Word Salad » Gadget Salad

AT&T Voicemail to Text Feature now available for $10 a month

Joe Harouni — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 21:26:28 +0000

Of course you could always try Google Voice…

CREEPSTER-RIFFIC! Listen in as people leave you a voicemail with Google Voice… hilarity ensues…
Amazon Discounts New Xbox 360 Games in an effort to make you spend money before CoD42 and L4D2 come out… it’s working!
Happy holidays from Gmail – Free Snail Mail Postcard!

Caution: Verizon’s $350 Early Termination Fee is now live

Joe Harouni — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:44:28 +0000

Just a word of caution to anyone out there with an itchy credit card finger: signing up for a contract with Verizon just became a considerably more binding affair thanks to a big boost of its contract early termination fee from $175 to $350. Rumored for a few days now, the change became official as of yesterday, which means that anyone who bought an “advanced device” prior to the 14th is in the clear. The advanced device list can be found on Verizon’s site, and as you might expect, it’s a little broad and ridiculous — winners like the Versa, Exilim, and Glyde are on there, so they’re obviously not just referring to smartphones. They throw you a bone by reducing the ETF by a stout $10 for every month of the contract you successfully hurdle, but that still leaves you with a $120 ETF 23 months into a 24-month deal… so yeah, just be careful out there and don’t do anything rash, alright?

via Engadget.

DROID DOES (cost less at Sears)

Joe Harouni — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:29:14 +0000

If you walk into a Verizon store today and pick up a DROID, you’ll be out $300 (before tax) out of pocket, then you’ll twiddle your thumbs for a few weeks while you wait for some mysterious PO box in Texas to send you your $100 rebate on a debit card. Wouldn’t you rather just pay $200 upfront? Or better yet, $150? Sears — which, we have to admit, we didn’t know sold phones — is charging just $150 without a rebate for the DROID today, a full $50 less than Big Red proper with rebate. We don’t know how good these guys are with customer service (Simplexity is running the store on Sears’ behalf, it seems), but truth be told, we can deal with a little incompetency for $50.

via Engadget.

Earn Best Buy Reward Zone Points for Dining Out, Boozing, Leaving Large Tips.

The Chef — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 18:10:04 +0000

I am a Best Buy junkie. When a newegg or tigerdirect fix is just 48 hours too long to wait… I get my Best Buy on.

You earn Reward Zone points when you use a debit or credit card that’s registered with us at any of our participating restaurants, bars and clubs. You can use your points toward Reward Zone certificates. Before you dine, make sure you check the Reward Zone Dining Web site to see when Reward Zone points are offered.

We will never charge your card. We only need your credit or debit card information so we can reward you for dining out.

We accept all U.S. bank-issued debit and check cards, as well as major credit cards, including: American Express®, Discover®, MasterCard®, and Visa®.

via Reward Zone® Dining – How It Works.

Ed Hardy Limited Edition Flash Drive; Friends not included

The Chef — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:03:28 +0000

Your sole friend will be wowed.

Pay close attention to the last sentence of this description taken verbatim from the site.

Ed Hardy UB09201-1 Limited Edition Flash DriveThe Ed Hardy UB09201-1 Limited Edition Flash Drive offers you the convenience of 1GB storage in an incredibly cool package that everyone will envy. The internationally famous Ed Hardy tattoo designs have captured the imagination of fans worldwide, and you’ll attract head-turning attention wherever you go with your new Ed Hardy UB09201-1 Limited Edition Flash Drive. You’ll be able to store lots of digital data, including music, videos and documents on this Ed Hardy UB09201-1 Limited Edition Flash Drive 1GB flash drive. Wow your friend with this flash drive today.

via TigerDirect.com.

Fantasy Football, live on your phone.

The Chef — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:30:24 +0000

Oh thank God...

Let’s be honest… having options like this is why you pay $100 a month to have an iPhone…

Log in from your phone, and manage your team when you’re mobile. Add or drop players, check their stats and see your matchups. Absolutely free this year, get up-to-the-minute stats and scores right on your phone.

Now available as an app on your iPhone® via iTunes.

Now available as an app on your BlackBerry® Bold 9000, Curve 8900, and Tour 9630:type m.yahoo.com/apps/bb into your mobile phone’s browser.

In case you were wondering, the free live stats thing is like a $9.95 value.

via [mobile.yahoo.com].

Astak’s 5-inch EZ Reader a Kindle Killer?

The Chef — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 16:16:16 +0000

Astak — the company looking to give Amazon’s Kindle a ‘run for its money’ — gave us a little bit of a shock when it unveiled its attractive 5-inch EZ Reader Pocket PRO back in August. At the time, the company said that the units would be shipping by the end of September, and, lo and behold, they’re now shipping from Newegg. The Reader features a 400MHz CPU, 512MB of memory, an SD card slot, an 8-level grayscale E-ink screen, a replaceable battery good for 8,000 page turns per charge plus MP3 player that can operate in the background, and it’ll run you $250 if you want to get in on the e-reader action.

[via Engadget].

Positive AT&T Customer Service Experience

The Chef — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:00:26 +0000

They're not that bad...

I wrote the following email to AT&T Customer Service over the weekend, after a surprise on my phone bill:

My wireless bill doubled last month from $94 to $200! Is there anyway we can retroactively change my plan to the 900min instead of 450. I can’t pay this bill. Please help!

Did I lay it on a little thick? Maybe. But it got results:

I am very sorry to see that your bill has more than doubled during this billing period. Per your request, I placed the 900 minute plan and backdated it to 9-21-09. I adjusted your bill for the minute overage in the amount of $113.02. The adjustment will affect your balance and the new balance can be viewed on your phone by pressing *bal# or *225# and send or by logging back in to your wireless account and verify there as well. The balance is $94.55.

For all the grief AT&T gets on the Internet, I think it’s important to point out when they do something right by me.

Thumbs up: Kensington Support replaced my $50 iPhone Car Mount

The Chef — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:30:19 +0000

: Kensington Car Charger Deluxe for iPhone and iPod

About three weeks ago, the Car Charger/Mount I received as a Christmas gift finally broke down from normal wear and tear. I decided I couldn’t live without one and went to the Kensington Site to find the exact name and model number so I could bite the bullet and pay for a new one. It is perfect for holding the iPhone when in GPS mode or playing songs through the free included auxiliary audio cable

I found it, and alonside the description was this welcome little icon:

Sure enough, I browsed through the support page until I found the Contact Us page. I opened a ticket on 9/1. There was some acceptable back and forth because I could not produce an original receipt, the end result: I spent $2.00 mailing the broken product back and three weeks later, I had a FedExed replacement waiting on my doorstop for me.

via [Kensington]

Times are getting hard…The economically sensible iPhone case

scatmansham — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:01:35 +0000

Pray it doesn't rain.

Times are tough for most people out there. Gas is 400$ a gallon, hookers are doubling their prices and the housing market is plummeting faster than JFK Jr. (Too soon?) but there is no need to despair. Though your iPhone bill is probably in the range of 100+, a company has heeded the call of the drained and weary iPhone community with the creation of “The Recession case”.

This earth friendly and cheap case will keep your iPhone safe for at least 1-2 days, and let’s face it Applecare doesn’t give a shit about you so buy these cases at 99 cents a pop and hope to god it doesn’t rain.

Check out the product site here…

Case Mate