If I walk into a car dealer and my entire negotiation strategy consists of "well, my neighbor got it for $XX,XXX", they are probably just going to say "that may be true, but that is not a price we can do right now".
You have to give them a reason to give you concessions--If you are a little guy with no employees and little revenue, they might cut you a deal since you probably couldn't afford it otherwise and you might grow into a bigger business in the future. If you are a big company with hundreds of employees and you say "we can't afford anything but 80% off of retail) they are probably going to call your bluff and tell you to pay up or go away.
Unfortunately this only works for so long...I almost wish I had waited a couple more years for my metabolism to slow down before cutting out the caloric beverages.
I now pretty much only drink black coffee, tea, water, and the occasional diet coke outside of times when I am consuming alcohol...but now I think my metabolism and food consumption have about equalized and I no longer have an easy target to cut from the diet.
While I have never actually purchased a thing of protein shakes (I've enjoyed some high protein greek yogurt after exercise though), I have sampled many powders belonging to roommates/friends.
The ON whey had some flavors that were relatively tasty that I would drink on their own (if not for the fact that as a plain beverage and not a post workout supplement they are horribly bad for you so it would be a bad idea to acquire too much of a taste for them). I think it was Chocolate Mint that was the best...and it was best mixed with milk.
Then there is the cookies and cream Muscle Milk. This one I honestly have consumed a few times as a straight beverage....will probably never buy it since it is expensive as far as protein shakes go and the temptation to drink it for the taste would be too high.
I think the real problem with Bloomberg is that they are being shutout of the market. I last used them a year ago and frankly they were not much better than twitter. The advantage with Twitter is that it is free, whereas Bloomberg costs about 1900 USD per month. The only place where Bloomberg still has an advantage is its data warehouse. I have yet to find a data warehouse that is as extensive as theirs...
The advantage with Bloomberg is that it actually has data, whereas Twitter is filled with random people's mumblings?
Other than getting real time feeds of news (which twitter could be good for I suppose), bloomberg is really mostly used for data. Twitter has nothing. Bloomberg has real time and historical data on equities, bonds, corporate actions, ratings actions, analyst ratings, etc.--all available instantly with the touch of a couple of buttons on their goofy colored keyboard. Access to this data feed would give your app a ton of power; sure your users still have to pay for access to the feed, but I bet there is some way to get access to a feed of specific content for use in a standalone app for a hell of a lot less money than having a bloomberg terminal at your desk.
Yeah, but the door reader is designed to only work from close, intentional scans. It would be a huge security risk if the scan would go any time a card passed within a few feet of the door--just wait for (or trick) someone into walking near the door and fake swipe your own wallet as you walk on through like you belong there.
If you wanted a long range unit, you would just have to pump more power into it (IIRC RFID chips power themselves from the EM waves output by the reader device so sending more power out gets a stronger signal back). You could probably put out enough power that you might even damage cards that you make contact with (not like a criminal cares about breaking FCC restrictions) but it would let you pick up info from cards a reasonable distance away.
People have been using skype to do this for quite a while--I think I first made an account in 2005 or 2006 and wasn't exactly the first person on my block. Apple just delivered a complete package--phone with front facing camera (otherwise you either had to use a computer or one of those goofy cases people made with a double-mirror to aim the camera at you), software that supports video chat on said camera on day 1, and last but not least: marketing to convince people to try it.
I wish people would stop using TF2 as a shining example of the F2P model.
TF2 is an amazing F2P game, but only because the game started out as a traditional game. The new F2P model is just valve trying to eek out as much money as possible form the tail end of the game's lifespan by offering micro-purchases and then opening up the game to new players for free with the hopes that they make purchases (since it is increasingly unlikely that anyone would buy a retail copy of a game more than a couple years old).
