Once upon a time I was driving after dark on a windy unlit road in Westport Connecticut and as I got close to a blind curve on a hill I noticed a car pulled over on one side of the road and an incapacitated deer in the middle of the other. I did some calculations in my head and determined that traffic headed toward that deer wouldn’t be able to see him in time to make an evasive maneuver and that the deer, whom I’ll go ahead and personify for narrative effect as Mister Deer, was presenting a major hazard so I thought I’d do a good deed and pull over to drag him out of the way for the deer scooper man to deal with later.

As I approached Mister Deer, I saw that he was alive and conscious. I heard a car approaching, bam, the deer tumbled underneath was now twenty feet further away from me and the car kept going (Toyota maybe?). I was briefly relieved that there was no serious accident and that the deer was surely dead this time but as I got closer I saw that the deer was still alive and kicking. Five seconds pass, history repeated itself and if you can believe it he was still alive. Resilient little fella. That has got to be some kind of Westport deer record for surviving so many abrupt introductions to fenders, windshields and tires.

Depending on how your mind works this is going to get a little more disturbing. Don’t judge me.

I have a healthy relationship with animals. I like petting them (I’m really good at it, I know all the special spots) but I don’t mind eating them, I don’t carry around buckets of red paint either and I don’t give to PETA. I’m not a hunter. But Mister Deer needed to die right quick and the three cars had proven ineffective.

At the time I wasn’t packing so I asked myself what MacGyver would do. I surveyed the scene, found a bowling ball-sized rock, hauled it toward Mister Deer, fired off a quick prayer for good aim, acquired the appropriate target (we maintained eye contact actually), I raised the rock way up high, then I swiftly did the opposite — goodnight Mister Deer, may you heal a lot during your ascent into Deer Heaven.

Finally managed to accomplish my initial objective, got him and the improvised gravitational device out of the way. The woman who had first hit him was hysterical throughout all of this (did you know that the the Greeks came up with that word because they believed that it only afflicted women and was therefore triggered by disturbances in the uterus?) so I went up to her, told her that it wasn’t her fault, could have been anyone, the deer wasn’t suffering anymore, “maybe you should talk to someone about this tomorrow,” yada yada yada, and was Oscar Mike.

Doug Simmons

• showing map in fullscreen
• finger friendly user interface
• map tiles are automatically downloaded if internet connection is available
• map tiles are stored locally for offline use
• GPS support and GSM triangulation
• show actual position on map
• follow-mode to automatically scroll the map
• search addresses (testing)
• calculate routes (not yet implemented)
• gps and gsm tracking (not yet implemented)
• choose between different OSM servers (not yet implemented)

Download this app here. It is still a work in progress. So try it out and give the developer some feedback at his XDA thread.

I bought three batteries advertised on eBay as being OEM/HTC. Two of the three were counterfeits. It seems there is a sea of counterfeit batteries and that ain’t right so I want to waste a ton of time trying to do something about it. If you get burned with a fake OEM or otherwise unsatisfactory battery, here’s how I recommend you handle it: First hit the seller with a negative feedback rating using language like “counterfeit” and “fraud” then contact the seller demanding your money back — but not in exchange for sending the battery back as, and you can advise them of this if asked, sending something that is fake in exchange for money, either normal money or refunded money, may constitute mail fraud. I wouldn’t worry about being prosecuted, but why make the schlep to the post office just so they can make sure there isn’t any loose evidence of their fraud? And you don’t want to mail it back just so they can sell it to someone else. If you’re not sure if your battery is copacetic or not and want to run it by me, I’ll test that sucker for you and even cover the return postage, no problem (but right now I can only charge Tilt 2 batteries, sorry everyone else).

The one legit OEM, by the way, came from Brooklyn.

These people are desperate to protect their feedback rating so you have some leverage here, at least enough to get your money back if not more. Actually by this point you may already have gotten your money back but let’s aim higher: In exchange for retracting your negative feedback in exchange for a neutral rating and not pursuing the situation further with eBay, PayPal, HTC, or if there actually is any, an equivalent their country has of a better business bureau, ask for the contact information of their supplier or the manufacturer. There are so many resellers that it’s pointless to try to report them all but getting information on who’s cooking up the bathtub batteries with the fake labels, now we’re talking. About what exactly I don’t know yet but it just feels like the right direction to head. I could use your help in getting that information in order to have any affect at all on this dirty industry so let us all benefit from your being victimized and not let the deal die in vain.

