One of the 1st things those of us who were upgrading from the iPad to the iPad 2 and had been grandfathered into an unlimited data plan wanted to know was how to transfer that unlimited data plan over to the iPad 2? AT&T setup this website allowing you to make the switch very easily. However, I recently found a reason to keep using that site. I gave my sister an iPad as a Chrismas gift and I also pay for her data plan. I recently wanted to switch to a different credit card for the montly billing. Although I was going to see her in the next few days and remind her to bring her iPad, I wondered if I could do it from the web? The answer is yes. 

From this same site you can log in with the same email address and password that you used to setup your 3G account directly on your iPad and change your billing info, upgrade/downgrade your plan, add international roaming, and see your usage history. While it's great to be able to do this directly on the iPad, I actually prefer to do it on the web if for no other reason than I can have the site or 1Password remember my login credentials. On the iPad you have to key in your email address and password each time.

Keep this site handy for when you upgrade to your iPad 3

Yesterday you read Jack's blog of Netflix's greed. Now, let's take a look at AT&T's latest contribution to the same topic.

I still have a land line phone, which may not be the case in the very near future. But, I noticed a new charge on my phone bill this past month, so I called Customer Service to get to the bottom of it.

I doubt this new charge is Calling Plan based because it is a total win, win for AT&T. It seems that new surcharge has been added to a service that previously has been free. What service might that be? The ability to have long distance service on your AT&T land line.

A new surcharge of $1.99 has been instituted and of course with this new charge, the government is going to tack on their fee or fees. So, this $1.99 charge gets boosted up to just under $5 by the time it's due to be paid.

And, if I understood correctly, this new surcharge covers the first $1.99 of any long distance charges that you do incur during the month. Woo hoo! A whole $1.99.

Now, if you see where this is leading please raise your hand. While (this introductory fee, my words, of) $1.99 doesn't seem like much to start, I bet it will continue to go higher and higher and soon won't count toward anything except removing more money from your wallet.

So, what if I don't want the ability to make long distance calls (anything over 15 miles away is considered long distance) on my land line phone plan? What then? Well Missy, it will cost you over $10.00 to remove the service.

Now, the ability to remove/restrict long distance service from a land line has always been an option, and yes at the above mentioned fee. But, if the service was previously fee-less (something AT&T loved to stress), as long as no long distance calls were made to incur long distance charges, why would millions of customers remove it and incur the removal fee?

Did you see the word millions in the last sentence? Hence, for a feature that AT&T previously loved stress to you as free and freely gave to you so that you might just make that long distance call to incur charges, you now are subject to their reverse (gotcha) generosity. Either way, pay up.

:::

iPad 2 shipping times in the US are 2-3 weeks, and a few people are still lining up early at Apple stores hoping to get one of the few that come in every day.

But do you need an iPad 2? (Of course, does anyone "need" an iPad? We're going to assume you at least want one at this point.) Here's the latest Apple ad for the iPad 2 (go ahead and watch if you haven't already seen it, it's only 30 seconds):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2LLSrlKr3c

I'd say that if you don't need the cameras, and you're not a hard-core mobile gamer, you can probably get by just fine with the original iPad. Apple actually made that point above! It's not about specs – it's about usability. If you don't need the speed (yes, the graphics are supposed to be much faster, but I don't do hardcore games) or the cameras, and you can live with the fact that it's slightly heavier (very slightly), you may be a candidate for an iPad 1.

I've seen them on Woot.com in the past few days, and AT&T will sell you a 64GB +3G model for $529 (and free shipping!). You have no commitment to AT&T – you never have to turn on the 3G, but you'll have the option, plus the real GPS that's not in the WiFi only model.

My iPad 2 came a little over a week ago, and yes, it's faster – but not so much that I'm blown away by it. I haven't even tried FaceTime yet, and I've only checked that the cameras work. My wife wanted an iPad, so she has my old one (and here's a tip – if you activate your account at an AT&T store or on the phone, they'll give you the first month free! Just turn it off after a month or 2 GB, whichever comes first, if you don't want to pay anymore). But the more I use this one, the more I realize I could just as easily have picked up the $529 model and been very happy.

