Note: we are always looking for sponsors! If you would like to sponsor an individual episode or a series of episodes, please do let us know.

When your kids get hurt, it is a devastating thing. Your job as a parent is to protect them at whatever cost. When you yourself get injured, it is a different matter entirely. I used my “stupidity” as a lesson to my kids, reinforcing about being careful when running and not to do things that are dangerous. Since my kids are young, the lesson was around simply being safe when doing activities. Had they been older (e.g., of drinking age), my “lecture” would have been quite different. While my injury was alcohol related, it did NOT involve driving or doing anything dangerous, it was merely that I tripped on my driveway as I walked back from a neighbor’s house. Obviously my equilibrium and balance were not what they should have been. But enough said on that topic, it obviously “left me in stitches”.

We did discuss quite a few other topics apart from injuries including, one on one time with your kids, teaching them how to cook, and trying to break the summertime bad sleep habits.

The Topics

Here are the topics we covered in Episode 28:

• Michael falls down
• Battle scars are cool
• Macallan Scotch is C.C.’s favorite
• Stitches Stories
• Looking for finger tips
• Brad IS ok after last week’s show
• One on one time with kids is priceless
• NJ Vacation
• Easing back into school bedtime routines
• What to do when a child wants to be vegetarian?
• Teaching kids to cook
• Every guy must know how to cook
• Boboli Pizzas
• Caution with boiling liquids
• Oven door dangers
• Scooping out the toilet

The Audio

As always, the full podcast is available on CastofDads.com and on iTunes. You can also listen to the podcast below:

Cast of Dads – Episode #28 “When Daddy Takes a Tumble”

Requesting Feedback

If you have questions or ideas for topics that you would like us to cover (remember, between all of us we have 13 children ranging from newborns to young adults), just send us an email to castofdads@gmail.com or tweet us at @CastofDads! Also, our podcast listener base is growing! If you are interested in sponsoring our podcast for an episode or a month, be sure to contact us!

If you are interested in sponsoring this podcast, please leave a comment on the Cast of Dads site, send an email to castofdads@gmailcom or leave a question/comment on my Contact form.

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood. The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman , Jeffrey Sass , Max Kalehoff , Michael Sheehan , and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

HTD says: Ok, so I was dumb and paid the price. What sort of dumb things have YOU done and what was the result?

Each of the post titles below link to the full article on the AT&T Lose the Laptop site. Also included, in italics, is the first paragraph of each post and a tiny bit of Commentary about these posts.

April – “Travel” Theme

The theme for April was all about travel and how the HTC Tilt 2 can help with that.

Who has Time to Travel Anyway?

“Travel? Who has the time or money to travel nowadays! Sure I travel…a lot! From the bed, to the shower, out the door, to the car, to the train, on the train, to work, and back again. It’s a great trip actually. I get to read the paper and occasionally do some writing.” [Read more]

Commentary: I spent some time with my new gadget, the HTC Tilt 2 and took it around on my “travels” of errands, going to work and some other things.

What do you take when you travel?

“So you have packed your bags, they are in the cargo hold, and you are 30,000 feet over the glistening ocean, and you start thinking…did I pack the [fill in the blank]? Suddenly you get that big hole in your stomach and you know that you didn’t hit an air pocket. It’s an “oh crap” moment.” [Read more]

Commentary: I tried to think about what I would want with me when I travelled with the exception of a laptop. When you really think about it, you don’t need to bring a laptop, only a full featured smart phone (like the HTC Tilt 2).

That “Nagging” Voice – Getting Directions

“Men refuse to ask for directions. Perhaps it is an “independence” thing or has something to do with pride. Women, on the other hand, insist on the careful organization and planning of trips, stopping and ensuring that the way is meticulously laid out. This could go as far back as the early hunter and gatherer time, I’m thinking. Men would head off, with just their spears and adrenaline, hoping to track down the big prey and the women would stay close the home gathering the fruits and berries.” [Read more]

Commentary: For this article, I tested out the AT&T Navigator which is a GPS service offered by AT&T and available on the HTC Tilt 2. It made me wonder what types of voices people want to hear coming from a GPS.

May – “Social” Theme

In May we were supposed to talk about being Social and Social Media. I definitely had fun with that, in fact, I was the Winner of the challenge!

“Lose The Laptop” in 140 Characters or Less!