But it’s a safe bet they won’t cough that information up (at least the two I tried to pressure wouldn’t). So, demand next (in exchange for the bad feedback retraction) that they take the listing down of the fake item along with any duplicates, searching through their other listings for others of the same item. If they won’t do that, for your next counteroffer I would recommend to retract your negativity and stop breaking their balls if they would just remove any reference of HTC, OEM, HTC model numbers and the like — anything misleading buyers viewing the item into thinking it’s OEM. That’s just too much not to feed back negatively over. If they won’t do that, leave the negative feedback intact, sting them with a counterfeit report to eBay and move on in life.

So that’s what I did with Lovely Betty from Hong Kong. It’s both a good how-to for this situation and an amusing read. Sweet girl, so polite and even left me and now you too with a happy ending. Hit more so I can hit you back with the transcript.

Doug Simmons

On 3/6/2010 8:22 PM, eBay Member: ibestone wrote:
—————————————————————–
eBay sent this message to Douglas Simmons.
—————————————————————–
negative feedback
—————————————————————–

Dear sir,

We notice that you put a neagative feedback to us to claim the
defective battery.

We are very sorry to hear that news, and would like
to solve the problem for you. Solve problem will be more important to feel
unsatisfied.

Could you please tell us the problem in detail? Then we can
come to see what is the problem of the battery. Please feel at ease, we
will do our utmost to solve the problem for you.

Sorry for the
incovience, and hope you can understand. Thank you!

We are looking
forward to hearing from you. Thank you!

Best regards
Betty

2010/3/7 Doug Simmons

On your listing you identify this battery as the 35H00125-07M HTC (OEM) 1500mAh battery for the HTC Touch Pro2. However the battery’s performance, though not “defective” per se, is inferior to that of the actual OEM battery of the same model number. Most importantly, the battery’s label is a counterfeit. This is fraud. Mail fraud, specifically.

If you’d like I would be happy to carbon copy you testing data and photographs I send to HTC comparing your battery to three different legitimate OEM models’ physical appearance and charts of their electric performance that illustrate beyond any doubt that this battery is fake which is disturbing because you sell many batteries also identified as OEM batteries.

Perhaps you were unaware of and not complicit in this and that your supplier has been cheating you without your knowledge in addition to your customers. Please tell me who the supplier is and how to contact them and I will recant my negative rating and leave you out of this.

Doug

On 3/7/2010 12:21 AM, yongbo li wrote:

Hi£¬

Thanks for your reply.

We are sorry for the incovience, because we are not the expert on this field.

We just called the people who sell the item to us, and they told us they are also a distributor. They won’t tell us the information about the company since they it is their business secret. I think I need to respect his professional ethics, but we have told him the problem, and he promise to find another reliable manufactures.

Sorry for the incovience, we do not want to make our customer unhappy with every transaction with us. Hope you can understand us. Whether you will revise the feedback, we would appreciate you, you are really a understandable customer.

Best regards
Betty

2010/3/7 Doug Simmons

All right, so you feel that damaging relations between you and the people you pay for these fake batteries by somehow exposing them is more threatening to your business that I am. Perhaps you’re right, but it’s a shame because maybe if you built a reputation for selling legitimate batteries at competitive prices, you could achieve greater success as so many seem to do what you are doing, selling fakes, and the market of legitimacy is potentially ripe. Instead, by contributing to the counterfeit market, you are ultimately driving more sales to the legitimate dealers and driving away potential customers from yourself when they find out about the likes of you before they make a decision to buy. And those consumers are beginning to share information more aggressively than before.

Just a polite suggestion from a gweilo.

So, Betty, protect the secrets of a criminal enterprise if you must but please send me a what I paid for, a legitimate HTC/OEM 1500mAh battery. Then I will remove this negative ebay feedback and call it even.