It won't be around forever. Unless you need one of the iPad 2 exclusive features, you should at least think about picking up an iPad 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju9yFA1S7K8

I, for one, hope CHEAPER RATES AND BETTER SERVICE.

There are rumors going around that AT&T has the worst customer service of all wireless U.S. carriers. Oh, excuse me, that's not a rumor, but a recent Consumer Reports documented reality.

"AT&T is the lowest-scoring cell-phone carrier
in the U.S., according to a satisfaction survey
of 58,000 ConsumerReports.org readers."

AT&T has been able to treat iPhone customers any way they please, charging what they please, because they were the only game in town. Competition may now just change some of these attitudes and as well as rates. (We can hope, can't we?)

The rumors, outlined in this WSJ article, are that AT&T is quietly appeasing threatening to leave customers singed about Verizon offering an unlimited data plan for $30; something that used to be an AT&T customer reality.

Competition is good and whether it's Verizon or whomever, I'm happy to see another carrier in the iPhone mix.

Sticker shock and micro managing your minutes and data shouldn't be the reality of your iPhone bill; should it?

Let the competition begin!

AT&T has an extensive network of WiFi hot spots in places like McDonald's all over the country. If you have an AT&T account for your iPhone or iPad, you can use these hot spots for free (and in McDonald's they're free for everyone).  This wasn't always the case – but as AT&T saw how overwhelmed their cell data network was, they decided it might be a good idea to open up their WiFi network to take the load off their cell cloud.

Don't be fooled by the siren song of WiFi, however, especially when buying an iPad, If you think you'll travel a lot (at least in the US) with one, consider very carefully whether or not to buy a 3G model. I'm glad I have the 3G and not WiFi only.

On a recent trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, I stopped several times at places with free WiFi, some of them AT&T's WiFi at McDonald's, some at other places, like Panera Bread, that had non-AT&T free WiFi. However, for some reason they blocked IMAP port 993 – the port you're supposed to use for encrypted iMAP email. You can also use port 143, but I shouldn't need to reconfigure my device from a simple standard like the IMAP encrypted port. Why on earth that was blocked I'll never know, but I think it did me a favor. I decided to use the WiFi for web browsing, and it was excruciatingly slow – so slow that I switched back to 3G data (figuring if it was going to be slow I might as well get mail too) and got a huge speed increase!

What was also annoying was my standard trick for getting around silly firewall rules like that one is to open a VPN connection to my server. But the VPN ports were blocked too!

The hotel was a joke as well – I heard a rumor that they were set up for 250 people on their wireless network. I don't know if it was true or not,  but there were over 1500 people at this convention, and many of them had laptops and smart phones. I do know that when I got a signal, I frequently couldn't get an IP address for 10-20 minutes at a time (and sometimes I just gave up after 20 minutes). This wasn't a problem for my iPhone and iPad – I left them on 3G data. But my MacBook Pro only has WiFi. I only really needed the MBP for a few emails (with PDFs that the iPad/iPhone won't display correctly) and to connect into work (it's easier to remote control the programs I need to run with a real mouse). At least the VPN worked at the hotel (when I could get a signal and an IP address, which was usually very late or very early in the morning), because they too blocked port 993.

So before you think you can travel with your iPad and won't need 3G data, you might want to think again. WiFi done poorly is much worse than 3G data!

Anybody else finding that their actually better of on the overloaded 3G network rather than public WiFi?

Apple made their case on July 16th (like it or not) during their press conference about the iPhone 4's reception problems that some users are having. They offered their explanation and theories backed by their research data, FREE iPhone 4 cases (order your FREE iPhone 4 Case using Apple's FREE App here from )and a no restocking fee return policy. In my opinion that should be the end of it. Either you want an iPhone 4 or you don't. If you got one and it's not working for you, take it back. What more could you ask for? Yet they (Apple) insist upon continuing to fuel this (in their own words "blown out of proportion story") by posting NEW videos regularly to Apple.com/antenna on how other manufacturer's phones lose signal when you hold them too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJG7pbSRvJ8

In my opinion this is a MISTAKE. Apple just LET IT GO!

