I won’t be getting the Nokia Lumia 900.

1. I’m no longer an AT&T customer. If I were, i’d be all over the Lumia 900. I would use one of our four lines to upgrade for sure. I could become an AT&T customer again, but we just moved to Verizon 3-4 months ago. I can’t afford to pay $500 in fees to leave again.

2. Right now, I am not accepting review units from US carriers. This has to do with my current employer and trying to make sure I don’t cross into gray areas while I cover the mobile industry. Even though I have nothing to do with the wireless side of the company and I don’t represent the company, I feel it’s better this way.

3. I will accept review units from OEMs, but, as expected, other great writers on GottaBeMobile are already getting the Lumia 900 from Nokia.

4. The last option is purchasing one for full cost. A couple of years ago, I would have dropped $500+ to do this, but these days… Finances won’t allow me to do this.

I am very disappointed, but I have to deal with it.

3 things I can guarantee:

1. The review of the Nokia Lumia 900 on GottaBeMobile will be awesome. Chuong does a stellar job.

2. At $99, the Lumia 900 will do great and become a top seller.

3. If #2 is wrong, Windows Phone is in big trouble.

I totally know how Verizon customers felt like for the years that the iPhone was an exclusive on AT&T.

This post is designed to inform the followers and readers that still enjoy my opinions, videos, and reviews of devices from my days as an MVP and at Mobilitysite.

I’m not giving up, but it’s not looking pretty.

I don’t understand why it’s taken this long for Skype to get here for Windows Phone. Either way, it’s about time Microsoft.

Here are some screenshots as well:

Ryan Holt has put together a video review of the ROM working on his HD2. He says that everything is working just fine.

This is pretty neat. I wish I had the time and know how to get into this.

Links to the ROM

XDA Developers Rom Forum Post – http://goo.gl/qM1yI

XDA Developers Live Services Post - http://goo.gl/zLD6z

Video Preview in Timeline

New & Fixes in v.1.2:

• Video Previews right on your Timeline
• Quote Tap: two-finger tap on Tweets to quote
• Timeline Scrolling Performance and Improvements
• Changing Timeline size and settings doesn’t require reboot anymore
• Bug Fix: Sharing Image from Pictures Hub/Camera
• Bug Fix: List Timeline Limitations in Quickline

The big news for some is that this version adds a trial version that many apps in the Marketplace offer. The bad news is that the trial version limits use rather than adding ads or something. Either way, it’s good that they are offering this trial version.

Trial Mode Limitations:

•  Single Account
•  Can’t Retweet or Favorite a Tweet
•  Can’t Attach Images to Tweet
•  Quickline is disabled
•  Can’t send Direct Messages

Grab it in the Windows Phone Marketplace

Source: Carbon (via)

FACT: Windows Phone Marketplace is growing faster than Android and the iPhone App Store did.

FACT: Windows Phone does enjoy a fairly decent list of apps.

FACT: Windows Phone doesn’t have all the apps I want yet.

FACT: Nick Landry agrees.

From Flipboard and Audible to Pandora and Dropbox, Windows Phone is missing key mobile apps in its Marketplace. Regardless, Windows Phone still has over 65,000 apps and growing, and more than worth the upgrade from Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile or Symbian.

Nick, who is or used to be a Windows Phone MVP on the developer side of Windows Mobile/Phone, lists the 10 apps “HE” considers his top 10 list of apps that Windows Phone is missing that are available to iOS users:

1. Flipboard
2. e*Trade
3. ADT Pulse
4. Audible
5. Continental / United
6. LinkedIn
7. HBO Go
8. Zinio
9. Dropbox
10. Google Maps
11. Pandora Radio

I agree with a couple, but really agree with Pandora.

A couple of months ago, I posted a similar article over at GottaBeMobile where I listed apps I thought Windows Phone needed.

• Windows Phone 7 Apps. What are we missing?
• Moving from Android to Windows Phone 7 – Part 6

I think the developers waiting for Windows Phone to get traction will be surprised some time this year. With Nokia and Microsoft throwing so many ad dollars out there, things are going to be looking up for Windows Phone in 2012. If Nokia does launch the Lumia 900 for $99 on contract on AT&T, it’s going to get real, real fast.

