For my money, Motorola can't go bankrupt fast enough, and I hope they manage to take Sprint/Nextel down with them when they go. I've suffered through three versions of Motorola's Nextel "ruggedized" phones:
The "i1000 plus" flip phone where the most gentle use would irreparably break the flip cover (which was not available to the service centers as a repair part)
The "i58sr" which had no screws holding its boards together (so required a weekly drop to the floor to reseat the connectors inside) and made such a loud "BEEP" in your ear when Nextel dropped a call (i.e. constantly) that I threw one through a car windshield. I had people across the room turn their heads and say "Ouch" when the thing would make that sound - I suspect it permanently damaged my hearing. Nextel's service people disavowed any knowledge of the beeping, and referred one to Motorola. Motorola said that nobody had ever reported this problem before, but then acknowledged that they had no actual way to know if anyone had ever actually done so, since they had no bug tracking or ticketing system (I used to call in about once a month to see if they'd fixed it yet). Finally a Motorola guy said that it was definitely a problem, but that Nextel had insisted they add the beep to let users know the calls were dropped, then told the service people to lie about it.
The "i315" with a smaller screen than the i58sr, but the same text strings in the firmware (so most of the menu items are wider than the screen and are only visible with line scrolling). The developers seemed to have gone through the firmware and deleted any items which were actually useful, such as "Alarm Clock", while adding a digital unit-to-unit radio which only works if you have the cell phone and walkie-talkie functions _disabled_ - a.k.a. a completely useless feature which never made it to other handset models.
At this point in my life, I wouldn't take a Motorola product - ANY Motorola product - if they paid me to take it - and Nextel has tried repeatedly. (I remember some poor Sprint telemarketer bravely going through her script offering me more and more Motorola junk as I told her more and more how much I despised all things Motorola and Nextel.)
The minute the FIC FreeRunner is available, I'll toss Motorola and Sprint/Nextel to the curb and never look back. And I'm just a _cellphone_ user - imagine the poor police/fire/rescue folks who are stuck with Motorola digital radios which don't work inside buildings, and which automatically deplete their batteries if they also carry a cellphone...
I encountered problems signing on to PPP using Nextel and IDEN - it turned out to be that the phone would try to sign on to the Nextel ISP plan via an immediate PPP connection (at $40 a month) unless you first sent an "ATZ" - that made the phone listen to the ATDT string and actually dial the number you asked for. The other problem is that you can have strong signal, but >2000 ms ping times - it can be an excruciatingly slow data link.
The Motorola I58SR phone for Nextel has two speakers, one at your ear, and a "speakerphone" speaker elsewhere in the handset. Due to assinine design, there is a loud "beep" generated in the _ear_ speaker when a call is lost due to low signal. The ear speaker is also where ring tones come out - so you'd better pray nobody is calling you if you put in your earphone and try to make a call...
Of course, the low signal beep comes only when you've cranked up the volume and have the phone (with its water-resistant rubber seal) pressed tightly to your ear to hear the difficult-to-hear caller whose signal you're losing. I've actually thrown the phone in pain (once it broke my car windshield) after getting "beeped".
What's even stupider is that previous phones (like the I1000) had the same problem, but there was a software patch issued almost immediately to move ringing and "beep" to the speakerphone speaker. Now Motorola and Nextel tech support departments both deny any knowledge of ever having heard of the problem, ever having had anyone report the issue (even though _I_ have, and I know several others who have - note to all tech support departments: if you don't bother to track bugs, you can just deny you've ever heard of them before, and never have to fix them!).
I'm sure this would make a nice class action lawsuit, if any legal beagles are reading...
On 14 July I got an email from "etrade@etrade.p0.com", with links like "http://etrade.p03.com/u.d?kknMAEgJGVM4rIf=50" - not a joke, that's a _REAL_ E*Trade sponsored link. I reported it to abuse@etrade.com and the SEC, and got an email back from E*Trade saying it was for real. They're using some service called "Yesmail" to distribute their scam - er - that is - their marketing. Worse, it's all about changing your account number, changing their mailing address - the only way it could have looked more like a scam is if they'd said they were E*Trade's Nigerian branch. The SEC said, more or less, 'We'll look into it, and we'll never let you know anything about it - it's all a secret. Now go away.'
