Netflix Price Increase 60 Percent - What happed to Grandfathered Pricing?

Just when I started to love Netflix, it rewards its loyal customers with a 60 percent price increase. After eliminating competitor Blockbuster, Netflix now has a near monopoly on a DVDs by mail service and they don't even offer as many Recent Movies on DVD that Blockbuster does. It would have been nice to have grandfathered pricing, but apparently Netflix has never heard of that word. I personally am going to cancel my DVDs by mail subscription and will either see the newer movies in the theater, on the plane or wait for them to be released via Video on Demand (Amazon Video, iTunes, Comcast, U-Verse).

Computer Forensic Software - Casey Anthony Trial

While listening to the Casey Anthony Trial today, Law Enforcement used a variety of Computer Forensic Software tools. They looked at both the Search Engine Search Terms used and the list of websites Casey Anthony and her family used. These were done by looking at the Internet Browser Cache and deleted cache files. I was surprised at the power of these tools and noticed that some of them like the screen shot below contain a viewer for the web page searched. Here is the list of Computer Forensic Software that was used in this case.




Computer Forensic Software Used in the Casey Anthony Trial

• Encase Foresnic Software
• Digital Detective NetAnalysis
• CacheBackFirefox
  

Forensic Report

• Casey Anthony Computer Forensic Report

How to Ensure Your Browser Session is Not Saved

For those of you that are concerned about your own personal computers or public computers you may use when traveling, you should use the "private browsing" feature in the computer's browser to ensure your privacy. For each of the browsers below, below are instructions for this feature.

• Firefox -- Click Tools, Start Private Browsing
• Google Chrome -- Click File, New Incognito Window
• Internet Explorer 8 -- Select Safety, InPrivate Browsing
• Opera - New Private Tab
  

Be sure and remember to close your browser window which finished.

Finally, from listening to the trial, I didn't think Defense Attorney Jose Baez had a really clear understanding of how these Computer Browsers and their Forensic Tools worked. I believe Juror number 2 works in the IT field so Jose's attempt to sell the jury that browsing the domain isn't an indication of what website content was read (Choroform content does NOT change as frequently as Yahoo News) is incompetent and Juror number 2 will be certainly be able to explain this to other jury members.

Anthony Weiner Women - Weinergate Photos - Weiner List of Women

When a high profile scandal such as the Anthony Weiner incident occurs, I am always curious how relevant the Google Search Results are. These are not the top Google search results for the relevant keyword searches but probably should be. Here are the links:

• Anthony Weiner List of Women -- The list of Weinergate Women.

• Gawker.com Anthony Weiner Photo -- Anthony Weiner Nude Photo (Alleged) -- This photo was originally posted to Yfrog.com and has since been disabled. It is posted to .

Why Doesn't AT&T 3G or SMS Messaging Work During the NBA Finals?

During the NBA Finals, some of my Bros have asked me why they can't send a AT&T SMS Message or use their AT&T 3G iPhone Apps during the game. They content that either something is wrong with their phone or AT&T or the American Airlines Arena in Miami is blocking services. Meanwhile, with over 20,000 fans in the American Airlines Arena, I see Verizon and other Non-AT&T Customers around me texting away.

Meanwhile, as soon as the game gets out and you are walking out of the Arena, you start receiving some of your SMS Messages. When you check your AT&T SMS Messages, you have a number of failed or un-sent messages.

The problem is that their are too many AT&T customers using iPhones trying to access their services. AT&T just doesn't have enough capacity to handle the thousands of fans trying to use their services simultaneously during the game, at halftime and timeouts. It appears that the technology is not there yet for AT&T to shift their resources during special events like the NBA Finals in Miami, Florida.

Loyal AT&T iPhone customers like me rightfully deserve better all around service for the prices we pay for both our phones and the related service. Having a Verizon phone as a backup isn't necessarily a "One Stop Shopping" solution.

Mother of Arnold's Love Child - Mildred Baena - Patty Baena

It always surprises me how quickly the identity of the Mother of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Love Child has been identified by tabloids like RadarOnline.com, Star Magazine and TMZ.com -- within hours after the story broke. What is even more shocking is that people like Arnold's Mistress - Mildred Baena (Patty Baena, Patricia Baena) do not disable or delete their social media accounts such as Patty Baena's MySpace Account more quickly after stories like this hit the Internet. For now, here are the links to Mildred Baena or Arnold Schwazenegger's Maid's MySpace Photos. She needs to remove the photos of young son -- better yet "terminate" her MySpace account.....

Here are the links to the Mother of Arnold's Love Child's MySpace Account including the Photos.

