[specimen38]

Laughing out REALLY Loud!

it is official, it sucks to live in chattanooga, tn.

[specimen38]

MacUser,

I wil be watching QT streaming at 9:00 a.m. PST next Monday. I live really close to the Moscone convention center, but it is cost prohibitive to see Steve do his magic. In this area, Steve's address has come to be somewhat akin to the State Of The Union. You have to be really connected to get into that room. Steve grew up in the Bay Area and is one of the region's favorite sons along with George Lucas. As you know, Steve owns Pixar, which is located about 3-5 minutes away from my office in Emeryville. It's really a treat to live in an area where the Macintosh thrives. I must admit I develop applications on PCs everyday, but I come home to a Mac every night.

So that puts it on the 10th? Do you have a link to the webcast, or will it be streamed through QT?

[specimen38]

100th and Ed,

You guys are dead on the money. Of course, it somehow seems unfair. I was in Riverside, CA for few days of meetings and ventured into a ATT store before the Cingular takeover and noted that the montly plans were about $10.00/mo less with equal minutes to my Northern Cali plan. This analogy applies to gasoline prices in Northern Cali, which have been documented as the highest on average in the entire for more than 20 years. A month ago we saw premium gas hit 2.89/gallon and while the lowest unleaded was 2.69/gal.

Generally the most competitive markets get the best selection & pricing.

I would have to agree with Mr. Ed. Cingular is likely is likely to tailor their plans to be more competitive with other national and regional carriers. If someone like Dobson or Unicell were to offer some really attractive packages, Cingular would have to offer plans accordingly to attract and retain subscribers. On the national note, Cingular has to compete with T-Mo for the largest value based carrier.

[Treoguy1234]

I really gotta get that 650 gsm .....

[jposin]

FWIW, the Stevenote at the upcoming MWSF is on Tuesday 1/11 @ 9 am

http://www.macworldexpo.com/live/20/.../news/CC603513

[jaronbrass]

And I'll be there live with a full media pass. Coverage can be found on my .mac homepage: http://homepage.mac.com/jlbrass. Pics, video and the podcast.

[s0ren]

Ok guy, I need some mental support here. I'm getting reeeeaalllll close to cracking and picking up a CDMA 650 from Sprint.....319.99 is such a good deal..... Anyone have any incklings at a possible release date? I've heard January 7th and Mid-March!(YIKES!) in the same thread at mtdn...

Anyone that works at Cingular/ATT that might have some inside info?? Anything?

HELP

[helpermonkey]

I don't think you are that likely to get inside info from Cingular... I don't think many people have it. People in the store are not going to know anything unless they have connections - maybe managers, probably not though.

To those thinking about the Sprint issues.... well I think Cingular is doing a better job Beta testing our phones than them perhaps. I hope you all find it worth the wait.

I read some posts about EDGE is comming and spotty EDGE coverage - who has that problem? T-mobile? ATTWS had EDGE deployed long ago nation wide, I can't speake for Cingular, but they should be deployed too (for the most part I think anyway).

[cjdaniel]

To Mac heads, I wish I had enough money for a second computer as it surely would be a Mac, but have you seen the Windows Media Center? This is something I would have expected from Apple, is there something even remotely close to this being annouced because this is truly amazing and would worry me if I were an Apple stockholder. The integration and the partners is quite remarkable. Still waiting for my 650 gsm....

[helpermonkey]

To Mac heads, I wish I had enough money for a second computer as it surely would be a Mac, but have you seen the Windows Media Center? This is something I would have expected from Apple, is there something even remotely close to this being annouced because this is truly amazing and would worry me if I were an Apple stockholder. The integration and the partners is quite remarkable. Still waiting for my 650 gsm....

Have you used Media Center? I have the first edition on my office Toshiba Satellite and I am not impressed. It could just be a problem with it working with my Satellite, who knows... With a Mac you never have that problem since the OS and the Hardware are from the same company. I could get my laptop to see the cable signal from my TV durring setup, but when I actually try to get it to work, for use as a DVR I get nothing but a black picture. I just said forget it and gave up after trying a few times. Two other guys at my work tried too, we all wanted to record from our DVRs we already have, or using the DVR in the computer, to DVD but no one had any luck what so ever. Not bad for an option that boosted the cost of the laptop a LOT. I would just get a DVD recorder TiVo combo in it's place if I was buying.

[s0ren]

I know that EDGE coverage here in the bay area with ATT is great. That is the main thing keeping me hanging on. That and the fact that CDMA can't do simultaneous voice and data.

The only thing that would justify a March release date to me is if palmone stuck 64mb chips in all the GSM units, but I don't except that to happen.....

[helpermonkey]

Voice and data at the same time? Do you know of any phones that actually can do that? I know it is in the specs... but I haven't ever seen anything that could do it.