This is great for the existing players who paid for the game at release since it bolsters the player base which means more active servers which means more opportunities for fun. It is also great for the new players since they are able to get started for free. The things you can buy (or at least craft together) *do* affect game balance in my opinion (not hats...but some players are simply better with some non-stock items for some classes...depends on your play style)--but it lets the new players attain a couple of those options quickly if they want by throwing in a few bucks (which also opens up a full inventory). Old players unlocked a ton of items by completing all of the achievements years ago so the new players get to see them in action and decide if they want to wait until they can gain them free or pay a minimum amount to get them faster and unlock the full game. In this way, it is more like an extended demo that limits your inventory slots like an MMO might limit your max level.
I truly don't think this would work for valve if not for the full retail pricetag on the game in 2007 or whenever it came out. The F2P players in TF2 aren't making payments to outpace their peers they are making a couple of payments to unlock the full inventory and bring themselves closer to par with the veteran players (and to buy pretty hats that do nothing). I don't see this as too different than WoW offering deals to new players (like not having to buy 1 game and 3 expansions at the original full price) and then making it faster to level up.
Once people start dealing in a market where resale value plays a major role, their purchasing habits will change.
A common example I hear is with Apple users who have figured out that they can upgrade to new macbook pros at release every year or two for a couple hundred bucks because the resale value on last year's model is almost full price. I've never experienced this since I always hold onto pcs and just repurpose them (or trade them to my parents) until they are broken or worthless...but when I bought a motorcycle last year, my decisions were based heavily on the understanding that I would not be the final owner of the bike and that the residual value after a couple years would be rolled into either an upgrade or into trying something new.
It is hard to say how much it effects the market on video games...but with the Apple example it really sounds like it has a noticeable effect and apple benefits from a high resale value. The guy buying last year's powerbook on ebay is clearly hunting for more of a bargain than apple can give him and the guy who is upgrading every year would probably be OK using it for another year or three if not for the strong used market (and IIRC you *have* to play the trade-up game before too long or the values fall too far and it stops being worth it).
But you can't walk into an Amazon store and buy anything. If you order online from best buy, you could just walk into a store instead. The state would have provided all sorts of things to make that possible--roads to get to the store, police and fire to make you safe while you shop there, a favorable business climate to make the store want to be open in that location, etc.
Amazon may have a presence in the state (or some "employees" like the CA affiliate deal) but they don't exist as a location to do retail business which is all handled through their WA incorporated website. Sure, this distribution center benefits from similar things, but it does it like a warehouse. There should be sufficient taxes in its business income tax, the income and other taxes paid by its employees, the taxes paid by the delivery companies, etc.--just like a warehouse (when bestbuy gets new stock from a warehouse, it doesn't pay sales tax on the items...only the consumer does).
When you pay sales tax in a store, you are saying "Thanks State, I was glad I could come here to buy this" (or "thanks state for making this store available to me but this time I decided to buy it online..but I will still be able to go return it to the store which is nice"). I am pretty sure Amazon would still sell to you without any state involvement...The state could actively dislike amazon and unless they shut down interstate shipping, they wouldn't be able to stop them from selling to you.
Of course this is all moot since the real argument should be against sales tax in general. Horrible regressive taxes that hurt the poor far more than they hurt the rich (at least some states exempt food and clothing...)
You've obviously never seen what a briefcase with a million dollars in hundreds looks like. It probably looks like the briefcase normal people carry their laptop in (well, the same size at least).
I suppose they could still claim that you repackaged it (its not like you can't reprint shipping labels) and sent them a t-shirt.
I think you best bet would still be to try to claim insurance on your package and then use the video of it being packed as evidence. If you go through the USPS, you are accusing *someone* of being a felon (either the recipient or the postal worker who stole your sweater and inexplicably replaced it with a t-shirt) while if you go through the paypal dispute process, you are agreeing to paypal's arbitration of a he-said-she-said argument where they spoke first (and your only come back is, "No I'm not a scammer, he's a scammer!"). And paypal prefers to side with the buyer since a buyer who gets screwed will probably stop using them but a lot of sellers depend on them for income and will have to keep using paypal even after getting scammed.