“The next AT&T Lose The Laptop Challenge is upon me and it is all about Social Media. #LoseTheLaptop [99]
For my first article for the Challenge, I’m going to try something different, use only 140 or fewer characters at a time. [121]” [Read more]

Commentary: I decided to be a bit creative with my first post around the Social theme, so I decided to make each line “tweetable”, meaning that they were 140 characters or less (the restriction that all Twitter users face).

Social Media for the Rest of Us

“I heard an interesting statistic today that the smartphone sales accounted for only about 20% of all of the cell phones sold this past quarter. I was actually a bit surprised with that number. I would have thought that the percentage would have been a lot higher.” [Read more]

Commentary: In this post, I take a look at how Social a phone can be and how we all exist in different technology bubbles or lack there of. Using a smart phone can get you along the road to being social, in many different aspects of the term.

The Ripple Effect of Social Media – Get Mobile for More Waves!

“We all know the well used imagery of throwing a stone into a pond and watching the ripples spread out from the center. The same imagery can be applied to social media, I believe. But there are different ways choose the rocks and throw them.” [Read more]

Commentary: This post discusses the whole metaphor of social media being a pond, and each time that you interact with it, it sends out different types of ripples to other social networks and people.

Keep Track of your Kids through Social Media & a Cell Phone, But BE CAREFUL!

“I have always been a big proponent against the use of Social Media by children, especially when they are in elementary school. Interacting with Social Media is not something you want your kids doing at an early age, at least not until they can really understand its implications. However, as they grow older and more independent, loosening up the reigns a bit may not be that bad of a thing.” [Read more]

Commentary: When your child is given the “independence” of owning a cell phone, you as a parent are given a new set of responsibilities. If properly educated, a cell phone is important for safety and emergency purposes. But on the flip side, there is the danger of social bullying and other privacy issues.

June – “Shopping” Theme

June presented us with another great topic to discuss – a smart phone and how it can assist you in shopping.

10 Reasons Why You Need a Smartphone when you Shop

“I’m not really sure how we did it in the past. Shopping without a cell phone, that is. To me, if I even leave the house for any reason and I don’t have my cell phone, if I’m 10 minutes or less away from my house, I will turn around and go back and get it. The only exception is if the trip is going to be very short, but even then, those short trips to the grocery store, for example, really warrant a return trip to pick it up.” [Read more]

Commentary: In this post, I listed out 10 Reasons why you should have a smart phone with you when you shop. I’m sure there are more than just 10 but these were the ones that I came up with.

10 Father’s Day Shopping Tips – But First, Bring your Cell Phone!

“With Father’s Day right around the corner, how are you going to make your Dad (or husband) happy? For me, any type of gadget will make me grin, but that is probably not what each and every dad wants. The best bet is to develop a strategy with your siblings or kids in order to work together to get the best gift for Dad. When it comes to shopping, especially if you are doing it at the last minute, dividing and conquering is the best tactic. But how do you ensure that the “Dad shopping army” doesn’t buy the same thing or gets hung up not knowing what to do?” [Read more]

Commentary: With Father’s Day approaching, I wanted to hand out 10 more tips to help with the Daddy Shopping experience.

The Forgotten

“As the sliding glass door closed, I knew that something was wrong. But I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I hoped the feeling of the unknown would pass but for some reason, it only helped to raise my panic level a bit more.” [Read more]

Commentary: This was the first “Short Story” that I posted to the challenge. The idea was that the story would show yet another use case for using a smart phone when you go shopping.

Shopping With Limericks & a Cell Phone

“There once was a challenge from AT&T,
That made my brow a bit sweat-y.
To write about shopping,
Got my brain really hopping,
As I wrote on my Tilt 2 by HTC.” [Read more]

Commentary: I decided to continue on my creativity streak with this post and wrote 5 limericks about the Lose the Laptop challenge. Limericks are always fun to do, and the challenge was to make them work with the theme of shopping.

July – Talking about the Entire Program

With July marking the end of the Challenge, we were given the liberty to write about anything and our thoughts on the program. I elected to do a Short Story called “The Mobile Spy.”

The Mobile Spy

On the Run – The Train Station (Part 1)

“The acrid electronic smoke still lingered in his nose. He panted as he ran through the doors of the train station, carefully yet quickly glancing over his shoulder. He slipped through the front entrance, but did not take the main revolving door. You can get trapped too easily in those, he remembered his mentor telling him. Instead, he entered through a side door, sticking close to the shadows.” [Read more]

Commentary: I decided to take another stab at creativity and wrote out a 4 part short story that would fold in the other 3 themes. The first theme I tried to fold in was around “travel” so the story is set in a train station.