Mildred Baena MySpace Account

Mildred Baena MySpace Account Photos

Where to Watch The Royal Wedding on YouTube.com

William and Kate Wedding - Where to Watch

I can't believe some people in my household are getting up at 5 a.m. Eastern Time to watch the Royal Wedding. Here's the link to the YouTube.com Royal Wedding Channel if anyone is looking for it.

http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel

Upgrading from an iPad 1 to an iPad 2 (AT&T)

How to Upgrade from iPad 3G to iPad 2 3G (iPad 1 to iPad 2 Upgrade - AT&T)

Rather than stand in line on March 11, 2011, I ordered it online and finally received it in the mail almost three weeks later. Today, I finally got around to enabling it because I wasn't sure how I was going to transfer my data including my AT&T 3G Unlimited Plan.

It was actually relatively simple, here are the general steps I used.

1. Backup Your iPad 1 3G and install the latest upgrade. In my case, I had to upgrade my iPad 1 to 4.3.2 first. I used the following site's instructions. (Thanks Cory!)

http://www.maclife.com/article/howtos/how_upgrade_ipad_ipad_2#slide-3

(source: Maclife Cory Bohon)

2. After opening up my iPad 2 3G box, the first thing I noticed was that I really couldn't tell the difference between the iPad 1 and iPad 2. I had seen my daughter a few weeks ago and I knew it was smaller, but in the box I really couldn't tell. As I started to panic that they shipped the wrong one, I saw the camera lens in the upper right corner and started to get excited again. Unfortunately my iPad is a Mission Critical device and being down and having to find someone talk to at the "Rethink Possible" company with the Globe was not something I was interested in doing this evening.

The activation and data synchronization process went flawlessly. During this process, I had time to have dinner and check on it a few times. During this time, I found the following site below since I heard that AT&T has deprecated the Unlimited Data Plan for new customers but my iPad 1 3G account has been grandfathered (thank you AT&T!).

Here's the article I used to transfer my grandfathered AT&T 3G plan to the iPad 2.

How to Transfer iPad 1 AT&T Unlimited Data Plan to iPad 2
http://wlanbook.com/how-to-transfer-ipad-1-att-unlimited-data-plan-to-ipad-2/

(Source: wlanbook.com)

In general, I clicked on this link and took the replaced the old IMEI and ICCID numbers on this site. There appear to be several bugs on AT&T's site so I had to close and re-start my browser several times. I also ended up using both Safari and Firefox before I finally got it to work.

http://www.att.com/ipadlanding

I also had to turn off Wireless and reboot my new iPad 2 before it finally the 3G service finally worked. But it did and I didn't have to call those AT&T "Rethink Possible" guys.

There were several items that I had to re-input on my new iPad 2:

• iPad 2 password
• iPad 2 wireless password
• MobileMe password

Some things that didn't work very well:

• My iPad icons that I so carefully arranged with the iPad 1 did not appear in all of my folders on the iPad 2.
  
• Some of my iPad 2 icons disappeared such as my favorite iPad App that I had on the bottom of my screen. (I would recommend removing icons from the bottom of the screen before the upgrade).
  

iPad 4.3 Home Sharing

The other new feature in iPad 4.3 is the capability to Share Music, Video and Podcasts from your Mac Computer to your iPad/iPhone/iTouch 4.3 devices. I enabled it as follows:


1) iTunes Home Sharing Settings under Advanced -> Turn On Home Sharing

I turned on Home Sharing on one of my Mac Computers by entering my iTunes user id and password.

2) iPad 4.3 Home Sharing Setting under iPod

I enabled Home Sharing my iPad by selecting settings -> iPod -> Home Sharing and entering my iTunes User ID and Password.

3) Using my iPad, I using the iPod Application, when I tapped on the Library, my Home Sharing for my Shared Library User Name's Library appeared. I could now play music on my iPad without copying the files over.

4) Using my iPad, the Video Application now displays the TV Shows and Music Videos Library from my computer.

iPad 4.3 - New iPad Side Switch Lock Rotation Setting

In General Settings, there is a new Lock Rotation setting that allows the user to set the funtionality of this switch that was changed to mute the audio with a previous update,

iPad 4.3 (8F190) - Just Updated To New iPad Software

I downloaded and installed the new iPad 4.3 this morning after downloading and installing the latest version of iTunes Version 10.2.1. The software and firmware update was successful. The majority of the time was downloading the software (40+ minutes). The installation replaced the existing version of the iPad Software and Firmware. The iPad 4.3 update went very quickly 20 minutes and did not require the re-transfer of the data.

My AT&T Landline and DSL Restored

Okay, the AT&T Repairman was just here. Apparently, the Saturday installer inadvertently broke my phone line cable. After a few minutes, the repair was done. My DSL is back, but still 25% slower.

