Well, we walked in to the AT&T store at the Windward City Shopping Center yesterday and walked out an hour later with His & Her iPhones on a family plan that shares talk minutes. Ashley was very competent and set everything up for us, including porting our existing phone numbers over from Sprint. By mid-afternoon, the numbers had successfully transferred.
Hint: UH or state employees qualify for a 15% discount on AT&T’s monthly fees and a waiver of the set-up fees, so it’s a nice bit of savings.
Once home, prepping the phone and syncing with my calendar and contacts was simple and essentially automatic, and 3,800 contacts later everything was in place.
I have to say that the move required climbing over the emotional link to my Treo 755, the last in a long line of products using Palm’s operating system. I’ve been a faithful Palm user since Apple abandoned the Newton a decade ago or more. It’s been a great relationship. Or it was until Palm stopped attending to its Mac users several years ago, shifting attention and product development to the Windows Mobile side of things. Too bad. But the bright spot is that it’s moved me over to an iPhone.
I’ve been looking at useful applications, and have already downloaded and installed Google Earth, WordPress, Brightkite (following zztype), Yelp, and something called Recorder.
Any suggestions of your most used iPhone apps would be most welcome.
There’s more news today about my dad’s friend and fishing partner who was killed in a hit-and-run accident on Monday.
There’s a good story about Lindsay by Leila Fujimori in today’s Star-Bulletin, and KHON ran a good story with several fishing photos last night.
Two media items worth noting. In a story last week, the Pew Research Center noted a landmark survey finding. For the first time, the number of people saying their primary source of news is the Internet surpassed those who rely on newspapers.
Currently, 40% say they get most of their news about national and international issues from the internet, up from just 24% in September 2007. For the first time in a Pew survey, more people say they rely mostly on the internet for news than cite newspapers (35%). Television continues to be cited most frequently as a main source for national and international news, at 70%.
For young people, however, the internet now rivals television as a main source of national and international news. Nearly six-in-ten Americans younger than 30 (59%) say they get most of their national and international news online; an identical percentage cites television. In September 2007, twice as many young people said they relied mostly on television for news than mentioned the internet (68% vs. 34%).
Meanwhile, Editor & Publisher took note of the different reactions of Honolulu’s two daily newspapers during last week’s blackout.
E&P quotes from an Advertiser story on Sunday:
The paper’s Kapolei printing plant lost power at about 8:30 p.m., and did not get it back until 4 a.m. yesterday.”“Our printing plant is so intricate that even though power returned, it took four or five hours to synchronize the system, replace burned-out sensors and make calls to our German manufacturer,” said Advertiser Editor Mark Platte. “By that time, we concluded that it didn’t make sense to put out a limited-run newspaper and instead to concentrate on the Sunday edition.”
At least some Advertiser staffers wonder about the underlying meaning of that statement: “…it didn’t make sense to put out a limited-run newspaper”. It made sense for the Star-Bulletin. Why not for the Advertiser? And I finally got to see that S-B blackout edition. It was well worth it, in my view. Real news about the event delivered same day. On paper. At home and on the street.
I suppose that, given the PEW findings cited above, there’s legitimate disagreement about whether that tangible news product is what this enterprise is really about or not. But for those in love with news and newspapers, getting that paper on the street was a victory for the S-B, a victory over the blackout and over their competition.
In any case, it’s a new year. Odds are it will end up being better than the last. We’re leaving late for this morning’s walk so that we’ve got a little light at the front end. I may post a few photos later.
Putting out newspapers, despite a blackout, is simply part of the job. It’s what we do.
I hope the advertisers who paid to have ads in the Advertiser that day get their money back.
The AT&T pricing that declares that “UH or state employees qualify for a 15% discount on AT&T’s monthly fees and a waiver of the set-up fees” is appalling, and not in the good fortune of these publicly-funded employees enjoying a discount; rather, in the ATT pricing policy that implies that those off of the public taxpayer dole shall be required to pay a 15% higher charge.
Or am I missing something other than graft here?
> Yes, you’re missing something obvious.
>
> Lots of service providers discount for large group clients.
>
> Other phone companies also discount for large employers that have
> agreements with them.
>
> I initially went with Sprint when I worked at the Star-Bulletin
> because the Hawaii Newspaper Agency had an agreement with Sprint that
> gave employees a discount.
>
> It’s not an unusual marketing scheme at all.
>
> Sorry to undermine the outrage.
>
> -Ian
No need to apologize.
Something equally obvious, to some, is that “large group clients” who are funded primarily with tax money are of a different sort in that they are employed by the public. Hence, the 15% discount given them will be made-up by charging the “non-large-group-clients.” That essentially amounts to taxpayers being additionally taxed. I don’t think that is right. However, I appreciate your reply.
Yes, IslandNotes, you are missing something.
There is nothing unusual about service providers offering discounts to groups, whether large employers, public and private.
I first signed up with Sprint when I was working for the Star-Bulletin and Sprint had a deal with the Hawaii Newspaper Agency.
I think all of the major cell phone providers offer special deals to a variety of groups.
Nothing sinister. Just a standard marketing routine.
Check the AT&T program:
https://www.wireless.att.com/business/authenticate/index.jsp?zipCode=null&bref=null&_requestid=47781
Not to belabor this, but while “standard marketing routines” may be the status quo, there is good reason to look at standard marketing as it applies to institutions ostensibly charged with the public good. As one reporting on corruption, you ought to know that.