I am sure that Mr. Stephenson is just as sick of seeing his face in the media lately as we are.  And unless you are going to reverse the Data Charges that are to go into effect soon, Mr. Stephenson, we would like you to stay out of it.  with the most regard of course. 

This is just laughable.  The official statement by AT&T is in my opinion their way of trying to backpedal out of a very slippery slope. 

We are apologizing to our customer. We’re working with him today to address his questions and concerns. This is not the way we want to treat customers. From Facebook to significant customer service channels, AT&T strives to provide our customers with easy ways to have their questions addressed. Because of this incident, we are reviewing our entire process to ensure a situation like this does not happen again.

As if they had no clue as to their policies and how things would be handled.  Please.

So what’s your take on this?

Serious or skeptical?

Or are you just sick of the carrier games?

[Engadget]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to introduce myself to you.  I am the Sprint EVO 4G.  Today is my birthday, and you can find me on CDMA carrier Sprint.  There are several exciting features that I boast, including 4G network speed capabilities, a huge screen (4.3 inches if you are too shy to ask) and a few other goodies.  Check out more about what I will offer you here.  You can also check out my full details and specs, including my HTC Sense UI enabled Android 2.1 operating system, at the Sprint website, albeit right now my page is a bit slow to load.

Aside from my awe inspiring feature set that is generously integrated by my manufacturer HTC, I modestly present myself to you as a fine specimen of tech beauty.  Here are a few of my photos, gathered from around the web.  Enjoy!

This is me, rocking my integrated kickstand in horizontal layout. Courtesy of The-Gadgeteer.com.

Here's my camera. Did I mention it's 8 MP?! Courtesy of IntoMobile.com.

Here's another shot of me, this time from the front. Courtesy of IntoMobile.com.

In case I haven’t mentioned before or made it known, I’m the Sprint EVO 4G.  Today is my birthday, and watch out world!

[img 1: PC World]

As it does seem that AT&T has grown fangs and legs and lives under your bed, well actually that may be exactly what has happened. 

If you have been following along this week you may have noticed this trend.  First it was that AT&T announced they where going to slash data plans to an almost unusable oblivion.  Then when someone decides to speak up about it they get threats of legal action. 

Maybe this is their way of saying I’m sorry?  Doubtful but AT&T did say that users can keep their $30 unlimited data plan when upgrading.  However, if you want to take advantage of tethering you will have to switch to a capped data pro plan and pay the extra $20 for the tethering.

I am currently an AT&T subscriber and can’t personally say anything worse about them then any any other carrier.  I was with Sprint in it’s infancy, Alltel for a contract, and with Centennial before I got sick of them and opted out for AT&T before the merger happened. 

I choose GSM not because it has the best coverage, As I don’t agree that any of them do, but rather because MY wife has a Blackberry and I use a Sony Ericsson Windows Mobile phone.  I have never agreed with the outrageous usage charges so I opt for phones that allow me to be “unsupported”.  A Windows Phone is a Windows Phone and a Blackberry is a Blackberry.  But if done right the unlimited data plans can be $10 a month.  Oh, and I can tether my brains out too.  Maybe I’m rogue or maybe I’m slick. 

For an FYI no she can’t use the blackberry services but I’ve also never been too keen on those either.  She still gets Gmail on her device and I’ve never understood why that isn’t good enough.  And whenever I want to switch Just pop in a SIM card and nobody is the wiser.  I would imagine that I could get an unlocked iPhone jailbroke and tether just as I do my phone now.  Not exact on that but most likely. 

If my math is right I save $240 on someone that just upgrades their AT&T phone.  For that price you can always buy outright.

So the question is, Why do you have the carrier you do?

What will make you switch plans?   

Is your current carrier getting under your collar?

Let us know your thoughts.

[Engadget]

AT&T’s CEO, Randall Stephenson

…or you’re gonna feel the wrath of their legal department…  Really..?  REALLY..?!?