I also heard that there is a new U-verse Internet only service. The U-verse signal is 10X faster than my DSL. According to he, the landline and U-verse can run on the same pair of wires.

My AT&T DSL Service downgraded from 4MB to .37 MB

After the U-verse installers were at my neighbors, here is what happened to my AT&T DSL. My 3G laptop card and 3G iPad are even faster than this.

AT&T Dispatch Manager Approves Fix for Sunday

As of Sunday 9:57 am I received a call from AT&T Customer Service that they will try and fix it on Sunday before 7 pm. Yes, they broke it and they should have a AT&T U-verse process to fix it in 12 hours or sooner, 24/7. Any Customer, especially our Senior Citizen Community in South Florida with its mission-critical life saving need for 911 Emergency Services rightfully deserves better service from AT&T when their landline fails.

Now the questions are: 1) will they send an installer out? 2) will he fix the landline 3) will my DSL speed be restored? 4) will it break my neighbor's new U-verse?

Does AT&T want to Deprecate my Residential Landline Service?

The launch of AT&T U-verse in a Region represents a serious challenge to AT&T Line Repairmen, finding a good pair of copper wire at the box to transmit 32 MB of AT&T Internet, AT&T Digital Television and AT&T Digital Voice is no easy task. These AT&T Repairmen have normally been with the company a very long time. I imagine they don't like contractor's messing with their box and the potential for conflicts are huge. 17 hours ago, my once very reliable AT&T Residential Voice landline line went down which gives it a not so stellar 95% uptime in 2011. I also discovered that the AT&T installers had been in my building all day Saturday installing U-verse for my neighbors. It appears to me that they took my good line that tested at 32 MB and gave it to my neighbor - maybe payback for placing a call to AT&T Executive Services earlier this week for the problems I encountered with their U-verse service and restoring my DSL line after the failed installation.

Without escalating this issue, my Regional AT&T Manager would have liked to restore my line 5 days from yesterday as standard operating procedures. After my escalation last night, I now have a Tuesday service restore date. But that's still not acceptable, I've had this AT&T landline a very long time and since that time added about every AT&T service. They broke it on Saturday, they should fix it on Sunday morning. With the increased sales of U-verse similar to AT&T iPhone sales, I would hope that AT&T would have planned for a new workflow to address service outages caused by their installers deploying new U-Verse customers. Unfortunately, that doesn't sound like it's the case!

Does AT&T U-verse make my AT&T landlines more unreliable?

During Hurricane Wilma in South Florida in October 2005, most South Florida residents lost electricity for almost a week or more. Those that had digital phones that didn't have generator were simply without phone service. For me, the most reliable or only piece of technology that worked was my AT&T POTS telephone line. In fact in past five years, I think the phone service has been up more than 99% or more. Since that time, I vowed never to move to a digital phone service.

For those living in South Florida, AT&T has recently expanded their U-verse offering as is blatantly obvious from the plethora of U-verse Television ads. Earlier this week, AT&T came to install U-verse to my residence. Unfortunately, because of my desire to keep my landline and not switch to the U-verse Digital Phone Service as well as some wiring in my building, they were not able to install it. In concept, it sounded great and I couldn't believe it when I saw 32MB Internet Speed on the Repairman's meter. AT&T U-verse uses one clean pair of twisted pair wires and if you want to keep your landline, they will need to find another clean pair in your walls, one for U-verse TV / U-verse Internet and the other for your landline. I was even more impressed when I found out that I could keep my AT&T DSL IP Address. In addition, I would have been even more excited to have them lay CAT5 wire through my house like they have been doing for some customers rather than use the existing coax cables.

Well, after aborting the U-verse installation, the not so cooperative AT&T installer kept telling me how he had to leave and call his manager. During the installation attempt, he kept reconfiguring the phone jacks in my residence and after many attempts he finally got my landlines working again. He left without fixing my DSL line and told me I had to call. I did and it took several calls to get it working again. Eventually, after a few more calls to AT&T, they sent a line repairmen who increased the speed of my DSL - I was back to being a loyal AT&T customer.

5 days later, after 4p.m. in the afternoon on a Saturday, I discovered that my landline was down and my Internet was 3X slower. When I checked around in my building, I found out that the AT&T Installation guys had been there all day installing U-verse for others in my building. Of course, it happens on a Saturday.....

Apparently, this experience is common for AT&T U-verse customers. After it is installed, their landline goes down but their Internet line and U-verse Television is up and running. You get the error message on your phone that the line is in use.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24534128-UVERSE-up-while-landline-down

So I've seen some early adopter U-verse chatter that maybe the AT&T telephone installer might have done this on purpose because they want to deprecate my landline. They want me to use their U-verse Digital Phone Service. It appears that the "Extension in Use" is a common landline error message once U-verse is installed.

