So over the past couple years I have been paying around 110-125 a month for my cable services (TV and Internet). But today that has all changed. I called them up and was looking at dropping just the digital and DVR feature to try and see how much that would save me and that was a whopping 5 dollars even though my bill shows me paying 10 for the hardware rental alone…. Gotta love their bundling rip offs to get you to pay more.

So… that info didn’t make me happy to hear, so instead I decided to down grade both my TV and Internet.I changed back to the standard RoadRunner and Basic TV (total of 24 channels woot woot).

This new package has brought my bill down to 50 dollars a month saving me 75 bucks a month! 75 bucks a month!!! So with that 75 extra in my cash each month I am going to be adding Hulu Plus to my month bill it’s only 7.99/mo and that with my already Netflix access I’m almost good to go.

I already have the Apple TV (2nd gen), which gives me a great Netflix experience along with access to my already decent size media library and worst case iTunes Rental access. Now, I just have to find the best method to access Hulu Plus. My first thoughts are a Roku box, but I am also very tempted to get a PS3 so I’d have a blue-ray player too, but after a few months of the $75 dollars savings. I will be able to justify either of these options and until then I have my laptop with a display port to HDMI output for the TV.

So today I say goodbye to my crazily overpriced TWC bill and it feels really really good.

After spending the last 3+ years with an amazing iPhones and a horrible service I am finally switching back to Verizon. I have suffered with AT&T and had way too many important missed and dropped calls to continue dealing with the headaches.

So am I switching to android? No in this lifetime…

My hope/dream is that Steve Job is so annoyed with all the Android numbers that he will actually release the iPhone for Verizon in January, instead of holding off till the normal June/July release schedule. However, if not my goal is to buy a feature (“dumb”) phone and a MiFi card and continue using my current iPhone 4 for all the great things it does well, without the horrible AT&T coverage issues.

Apple’s Reasoning:

“Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.”

So Apple is saying that it’s not the antenna fault it’s just that the formula to display the bars for the signal is wrong and displaying 2 bars too many. Really, Apple Really?

Obviously, there is more to this cause otherwise I wouldn’t be able to make a call at all when I only had 1 or 2 bars. I really can’t see Apple being this stupid to have the formula wrong. Personally I wonder if they did it on purpose to try and make AT&T’s coverage look better. Think about it as long as the phone can get 2 bars of coverage and you know the call will work why not show 4 bars and make it look like the coverage is better, It’s a pretty simple coding method to do something like this and to do it when the coverage is more than 2 bars.

Don’t get me wrong I still love my apple products and my iPhone 4, but I still think there is more to this story.

After 2 weeks with no iPhone it will all be worth it tomorrow. I got an email from Apple this morning sating that the phone will be delivered tomorrow. Can I just tell you how happy I am I have been going crazy without my iPhone I feel so unproductive without it. But all that will change by tomorrow. When the fed-ex man pulls up to my house and knocks on my door.

And don’t worry I will let you all know as soon as that happens.

One week down and one to go!

For the last 2.5 years I have had my iPhone by my side, that is until this last week. I was lucky enough to have Apple replace my iPhone 3Gs so I decided to sell it on eBay so I could get the most $$ out of it. In doing so meant that I am iPhoneless until the new one comes out on June 24th. And if you don’t know me not having my iPhone with me is a big deal.

So here is a few things I have noticed so far:

1. I leave my phone everywhere and anywhere and forget where it is. I never really had this problem with the iPhone cause I always had it one me.
2. I hate sending text messages. The are just annoying now and my hand cramps up from it in no time.
3. It took me what seemed like forever to get used the my currently replacement phone, the Blackberry Pearl (Thanks Jon & Michelle for letting me borrow it)
4. I never use my phone for more then just Calls and Testing
5. I am using the iPad even more, but it is still not good enough as a replacement for the iPhone
6. I really miss having an iPhone when I see someone else with one.
7. I have little to no clue what’s going on at work when I am not in the office. (kinda like this one)

So, I have one more week to go and now I have a website I can check every day to know that my new iPhone will be coming, even though I am pretty positive that the details on the website wont change till next Tuesday or even Wednesday, I still can’t help, but check it a couple times a day, just incase.

For the next 2 weeks and 2 days I will be without an iPhone. Today, I went to the apple store and was able to have them replace my 3GS with a new one because of some issues I was having.

Obviously, I am taking advantage of my new iPhone and putting it on eBay while it is still new. So I am leaving it in the plastic and going back to a junkie flip phone for the next 2 weeks. I know to most of you that may not be such a big deal, but lets just say that my wife will be very happy to see if go for a couple weeks so I wont “always be on it”.

Of course the main reason why I am doing this is so I can pre-order the new iPhone next week and get it the day it comes out. I thought that I would be able to hold off, but after watching the keynote yesterday and seeing all the upgraded features, I just can’t say no. So in the long run it will be worth it and hopefully the iPad will help me with the withdraws, but only time will tell. I’ll be sure to keep you all posted.