Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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As it turns out, I’m a wireless data whore

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Technically, addict is probably a better descriptor than whore. But you know what I mean.

Since I got my USBConnect Mercury modem in order to have internet access during my commute on the train, I’ve been tracking my usage to ensure I don’t go over my plan allotment. I chose the cheapest plan available to me at $32/month after my corporate discount, which includes 50MB of data. Yes, only a measly 50MB. In retrospect, my reasoning that WiFi would be periodically available on the trains so I wouldn’t have to use the modem every single day and that I could limit my usage of the modem enough to avoid incurring overage charges seems quite dubious, at best.

Looking at my daily usage, I saw that in my first few train rides with the modem that I used about 5MB (1/5 of my total monthly allotment) each time! I resolved to use it more sparingly, turning off image downloading in my browser, ensuring that iTunes was closed so automatic downloads of new podcasts wouldn’t start, etc. Alas, this was not enough and when I logged into my AT&T account yesterday morning, I learned that I was already 25MB over my 50MB allotment for the month. On my plan, the overage charge is about $1.00 per MB, so that would be $25 extra on my bill next month if I stopped using the modem immediately for the rest of the billing period. The next highest data plan offers 5GB (how they go from 50MB to 5GB with nothing in between, I don’t know) for just $16 more per month. This made my decision to move up to the next plan much easier, which was done in a quick call to AT&T’s customer service. Fortunately, they made it retroactive as well so I wouldn’t get any overage charges for this month. Phew!
This 5GB/month plan means I could use up to 50MB per day during my commute each month. Much, much better! I still can’t believe how I thought 50MB/month would be sufficient. I am more of a wireless data whore (addict) than I thought. Erk!

New review: Incase Protective Cover for 3G iPhone

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Ah, another case reviewed for my 3G iPhone! This is the latest iteration of a case I also had for my first-generation iPhone, the Incase Protective Cover rubber/silicone case. This came to me as a gift (thanks Cathy!) and I love the color and access it allows me to my iPhone, though it’s not quite right for me to use daily. Read my review to find out why…

Dots Gloves arrived and USBConnect Mercury first thoughts

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My Dots Gloves finally arrived! Remember these? I ordered them back in October, IIRC, waited a month or two, had my order canceled and refunded (their choice, not mine) and then re-ordered them earlier this month when they were back in stock. They arrived while I was at CES and I’ve been wearing them during my commute. The good news: they work with my iPhone! The bad news: their medium size for women is too big for me. I’ll start working on my review of these gloves shortly…

I’ve been using my USBConnect Mercury modem with my MacBook Air during my commute this week and it’s working out pretty well. It’s far faster than I expected when I have a good signal, definitely better than the on-train WiFi when it’s available and faster than tethering with my iPhone 3G. Oddly, it consistently shows fewer 3G signal bars than my iPhone does at any point – either my iPhone is lying to me or the Mercury is. I’m guessing it’s my iPhone if what I’ve read about how it shows signal strength is correct. I’ve had one minor, yet annoying, problem with it so far though it could be my Mac more than the Mercury. I do lose my 3G signal along my train route (AT&T’s coverage here isn’t complete) and I have to disconnect and reconnect to the network using the HSPA modem menu in my task bar before Safari will recognize the network connection after the connection drops and returns. I’ll have to do a little more research to figure that one out.

Post-CES recovery and Palm Pre thoughts

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I wouldn’t say I’m fully recovered from the sleep deprivation and jet lag from CES last week, but I’m better. I still can’t manage to get out of bed early enough to work out before work, but I hope to get back into my normal schedule next week. I’m the type of girl who needs her sleep, and not being able to sleep in periodically adds up even over short periods of time. We’ve got one of those Tempurpedic beds, so sleeping = snuggly heaven.

