H.I.T.S.
Well, did you feel the earthquake? When it happened Tuesday, I was in the basement of Micarelli’s playing my guitar and I noticed nothing. I received a text from Doren on my phone saying, “Dude! Did you fell the tremor?”
Then, I got another text from my friend Jimmy, who teaches in Pittsburgh, asking the same thing. Finally, Mrs. Schulze called me to tell me that she had felt the tremor. She also said that she’d told some fellow workers that there was a tsunami warning for Redstone Creek.
The next day, she showed me a picture on the internet of a plastic table with four chairs and one chair was tipped over. The text on the photo read “We will rebuild.” Please don’t think I’m making light of other people’s suffering because I’m merely trying to illustrate how (thankfully) I seemed to be the only one who completely missed it.
In other news last week, it appears that HP has dropped production and further development of its TouchPad device. TouchPads were being offered online for as low as $99. This created so much interest in HP that their website crashed for a while.
Unfortunately, HP and other sellers are faced with the grim prospect of having to reimburse people who just bought them at the regular price. Online articles said that Best Buy was sending back their entire remaining stock to HP. Mrs. Schulze also informed me that HP is going to eventually get out of the computer business as well and will instead be concentrating on printers.
Mrs. Schulze recently became the recipient of a new iPad for an early birthday present, so I got to look at one up close and personal. Previously, the only one I’d seen belonged to Doren’s wife, Paula. They really are amazingly fast, especially for surfing the Internet.
My wife informed me that she bought an e-book through iTunes and actually read the first entire book that she’s read for ages. This may possibly contradict with assumptions I’ve heard that computers and technology have stopped people from reading as much as they used to.
With things like the iPad, Nook and Kindle, I personally don’t think that’s true — only the format of how you read has changed. I also caught my wife playing the horrible Angry Birds game on the iPad.
One tip that I will pass on to readers is not to skimp on a sturdy protective case for the iPad, as it may come back to haunt you. As sleek and elegant as it is, the iPad is also very fragile.
Another point we both pondered was what do you do if you’re buying an iPad as your first excursion into computing and going online? When you buy one, it’s necessary (after charging it up) to go via a wireless internet connection to iTunes and register your device. The screen shows only a pointy arrow and a connector to iTunes! I’m sure there’s a way around it, but it did puzzle us. As we both have other Apple computers and iTunes accounts, it was no big deal in our case.
Verizon recently announced the end of unlimited data plans for their iPhones. You’re okay if you have a current account with Verizon, but potential new users beware if you intend to use your phone to go online other than using it with a Wi-Fi source.
One great resource is at http://www.att.com/standalone/data-calculator/. You can check out just how much data you will use if you just send emails or if you look at video via your phone. The charges for running over your relatively tiny allotment of data per month are pretty high, so be sure to check this out before you sign up for a plan.
Speaking personally, this limited thing had deterred me from using AT&T and now Verizon, since they’ve also instituted this policy for new users. Again, if you’re an existing customer with an iPhone, they can’t get you (yet), but I’m sure they’re working on that as we speak.
Mrs. Schulze remarked that T-Mobile will probably be next to limit after they are gobbled up by AT&T next year. My own opinion is that if you use a so-called smart phone, then you should have (if financially feasible) an unlimited everything plan. Otherwise, what’s the point?
With that, I shall retire until next time. Have a great week and happy surfing!