How will AT&T pull it off?

Posted on June 23, 2007 
Filed Under Macintosh, Uncategorized, mobility | 2 Comments

If you read tech press, and goodness knows I do, you would think that the cell phone was being invented for the first time. I’m finding myself entertained by the iPhone coverage the past few weeks, and this week it will likely hit mania levels.

Honestly, I want the iPhone to be as good and as revolutionary as some folks are making it out to be. The realist in me can’t help but think that expectations are set so high, not even Apple can reach them. Why? They’re not in this game alone. What will pull the iPhone down won’t be what’s in Apple’s control…it will be Cingular, er the New AT&T, AT&T. The success of the iPhone will depend on AT&T pulling its s**t together 5 minutes after a massive, rushed changeover of branding from Cingular. Can they pull it off? What experience does AT&T have in putting so much attention and support into a single product? The weak link will be in customer support. The experience of calling Apple Support is very different than calling AT&T. The experience of walking into an AT&T Store and asking for help on an issue is very different than walking into an Apple Store. Apple Stores are consistent, even if the size of the locations vary slightly. The quality of AT&T locations vary widely. From clueless mall kiosks (yes, company-owned ones…I’m not even talking about the resellers) to the stores with friendly, knowledgeable employees and stocked shelves. iPhone owners will have to deal with both Apple and AT&T, and when they have a bad experience with AT&T it will reflect negatively on the iPhone no matter how much the Mac press will try and spin it otherwise.

I’m also thinking of the process of activating a new phone with AT&T. I switched from the Cingular 8525 to Blackberry 8800 in March and started a new contract. I figure that in 2 years, Apple will be on revision 3 or so of the iPhone and I’ll be ready to jump in. I’m not a new customer, and I must have been standing at that counter for 20 minutes while the employee did what he had to do to set up my next contract. Happens that way every time. When the line of folks waiting to buy and set up their new iPhones is literally around the block, how will they manage that? That leads me to suspect that when one walks into an Apple or AT&T store, you’ll buy the iPhone with a blank SIM card inside and go home to set it up through iTunes. If that’s the case, how will you port your existing phone number to the new phone? I’m sure Apple/AT&T have thought of this already and have an easy mechanism.

I’m also hoping that there’s a dedicated phone line for iPhone-related issues at AT&T, with separate staff. I know I read that AT&T hired thousands of new employees for this launch. I hope they’re going to have an iPhone store-within-a-store at their locations. I won’t own an iPhone for a couple of years, but when I call AT&T with an issue now I don’t want my experience to suffer because the staff’s attention is entirely focused on the iPhone.

Using the new web for good things

Posted on May 15, 2007 
Filed Under Internet & Technology, Misc., Uncategorized | 2 Comments

I’ve been the webmaster for the Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities for the past 2.5 years. It’s one of the only clients I kept after accepting the fulltime job at C3. It’s not that difficult, and I enjoy working with the Council staff. As the parent of a child with a disability, I appreciate the importance of the work they’re doing.

What I don’t appreciate is the CMS the State of Connecticut uses. It’s clunky, it’s slow, it’s mind-numbingly dense and not at all user friendly, and it requires IE 6+ to do anything.

So whenever possible I’ve been encouraging the council to take advantage of the reliable technologies outside of the ct.gov domain. When they wanted a way to have more active feedback from readers and I found the message board on the ct.gov site to be unusable, I set up a blog at ctcdd.org (now I would have just done it on Wordpress.com).

They wanted to show off pictures, so I set them up on Flickr.

They wanted an easy way to update a calendar of events in the community. I set them up with a Google Calendar account and embedded it in a page on the ct.gov site.

We mostly use the ct.gov site itself for meeting minutes, budget and council member lists, upcoming meeting announcements and other items that are text-based and need to be on the main site for whatever reason.

One of the Council’s biggest projects is “Able Lives,” a series of short pieces that air on Connecticut Public Television. A couple of months ago, the Council spoke to me about how we could embed video on the ct.gov site. Ugh. Wasn’t even going to go there with that CMS. I suggested that they work with CPTV to allow the clips to be uploaded to YouTube. They’re short clips, and on YouTube they have a better chance of being seen by a wider audience. Then I can simply embed the player on ct.gov (if it’ll let me).

I was thrilled to see this morning that’s exactly what they did (and apparently it’s on MySpace, too):

I love when it’s not technology for technology’s sake.

So much to blog about, so little time

Posted on March 9, 2007 
Filed Under Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Do you ever have so much to say, that it paralyzes you from saying anything at all? That’s what I’m dealing with now. So some quick hits, with the hope of more detail later if anyone cares…

Apple’s new Airport Extreme Base Station - Day 1

Posted on February 10, 2007 
Filed Under Macintosh, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I forgot to mention that our new Base Station arrived Thursday night.

So far, so good. Of course configuration was a breeze. You must install the software that comes on the CD. The Airport Utility included in 10.4 won’t work, which makes sense considering the new disk features. Tonight if I have the time (ha!) I’m going to attach the printer to it so Laini can print from her room. I had been sneaker-netting her homework to my computer via USB key.

In the meantime, it has been rock-solid stable as compared to the old RangeMax router. At first I was very disappointed at a noticeable speed drop, and then I remembered that I forgot to reset to the OpenDNS name server. Once I took care of that, the difference has been incredible. That settles for me once and for all whether the problem of slow resolving sites is with Comcast or the router. No drop outs, no loss of the wireless signal anywhere in the house. The Vonage adapter is behind the router, and call quality has been good to excellent. We’ll see what happens when Eric is back, but as of right now I’m happy.

Breathe

Posted on February 9, 2007 
Filed Under Life, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Easier said than done this week.

Eric is in Andorra. He’s been gone for a week, one more week to go. I don’t handle the stress of single parenthood well.

Next month is colorectal cancer awareness month. We’re only one week into February and we’re getting quite busy with people wanting awareness materials and people talking to us about ideas and plans. We hired a new Office Manager, we’re in the home stretch of hiring our new Policy & Grassroots Manager, we just got back from our Research Advocate training in Orlando, Florida. We’re gearing up for our Grassroots Advocate training in Washington, DC next month. I just got our Spring 2007 newsletter to the printer. Eric and I are going to Charleston, South Carolina in two weeks for a colorectal cancer gala that C3 is sponsoring and I have no clue what I’m going to wear yet (it’s black tie). We’re close to signing a lease on new office space. One of my closest friends is losing her mother to pancreatic cancer…I doubt she’ll live until March. Tomorrow is the 8th anniversary of my Dad’s death. Laini’s birthday is next weekend and we’re having a birthday party for 10 for her, as well as Eric’s family will be here for it. I need to bring in treats so she can celebrate with her class. Eric is getting off the plane from Europe the day before. As he’s flying home, I’ll be sitting in a 3-hour appointment with a psychologist getting the results of a comprehensive evaluation he did on Laini over the past few weeks. And I have to get the fuzz that’s in my brain out long enough to think of interesting content for Web Worker Daily. Maybe tomorrow.

This week I watched American Idol (with the kids) and Grey’s Anatomy. Caught Heroes and Lost online. I read the newspaper once, and a magazine. Blogged, what? Twice? That’s the only solo “downtime” I’ve had all week until now, and it’s 11 pm on Friday night. I’ve been averaging around 5 hours a sleep a night. I know, not healthy.

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