Remember last year when 1200 Sprint customers got the boot because they made too many calls to Customer Service? At the time I argued that the customers weren't calling so many times to make friends with the agents -- they genuinely had concerns that were not being resolved. And so, because customers were not provided with the proper level of customer service they wanted, they were being punished by being kicked off the network. Sadly, most of the people receiving the boot were probably happy by the news.

I just ran across this post on the Building Blocks blog which confirms my feelings, where an anonymous CSR shares everything about their policy and how they're supposed to do things. It is not a very customer-friendly policy either. For instance, the agent only gets a $2.50 credit quota per call. Per call! Not very efficient if a customer was wrongly billed for $100, is it?

Instead of working through the situation, giving the proper credit and the customer hanging up happy, the rep can only give $2.50, make the customer mad, transfer the call, each time making the customer more upset, only to get to a superviser who would likely issue the credit. Each transfer costs money -- so by transferring the customer to 5 different departments just to get the result that could've been taken care on call #1, Sprint is just wasting money, and making customers more upset. Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

Confessions of a Sprint CSR

Hey everyone,

I've put up a poll I would love to get your votes on. The question of the week is "which upcoming phone are you looking forward to the most?" Those 4 choices I listed are the ones that I would LOVE to see right now and I think it's a difficult choice between the 4 of them. But please let me know on the poll what you think!

Here are various internet and Picture Message settings for T-Mobile phones.

MDA and Windows Mobile 5

MMS:

Connection Name: PictureMessaging
Data bearer: Packet data
Access point name: wap.voicestream.com
User name: N/A
Password: N/A
Authentication: Normal
Homepage: http://216.155.174.84/servlets/mms
Advanced Settings (Handsets not equiped with WAP 2.0 may skip this section)
Proxy serv address: 216.155.165.050
Proxy port number: 8080

Connection Name: T-Mobile Internet
Data bearer: Packet data
Access point name: internet2.voicestream.com or internet3.voicestream.com
User name: N/A
Password: N/A
Authentication: Normal
Homepage: None
Advanced Settings (Handsets not equiped with WAP 2.0 may skip this section)
Proxy serv address: None
Proxy port number: None

It's hard to get your battery to last a long time. Most phones in this day and age are only expected to have roughly 4-5 hours of talk time. And that counts all the extra stuff we like to do on our phones. With most phones acting as cameras, music players, GPS systems and portable internet, it's no surprise the battery life of our phones are pure junk. Thus, I'd like to give you a few tips on how to get the most out of your battery.

1. Turn off Bluetooth
The Bluetooth radio can contribute to a quickly draining battery, so whenever you are not using your Bluetooth device, turn off bluetooth power in the settings menu. Some phones will allow you to set up a shortcut to do this much faster.
2. Lower Screen Brightness
Don't have the screen on its brightest setting, but don't have it on its lowest either. There is rumor that having it constantly on lowest setting will cause you to strain your vision.
3. Decrease backlight time
Similar to screen brightness, whenever the backlight is on it is using up much-needed battery power. Best thing to do is to have it turn off faster when the phone is idle.
4. Turn off 3G or dual mode
The chips in UMTS or HSPA phones are HUGE drainers of your battery. IMO there are a couple very good reasons to turn off 3G if your phone gives you that option. First, if you never use internet, save your battery. Second, turning 3G off will reduce the amount of dropped calls that could occur when going from a 3G area to EDGE. On my phone I find that there may only be one bar of 3G but full bars of GSM strength. Still, since the phone is set up to look for 3G first it doesn't bother to see how good the reception really is, thus causing dropped calls.
5. Stay in areas of good reception
While it may sound odd for saving battery life, this is actually very important. When your phone is in areas of little or no reception, the phone is constantly searching for a better signal. The act of actively searching for a new signal quickly drains your battery.
6. Recharge when 1/3 full
About 90% of the sites I researched considered this a great way to lengthen the overall lifetime of your battery. Generally it is bad to completely discharge the battery (let it totally die) every single time before you charge it again.
According to Asia's Cnet.com:
"A lithium battery can be charged whenever it needs it. Full discharges are not needed--indeed, they are not advisable. Instead, let the battery run down to around a third of its capacity and charge it on a regular basis rather than running the battery completely flat.
If your phone is not displaying the correct amount of energy left in your battery, then let it run completely flat and this should solve the problem."
7. Turn off phone when not needed
Explanation not necessary; however this isn't possible for everyone as some people are on call for business.
8. Keep battery cool, keep out of sun
Lithium batteries are built with protection from overheating, so charging the phone overnight or for 2 days doesn't damage your battery. If, however, it is overcharged for up to a week, the battery will heat up. Overheating will cause permanent damage to your battery. So, don't leave it on the charger and don't keep it out in the sun.
9. No more vibrator
The vibration mechanism on your phone takes quite a bit of power. Keep it on there only when absolutely necessary. Like meetings or quiet shindigs.
10. Lower ring volume and keypad sounds
Similarly, ringtone volume and the "beep-beep" sounds every time you press a button are power users.
11. Take off screensavers and moving wallpaper
This one was a bit of a surprise to me. But, alas, the movements do use up power.
12. Packet data access "only when needed"
When packet data access, typically found in the settings menu under "connectivity" or "network", are turned to Always Online, it means the phones are constantly searching for internet and making sure a connection is enabled. While this doesn't charge your bill for internet usage, it does strain your battery life.
13. Fully discharge battery once every 30 charges
Related to #6, optimal battery life is achieved when for 29 charge cycles you begin the charge when the battery is only 1/3 full, and on the 30th charge you let the battery die completely before charging. Repeat every 30 cycles.
According to batteryuniversity.com:
Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate.
14. Turn off active applications
The more multi-tasking you do on your phone, the faster your battery will reach Empty.
15. Clean the battery contacts
Many websites advocate the practice of occasionally cleaning the contacts of your battery with a cotton swab and rubbing alcohol. This maximizes efficiency of energy transfer from your battery to your phone.

Cool stuff just keeps coming for the iPhone. The latest thing to come out is a piece of software, similar to Graffiti for Palm, that lets you use your own finger-writing abilities to text instead of using the keyboard. It is called HWPen; the software is currently in beta tests and not perfect yet, as it won't work for email nor will it work in landscape. More news on this later.

Rejoice, phone lovers who hate the fact that the iPhone doesn't come with a stylus! It was only a matter of time before someone came up with one to use.



The stylus itself is made of aluminum and the tip is made of rubber, thus guaranteeing a good stylus experience without scratching the screen or leaving fingerprints. It is currently selling for $12.99 at daydeals.com. Take the link to jump over!

Adding to the previous Verizon list, here are the latest additions.

XV6900 Touch - Just released 4/16
LG Env2 - planned sometime April
Blackberry Curve 8330
LG Dare - 3.2 MP Camera with "Prada-like" touchscreen - expected June
Palm Centro
LG Decoy VX8610 - to replace current Chocolate before July
Motorola VU30 - a PEBLish clamshell