1SRC Podcast 139

[Alan G]

This week we cover Palm's latest Foleo software announcements, my hands on Foleo review, Tritan drops us an audio postcard the 1SRC Editorial and more. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1963)]

[Gerorne]

About Sprint dropping people from their service... my roommate works at Radio Shack, and before I even finished telling him about it, he responded with something like, "Yeah of course. It's about people complaining and trying to get the SERO plan." I have no idea if that's true or not, and if it is, what percentage of those people dropped are made up of these ex-customers. Just thought it was interesting that he automatically thought that was the reason.

About your comment about how it doesn't seem like good customer service. The report I read said something like these people were calling in with complaints serveral times over the average customer (30 times? 40 times? I forget the exact number.) It seems to me that if they get rid of these problem customers that they can't seem to satisfy, their help desk employees will have a lot more time to help out other customers who can be satisfied.

[Alan G]

Those are really good points. I really don't have any hard information on what happened. If these people really calling 30 - 40 times more often than "regular" customers, then I would agree, getting rid of them would free up folks to help those would could be satisfied.

Alan G

[Gerorne]

Here we go, this (http://www.news4jax.com/news/13650557/detail.html) is the article that I read.

To me it sounds like they deserved it, and I would find it amusing if other carriers followed suit with these customers. Of course it is the Sprint rep saying the requests were unreasonable, and we don't know what the complaints were really about.

Edit:

And oh yeah, that "zing" feature is pretty cool. Sure, Page Up and Page Down buttons could have done the same thing, but they wouldn't be as conveniently located as the scroll wheel is.

A feature that I thought was very cool was how pressing Alt+Back opens up the previous application, for easy switching back and forth between two programs.

The Foleo definitely has some nice little navigation tools and tweaks that'll make it an enjoyable experience.

[BaDZeD]

Woo, I got mentioned in the podcast (albeit not by name) ! Incidentally, I did read Ben Combee somewhere stating that charging the treo through USB is possible.

[Gerorne]

Wait a second... I thought you took down the pic that was in the treocentral forum because Palm asked you to and you decided to comply? The_Chupacabra made a post saying you tried contacting palminfocenter to remove their use of the image that they didn't ask you permission for?

[BaDZeD]

Oops sorry, I didnt know that. Eighty Sixed

[Gerorne]

It's no problem. If it's your image, then it's up to you. I just thought it was odd, because The_Chupacabra was asking us to contact palminfocenter about removing it, and I just sent them a message not too long ago to try to help out.

(And if you didn't know, your pic was also somewhat referenced in one of the latest brighthand posts =P)

But yeah... back to the podcast discussion.

[BaDZeD]

Nah, It was't mine, it was off TC's board (referencing someone's public fickr images).

Anyhoo, on you lucky ones (who actually DID get to see the Foleo), did anyone video the sneak peaks? (I asked Alan that on foleofanatics.com, but he wasn't sure) It would be nice to see something besides the official Palm releases and help us in deep south appreciate the events (almostt) firsthand.

[Gerorne]

I didn't see anyone taking video. Of course I wasn't really paying attention to most people, and was focused on the Foleo. You can read my take on Sneak Peek/Foleo at pdalive.com. But for an expansion on the part about the event itself...

When I tried registering for the event, it was already full. I was thinking about crashing it, because I had read that other people were able to do so. As I got to the Palm store, there was a sign saying that a private event was taking place, and there were two people, one on either side of the door, guarding the entrance.

I walked straight up to one of them and flat out told them that I didn't register for the event, and asked if it would be possible for me to still get in at some point. He wasn't sure what to tell me, and had to go in and ask his boss.

She was a little hesitant to let me in, but then asked if I used a Treo. I pulled mine out of my pocket, and she said it would be ok. I just had to fill out a sheet of paper that asked for my name, email, and phone number, and she made a name tag for me.

As that happened, a guy walked out holding a platter of hors d'oeuvres. The lady who wrote my name tag pointed one of them out to me and said, "You should try that one, it's my favorite."

I walked in and there were three or four Foleo's sitting on the small raised table in center of the narrow store, all being looked at by fellow attendees, each person with at least one Palm employee engaging them in conversation. Over on the left counter, was another Foleo to test out that was also being looked out. Just past that was a small stand that contained free flyers listing several Developers that were contributing to the Foleo, and beyond that, were a pair of attendees just sitting/leaning against the lower counter enjoying the conversation with each other and the wine.

Against the back of the store where the counter that contains the cash register sits, was a plastic container, the kinda that usually contains blowpops or other candies, and it was filled with Palm branded gum. To the right of that was a guy standing behind the counter waiting to serve the wine, as well as a platter that contained cheese, crackers and some fresh fruit. Wandering the store was a second person with a platter of hors d'oeuvres.

Altogether, I would guess there were between 15-20 people in the store. The three servers, three door watchers, five or six people to answer questions (one of them was from Astraware), and the rest attendees.

All of the Palm/Astraware reps were all clearly very excited to show off the device and were all eager to answer whatever they could. When I didn't have anymore questions and just wanted to see it in action, I was also given time alone to use as I pleased.

When I had to go, I took with me the developer sheet, a pack of gum, and a black napkin with the Palm name on it as a souvenier (they were located by the cheese and crackers).

I thanked the lady who allowed me to enter the event despite my lack of registration, and she stopped me, and handed me a gift bag. I was very pleased with that.

All in all, it was a great experience, and I'm going to be sure to sign up for other Sneak Peeks for other Palm products if they have them.

----

I also don't want to take over the thread... I would like to say that I'm very interested in Evernote. I would prefer to have a wiki type program like Note Studio... but I can see Evernote being able to fulfill other needs that Note Studio can't. Does anyone have any experience and can help explain what Evernote really does? and how they use it?

[LupeValenz]

As for that Sprint customer service dropping people, I believe I've read somewhere that this was a tip for you to get out of your contact and not pay the cancellation fee. That tip was provided because of the iPhone of course. There was 2 tips for sprint but that one of calling over and over to customer service was the easiest one, forgot what the other was. (-_-)'

[Gerorne]

That's crazy if that was to purposefully do that just to get the iphone. I'm guessing this is a permanent blacklist with Sprint. I don't know if I'd want myself blacklisted from any phone company even if I don't see myself switching in the near future. I like to have my options.