The Mobile Spy

Cypher, Location & Discovery (Part 2)

Catch up on Part 1 of “The Mobile Spy” here.

“He wondered how the hell they had found him. It must have been his business contact, Mark Z. He should never have trusted Mark. He should have known better. There is something about information exchange that is just inherently risky, especially with information of this caliber.” [Read more]

Commentary: The next theme I tried to incorporate was that of “social media”. Hopefully I was obvious enough about the naming of the only character, Mark Z(uckerberg) as the guy possessing the social database with everybody’s personal information. I also put in some location awareness applications and other social aspects.

The Mobile Spy

“The Final Purchase” (Part 3)

Catch up on Part 1 of “The Mobile Spy” here and Part 2 here.

“He enjoyed the obscurity that the shadows of the train station provided him. He easily slipped between alcoves and doorways, at times jumping into the moving crowds. Everything was falling in place the way that he had planned and he was in the final stretch. Only, he hadn’t planned on them catching up with him so quickly.” [Read more]

Commentary: This third part of the story contained a few aspects of “shopping” (getting a taxi over the phone and buying something at a local store). Hopefully the suspense was building on the story to captivate my readers.

The Mobile Spy

Ending It All” (The Finale & Part 4)

Catch up on Part 1 of “The Mobile Spy” here, Part 2 here and Part 3 here.

“He slept most of the way. He hadn’t realized how running on adrenaline had made him so incredibly tired. He only woke a few times to have his ticket checked and to peer out the window to identify his surroundings. But after each check, he slipped back into a deep slumber.” [Read more]

Commentary: The final part of the story was designed to pull everything together and hopefully end with a witty final line. Please let me know if it worked!

So there you have it. All of my posts from the AT&T Lose the Laptop Challenge. Please take some time to read through all of the articles if you feel like it but definitely VOTE FOR ME!

Disclosure Text : I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period. More information can be found in my About page as well as here. More information about the “Lose the Laptop” program is available here.

HTD says: I definitely enjoyed the opportunity to participate in this innovative program and I want to thank AT&T for allowing me to share.

He slept most of the way. He hadn’t realized how running on adrenaline had made him so incredibly tired. He only woke a few times to have his ticket checked and to peer out the window to identify his surroundings. But after each check, he slipped back into a deep slumber.

After about five hours of sleep, lulled by the gentle rocking of the train, he snapped awake, refreshed and rejuvenated. He was about an hour away from his final destination, a sleepy lake-side town in the Italian mountains. He knew the area like the back of his hand. The small villa had been purchased many years ago and had been cared for by a local who had been paid from an anonymous fund. It would be his family’s sanctuary and the start of his new life.

He thought back to the events of the past 24 hours, double checking every possible angle of his escape. By the time the agents caught the vagrant in the cab, they would realize that they had been tricked and that the trail would be cold. The safe house had been thoroughly burned. He knew this because of how he had set up the rooms. Each room had areas that were meant to act as tinder, from the old, dry and dusty curtains to the yellowing newspapers stacked in careful piles around the flat. He had lost the laptop by completely destroying its internal hard drive and burning it beyond recovery. The data had been transferred from his cell phone to the laptop and then off to a secure site. All of the checks were in the appropriate boxes. Through a stroke of luck, Mark Z, the man he had bought the data from, was dead. And for all intents and purposes, any connections to Mark, the data and him were long erased.

The man got up from his seat and walked to the WC at the end of the train car. Once the bathroom door was locked behind him, he took out his wallet and began removing all of the credit cards and IDs. He set to work folding and ripping up the items of his past lives, flushing pieces of the documents down the toilet as the train raced through empty pastures and hillsides. When the last piece had been disposed of, he breathed a sigh of relief and headed back to his seat.

The train slowed as it approached a non-descript station. It was simple, just a room with some benches and a closed ticket window. He did notice a change since the last time he was there, on the roof was a multi-directional antenna. He glanced at his HTC Tilt 2 and saw that it actually had signal strength. Ah, technology progress had even spread its fingers up to the rural Italian mountainside.

But it really didn’t matter to him. After being connected in so many different ways, he was finally going to be able to fully drop off the grid. It was a moment he was looking forward to for a long time.