CES was crazy – going there as press meant I spent 99% of my time looking at my assigned products (for a sister site covering products I’m less familiar with) on the show floor, taking pictures of them, and then writing about them. I had absolutely no time to wander the show floor for myself, and even if I had, I was too tired to really get excited about anything. The one thing that I did cover for work was the Palm announcement, and that actually was a bit exciting.
At the event, I sat in the second row to see John Rubinstein, Ed Colligan, and the new Pre smartphone in all their glory. There were a few big-time bloggers I recognized in the line beforehand – one who was really loud and quite annoying, and another who felt his fame allowed him to get in and out of the line wherever he pleased at will. Should I ever become web-famous (insert incredulous chortle here), I promise I won’t turn into a jackass. Anyway, the event was not nearly as thrilling as the Macworld keynotes I’ve attended, unsurprisingly. It felt like the audience only warmed up toward the end of the event after most of the details of the Pre had been covered and the webOS demo had concluded, an understandable hesitation given Palm’s lack of innovation in recent years.
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed my Tweet last week describing how the Pre may tempt me away from my iPhone. I know other iPhone fans out there may feel I’m crazy, easily swayed by new shiny objects, or both, but I urge you to watch the event video that’s now up on Palm’s site to see the full demo for yourself. I was telling a co-worker that it feels like the Palm software engineers started with an iPhone and said, “What functionality can we add to this to create a device that’s even better?” It’s got all the iPhone hardware basics – a decently-large touchscreen (capacitive as well, I think), WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth, though the Pre has an edge with the A2DP stereo Bluetooth profile. Software-wise, the webOS seems to offer as slick of an interface as on the iPhone, with the added bonus of multi-tasking and built-in syncing with Google apps and Facebook.
Now, I have to qualify my potential switch to the Pre. A.) I need an unlocked GSM version compatible with AT&T’s 3G network that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg. B.) It MUST easily sync with my Mac – iCal, Address Book, my DRM-free iTunes music, the whole kit and kaboodle. C.) The 3rd-party apps must match or exceed what I’ve got on my iPhone already (entertaining games, Twitter client, eBook reader, SplashID or equivalent, MobileMe iDisk access, etc.). To get all of that in the Pre, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have to wait a while. Of course, it won’t play the videos I buy or rent from iTunes no matter what, so I’m a little screwed regardless, and I really don’t want to carry another device since I’ve gotten very used to my iPhone as my portable media player as well.
I’ll give a shameless plug here – for a fabulous first impression review of the Pre, check out this one. To see Palm’s press event video, now up on their site, go here. As a co-worker pointed out, do you see the structural similarities of Palm’s site to Apple’s now? Mr. Rubinstein is indeed exerting a lot of influence at Palm from his last job, methinks.
Regarding the Epic Failage I mentioned in my last post about my USB Modem, I tried in vain to use it at the Palm press event (why they didn’t have a WiFi network for the press, I do not know). Frankly, I don’t think it was the modem’s fault at all – I chalk it up to the overload on AT&T’s network (I saw a ton of iPhones to begin with, and I’m guessing the majority of them were locked and on AT&T’s network). I even tried tethering to my iPhone with NetShare – no dice with that either. I do feel bad that the modem I recommended didn’t work out for Chris over at EverythingiCafe.com – sorry, Chris! 🙁

USB modem arrived in time for CES!

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The evening before I left for CES was a little crazy with the packing and preparation I needed to do to get ready for an early flight last Tuesday morning. My last errand that day was getting to the library to get a book (instead of reading eBooks solely on my iPhone that would be a drain on the battery on flights without power outlets), during which my husband called me. I contemplated asking him if a package had arrived for me, but decided that I wanted to put off the disappointment if there wasn’t one waiting for me until I got home, so I didn’t ask. As I pulled into the driveway, I *thought* I spied a package on the front porch, but thought I could be hallucinating optimistically. When I checked, it was an indeed a package containing my replacement USB modem. Yay!


Amidst folding laundry and watching an episode of Heroes (we had far more episodes to watch from the 3rd season than I’d thought and our initial marathon petered out after 4 straight episodes), I tried the modem out. Again, I’d chosen the USBConnect Mercury modem, selecting it over the Quicksilver model since the Mercury has a built-in microSD card slot to make it a USB thumb drive as well (the 8GB card I bought on eBay has not yet arrived, however). If you read about the debacle that resulted with my first modem (I blogged about it a couple of weeks ago), you can understand that I was a little anxious to get this replacement working. I did, but it took a little more effort than expected.


With the first Mercury I’d received, there was no instruction card in the box asking me to call an 800-number to activate it first, and it worked for 10 seconds, pooped out, and then tech support mayhem ensued. I had confirmed with AT&T support that I didn’t need to activate it first, so I was sure I didn’t miss a step in the troubleshooting. The replacement Mercury, however, did come with an instruction card asking me to activate it. I ignored it at first, thinking it was just thrown in the box out of habit and didn’t apply since the first one hadn’t needed it. Due to my arrogance, the gods of tech deemed that I was to be wrong.


After trying to get the modem to work to no avail, I went back to the stupid activation card and followed the instructions on a whim. After that, it worked like a charm. To boot, because I’m running the latest version of Leopard, 10.5.6., I didn’t need the Connection Manager software and only needed to install a driver that prompts a signal meter to appear in my task bar when the modem is connected, through which I can connect, disconnect, or turn the modem off. Quite nifty, and it’s nice to not have to install another application on my Mac.


So, I’ll do a review of the modem after I get some more use out of it. I’m posting this as I wait at the McCarran airport to leave Vegas after CES and it turns out that I didn’t get to use it much at all during my time here, and the one time I did try to use it resulted in more Epic Failage. I’ll explain what happened (and talk about CES) in my next post, which will be written after I recuperate with 48 hours of non-stop sleep.

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