Comments for dan-menard.com

Comment on Excuses, Excuses. by Andrew Clunis

Andrew Clunis — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:11:31 +0000

Yeah, I’ve learned to use a real text editor if I’m typing anything of non-trivial length into a web brower (unless it’s something like gmail that gives frequent indications of draft saving, maybe).

Comment on Excuses, Excuses. by Frank

Frank — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:03:48 +0000

He who laughs last… has backed up.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by dan-menard.com» Blog Archive » Excuses, Excuses.

dan-menard.com» Blog Archive » Excuses, Excuses. — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:45:23 +0000

[...] dan-menard.com Software, motivation, and the web. Updates every Monday. « Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One [...]

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by dan

dan — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 14:25:04 +0000

LTE is awesome! It’s a better technology than 3G/3.5G, hands down.

The downside of LTE so far in Ottawa is that you’re stuck on Rogers, and their plans for LTE are even more expensive than their normal plans. Still, this is a case where you’re paying for a top-tier service, so the higher price point is more forgivable.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by Frank

Frank — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:07:20 +0000

BTW, I just had a chance to compare a Rogers Nokia rocket stick with a LTE Aircard for a project I am doing at work. The Nokia was very slow when I connected at home even though it said it was 3G. The max download speed I could get was 70kps. I got a better 3.5G connection at work and got sustained download speeds of 300kps. The Aircard LTE was way better and had a sustained download speed of 1.1mps. I was very impressed with LTE and I will seriously consider a LTE Blackberry for my next phone.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by Frank

Frank — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:19:13 +0000

There are 4 of us on our family plan sharing 1 gig/mth and we have never gone over 120 megs in the past 3 years. That includes tethering to my laptop and playbook. We do not stream music , however, since with a 32 gig micros sd on board I carry my whole music library and many movies with me.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by dan

dan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 04:45:48 +0000

I can’t seem to find any actual benchmarks for how good BB’s compression is, but the few sources I’ve found online promise it’s about twice as good for most tasks and up to 4x as good for email (which is tiny anyway).

I was routinely breaking 300MB/month with my iPhone, there’s definitely a chance I’d break 100 on a BB plan.

It all comes down to what you do with your phone. More and more I find I’m streaming music online, which is absolutely killer. I’m sure my data needs will only go up this year.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by Frank

Frank — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:44:01 +0000

A new Blackberry Torch on a 3 yr term at Rogers is $50 plus $43/month which gives you 200 mins and 100 megs/month data, Canada wide my10 calling, unlimited messaging etc. The key difference here is that you will never use close to a 100megs on a blackberry. Everything is compressed and very efficient. On the Torch you get a touch screen phone and the best keyboard. Rogers also has better coverage across Canada than Wind(except in Yellowknife for some reason). All in all I am very happy with my Blackberry.

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by dan

dan — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 22:43:29 +0000

Thanks for the details about AWS! I researched it a little, but probably not as much as I should have.

Looking at eBay, a new, unlocked iPhone 4S would have set me back at least $500 USD. Assuming a best-case of $510 CAD for the device, and that I manage to negotiate Rogers down to something like $59/month for the plan, I would still be paying $2634 over 3 years — 50% more than the 3-year total for my HD7.

Any way I sliced it, the iPhone always came out as the much more expensive option.

Most of my travel these days is to the states anyway, so I’m hoping the roaming won’t be much of an issue. It’s a trade I’m willing to make for now, we’ll see how long I can stick to it :)

Comment on Why I’m Switching to Windows Phone, Part One by Carson Brown

Carson Brown — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:34:23 +0000

Why not buy the iPhone unlocked? You’ve been with Rogers for a long time, so I’d think you could get a much better retension plan than what’s offered on their website. I pay $58.60 (with tax) for a plan I’ve never exceeded, and more than half is data. That’s $703.20 / year. It’s more expensive than WIND, but roaming never needs to enter the equation. I guess if you’re well within Ottawa city limits, you’ll survive. :-)

Also to clarify: AWS is nothing new or fancy: it’s just different bands of HSPA. WIND (as well as Bell and Telus) lack 2G GSM to fall back on as well. Due to the higher AWS frequencies, deeper coverage inside buildings can also be an issue.