Technology catch-all thread

[bigruss]

Why will the price go up? Because they changed their pricing back in March I guess, but because I got my phone back October, I still have the $15/mo price point. When I get a new phone under the "new 2 year agreement" system, they can say the new agreement costs whatever they want, and I guess that pricepoint will be $40 a month. So now my bill will be $77 a month after data plan.

Part of a 4 person family plan it's like what, $40 a month total?

 

Found it on their site, unlimited talk/text/10gb of data per month:

2 lines: $130

3 lines: $145

4 lines: $160

 

So just get on their family plan and save a ton. And use a company's savings code to cut more.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Part of a 4 person family plan it's like what, $40 a month total?

 

Found it on their site, unlimited talk/text/10gb of data per month:

2 lines: $130

3 lines: $145

4 lines: $160

 

So just get on their family plan and save a ton. And use a company's savings code to cut more.

 

We are on that plan. The 3 lines for $145. It's $100 for the 10 GB data plan, and then $15 per line.

 

However, both of my parents have opted in to that AT&T Next plan, which makes you pay the FULL price of a phone over 2 years. So my dad is paying an additional $12.50 a month for his Galaxy S3, and my mom is paying an additional $27 a month for her iphone. So while I only pay $50 a month right now, they pay $62.50 and $77 a month respectively.

 

However, once I decide to get a new phone, apparently that $15 a month will go up to $40 a month with a new 2-year agreement UNLESS I decide to opt in to the AT&T Next plan, which means I too will end up paying a monthly price for a phone. Assuming I get a nice phone like an LG G3 or something, it will probably be $25-$30 a month, essentially what the rate increase would be from $15-$40 if I stayed on the 2-year agreement plan.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Also, my G2 is experiencing some dead spot issues on the screen. I am still within the 1-year manufacturer's warranty for defects, but I am not sure if that means I will have to be without a phone for like 1-2 weeks while my phone is shipped to LG, and then a new one is shipped back to me. I'm wondering if I can just wander in to an AT&T and see if they can swap out a new phone for me or not. I'm not sure how that works, I've never had an issue with a phone.

 

Also, I noticed there is some sort of $6 phone insurance charge on our family plan, but I'm not sure what that covers, or for whose phone it is even insuring. It's listed under my number, but we all take eachother's upgrades, so I'm not sure it actually applies to my phone.

[Y2HH]

If the Apple subreddit is any indication, iOS 8 is buggier than all hell. My favorite bug is the music app deleting people's tracks whenever they listen to them. Apple starting to get acquainted with the difficulty of rolling out updates to a myriad of devices

 

After a weekend of testing the release version of iOS 8, these are the issues I've personally observed:

 

3rd party keyboard bugs that affect every 3rd party keyboard. The companies say Apple is already working with them on fixes, but what all the issues are I'm not sure. The one that I've personally seen is when going into the SMS app, the 3rd party keybaord overlays part of the conversation instead of it scrolling up automatically, you have to do it yourself. Speaking of 3rd party keyboards, IMO SwiftKey is an automatic "hell no", as it requires full internet access, which means they can keylog you. That was uninstalled the second it said it required full internet access. I've been using Swype for a few days now, but I'm not sure it's better or faster than the new Apple default keyboard, but after a series of bug fixes and updates I'm sure it will be a better experience. I haven't tested any others yet.

 

Random but rare resprings. Jailbreakers know the "desktop" on iOS is called springboard, and when springboard crashes it "resprings", which basically kills it's desktop process and reloads it. You'd see an Apple logo on the screen for a few seconds before the phone came back up. I've had this happen twice, but not sure what caused it...I couldn't reproduce it by trying the same series of actions.

 

TouchID and 3rd party implementations. I've only used this with 1Password, and I think it's how 1Password implemented it's use of the scanner that's buggy, and not Apples fault. Reading the 1Password FAQ helped me fix the issue, and I understand why they did this, but I still think they could have made it cleaner. Essentially, you have to set it to only ask for your master password once every 30 days, so the fingerprint scanner will work at all other times, otherwise you have to type in the password every time that master pass is set to 'time out'. They apparently did it this way so users wouldn't forget what their actual master password was since they won't be typing it in much anymore. I get that, but they could made it more clear...it was driving me crazy.

 

I'm sure 8.0.1 will be arriving in short order.

