Marianne Schultz

the musings of a geeky girl

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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.

Vaja disappoints and no gloves for me!

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Just a quick update since I need to dive into work and not come up for air for the next week or so. I received the Vaja iVolution Dockable case late last week and it doesn’t fit well. In fact, it fits so poorly that it’s not even usable – it applies constant pressure to the volume buttons and causes the volume indicator to appear constantly on my iPhone’s screen. *Sigh* I’m going to contact Vaja’s customer service department soon, and everything I’ve heard to date about them indicates it may well be a long process to address this. I’d be fine with a replacement, though I’ll also opt for my money back if possible, since it was a bit of a frivolous purchase to begin with, I must admit.

My Dots Gloves order was canceled and my money refunded, though not at my request. According to an email I received, they are not taking orders until they are capable of fulfilling them within 48 hours of placement and expect to have the gloves in stock in January. They offered to keep my place in the order line for this time, and I’ve taken them up on that. 
I’ve actually got a couple of reviews ready for posting, but just haven’t gotten around to taking the pictures to go with them. Stay tuned!

New Vaja iPhone case on its way!

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Just about 1 month after I placed the order, I finally received a shipping notification for the Vaja iVolution Dockable case. It should arrive in 2 short days! Woo hoo! This timing works out pretty well since I should probably get around to requesting a warranty exchange for my peeling Incase Slider case and I just can’t let my iPhone go around case-less while I wait for a replacement.

Still waiting for my Dots Gloves, on the other hand – 7 weeks and counting…

Waiting, peeling, and disappointment

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I’m still waiting for my Dots Gloves. It’s now been 5 and 1/2 weeks since I placed my order. Guess mine is one of the longer-to-fulfill orders in that month-long average. Dang.

My favorite Incase Slider case for my iPhone is starting to peel. I’ll put up an addendum to my review on it shortly and include some pictures.

I just read this article over on MacRumors. In short, Apple’s latest portables with the mini DisplayPort connector will not put out video over a non-HDCP connection. I’d never heard of HDCP, High Definition Content Protection, before but I will be sincerely irritated if I need to spend more money for a special connector to display iTunes movies I buy or rent through my new MacBook Air. Looking at some posts over on the Apple Support forums, users with the new laptop models can’t even output some iTunes video to Apple-branded displays with Apple-branded display connectors. WTF? Another moment of disappointment in Apple. I hope they address this soon without requiring me to spend more money than the pretty penny I just laid down for my new MacBook Air.

Dots Gloves update

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I just wanted to say that I did get a response from Dots Gloves to follow up on the email I sent over the weekend inquiring on the status of my order. I received the exact email I’d found over at TUAW.com that I quoted a couple of days ago here in my blog (look down 2 posts). I’m glad that I got a response at all, but I would have appreciated a little more detail on when I could expect my gloves. An average of a month-long wait until an order is shipped does give me a ballpark, but an average means that it takes longer for some orders and less time for others. I just can’t think it’s that hard to figure out when a pair of gloves will be ready and shipped. A supercollider made-to-order, yes. A pair of knitted cotton covers for my hands, not so much.

Oh, well. I’m still looking forward to receiving them and still plan to do a review. Until then, my non-iPhone-compatible North Face gloves will continue to suffice.

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