I’ve mentioned before how I’ve been impressed with Google’s free 411 service, 1-800-GOOG-411. It’s never let me down when I’ve used it from my cell phone, unlike AT&T’s (the old Cingular) 411 service which never worked for me. Matter of fact, I’ve got GOOG-411 on speed dial (not that I use it that often).  However for some reason, I’ve never thought about using the service from home, probably because I have access to a phone book and the internet.

That could very well be changing now thanks to GE. GE’s latest DECT 6.0 phones feature a built in GOOG-411 button. If I hadn’t had the wort luck with GE brand anything (especially phones) I might think this is pretty fraking sweet.

The Apple iPhone is a hot item right now, and if you read anything about it you’ll probably notice that and people generally fall into two categories. They either love it, or they hate it. It’s certainly not without its faults, but for the most part I have been extremely pleased with mine.

After a month of use, here are my thoughts on the iPhone and comments I have about what people are saying. Continue reading »

Monday I was out an about running errands. The wife decided she didn’t feel like going out to dinner that evening like we had planned, so I figured I’d pick up some Asian food, and decided that I’d give Stir Fry Cafe a go. We had been there once before, and Chicken Cashew was sounding pretty good Monday. Being that I was driving around Knoxville at the time, I decided to call 411 and get the number.

Cingular (now the new AT&T)’s 411 voice activated service came on….

411 - “Say a City and State”
Me - “Knoxville Tennessee”
411 - “Say a listing”
Me - “Stir Fry Cafe”

Now, I didn’t catch exactly what it said after that, but I heard “(something) Buffet, is this correct?”. I responded with a firm “No” and was told to wait a moment while it connected me to an operator. The 411 operator came on, repeated the listing I had asked for correctly and told me to hang on. I was connected back to the voice system which then preceded to tell me it was unable to connect me to number, and that it would text message me the number. Now, I would have just had it read the number to me, but I would have forgotten what it was before I could dial it. Oh, and for the record… this is the third time I’ve tried to use Cingular’s 411 service and been told that it couldn’t connect me to the number.

So, I’m driving towards my destination and waiting on the text message to arrive with the number I requested. I waited, and waited, and waited.

Finally I decided I’d give the Google 411 service a try. So I dialed up 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-4664-411) and was greeted by a voice driven system much like what Cingular had. I repeated the dilogue I had with Cingular’s automated system, but Google’s service repeated the request back to me correctly. Two listings found. Odd, Cingular only mentioned one.

G411 - “Listing number one. Kingston Pike?”
Me - “No”
G411 - “Listing number two. Parkside Drive.”
Me - “Yes”. Yup, that’s the one I wanted.
G411 - Please wait while I connect you.
SFC - “Hello, Stir Fry Cafe.”

So simple, it was almost too good to be true. By the time I had placed my order, my phone (RAZR v3xx [3G]) had beeped to inform me that there was a new text message. I was still expecting this to be the message from Cingular’s service, but it wasn’t. Nope, Google had sent me a text message containing a map of the two locations for Stir Fry Cafe in Knoxville. Now that’s service!

In fact, I didn’t receive the text message from Cingular for several hours. Good thing I wasn’t trying to get a number for something important… like an emergency room.

So, how much did it cost to use Google 411? Nothing. The service is free. The only cost would have been from Cingular for the text message I received, but I have text included on my plan so that doesn’t count for me.

Cingular’s 411 service? $1.79 That’s right, almost two bucks for nothing at all. No wonder people hate Cingular (now the new AT&T) so much. If it wasn’t for the rollover minutes, I wouldn’t be with them.

It looks like “Ma Bell” is one step closer to being reunited. If you haven’t heard yet, AT&T has announced it plans to acquire BellSouth. According to the press announcement this merger of the two companies is to “streamline the ownership and operations of Cingular Wireless”.

In case you’ve forgotten this is just the next step in a long line of buyouts. Cingular Wireless purchased AT&T wireless for about $41 billion way back in 2004. At the time, Cingular was a joint venture of SBC and BellSouth. A year later, the majority holder of Cingular, SBC, purchased AT&T for about $16 billion.

Full circle? Southwestern Bell Corporation, or SBC, was one of the seven “baby bells” to be created after the antitrust actions against AT&T in 1983. In 1998 SBC acquired two of the other “baby bells” Ameritech and Pacific Telesis Group along with a third independent phone company, SNET.

So, now AT&T or “Ma Bell” is owned by the “Baby Bell” SBC, which in turn now owns the other “Baby Bells” Ameritech, PacTel, and BellSouth. And while we’re at it, this will give ownership of yellowpages.com to AT&T. Yellowpages.com was formally a partnership between AT&T and BellSouth… no need for that partnership now.