Your motto/stance should not be "look, see the other guys lose signal too. Their phones are just as bad as ours."

The real problem – It's not about the bars!

My take on the whole signal loss/bars display thing is that the only time someone even bothers to look at the number of bars they have is either when they drop a call or can't make one. The "death grip" as it has been called means that someone holds a phone in a fairly natural way (not as tightly Apple demonstrates in some of their videos) up to their face and they talk. If the call drops they then pull the phone down and look to see why. That's the "real problem" and not the number of bars. Saying that other companies lose bars too is not really telling the whole story (and it's one that no one is arguing). I know that Apple says with numbers to back it up that the iPhone 4 doesn't drop that many calls. However, it does drop more calls (by their own admission) than the previous iPhone 3GS. Even if it's by a small percentage, it does drop more.

Prior to the iPhone 4, when was the last time you looked at or cared about the number of bars on the display of your phone? It comes down to you can either make calls reliably or you can't!

Apple if you want to impress me about how the iPhone 4 holds up against the competition then make videos of someone holding all the various phones the same way while on calls in real world environments (outside, inside, on a train, etc.) and not just in your testing labs where the conditions are optimal.

As far as your customers are concerned it doesn't matter what the other phones do or don't do when you hold them. It matters what YOUR iPhone 4 does and whether or not the call will drop? According to AT&T out of their recent 3.2 million iPhone activations only 27% (yes, a very nice number) were NEW accounts. This means to me that a large number of iPhone 4 owners are upgrading from previous iPhone models and that's what they are comparing the iPhone 4 to. Not your competitors.  iPhone 4 users are using their iPhones the same way that they did with their iPhone 3G/3GS case or no case and expect to have the same if not better call quality. Speaking of AT&T, it appears that 73% of iPhone users are VERY SATISFIED with AT&T. Wow! So apparently we can't blame them for everything.

I would also dare to say that a large number of perceived dropped calls that some people are experiencing is due to proximity sensor issues "FaceDialing" if you will. If you were to fix that issue as fast as you fixed the cosmetic signal display issue, you might have less people complaining. 

As an iPhone 4 user overall, I'm happy. I don't need for you to continue to show me how every other phone loses bars when you hold it. I do care about not dropping calls. Spend that time and energy improving your own products.

Here are 3 hot issues affecting some of your iPhone 4 users:

Proximity Sensor

Camera White Balance

Bluetooth Sound Quality/Disconnects

I'm sure they would appreciate these issues being addressed much more over another video of another phone dropping signal.

UPDATE 8/1/2010: It's redeeming to see that Apple pulled down the videos from their Antenna Page. I guess I wasn't too wrong after all

On a lighter note…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7BbEkgujzk

Each year when a New iPhone rolls out, I have upgraded. Of course that means signing on for another 2 year contract and I agree to the terms and all is good. However, one thing that has always bugged me is what if you don't upgrade? Shouldn't you then be able to head into an AT&T store and have your iPhone "officially" unlocked after the 2 year commitment has been satisfied. This is certainly not uncommon for users to want the flexibility of using different SIM cards when they travel abroad or use pre-paid SIM cards when it makes sense to do so. Also you can do it with other AT&T phones. Alas, the iPhone is different. We agreed to this when we signed on. Your iPhone is forever (at least for 5 years) locked to AT&T even after you've paid for it. This is the case even if you walk in to an AT&T/Apple store and drop $500-$600 for a contract free version! While you're under no obligation to have a contract and can cancel your service whenever you like, your device is still locked to AT&T! Yet this is not the case in many other countries. For example, in both Canada and the UK, you can pay full price for an iPhone 4 and it will be UNLOCKED out of the box. Drop in any carriers MicroSIM card and away you go. It will be great when the day comes that the iPhone is on more than one carrier here in the US. Hopefully we'll see the end to this monopolistic practice. At least the good news is we're nearing the end of this 5 Year Deal. Right? Please say "yes".

