Triangle Trip

Recently, the New York Times had an article describing iPhone users’ frustrations with AT&T: dropped calls, missed calls, late voicemails, etc.  If you have a Google Voice number (or even a home landline with an answering machine would suffice), there are small ways in which you can alleviate some of this awful AT&T service. (The tips below should work with any cell phone on the ridiculous AT&T network and not just iPhones.)

For one, if you have ever been frustrated with calls that you never ever received because of AT&T’s poor service, you can have AT&T forward calls to your Google Voice number when you are not reachable on AT&T’s network (which unfortunately happens way too much).  On your cell phone, simply dial *62* plus your 10-digit number Google Voice number to which your calls should be forwarded and then #.  This will forward all your calls to your Google Voice number when you are not reachable on your cell phone.  Google Voice keeps track of all missed and received calls.  Or even a home landline with caller ID in place of Google Voice works well too.

Secondly, if you’ve ever received voicemails several hours or even days after the fact (which annoyingly has happened to me a lot with important voicemails), you can setup to have all your calls forwarded to your Google Voice number or a home answering machine if you do not answer your cell phone.  On your cell phone, simply dial *61* plus the 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded and #.  This will enable the caller to reach your Google Voice voicemail or your home answering machine, bypassing AT&T voicemail altogether.  Visual voicemail is overrated anyhow.

Lastly, if you’ve just been sick and tired of AT&T’s poor service to the point that you don’t care to answer any calls on your iPhone altogether, you can have all your calls immediately be forwarded to a different number: simply dial *21* plus the 10-digit number to which your calls should be forwarded and #.

AT&T… More bars in more places?  Are they drunk (pun intended)?

Ever been on the road and wanted to check out a restaurant’s menu before actually physically going in?  Of course you could do some research online beforehand but what if you just left the client site or hotel and was looking for a place to eat with decent selection and prices?

Well if you have an iPhone you are in luck!  I recently checked out a new app for the iPhone called Unimenu.  It’s main goal is to be able to look up menus for restaurants in an easy manner.  You can view a restaurant’s location/address, look at what items they offer with prices, and directly call the restaurant from the app.  Additionally, it has some neat features as well.

Let’s say I’m craving some Japanese food in LA.  I can filter by cuisine in LA (it locates the metro area I’m in automatically) and select the “Near Me” button.  It then lists out the closest 10 restaurants near me serving Japanese cuisine, which then I can look at each menu and restaurant information accordingly.

Also, if ever you find yourself ordering from the same restaurant frequently, you can add that restaurant’s menu to your favorites and you’ll always have it handy, even if you don’t get any reception from crappy AT&T (or T-Mobile).

Lastly, I think the most creative feature of the app is the ability to add specific items from a menu or menus to a list, afterwards which you can email out if need be.  This is particular handy if you are ordering for a big group of people: you can just pass around your iPhone and have people select what they want.  Of course, you may want to wipe down your iPhone after you get it back.  One day I hope they come up with an iPhone app that de-sanitizes the phone.

Right now the app supports New York, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Chicago (the app also allows you to filter by neighborhoods specific to those cities).  I do most of my traveling between New York (city of blinding lights), SF (I left my heart there), LA (California dreamin’), and Chicago (my kind of town) so this app is perfect for me (who’d wanna go anywhere else anyhow?).  They also have a corresponding website at www.unimenu.com for those without iPhones. So for all of you who have ever walked into an unknown restaurant and been caught off guard by the prices or selection of the menu, check this app out.

For the past couple of weeks, I have seen Apple’s iPhone ads touting the iPhone and the OS 3.0’s new features — which aren’t really new to the mobile world. Apple has been touting its new iPhone can do:

1.  cut and paste
2.  voice dialing
3.  video recording

These marketed features have been available to me since February 2007 when I got my first Blackberry Pearl. With my previous Blackberries, I have been able to cut and paste since 2005. With my Blackberry Pearl in 2007, I had voice dialing features. With a push of a button (left hand side by default on the Pearl), I could tell my Blackberry to “Call John Smith Mobile.” The voice recognition software was reliable.

As for multimedia recording and playback… With my Pearl and even older Blackberries (i.e., the 8800), you can record video, download MP3/MP4 and it has a removable mini SD slot. You can probably get a 4GB mini SD cards on sale for under $10. What is the size of the Apple iPhone’s hard drive?

Finally… I can even watch live TV via my Blackberry.  Something Apple nor AT&T could do today.

So… What the innovation behind the new iPhone and its new features?  I am still trying to figure that out. What’s so fast about it when its running on AT&T, its (lack of) service partner. Apple is getting too comfortable as a market leader and falling into the Microsoft trap. Instead of inventing new products, it is trying to market its way to profitability. Ironically this is the version 3 of Apple’s iPhone OS or is this Windows 3.0   Didn’t Apple management say something about Microsoft’s lack of innovation back in 1990?

Captain G is contemplating if he should write a letter the Steve Jobs and warn him about this issue. Alternatively, I could also write a letter to RIM’s Board of Directors blasting management’s lackluster marketing efforts in 2007. RIM has also been too comfortable with its corporate accounts and still does not have a real answer to the iPhone (the Storm is not quite there).

For everyone’s reference, here are three screenshots from my Blackberry Pearl: