Tag: 411

Let’s Bundle Up

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog2 Comments

We have had DSL with our phone company for the last 9 years and I’ve been very happy with it but it is just getting too expensive for me to have to keep paying for.  The phone services weren’t that bad but when they charge you $10 for making a couple 411 calls then it’s bad.

I was paying about $75 a month for phone and DSL and I am paying $117 a month for our cable.  The cable company has a bundle special which is $115 for all 3 services, although we’re not canceling all of our cable services so that price is just a bit higher.  Our new cable bill will be $150 a month which is about $40 less than I pay now for the cable and phone bill together.

The Bright House technician came to the house today and installed the phone and the internet.  Before he left everything was working but then Darrin went to make a phone call and the phone was buzzing.  No good!  I tried plugging the cable modem into the router and I didn’t have any wi-fi NO GOOD!

I went to walk the dog and there was a man standing on our lawn with a clipboard and he freaked me out at first until I realized he was from Bright House.  He was a supervisor checking up on the work the technician did and he said it wasn’t good.  He had the tech come back out and fix some things that weren’t right and got everything back to normal.

It took forever to get the wi-fi working, he refused to help me with it because he was afraid I would blame him if something went wrong with my router lol.  Ok I don’t blame him I guess but I mean, what good is getting cable internet if I can only go online with my desktop?

He had to put a new cable in from the pole to the house and that is what made the wi-fi work.  Although, I was having issues with my Chromebook losing connection at least 4 times tonight after that.  I had really high security settings so I had to bring it down a notch and then it was ok.  Another couple of issues and it’s fine (I hope I didn’t jinx it).

It’s supposed to be really fast.  Our DSL was only 4mbps but our cable internet is now 7mbps so that’s a bit faster than before.  It’s something I guess.

I don’t know if the upload speed is good though.  You tell me!  I don’t really upload too many things, I just tweet and blog that’s all lol.  The grade is C- and it says it’s slower than 59% of the rest of the united states which sucks hard but like I said, I was on 4mbps and it’s faster than before so bite me.  I’m very happy with what we have, I’m especially happy about our jump in speed.

Reboost

On By Michel McDonaldIn AdLeave a comment

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Boost Mobile. All opinions are 100% mine.

Communication is the most important thing these days whether it be for work or play. Everyone needs a cell phone for one reason or another. They have to have that constant connection. I remember when cell phones were too expensive for the common folk, you only had one if you were a doctor, lawyer or just plain old rich. Gone are the days that you had to worry about price because now it’s inexpensive for everyone.

Boost Mobile has unlimited monthly plans starting at $50 which include nationwide calling, text, web, multi-media (image, audio and video), email, 411, call waiting/forwarding, voicemail, long distance and a nationwide network. $60 for the Blackberry monthly unlimited plan.

Boost Mobile phones/plans are social in nature since you can tweet and send Facebook updates from your cell phone for one price per month. I see people tweeting from their mobile phones all the time when I’m on TweetDeck and I know it’s because they’re all taking advantage of tweeting on the go. You can tweet and leave a Facebook update where you are along with pictures.

What I like about Boost Mobile is that there are no contracts. You aren’t subject to any fees if you decide to cancel your account unlike other cell phone companies who charge you hundreds to get out early before your year is up.

They have daily plans too so if you know you aren’t going to use your cell phone you can pay as you go. They have Daily Unlimited for $2 or Blackberry Daily Unlimited which is $3. Or you can go Pay as you go which means you pay for every phone call, every text etc. That option is great if you hardly ever use your phone like me.

They have Re-Boost, a great way to pay for your account. You can pay in person, online or by phone with your debit or credit card. Or if you need help paying then someone can put funds into your account on the website with their credit card. I’m sure college students need their parents to help them out with that every so often or maybe every month.

Activation is easy, they have great replenishment options, phone features and extra options. I personally like the Samsung Seek. It has a big screen and you turn it on its side and flip out the keyboard and you can start typing. It’s not as fancy as a Blackberry but it’s cool in my opinion.

Microsoft and Yahoo Vs. Google

On By Michel McDonaldIn NewsLeave a comment

I saw on Fox News this morning that Microsoft and Yahoo are going to merge and Yahoo will start using Microsoft’s Bing search engine.  I don’t know why.  Anyway, they said that Google has been kicking Yahoo’s ass in the search engine department so MS and Yahoo are going to combine to kick Google’s ass.

Shep on Fox said that Bing seems to be a way better search engine but I don’t know about that.  I just did a Bing search for my name “Xanapus” and it didn’t seem that special to me.  It has a pop up on the right side of each item that shows you whats in there but who really cares about that?  It’s not a little mini image of the page, its text.  I don’t see how it’s better than Google personally.

Also, a few nights ago we went to visit friends of ours and when I went to look up the directions I opened Windows Live Mail (which I find easier than Outlook Express) and opened up the address book to copy the address to paste in Google maps but the address was a link so I clicked it and up came Bing Map.  After awhile trying to figure out just how I was supposed to get directions to that address I finally printed the directions with a map.  Well, those directions got us lost because they put us somewhere else.  They told us to turn left when we were supposed to go to another street 2 streets up on the right.  We ended up having to call to find out which street to go to and found out right and not left.

Google in my opinion is way better for search engines and for maps.  I’m probably not going to change.  There are some aspects of Google I don’t care for like Google Chrome browser because it doesn’t give me my Yahoo toolbar.  I’m kinda sorta looking forward to Google Chrome OS only because of the claim that it starts up faster than Windows but we will see if I can still use my Windows software since it will be Linux-based.  One service of Google’s that I do love is their free 1-800-GOOG-411.

Good luck Microsoft and Yahoo.

Google 911?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Recently I asked a Rhapsody question and got a response within 24 hours on my own blog straight from the horse’s mouth.  So… now I want to ask a question for Google.

This year I found out that Google had come out with 1-800-GOOG-411 to make free 411 calls.  Their service is so amazing, you call and it asks you business name, city and state.  You say like pizza hut Bakersfield california and it automatically came up with a pizza hut on Stockdale hwy and said that it would connect me now or if I needed more listings to say so.  Awesome!  411 calls are outrageously expensive being that you get 3 free 411 calls per month but after that it’s $1 per 411 call.  Thanks google.

But how about this?  I’m thinking about canceling my home phone service and buying one of the new Nokia Skype phones from Skype.com because it’s only $3 a month for unlimited local and long distance calls.  I already got my goog 411 so now what about 911?  Skype doesn’t offer 911 like Vonage does so how bout it google?  Are you going to ever offer that?

Google is a great company, I’m sure they can come up with an automated 911 service that asks you what your emergency is and you just tell the computer and then it asks you if you need a cop, fireman or ambulance and then it dispatches those services without needing to talk to an operator.  Or they could give you the option to be connected to the actual 911 in your city.

The phone company isn’t going to last much longer thanks to internet calling like Skype and Vonage so if landlines are gone forever (sorry ma bell) then we need a 911 replacement.