The train screeched to a stop. There was a short toot of the steam whistle and he hopped off of the car. To the casual observer, nothing would have seemed out of the ordinary, just a man getting off of the train. The only slightly odd things were the spring in his step and the fact that he didn’t have any baggage with him. With another blast from the whistle, the train jerked for a second and then started pulling away from the station.

He stood alone on the platform and watched the train curve round the bend and into one of many long dark tunnels along the route. The clanging of the wheels on the metal tracks faded into the distance until there was nothing left but the soft wind whistling through the trees. He stood for a few more minutes, fully absorbing the tranquility and silence of the moment.

“Daddy!”

The quiet was broken by a familiar and excited voice. The shadows revealed two figures, the smaller of which came bounding out into the brilliant sunlight. Little arms suddenly crushed the man’s leg and the man bent down to effortlessly scoop the child off of the ground. With his boy wrapped around his arms and chest, the man walked toward the other figure.

He bent forward and kissed his wife. She smiled, looking deep into his eyes.

“You’re finally here,” she exclaimed.

“Yes,” he replied.

“What did you bring me?” the boy inquired.

The man’s heart sunk as he thought back to the stuffed animal sitting in the store several hours in his past, paid for, yet abandoned. He thought for a moment and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his cellphone, carefully popped out the battery and removed the SIM card. He dropped the SIM to the cement and then with his right foot, brought his heel down hard upon it. After grinding it a few times, he kicked what remained out onto the tracks.

“I got you this,” he said as he handed his cell phone to his boy. “I won’t be needing it any more.”

“Oh wow! Thanks Daddy!” his boy bubbled.

The family walked slowly off of the platform and down the dusty road.

“Where’s your laptop?” she asked casually.

“I lost it,” he replied and never gave it another thought.

THE END

About this article: This post is the FOURTH and FINAL installment of an on-going series for the AT&T Lose the Laptop Challenge. See the FIRST installment here, the SECOND installment here and the THIRD installment here. This is the FINAL month and we are all “gunning” for the GRAND PRIZE of $5000. Remember to VOTE (for me, especially). By voting, you too can win $5000. There were 3 subjects during the previous 3 months: Travel, Social and Shopping. Please take a look at my previous posts. Over the next few weeks, I will be tying it all together so I hope that you will follow the progress and adventures of the hero.

Disclosure Text : I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period. More information can be found in my About page as well as here. More information about the “Lose the Laptop” program is available here.

HTD says: If you liked the story, please VOTE for me! Re-read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 as well! What do you think? Was it what you expected?

So while I was waiting for an iPhone 4 to arrive in a local AT&T store (you should read my issue about that whole process here), I decided that it would make sense to try to replace the battery on my iPhone 3GS because the phone itself was in great shape. Also, when I do eventually upgrade, my kids would get my old iPhone to play with and I wanted to be sure that it had a strong battery for their game time on it.,

Also if you are thinking about getting an iPhone 4 and you have an iPhone 3GS that is dying, you could do this process to bump up the re-sale value of your 3GS!

I did a little bit of research and found that iFixit.com (my favorite repair guide website for Mac/iPhone repairs and how-to guides) had a replacement battery kit for $19.95 which was a really good deal. The only thing is, you have to do it yourself! That’s not a big deal, right? Well, if you have never done any repairs on electronics, it is a bit challenging. But it is definitely doable, and I was willing to accept that challenge. And the nice folks at iFixIt.com hooked me up with a free battery…the only catch, I had to successfully do the install and document the process!

Be sure to read the last section below “Words of Warning Advice” before diving in.

To quickly cut to the chase, I WAS successful and the only way I could do it was with the iFixIt guide that tells you how to do it.

My How-To Video

Here is the step-by-step video which documents the process I went through to successfully install the battery (NOTE: be sure NOT to drink a lot of coffee beforehand, that was the ONLY mistake that I made!):

Be sure you watch this video (and others) a few times before you try to do this yourself!

Some Photos of the Process

I took some photos along the way as well so that you could see the innards of the iPhone 3GS and some of the install process.

Note: the photos below do NOT reflect all of the steps involved in this replacement process. Please be sure to look at the guide for ALL of the steps (complete with pictures as well). Or you can watch the video which walks through the process based on the install guide.