On the plus side, after I sent a nastygram back to E*Trade (where I equated their email to criminal negligence) they said "I am quite sory for such concern as this email has caused. We are reviewing such feedback as you have sent in to determine how we might better tailor our emails to alleviate such concern." (Which may or may not be legalese for "Get Stuffed".)
With friends like this helping us keep the scams at bay, who the _hell_ needs enemies?
We saw the sparrow in CycleWorld in 1998, ordered one immediately, reservation number 38. Got it in March '00, after much design/redesign/rework by Corbin. It is absolutely the coolest vehicle we've ever owned (and we've owned more than a few vehicles.) The fit and finish was excellent, and it really looks better in person than it does in photographs. We do all our own maintenance, and have upgraded quite a few things on our bird. It'll do 100 MPH, has about a 40 mile range (which is rough on the batteries, 20 gives lots more charge cycles), carries 6 Kilowatt-Hours in its 13 batteries (i.e. it'll run your laptop _and_ your cellphone both for about 2 weeks - motive power takes orders of magnitude more juice than bit-flipping, a good freeway ramp acceleration can easily draw 300 amps at 160 volts - that's 48 KW, enough power to run ten average houses).
We've talked to (literally) over 2000 interested people in the last four years of driving, and have had hundreds of people say they'd buy one "tomorrow" if Corbin were in business, or if it was made by GM, or if it got a little better range. The big problem is battery technology. Lead acid batteries are big and heavy - even the expensive hi-tech spiral-cell units are tempramental and basically hate being discharged. Better batteries exist, like NiMH or Li-Ion, but right now they would add $4000 to the price of the vehicle - once those prices come down, the.Sparrow with a Li-ion pack could have a 200 mile range. As it sits, having a plug at work is probably a good idea.
Corbin's big problem was they had a design concept, but didn't want to listen to the expertise of the engineers they had. (They employed Jeff James, Peter Senkowski, and Claire Bell at various times - all electric vehicle experts, all ignored and blamed to greater or lesser degrees) Eventually the company collapsed in a mire of pointy-haired-boss syndrome and financial impropriety.)
I'm pleased to see that Myers is looking to improve on the design, and fix some of the things which Corbin addressed with hand-waving. (Although I must say that early on, Corbin was great about supplying parts, fixing problems, and listening to our comments. Then the money got tight.) I'd also love to see the DOT decide that there was a place on our highways for a smaller vehicle - the reason the Sparrow is a three-wheeler is that it gets around thousands of expensive, heavy, or (for an electric vehicle) downright contradictory "automobile" design requirements by being classed as a "motorcycle". However, this put weight and size restrictions on the vehicle which forced compromises on range and stability. Other countries have the concept of a mini-car, which can go at speeds above 25 MPH but may not be allowed on the highest speed freeways. I'm also glad that there's somebody to buy a replacement windshield from - I've been worried that we'll take a stone one day, and I'll have a $14,000 paperweight!
The ultimate answer, as a motorcyclist, an electrical engineer, and a dedicated geek: With knowing in advance what we'd go through finding insurance, fixing problems, breaking drive belts, changing batteries... I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The Sparrow has been an absolute blast, a total head-turner, the ultimate conversation piece, and it's won a trophy in every car show we've entered it in - even got "People's Choice" in our home-town once!
