Connections to the world

So I've been getting some promos from Talk America for their DSL which is only $25 a month (first month free and free modem) and they claim 4MB service. They also offer free dial-up for travel (but the guy on the phone referred to is as a backup plan). I love Talk America. I use them for my phone service: my local calling area is much larger (most of metro Detroit), unlimited minutes and unlimited member to member calling for 22.95.

I thought I'd try it, it's free, right? But the computer at their end was dead so I have to wait. But then I called my cable company (Comcast) and hassled them (generally it's best to call the disconnect / cancel service departments for these calls. I got them to drop my cable modem costs $10 a month (for the next 12 months) with no problem. A little more haggling and I got them down $15 a month, so I'm not as cheap as the DSL but I'm definitely in the range of where I want to be and it's been good service so I'm happy with it (I did this about 8 months ago and they gave me a similar, but not as good as this, discount for six months).

Back to Talk phone service: Call Waiting, Repeat Dialing, Speed Calling 8, 3-Way Calling, Call Return and Caller ID are $5.00 more a month for all (not each). Statewide or Nationwide unlimited calling are $12 or $18. And I don't know what they charge now (but it used to be cheap) for a second number, same line just a second number than rings differently (so if it's not for you you don't bother to get it!), this is always a cool feature to have especially with roommates or kids.

I'm not selling this I just think it's a good deal for people with land lines.
Talk DSL: 1-866-714-9883
Talk Phone service: 1-800-608-0577

Harry Potter Gets An iPod

So I've seen many complaints on-line that they've never released harry Potter as an eBook, I'm not sure if they've every released it as a downloadable Audio Book (I'm thinking no). So the iTunes store has released the books are Audio Book and you can get the complete set for $249. Or you can get a specially engraved 20GB iPod with with the Hogwarts Crest and all the audio books for $549. A little pricey if you ask me, I'm assuming you can by the Audio Books on CD for about the same price (and still have a backup).

iTunes v.5 Pluses and Minuses

Plus: So they've finally released a phone with Apple iTunes it's the ROKR by Motorola (with a camera and speakers built in), it's sorta like a shuffle with a display. Very cool! 100 Songs on your phone to sync with iTunes (I assumed you would be able download via the phone but I don't see any references to that, so I guess not). It's $249, but I'm sure it'll drop by the holidays... (It looks like you can get it for $99 after rebates and activating a plan)

Minus: They release a new version of iTunes, which seems great but it screwed up on the import of the old data, it gave me an error and renamed my library to “iTunes Library (Damaged)”. It screwed up my list of podcasts, moved all of them to the regular music library and deleted my subscriptions. I could re-add them, if I could remember them :(

Warning: Extra-geeky content follows...

In addition, from the iPod it deleted 6GB of podcasts and says it can't sync (error -39) but no suggestions on recovering.

UPDATE: So I couldn't get it to sync, ran Disk Utility (etc.). Deleted the photo sync cache. I removed all the photos. Told it not to sync any photos. Tried adding podcasts, deleting podcasts. Then not to sync any Podcasts. Somewhere in the I had two podcast playlists (and another playlist was upset with that, which I deleted way earlier) so I made sure those were gone (I still have the podcast group). Eventually it started working okay. Probably one of the steps towards the end. Who knows...

I adding a gajillion podcasts back in. Added my photos and I seem to be a-okay (so far).