[Y2HH]

Also, my G2 is experiencing some dead spot issues on the screen. I am still within the 1-year manufacturer's warranty for defects, but I am not sure if that means I will have to be without a phone for like 1-2 weeks while my phone is shipped to LG, and then a new one is shipped back to me. I'm wondering if I can just wander in to an AT&T and see if they can swap out a new phone for me or not. I'm not sure how that works, I've never had an issue with a phone.

 

Also, I noticed there is some sort of $6 phone insurance charge on our family plan, but I'm not sure what that covers, or for whose phone it is even insuring. It's listed under my number, but we all take eachother's upgrades, so I'm not sure it actually applies to my phone.

 

If the insurance charge is on your account and listed on your number it should be covered. I'd bring it back and see if they'll exchange it, you shouldn't have to deal with that, ESPECIALLY seeing as that you're paying insurance on it. And if they say that insurance doesn't cover that device you should immediately demand all the money you've been paying into that insurance plan is returned to you.

 

The way I look at it is this, these phones are marketed as having these huge, beautiful, high resolution screens, so that screen should be 100% free of defects. I don't care if a single pixel is out on a 500ppi screen...it shouldn't be since that screen is essentially the highlight of these devices.

[Kyyle23]

My only glitches have been watching any sort of video(it isnt consistent, but i have times where it simply isnt smooth or the video will freeze while the audio keeps going), and Safari will shut down every once in a while. Other than that i really havent had many problems.

[Y2HH]

Also, my G2 is experiencing some dead spot issues on the screen. I am still within the 1-year manufacturer's warranty for defects, but I am not sure if that means I will have to be without a phone for like 1-2 weeks while my phone is shipped to LG, and then a new one is shipped back to me. I'm wondering if I can just wander in to an AT&T and see if they can swap out a new phone for me or not. I'm not sure how that works, I've never had an issue with a phone.

 

Also, I noticed there is some sort of $6 phone insurance charge on our family plan, but I'm not sure what that covers, or for whose phone it is even insuring. It's listed under my number, but we all take eachother's upgrades, so I'm not sure it actually applies to my phone.

 

Speaking of which...my new iPhone had a dead pixel on it, just brought it into the Apple store on Michigan Avenue and they gave me a new one. Yes, I wanted an exchange over 1 single dead pixel.

[bmags]

I don't know where else to post this, but is there an app in the world that crashes more than the Sportscenter app? It's worse than what Facebook was 4 years ago.

[Jenksismyhero]

We are on that plan. The 3 lines for $145. It's $100 for the 10 GB data plan, and then $15 per line.

 

However, both of my parents have opted in to that AT&T Next plan, which makes you pay the FULL price of a phone over 2 years. So my dad is paying an additional $12.50 a month for his Galaxy S3, and my mom is paying an additional $27 a month for her iphone. So while I only pay $50 a month right now, they pay $62.50 and $77 a month respectively.

 

However, once I decide to get a new phone, apparently that $15 a month will go up to $40 a month with a new 2-year agreement UNLESS I decide to opt in to the AT&T Next plan, which means I too will end up paying a monthly price for a phone. Assuming I get a nice phone like an LG G3 or something, it will probably be $25-$30 a month, essentially what the rate increase would be from $15-$40 if I stayed on the 2-year agreement plan.

 

Yeah all of those family plan deals aren't what they appear to be because you have to join the phone purchase plans, which end up costing way more in the long run. Buying a phone/plan these days is almost as bad as buying a car at a dealership - you know they're trying to screw you and confuse you every chance they get.

[Y2HH]

I don't know where else to post this, but is there an app in the world that crashes more than the Sportscenter app? It's worse than what Facebook was 4 years ago.

 

This is on iOS, but I've tried practically EVERY sports type application for up to date scores, etc, and a LOT of them have these issues.

 

I've finally settled on Yahoo sports, it seems really nice after going through The Score, ESPN, etc.

[Kyyle23]

Yeah all of those family plan deals aren't what they appear to be because you have to join the phone purchase plans, which end up costing way more in the long run. Buying a phone/plan these days is almost as bad as buying a car at a dealership - you know they're trying to screw you and confuse you every chance they get.

 

When I upgraded in May to a 5c, the lady was trying to convince me to leave my current plan and jump to the framily plan. So she got all of her paperwork out and listed everything out and savings and had them side by side, and then realized that my company 27% discount wasnt applicable to the Framily plan, and she sheepishly said "well i guess the Framily plan isnt for you...."