The tools that I used for the install were:

• The iFixIt Replacement Battery
• #00 Phillips Screwdriver (included with the Battery kit but I used my own which was a bit bigger)
• Spudger (included with the Battery kit but I used my own for this as well)
• Suction cup (to remove the screen – you can get one at a hardware store)
• Pen (to take notes and write on the iFixIt guide)
• iFixIt Repair Guide
• Tweezers
• Pliers (small nose & larger ones)
• Paper clip (to pop out the SIM card)
• Egg carton (I use that to store the small screws as I go)

This is my high-tech screw holder. I label it according to the steps in the instructions. If there is a step where you need to remove screws, I write a number in the instructions and then put the screws in the corresponding egg carton section.

This is the iFixIt Battery Replacement kit.

You will definitely need a suction cup to remove the screen of your iPhone. I ended up taking the little metal clip off to get a better grip. You put the suction cup down towards the Home button and lift from there. It does take a bit of force to do but be careful as you lift up to not jerk it off, possibly breaking some of the connector ribbons.

I ended up using some pliers to get a better grip on the suction cup.

But I was able to lift up the screen ok.

Here is the screen propped up. Inside the iPhone 3GS, the ribbons are actually very nicely labeled. This helps you identify which ribbons you need to disconnect and the order of doing so. You can see the orange circles in the picture below.

You can see the screen here fully detached from the body.

This is what the battery looks like after you have removed the screen, disconnected the various ribbons, removed the screws and taken out the logic board.

Words of Warning Advice

A few things to think about prior to going through this replacement process:

• This voids your warranty, I believe. If you mess up something, like break a cable or do something wrong, you do RUN THE RISK of breaking your iPhone. Apple might not help you fix it either!
• Be patient. This is not an easy thing to do. If you get scared by anything you see here, better to have a “professional” do it. Don’t race through the process. Expect to take an hour or two to do this right. It took me, complete with video taping, photographing and a few breaks, about an hour and a half to do it all.
• Don’t lose your screws (or your marbles)! They are REALLY small and you should keep track of them. I definitely recommend using the egg carton to keep everything in order.
• Don’t panic. Things go wrong. Be sure to read the instructions a few times. Watch my video and other ones to get an idea for what you are in for. You can ask me questions by leaving a comment on this post or asking me on Twitter.
• Don’t blame me or iFixIt if something goes wrong. The folks at iFixIt are professionals. They know what they are doing. I’m NOT a professional, but taking things apart and fixing them is something that I like to do because I learn in the process and can hopefully help others figure out how to do it as well. YOU ASSUME ALL RISK IF YOU UNDERTAKE THIS! That being said, it is definitely doable!
• Do a full backup of your iPhone prior to doing the repair. This is a no-brainer. If something goes wrong, you want to be sure that you have all of your iPhone’s data backed up somewhere.
• Don’t drink coffee before you do the repair. Trust me (and you can see my shaky hands in the video). It’s pretty hard to screw in those tiny screws if you are jumpy or have shaky hands.
• Don’t panic – wait, I said that already. Definitely need to say it a few times though!

If you do try to do this repair, please let me know how it went. Was my video helpful? Are there any steps that I missed or need clarification on? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

Disclosure Text : I have a material connection because I received a gift or sample of a product for consideration in preparing to write this content. I was/am not expected to return this item or gift after my review period. More information can be found in my About page as well as here.

HTD says: Doing repairs yourself gives you a great sense of fulfillment. And, in the end, you benefit by having a renewed gadget!

Note: we are always looking for sponsors! If you would like to sponsor an individual episode or a series of episodes, please do let us know.

Also last week, Jeff Sass and I met up IN PERSON again to film a quick clip outside of our regular podcast. This was filmed at a local tech meetup in San Francisco called SFBeta. We decided to quickly cover a hot topic that parents face regularly, that of Tattle Tales. You must admit, the color of the graffiti on the wall behind us sure is vibrant! Oh, and I don’t REALLY have a camera in my kids’ rooms…I just tell them that. Being a HighTechDad, I can get away with just the mention of it without actually doing it.

