their Super AMOLED screens from Samsung. They previously bought their processors from Qualcomm who they are currently embroiled in a law suit with. Now they buy their processors from Intel. And you wondered why the cheapest iPhone X with only 64GB of memory starts at a grand? I've been saying for years that Apple should come out with a moderately priced model instead of the $1000+ high end stuff. There has been plenty of rumors of Apple building some new iPhone X "budget" models with the less expensive LCD screen. I have been waiting for the wolf in sheeps clothing. That would be a newer iPhone SE model with the guts and camera of at least the iPhone 7 and the bezel less design of the iPhone X. Obviously, it would be much cheaper for Apple to use the LCD versus Super AMOLED screen and I am fine with that. It looks like my dreams may possibly come true based on a recent article from our friends art Cult of Mac.
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About six months ago, I got bored of my iPhone 6S+ and sold it. Unfortunately, I was never impressed with the iphone 7 or 8 models. I pondered with the thought of buying an iPhone X but after insurance costs and tax, I could also easily buy two brand new surfboards. I ended up getting one new surfboard and buying a lightly used Samsung S8+. This blog post is about my journey, joys and frustrations with each device.
Starting with the obvious. The Samsung Galaxy S8+ is slimmer, slightly longer and has an AMOLED screen to die for. Neither one of these devices is very pocket friendly but I think wide is better than long in most of my pockets. It is not very friendly out of the box with it's default settings like Apple. I hated the Samsung keyboard but love Google's G-Board which is a free download. I also like the fact that I have a whole team of virtual assistants. If one is not responding properly, I call on the others. Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana and Bixby are all there for my beckoning. SIRI used to be very moody with me. If I didn't have great signal, she was totally useless. While I loved the stability and security of Apple's iOS, I was getting angry with their imperious attitude and fact that they often made things far more difficult than needed. This was before they got busted for covertly throttling processor speeds with a software upgrade. For people like me that enjoy creating and using their own ringtones, Apple even hid the tones option in one of their recent software upgrades. Fortunately, a little know trick with Apple's GarageBand application makes it easy to make your own ringtones. Technologically speaking, the S8+ is years ahead of the iPhone 6S+ or even the X for that matter in my opinion. I particularly like the Retina Scanner for ID unlocking. That's not the problem. With the exception of my RipCurl Search GPS watch application, most of the Applications are the same for me on both Apple and Android. The cameras are outstanding on both but I would say the S8+ is better. Last week, I took the Samsung S8+ with me on an international trip and bought another iPhone 6S+ because I missed my GPS watch application and the simplicity of the device and iOS. Information technology services is my calling in life so if I find the S8+ to be extremely complex to set up and optimize, it's no walk in the park. Like a dummy, I intentionally left the iPhone home so I could get the full international experience on the Samsung device. The first problem I encountered was after arriving in Mexico. My T-Mobile plan is 100% local and unlimited there but my phone did not now that. I kept getting an annoying data roaming costs may occur and to either press cancel or settings to turn data roaming off. The problem is I could not find where to turn of this annoying message which haunted me every 5 minutes. I thought my iphone was a nuisance everytime I butt dialed the last person I called from my pocket. The Android would launch Apps I didn't even know I had. It would regularly turn off Bluetooth, wifi, and everything else. Once I hit under 10% battery life, the screen would go so dark, I couldn't see it making the phone useless. What really sealed the deal and convinced me to dump this thing and go back to the iPhone 6S+ happened on the last day. I left for the 45 minute airport drive to Zihuatanejo with a full battery. I closed every application and slipped the phone in my shorts pocked...without locking it. Once I arrived at the airport, I looked down at my pocket and noticed the flash light turned on by itself and 6 applications had opened resulting in a totally dead battery. I had taken my wireless charger and inserted it in my checked luggage. I assumed the Micro USB cable that plugged into the charger would also plug into the phone directly. Wrong! The phone has a micro C model, making it impossible for me to charge my phone on the plane. The bottom line is when you get used to taking LYFT and have to take a cab and pay double because your phone let you down, it's time to find another. Anyone looking for a good deal on a Samsung S8+? I've gone back to my iPhone 6S+ and will live with it's shortcomings until the new X series debuts. This almost happened 6 months ago but Sprint bailed out. What's become abundantly clear is Sprint is now in a class by itself... Last! That's for a number of reasons. Sprint was wrong buying Nextel's IDEN technology. They were wrong to launch 4G WiMAX with Clearwire which they eventually bought out, before LTE was adapted as the 4G global world standard putting Sprint years behind the competition. To make matters worse, their fellow "second tier carrier", T-Mobile is no longer a second tier carrier but has leaped past AT&T to become Verizon's fiercest rival. The reality is Softbank is losing money on Sprint and wants out. They previously balked because they did not want to relinquish control. They really have no choice. Did I also mention that Sprint still relies on their CDMA 3G network backbone. The real downside here is that they are the only carrier that does not support voice and data simultaneously over acellular network like all the other carriers. My opinion is Sprint cannot afford not to sell to T-Mobile. Even if AT&T or Verizon were remotely interested, the FCC would have a hard time pushing a merger with these two. Anyone who has seen those commercials with the ex-Verizon "Can You Hear Me Now" Dude saying that the network quality difference is only 1% is delusional.
