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First off, to hell with AT&T. What the hell are they doing charging a “convenience” fee to tether their shitty data service? Granted, paying $12.50 per gigabyte is unsolicited butt sex as is, but to add $20 per month for the privilege to use my hardware as a modem is larceny.

So, as you can tell, I’m not happy about the crap the carrier is trying to do. They’ve been outright robbing iPhone owners, because they cornered Apple with their exclusivity deal, then leveraged the Apple customer’s general lack of mobile-tech understanding to implement ridiculous barriers and charges to take people to the curb through their wallets.

Here’s some history-juice; I’ve been tethering with AT&T since my N90, with a USB cable… simple. I was able to upgrade that functionality to via Bluetooth 4 years ago, also… for free. Even the terribly slow and not-so-phone-like N900 was fully capable, no problems at all. So, for you iPhone people, paying $20 per month to tether with your devices, stop. It’s stupid.

Tethering

Now, I don’t have an iPhone — obviously, but I do have an Atrix, and in my hunting for a solution around the AT&T shameless requirements for tethering, I found something to help everyone out: PDANet. This gave me USB tethering with no questions asked, works like a charm, and though it’s not entirely free, it’s half the cost of one month of AT&T’s sodomy when it comes to purchasing it.

For Bluetooth, I’m still at a loss, so I’ll be carrying a cable with me when I leave the house, big damn deal. Although I like the convenience of Bluetooth connectivity to a mobile modem without having to have devices strewn about on the table I happen to migrate to at random, I think this laptop and the Atrix look rather nice next to one another.

Navigation

I mentioned this in my last post, briefly, but to be more in depth and the to point about the seemingly coveted service of turn-by-turn navigation on your already-able GPS-capable handheld device, here goes… Coming from the universe of Ovi Maps on my N95, where TBT Navigation has been free since 2009~, When I first loaded AT&T Navigator after purchasing the Atrix and seeing a $10 per month service fee popup and some other shit I didn’t read, I just uninstalled it (to save the 2.53 MB of space).

The alternative? A free, amazing, and feature rich experience: Google Maps Navigation. The features are great. It’s powered by trusty ol’ Google Search, so it understands search and will leverage your location to prioritize the results if you’re, let’s say, in the mood for “Sushi” in a neighborhood you’re not familiar with. It gives you traffic, it provides Google Streetview, and it’s (did I mention?) free.

Money

All-in-all, tethering to a data-plan I pay for with a USB cable without paying for AT&T’s bullshit, $20 per month savings. Uninstalling AT&T Navigator over the Google Maps Navigator, $10 per month savings. Comes out a cool $360 a year …. not enough to satiate my coffee addiction entirely, but every little bit helps… not to mention the avoidance of bending over, lube-free, for AT&T more than I already have to with their $12.50 per GB crap.

The US Carrier is an Asshole

Keep in mind, I actually don’t mind AT&T’s service. When it comes to a US carrier, they’re not half bad. When comparing it to the rest of the universe? It’s atrocious the bile we swallow around mobile services. Why are we paying for incoming calls? Why do we allow them to double-dip on incoming SMS’s? Why the grotesque rates for mobile data? Why isn’t the infrastructure so amazingly-powerfully great that it shits unicorn guts from the sky every time we touch our mobile devices? Orange and Vodafone fucking pwn your sorry asses to kingdom-unplugged when it comes to more bars in more places, no matter how you spin it, in whatever colored map of this USofA.

Didn’t we invent this technology we suck as so terribly in making perfect? Oh, that’s right… Landlines still need to be relevant. HILARIOUS!

So, fuggit. AT&T isn’t the best carrier globally (it’s damn near the worst), probably just under Verizon (also at the bottom of the list… oh wait, they’re not on the list, because they’re not GSM — morons). Anyway, I’ve had enough ranting. Go download some apps and save some cash. Cancel that services your carrier is trying to jack you with, and free up some cash monies to spend on more shit you don’t need.

04.9.11 • posted in: Technology