The Topics

Here are the topics we covered in Episode 27:

• KEWL Birthday Parties
• Beer always makes kids birthday parties easier
• Reptile Man!
• They have Rednecks in the Bronx?
• Googling “Reptile Man Johnny”
• Toxie Party Favors
• Pile of Dirt = Party Time!
• Flaming Unicycles
• Co-op Bouncy Houses
• Video Game Vans
• Dangers of Drowning Article
• Pool Safety
• Don’t depend on public pool lifeguards
• Pool Parties = Can’t relax and enjoy
• Safety from weird colored bathing suits
• When in doubt, pee on it
• Dip Spit = best cure for stings
• Dealing with cranky kids at bedtime
• Live Parenting Failure
• The voices in Sass’ head

The Audio

As always, the full podcast is available on CastofDads.com and on iTunes. You can also listen to the podcast below:

Cast of Dads – Episode #27 “Piles of Dirt & Possessed Phones”

Requesting Feedback

If you have questions or ideas for topics that you would like us to cover (remember, between all of us we have 13 children ranging from newborns to young adults), just send us an email to castofdads@gmail.com or tweet us at @CastofDads! Also, our podcast listener base is growing! If you are interested in sponsoring our podcast for an episode or a month, be sure to contact us!

If you are interested in sponsoring this podcast, please leave a comment on the Cast of Dads site, send an email to castofdads@gmailcom or leave a question/comment on my Contact form.

Cast of Dads is a group of podcasting and blogging dads who gather to gab about fatherhood. The cast of dads includes C.C. Chapman , Jeffrey Sass , Max Kalehoff , Michael Sheehan , and Brad Powell, who collectively represent 13 kids from the youngest of babies to full grown adults. Each of them brings a unique perspective to being a father.

HTD says: What is your best birthday party that you ever threw for your kids or attended?

Stories and my commentary below. Click through to see all of the comments:

• New Flipboard iPad App On The Way – Response to Failed Launch
  When I saw “Flipboard” trending on Twitter and Robert Scoble talking about it and after reading about the concept and seeing the demo video, I immediately downloaded/installed the app. I encountered the 404 and 500 errors, server issues, no content showing up, but eventually was able to get my Facebook & Twitter logins recognized. I [...]
• Google Voice Gets Updated for Android/Blackberry – Where’s iOS?
  I think that it is time for Apple to loosen up a bit and allow Google Voice in to the iPhone App store. We have Skype and Fring which almost “duplicate” functionality AND they work through 3G. I’m sure Apple has their reasons, but I think it is time to move on and just let [...]
• Is your Router at Home Hackable (or Hacked)?
  There is a new exploit out there that affects numerous (millions!) of routers sitting at home. If infected, your router will start popping up ads and other popups on your home computers. It seems that it is a bit complicated to remove as well (involves factory resets and reconfigs). Check your router manufacturer website for [...]
• Don’t Use AutoFill In Your Browser
  So Safari is vulnerable to a hack that lets malicious sites grab personal information from the AutoFill fields (read the article). I really recommend that you simply don’t use any autofill functionality in any browser. I’m almost to the point to doing pure “private browsing” all of the time. It’s amazing what is saved by [...]
• Can’t Wait for AT&T’s 3G Upgrades in San Francisco
  I struggle with data connections in San Francisco, where I work. This is encouraging news from AT&T. I do hope that the 3G upgrades will make a big difference. Also thinking that if and when iPhone is available on Verizon, that people may leave AT&T, thus freeing up more bandwidth for ME!Clipped from www.electronista.comAT&T: San [...]
• Twitter Visualization Shows More Happy West Coast & a Weird US Map
  This is one of the cooler visualizations that I have seen. First, it uses Twitter data to gauge people’s moods, then it overlays Census information, redraws the US map using the volume of tweets, and a bunch of other mojo to create a really interesting visualization. Watch the video too!Clipped from mashable.comTime-Lapse Twitter Visualization Shows [...]

HTD says: Pretty neat stuff, no?

• I LOVE the NEW Ford Motors – 2011 Explorer Unveil on Facebook
  I love how Ford Motors has redefined itself. They loaned me a 2010 Ford Flex for 2 weeks, they invited me out to Detroit for an announcement (unfortunately I couldn’t go) and now they are unveiling the 2011 Explorer via Facebook. I love how they are engaging not only end users but also the media [...]
• Run Skype in Background on iOS4 & Free 3G Calls!
  I have used the Skype app once to call someone in the UK. The voice quality was actually better than on the regular phone, but I hated that I couldn’t “multi-task” when on the call. Now the app has been updated to run in the background. BUT, the BIG thing for me in this article [...]