Even if it was a bad fake (some old fakes are actually very nice instruments made by competent makers), it is still a functional instrument that has real value.
There is probably an orchestra program at a local school who would have loved the donation of a knockoff violin but instead paypal (if the story is true) decided to be a douche--and they wonder why people don't like them?
Paypal really needs to fix the gaping holes in their dispute resolution process. I could order an expensive cashmere sweater from you, wait until it arrives and then say "hey, WTF is with this t-shirt you sent me instead of the sweater, I demand a refund". You will know that you put the sweater in the box, but paypal will ask me to return the item with shipping confirmation and then give me a refund. You'll get a box a few days later with a $2 t-shirt from a thrift store and I'll get to keep the sweater and the money.
This happens all of the time...I don't know what the best defense is (except transferring money out of paypal immediately upon receipt so the worst that can happen is you end up with a frozen paypal account with a negative balance)--I suppose your best bet would be to insure the package for the full value and then claim that someone must have stolen it in transit and replaced it with a t-shirt (either that or they are a scammer). That should get the postal inspectors to show up who are more likely to look at the evidence and decide that the scammer is a felon for attempting mail-fraud.
I'm not sure I see why giving them the ability to put money *into* your account is really a bad thing:-)
Giving them the ability to make an ACH transfer out would be bad...but your company should only have enough information to make deposits into your account which sounds like a good thing. I'm not sure what the rules are on bank transfers into the wrong account...but there might not even be an obligation to return the money if they send you too much or make an incorrect deposit (its sort of like mailing you an envelope full of cash...once a wire transfer has gone through, I think it is gone, so make sure you get the address right).
My assumption was that his prior success gave him much more sway over his publisher/editor. I bet if he had shown up with Anathem wearing a disguise, they would have said "this is great and we would love to publish it but you are going to have to work with our editor to trim a few hundred pages from it". The foundation of the story is great (and I actually enjoyed the book quite a bit) but it does go on for far too long.
Snow Crash is a fantastic book--I wouldn't be surpised if there were early drafts that look a lot like Anathem though...but back then his editor probably had a lot more power to say "no".
They don't report results impartially....they report results with the bias that they think gives the best set of results. Lately this bias has included a lot of crap pages since people have learned to optimize their content farms to show up high in search results, but in the past the bias returned the best possible results which is what drove people to use google.
I don't find it unreasonable to assume that if someone is using google for search, they might also want to use google for email or for photo sharing or for finding an address. When I search for a map on google, I want it to come up with google maps...seems goofy when it comes up with mapquest or yahoo maps or something.
If every user of your website was worth more than your salary (and you wouldn't have a job for long if your company didn't think you were worth more than they pay for you to stick around), you would probably provide pretty in-depth support to make sure they keep accessing your website.
Would you want to pay someone 80k a year to troll tech support forums from the public library because they can't seem to get their network adapter to work right?
You're forgetting that the article (and summary) are really focused on phones, and to a lesser extent, ipad type toys. This isn't about your primary workstation where the numbers never make sense.
Most people prefer to have their own phone and from an IT standpoint, they are pretty low support (configure exchange and you are pretty much done) and not as essential as a workstation (if you can't get email on your phone for a day it probably is just an inconvenience...if your laptop fails you could be screwed). Most companies also know that its better to keep your workers happy and letting you carry a single phone of your choice and play with your ipad during meetings is a good way to keep you happy while at the same time making sure you stay in contact.
I don't see that working well. Maybe in an environment where your users are a bunch of picky linux programmers who are so particular about their systems that they would never let anyone touch them...
For most places however, you would get a bunch of people with no idea how computers work (often even if their job involves heavy use of computer software and specialized programming). They buy a shiny new dell and connect to citrix or the VPN (although this seems like a great way to get a virus on your network). When the shiny new dell stops working right, they are going to call IT. Sure the problem is probably with their personal Dell, but IT is going to have to fix it.
