So I ordered my Galaxy Nexus on December 15th and received it a little over a week ago.  The device has a hardware defect (blown earpiece speaker) and I need to work with LetsTalk to send it back.  It’s been somewhat difficult to try and work things out with them and Verizon to get a working phone in a timely manner (trying to maintain the service I’m paying for).

LetsTalk.com proclaims to want to make sure I’m satisfied and that they’re “all over it” when it comes to issues (see the attached letter they included in the package they sent me).  I thought it would be worked out with what we arranged yesterday, but Verizon is making things difficult (won’t let me reactivate my old phone temporarily without losing the 4 gig/month data promotion that just ended).

Here’s an email I just sent to LetsTalk.com’s customer service.  We’ll see what they come up with.  I think I’m being reasonable.  We’ll see if LetsTalk.com pulls through and “exceeds my expectations.”

Hi there,

First, I just want to say thank you for taking the time to read this email and doing what you can to help me out.  I’m having a really hard time getting my defective phone exchanged and I’m writing so that you are able to take whatever time you need to figure out a solution to my problem.

First, the necessary info:

Order #______

(RMA #______)

Email on the account: _________

Home phone # used during purchasing: _________

Number of phone that was upgraded: ________

User of that phone line (me): Tim Ehat

I spoke to a representative on the phone yesterday and she said she added me on/made a note that I’m allowed to work with you on this account.  I am an authorized account “manager” on the Verizon account.  If you have any issues with me using my personal email to send this message (I’m doing this so my wife doesn’t have to deal with it), please feel free to call my wife on her number (__________) to get any required authorization you may need.

Summary of issue:

Ordered Dec 15, 2011.

Phone was backordered (didn’t know at time of purchase), phone arrived 1/9/2012.

Phone has hardware defect: the earpiece speaker on the phone is blown.  Calls are quiet and very distorted (unusable as a phone).  I was at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week and verified with a Samsung representative that the issue was just with my particular handset.

Your proposed resolutions:

A) Send in the phone this week, activate a temporary phone on the line while waiting again on backorder for the next shipment.

B) Hold onto the phone for another two weeks (approx.) and send it in prior to your next shipment of Galaxy Nexus phones in the hope of making the cut for the next backorder (can’t be guaranteed).

C) Send in the pnone now, do not activate a temporary phone, and wait until you have a phone to send me.

Proposed solution (A) will not work.  Verizon’s 4GB “double your data” promo has ended.  I went into the store and talked with them on the phone and was told that I could not (even temporarily) activate a 3G phone without losing the 4GB data promotion.  Even after reactivating a 4G phone, I wouldn’t receive the promo anymore (one rep told me I had 14 days, but a rep on the phone told me it wasn’t possible at all).  I ordered the phone from you and expect to maintain the same service that I ordered.

Proposed solution (B) will not work.  There’s no point keeping around a phone that I can’t use due to the hardware issue.  No point in paying for the service if I can’t use the phone.  If I wait until closer to your next shipment, I’m afraid I’ll miss the cutoff and still be waiting even longer for you to be able to ship me a phone.

Proposed solution (C) maintains the 4G promo, allows me to (hopefully) make the next backorder cut off point to receive my phone sometime after 2/3 (at the earliest 2/6, I’d assume), but leaves me paying for voice and data service for a phone I do not have and cannot use.

Other options allow you to provide some extraordinary customer service:

1) Send me a 4G phone to use temporarily.  After I receive it and you take care of activation for me and I send in my defective Galaxy Nexus.  You send me a working Galaxy Nexus when the stock arrives, activate it for me (keeping the 4 gig data promo throughout all of this process) and I send back the temporary 4G device.  If you sent me a HTC Rezound to test, I’d might even choose to keep that device instead of getting the new Galaxy Nexus (it’s my second choice of phone, but potentially first choice if I decided I liked it better).

2) Reimburse me for the amount I’m paying for my cellular service while my phone’s out of commission and provide me with a prepaid SIM card I can use in a spare unlocked BlackBerry Storm 2 I have laying around.  I will take care of telling those that need to contact me to use a different phone number for a few weeks.  Similar to option C above, but you help me maintain some sort of connectivity and reimburse me for the service I cannot use.  The amount of the reimbursement is negotiable based on the number of minutes/data available on the prepaid card (difference between what I pay Verizon for and what you would provide to me in the form of a prepaid voice/data SIM).

Another idea you might propose:

Refund my purchase, I return the phone, and you credit back the upgrade onto my phone line so I can purchase the phone elsewhere.  Problems include: lose the deal you offered (spend more on the phone elsewhere), lose the 4 gig data promo, wait several weeks for the return to be processed and for the upgrade credit to be replaced.

What do we do?

All in all, it should be a simple matter, but it’s become more difficult for two reasons: 1) you’re completely backordered on the Galaxy Nexus phone and haven’t maintained a reserve supply for exchanges; and 2) Verizon’s 4 gig data promo has ended and Verizon is unwilling to provide reasonable service to help me keep that promotion through the exchange process.