Doug Simmons

——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Re: negative feedback
Date: Sun, 7 Mar 2010 15:18:00 +0800
From: yongbo li
To: Doug Simmons

Hi,
Thanks for your quick reply.
Firstly, I want to say I am very sorry for the incovience. I sell the OEM battery to my customers since it will be much cheaper than the original. But maybe due to my poor professional, I made the mistake. I will care it.
I will refund you to show our sorry. But could you please wait for a while since I need to come to having a meeting. Thank you!
Best regards
betty

2010/3/8 Doug Simmons

Betty,

Thanks for refunding my money. I am dismayed that you continue to sell what you know to be a counterfeit battery (along, presumably, with 96 others), still identifying it falsely as the 35H00125-07M 1500mAh not just on the battery itself but right on the ebay listing in plain text. Not only, as we both know, is it not the HTC 35H00125-07M, your supplier actually screwed up the labeling as that model number, if you’d Google it, belongs to HTC’s 1100mAh version. That’s not only fraudulent, it’s sloppy and stupid. Maybe you should ask your bootlegging suppliers to try a little harder.

Because you might have kids to feed and this is all I’m going to get out of you I will retract the rating provided that, at the very least, please remove the “* Model No..: RHOD160, 35H00125-07M” from every listing you have for this particular battery. I’ll retract the rating and leave you alone and not test any of your other batteries. I will move on to someone else, I won’t get more help from eBay against you, I won’t email HTC pictures and your links and so on. The picture of the back label (along with the branding on the other side of the label) is misleading enough but listing the model number too? That’s just crossing the line and you know it Betty. But if you leave it there or take it off for a while then put it back I will have someone else you do not know buy the battery from you to send to me to test again and if there is further disappointment I won’t be so understanding.

Remove the model number from these listings and send me the feedback revision request, please.

Good night.
Doug Simmons

On 3/7/2010 10:57 PM, yongbo li wrote:

Hi,
Thanks for your reply.
Thank you for your notice. We are not attempt to sell the item, but we need to arrange the report for the problem, and hand it to our manager, then we can end the listing with his permit. It is the neccessory progress, and hope you can understand.
Today, I get the reply from the manager, and have ended the listing. You can check it.
I have sent your the feedback revision request, please accept it. Thank you!
Thank you for your understanding and kindness again.

Best regards
Betty

2010/3/8 Doug Simmons

Thank you Betty. I have fixed the negative feedback. Have a good day and good luck.

Doug Simmons

It is quite easy to sync your contacts, calendar, tasks, and emails between Windows Mobile Pocket Outlook on your phone and Office Outlook on your PC using Microsoft ActiveSync. However, ActiveSync doesn’t help if you use Thunderbird or Sunbird on your PC and not Microsoft Outlook. 

That is when BirdieSync helps you out. It syncs all Pocket Outlook contacts, emails, calendar, and tasks using ActiveSync. The synchronization happens automatically as soon as you connect your mobile to your computer. The most recent changes on any device you sync are synced to the other devices.  This ensures that everything is in sync on all devices.  It also supports the synchronization with WebDAV, calDAV and WCAP remote calendars.

You can try the trial version available with full functionality for 21 days before you buy the program. Read more details and the system requirements on the main website.

Read More…

But I came across something you should be aware of as, and maybe I’m just naive, it never crossed my mind until I finished testing a battery identified on eBay and labeled accordingly as belonging to HTC that there are counterfeits out there. In this case, what I’ll call its voltage fingerprint was consistent with a no name I had previously bought and in addition to being a fake, incidentally it was the poorest performer.

The OEMs aren’t cheap but are still desirable for reasons every third party battery I’ve tested so far have illustrated. If you want one, do not try to hunt down a deal on eBay. Get it directly from a source you trust. Even if the guy has four thousand positive ratings, presume you’re buying a random no name that will perform accordingly otherwise you’ll feel violated and saddened as I feel right now. Yes this one was cheap and not that bad a deal even for a no name of similar performance but damnit I wanted a new OEM, not a lookalike which performed 10% worse than my seven month old OEM.

Especially do not trust the seller if the battery, allegedly OEM or otherwise, in question will be shipped from China which, as I found out very awkwardly the other night, is not Taiwan. Just when you think you’ve lowered your expectations sufficiently about a country… man.

Doug Simmons

According to PPCGeeks forum user brent372 (who evidently works for Verizon), Big Red is aiming to update its Touch Pro 2 (again) with a build of Sense 2.5.

Although it it just rumored at this point, this update would be a welcomed updated for most of us that use Verizon’s Touch Pro 2.

