Lazy Man and Money

Follow the NFL at 30,000 Feet for “Free”

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A couple of weeks ago, on our trip to The Wedding that Wasn’t, I realized something that made me sick to my stomach. We had booked our return flight to San Francisco during the three-hour span that the New England Patriots were playing. I have very few rules, but one of them is that when my favorite team plays roughly 16 games a year, it’s worth planning your life around. Another of those rules is that sports are not the kind of thing that you can DVR. DVR is even an option for me as I don’t have DirecTV and live in California. If I want to watch the game, I typically have to go to the sports bar. Sadly, sports bars that offer all NFL games via DirecTV are not part of Delta’s in-flight service.

However, there is something that was part of Delta’s in-flight service… wifi via Gogo. Gogo is available on a handful of airlines. It’s similar to paying for Internet access at a hotel – for about $10 you get it on your flight. Their pricing is actually more complex depending on flight time and all that. I lucked out and Delta was letting people try it for free if you used a promo code.

With wifi available, I was back in the game. I was thinking about all the potential possibilities for how I can follow the game in real-time. I had my computer handy, so I do something like ESPN GameCast (or equivalent) and follow a simulated game. This is better than nothing, but reading, “Tom Brady pass to Moss for 12 yards” is very bland compared with watching it or even listening to it. That’s good, but what about the battery on my laptop? It’s only about 2 hours and a game goes 3.5 hours usually. My wife’s computer was there too, but her battery is worse than mine… it would be cutting it very, very close.

Enter my Palm Pre. I remembered there was an NFL application that came with it. I looked into it and it offers real-time audio for all the teams. Patriots broadcasters Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti pumped into my ears at 30,000 feet? Are you kidding me? I can’t be this lucky. It turns out that I can. My next thought was, “Damn, my Palm Pre is going to run out of battery streaming the radio over wifi.” Enter my computer as a portable charger. With it in hibernation mode and my Palm Pre plugged into it, I had more than enough to not only cover the Patriots game, but also enough to root against the Jets. With the Pre’s multitasking, I was able to keep three web browsers open and follow two of my favorite Patriots blogs (for injury reports and the like) and other scores from around the league.

You’ll notice that I had quotes around “free” in the title. I obviously had to pay for my cell phone and Sprint’s monthly fees. I lucked out by not having to pay for Gogo due to their promotion. I also lucked out in that Gogo was available on my plane. I hope they get their service on all airlines soon. Despite all this luck, I thought it was a worthwhile story to tell that might help a help a fellow sports fan at some point.

As a final side note the Jets fan next to my wife was able to watch the first half of his game on his computer because he had DirecTV at home. His battery wore out after that.

Amazon Friday Sale – Health Edition

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It’s been close to 6 months since I put Lazy Man and Health into hiatus. With a new dog and a job, something had to give, and it was that. However, as I shift to a more blogging-oriented income, I might be looking revive it. What better way to dip my toe in those waters than by highlighting a few of the health products on Amazon’s Friday Sale. Usually Amazon gives me a few wacky products to work with, but the pickings there were a little slim.

  • O2 Innovations Personal Oxygen Bar – This was a no-brainer for pick of the week. I mean my own fresh oxygen supply? How can you beat that? Plus didn’t Michael Jackson sleep in some kind of oxygen bed in the 1980’s? And that worked out for… ummm… nevermind.
  • Alli 170 Pill Refill – I had written about Alli before. This isn’t a great savings – only $10. However, what other over-the-counter, FDA-approved weight-loss pill do you have to choose from? With no competition it’s a surprise they’d put it on sale at all.
  • Microplane Foot Buffer Orb – This is the generic version of the As Seen on TV product, the Ped Egg, right? Well I’ve heard that the Ped Egg gets outstanding reviews, so maybe dropping $9 on this isn’t a bad risk.
  • Microlife Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Wrist Watch – If you are going to begin a new running workout plan, it seems to me that this $40 wristwatch could be good insurance against a heart attack. Also potentially good insurance – Enteric Coated Baby Aspirin – just see your doctor about it first.