From my perspective, I was very patient waiting to receive the phone and it’s nobody’s fault that the phone doesn’t work and that we need to go through this process.  The only issue is that the two reasons above prevent a simple exchange from leaving me without a phone for several weeks (paying for the service all the while).  I would expect that you would take responsibility for my satisfaction and help me through the situation.  I don’t feel it is unreasonable (and feel you would agree) to expect to get a working phone at some point, maintain some sort of voice service (and hopefully data service) through the exchange process (even if I have a different phone number), and to not lose the 4 gig data promotion Verizon offered and you signed me up for.  I feel that’s a pretty standard level of service that you would strive to provide and I’m willing to accept some headaches (losing my number, not having the right phone, etc) through the process.  I just need your help to make something happen.

And, as a side note, I would hope you can do what needs to be done without having to place any sort of hold/temporary charge on my credit card.  I can accommodate that if absolutely necessary, but it doesn’t seem like such a process should be required for an exchange.  If you did need to place a temporary charge for a temporary 4G phone (say the HTC Rezound I mentioned earlier), I would expect it would be the discounted price of the phone (including the $75 discount I had on the original order).  Then if I chose to keep that phone, it would be as simple as reimbursing the original charge and keeping the new charge for the Rezound.  (I was investigating your “advanced exchange” process and was told that you’d need to charge me the full price of the phone and the discounted price of the phone onto a credit card in order to send a working phone first prior to me sending back my defective unit.  That would be almost $1000 of charges in addition to the ~$180 I have already paid for the phone in the first place.  Since you don’t have the phone in stock, the advanced exchange is really not in the picture anyways.)

Please let me know how you’d like to proceed with the issue and we can work together for a mutually satisfactory resolution.

Thanks for your efforts,

Tim Ehat

Update 1:

No response today, so I initiated a chat session with them (can’t really phone them).  Took them a few minutes to find the email and review it (I guess the department they forwarded it on to doesn’t read their emails).  The result? LetsTalk says they cannot do anything other than what they had already proposed.  What a frustrating response.

But, as my luck would have it, they received their next shipment early and have the phone in stock once again.  (I guess these guys are at the total mercy and whim of Verizon since they’ve not been very accurate about when they’re going to receive more stock from Verizon.)

They’re going to have to do their whole “charge you everything and reimburse later” thing as part of what they call an “advanced exchange” (cross shipping the new/old phones), but, hey, that’s better than paying for a phone I can’t use.  They say they’ll manually change that temporary amount to half of the retail price instead of the full retail price, but, really, what’s the difference?  It’s a charge on my credit card for a week or two that gets cleared off.  It was always about the idea of charging me again for something I already bought.

Oh well, I guess they deal with a bunch of people who try to rip them off.  Too bad we consumers deal with companies that act the same way.  I think we as consumers need to all get together and get our own set of Terms & Conditions for doing business with us.  Or something….

So the result is: their customer service is slightly better than others (free return shipping for cancelled orders, etc), but when it comes to the more advanced problems, it’s just as frustrating as any place else (well, I’m assuming no one charges their customers to return defective products).

Tim Ehat: Hi, I’m wondering if anyone has had a chance to read my email I sent last night?
Tim Ehat: Order #_________
Tim Ehat: I need to know whether or not I should be sending in my phone today on my way home.
Mary G: Tim my name is Mary and I will be happy to review your order. Please verify your address and phone number.
Tim Ehat: [I provide the address and phone number]
Mary G: Thank you for providing that information. All emails take up to 24 hours to be reviewed. When did you send it?
Tim Ehat: Please check the notes on the account and you’ll see that I’ve been authorized to deal with you
Tim Ehat: I sent the email yesterday evening
Mary G: Please allow me 3-4 minutes to review with our email team and verify if they have received it.
Tim Ehat: ok
Mary G: Our email time is reviewing the orders at this time to locate yours. What was the subject line?
Tim Ehat: It was simply, “Order #_________”
Mary G: Please allow me another 3-4 minutes while they locate it.
Tim Ehat: ok
Tim Ehat: I sent the email to “psr@letstalk.com” as indicated on your letter in the original package (http://www.timehat.com/wp-content/uploads/LetsTalk-Letters-002.jpg)
Tim Ehat: If that helps at all
Tim Ehat: I’m happy to forward the email to another address if you need me to.
Mary G: [Mary G is idle]
Mary G: [Mary G is no longer idle]
Mary G: Thank you for that information, the psr team sent it to the correct department earlier this afternoon and a supervisor is reviewing your proposed suggestions. Please allow another 3-4 minutes while they are reviewing it.
Tim Ehat: okay, thank you
Mary G: Tim a supervisor has reviewed your email and unfortunately, we cannot accommodate the suggestions you have offered. I do apologize for any inconvenience this causes. You are still within your 14 day return period if you wish to return your phone for a full refund and reverse the upgrade. We do also offer an advanced exchange option. We can cross ship the new device however we will bill your card the full value of your device you have now and ship the new one today. Once we get it back we would refund the amount back.
[Here I assume that she hasn't noticed the product was out of stock. Stock had actually arrived that day.]
Mary G: My supervisor has authorized the cross shipment to be done at half the full retail price plus the sale price of the phone which would total at $539.99 versus the normal price of $904.99

What actually happened (see Update 2 below):