IT might say "no, we don't support personal systems" but when bossman's Dell breaks (or bossman's employee who can't finish their work because their dell broke), they are going to order them to fix it anyway because they are losing precious billable time to a broken computer.
I have heard of this happening...my suggestion would be to keep your phone synced/backed up. The inconvenience of having to do so (to me at least) far outweighs the inconvenience of having to carry around 2 phones.
Also, I have not tested this, but I am pretty sure that the Touchdown exchange client for android will only wipe its own stuff on a remote wipe. At the very least, I know it has a setting to not wipe the SD card that is not attached to group policy (so you could just make sure to store photos and other important bits on the internal "SD" or an actual SD card)
I frequently use arcgis (mapping software, not really any less graphic intensive than cad I shouldn't think...not 3d but constantly changing visuals) over RDP.
I think it actually works better over remote desktop...the computer I connect to is a couple of xeons faster than my laptop and has a shorter hop and fatter pipe to the fileserver that stores most of the shared mapping data.
Of course that is straight RDP over 100mbps ethernet. When I do it from my home computer and cable modem (first connecting to a citrix desktop and then using the remote desktop client from there) the graphics refreshes occasionally get a little laggy but it is perfectly functional aside from the fact that my monitor at home is a lot smaller (removing the citrix layer would probably speed it up more but we can only join the VPN from trusted hardware and I don't like to bring my laptop home when I could just RDP into it)
You need to find a new job. If they are only willing to provide you junk (unless you don't actually require computers specifically to do your job), they probably don't value you much more than junk.
My company provides us good computers and takes requests if you need something (e.g. I wanted to switch to a MS ergonomic keyboard so they ordered me one).
They used to provide phones for the higher-ups, but now they do it for everyone with a business need (which is basically everyone except the mail room). The way it works is like this: If you don't want to deal with it, they buy you whatever the latest blackberry is and cover the service. The phone is yours to use as you please and you never even have to see a bill (although a lot of people who go this route just have a work phone and a personal phone which seems like a PITA).
If you want to handle the billing yourself, you get a $200 purchase allowance towards any smartphone that can synch with an exchange server plus a max of $100 a month towards the bill. You have to submit your bill every month for reimbursement but you don't have to carry a blackberry (and people who *really* want an iphone don't have to carry 2 phones).
It doesn't save the company money...they still pay the costs and if anything support costs might go up since they now support ios/android/blackberry/etc...but it makes the workers happy (though it does make them more available).
The situation is a little different than a mechanic with his tools...when I worked at a dealership, they owned their own tools (often with a small allowance and a huge discount though) but they also owned wrenches that they had been using for their entire 30 year career. Given a reasonable upgrade cycle on my laptop(plus lots of $$$ in software)/monitor/phone, you far exceed what would be reasonable for any employee to personally pay for. Plus, unlike tools which I could use at home or at other similar jobs, a lot of expensive software licenses that I need for my job would be replaced with different expensive licenses at another similar job (and unlike a case of snap-on, most of those licenses have zero resale value).
My xbmc-based htpc broke in july...I just turned on my original xbox (which was set for xbmc in 2005 or so) and was up and running with almost the same user experience just without the 1080p
I finally got a new htpc setup last week...but for playing non HD content, it is almost the same as the original xbox.
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If I walk into a car dealer and my entire negotiation strategy consists of "well, my neighbor got it for $XX,XXX", they are probably just going to say "that may be true, but that is not a price we can do right now".
You have to give them a reason to give you concessions--If you are a little guy with no employees and little revenue, they might cut you a deal since you probably couldn't afford it otherwise and you might grow into a bigger business in the future. If you are a big company with hundreds of employees and you say "we can't afford anything but 80% off of retail) they are probably going to call your bluff and tell you to pay up or go away.
