This May is my last month in my contract with Sprint. I have had Sprint/Nextel for 10 years now and I have no complaints about their overall service. I've always had cell phone coverage whenever I needed it, there customer service has been ok and their prices are good. After 10 years of being a good customer I am looking at changing carriers because I want a nice new phone. There are three phones that I am very interested in:
The phone that I want the most is the Apple iPhone, which is only on AT&T. With what seems to be so many complaints about AT&T's service, I keep wondering whether I would regret having them as my carrier. With a positive review from PCWorld showing improvements, it makes me think that they are finally getting their act together. Then, Consumer Reports has a report rating AT&T as the worst overall carrier and I wonder who to believe. I have talked to several people about their personal experiences and again, I get mixed reviews so this hasn't been a lot of help either.
In second place is the Nexus One but not by much over the Motorola Droid. I know the Nexus One is not on Verizon, yet, but I would wait till this spring when it is. Verizon, for the most part, seems to get positive reviews across the board. I know several people who use Verizon and they all seem to like them. Plus if you look at any of the above reviews, Verizon is consistently giving good results there as well.
I want one of the phones listed above, with the iPhone taking top wanted, but I also want a carrier that I can rely on. At the end of the day it appears that Verizon is the better carrier. I am a Apple guy so, this makes me even more torn between my options. I just wish I could get an iPhone on Verizon....maybe someday.
Does anyone have any suggestions or comments?
Anyone have some pointers to help me with my decision?
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Alternatives to Google Web Services
Lately, there have been several articles about alternatives to Google's services like: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, etc... I know that many of these article have stemmed from recent events surrounding Google's treatment of its users privacy and rights but, I personally have no issues with Google thus far and have no intentions on ditching any of Google's services. They offer many free services that I enjoy and like.
The major thing these articles did for me is it awakened me to the fact that there are several options, other than Google, for web-based services like email, document creation/editing, analytics and calendar. With Google playing such a critical role in my online life it seems almost impossible to replace them. So my investigation began to find other alternatives that I might like.
The first web service that I started with was email. I remember several years ago I had a Hotmail account, didn't we all, and email through my Internet service provider before switching to Gmail completely. I was mostly curious just to see what was available as options and here are the ones that stuck out:
Many of these mail services also have calendars integrated in them which looked like they would suffice or I could start using iCal exclusively. Zoho seemed to have the nicest webmail and calendar available and it is FREE for non-bussiness users. I signed up for Zoho mail and intend to try it to see whether I like it.
When searching for a web-based document editor I didn't have to look far because Zoho also has that. Their document editor, Zoho Writer, looks like it is very nicely laid out and has many key features.
The next item on my list was web-site analytics, here I found two options that interested me and were free:
Woopra - Woopra is not a web-based service but it offers an application for Linux, Windows and Mac. They offer paid plans that offer more options but their basic plan should be suffice for most users. One of the key benefits of Woopra is that is gives you realtime analytics. You don't have to wait till the next day to see your sites analytics like you do with Google Analytics.
Piwik - This is a free open-source web service. Piwik has an online demo of their analytics service and it appears to offer mostly everything you would need.
Out of the two different analytic service I was intrigued with Piwik the most.
After all of this I still have no plans on replacing any of my Google services but I do plan on trying a few of these services to see how they work. It is also a good reminder that there are many other options out there besides Google.
What are your experiences with non-Google web services, who do you use and what do you use them for?
The major thing these articles did for me is it awakened me to the fact that there are several options, other than Google, for web-based services like email, document creation/editing, analytics and calendar. With Google playing such a critical role in my online life it seems almost impossible to replace them. So my investigation began to find other alternatives that I might like.
The first web service that I started with was email. I remember several years ago I had a Hotmail account, didn't we all, and email through my Internet service provider before switching to Gmail completely. I was mostly curious just to see what was available as options and here are the ones that stuck out:
- Zoho Mail
- Aol Mail
- Yahoo Mail
- ISP/Domain Mail - This option is provided to you by your Internet service provider, your web-hosting company (if you have a blog/website), or is available for a small fee from companies like Rackspace
- Apple mobile me - This service offers email, push functions, file storage and more for $99/year
Many of these mail services also have calendars integrated in them which looked like they would suffice or I could start using iCal exclusively. Zoho seemed to have the nicest webmail and calendar available and it is FREE for non-bussiness users. I signed up for Zoho mail and intend to try it to see whether I like it.
When searching for a web-based document editor I didn't have to look far because Zoho also has that. Their document editor, Zoho Writer, looks like it is very nicely laid out and has many key features.
The next item on my list was web-site analytics, here I found two options that interested me and were free:
Woopra - Woopra is not a web-based service but it offers an application for Linux, Windows and Mac. They offer paid plans that offer more options but their basic plan should be suffice for most users. One of the key benefits of Woopra is that is gives you realtime analytics. You don't have to wait till the next day to see your sites analytics like you do with Google Analytics.
Piwik - This is a free open-source web service. Piwik has an online demo of their analytics service and it appears to offer mostly everything you would need.
Out of the two different analytic service I was intrigued with Piwik the most.
After all of this I still have no plans on replacing any of my Google services but I do plan on trying a few of these services to see how they work. It is also a good reminder that there are many other options out there besides Google.
What are your experiences with non-Google web services, who do you use and what do you use them for?
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