Tim Ehat: So I have to pay for phone that I cannot use?
Tim Ehat: Well, that’s really no difference to me since either amount will be credited back when you receive my phone.
Tim Ehat: You’ve left me with either cancelling my order (losing out on your offer and Verizon’s 4 gig data promo) or paying for service that I can’t use
Tim Ehat: I expected that you would take care of this situation in a better fashion.
Mary G: We are more than happy to exchange the phone for you with either option we have so that you are not paying for service you cannot use.
Tim Ehat: No, I don’t think that will work
Tim Ehat: With the first option, I pay more for the phone elsewhere and lose the 4 gig data promo (and have to wait a week or two for the upgrade credit to show up on my verizon account again)
Tim Ehat: I don’t believe the second option is even a possibility since the device is backordered.
Tim Ehat: I was told Monday on the phone that you could not cross ship the item
Tim Ehat: since it was back ordered
Mary G: I apologize for the inconvenience but these are the only options we have available at this time. A supervisor has reviewed our inventory and we show this phone is in stock.
Tim Ehat: and even if you can, I can’t keep using the defective phone
Tim Ehat: You told me the phone was backordered until about 2/3
Tim Ehat: (a previous support agent, that is)
Mary G: We have received shipments of this phone this week and do have this phone in stock.
Tim Ehat: Okay, that completely changes things. Are you able to verify that I will not lose my “double data” promotion if we perform a cross shipping advanced exchange?
Mary G: That is correct.
Tim Ehat: Okay, let’s do that then
Tim Ehat: I’ll need to have you use a different credit card for the temporary charges
Mary G: To do the cross shipment we do need to be able to authorize the full amount initially and then a supervisor will do a manual override to reduce it to half. Will that be ok?
Mary G: The full price is $904.99
Tim Ehat: Yeah, that’s fine. As long as I get the full amount reimbursed and end up paying the amount we originally agreed upon for the order, I’m perfect.
Mary G: That is not a problem. Unfortunately, I cannot take your credit card information via chat for security reasons. You will need to call our customer service department at 866-825-5460 to update your credit card.
Tim Ehat: Okay. I’ll have to wait until I can use my wife’s phone since mine isn’t working. How late will you have representatives there tonight?
Tim Ehat: Also, do you know how long it will take to receive the replacement unit?
Mary G: We are open until 10pm central. Once we ship out the exchange, it will arrive within 2 business days.
Tim Ehat: How quickly will the device ship? Are you sure that you’ll still have inventory in to ship it soon? (Perhaps pulling a unit aside for this exchange.)
Mary G: Unfortunately, we cannot hold any units aside. However we have enough to complete your order. It will more than likely ship tomorrow, we will not be able to create the cross shipment order until we have the correct credit card on file.
Tim Ehat: okay. I’ll be calling in within the next 2 hours to take care of that.
Mary G: Is there anything further I can assist you with today?
Tim Ehat: Just to verify one last point: when I receive the new unit, do I use my same SIM card, or do I send back the SIM card you’ve already sent (and you’ll supply me with a new one)?
Mary G: We will be supplying you with a new SIM card.
Tim Ehat: Okay, thank you (I had heard differently before). I will ship back the original SIM card you sent me.
Tim Ehat: Sounds like we’ve managed to work it out. Thank you for your help today.
Mary G: You’re welcome. Is there anything further I may assist you with today?
Tim Ehat: Nope, that should do it.
Tim Ehat: Have a nice evening
Mary G: It was a pleasure to assist you today. Thank you for contacting LetsTalk.com “The smarter way to buy wireless” Please remember to hit the “end chat” option and to monitor your email or check status online for updates.

Update 2:

I received shipment and billing confirmations today from LetsTalk for the cross-shipment order.  Unfortunately, they failed to only charge me 1/2 of the full retail price plus the discounted price (which they said they would do).  No big deal, except the “discounted price” was almost double what I paid on the original order.  Uhh, what?  How hard could this be?

Me impersonating my wife (it’s easier that way…  LetsTalk can’t seem to actually add me to the account as an authorized person no matter how many times I ask):

Lisa Ehat: I think I was charged the wrong amount on my cross-shipment exchange
Lisa Ehat: order #________, RMA #______
Erica S: Lisa my name is Erica and I will be happy to review your order. Please verify your name, address and contact number.
Lisa Ehat: Name: Lisa Ehat
Lisa Ehat: Address: ____
Lisa Ehat: # ___[phone number]____
Lisa Ehat: I paid $174.99 for the original order
Lisa Ehat: and the total for the cross shipment is $1064.98
Lisa Ehat: take off the full retail that will be reimbursed
Erica S: Thank you for providing that information. Please allow 2-3 minutes while I review your order.
Lisa Ehat: and that is: $334.99
Erica S: Thank you so much for your patience! I show that cross-shipment amount is $729.99 plus the promotional price for the original device. This totals to $1,064.98.
Lisa Ehat: what is the promotional price of the original device?
Erica S: Once original device is returned you will be credited back the full retail price.
Lisa Ehat: Okay, so that leaves me paying: $1064.98-729.99 = $334.99
Lisa Ehat: Which is almost double the amount of my original order
Lisa Ehat: The original device you sent me has a hardware defect, thus the exchange
Lisa Ehat: so I’d expect the final price to be the same as my original order
Erica S: Please allow 2-3 minutes while I review the amounts.
Lisa Ehat: okay, thanks
Lisa Ehat: in addition, i was told yesterday during the chat session that the amount would be manually modified such that the charge for full retail would only be half of the full retail price, given the continued issues i’ve had during this whole process
Lisa Ehat: i don’t care too much about that, but it’s very surprising to see it so dramatically off even if the full amount was to be charged
Erica S: I do apologize for the delay. Please bare with me while I try to get this issue resolved.
Lisa Ehat: no worries, take whatever time you need
Lisa Ehat: my main concern is that at the end of the whole process, I’ve paid you the $174.99 we had originally agreed upon when i placed the order in the first place
Lisa Ehat: and i have the data plan and device i had ordered
Erica S: Thank you for your patience! You will receive an credit in the amount of $160.00. This credit should be applied to your credit card within 1-5 business days. Once you return the original device you will receive credit for the full retail price of the phone. Is there anything else I may assist you with today?
Lisa Ehat: That should be all. Thank you!
Erica S: You’re welcome. It was a pleasure to assist you today. Thank you for contacting LetsTalk.com “The smarter way to buy wireless” Please remember to hit the “end chat” option and to monitor your email or check status online for updates.