[cjdaniel]

Have you used Media Center? I have the first edition on my office Toshiba Satellite and I am not impressed. It could just be a problem with it working with my Satellite, who knows... With a Mac you never have that problem since the OS and the Hardware are from the same company. I could get my laptop to see the cable signal from my TV durring setup, but when I actually try to get it to work, for use as a DVR I get nothing but a black picture. I just said forget it and gave up after trying a few times. Two other guys at my work tried too, we all wanted to record from our DVRs we already have, or using the DVR in the computer, to DVD but no one had any luck what so ever. Not bad for an option that boosted the cost of the laptop a LOT. I would just get a DVD recorder TiVo combo in it's place if I was buying.

Only in the store at Fry's, it was killer. I have HD-DVR now and would love to trade it in on this if it works as it does in the store. Is TIVO selling HD units yet? The picture quality on the regular units is a bit distracting to me. The movie/rental/download and the music/napster(have already) are pretty cool, but the integration is excepetional.

I didn't know it added alot to price of computers as you can get developers version for $129 + $38 with remote. I am a cable user and not Dish, especially after experiencing one moderate snow/slush storm in my mountain cabin and everyone on the mountain had to clear the snow/slush out of their dish every half hour to get reception, I had no idea that was an issue. Why would the OS and hardware have anything to do with your Dish? Is your dish made by Apple too? Good to hear what to look for as far as problems though.

[helpermonkey]

misunderstanding my Toshiba Satellite is a computer... I did not think it would cause confusion, but I can see why it did now. Maybe what I wrote makes more sense now?

I also am a HD DVR user in my Comcast cable box. I am very pleased with it, but the capacity is much too small... that is why I was wanting to record to DVD so I could erase some programs. To the best of my knowledge TiVo only has HD units for Dish users, not for anything else like broadcast or cable users. That is what made me go with my Comcast version - which is not as nice as what you would get with a TiVo to my understanding.

[cjdaniel]

misunderstanding my Toshiba Satellite is a computer... I did not think it would cause confusion, but I can see why it did now. Maybe what I wrote makes more sense now?

I also am a HD DVR user in my Comcast cable box. I am very pleased with it, but the capacity is much too small... that is why I was wanting to record to DVD so I could erase some programs. To the best of my knowledge TiVo only has HD units for Dish users, not for anything else like broadcast or cable users. That is what made me go with my Comcast version - which is not as nice as what you would get with a TiVo to my understanding.

Sorry, I lost a contact lens an hour ago and am having difficulty reading. hmm I guess I am going to read up more on Media Center.. guess we should stick to the GSM topic again, or start an off topic thread about Media Center.

[b0tes]

hi all. i'm a wireless dealer and i'm currently using an out-of-the box unlocked cingular treo 600 on t-mobile usa [updated using token writer and the t-mobile official t600 updater]. so far so good. can't really complain since i'm on a t-mobile dealer plan w/ 1500 anytime minutes, unlimited t-zones [or is it 10mb] and unlimited pop, imap, http, ftp without having to fork for the extra $5, all for just $20 smackerooz a month. not too many complaints but if given the opportunity to get wifi access on the t650, why the hell not?

so i took the initiative today and ordered up the 650 through my master dealer. hopefully, it'll come unlocked like it's 600 brethren did. once i do get it in hand, i'll definitely post and keep everyone up to date. i can't really confirm that january 5th is the official pre-order date, because according to my distributor/master dealer, five orders have already been placed for the 650 and are expected to ship within the next week. unless of course what they really meant was that the orders can be placed in advance [read: pre-order] and won't ship until the 5th, hence won't be in my hand for another two weeks.

in either instance, i'm quite happy with my 600, so i should be able to hold off till i do.

[MisterEd]

I REALLY hope so too .... but I think they are just sitting in a warehouse somewhere waiting to be released bugz 'n' all for when P1/Sprint says it's OK. If they're still testing them right NOW we won't see them till March because they will have a whole lot of boxes to open, reflash and repack.

well I think Cingular is doing a better job Beta testing our phones than them perhaps.

[mbranscum]

Hofo member "I have a Phone" is saying over in the Cingular forum at the end of January. He is a Cingular insider and has been on the money several times in the past.

[Levyesq]

To add to the rumor mill, the Treo store at Valley Fair mall in San Jose, California is now saying two weeks for the gsm Treo (maybe). As of yesterday, they have a waiting list of 50.

[MisterEd]

"Two weeks - maybe." LMAO It's all so funny. Eventually someone has to be right just by luck. My inside source (he wants to be called Deep EsophaGSM) told me today that it will be anytime between today at 11:59PM (est) and July 17th at 4PM (edst). I don't know why, but I believe him.

To add to the rumor mill, the Treo store at Valley Fair mall in San Jose, California is now saying two weeks for the gsm Treo (maybe). As of yesterday, they have a waiting list of 50.