Joe's dashboard

A comment on the problem "AT&T no signal in my home." in AT&T:

So, you guys are going to *charge* people for the privilege of extending your network for you? Make people pay an extra monthly fee, plus the cost of the equipment, in order to make usable the service that they are already paying you for?

Look, I understand that femtocells cost money to produce. I wouldn't mind buying the hardware, but to charge an *additional monthly fee* for the privilege of having service that works is not acceptable behavior. – Joe, on October 23, 2009 05:17

Joe replied on October 23, 2009 05:13 to the problem "AT&T no signal in my home." in AT&T:

"sometimes i will literally have 4 bars in my house and then the other 99% of the time i have no signal... "

My friend had a similar problem, where a call will start with a strong signal, which would then slowly drop off as the call continued. It ended up being a problem with the phone doing some band switching while the call was in progress. You can check with your AT&T service tech to see if your phone is multi-band, and if they can lock it to one band for you.

For everyone else, the only way to draw attention to the problem is to vote with your wallet. When your contract comes up, drop AT&T like a hot potato! I switched to Verizon about a year ago, and haven't looked back! Coverage around here has been beautiful ever since. FInd a good provider in your area (not necessarily VZW, I'm not trying to sell their product), and get OUT of ATT's crappy network. No iPhone is worth it if you can't make a call!

Joe replied on August 12, 2009 14:43 to the question "How can you block incoming calls from spammers and telemarketers?" in Verizon:

Remember: the "Do Not Call" list does not apply to cell phones.

Joe marked one of Brian H. Prince's replies in Microsoft Corporation as useful. Brian H. Prince replied to the idea "Add MP3 Audiobook Support for Zune".

Joe replied on June 06, 2009 19:02 to the idea "Add MP3 Audiobook Support for Zune" in Microsoft Corporation:

Thanks! This is a feature that would really make a lot of people happy, and would be a big selling point for Zune.

Joe asked a question in Verizon on April 05, 2009 01:24:

Unlock the Blackberry GPS to work with third-party applications?

Is there a way to convince VZ to unlock the Blackberry GPS (in the 8330 in my case), so that it may be used in 3rd-party applications. I like that it works with the BB map application, but that app is not very good. What I would really like, is to be able to use Google Maps and Latitude with my 8330.

I have heard that VZ is reluctant to allow Google access to location data, because they are worried about the user's privacy. But, shouldn't the end user be the one to determine whether or not to allow that information to be transmitted?

Joe replied on April 05, 2009 01:18 to the question "Why does Verizon cripple the GPS on the BlackBerry 8830 and lie to customers about it?" in Verizon:

Yes, it works with BBMaps, but it still does not work with Google's location based products like Google Maps or Latitude.

Joe replied on April 05, 2009 01:14 to the question "Does Verizon block text messages from Twitter?" in Verizon:

Verizon does not block twitter texts. I'd check your sms settings on the Twitter side. By default (I think), it only sends Twitter direct messages to your phone.

@faderjockey

Joe replied on March 25, 2009 19:47 to the problem "Twitpic Integration not working" in Orangatame:

Latisha, did you try Jason Schroeder's solution above? I have the same phone and phone model, and that's what fixed the problem for me. In Twitterberry, go to "Configure" and set the connection mode to TCP. It has worked like a charm ever since.

Joe shared an idea in Microsoft Corporation on February 09, 2009 02:46:

Add MP3 Audiobook Support for Zune

Hey Zune team!
I'm glad that you included audible.com and overdrive support for the Zune in your new update, but can you provide support for MP3 audiobooks that I already own? I have a bunch of CD audio books that I have ripped to MP3 for use with my player, and would really like to have the software treat them like audio books, instead of music files. Is there something in the works? It would make the Zune audiobook feature actually useful for me!

Joe marked one of Jason Schroeder's replies in Orangatame as useful. Jason Schroeder replied to the problem "Twitpic Integration not working".

Joe replied on February 09, 2009 02:39 to the problem "Twitpic Integration not working" in Orangatame:

That worked nicely! Thank you for the tip!

Joe replied on December 24, 2008 15:41 to the idea "Make a OS X and or Linux version of the Zune software!" in Microsoft Corporation:

Bump for a Linux version of the software!!!

Joe started following the idea "Make a OS X and or Linux version of the Zune software!" in Microsoft Corporation.

Joe replied on December 24, 2008 15:40 to the idea "it was my music-loving-teenage dream. Now the technology almost has it. How do we make it happen?" in Microsoft Corporation:

What feature are you describing?

Joe started following the problem "Leave me the fuck alone, you spamming morons" in Twitter.

Joe started following the idea "Simple solutions to MacBook flaws." in Apple.

Joe replied on December 05, 2008 16:54 to the question "How can you block incoming calls from spammers and telemarketers?" in Verizon:

If you have a land-line phone, in the US, then you can register your number in the do-not-call registry at www.donotcall.gov.

If you have a cell phone, refer to cgladba1's comments above regarding telemarketers and cell phones.

Note that there are exceptions to the rules. Calls from charities, political organizations, and surveyors are exempted from US telemarketing rules, as are companies with whom you have an existing business relationship, and with whom you have agreed to receive phone calls (eg, any company to whom you have provided your phone number).

Joe replied on December 05, 2008 16:48 to the question "Broken power plug on BlackBerry?" in Verizon:

I sincerely doubt it. There are all sort of litigious reasons why not.

Power cords are not designed to be reparable. It doesn't mean that they can't be repaired, but if VZW reps started fixing power cords, and somebody got shocked, they'd be liable. Plus, any sort of modification to the power cord would void RIM's warranty, for the same reasons.

They'll be happy to sell you a replacement, however.

You may be able to find an independent electronics repair shop that will fix it, or you may be able to find somebody who is good with a soldering iron to fix it. But you won't get that kind of repair help from either RIM or VZW. Too dangerous.