Yup, definitely the “smarter way to buy wireless.”

Update 3

The new phone is on its way (should arrive sometime Monday).  I hope it all works out with that one.  In the meantime, however, I just received my first new bill from Verizon.  Guess what I found?  An additional new feature called “VCast Video” was also added onto my phone line at a rate of $10/month.  Great job, LetsTalk.

I contacted LetsTalk since I’m worried about the clause in our contract saying that if I make any changes to my account that they’ll charge me for the discount they extended.  They said it was fine to work with Verizon and that they didn’t see any order for VCast Video.

Jaime M: Thanks for choosing Customer Support Chat!
When you are ready to disconnect, please click the END CHAT button at bottom left of this window.
Hello, Lisa Ehat. How can we provide assistance?

Lisa Ehat: Order _________
Lisa Ehat: Lisa Ehat
Lisa Ehat: 801-360-2361
Jaime M: My name is Jaime and I will be happy to assist you.
Lisa Ehat: 395 n 1060 w
Lisa Ehat: provo,ut 84601
Lisa Ehat: I just received my first bill from Verizon after the new phone/plan were activated
Jaime M: thank you, Lisa. This order was with verizon for an upgrade. is that correct?
Lisa Ehat: and it looks like VCast Video was also mistakenly added to the __________ phone line in addition to the new data plan.
Lisa Ehat: yes, that’s right
Jaime M: I do not show VCast on your order. You can contact verizon at 800-922-0204 and they should remove it for you
Lisa Ehat: I need to know whether to work with you or Verizon on that. I’m worried since I’ve heard that any changes on my account associated with that line within a certain time period (90 or 180 days?) will cause you to charge me since Verizon will withhold your commission
Lisa Ehat: If you can assure me that if I remove that feature through Verizon that you will not charge me, then I’m fine to contact Verizon.
Lisa Ehat: If you cannot assure me that, I’m going to assume you’ll need to take care of the issue.
Jaime M: We never put the VCast on your account, so it had no impact on the price of the phone
Lisa Ehat: But you do receive a commission from Verizon for the upgrade, correct?
Lisa Ehat: Is it true that changes to the account might cause Verizon to withhold that commission and then you’ll seek to charge me?
Jaime M: You will not be charged an equipment subsidy recovery fee for removing the vcast feature. That fee is if you deactivate the phone number or transfer financial liability
Jaime M: Yes, we receive a commission
Lisa Ehat: Okay, that sounds fine then. Since you’ve assured me that removing the feature will not cause any issues between you and me, I’ll work further with Verizon.
Lisa Ehat: Thank you for your help.
Jaime M: Yes, that is true, but only in certain instances. If, for example, you ordered an upgrade on the family 1400 plan and the price of the phone was free
Jaime M: but you called verizon and change the plan to family 700. If you placed the order on our site with the family 700 plan, the phone would have been 99.99
Jaime M: You’re welcome. Also, you would be charged if you had called verizon to activate your upgrade instead of having us do it
Lisa Ehat: Okay, sounds good. Thanks again.
Lisa Ehat: Have a nice day!
Jaime M: Thank you. Is there anything else that I can do for you?
Lisa Ehat: Nope, that’s it.
Jaime M: thank you for choosing online chat support. have a great day!

So I called Verizon and took the feature off.  They warned me about how it might affect things with my third party seller, but I told them I had written confirmation that it shouldn’t be an issue.  They confirmed to me that they don’t just add features onto accounts and that it had come through from LetsTalk….  I guess it’s now a waiting game to see if LetsTalk decides to try and charge me for their mistake.  If they do, I’ll give them a chance to make things right.  If they fail, I’ll have no problem disputing the charge on my credit card and letting them deal with my credit card company over the charge back.  I’ve got a written statement from them saying I should be in the clear and they would not charge me.

Update 4
Okay, the new phone arrived this evening. (A lot earlier than last time! Thanks, UPS!) I cleaned up the old phone, took some photos of its condition (you never know), and packaged it up to send it back. After booting up the new phone, I wasn’t able to activate it. I got online with LetsTalk chat support again and they told me to call Verizon’s activation department for help. That is actually a “no no” with third party phones, but I made sure I understood the rep right (and had it in writing) and called away. Turns out the number she gave me was for their own activation service. I guess “Verizon’s activation department” really should have been “one of our Verizon activation representatives.” No big deal, but I was really surprised at first that Verizon would be able to look up my LetsTalk order number. The first call didn’t get it resolved, but the representative was successful the second time around. The speaker on the new phone works great. I think I’ve finally got my working Galaxy Nexus about 38 days after ordering it.