Now Box comes along and offers Android users 50 gigabytes of storage for free. That’s mighty attractive since I only have 2.5 GB with my Dropbox account. The main issue is that Box, formerly Box.net, also doesn’t support Windows Phone and don’t plan on it for a while. According to GigaOM, Box is waiting for Windows Phone to get more traction.

At Box, we want to make it dead simple for our users to share and collaborate on business content from any device. We’ve invested aggressively in building amazing experiences on iOS and Android because those are the platforms our customers are using, but we’re always tracking adoption and demand, and will support Windows when we see it get traction in the organizations we serve.

Ouchie. Well, either way, I don’t have Dropbox support on Windows Phone anyhow, so I am going to give Box a try. What I think that I should do eventually is give in to Skydrive and use it. It’s available via web, iPhone, and Windows Phone and has 25 gigs, which is still much more than I have with Dropbox. There are also 3rd party Skydrive apps for Android. The issue I have is that the Box and Dropbox apps for Android are very well done and feature rich. With a 3rd party app for Android, I worry about future API issues.

WP Central sends word that the Facebook app has been update AGAIN. This time, the app is updated to version 2.4 and the only really change made was bringing events back. Version 2.3 was just released last week, but it added a nice list of items.

Focus areas for the v2.3 release:

• News feed performance improvements
• New panorama design.
• New profile design.
• Banner Images.
• Improved navigation.
• Pages
• Groups
• View “likes”.
• Feed filters.
• Posting privacy.
• Bug fixing

I had a chance to check 2.3 out this past weekend and it’s much better than previous version.

Download

It’s a very simple app, but for a lot of websites, it’s all you need.

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For more information, head over to Conduits.

The price is $4.99 instead of the $6.99 price tag initially announced. Here’s a preview of the game from WP Central.

The price makes me wonder, is it worth that price? I know some premium games are in that price range, but I am pretty sure Apple set the app/game market price bar a little lower than $5. Would you pay $4.99 for a game?

Horrible Ebay Experience #1

Back in January, I was headed out to cover CES. To ensure that I had a good data connection, I went out and purchased an AT&T Hotspot, the Elevate 4G. I only planned to use it for CES and then sell it or keep it for future shows. I purchased it for full retail to avoid a contract so I paid $249 + $96, which included $50 for 5GB of data, taxes, and fees. I could easily pull the cheap trick of buying it and then returning it within 30 days, but I think that practice is quite rude. I would rather take the loss and do it the honorable way. I used the hotspot for a week at CES and got back to town and canceled the service and account a couple weeks later, still within 30 days mind you. Still, I wasn’t planning stick AT&T with it. Instead, I put it up on Ebay for $150 or best offer. I got a $100 offer and countered with $115. The buyer agreed and paid promptly. Aside from losing about $250 on the deal because I am too nice, everything was going good at this point.

The photo above is the image I used in the auction. After snapping that photo, I packaged the box and set it aside until it sold. I put the auction online and the deal I mentioned above was made later that same day. Like I said, the buyer paid promptly and I headed to the Post Office the next day. I packaged it with bubble wrap inside a box slightly larger than the factory packaging.  The device was actually still active and service was still on in the Ebay photo above. I called to cancel the morning I mailed it out. I sent it out at a cost that was more than what I charged for shipping and I included tracking.

A couple of days after the buyer received the Elevate 4G, I got the following message through Ebay:

AT&T says that I need the old number associated with device to switch over. Can you please provide otherwise I’ll have to send back. Thanks.

That didn’t sound quite right so replied and asked him to call me. He called and explained to me that AT&T said he needed to old number to activate service. I explained that he didn’t need it. I let him know that this device was purchased at full retail to avoid contracts.