---
Pacifica Radio has a similar prohibition
on
Blogspace vs. NPR
·
· Score: 1
Was going to tell NPR that I'd donate to Pacifica, instead. Then I got smart and checked - On pacifica imnotlinkingtothis.org main page:
Slashdot Mirror
For my money, Motorola can't go bankrupt fast enough, and I hope they manage to take Sprint/Nextel down with them when they go. I've suffered through three versions of Motorola's Nextel "ruggedized" phones:
The "i1000 plus" flip phone where the most gentle use would irreparably break the flip cover (which was not available to the service centers as a repair part)
The "i58sr" which had no screws holding its boards together (so required a weekly drop to the floor to reseat the connectors inside) and made such a loud "BEEP" in your ear when Nextel dropped a call (i.e. constantly) that I threw one through a car windshield. I had people across the room turn their heads and say "Ouch" when the thing would make that sound - I suspect it permanently damaged my hearing. Nextel's service people disavowed any knowledge of the beeping, and referred one to Motorola. Motorola said that nobody had ever reported this problem before, but then acknowledged that they had no actual way to know if anyone had ever actually done so, since they had no bug tracking or ticketing system (I used to call in about once a month to see if they'd fixed it yet). Finally a Motorola guy said that it was definitely a problem, but that Nextel had insisted they add the beep to let users know the calls were dropped, then told the service people to lie about it.
The "i315" with a smaller screen than the i58sr, but the same text strings in the firmware (so most of the menu items are wider than the screen and are only visible with line scrolling). The developers seemed to have gone through the firmware and deleted any items which were actually useful, such as "Alarm Clock", while adding a digital unit-to-unit radio which only works if you have the cell phone and walkie-talkie functions _disabled_ - a.k.a. a completely useless feature which never made it to other handset models.
At this point in my life, I wouldn't take a Motorola product - ANY Motorola product - if they paid me to take it - and Nextel has tried repeatedly. (I remember some poor Sprint telemarketer bravely going through her script offering me more and more Motorola junk as I told her more and more how much I despised all things Motorola and Nextel.)
The minute the FIC FreeRunner is available, I'll toss Motorola and Sprint/Nextel to the curb and never look back. And I'm just a _cellphone_ user - imagine the poor police/fire/rescue folks who are stuck with Motorola digital radios which don't work inside buildings, and which automatically deplete their batteries if they also carry a cellphone...
I encountered problems signing on to PPP using Nextel and IDEN - it turned out to be that the phone would try to sign on to the Nextel ISP plan via an immediate PPP connection (at $40 a month) unless you first sent an "ATZ" - that made the phone listen to the ATDT string and actually dial the number you asked for. The other problem is that you can have strong signal, but >2000 ms ping times - it can be an excruciatingly slow data link.
The Motorola I58SR phone for Nextel has two speakers, one at your ear, and a "speakerphone" speaker elsewhere in the handset. Due to assinine design, there is a loud "beep" generated in the _ear_ speaker when a call is lost due to low signal. The ear speaker is also where ring tones
come out - so you'd better pray nobody is calling you if you put in your earphone and try to make a call...
Of course, the low signal beep comes only when you've cranked up the volume and have the phone (with its water-resistant rubber seal) pressed tightly to your ear to hear the difficult-to-hear caller whose signal you're losing. I've actually thrown the phone in pain (once it broke my car windshield) after getting "beeped".
What's even stupider is that previous phones (like the I1000) had the same problem, but there was a software patch issued almost immediately to move ringing and "beep" to the speakerphone speaker. Now Motorola and Nextel tech support departments both deny any knowledge of ever having heard of the problem, ever having had anyone report the issue (even though _I_ have, and I know several others who have - note to all tech support departments: if you don't bother to track bugs, you can just deny you've ever heard of them before, and never have to fix them!).
I'm sure this would make a nice class action lawsuit, if any legal beagles are reading...
On 14 July I got an email from "etrade@etrade.p0.com", with links like "http://etrade.p03.com/u.d?kknMAEgJGVM4rIf=50" - not a joke, that's a _REAL_ E*Trade sponsored link. I reported it to abuse@etrade.com and the SEC, and got an email back from E*Trade saying it was for real. They're using some service called "Yesmail" to distribute their scam - er - that is - their marketing. Worse, it's all about changing your account number, changing their mailing address - the only way it could have looked more like a scam is if they'd said they were E*Trade's Nigerian branch. The SEC said, more or less, 'We'll look into it, and we'll never let you know anything about it - it's all a secret. Now go away.'