LetsTalk didn’t send a prepaid FedEx label to ship the old phone back (which all their emails and packing label say to use), but it turns out it’s really easy to print the prepaid UPS label through their website. Just one last rough edge to the whole process, I guess. Now I just send the old one back (I hope they don’t just turn around and send it to someone else), watch for my credit, and never worry about dealing with LetsTalk again.

Ice Cream Sandwich

Very slick.  I’ve been using Gingerbread on my tablet (a little awkward since it’s primarily a phone OS) and ICS really does take Android to a new level of polish, unification (in UI, at least), and beauty.  As I use the UI there are times where I can’t help but smile at how well done some things are and the overall cleanness, beauty, and simplicity of the UI.  That’s the experience you want to give your users.  I do what I can at work to do that, and I’ve really started to expect it out of any product that proclaims or wants to be top-of-the line.  I think we’re at a point in our computing experience where there’s not much excuse any longer to get the simple things wrong.  We’re using so many different devices now that it’s time that more of what we do is simple and glitch-free.  It’s hard to do (I don’t always get it right at work), but it’s gotta be the goal.

I’ve had many of the core apps crash on me and other little glitches, but the experience is top notch in my opinion.  I’m not a big iOS user, but it’s certainly often been the top dog in clean and visually appealing interfaces.  Android has often been characterized as giving the user more control (or giving the option for greater customization) but with a bit less polished/beautiful UI.  Android 4, in my opinion, gives me both a beautiful UI and the customization/details I want.

The Hardware

My phone’s got an issue with the earpiece.  I dropped by the Galaxy Nexus area of Samsung’s booth at CES on Thursday and was glad to discover that it was just my phone.  I’ll have to work with LetsTalk to get it exchanged.  Since I already waited almost a month to get my backordered phone, I’m hoping that LetsTalk will upgrade my exchange process and send me a new phone before I send mine back.  I don’t want to be without a phone for a couple of weeks (not gonna just give away my money to Verizon for nothing).  They claim they’ve centered a lot of their business model on a great customer service experience, so let’s see if they pull through on that promise.

Anyways, back to the hardware.  The phone is surprisingly light.  It’s not too light, but lighter than you’d expect when you look at it.  It’s also big.  Almost too big (in my opinion), but I’ve gotten used to it.  I think it’ll spoil me and I won’t be able to use a phone with a smaller screen if that’s what’s offered in the future.

The screen is pretty awesome.  I’m still jealous of the HTC Rezound’s screen in some respects (no pentile matrix, more subpixels for the same resolution).  The hardware buttons are replaced with on screen buttons making the difference between the Rezound’s screen and the GNex’s screen less significant (since the Rezound has dedicated hardware buttons).  You’ll get the full screen on the Nexus when watching a video or doing a few other things, but that’s not a huge deal to me.  So in my book I might not go as far as to put it as the best screen out there,t it’s certainly one of the best and meets my pretty high standards.  I love high resolution screens–seeing the square edges pixels is a dying experience and this screen moves in the right direction.  (So did the experimental 8K TV I saw at Sharp’s booth at CES.  That thing was absolutely amazing.  I want it.  The no-glasses-needed 3D tech is a move in the wrong direction as far as resolution goes.  That’s the sacrifice, I guess.)

Battery Life

Not too good.  Even though it is a 4G phone and I knew to expect a lot less than my old dumb phone, I still expected more.  The first few days I’d see my battery drop throughout the day with very little usage with the 4G and WiFi on.  I’d give it about 8-10 hours with really light usage.  I’m testing more today to see how it fares with those same settings, but I’m not too impressed.  I’d expect that if I’m not using it, that it’d drop maybe 10% throughout an entire day (even with WiFi and 4G on).  Maybe 15-20%, but certainly not 80%.  Again, we’re at a point where I shouldn’t have to worry about turning on and off WiFi and toggling 3G/4G settings.  It should just work.  (Man, I’m sounding like I should be more of an Apple fan, since that’s how things often work over there to a certain extent.)

Yesterday I turned off the 4G and WiFi and things were much better.  I took a few videos, photos, made some short phone calls, used some of my apps, texted, and made the trip from Vegas to Provo.  The battery lasted from about 8 that morning until after I got home at around 9:30 that evening (with still around 15% battery life).  Not too shabby.  I didn’t listen to music or play games while I was traveling (which I would have wanted to do if I didn’t have my tablet handy).  If I had done that, I don’t think I would have made it.  The Droid Razr Maxx sounds like it will be pretty awesome with respects to battery life.  Google/Samsung take note.  We want that experience on our phones.

Some of the issues might be attributed to a bug in ICS that can be fixed up (the device often stays awake with the screen off for longer than it seems it should), so my experiences might get better with some software patches.  I hope so, because I don’t like feeling nervous that if I use my device now I won’t be able to later.  My tablet has spoiled me, I guess.  I can use that thing pretty heavily all day long and still end up with 40% at the end of the day.  15-20% if I’m really hard on it.