Bonus Tools Section

My new site, How To Fix got jealous with the attention that Lazy Man and Health was getting and thought you should take note of these special handyman Amazon Friday Sale deals.

  • Custom LeatherCraft 30-Pocket 24-Inch Roller Tote Bag – My attention is piqued by anything 67% off it’s retail price. However, this is the kind of thing that I’ve been looking for. My toolbox has little shelves that you have pull out to get to what you want. This is just reach in the pocket and go. What can I say, I’m Lazy.
  • Makita 18-Volt LXT Lithium-Ion Cordless FM/AM Job Site Radio – I’m somewhat amazed by all the things you can get powered by those 18-volt batteries from companies like Makita and Coleman. Next to a “Dust Buster” vacuum that actually works, this seems to be one of the best ideas yet. I’ve got something similar in a Tivoli Audio PAL AM/FM Radio as a gift and it’s great. I’m bringing it to Aruba with us to hook up to an iPod for music all vacation long.

Non-Friday Sale Deal

I just noticed that Amazon put my beloved Palm Pre on sale for only $99 with a service plan. That puts it on the price point of Apple 3G which makes it darn competitive according to this research from Interpret (PDF).

Sprint Rebates Suck

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On Friday, I came home to following letter:

Sprint Rebates Suck
Sprint Rebates Suck

This letter is in response to the Palm Pre that I bought and activated within the Sprint store – an hour after it became available. How dare they say that I haven’t activated in time? Without causing injury to other Sprint customers it would have have been impossible to activate it any faster.

Where does Sprint Rebates, who owe me money, get off sending me a letter saying that they aren’t going to pay and “no further action is required.” On a list of most obnoxious responses, I think this has to be at the top, right? I’m thinking of not paying my Sprint bill this month and instead sending in a letter that says, “You are not being paid because [insert a lie that would a valid reason if true], no further action is necessary.” I might give that a try with the copy of the rebate letter.

Nonetheless, it’s time to call up Sprint and find out what’s going on.

The first guy doesn’t know anything about rebates. He tells me that it’s another number. I realize that rebate-handling is typically outsourced, but I don’t want to talk to the third party and have them tell me that I didn’t actually by the phone and have it activated. I argued for a minute and then decided to see how the Sprint Rebate company would go.

After about 15 minutes on hold with the Sprint Rebate company, they found the problem. They had mistaken one of the digits of my phone number – entered it in as a 6 instead of a 0. Being that it was their mistake, I figured, they ‘d be rushing out a check to me right away. Not so. They said that they’d process it in the next 15 business days. I have to wait three weeks for their mistake? Here’s how the rest of the conversation went:

Me: Overnight the money.
SR: Sorry can’t do that.
Me: Overnight the money.
SR: Sorry can’t do that.
Me: I’ll have the money in my hands in the next 15 days?
SR: We’ll process it in the next 15 days.
Me: I’ll have the money in my hands in the next 15 days?
SR: We’ll process it in the next 15 days.
Me: You realize that I my money shouldn’t be delayed based on your error.
SR: Sorry there’s nothing else we can do.

I realized that there’s nothing more I can do either. I suppose I can think twice about using Sprint in the future. In fact, I’d say there’s a high likelihood I’ll do that as soon as mine and my wife’s contract is up.

That might be a little over-reacting to this incident, but they’ve taken away my grandfathered billing plan because I got a new phone (note to carriers – new phone should not equal new plan). Sprint is still the cheapest as far as I can tell, but it’s getting worse and soon I will pay more to deal with a different company.