Last week Apple started taking pre-orders of the iPhone 4 and in case you haven't heard, there were problems. Both Apple and AT&T had server overloads, which caused both sites to go down multiple times throughout the day. Nevertheless all iPhone 4 pre-order quantities sold out to the tune of 600,000+ units. Certainly nothing the sneeze at and considering all the problems people had (including myself), this was AT&T single busiest day. I have a theory on why there were so many more orders this time than there were last year with the 3GS. Actually it's quite simple. It's called a TWO YEAR CONTRACT. I would dare say that a large number of iPhone 4 "upgraders" were either on iPhone 3G's or the original iPhone. Those contracts were up this year (and last), so anyone that bought a 3G two years ago is eligible for the subsidized prices of $199 (16GB) and $299 (32GB). Although AT&T gave a little this year by letting anyone whose contract was up this year upgrade now, I still had one iPhone 3GS on my family plan that wasn't eligible to upgrade until February 2011. 

Did you pre-order an iPhone 4?

So what's new in iOS 4?

Even if you don't plan on buying a new iPhone 4, if you're on an iPhone 3G or 3GS you can upgrade today (at some point when Apple makes it available via iTunes) to iOS 4. Apple is boasting about the 100 new features/tweaks in iOS 4 and quite honestly there are FIVE that I'm really looking forward to:

1) Folders for Apps

Currently I have the max of 11 pages of Apps on my iPhone 3GS. It's really a pain trying to get to an App that I want to run. I either have to scroll multiple pages or enter the name of it in the search. Folders will help me quite a bit because I'll be able to group Apps that I want to run by categories of my choosing. This will not only help me organize, but it will greatly reduce the number of App screens I need. It will also mean being able to install AND see up to 2,160 Apps! Don't worry, I don't plan to install anywhere near that many, but it's nice to know that I can now.

2) Mail gets a unified InBox

This has been a complaint of mine since the original  iPhone in 2007. I have a few email accounts on my iPhone for both work and personal. I have always wanted a single view of all new messages. Now iOS 4's Mail will finally do this! Yay! 

3) Multitasking

iOS 4 will deliver Multitasking (in a limited form) to the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4. Apple made a compromise to protect battery life and performance by only allowing certain things from 3rd party Apps to run in the background. The good news is that this will be all the multitasking that the vast majority of users need. For example, you'll be able to have audio from Pandora play while you're running other Apps. You'll be able to use a GPS navigation App like Navigon and take an incoming call while still receiving voice prompts (see it in action here) and Apps will be able to update you with a message when a background process is complete like uploading a photo. 

4) Only the Calendars I want to See

Just like I have multiple email accounts, I also have multiple calendars on my iPhone. Some of these are shared calendars. Some are work and some are personal. In iPhone OS 3.x it's either all or nothing. You either see ALL of your calendars or none of them. When the iPad shipped I noticed the ability to turn on and off specific calendars so that you can have one unified view of just the calendars you want to see. That same calendar goodness is coming to the iPhone in iOS 4

5) Zoom and Focus

Lastly I'm looking forward to having a native 5x digital Zoom for photos and a tap to focus for Video. Although there are many apps out there on the App store that let you zoom, it will be so nice to have this built-in to the default Camera app.

More iOS 4 Features

I normally do a blog post walking my readers through the new features, however I found this one to be so comprehensive that I may pass on doing my own this time. Check it out here.

Also check out BestAppSite.com 

Your source for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch App news and reviews. 

www.bestappsite.com

Yes, I will be updating the iPhone Book with all the iOS 4 and iPhone 4 goodies

Pre-order yours today.

Another iPhone opening sales, day, another disaster, brought to you by AT&T and Apple. If you tried to pre-order an iPhone yesterday, then you know what I'm talking about.