Previously, Globalstar's Unlimited plan was $199.99. They dropped the price to $99.99 and offered a FREE refurbished GSP 1700 package that was great. This morning, Globalstar announced that the FREE GSP 1700 package is now FREE on their $64.99 100 minute plan and above. Get yours today by contacting us.
With Apple announcing that they are pulling the rug on their 32bit architecture, those with older devices that have not been upgraded to the latest software are going to have problems. Our friends at Cult of Mac made it easy to check whether your current applications are 32 or 64bit and whether they have already been upgraded by the developer. Here you go...
How to check if your favorite app is 32-bitThis change won’t have a dramatic affect; developers will have already updated their most popular titles to support 64-bit architectures long ago. But if you’re using an old piece of software that hasn’t been updated in a while, you might have a problem. You can check whether or not your favorite apps are 32-bit inside macOS by following the steps below:
Apple has already stopped accepting 32-bit app submissions to the Mac App Store, so you’ll only find 64-bit software in there. The company has eliminated 32-bit apps on iOS, too. Forced migrations never seem to go well. Remember when Microsoft decided they no longer wanted to support Windows 7 Professional, and XP. They forced everyone to migrate to their new Microsoft 8 (now X) and it was not pretty. In fact, it took years for Microsoft to work the bugs out of Windows 10. When Sprint decided they made a huge mistake buying the IDEN Network from Nextel, they shuttered it. Never mind the fact that many businesses and government agencies used their two-way radio services for emergencies. The replacement technology that Sprint replaced it with was so awful, I was advising my clients to hold on their IDEN as long as possible. Then, un-announced, Sprint began shutting down their IDEN network resulting in me losing a major University account. Today, Sprint is hanging on by a thread and will likely end up getting bought by T-Mobile. I'm beginning to wonder if Apple management is stuck on stupid. First they introduce the iPhone 8 which is more or less identical to the iPhone 7, followed 30 days later by another new model, the iPhone X, which allegedly gets discontinued this year and replaced by a new line of iPhone X models. This was a bit unusual. Then Apple gets busted for covertly slowing down the processors of iPhone 6 and 7 series models by sneaking in a nasty software feature. Today, they just announced they are pulling support for 32bit applications. Nothing is worse than having a great device that is in fantastic working order but useless because the applications and operating system are obsolete. The manufacturers seem to intentionally make it so the newer operating systems require more processing speed and memory than your current device supports. I'm beginning to get pissed off about this and have a closet full of older computers that are in perfect working order like my 6 year old PowerBook below which was one of my all time favorite computers. It still works but Apple abandoned it long ago. I realize that sometimes you have to move on and get new technology. On the other hand, if it ain't broken, why try to fix or replace it. Does anyone else out there feel like they are being strong armed into buying new software or hardware?
The iPhone 7 series remains current at Apple and all the carriers. Now that Apple's "Battery-Gate" scandal has resulted in new "Battery Management" software features, the slowing down on processor speeds is no longer an issue. There has never been a better time to get an iPhone 7. That's because T-Mobile is giving a $150 Mail-in rebate for anyone activating an iPhone 7 on their Unlimited plans. Starting February 16 for a limited time, Business and Government customers with 1-12 voice lines who buy an iPhone 7 or 7 Plus on an eligible T-Mobile ONE voice plan can get $150 OFF (via mail-in rebate).