• Beating “antennagate” To Death!
  Wow, I hadn’t seen Apple’s elegant page devoted to Antennagate and the antenna attenuation (that’s a lot of “A” words). Personally, I think we have beaten this topic to death. All cell phones with internal antennae can experience this issue. Some perform better than others. This is a fact that we just have to live [...]
• Facebook Scams Continue (And They Won’t End)!
  Yet another couple of Facebook scams are making their rounds. These are getting more and more sophisticated too. But just use common sense and the same practices you do in email phishing scams. Only click on things that you know about (better not to click at all). Go to web sites directly by typing in [...]
• iPhone 4 Cases are “Pocket Change” for Apple
  Well, that’s my opinion at least. Yes, it is an unexpected cost for Apple who just announced record quarterly earnings. However, I’m thinking there will be more expenses related to the design. Newer models will have to be retooled so that when the case giveaway ends there will be a better solution. I think the [...]
• New Blackberry Browser Sets the “Standard”
  It’s about time that blackberry jumped to the top if the crowd with some noteworthy news. Scoring high on the HTML 5 benchmarking among other things is pretty newsworthy. But will it help with their sales? Time (and customers) will tell. Clipped from www.salomondrin.netBlackberry WebKit Browser Vs Android and iPhone!Finally we got to see something [...]
• “All Your Data Are Belong To Us” says Apple to Gov’t
  Why am I not surprised by any of this. We are embarking on our 15 minutes of privacy now. Honestly, I don’t mind supplying Apple with location information provided it helps my service improve. I’m not so sure about Google saving all of my web-search data and I really don’t want Facebook monkeying around in [...]
• FCC Approves new Apple Bluetooth Device – Magic Trackpad?
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HTD says: Hope you’re liking the latest tech news.

So, why don’t I just take out my credit card and order from one of the sites I listed above? I have a pretty good reason, but it is somewhat unique (but others may fall into a similar scenario as I have found through some research). Here’s my problem, I have some AT&T Gift Cards. They were a prize that I received from winning the AT&T Lose the Laptop challenge in May. When I won, I was really excited because I figured that prize would fund my iPhone 4 acquisition. How wrong I was…

Cash or Gift Cards Not Accepted Here

The AT&T Gift Cards that I received are only good for in-store purchases. So, once I had them in my hot little hands, I marched on down to my local AT&T store in Walnut Creek, CA and asked if they had any iPhone 4s in stock (I had been calling various stores in the past and had been told they were not available but that I could “pre-order” them). I figured that I would just go into the store and do a pre-order with my AT&T Gift Cards. I was happy as a clam when I talked to the AT&T Rep, who seemed a bit battle worn from what I think was probably an onslaught of people pre-ordering the iPhone. Oh, and I was doing this pre-ordering well after the iPhone was out and people had them.

We started punching up my information to see if I was eligible for the upgrade pricing. I wasn’t but my daughter (who had just received a HTC Tilt 2 from me – another prize from the AT&T Lose the Laptop challenge) was eligible and I could use her upgrade to get the iPhone 4. So far, so good. The Rep started working through the various screens and while she was doing that, I asked her if she had heard about the Lose the Laptop thing because I was actually going to pay with the gift cards that I had won. She stopped typing – “sorry, you can only use a credit card to pre-order the iPhone 4″ she said to me.

My heart dropped.

“What?” I exclaimed. Say it isn’t so, ran through my head. According to whatever policies that whomever in their wisdom had set up, the iPhone 4 could only be pre-ordered using a credit card. You couldn’t even use a debit card. I got a little hot around the collar. “So, you are saying that if I came in here with gift cards or even cash in my hand, I couldn’t pre-order the iPhone?” I asked, just to be sure.

“Yes, only a credit card.” So that was the policy and they were sticking to it. Isn’t that illegal? Is not the US Dollar, legal tender? Could the store not accept it as payment and then push a magic button to say that the phone was pre-ordered USING MONEY? And a gift card is essentially money, is it not?

To me, I felt this was a bit of discrimination. What about people who don’t have a credit card? Or those people who simply don’t want to or can’t use a credit card for one reason or another?

A few days later, I figured I would put my question out to AT&T’s Customer Care via Twitter. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised with how quick and helpful they were. Within minutes of tweeting my frustration, a rep was following me (I followed back) and then we had not only a Twitter to email exchange, but the rep actually called me up and talked to me about my scenario. To cap that off, she called a store in my area and spoke with a manager to find out what the exact store policy was regarding Gift Cards. She asked me if my gift card had a VISA logo on it (it doesn’t). It seems, I have the lowest of the low AT&T Gift Cards out there. Good for just in-store merchandise credits or for trying to pick a locked door I guess.