I got to enjoy the full monty of this Keystone Kops performance. I was upgrading my iPhone 3G and my wife's phone. As these are upgrades, Apple checks with AT&T to see if you qualify for the lowest pricing. Apparently, AT&T's hamster was on life support, because they would respond only once out of every 10-15 attempts (and yeah, I made a lot of attempts!). You'd see a screen saying Apple was checking with AT&T and then you'd often get told that Apple couldn't connect. It only took me from 6 AM to 7:30 PM, trying most of that time to get through.

For those not upgrading, it supposedly was a bit easier, as there was no need to contact AT&T. But that didn't mean you were out of the woods. In those rare occasions when I would get past the AT&T servers, Apple's servers would then time out on the next screen while "processing." I even got to the point where I got an "add to cart" button before it crapped out.

Now, I've been on the other end of this situation – trying to keep overwhelmed servers from outright dying and at least getting some of the transactions through, so I feel for the guys running the equipment. But you'd think that neither of these companies had done this before. What's also is scary is thinking about the 24th, when all those phones go online – will AT&T be overwhelmed again as we try and activate all these phones? It's not like that hasn't already happened in the past.

Nearly lost in all the grumbling was the unveiling of the new MacMini. This looks like a nice machine – even shorter, with the power brick gone (I hate those things!) and HDMI and an SD card reader added. Unfortunately, the price also went up $100 (to $699 for the low end), but Apple finally made the Mini easy to crack open. The bottom opens up so that you can easily add memory (not sure it will help much with changing out the hard drive, though).  So you can put away the putty knives (at last!).

Poor Mini gets no love. Brought out the same day as the new iPhone and with the ordering fiasco, I wonder how many will even remember it got updated.

With all the excitement of the new iPhone 4 announcement, some of you may not have noticed an announcement by AT&T regarding new pricing for data plans. If you are buying your first iPhone, you can no longer get unlimited data for $30 a month. Instead, you can get 200 MB for $15 or 2 GB for $25. If you run over on the 2 GB plan, you automatically get another 1 GB for $10 (which doesn't seem too bad to me). If you already have an iPhone and upgrade, you can keep your $30/month unlimited plan or switch to one of the new plans (but you can't switch back).

AT&T claims 98% of users never use more than 2 GB a month. I checked my usage, and with 3 days to go, I've used 1.2 GB (and I use my iPhone a lot, but not as much as I used to since I got my iPad). However, my wife, who uses hers for email (and she gets a fraction of what I do) and some web surfing, but almost never YouTube or other video, uses over 300 MB a month. So I can't see who will get by with only 200 MB if she can't. I nearly did it with the iPad before going on the road, but I usually use my iPad where there's WiFi available (still, I'm pretty glad I picked up the 3G model – watched some more Tiger games while on the road).

New users will have to choose one of the two new plans – AT&T will send you warnings as you get near your thresholds. They won't get a choice of the unlimited plan.

So what would make me consider changing plans?

Tethering.

Tethering, that elusive feature that AT&T has been promising for two years, is finally available for the iPhone – but only if you go with the 2GB/month plan (and it's an extra $20/month to consume the same data you would have on your iPhone – I don't see where you get any extra data). Tethering has been available for Blackberries and other phones for many years already for $30/month (for 5 GB of data).

I've been whining to AT&T every time they send me a survey begging for tethering, but now I have to think about it. With Netflix coming to the iPhone, and my iPad now with 3G data, I may be able to finally get by without it. Sure, it would be great to tether my MacBook Pro to the 'net – but if I'm someplace I can tether, I can use my iPad. And since I can remote into my home system (and soon my work system) and work from there, tethering is less of an issue for me than it was before the iPad.

So I need to think about it and check how often I need to tether in the future. I would have been happy to pay the extra $30/month to add tethering to my old plan, but I'm leery of losing my unlimited data plan. Heck, I'm still grandfathered in on an AT&T Family Talk plan that's $10 a month cheaper than any plan they offer today (and while it offers less minutes, I routinely lose 300-400 "rollover" minutes a month anyway).