02/22/2012

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Unboxing

12/10/2011 By

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone ReviewWe received our Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone yesterday and have made a video of the unboxing as part of our series of reviews on the cellphone and service provider.

The video is provided below, some of the highlights were:

  • Environmentally friendly packaging
  • Minimal packaging
  • Fedx delivery

Contents included:

  • Optimus Cellphone w/ 3.2 MP camera and 2GB microSD card installed
  • Power adapter
  • USB cord for power
  • Battery
  • SD card adapter for microUSB card
  • Republic Wireless stickers
  • Card with link info to their website for MyAccount, Forums, etc.

 

 

 

Additional photos:

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone TopRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Bottom

Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone FrontRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone BackRepublic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Side 1Republic Wireless Optimus Cellphone Side2

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , ,

Bad Hair Day: Blagojevich sentenced to 14 years

12/07/2011 By

Blagojevich convictedFormer Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich was sentenced to 14 years in prison on 18 corruption counts, including trying to sell President Obama’s old Senate seat.

The former Governor had spent the last few years publicly promoting his innocence on television and in news reports.

Blagojevich, in a last plea for mercy, tried an apology. After years of insisting he was innocent, the twice-elected Democrat told the judge he’d made “terrible mistakes” and acknowledged that he had broken the law — even as he maintained that at the time he did not know he was breaking the law.

As the judge announced the sentence, which includes a $20,000 fine, Blagojevich hunched forward and his face appeared frozen. Minutes later, his wife, Patti Blagojevich, stood up and fell into her husband’s arms. He pulled back to brush tears off her cheek and then rubbed her shoulders.

On his way out of the courthouse, Blagojevich said it was a time to be strong, to fight through adversity and be strong for his children. He said he and wife were heading home to speak to their daughters, and then left without answering any questions.

Read more
Many legal experts expect many legal experts said the Blagojevich was likely to get around 10 years. Don’t look for a repeat appearance on Celebrity Apprentice anytime soon.

 

Filed Under: Politics Tagged With: , , ,

Paradigm Shift: Republic Wireless Review

12/02/2011 By

republic wireless reviewIn case you’ve been living under a rock for the past month, you may not have heard about the newest cellphone wireless provider: Republic Wireless.

Republic Wireless is a start-up wireless carrier with an intriguing offer: $19 a month (plus tax) unlimited everything wireless service.

  • Unlimited minutes, data, & text
  • No contracts or early termination fees
  • No overages, ever!

Sound to good to be true? We thought so, so we decided to check it out.

Republic turns out to be a Sprint Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). What this means to you and me is that as we use our Republic Wireless cellphone as a cellphone, it rides on Sprint’s network for $19 a month, with unlimited usage.

Unlimited Sprint Usage?

Not really. What Republic Wireless does is use existing WiFi networks in a “Hybrid Model” whenever possible to cut down on your use of the Sprint cellular network. Since WiFi is free, there is no cost to Republic Wireless when you are on WiFi for calls or data. That’s how they can offer such a low monthly rate for “unlimited” usage.

The trick is transparency to the user

The way this is supposed to work is once you load the WiFi information for a location into your phone, the phone remembers it and automatically switches between Sprint’s cellphone service and WiFi whenever it detects the signal.

This transparent switching is the key. If I’m talking on the phone in the car and then walk into my home, the phone should switch between the cellular and WiFi networks automatically, seamlessly, and transparently. No dropped calls, missed calls, pops, disconnects, etc.

Think about it

When I’m at home, I have WiFi. When I’m at work, I have WiFi. Library – yes, McDonalds – yes, Starbucks – yes, Panera Bread – yes, most coffee shops or restaurants – yes, some municipalities – yes! It turns out that for most of our day, we are in WiFi range. When you are driving there is no WiFi, but while you may be talking, you’re not supposed to be texting or running data programs (except maps).

This may be a paradigm shift in wireless

We really like this idea. The idea of cutting cellphone bills from $80/month to $20/month saves $720/year. More phones? More savings. Your parents grew up paying $6/month for phone service and got TV reception for free. Now we spend $200 – $300 a month for the same service. That’s $2,400 – $3,600 a year to use the phone and watch TV…

Have you actually listened to the quality of a voice call on a cellphone lately? It stinks. The prices have gone up while the quality has gone down.