When I went to CES I took my GNex, HP Touchpad, and old dumb phone.  The GNex didn’t last all day unless I turned off WiFi and 4G.  The Touchpad went the whole trip without needing to be charged (I didn’t use it a ton, but it sat there with WiFi on and occasionally searching without huge battery drains).  I also used it for web browsing over a WiFi hotspot in my car on the way down and music and games on my way home and was still completely fine.  My dumb phone is sitting next to me as I begin the process of transferring my photos and other info off of it.  I last charged it Sunday night and used it about half the day Monday before my GNex arrived.  It’s now Saturday afternoon and the 3G’s been connected (well, as much as a deactivated phone gets connected) and it’s still got 50% battery left.  Why can’t my new smartphone be as smart at going to sleep and conserving power when I’m not using it?  Sure it’s got more going on, but it shouldn’t be doing that much more that it can hardly last a day even with light usage.  They’re both Samsung phones.  The Galaxy Nexus has a 1850mAh battery (upgradeable to a slightly larger 2100 mAh battery), while my old phone had a measly 960 mAh (and a 800 x 480 AMOLED pentile matrix screen–obviously less power hungry than the beautiful display on the Galaxy Nexus, but really an older version of the same technology).  You’d think the Galaxy Nexus would be much better than it is.

Overall

I like it a lot.  I hope that when I’m ready for an upgrade two years from now that there’s a similar phone with a large, non-pentile-matrix, high-res screen, much better battery life (4G’s already been out for over a year–gotta figure out how to make more efficient radios eventually, right?), and perhaps some other new gizmos.  I’ll stick with the Galaxy Nexus even if I do have to live with it as 3G only for the battery’s sake.

And back to the reviewers–I think the Touchpad got a very bad wrap.  I actually really, really like webOS.  There are a few things that do get in the way of a flawless experience, but it is in my opinion a well polished and thoughtful interface for a tablet.  I’ve been switching between Gingerbread and webOS recently, and it’s a hard choice.  webOS is the better tablet interface, but Gingerbread’s got some better software (and, I have to admit, is faster at web browsing, etc).  I’ve been using Ice Cream Sandwich on my new Galaxy Nexus, and it’s super slick.  I’ll probably be leaving webOS behind (with a bit of a sad feeling) when it’s available on the Touchpad.

Another thing I’ve always been impressed by (and even more so this week after getting my new smartphone) is the battery life.  Sure the device is thicker, but I’m more than happy to have a thicker device with great battery life than to have the battery size cut down, giving me a device that I worry about using too much (I want to use my gadgets!).  Sure some devices/companies manage to get the best of both (Apple’s great at this), but if you can’t get both, give me battery life–it’s more important.  A thin tablet or cell phone with a dead battery is just a beautiful piece of plastic, glass, and silicon chips.

Thanks to the active Android community and the active webOS community, I’m sure my Touchpad will live on for many years (even if its later life is simply as some sort of in car touchscreen or remote or something).

It just amazes me that Verizon thinks that customers don’t notice the extent Verizon goes to to extract every extra penny from customers. Here’s what I’ve seen (to name a few):

1. New “convenience fee”
2. Contract billing is actually prepaid. You charge me up front (month in advance) for the service I’m about to receive and then adjust it the next month if I go over my allowances. Good ol’ time value of money calculations at work, eh? I hope you get a better return that I would get.
3. Charges for automated processes just to become your customer. (Activation of extra phone lines purchased through a 3rd party.)
4. You don’t give any discount if I “bring my own phone”. You’d charge me the same monthly rate as you would if you subsidized my phone. The best economic decision? Let you subsidize my phone and lock me in for 2 years.
5. You’re blocking Google Wallet on the Galaxy Nexus because you’re planning on rolling out your own cell phone payment system. You’ve seen the model the credit and debit card companies have and want a slice of it. You’re just a little slower than Google, though, so you choose to block it so potential customers don’t get tied in to their service first. Nice one.
6. And, of course, any rant about a wireless carrier is incomplete without mentioning that they charge more for text messages than it costs NASA to receive data from space.

The fact that they call it a “convenience fee” is very revealing. It really is more convenient for me to pay with a debit card each month than having them take the money out of my bank account each month. I’ve been a customer for a little over two years and I’ve had a few too many incorrect bills to let them automatically take money out of my account. eCheck? No–that takes forever to post. If Verizon wants customers to use the methods that are cheaper for them, they need to make it worthwhile for customers to do so. A $2 fee on the more expensive methods will do that, but everyone knows what that means: more customers choose the cheaper option and Verizon saves money. Those that don’t pay $2 more. Net effect: customers pay more overall and Verizon takes in even more beyond that (less $$ going to the credit/debit card processors). That’s why if feels unfair to customers–they’re not getting any of the benefit of the cheaper payment methods while Verizon gets it all.

If Verizon did what a lot of gas stations did and gave discounts to those who paid with cheaper methods, people would be happy with the change. Why don’t they do this? Because they won’t get as much money that way. That’s why so many people these days feel corporations are greedy–everything’s calculated for their profit margin, not a symbiotic relationship where customers pay for a valued service and the company does its best to both earn a profit and please customers. In a free market, companies like Verizon would be replaced by those that actually do that. Unfortunately, our ability to utilize the radio spectrum efficiently is limited by our current technology, limiting the number of wireless service providers. We live with a world where we choose our cell phone provider from whichever member of the oligopoly has the best phone when we’re signing up. They all charge essentially the same price. When one prices goes up, they all do. When one member’s service is limited (think data caps), the rest soon follow.

