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Written by Christopher Price
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Wednesday, 25 October 2006 |
I've seen pages and pages of discussion on other sites in regard to the Moto Q Debacle Ad article that we just ran. Chiming in on these discussions is abhorred by editors on other sites, but we do it from time-to-time to set the record straight.
Some have said that this is a bash on Verizon. I assure you, if Cingular, Sprint, or T-Mobile had Terms of Service that opened them up to screw up like this... we'd cover them just the same. We're very non-discriminative when it comes to carriers, we'll happily nail them each for their anti-consumer behavior. From Sprint's baffling Phone As Modem debacle, to Cingular's price fixing, and T-Mobile's minute watching... we cover it all.
Now, I am not saying that carriers are anti-consumer. Far from it. However, every carrier wants to brush certain corners of their business under the rug, and when they do, we're there to point it out.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Tuesday, 24 October 2006 |
After I just put the latest build of Leopard on our primary Leopard testbed, I felt a pinging feeling on my forehead (and not the XML-RPC kind).
(Our Leopard testbed is a PowerBook G4 12-inch... aka The Good Keyboard Mac... as in, the MacBook has a really bad keyboard)...
Safari in Leopard formats sites in a different manner from older versions of Safari. We were expecting that, as the Safari team told us long ago that it would (no NDA breaking here). Problem is, it formats differently than Firefox, or Internet Explorer (6, 7, or whatever).
The Safari team has said that this new concept in site formatting will work better on large displays. Unfortunately, since Apple isn't shipping a 1024x768 Mac anymore... they kinda forgot that many people consider that big... such as, all the Sprint Stores in America. Yes, Sprint Store viewers, we know you're out there. The WebKit team said this in not so many words in the past... but it wasn't until we saw its effect with our own eyes that the aching set in.
This means that we have one more browser to balance, and that alone can cause a headache. No, we're not going to spill any Leopard beans, other than it's a good thing we ploped down the money for it... because other... sites... are going to be left scratching their heads as to why Leopard Safari formats their site poorly.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Monday, 23 October 2006 |
We're working with the Joomla folks on a better solution, but like PCS Intel, we need everyone to sign up with the new feed for Sprint PCS Info.
Hopefully this is a false alarm, and the old feed links will keep on working... but we're airing on the side of caution and pushing everyone over to new feed URLs that we control, so that there will be zero interruption... whatever happens.
Update: In case you want a text version of the link, here it is below:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/SprintPCSInfo
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Written by Christopher Price
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Thursday, 19 October 2006 |
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Internet Explorer 7 was released yesterday, and unfortunately, we do have one IE7 bug on PCS Intel. Our forum feed on the main page does not process properly. Coders are already on it, so we hope to have it fixed soon. Until then, you can still access the forums... on the forums, bug-free.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Wednesday, 18 October 2006 |
In our early testing of Joomla 1.5, we found that the RSS URL path has changed. By having everyone switch to FeedBurner-based URL, we can ensure a seamless transition to Joomla 1.5.
The good news is that this will be a slow transition, and we'll be reminding users along the way to double-check their feed URL. Should we need to change it in the future, we can do so from FeedBurner's backend.
Joomla 1.5 has much more powerful RSS options (for example, you we'll be able to offer a feed for just Sprint news, and just Verizon news, etc). However, by subscribing to the FeedBurner-powered feed now, you'll have zero interruption when we do transact the upgrade to Joomla 1.5. Just set it (now), and forget it (later).
Our new feed URL also has some value-added services. For example, it supports all standards with auto-detection (so, no more "which feed to I use" questions). It also has automatic Digg This links, and Email This links, so you can share the news of PCS Intel with everyone.
And yes, the Live Bookmark button has been updated as well.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Monday, 16 October 2006 |
As you may know, PCS Intel and Sprint PCS Info run on the Joomla content management system. Joomla just entered 1.5 beta, and we're already looking at how we can make it work for us. This will be a difficult transition, as you cannot simply upgrade over the existing install. However, we're confident we'll make the transition within a week or two of the final release.
We've already started testing Joomla 1.5, and if there's interest (like, in the discussion), I'll let you know how we're doing and what we think of it.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Sunday, 15 October 2006 |
I think it was the fact that Sprint PCS Info, a blog about a web site covering Sprint, got more viewership than Sprint's own Business Blog. But, as of last week, businessblog.sprint.com is pointing to Sprint's podcast (which, on its own, hasn't been updated since July).
As I said in my last editorial (and previously), these in-roads were a nice attempt on Sprint's part. However, without proper implementation, they were doomed to fail from the start. The decision makers of Sprint weren't willing to talk as open about Sprint as PCS Intel was willing to... and nobody here is within 1,000 miles of Overland Park or Reston.
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Written by Christopher Price
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Friday, 13 October 2006 |
Due to some re-tooling, we bumped News by Carrier off of the main page on PCS Intel. And, we took flak for doing that. However, it is now back up, you can find it in the menu on the left at PCS Intel, or you can access it via the link below.
News By Carrier
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Written by Christopher Price
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Sunday, 01 October 2006 |
We're hard at work on a Dashboard Widget, giving just one more way for you to easily access PCS Intel. Here's a first look...
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