On the plus side, after I sent a nastygram back to E*Trade (where I equated their email to criminal negligence) they said "I am quite sory for such concern as this email has caused. We are reviewing such feedback as you have sent in to determine how we might better tailor our emails to alleviate such concern." (Which may or may not be legalese for "Get Stuffed".)
With friends like this helping us keep the scams at bay, who the _hell_ needs enemies?
We saw the sparrow in CycleWorld in 1998, ordered one immediately, reservation number 38. Got it in March '00, after much design/redesign/rework by Corbin. It is absolutely the coolest vehicle we've ever owned (and we've owned more than a few vehicles.) The fit and finish was excellent, and it really looks better in person than it does in photographs. We do all our own maintenance, and have upgraded quite a few things on our bird. It'll do 100 MPH, has about a 40 mile range (which is rough on the batteries, 20 gives lots more charge cycles), carries 6 Kilowatt-Hours in its 13 batteries (i.e. it'll run your laptop _and_ your cellphone both for about 2 weeks - motive power takes orders of magnitude more juice than bit-flipping, a good freeway ramp acceleration can easily draw 300 amps at 160 volts - that's 48 KW, enough power to run ten average houses).
We've talked to (literally) over 2000 interested people in the last four years of driving, and have had hundreds of people say they'd buy one "tomorrow" if Corbin were in business, or if it was made by GM, or if it got a little better range. The big problem is battery technology. Lead acid batteries are big and heavy - even the expensive hi-tech spiral-cell units are tempramental and basically hate being discharged. Better batteries exist, like NiMH or Li-Ion, but right now they would add $4000 to the price of the vehicle - once those prices come down, the.Sparrow with a Li-ion pack could have a 200 mile range. As it sits, having a plug at work is probably a good idea.
Corbin's big problem was they had a design concept, but didn't want to listen to the expertise of the engineers they had. (They employed Jeff James, Peter Senkowski, and Claire Bell at various times - all electric vehicle experts, all ignored and blamed to greater or lesser degrees) Eventually the company collapsed in a mire of pointy-haired-boss syndrome and financial impropriety.)
I'm pleased to see that Myers is looking to improve on the design, and fix some of the things which Corbin addressed with hand-waving. (Although I must say that early on, Corbin was great about supplying parts, fixing problems, and listening to our comments. Then the money got tight.) I'd also love to see the DOT decide that there was a place on our highways for a smaller vehicle - the reason the Sparrow is a three-wheeler is that it gets around thousands of expensive, heavy, or (for an electric vehicle) downright contradictory "automobile" design requirements by being classed as a "motorcycle". However, this put weight and size restrictions on the vehicle which forced compromises on range and stability. Other countries have the concept of a mini-car, which can go at speeds above 25 MPH but may not be allowed on the highest speed freeways.
I'm also glad that there's somebody to buy a replacement windshield from - I've been worried that we'll take a stone one day, and I'll have a $14,000 paperweight!
The ultimate answer, as a motorcyclist, an electrical engineer, and a dedicated geek: With knowing in advance what we'd go through finding insurance, fixing problems, breaking drive belts, changing batteries... I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The Sparrow has been an absolute blast, a total head-turner, the ultimate conversation piece, and it's won a trophy in every car show we've entered it in - even got "People's Choice" in our home-town once!
---
Was going to tell NPR that I'd donate to Pacifica, instead. Then I got smart and checked - On pacifica imnotlinkingtothis .org main page:
"Copyright © 2000 - 2002 by the Pacifica Foundation, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Linking to or framing of any material on this site without the express written consent of the Pacifica Foundation is prohibited."
Any guesses how many other such prohibitory messages exist on user-funded websites? Sounds like we need a campaign here...