Strong Personal Finance Articles from this Week (Palm Pre Edition)

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I was lucky enough to be able to buy a Palm Pre this Saturday. Well, it turns out I didn’t have to be that lucky. There were 54 people in line at 8AM when Sprint opened. They had 55 phones. Someone came by at 8:05 and grabbed the last reservation ticket. After that another 10 people came out and had to be put on the waiting list.

Sprint had managed the release really well. Everything was extremely well organized. However, they were activating so many phones nationwide at the same time that their computers went down. It took them over an hour to provision my phone.

The Sprint people (who were really, really nice) decided that I waited much to long and offered me 50% off of one accessory. I quickly asked for them to set me up their Touchstone charger – a very cool induction charger. They quickly realized they couldn’t do that. Not only that, but they said to provision the phone they had to have me on one of their newer plans… the cheapest of which were $25 more than I pay a month now.

What do I get for that $25? The network is still the same. I’d still get the same unlimited Internet that I had before. I’d still get the same text messages. What I get is to lose the grandfathered plan that I’ve been in for 8 years, because Sprint decided to rebundle, rename, and reprice the feature set that I had before. Fantastic!

I’m planning a call to Sprint retentions tomorrow. Obviously, it’s hard to get too far with them when you are waiting in line to buy the hot new phone – and the guy there didn’t have the power to help me – especially in the chaos of their computers going down. We’ll see how that works. I’ve had luck with that in the past.

Here are some articles to keep you busy. I might not get an article out as my wife undergoes some minor foot surgery.

Money Writers:

More Finance Posts:

Why I’ll Try to Buy a Palm Pre Tomorrow

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If there are supplies at my local Sprint store, I’ll be the owner of a new Palm Pre on tomorrow morning. With Sprint pricing it at $199 (after a $100 mail-in rebate and a renewing of contract for two years), it’s a decision that I didn’t even have to think about. I buy a new cell phone about every 3 years, so cost of the upgrade isn’t much of a financial decision for me. It becomes even less of one when you consider that I can sell my previous Treo on eBay for a few dollars.

The Palm Pre is being billed as the best competitor to the Apple iPhone. Almost everyone agrees that Apple iPhone is the best cell phone you can buy today… so that begs the obvious question, “Why not just get an Apple iPhone?” For me, some of it is design, and some of it is price.

  • The iPhone is only available on AT&T – My wife is on Sprint (as well as myself) and the free network to network calling saves me money. And while the Palm Pre is only on Sprint, Palm has a history of working with other networks. There are rumors of a Pre being on Verizon by the end of the year… and
  • The iPhone’s plans are expensive – Also, I’ve been with Sprint so long that I get every add-on they offer for around $50 month. The equivalent AT&T plan is $90. Cnet’s Rick Broida also says that the iPhone plans are too expensive. That $90 gets you nights and weekends starting at 9PM instead of 7PM. That’s big because I have some friends who I can call on the east coast from 10PM-11PM. I’m sure that calling them at midnight would be pushing it.
  • The iPhone lacks a keyboard – I will never be able to touch type on a glass screen. I’ve never seen anyone type with one-hand on the iPhone either. This aspect alone represents a major for me to not go with an iPhone.

Here are some of the features that makes the Palm Pre exciting:

  • Multitasking – I can have 5 browser windows at any one time?!?! I can get driving directions while I’m streaming music over Pandora. Sweet! I know that Windows Mobile has multitasking as well, but I never found it usable on my Dell Axim.
  • WebOS – I know that Apple has a huge headstart with applications. I think the Palm Pre will catch up since development should be easier than on the iPhone. The Pre uses web technologies – things that many, many developers already know – the learning curve is not steep at all. Also, the Palm Pre will run a lot of previous Palm applications through a third-party emulator. Over the years, there are probably hundreds of thousand of Palm applications.
  • Synergy – Synergy is supposed combine and simplify your web-presences. So your Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar can live together and always be in sync. Ditto with your contacts (and add Facebook into the mix there). I’m curious how this is going to work in practice. I wonder if they took into account people like me who have a regular identity and a secret one.
  • The Keyboard – One of the reasons not to get the iPhone is one to get the Pre. Reviews of it aren’t great, but every one of them says it’s much, much easier than typing on an iPhone.
  • The Camera – I’ve started to use camera phones a little more… mostly to send on pictures of my dog to my wife when she’s working on the road. Reviews say that the Pre has the best camera of any smart phone. It has a LED flash and takes pictures instantly – doing the post processing in the multitasking background. Oh and it’s 3.2 megapixels for those that crave the MP number.
  • The Music Software – Plug in a Palm Pre and it tricks iTunes into thinking that it is an iPod. I’ve always thought that iPods have had a bit of a monopoly and don’t play well with others. In my opinion it’s a good thing that Palm is challenging the status quo.