I saw this on Engadget and just had to say something.  This is probably one of the biggest BONE HEAD moves I’ve seen from a CEO, especially in the wake of AT&T’s controversial data plan fee increase.  AT&T sent their legal team after one of their customers after he sent 2 (yes, just TWO) e-mails to AT&T’s CEO Randall Stephenson, over the course of two weeks.  This is one of the rudest things I’ve ever seen come from a public figure.

Huh?  Wait… Public figure, you may ask.  Yes, folks…PUBLIC figure.

You see, AT&T is a publically traded company.  Anyone can purchase AT&T stock; and that company’s CEO is the public face of that organization, and is subject to public scrutiny (as the CEO of BP is quickly finding out). For all that Randall Stephenson knew at the time of this incident, the customer in question, Giorgio Galante, could also be a share holder (and I really, REALLY hope that he is).

See, Giorgio Galante sent AT&T’s CEO two emails over the period of two weeks, resulting in a phone call from AT&T’s Executive Response Team; and a warning that further emails will result in a cease and desist letter. From the Engadget article,

What did Giorgio’s emails say? The first was a request to bump up his iPhone eligibility date and a request for a tethering option, and today’s outlined his displeasure with AT&T’s new data rates and ultimate decision to switch to Sprint and the EVO 4G. That prompted "Brent" to call Giorgio back and thank him for the feedback, but also politely warn him that further emails would be met with legal action.

AT&T…

Legal action…  Really..?!  LEGAL action?  After only two (2) e-mails..? 

Now, could these e-mails have been sent to some OTHER, perhaps more appropriate AT&T employee?  Could Randall have handled this differently? (Say… passing the mail to a customer service VP/Director..?  Contacting his IT VP so that Giorgio’s e-mail address is filtered and blocked..?  Or maybe just simply IGNORING Giorgio’s just TWO e-mails..?  Just sayin’…) Of course; but that’s not the point. 

Randall Stephenson is the face of AT&T; and one of HIS customer’s was resourceful enough to find his e-mail address and to contact him about a couple of concerns he had.  Again, for all that Randall Stephenson knew Giorgio could have been an AT&T stock holder.

In a world where Steve Jobs ACTIVELY and openly communicates DIRECTLY with customers, (and he likely has a LOT of customers e-mailing him) having one of Apple’s PREMIER partners respond to one of their customers (remember, this guys is an Apple customer too… he has an iPhone…) in such a manner is a bad, BAD move.

If *I* were Steve Jobs, I’d get on the horn IMMEDIATELY and school the pants off of Randall Stephenson and his Executive Response Team.  Randall’s comments lost not only a customer for AT&T, but for Apple as well, as Giorgio (likely) won’t buy a new Apple iPhone after its announced this month.  He just bought an HTC product on a different carrier; and committed to a new 2 year contract. 

That’s NO 4G iPhone, NO 4G iPhone Apple Care, and NO 4G iPhone accessories for Apple (not to mention the really crappy new data plans that AT&T is releasing next week.) Steve… you might want to jump on that…  I mean, how many people is Giorgio gonna talk to?  How many people are going to read this and the Engadget article?  How many other technology sites and blogs are gonna pick up this story..?  God forbid either article gets Slash-dotted…

Randall Stephenson owes Giorgio Galante a personal apology… at the VERY least.  But that’s just me.  I neither love nor hate AT&T as a corporation.  While I left AT&T for T-Mobile about 3 months ago, it had nothing to do with their fees, their policies or their people.  It had everything to do with their poor voice and data coverage here in Chicago.

I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below.  Please feel free to add your voice to this story…

In case you missed it, T-Mobile re-released their HD2 ROM with the reasoning for the pull this time being bandwidth issues.

We had a user comment on what we Posted about the pulling of the ROM.

I have the upgrade running on my HD2 and it has gave me nothing but awesomeness, phone works a ton better then when it shipped and I have not had a single battery pull or reset since the update, visual voice mail working, no more text bug, and supper fast,”NO LAGG”,…So I have to say in my opinion the upgrade works wonders.

So it appears that all is well with the ROM, and no changes have been made to the build.

Let us know your thoughts on the new ROM, below.

[WMPoweruser]