I now pretty much only drink black coffee, tea, water, and the occasional diet coke outside of times when I am consuming alcohol...but now I think my metabolism and food consumption have about equalized and I no longer have an easy target to cut from the diet.
The ON whey had some flavors that were relatively tasty that I would drink on their own (if not for the fact that as a plain beverage and not a post workout supplement they are horribly bad for you so it would be a bad idea to acquire too much of a taste for them). I think it was Chocolate Mint that was the best...and it was best mixed with milk.
Then there is the cookies and cream Muscle Milk. This one I honestly have consumed a few times as a straight beverage....will probably never buy it since it is expensive as far as protein shakes go and the temptation to drink it for the taste would be too high.
I think the real problem with Bloomberg is that they are being shutout of the market. I last used them a year ago and frankly they were not much better than twitter. The advantage with Twitter is that it is free, whereas Bloomberg costs about 1900 USD per month. The only place where Bloomberg still has an advantage is its data warehouse. I have yet to find a data warehouse that is as extensive as theirs...
The advantage with Bloomberg is that it actually has data, whereas Twitter is filled with random people's mumblings?
Other than getting real time feeds of news (which twitter could be good for I suppose), bloomberg is really mostly used for data. Twitter has nothing. Bloomberg has real time and historical data on equities, bonds, corporate actions, ratings actions, analyst ratings, etc.--all available instantly with the touch of a couple of buttons on their goofy colored keyboard. Access to this data feed would give your app a ton of power; sure your users still have to pay for access to the feed, but I bet there is some way to get access to a feed of specific content for use in a standalone app for a hell of a lot less money than having a bloomberg terminal at your desk.
If you wanted a long range unit, you would just have to pump more power into it (IIRC RFID chips power themselves from the EM waves output by the reader device so sending more power out gets a stronger signal back). You could probably put out enough power that you might even damage cards that you make contact with (not like a criminal cares about breaking FCC restrictions) but it would let you pick up info from cards a reasonable distance away.
People have been using skype to do this for quite a while--I think I first made an account in 2005 or 2006 and wasn't exactly the first person on my block. Apple just delivered a complete package--phone with front facing camera (otherwise you either had to use a computer or one of those goofy cases people made with a double-mirror to aim the camera at you), software that supports video chat on said camera on day 1, and last but not least: marketing to convince people to try it.
TF2 is an amazing F2P game, but only because the game started out as a traditional game. The new F2P model is just valve trying to eek out as much money as possible form the tail end of the game's lifespan by offering micro-purchases and then opening up the game to new players for free with the hopes that they make purchases (since it is increasingly unlikely that anyone would buy a retail copy of a game more than a couple years old).
This is great for the existing players who paid for the game at release since it bolsters the player base which means more active servers which means more opportunities for fun. It is also great for the new players since they are able to get started for free. The things you can buy (or at least craft together) *do* affect game balance in my opinion (not hats...but some players are simply better with some non-stock items for some classes...depends on your play style)--but it lets the new players attain a couple of those options quickly if they want by throwing in a few bucks (which also opens up a full inventory). Old players unlocked a ton of items by completing all of the achievements years ago so the new players get to see them in action and decide if they want to wait until they can gain them free or pay a minimum amount to get them faster and unlock the full game. In this way, it is more like an extended demo that limits your inventory slots like an MMO might limit your max level.
I truly don't think this would work for valve if not for the full retail pricetag on the game in 2007 or whenever it came out. The F2P players in TF2 aren't making payments to outpace their peers they are making a couple of payments to unlock the full inventory and bring themselves closer to par with the veteran players (and to buy pretty hats that do nothing). I don't see this as too different than WoW offering deals to new players (like not having to buy 1 game and 3 expansions at the original full price) and then making it faster to level up.
