Social Media News - Day's Beginnings
Well, if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know that I had major Time Warner Cable issues yesterday, which I thought were fixed in the afternoon. Not! So I was offline last night, hopefully #fail is gone and all's a go today! Fingers crossed.
So, we'll start the day off with the latest in Social Media news:
Breaking News: AT&T has decided to ignore all sensible talk and go ahead and take on GoogleNation regarding Google Voice and Net Neutrality. Never mind that the FCC essentially told AT&T to back off a week ago, when reports came out saying that all parties were expected to "make peace" (see my post of 10/08/2009). Yesterday, AT&T sent a letter to the FCC outlining why poor "little" AT&T doesn't stand a chance against Goliath (otherwise known as Google). In a nutshell, AT&T tries to make a case for Google Voice as being a complete telecommunications service provider. And, says AT&T, even if Google Voice is not a telecommunications provider, they should still have to abide by the same rules as AT&T. We'll see how far they get with that argument. Look at it this way, if your parents tell you to play nice, and then you don't what happens - do you then get your way? I don't think so. Obviously, AT&T is not getting the response that they would like behind closed doors, so they're working the angle publicly. My assessment is this (and it's a cynical one, imagine that) but AT&T went for years as the "big dog" - lacking in customer service, thinking they didn't have to work on their public image because we all needed them anyway. And now, like the Post Office, we find there are fewer and fewer uses for their services. So they're grasping at straws. Plain and simple. Read complete coverage on CNET and their article has a link to the actual AT&T letter to the FCC. Do I think Google is completely in the right? Of course not. But AT&T was happy to be a big corporation using similiar tactics 10 years ago, now the shoe's on the other foot. Hard to feel sorry for them now.
Regarding Windows 7 - according to the Associated Press it's a "10" but don't upgrade yet... Yeah. Ok. That makes sense how?? A true "10" would mean we should all be lining up around the block waiting outside Best Buy for the Windows 7 release, money in hand. "Upgrading an old computer to Windows 7 is not an easy process..." Really? I never would've guessed that. Despite overstating the rating of the software, the AP's Technology writer makes excellent points about why you shouldn't upgrade up - not an easy process, priced too high, etc... So, we're back to where we started when I originally began blogging on the issue. Don't jump at the first chance to buy a Microsoft release, wait for Windows 7 ver. 2 or at least Windows 7 security patch #3... Just sayin'.
Big news! Acer has surpassed Dell to become the number 2 leader in global PC sales, sadly for my new hero Michael Dell! Oh well, but I can honestly say I have seen some whoppers of deals when it comes to Acer as of late. For example, this past weekend, Best Buy had an Acer AMD Athlon with Vista laptop - 3GB mem and 160 GB hard drive for $349, while a similar Dell was $399. Although, I personally would opt for the Dell because it came with Windows XP - no Vista! Ha. See my blog post of yesterday afternoon.
A new Storm is coming! Research in Motion will be releasing Blackberry Storm 2 - reportedly sometime in November of this year. Some are speculting that it will give Apple's iPhone a run for it's money. The phone will come standard with a 3.2 megapixel camera and 18 GB of memory (not too shabby). You can read reviews at Tech Generation or on the London Times website (they claim to have been the first to review Storm 2). The most useful review (in my opinion) is on the Washington Post's website (as submitted by PC World).
You heard about the Pepsi iPhone app flack?? I haven't felt it was worth talking about. That is until I read PC World's response, from yesterday, the headline - "Real Men Don't 'Amp Up' Before They Score." Great response to a horrible PR move on the part of Pepsi (and Apple, as well, for accepting such an app). Says the author of the PC World article:
"What caveman came up with the idea to use an iPhone app to offer pickup lines and track female "conquests" that could then be posted to the user's--in all senses of the word--social networking pages?"
Cavemen, just about sums up that situation. It's nice to see that so many men are responding with a "say what?" attitude to Pepsi!
Ok folks - keep your fingers crossed that my TW situation is resolved this morning, or I may have to open an account like the woman with the StateFarm_Sucks Twitter account.