Get the rest of the story here: http://www.wmexperts.com/verizon-touch-pro-2-getting-sense-25-where-art-thou-sprint

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• Touch Pro 2
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Get your ZAGG skins here: http://www.zagg.com/zaggskins/index.php?intcmp=top_nav_btn

Today, we’re glad to share that you can now use Kinoma Play on your phone to watch over 1,800 FORA.tv videos on demand.

“Fora” is the Latin plural of “forum”, and in that spirit Kinoma Play’s FORA.tv channel features “you are there” videos about the day’s most important technological, science,business, and cultural issues — all gathered from leading thinkers, institutions and conferences.

FORA.tv was selected for TIME.com’s 50 Best Websites of 2009, and we think you’ll find it to be one of the 50 best content collections in Kinoma Play, too.

Where to find it

You can find FORA.tv in Kinoma Guide > Arts & Culture > FORA.tv.

Enjoy!

As usual, this new Kinoma Guide content is free for all Kinoma Play customers.

If you have favorite podcasts, radio stations, video streams or other media, send a URL and short description to content@kinoma.com and we’ll add them to Kinoma Guide for all Kinoma Play customers to discover and enjoy.

Source: http://kinoma.com/

“In a world where there are companies who have thousands of customers, the customers tend to get overlooked or viewed as a metric based on revenue. This program shows me Sprint sees my loyalty and I am not just a revenue stream.”

• Six-Month Plan Check: Premier moved beyond simply reminding customers every six months to use Sprint’s online plan optimizer to instead proactively doing a six-month plan check for customers and letting them know if there’s another plan that provides them more value.
• Anniversary Rewards: Every year, customers get a “thank you gift” for their loyalty. Now customers have the choice of a $5 service credit to their account or 75 voice bonus minutes.
• Premier Community Forum: The official launch of an online user community for Premier customers. A forum to chat with fellow Premier customers, or talk directly with the Premier program managers about questions or ideas for Premier.
• Premier website: This newly designed site (www.sprint.com/premier) is available to both Premier and non-Premier customers to stay on top of Premier eligibility and program benefits.

In addition to these new benefits, Sprint Premier customers continue to enjoy:

• Early Upgrades: Customers can upgrade their primary line nearly twice as fast as other customers. A new two-year agreement is required.
• Accessory Discounts: Available in Sprint Retail stores only, Premier customers have the added benefit of getting accessories for their new phones at a great discount.
• “Just Because” Perks: Spontaneous special offers for trips, tickets to shows and sporting events and other special perks– just to say thanks.
• First to Know: Premier customers get an early heads-up on the Premier community when select new service plans, phones or other big news is about to be announced publicly.
• Sprint Premier Newsletter: Premier customers receive the Sprint Premier Connection e-newsletter every month with information designed specifically for them.

“Much like in the workforce, when you are rewarded or given special treatment, it goes a long way….Sprint has tapped into this with this program,” said Brice Bertram, a Sprint Premier customer. “In a world where there are companies who have thousands of customers, the customers tend to get overlooked or viewed as a metric based on revenue. This program shows me Sprint sees my loyalty and I am not just a revenue stream.”

“Since we launched Premier, the program has driven higher satisfaction with customers in the program and they have expressed to us how satisfied they are with the additional benefits they receive,” said John Carney, senior vice president of consumer marketing at Sprint. “Equally important is that over the last year, we have enhanced the program. Many of the changes we’ve made today are a result of direct customer feedback on how to take Sprint Premier from good to great.”

Once you’ve been a Sprint customer for six months, eligibility requirements for Sprint Premier are simple: 1) Maintain a 3-month average rate plan of at least $69.99 for individuals or at least $99.99 for shared plans; or 2) have been a Sprint wireless customer for at least 10 years. Sprint’s most popular plans, including those with Any Mobile, Anytime^SM, automatically qualify for Premier. For more information regarding Sprint Premier eligibility and benefits, visit sprint.com/premier.

Sprint Nextel

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two wireless networks serving more than 48 million customers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2009 and the first 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. The company’s customer-focused strategy has led to improved first call resolution and customer care satisfaction scores. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

BGR

And if you plan to be the first in line on March 24th to get your very own HTC HD2, plan on being very pleasantly surprised at the price! The HD2 with all it’s 1gHz Snapdragon goodness will only set you back $199 with a two year contract minus rebates of course. Contract free purchasers will only be set back $449.99.

No too shabby for a device with so much under the hood.

Pricing thanks to TmoNews via WMPU/WME