A common example I hear is with Apple users who have figured out that they can upgrade to new macbook pros at release every year or two for a couple hundred bucks because the resale value on last year's model is almost full price. I've never experienced this since I always hold onto pcs and just repurpose them (or trade them to my parents) until they are broken or worthless...but when I bought a motorcycle last year, my decisions were based heavily on the understanding that I would not be the final owner of the bike and that the residual value after a couple years would be rolled into either an upgrade or into trying something new.
It is hard to say how much it effects the market on video games...but with the Apple example it really sounds like it has a noticeable effect and apple benefits from a high resale value. The guy buying last year's powerbook on ebay is clearly hunting for more of a bargain than apple can give him and the guy who is upgrading every year would probably be OK using it for another year or three if not for the strong used market (and IIRC you *have* to play the trade-up game before too long or the values fall too far and it stops being worth it).
Amazon may have a presence in the state (or some "employees" like the CA affiliate deal) but they don't exist as a location to do retail business which is all handled through their WA incorporated website. Sure, this distribution center benefits from similar things, but it does it like a warehouse. There should be sufficient taxes in its business income tax, the income and other taxes paid by its employees, the taxes paid by the delivery companies, etc.--just like a warehouse (when bestbuy gets new stock from a warehouse, it doesn't pay sales tax on the items...only the consumer does).
When you pay sales tax in a store, you are saying "Thanks State, I was glad I could come here to buy this" (or "thanks state for making this store available to me but this time I decided to buy it online..but I will still be able to go return it to the store which is nice"). I am pretty sure Amazon would still sell to you without any state involvement...The state could actively dislike amazon and unless they shut down interstate shipping, they wouldn't be able to stop them from selling to you.
Of course this is all moot since the real argument should be against sales tax in general. Horrible regressive taxes that hurt the poor far more than they hurt the rich (at least some states exempt food and clothing...)
In singles it is a giant rotating cube of cash while in 20's it would fit in a big backpack.
I think you best bet would still be to try to claim insurance on your package and then use the video of it being packed as evidence. If you go through the USPS, you are accusing *someone* of being a felon (either the recipient or the postal worker who stole your sweater and inexplicably replaced it with a t-shirt) while if you go through the paypal dispute process, you are agreeing to paypal's arbitration of a he-said-she-said argument where they spoke first (and your only come back is, "No I'm not a scammer, he's a scammer!"). And paypal prefers to side with the buyer since a buyer who gets screwed will probably stop using them but a lot of sellers depend on them for income and will have to keep using paypal even after getting scammed.
There is probably an orchestra program at a local school who would have loved the donation of a knockoff violin but instead paypal (if the story is true) decided to be a douche--and they wonder why people don't like them?
Paypal really needs to fix the gaping holes in their dispute resolution process. I could order an expensive cashmere sweater from you, wait until it arrives and then say "hey, WTF is with this t-shirt you sent me instead of the sweater, I demand a refund". You will know that you put the sweater in the box, but paypal will ask me to return the item with shipping confirmation and then give me a refund. You'll get a box a few days later with a $2 t-shirt from a thrift store and I'll get to keep the sweater and the money.
This happens all of the time...I don't know what the best defense is (except transferring money out of paypal immediately upon receipt so the worst that can happen is you end up with a frozen paypal account with a negative balance)--I suppose your best bet would be to insure the package for the full value and then claim that someone must have stolen it in transit and replaced it with a t-shirt (either that or they are a scammer). That should get the postal inspectors to show up who are more likely to look at the evidence and decide that the scammer is a felon for attempting mail-fraud.
Giving them the ability to make an ACH transfer out would be bad...but your company should only have enough information to make deposits into your account which sounds like a good thing. I'm not sure what the rules are on bank transfers into the wrong account...but there might not even be an obligation to return the money if they send you too much or make an incorrect deposit (its sort of like mailing you an envelope full of cash...once a wire transfer has gone through, I think it is gone, so make sure you get the address right).
depends what you have to poke it with
A smartphone would probably help with that ...
