Author: @jmproffitt

tech nerd, media critic, snarkmaster my hat tips and finger wags are my own

GigaOm says “BlackBerry Should End This Tour” Yikes.

The Tour has turned out to be quite a lemon. The trackball is behaving like a 300-pound man running up a hill. Tour hangs when I am trying to send text messages or check MLB scores. There is a strange clicking sound that accompanies phone calls; furthermore, folks are complaining of a strange whooshing noise when I call them. And if all that weren’t enough — Tour’s battery dries up faster than raindrops in the Sahara.

via gigaom.com

OUCH! BlackBerry is getting a black eye with their latest phone.

Posted via web from jmproffitt

BlackBerry Should End This Tour

Ouch! Blackberry’s getting a black eye with their latest phone.

via GigaOM by Om Malik on 9/21/09


About two months ago, I became a happy Verizon customer. I signed up for the company’s unlimited calling and data plan. I got myself RIM’s brand new release, the BlackBerry Tour, a well-balanced cross between the Curve 2 and the Bold, and was hooked onto a super-reliable network. For once, it seemed my smartphone woes were behind me. I subsequently went on a recommendation spree, urging everyone I know to buy the Tour. In fact, I convinced six of my close friends — many of whom I see almost on a daily basis — that they should switch to Verizon because of the Tour. Most of them were on AT&T and, thus, it didn’t take much convincing. But let’s just say: I should have kept my opinions to myself.

The Tour has turned out to be quite a lemon. The trackball is behaving like a 300-pound man running up a hill. Tour hangs when I am trying to send text messages or check MLB scores. There is a strange clicking sound that accompanies phone calls; furthermore, folks are complaining of a strange whooshing noise when I call them. And if all that weren’t enough — Tour’s battery dries up faster than raindrops in the Sahara. If not for the micro-USB charger that I use with my Macbook Pro, I would likely find myself with a dead phone halfway through the day.

Most of my friends are experiencing similar issues (though no one has complained about battery problems). And we are not alone in our troubles:  Nearly 50 percent of Tours are being returned to Sprint, some analysts estimates, and Verizon is experiencing even higher return rates. If these numbers are real — my personal experience gives me no reason to doubt the analysts — then RIM needs to look itself in the mirror. As a company that plans to take on Apple and the iPhone, it cannot be putting out substandard products onto the market.

It will be a long time before I trust BlackBerry products. As it stands now, I wouldn’t even recommend the Tour to my worst enemy. Maybe I should wait for Verizon to launch that rumored Motorola Android phone and get rid of BlackBerry all together.

Read our latest analysis piece, “Career Opportunities in the NewNet.” Only on GigaOM Pro.

Posted via email from jmproffitt

Site revamp launched

Welcome to the completely revamped stephanieandjohn.com — now hosted once again at WordPress.com.

We’ve moved the site back over here in order to save on hosting costs, but also for simplicity’s sake. Plus, by switching to this new theme (P2), updating will be quicker and easier than ever, so maybe — just maybe — we’ll actually update the site occasionally.

Meanwhile, be sure to follow Stephanie and John over on Twitter:

Pro comments moved to Gravity Medium

I just realized that most of my (John’s) blogging activity has moved off this site. I’ve setup a separate web site / blog specifically for stuff I’m doing in the public media arena.

It’s called Gravity Medium and I’ll be spending much of my time there. Just be forewarned that it’s focused on my work (and other topics) in public media. That may or may not be of interest to you.

By the way, you can also find me (John) on FriendFeed, where all this junk is getting aggregated into a single feed (photos, Twitter, del.icio.us, Google Reader items, etc.).

Apple TV second look

Apple TVSo Apple finally released the software update for the Apple TV this week. It generated all kinds of excitement amongst the Apple nerd class. And yes, that kind of includes me.

When the movie rental thing was first announced — along with the Apple TV software update that would enable direct-download movie rentals, I was nonplussed. I haven’t rented a movie — or used Netflix — since we lived in Louisville, back in 2000. I’ve bought movies on DVD that I liked and that was that. We also rarely go to movies in the theater (why not buy the DVD and save money?). So movie rentals via iTunes and the Apple TV (or iPhone or Mac or PC) didn’t do anything for me.

But I may be changing my mind.

After downloading the software update to our Apple TV and messing around with it, I’m impressed. It’s a real update, not just tidying up a bit. And the rental feature is done so well that I’m rethinking my stance on rentals. It’s so easy to browse new releases and click a button to get started.

In browsing the initial collection of movies available (it’s a short list, I assure you!), there were a couple movies where I said to myself, “Hey — I’d pay $3 or $4 to watch that, but I wouldn’t want to own it on DVD.” And I think that’s the catch. I’m something of a DVD collector, but even I have my limits — I don’t want everything. Indeed, I don’t even want to keep everything I have! So rentals that are quick, easy, don’t require a trip to a brick-and-mortar store and don’t involve a subscription make a lot of sense to me all of a sudden.

Plus, you can get HD copies of movie rentals that look better than digital HD cable or satellite (though not as good as Blu-ray) if you really want to.

I have yet to rent a movie. But I think I might just do that this weekend. We’ll see if it seals the deal.

Happy Birthday, Stephanie!

Golden Gate DetailsWell, it’s Stephanie’s birthday today (Sat, 1/26). And it’s friggin’ cold in Anchorage again (currently 10F). But we’re still going to brave the cold (but sunny) weather to go shopping today. Stephanie doesn’t know what we’re shopping for, but I do.

Meanwhile, a year ago this week we flew off to Seattle, San Francisco and Santa Barbara for a vacation. That was a lot of fun. We did that instead of going to Hawaii, which we thought would be more expensive and less interesting overall.

And during that trip last year, Stephanie got a bit of a birthday surprise — a brand new MacBook! It’s rare we do such extravagant birthdays, but she needed a new computer and wanted to go Mac.

Some of our photos from last year’s trip are on Flickr — just click the image above to see more. I even put captions on all of them. Naturally, we shot a lot more photos than are on Flickr, but didn’t want to bore people.

This year, no January traveling. But I’m off to L.A. in February and we’re both off to San Diego in March. We’re even meeting up with family in San Diego and tooling out to Palm Springs, too. More photos later, huh?