    • The Apple iPhone has some of those features plus many additional ones… and two days after the Pre comes out Apple is expected to announce a big update to the iPhone. However, it still comes down to price and my complaint there isn’t as much with Apple as much as it is about AT&T (well and Apple’s exclusive agreement with them).

    I’m not the only one who is enthralled by what the Palm Pre represents. Many of the biggest names in technology agree that for the first time since it came out, the iPhone has a competitor:

    • Associate Press: Dazzling Palm Software beats the iPhone – Title says it all.
    • PC Magazine – Palm Pre Feature Face-Off – “The Palm Pre is the sexiest handset since the iPhone””and it also marks the dawn of a major new smartphone platform.”
    • PC World: Palm Pre Review – “the Palm Pre made a solid impression on me. Its eye-catching design and smooth operation make this smartphone the most exciting device I’ve seen in a while.”
    • USA Today: Pre could pilot Palm to smartphone glory again – “The first Palm Pre will certainly give the iPhone and other rivals a run for their money.”
    • Gizmodo: Palm Pre Review – “Impressive start to an OS that should form the base of some quality phones in the future”
    • SlashGear: Palm Pre Review – “[Palm has] delivered a smartphone not only capable but honestly impressive and distinctive… we’d readily recommend the Palm Pre.”
    • CNET: Palm Pre Review – “Palm has developed a solid OS that not only rivals the competition but also sets a new standard in the way smartphones handle tasks and manage information.”
    • Palm InfoCenter: Palm Pre Review – Can’t get much more biased, but “The Palm Pre delivers on Palm’s promise of a bringing a next generation differentiated product to market. WebOS is a powerful and compelling new mobile platform. Despite being a 1.0 product, the Pre is pleasantly functional and it users in new level of simplicity and ease of use. Coupled with the attractive hardware design and charming display, this adds up to a distinctively agreeable experience for mobile phone users. Palm has a lot ridding on the Pre and it now appears to be fully back in the game with a superb combination of software and hardware.”
    • Information Week: Video Palm Pre Review – I hate websites that include video without some kind of translation – especially when I’m trying to pull out a “quotebite”. And now I’m just sad to learn that I didn’t coin the word “quotebite.”
    • Engadget: Palm Pre Review – “Some of the ideas and concepts at play in webOS are truly revolutionary for the mobile space, breaking down lots of the walls that separate the experience of using a dedicated PC versus using a handheld device… To put it simply, the Pre is a great phone, and we don’t feel any hesitation saying that… Just like the iPhone’s notches up the ladder, and the G1’s contributions, the Pre moves the game forward in a very real way.”
    • WSJ.com: Palm Pre Takes On iPhone – “All in all, I believe the Pre is a smart, sophisticated product that will have particular appeal for those who want a physical keyboard. It is thoughtfully designed, works well and could give the iPhone and BlackBerry strong competition…”
    • New York Times: Palm Pre Review – “… Especially when you consider that Verizon Wireless has announced that it will carry the Pre ‘in the next six months or so.’ Can you imagine how great that will be? One of the world’s best phones [Palm Pre] on the nation’s best cell network [Verizon]?”