Snow Crash is a fantastic book--I wouldn't be surpised if there were early drafts that look a lot like Anathem though...but back then his editor probably had a lot more power to say "no".
I don't find it unreasonable to assume that if someone is using google for search, they might also want to use google for email or for photo sharing or for finding an address. When I search for a map on google, I want it to come up with google maps...seems goofy when it comes up with mapquest or yahoo maps or something.
Would you want to pay someone 80k a year to troll tech support forums from the public library because they can't seem to get their network adapter to work right?
Most people prefer to have their own phone and from an IT standpoint, they are pretty low support (configure exchange and you are pretty much done) and not as essential as a workstation (if you can't get email on your phone for a day it probably is just an inconvenience...if your laptop fails you could be screwed). Most companies also know that its better to keep your workers happy and letting you carry a single phone of your choice and play with your ipad during meetings is a good way to keep you happy while at the same time making sure you stay in contact.
For most places however, you would get a bunch of people with no idea how computers work (often even if their job involves heavy use of computer software and specialized programming). They buy a shiny new dell and connect to citrix or the VPN (although this seems like a great way to get a virus on your network). When the shiny new dell stops working right, they are going to call IT. Sure the problem is probably with their personal Dell, but IT is going to have to fix it.
IT might say "no, we don't support personal systems" but when bossman's Dell breaks (or bossman's employee who can't finish their work because their dell broke), they are going to order them to fix it anyway because they are losing precious billable time to a broken computer.
Also, I have not tested this, but I am pretty sure that the Touchdown exchange client for android will only wipe its own stuff on a remote wipe. At the very least, I know it has a setting to not wipe the SD card that is not attached to group policy (so you could just make sure to store photos and other important bits on the internal "SD" or an actual SD card)
I think it actually works better over remote desktop...the computer I connect to is a couple of xeons faster than my laptop and has a shorter hop and fatter pipe to the fileserver that stores most of the shared mapping data. Of course that is straight RDP over 100mbps ethernet. When I do it from my home computer and cable modem (first connecting to a citrix desktop and then using the remote desktop client from there) the graphics refreshes occasionally get a little laggy but it is perfectly functional aside from the fact that my monitor at home is a lot smaller (removing the citrix layer would probably speed it up more but we can only join the VPN from trusted hardware and I don't like to bring my laptop home when I could just RDP into it)
My company provides us good computers and takes requests if you need something (e.g. I wanted to switch to a MS ergonomic keyboard so they ordered me one).
They used to provide phones for the higher-ups, but now they do it for everyone with a business need (which is basically everyone except the mail room). The way it works is like this: If you don't want to deal with it, they buy you whatever the latest blackberry is and cover the service. The phone is yours to use as you please and you never even have to see a bill (although a lot of people who go this route just have a work phone and a personal phone which seems like a PITA).
If you want to handle the billing yourself, you get a $200 purchase allowance towards any smartphone that can synch with an exchange server plus a max of $100 a month towards the bill. You have to submit your bill every month for reimbursement but you don't have to carry a blackberry (and people who *really* want an iphone don't have to carry 2 phones).
It doesn't save the company money...they still pay the costs and if anything support costs might go up since they now support ios/android/blackberry/etc...but it makes the workers happy (though it does make them more available).
The situation is a little different than a mechanic with his tools...when I worked at a dealership, they owned their own tools (often with a small allowance and a huge discount though) but they also owned wrenches that they had been using for their entire 30 year career. Given a reasonable upgrade cycle on my laptop(plus lots of $$$ in software)/monitor/phone, you far exceed what would be reasonable for any employee to personally pay for. Plus, unlike tools which I could use at home or at other similar jobs, a lot of expensive software licenses that I need for my job would be replaced with different expensive licenses at another similar job (and unlike a case of snap-on, most of those licenses have zero resale value).
I finally got a new htpc setup last week...but for playing non HD content, it is almost the same as the original xbox.