Verizon Data Plan Pricing Scam

Verizon has a data usage pricing inconsistency bordering on a scam through the use of misleading marketing and price advertising.
On Verizon's web site under certain (perhaps all) calling plans without data usage the price is listed at $1.99/megabyte. Even the fine print indicates that this is the price. However if you have a PDA phone such as a Pocket PC XV6900, Palm, etc. they actually charge $0.015/kilobyte. Since 1 Megabyte is 1024 kilobytes this comes out to $0.015 x (1024 kilobytes/megabyte) = $15.36/megabyte. Which is 7.71 times more per unit of data than if you have a regular phone.

This is outrageous especially since PDA phone users often use *MORE* data than someone on a phone, which would make them more money.

I happen to use less than 10 megabytes/month of data. That is sufficient for me to sync my email when I am away from my desk for long periods of time, only a few times a month.

So, I thought I should post this so everyone knows what is going on.

I saw the $1.99 price and used the data, until I checked my usage for the month at 6,419.06 KB where it predicted I would be billed $96.30. I promptly called Verizon to find out what was going on.

Since I realized this was the case before I was billed, Verizon was nice enough to allow me to retroactively change to an unlimited data plan for $29.99/month so I wouldn't be charged $96.30.

Check it out HERE for yourself, just browse plans, enter your zip code if necessary and it is the third bullet point from the top $1.99/MB.

I wonder if you sign up for the plan on a regular phone, then switch it via their website to the ESN of a PDA phone....

How to fix Windows Media Player Sync to Windows Mobile Device Storage Card

This seems to fix the problem with Windows Media Player being able to sync to a windows mobile device's storage card. A device such as the Verizon XV6800.

http://www.mobilitysite.com/boards/x50-x51-forums/142193-sync-storage-card-wmp11.html

About halfway down the list of posts 11-25-06, 04:28 PM by Justice_AA.

Thanks Justice_AA.

Sony SZ SZ660 CPU speed throttles down *very* slow when fan speed is set to "adpative"

Sony SZ SZ660 CPU speed throttles down *very* slow when fan speed is set to "adpative" even in rooms that are 69 degrees. This is with the notebook propped up to provide plenty of ventilation when using only about 20% of the CPU albeit for extended periods of time.

It also looks like the fan speed *is* adaptive even when set to "performance", it is just *more* adaptive, that is it actually throttles up the fan *before* the CPU throttles down to reduce heat.

When the setting is set to "adaptive" the Vista power management throttles down the CPU *before* the Sony drivers throttle up the fan. This can result in a CPU frequency of as low as 4% making your notebook unusable.

To check if this is the reason for you Sony notebook running slow, go to Start->Control Panel->Administrative tools->Reliability and Performance Monitor. Take note of the CPU's "Maximum Frequency" while your computer is running slowly. If CPU usage (in green) is pegged at or near 100% and the "Maximum Frequency" is indicating something like 13%, 32%, or even 4% then you are most likely experiencing this problem.

Setting the advanced power profile option for Fan speed to "performance" can solve this problem. Control Panel-> Power Options->Change plan settings link for your current plan. Then click "Change advanced power settings" -> VAIO Power Management tab -> CPU Fan Control.

So, I guess the moral of this story is adaptive isn't always adaptive, and performance actually is adaptive. It is possible that selecting one of the other options Level 1-4 may actually result in sufficient cooling, but I haven't yet bothered to experiment with them. I suspect that in a 70 degree room 3 or 4 might be fine, but once one takes their notebook down to the pool side on a 90 degree day I'd bet 5 would be necessary.

Toshiba A2DP bluetooth driver in Vista on Sony computer

I have a pair of Sony DR-BT22 bluetooth stereo headphones with built in microphone. As long as one is outside of a high population density area where there aren't 25+ wi-fi networks in range they work wonderfully! According to their manual they will pair with 8 devices. The sound quality is wonderful and they work very well on my Pocket PC.

Windows Vista does not support A2DP natively. If you have a sony computer you probably have a toshiba bluetooth chip in your computer. To determine if this is the case go into device manager -> bluetooth and look at the various bluetooth device components such as RFBNEP RFBUS RFCOMM etc. Right click on several of these and select properties. If the manufacturer is listed as toshiba then the bluetooth chip is probably a toshiba chip.

A driver that will add A2DP support to your PC can be downloaded from toshiba here:
http://www.csd.toshiba.com/cgi-bin/tais/su/su_sc_dtlViewDL.jsp?soid=2021764&moid=null&rpn=&BV_
If the above link no longer works, go to toshiba's website, select U.S. service and support for laptop computers. Click downloads. Select "all downloads" click "show results" when the next page finally loads filter by Windows Vista and bluetooth. Select "Bluetooth Stack for Windows Vista/XP (v6.10.02T; 04-07-2008; 60.74M) ".

This driver will fix your problem and your bluetooth headphones will work wonderfully, after initial configuration of course. The problem with this driver is if you don't have a Toshiba PC it will expire after 30 days.

I don't like downloading cracks because it is unlawful and dangerous, so I don't know what to do to retain A2DP functionality on my built-in bluetooth radio.

I've heard that many dongles support it, but who wants another dongle on their laptop, I only have 2 usb ports.

Sneaky software

I installed the Rhapsody player software today and found that it tricks you into installing a number of other programs including Real Player, 2 instances of Rhapsody player engine, Google Desktop Search, Google toolbar, and it changes browser registry settings to default almost everything to Google. I don't mind the Rhapsody player engine's except that they are separate items if one wishes to uninstall.
The install says nothing about these other programs and even gives you a false sense of security by allowing you to set the install path for Rhapsody Player. I didn't even know Google desktop search had been installed I saw its icon in my task tray saying it was indexing my files! Windows Defender alerted me to the fact that my browser registry settings were being changed to point to Google and I didn't realize the Google toolbar had been installed until I went into Add/Remove programs to get rid of Google desktop search.
I don't like the direction I see Google taking. They are tricking people into installing their software. Futhermore they are partnered with Real Networks, one of the worst internet companys for getting people sucked into paying for things they don't want, making it difficult to cancel a subscription by requiring one to call them and wait on hold. I don't appreciate these dirty tactics and at this point refuse to capitulate to them.