I've always been a loyal AT&T customer with iPhones, IPads, 3G laptop cards, DSL and my landline. Although I would like to see AT&T be kinder to their loyal customer though discounts, there have really few alternatives, especially with the iPhone. That was until the Verizon announcement this week and after my experience with my landline, maybe it is time to free myself from the AT&T Repairman.

Finally, I can only surmise from this experience that the expansion of AT&T U-verse will ultimately make its AT&T flagship landline service including it's 911 service less reliable. Maybe it's time to consider a another solution...

Do you think AT&T will have my landline running on Sunday? Do you think my AT&T repairman does Sundays?

iPad Screen Rotation Lock Changes with iPad OS 4 Update

With the IPad OS 4 Update, here are instructions to lock your iPad Screen Rotation. After this update, The Screen Lock Button is now the Mute button

1. Press [home] [home]

2. When the iPad Multitasking Bar appears at the very bottom of the screen, swipe with your finger left to right until you see the new Screen Lock Setting.

3. Press the Rotation Lock Icon (a Circular Arrow with a Padlock) in the bottom left corner of the screen. See below...

People Celebrity News Tracker iPhone App Removed from Apple App Store? Does it still work?

In the spirit of the Holidays I decided to research a current Family IT crisis. Apparently according to My W, My Mother-in-Law and My Sister-in-Law - People Magazine has removed their blockbuster People.com Celebrity News Tracker iPhone App from the Apple App Store. In the past several weeks the App has stopped sending updates to these customers that paid $1.99 for this Advertising Supported Paid App. This App was lauched in May 2009 and appears to be possibly replaced by their new model requiring a yearly print subscription or individual issue downloads for $3.99. Unfortunately, the Apple iTunes App Store does not provide its customers with an redirected link explaining this except a blank web page and my thorough search of the People.com website or other Internet "News" sources did not uncover any notification to its loyal and fanatical customers. A search of the Apple App Comments archived found a number of very angry and frustrated users of this App that thought their App was corrupted on their phone because it would't post the updates.

One of the above upset users of the People Celebrity News Tracker comnented, "You would expect this from other companies but not People!" In addition, two emails were also sent to People but no response was received.

That said, right after I posted this blog I received a family update that the People.com Celebrity News App, Version 1.5 is now working again. I asked how she knew and heard who won last night's Dancing with the Stars Competition - so I can now close this Ticket...at least for now.

BTW, I ended up restoring Version 1.5 of the People.com Celebrity News iPhone App to enable one of the iPhones to work. I would recommend not upgrading to Version 1.6.

John Tyner Blog - San Diego TSA Incident

Here's the blog and YouTube videos of Software Engineer John Tyner, the San Diego man that refused TSA's new full body scan.

http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/

Pittsburgh vs Miami - NFL Referee Gene Steratore stole game?

With all the technology involved with the NFL Instant Replay System, when NFL Referee Gene Steratore made the call at yesterday's Dolphin vs Steeler game yesterday, I could'nt believe how Mr Steratore said they couldn't tell which team recovered the ball in the end zone. Even as his call was being announced, the Miami Dolphin Fan Vision Screen and thousands of Fan Vision Portable Devices given to Dolphin Season Ticket Holders was clearly showing the Dolphins had recovered the football. Why would Referee Gene Steratore not trust the technology - yikes it ends up he resides in Washington, Pennsylvania (Source: NFL Referee News). The Miami Herald is also reporting that he is a Pittsburgh native.

AT&T Wireless A-List - Reduce Your AnyTime Minutes On Your Bill

If you have an AT&T phone or iPhone with an AT&T Individual plan 900+ minutes ($59.99 and over) per month or Current FamilyTalk plans 1400+ minutes ($89.99 and over) per month, you will qualify for the AT&T A-List feature.

Here is how you access this feature:

1. Go to https://www.att.com/olam/dashboardAction.olamexecute

2. Login with your Wireless Phone number and password.

3. Click Account Overview.

4. In the right column, under Quick Links, click Manage My A-List.

5. Follow the screen prompts to Add the Numbers to your list.

6. In my case, under My Account, I clicked on Usage and Current Activity for my phone(s). I sorted the phone listing by Minutes, added Contacts for the Non-AT&T mobile numbers/landlines that I thought would be used the most in the future.

7. To monitor the usage, I also downloaded the AT&T iPhone App.

This was not a highly advertised new AT&T feature, but is now available for selected plans. In other words, if you get an AT&T iPhone bill that drained your rollover minutes, this will be the feature recommended by AT&T.



Click for More info on AT&T A-List Wireless Phone Savings