I then thought, perhaps I could pay my bill with the Gift Cards and then put the iPhone on a credit card (it would have more or less been a wash that way). But no, I couldn’t even pay my bill with the type of gift cards I had. The Rep then called the store again to see if there was anything “special” that could be done but supposedly, there wasn’t. Thanks @ATTCarolyn and @ATTCustomerCare for trying though, I really do appreciate it. Could it be some draconian Apple policy in play here or just AT&T being burned in the past for fraudulent orders? Whatever it is, I, the customer, am the one “suffering” here.

So I was resigned to the fact that I had to sit now and wait patiently for the iPhone to magically appear in one of my local stores. Every other day now, I’m calling the stores and asking “any iPhone 4s in stock?” and I get the standard reply “not for a month but you can pre-order one.” Yeah I know but actually I CAN’T PRE-ORDER IT the way I want to!!!

I did a quick search and found that there are other people in the same boat as I am – they have gift cards but there is no in-store inventory to use them.

My Old Fashioned Solutions

Today I tried to think of ways to make my life easier but to also potentially improve AT&T’s Customer Service. They did a great job responding to me via Social Media. But I think the whole thing is too wrapped up in the “tech” of things (e.g., have to pre-order, can’t use this type of payment, antennagate, data plan caps, social media responses, etc.). Let’s go back to good ol’ fashioned Customer Service. Here are a couple of ideas:

Local Store Waitlists or Notification Lists

A smart manager should implement a wait-list policy. Yes, it is a bit of work, but it will go a long way in terms of making customers happy. People can go into the store or call in to get placed on a master wait list. There would be one list per store. The list would have:

• your name
• phone number
• type of iPhone 4 you want (16/32 or black/white)
• whether you are a customer or not
• if a customer, how long you have been one
• and perhaps your email address (ha – can you say spam list for the future?)

Ideally, this would be sort of a database. The store could then get an idea of demand. If you connected all of these individual store lists, you could have a master inventory request database. It could be quite useful actually. When the phone that you wanted came in, the store could contact you about its availability and if you want to purchase it. Perhaps depending on if you are a customer or not or how long you have been a customer, the store could “hold” or “reserve” it for you for a longer period. Regardless, just having a notification or waitlist would go a really long way.

Someone on Twitter responded to my vent saying that Radio Shack actually does this. So why can’t AT&T?

If The Shack can do lists…I would think that AT&T could as well!

Store-to-Store Transfers

Not all AT&T stores are out of stock. Supply is being distributed around the nation but probably not to the areas of really high demand. Potentially, if you couple the waitlist/notification list with the idea of store-to-store transfers, you could move inventory faster, make customers happy and have more transactions instead of supply sitting on shelves where there isn’t demand. Many department stores will do free store-to-store transfers or, at a minimum, do inventory checks to see if a product is at a different nearby store.

The problem for me is, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, a place where no matter where you go, there is tremendous demand for anything tech-y. So the store-to-store transfers would have to occur from locations outside the tech bubble. Also, it might be faster to just order online (AT&T is saying 7-10 business days currently for pre-orders). But if a store can ship for next day or 2-day delivery from another store, that is well before the pre-order window. And if it is just going to the store, then someone WITH GIFTCARDS or CASH could walk in (after they are called of course) and pick up their iPhone.

This store-to-store procedure could be a limited time one, until the supply catches up with the demand. Heck, I would even pay $5-10 for the store-to-store shipment provided that I could be guaranteed to walk into the store and get it the next day.

So these were two old fashioned solutions, both that have been proven over and over again. They both show commitment to the customer or perspective customer. They demonstrate going above and beyond. And they would help AT&T not turn away customers in the process. There are so many good devices out there now that many users could easily now be jumping ship to the latest Android phone. They are really great phones and will be giving the iPhone a run for its money. Me? I’m sticking with the iPhone for now. I’m pretty much an Apple fanboy and it will be hard to convince me otherwise.

What do you think of my proposed solutions? Do you have any? If so, I would love to hear them. What about your experience getting the iPhone 4…was it a difficult one?

HTD says: I really hope that AT&T listens to what I have to say. I’m open to talk to anyone about this directly. Oh, and I still am waiting for my iPhone 4!