Well, guess what Verizon (and AT&T, etc)? Someone’s going to “move your cheese”. Perhaps Google will come along and light up some of its fiber and roll out some WiMax using “white space” spectrum in some major cities and provide free calling using any Android device via Google Voice (connecting using Google Talk whenever possible to avoid the traditional telephone network). Perhaps more WiFi service providers like Republic Wireless will come along and take larger and larger chunks of your customer base. I don’t know exactly what it is, but your dominance will not last forever. Enjoy it while you can, but the next generation of purchases are a lot more informed, powerful, and less happy to pay large premiums for access to the net.

Google Wallet is different from other widely-available m-commerce services. Google Wallet does not simply access the operating system and basic hardware of our phones like thousands of other applications. Instead, in order to work as architected by Google, Google Wallet needs to be integrated into a new, secure and proprietary hardware element in our phones.

What do they mean “basic hardware”?  Is the NFC hardware too advanced to classify?  Why should Verizon even be worried about how Google’s app works on a phone developed by Samsung and Google running Google’s operating system?  Oh, I guess it’s “Verizon’s” phone somehow.  They put a logo on it, cripple it, and take much of the credit.  And the consumer is told to believe Verizon is doing what is best for the customer.  Yeah, right.  It’s all so Verizon can pocket more of the customer’s money through its own mobile payment system.

I guess I’ll have to vote with my wallet on this one, since I won’t be able to use my phone.

Copy protection’s not the only thing wrong with Bluray. These new menus are kinda sucky for the most part.  Just because I have an HDTV doesn’t mean you should give me much smaller text than before.  And what’s with these unskippable previews?  Whose television and device is it?  The movie might be your property licensed to me for my viewing, but it’s my TV.  Stop forcing unwanted extras on me.

It’s no wonder that adoption of Bluray is slower than Hollywood would like.  I’m starting to think that the mastering/quality of normal DVDs has been reduced in order to make Bluray  more attractive.  What a burden of a technology.  Steve Jobs killed Flash.  Hopefully his vision will continue on long enough to kill Bluray.

This article over at The Register points out that the system is vulnerable to jamming or message falsification since the specifications for the system are public knowledge.  Here’s a bit of how some of the system works (from Wikipedia):

More than thirty radio stations are designated as National Primary Stations in the Primary Entry Point (PEP) System to distribute Presidential messages to other broadcast stations and cable systems.

The FCC requires all broadcast stations and multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) to install and maintain FCC-certified EAS decoders and encoders at their control points or headends unless they have been been designated a non-participating station by the FCC. These decoders continuously monitor the signals from other nearby broadcast stations for EAS messages. For reliability, at least two source stations must be monitored, one of which must be a designated local primary.

Participating stations are required by federal law to relay EAN (Emergency Action Notification) and EAT (Emergency Action Termination) messages immediately (47 CFR Part 11.54).

Here in Utah, KSL radio is a primary station for the Utah Emergency Alert System.  I haven’t looked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a primary station for the national system, too.  Here’s how I could see the system being hacked: a malfeasor calls into the radio station and over the phone line while on the air plays the three tones that you hear at the beginning of the message that causes the automated systems on those listening to the primary station to cut programming and repeat the broadcast from the primary station.  This would effectively hijack the Emergency Alert System for a single market (or, in this case, the entire State of Utah).  Do this across the country and you can cause some massive chaos.

Where could you get the tones?  Well, there are quite a few recordings out there that have the tones.  They do actually differ (while sounding mostly the same to mere mortals), but some incidents with the system have had the system trigger even with some codes that shouldn’t have set it off.  Yesterday’s test just broadcast the nationwide, presidential alert tone to as many people in America as possible (so, yeah, it’s out there).  Even without all that, the standard is public knowledge, too.

If calling in is too hard, what if a terrorist were to drive to the transmitting point of one of these stations and managed to somehow swap the signal arriving at the tower from the broadcast origin with their own signal (turning the tower into broadcasting their own content instead of the station’s content)?

Could this really work?  Perhaps the radio station could cut the caller off after the three tones were issued, but that could still cause the other stations listening in to go off the air.  See this:

On October 19, 2008 KWVE-FM of San Clemente, California was scheduled to conduct a Required Weekly Test; however, it conducted a Required Monthly Test by mistake, causing all stations and cable systems in the immediate area to relay the test. In addition, the operator aborted the test midway through, leading the station to fail to broadcast the SAME EOM burst to end the test, causing all area outlets to broadcast KWVE-FM’s programming until those stations took their equipment offline. On September 15, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission fined its licensee, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, $5000 for the botched EAS test. After the fine was levied, various state broadcast associations in the United States submitted joint letters to the FCC, protesting against the fine, saying that the FCC could have handled the matter better. On November 13, 2009, the FCC rescinded its fine against KWVE-FM, but had still admonished the station for broadcasting an unauthorized RMT, as well as omitting the code to end the test.

So the terrorist might be able to get the other stations off the air, but probably not get an audio message out (at least through the call-in method).  Those first three tones, however, contain encoded within them the message that scrolls across the screens of television stations.  Even with the call-in method, the operators at the radio station might not identify the source of the sounds as being from the caller and allow the entire fake transmission to take place (and be automatically repeated on the other stations listening in).