He went on to explain that he bought it to replace a hotspot that he had been using that died on him. He wanted this one to avoid a contract himself. He explained that he had tried popping his current simm card in the Elevate 4G and it didn’t work. I asked him if it was a 4G or 3G hotspot he had before. It was a 3G and he need to go to a store to get a new simm card that supports 4G. He also told me he tried calling AT&T to get them to move his service to the simm card I left in it. Well, that simm is deactivated for good when you cancel service so that wasn’t going to work. He went on to say that he ended up going to the store to get a simm card and that’s when he told them that he needed the number. I sensed some evil right there. I told him to hang tight and that I would call him back after I checked with a friend. I hung up and called my local AT&T store and explained the scenario with the assistant manager. He agreed with me that something didn’t seem right and that what I told him he needed to do was correct.

I called the guy back and the story changed some. He said that the AT&T store told him that he needed to go to the warranty repair center and there just happened to be one in his town. He said he’d go there and call me back. To this point, I didn’t know it was broken. I wondered why the warranty repair center, but it didn’t register yet. We hung up and he headed to this center apparently.

He called me a couple hours later and told me that the Elevate 4G wouldn’t read a simm card and that this warranty repair center said there was water inside the device, voiding the warranty. He went on to tell me that they told him that, since it changed ownership, it wouldn’t be under warranty anyway. I am calling BS at this point. In the two days that it took the USPS to get this to the buyer, there was no rain on the radar. There wasn’t in Tuscaloosa for sure and all our weather goes northeast towards this guys location. Typically, our weather makes it to his area 16-18 hours later. Yes, this guy was just a couple states over and up. My point is, unless this buyer dropped it into a toilet, no way it should have any water in it.

Let’s pretend there was a major rain storm and the package did take on a little water, or even a lot, the device sits in the tray above. You see that little hole? Yes. Water wouldn’t stand in that tray, it would fall into the bottom. Spoiler Alert: When I received the device back today, the was no sign of water in or on the box or contents.

After he told me what this warranty repair center told him, I asked him if I could call him back. I called the local store again and let the assistant manager know the scenario. He said that he felt like the buyer might have gone into the store to activate service and decided to take on a contract and buy it for 1/2 of what he paid for mine. I don’t know that, nor did the manager, but something happened at that store. I asked AT&T if there was anything I could do and he told me that since I was no longer a customer that there was nothing he could do. He looked up my purchase date for a possible return that I wasn’t a fan of doing and I was now 3 days out of the window of opportunity. Now I am stuck. I asked if he’d be willing to let me bring it in to check out to make sure it was broken. Perhaps the buyer was lying and nothing was wrong at all. He agreed.

Reluctantly, I called the buyer back and told him I’d refund his money. I was fairly sure that something in all this was definitely not on the up and up.

A week later, the device arrived and I refunded his money.

I open the package to see what I can see. The 1st thing I noticed was that the cable was missing. I opened the back cover to check out this water damage, removed the battery and what did I see?

What in the hell? How did this go from mythical water inside the unit to the simm card holder ripped off the circuit card?  He didn’t mention this. I don’t think water or vibration or even a drop from 2 a two story building is going to rip the simm card holder off of the circuit board. Did he want to make sure it was broken?

So now, I am out $350 and I don’t have ANYTHING to show for it.

Horrible Ebay Experience #2

The 1st story was too long and too many words that my head hurts so I am going to make this one quick and simple.

1. Dude buys $200 sports card for $140 via best offer
2. I send invoice
3. 1 day later, I send another invoice
4. 1 more day later, I send another invoice
5. Yet another day later, I send a message to buyer asking what the payment arrangements he planned. I had been used to getting payments within a day or two of the auction closing. Instant payment is most common.
6. No answer to any of this correspondence.
7. An option became available to me to report auction as non-payment to get my sales fees back. That fee was ten dollars and some change.
8. After that, I decided to sell this card and 73 other cards in one big sale (LOT), which included 2-3 other cards that sold and payment was never received on. I listed that lot here too.
9. That lot lasted a day and a half before I got a good offer that I liked, I accepted the offer.
10. The buyer of the lot paid immediately yesterday.
11. I shipped out this morning
12. While on Ebay adding shipping number to the listing for the buyer to track, I got a notice from Ebay in my email. The buyer of the card finally paid after 7 days and no contact.
13. I refunded the payment and sent another message to the original buyer explaining that he dropped the ball and missed out.

Oh well!