Why pay more for the same service? This is the promise of Republic Wireless. This is also the promise that should have ATT, Verizon, and TMobile shaking in their boots. It actually may help Sprint in the long run.

Metro PCS, Boost Mobile, Net10, and the other low cost carriers? They are toast. They will either have to change to the “hybrid” model, or die.

If it works, it is revolutionary. It will change the future of wireless.

Before you jump in, note that there are some requirements on phone usage. Republic Wireless calculates your Cellular Usage Index (CUI) based upon your last 7 days of activity. If it goes too high, they warn you and suggest ways to lower it. If you’re continually high, they ask you to leave.

What this means is that you need to be using WiFi for a good part of your month’s cellphone usage or you will be terminated. How much is too much?

Even assuming 0% wifi usage, for example, you could consume 550 minutes, send 150 texts, and download 300 megabytes of data without crossing the community’s fair use threshold.

Over time, if you don’t bring your CUI back into a reasonable range, we’ll help you find a more suitable, traditional cellular carrier. more…

We still believe the cellular maximum usage combined with the abundance of WiFi networks makes this $19 a month service a winner.

Is it worth a try?

We thought so. Republic only offered one phone at launch, the LG Optimus Android phone with our Hybrid Calling technology and Google’s Android version 2.3. It was $199 but we used a discount code for $100 off. Tough too beat that.

We were one of the lucky ones who actually managed to get through and purchase the phone before they sold out on day one. Right now, they are not accepting new customers. I’m sure they expected sales, I’m just not sure they knew how revolutionary this would be.

Our smartphone is due to ship on December 8th and we are awaiting it with optimistic trepidation. We will report here on the unboxing and setup, and follow it with several usage reviews. It should be fun so stay tuned and bookmark our site or follow us on Twitter for the latest reviews.

 

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: , , , ,

The Unseen Hand: Fed Policy and Inflation

12/01/2011 By

Federal Reserve International PolicyThere was quite a rally this week in the US stock market. On the last day of November, the DJIA rose over 480 points in one of the 7 largest gains in Dow history.

The “reason” for this gain seemed to be an overnight agreement by the European Central banks to ease the strains on European banks by easing credit in unison. Coincidentally, China reduced its reserve rate, freeing up more capital from the East.

Because Europe is in such a funk, money markets in the US and other dollar denominated markets had reduced lending to European banks by 50 to 70 percent recently.

So those “stress tested” European banks were all faltering on the brink and something had to be done.

Enter the unseen hand of Federal Reserve Policy, your tax dollars, inflation, and the destruction of the American dollar’s international value at work. The Feds low key status in this announcement is a ruse, this was an internationally coordinated, US led, emergency bailout of the European banks.

The joint offer of cut-rate currency swap lines by the central banks of the US, Britain, Japan, Canada, Switzerland and the ECB preserves the polite fiction that this was to “ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit”, but this was a Fed action to provide cheap dollar funding and head off a lethal crunch in Europe.  More

What does it mean to Americans…?

  • Many European Banks are broke
  • Some European Countries are broke
  • The European Central Bank (ECB) is paralyzed because members won’t agree
  • The ECB can’t get the viable (Germany) countries to pay for the sins of the spendthrift (Greece, Italy, Ireland, Spain, and soon France) countries
  • There is no political will for some European countries to continue to bail out other countries
  • All of the politicians want someone else to pay for their spending
  • The US is already broke and things will deteriorate over the next few years (bank failures, rioting, further decrease in the value of the dollar, destruction of our standard of living)

What is the solution?

  • The European Sovereigns are in trouble
  • The European Banks are in trouble
  • The ECB is paralyzed
  • The ECB is hoping the IMF will bail it out
  • The IMF is almost broke and needs the US and China to bail it out
  • Since Europe’s combined economies are as large as the US, there is no one left to bailout Europe except the US and China

Because everyone plays in dollars, the US can only support Europe by more printing causing dollar devaluation and inflation

  • More debt everywhere
  • No increase in lending
  • Worldwide inflation
  • Destruction of the value of the dollar

What’s beyond that?

  • More borrowing, bailouts, stagnation, political turmoil, and pain
  • Bank defaults and finally, Sovereign debt defaults
  • The proposal for a non-dollar dependent “world” currency

All brought to you by the US Federal Reserve.

 

 

Filed Under: Economy Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,