Certainly scary.  Seems like a system that operated over the Internet (designed to last through a nuclear attack) and contained proper authentication and authorization mechanisms would be more reliable and capable (video streams, perhaps).  Imagine if the most popular websites were required to deliver a special webpage upon receipt of proper messages from the authorized issuer.  That would make the message even more accessible.  Perhaps the message could be sent out over the cellular networks as well, prompting a text message (or similar) alert to appear on cell phones all across the country.

Not convinced the system is fragile?  Check out these other stories of incidents with the system on Wikipedia.  One story there describes an ARCO commercial that triggered the system to activate in some areas.  The commercial contained a sped up version of the audio headers (with the pitch also changed) for the alert system that still triggered the systems.  You can read more about that (and listen to the original, pretty funny recording) here.

I’ve been eligible for a phone upgrade since July (more about that later), but I’ve been holding out since I had figured a new iPhone was on the way soon. Along the way, I heard about the Samsung Galaxy Nexus (or Nexus Prime as I knew it for a while) and figured that I’d have to wait and see whether a Google dev phone would be the way to go. Well, it’s October and I still haven’t made up my mind (and the Galaxy Nexus still isn’t out/have a US release date announced).

While I don’t have my mind made up 100%, I’ve had a bit of help over the last couple of days. First was reading a bit more about the display of the Galaxy Nexus (it’s a Pentile display, which I happen to have on my current phone–again, more on this later). Second was the Android support history chart. Both are detractors for the Android route. Here’s why:

Pentile Display

This one is a bit of a mixed bag for me. The idea behind a Pentile display is to use a different arrangement of subpixels on the display instead of the typical red, green, and blue tri-stripe square arrangement that has been used for quite a while. There are plenty of valid arguments on both sides, but in my mind it boils down to this: Pentile displays share subpixels when reproducing the pixel data as stores in an image file.

Here’s what I mean: a pixel is a small square with a specified color/intensity that represents one small portion of a larger image. On a normal RGB stripe display, that one pixel is reproduced using three sub-pixels. On a Pentile display, a set of several pixels is reproduced using a smaller set of sub-pixels than would be used on an RGB stripe display (with some of the sub-pixels being shared and used for more than one of the underlying pixels).  In theory, it shouldn’t really matter since the pixels are so small that you’re eye won’t really tell the diference (I mean I can’t usually see the three separate stripes that make up a single pixel on the RGB stripe display I’ve got on my desktop).

My current phone (a Samsung Rogue) has a Pentile AMOLED display. I’ve always noticed there was something different about it. I saw rainbow type artifacts on white, and a few other things that were a bit unusual to my eyes, such as how the edges of straight lines (white on black) aren’t actually straight like on a normal RGB stripe display. I have noticed how images seem to often have a grainy look to them (almost like increased JPEG artifacts). I had figured that was just a result of the phone possibly having a cheap display, having a first version of a new technology, or that there were oils on the screen, until I saw a comparison image and realized that what I was seeing was a natural effect of the pixel layout.

All things, considered, I’ll just have to see it in action when it arrives–that’s the best bet.  I think I’m a little unusual on the things I do notice and which of those things bug me, so I’ll just have to see it compared to the other phones in the store.

Android Update History

This graph says it all:

In general, if you bought an Android phone in the past, you had little hope of being current for more than a few months.  You had a good chance to still be under contract with a phone running an older version of its OS.  Not a huge deal (how long should manufacturers give you free updates to better software), but it’s concerning when you think of the unpactched security vulnerabilities you’re potentially going to be living with.  Verizon has good coverage, but I don’t want to be waiting on them to approve an update Google has already finished to keep my info safe.

I was going to send Verizon an email through their website to ask if they had any idea if this would be better going forward (since if I buy a phone from them and they’ve made sure it’s locked down and I’m at their mercy for updates, I assume they should be the ones held responsible).  Unfortunately, Verizon’s “Contact Us” links lead to only one direction: search the FAQs.  Real helpful.  Thanks.  ”Contact Us” doesn’t mean what it used to….

Netflix’s strategy is surely to change what it has been into what it wants to become. Some say that it wants to be bought out by Amazon. It could be that, or it could be that the two business models are different enough that it simply makes sense to manage the two separately. In the end, it seems like the things that are similar about the two services are that they both revolve around recommending and allowing people to watch movies they like. The distribution methods are different. The licensing of movies for these two distribution methods is surely different. Perhaps having seen the changes in the market over the last decade or two (remember Blockbuster?), Netflix is trying to allow itself to keep its sights on what it feels is the more developing market (as opposed to a dying market for physical copies of videos–no matter the distribution method).

Apple seems to think that physical medium is becoming dated. For example, OS X Lion was distributed only as a download, and their computers don’t include Blu Ray drives (for perhaps other reasons, as well). Netflix surely wants to grow, and perhaps it feels that this is the best way to focus on what it needs to do to survive. In the old days, if a movie wasn’t available for streaming, you would just fall back to a physical disc. Without being able to provide that option to consumers, Netflix will be forced to negotiate even harder for the licenses it needs to distribute as much of the content people want as it can. It’s trying to focus even more directly on its chosen strategy. The risk for Netflix, however, is the power its suppliers have over it. It needs the content or it has no business. The suppliers seem to feel pretty comfortable with physical media and pay-per-view models.