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Interestingly, most of the various global world wireless technologies disappeared, or morphed into Long Term Evolution (LTE). Sprint continues to utilize CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) as their network backbone. Their devices continue to support both their CDMA and LTE networks. Other than them, pretty much all carrier devices are now interchangeable. Your carrier does not want you to know that the day has come where subscribers can change carriers with no interruption in service. Moving your number and device has never been easier because the only thing that changes is the address and company name that you pay each month. I remember the days when manufacturers made North American Models, Middle Eastern Models, Asian models, and European models. Even though they were all supporting EDGE or UMTS technologies, the frequencies often varied, they were locked, and you often could not even roam because the bandwidth differed in each country. To make matters worse, the carriers, not the device makers, wielded the big stick back then when it came to what features were offered, or more significantly, not offered. I'll never forget buying an Unlocked global NOKIA E-61 SmartPhone in Europe (pictured above) that even had built-in BlackBerry support, SIP trunking, text-to-voice, GPS, wifi dialing, and some other cool features that were five years ahead of their time. Miraculously, most of the features worked on my CIngular line back home in the US. I was a Cingular Wireless dealer at the time and became very excited when I heard they had commissioned NOKIA to make this model for their network. It would be called the E-62. Unfortunately, when it was released, it bombed. It turns out Cingular made NOKIA strip most of the above really cool features off the device. I suppose they couldn't sell monthly subscription add-ons like text to voice if they were coming free on the phone. We can all thank APPLE who proved that if you have a great device, people will pay for it, even if they get saddled with a two year contract with a second rate carrier. We can also thank T-Mobile. It was their brash CEO, John Legere, who have relentlessly attacked "Dumb and Dumber" (Verizon and AT&T) from day one. After all, he was the one who abolished contracts, early termination fees, global text charges, global data charges and a lot more. Today, the contract is on your device, not your plan, assuming you finance it from the carrier. Should you want to take your current number and device to a different carrier, it has never been easier, especially for iPhone users. Dr Wireless has specialized in seamlessly moving businesses from one wireless carrier to another for years. It has never been easier because Apple and all of the major Android manufacturers are making devices that will work with all carriers worldwide. Even if you finance your device from your wireless carrier, you can move it to any other carrier, anytime, as long as you pay off the balance of what is owed. This is why carriers offer early upgrade programs, leasing (Sprint), and offer incentives in an attempt to bind you, "old school" contract style So the choice when buying a device becomes whether to buy once locked to a carrier, or buy an unlocked one directly from the manufacturer. Until recently, I always recommended getting one from the carriers (except Sprint), since they were easy to unlock and often optimized with features that not all carriers offered (wifi calling, etc...). Today, again thanks to Apple, it's likely a better idea to buy an unlocked device versus one made for a specific carrier. Recently, this came to my attention when I noticed that Google had pushed out their newest OREO iOS to all carrier locked devices before their unlocked device owners (me). This was the exact opposite of what I would have expected. Maybe Samsung made this following statement to appease folks with the unlocked versions. "We understand that many of you have Unlocked Galaxy S8/+ and Note 8 devices and may be wondering why those with Carrier models are seeing the updates first. The reason for this is that Unlocked devices must go through more rigorous testing than Carrier-specific devices because we need to make sure there is proper network functionality across ALL supported networks. (Ex. Carrier-specific devices are made to handle that one network. Unlocked devices need to be able to handle ANY / ALL compatible networks. Thus, they require some more preparation.)" Where I am leading with all of this is there has never been a better time to be a wireless consumer. Your wireless carrier has to work even harder to keep you. That's why they all offer Unlimited everything plans today. It's still a rip off to some degree to have a one line plan. Each carrier sweetens the deal when adding lines. That means that the average price for a one line unlimited plan is $70-$80 per month. For two lines about $120-$130. Once you hit family or business plans with 4 lines or more, the line cost plummets as low as $40 each. I'm often asked which carrier I use and what plan am I on. Until last month, I was on an amazing T-Mobile dealer plan that offered me Unlimited everything at $48 for two lines. Apparently, TM management must not appreciate our new Robin Hood program. They just revoked my dealer plan! That's okay because I practice what I preach and negotiated an $60 plan offering Unlimited Everything for two users. Now, I can be candid and there is nothing they can take from me! The main problem is if you are ill informed enough to keep overpaying each month for an obsolete plan, your carrier is sly enough to dummy up and let you continue to overpay. This is one of the reasons we got out of the activation business. Now instead of working for "them", we work for you. That means we offer a FREE wireless plan analysis. In ten minutes, Dr Wireless can determine whether your deal is good, or whether we can save you a bundle. In any case, there is nothing to lose. The worst thing that can happen is we determine that your current deal is a great one and you don't need our help. More commonly, we discover that with our knowledge, expertise and carrier resources, we can reduce your monthly wireless bills by $400 or more per year. If could accomplish this for you or your business, is that worth a one-time payment to Dr Wireless of $200? If we cannot deliver, we waive our charge 100%. if that is not a WIN WIN no-brainer, I don't know what is. Get more information about our Robin Hood program here. After 26 years in the wireless industry, nobody knows how this game is played better than us!