 

and then she still tried to get me to jump

[iamshack]

I'm thinking I am going to just buy unsubsidized when I decide to get the 6.

 

 

[bmags]

This is on iOS, but I've tried practically EVERY sports type application for up to date scores, etc, and a LOT of them have these issues.

 

I've finally settled on Yahoo sports, it seems really nice after going through The Score, ESPN, etc.

 

I'm on android though. It is equally buggy across both. My favorite one is the breaking news push notifications like "Derrick Rose breaks ..." and then I click on it and it can't find what it pushed to my phone and has no record of it, so then I have to scour the website looking for the bad news only to find it was an article like "Derrick Rose breaks the bank with new Giordanos sponsorship"

[iamshack]

I'm on android though. It is equally buggy across both. My favorite one is the breaking news push notifications like "Derrick Rose breaks ..." and then I click on it and it can't find what it pushed to my phone and has no record of it, so then I have to scour the website looking for the bad news only to find it was an article like "Derrick Rose breaks the bank with new Giordanos sponsorship"

Hah...I LOLd

[RockRaines]

So without a new contract the new iphone is 650 bucks? Wow.

[iamshack]

So without a new contract the new iphone is 650 bucks? Wow.

Yeah, they've always been...but then you can pay like $50-60/mo instead of this $120 nonsense or whatever

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I don't know where else to post this, but is there an app in the world that crashes more than the Sportscenter app? It's worse than what Facebook was 4 years ago.

 

I actually don't remember the last time mine crashed. But it is a painfully slow app. It often sits and loads 4-5 seconds between sports and it will show me the previous days scores until I swipe down to refresh a couple times. I hate the app, but not for crashing problems.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

I didn't know where else to put this, and since there is technology in it, I'll just put it here.

 

Just picked up a hookah pen. I've always enjoyed hookah, but never wanted to buy any of that giant stuff for it, or have to worry about setting my house on fire. But then I was at a buddies house this weekend and we were all passing around a hookah pen he had, and I decided to get one. It was only $17, and it's rechargable. The liquid I bought has no nicotine and no tobacco. It's essentially flavored water I am vaping. This watermelon flavor is tastey though.

[bigruss]

I didn't know where else to put this, and since there is technology in it, I'll just put it here.

 

Just picked up a hookah pen. I've always enjoyed hookah, but never wanted to buy any of that giant stuff for it, or have to worry about setting my house on fire. But then I was at a buddies house this weekend and we were all passing around a hookah pen he had, and I decided to get one. It was only $17, and it's rechargable. The liquid I bought has no nicotine and no tobacco. It's essentially flavored water I am vaping. This watermelon flavor is tastey though.

So what's the point of it then? Seriously, if it's just water does it actually effect you at all?

[Soxbadger]

Everyone else has one?

 

Almost burnt a hole through a wood table with a hookah charcoal, good times.

[bigruss]

Really wasn't trying to be sarcastic with my comment, I was seriously wondering if there was something else that would provide a buzz or if it was just to do something while others are as well. But since he didn't mention that part I figured he was still getting some buzz out of it and that confused me.

[ChiliIrishHammock24]

Really wasn't trying to be sarcastic with my comment, I was seriously wondering if there was something else that would provide a buzz or if it was just to do something while others are as well. But since he didn't mention that part I figured he was still getting some buzz out of it and that confused me.

 

Nope, just like the taste. I smoke flavored cigars too, but not because of any buzz I feel, I just like the taste. I haven't smoked this hookah pen in about 20 minutes and I can still taste the watermelon on my lips.

[RockRaines]

Nope, just like the taste. I smoke flavored cigars too, but not because of any buzz I feel, I just like the taste. I haven't smoked this hookah pen in about 20 minutes and I can still taste the watermelon on my lips.

Buy some watermelon bubblecious

[StrangeSox]

I pretty much just assume that those e-cigs are full of horrible chemicals, I'd imagine that an e-hookah is similar.

[bmags]

I actually don't remember the last time mine crashed. But it is a painfully slow app. It often sits and loads 4-5 seconds between sports and it will show me the previous days scores until I swipe down to refresh a couple times. I hate the app, but not for crashing problems.

 

This blows my mind. I'm going to restore my phone this weekend, sense has been acting wonky with a lot of stuff.