rant

In which Twitter tells me what my landlord can't

Hey, guys, news flash: Twitter is good for something.

This morning, I crawled out of bed and headed to the kitchen to make coffee, but upon turning on the faucet, I noticed that the water flowing out of it was a sketchy brown shade. Not good--especially since New York is one of those cities that prides itself on having a water purification infrastructure so advanced that you can drink right out of the tap.

My roommates weren't around. My landlord had no idea what was up. And an hour later, the water wasn't back to normal. So in … Read more

We rave about the Samsung Rant

The Samsung Rant is one of Sprint's latest messaging-centric phones, and we have to say we like it. It's a little bulky, but that's because it has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard. Though we had a few quibbles about the navigation array, we thought the keyboard felt roomy and tactile. We were pleased with its feature set, too: it comes with a 2-megapixel camera, EV-DO, and support for Sprint Power Vision. All that and it's less than $50. Check out our full review as well as our slide show for a more in-depth look.

In cell phone land, is purple the new red?

Remember not so long ago when almost every cell phone was black, gray, or silver? Then, thanks to the Motorola Razr V3, pink was suddenly an "it" color for cell phones. But gradually, red became the new pink, and now it seems that purple is the new red.

Though we don't agree just yet that a purple wave will sweep cell phone land, Sprint is pushing the line that purple is the new hot hue for cell phones. Indeed, two of its new cell phones introduced at CTIA Fall 2008 come in the color of the royals. … Read more

Samsung on a Rant

Is it just us, or is this deja vu? If we didn't know any better, we've seen one of Sprint's newest cell phones before. The Samsung Rant, which Sprint introduced Wednesday as CTIA Fall 2008 began, looks a lot like the year-old LG Rumor. It has same basic candy-bar shape with similar dimensions (4.5 inches by 2.1 inches by 0.7 inch) and it sports a full QWERTY keyboard hidden that's hidden behind the sliding face. And like the Rumor, the Rant is aimed directly at messaging addicts.

So what gives? Has Sprint run … Read more

Verizon Wireless and I are back to being best friends

I got a call yesterday morning from the manager at the Verizon store where I had a not great experience last week. I am happy to say that me and VZW are back to being BFF.

All he really knew was that the call center had told him that I had a very negative experience in the store and he called me personally to ask what happened. This is the kind of customer service that I have always seen from Verizon and I appreciate the effort that they made.

As a side note for all you commenters, I am not … Read more

Verizon Wireless and I are no longer friends

I had a few minutes today and I went to the Verizon store on Van Ness to see if I could get the new Blackberry Curve that just came out. After standing there for 9 minutes (I checked on my existing BB) someone finally asked if they could help. Here is my experience as verbatim as I can recall.

"Did you guys get the Curve." "Yes." "Can I get one" "What is your cell #?" "Does it matter?" "No."

Then he bounded off to the backroom to return without … Read more

Indecent Exposure 2: Intermittently unreliable

Where there's much ado about megapixels, tears shed over video editing, and tips for the self-portraitist.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 2

Tivo, Comcast, or HBO just screwed me by deleting a recording with no recovery

For those of you who have young children you know that you need some kind of bedtime ritual to get the kid to go to sleep.

At our house we watch the Goodnight Moon show that we Tivo'd from HBO. I should have bought the DVD a few months back instead of just now but we figured it would always be in the Tivo!

This 30 minute masterpiece does an amazing job calming the savage beast. But today we got quite a surprise when the Tivo deleted the show on it's own and doesn't show it in &… Read more

Setting the record straight: Verizon's Fios ads and CNET

Verizon is running an ad implying that CNET gave its Fios TV service's picture quality a positive review, calling it "near-flawless." The reality is that a CNET Networks property did use that phrasing in a news story, not a review, and the words are taken out of context.

Adding to the confusion, CNET itself bears some of the blame.

Here's the all-important context: a series of Fios TV spots running in the New York metropolitan area and possibly elsewhere uses a couple of words clipped from a June 21, 2007, CNET News.com piece on Verizon's Fios service. The commercial flashes a quote on the screen that says "near-flawless" along with the CNET logo, while a voiceover proclaims: "Your HDTV doesn't want cable. Give it Verizon Fios, for picture quality the experts call 'near-flawless.'" Another, more-recent ad is also running with a slightly expanded logo-backed quote that reads: "A near-flawless TV experience." Check out the video, which CNET uploaded to YouTube, for the original spot.

Those words did appear on a News.com story (News.com and CNET Reviews are sister sites published by CNET Networks). But the context of the original News.com piece, titled "Verizon's fiber-optic payoff," reads quite differently from how Verizon is using it:

… Read more