Artificial intelligence keeps getting better. Typically, one of the first things I do each morning is check the surf conditions. SwellMagnet.com has the best High Resolution surf cameras so I take a glance at my normal surf spots on their cameras. Usually, a picture (or video) tells 1000 words but with long interval swells, that is not always the case. Unfortunately, If I'm driving, it's not safe to watch video cameras but thanks to an alliance between Amazon and Surfline, there's now an AP for that.
Now it is possible for anyone with Amazon's Alexa to get the surf conditions, by simply asking Alexa. You do not even need to go out and buy an Amazon Echo device. Simply download Alexa to your SmartPhone. I have her on my Samsung S8+, along with Google's Assistant, Cortana, and Bixby. Now, I can say... "Alexa, open Surfline and give me the full surf conditions for El Porto". You can ask for just the waves, winds, or for the full surf conditions for everything. Try it, you'll like it! I'm often able to save many of my clients an average of $50 per month off their wireless family or business plans... Nobody knows each carrier as well as Dr Wireless. That's because for the last 28 years, we activated thousands of lines through all of the wireless carriers collectively. During that time, we developed some amazing resources and knowledge about how to get better deals than what is offered to the public.
As of 2018, there's a new sheriff in town! In the past, we exclusively relied on the carriers to pay us. Now, we just introduced a new program where our clients pay us directly. Your first instinct might be that you'd rather have the carriers still paying us for our services. We can still do that with most carriers when you choose us to activate your service. There is no additional cost vs dealing directly and your device is hand delivered to your home or office. The reason we came out with our new model, the "Robin Hood" Program, is quite simple. It's a far better deal for our clients and here is why... If Dr Wireless could cut your monthly plan costs by at least $40 per month, for the life of your cellular agreement, is that worth a one time payment to us of $200? If we cannot deliver these saving, we waive our fee. The reason we are so sure we can deliver is Dr Wireless has two sure fire techniques. We can call your carrier as a dealer and convince their retention department that you are gone, unless they show some big love. Amazingly, what has been far more effective lately is when Dr Wireless calls your carrier on your behalf as you, of course with your permission, and convinces them you are gone, unless they make some huge concessions. The beauty is there is nothing to lose. We give you a FREE Plan Analysis. We either tell you we can save you a bundle, or that you have done very well and don't need our assistance. I don't get to say that very often but it happens. If you are wondering how is this possible, it's because the carriers hate the thought of their competitors "stealing" your business away from them. With today's typical Port-out Process, they have no chance to entice the customer to stay because you are gone before they know it. We covertly create that opportunity for them. After working many years with each carriers retention departments, we became aware of non advertised off-sheet rate plans, loyalty credits, discretionary credits, and FREE services that customers never hear about. Why don't you hear about these things? The carriers don't pay us or the stores to offer these plans, period! The loophole here is with my clients paying us instead of the carriers, I can for the first time, really do what is in the best interest of my clients, without worrying about financial recourse. To take advantage of this, call the Dr. |
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March 2021
CategoriesAuthorJoel Saltzman has over twenty years of wireless industry experience. He is currently CEO and Chief Wireless Analyst for Dr Wireless. |