You’ve Been Binged
Alt headline: WTF Is This Bing Icon Doing on My BlackBerry ?
I haven’t seen much on this anywhere in the media: Most of my office suddenly noticed today that these damn Bing icons things on their BlackBerrys. And, you cannot delete the sticky little buggers (but you can hide it). If you want to use Google, there is no longer any app for that — you have to go to Google.com.
Apparently, this began getting rolled out back in November. It seemed to have gone wide recently.
I am totally offended by the latest stupidity of Verizon: I’m not sure who to be more upset at: Microsoft, for wanting to hijack my mobile device, or Verizon, for giving them permission. I used to think Mister Softee epitomized evil, but it now looks like they have a little buddy.
And in true Microsoft fashion, a spate of problems have come along with this new Icon. Are they related? I don’t know, but it sure as hell wouldn’t surprise me.
Time to go open source — this could be the greatest thing for competitors to these two behemoths ever . . .
~~~
You can file an FCC complaint here
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
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December 23rd, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Worse – Verizon has disabled “Delete”.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Google is becoming a significant force in the smartphone sector. Not so surprising that they would be shunned by the likes of AAPL and VZ
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm
Interesting I was reading about UBUNTU just before this post. I suggest a counterattack by using UBUNTU, OPENOFFICE and FIREFOX anywhere you can. Its about time to free the world from the microsoft behemoth dictature.
From what I just read UBUNTU has reach a great maturity, in the next weeks I’m going to read all about it and maybe switch to it.
Recently I activated the copy of Microsoft Office I have on the computer I bought months ago, its gonna expire in 60 days and shall stay that way.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Bing is showing up everywhere, and I don’t like it. I’ll go out of my way to get to Google, just in an effort to thwart (p*ss off) Bill Gates.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Yes, it happened to me as well in November. Went online with my Verizon phone and everything changed overnight. Suddenly the browser and all my favorites were gone and replaced with this bing thing instead. I still can’t get used to it.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Sorry for posting this now under this topic but I won’t be around later for your Wed. Reads. Did anybody see this from a poster at another board?
“LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — The People’s Bank of China said Wednesday that the economy recovery is still insufficient and that correcting structural problems for the nation’s growth is urgent. “Our nation’s economic situation is generally improving, but the internal strength of the economic recovery is still not enough, and structural contradictions still exist, [making] a change to the path of economic development ever more urgent,” it said in a statement on its Web site, citing its fourth-quarter Monetary Policy Committee. The PBOC added it will seek to keep policy flexible and will focus on decreasing economic volatility and manage the pace of loan growth.”
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:47 pm
Bring back Janet Reno.
December 23rd, 2009 at 12:49 pm
Make sure to call Verizon and demand a credit for the BB outages. They’ll try to make you feel petty and say it’s only $1 but (a) they’ll nickle and dime us every time and (b) McDonald’s has stuff you can buy for $1.
“Merry Christmas you beautiful old telecomm giant!”
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
McDonald’s has stuff you can buy for $1.
Coincidentally, so does congress
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
My iPhone doesn’t have that icon. I love my iPhone!
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
This Bing thing has been taking up valuable space on my LG9900 for a few months. I will do everything I can to screw up MSFT and VZ at EVERY opportunity. VZ – the friendly folks who began automatically charging my credit card ~$5000/month for their error with one of their wireless broadband cards and took 2 months plus to re-credit me, and numerous other management and cust svc bobbles. I can’t wait for the right phone on the right network to come along so I can get out of VZ.
Oh yeah, these are the friendly folks who have a T-1 [BIG] line going down to Quantico illegally reporting everything on their network to the Feds. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8622
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:21 pm
LLouis, check out Linux Mint. Its based on Ubuntu, but visually more attractive, slightly easier to use and comes with certain elements that makes it a bit easier for a recovering Windows user to adopt. Try the live CD, a live USB or partition your drive (more correctly, let Linux Mint partition it) and dual boot. I’ve put it on two machines and haven’t looked back….
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Don’t act surprised guys.
This is the end result of allowing monopolies to grow unchecked. I’d think the folks on this blog would understand that fact. And by the way, AT&T is not any better, nor is Google.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@bman: Nor is Apple, I might add.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:37 pm
You’ve been assimilated, biotch.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:40 pm
You’ve been assimilated, biotch.
MA: Like I said the other day, Borg Collective for third party. I want a cool scanner monocle.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:45 pm
Verizon is into us for Fios and cellular. I hate them too.
Invite you to find some means of spanking them via their CEO (who must be asleep) as PUC complaints just don’t seem to have staying power.
Put them just a notch below Goldman on the beat-em-up meter.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I hate wearing a corporation’s logo on my clothes (unless it’s my company), so if I buy anything with a logo, the logo comes off before I wear it. If a corporation wants to pay me to wear their logo, I’d be happy to do it.
I didn’t join Facebook because I think they should pay me to join their consumer pool that other companies pay Facebook for access too.
I would call Verizon and demand they either remove the bing logo or pay you for allowing the bing logo to take up space on your phone.
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Barry,
I can recommend going Nokia. Model N97 on the high-end or the E7x series in the mid-range. I recommend the N97 over the E7x. The N97 works like a tiny desktop, so the transition is painless. Both phones have integrated SMTP email and wireless messaging, a VOIP phone, 802.11G wireless built in, total media freedom too. (ex mp3 player with no DRM, multiple IM clients.)
I know they had a crackberry client for it too. I just don’t know the status these days. The question that goes unanswered is will Bing hijack your Nokia like the one you have now.
The operating system used in both phones is Free and years ahead of what Google and Apple are attempting now. Ex. I had global cut and paste, multiple applications open at once, with easy switching 3 years ago.
Make the switch!
December 23rd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Get this thread on the record.
http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Hate Microsoft. Never been a fan of Blackberry.
Google and Apple rules in innovation.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:37 pm
Ironically, both an AT&T and Verizon are running ads now . . .
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:45 pm
You would think that Verizon would be more Google-friendly now that they have some phones powered by Google’s Droid operating system.
December 23rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
well . . .one way out of this nonsense-
all phones unlocked- no subsidies- customize how you want- no contracts- pay monthly on whatever plan for service-
period-
service charges should be much lower this way- in fact Tmobile is doing thst now- no contracts if you pay full price for the phone-
two year contracts are a show- and should not be allowed- one year maybe
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:14 pm
You should get a good Windows Mobile phone, like a touch pro 2, named best business phone by consumer reports. It is more or less open source. Eminently hackable. You can add or remove bing, google maps, whatever. You can even flash the phone’s rom pretty easily to use a completely different interface and upgrade to things Verizon hasn’t released yet. Hell, someone’s even working on porting Android to it.
And there’s a huge community to tell you how to do it. Check out http://www.ppcgeeks.com or wwwhttp://www.xda-developers.com .
Those who choose a tightly controlled OS should not complain when whoever controls it exercises that control. Even Android is not free from control; the last update removed a few hacks.
December 23rd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
the 168. Track n’ Trace ‘Economy’ is/has been in a ‘Bull’ Market..
Resist, as mnkowles points out – mknowles Says: December 23rd, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Learn how to ‘roll your own’ -as LLouis Says: December 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm, and
dirtyjesus Says: December 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm note
or, “Those who choose a tightly controlled OS should not complain when whoever controls it exercises that control.” -Mike in NOLA, rightly, reminds..
~~
carlosjii,
see: http://clusty.com/search?input-form=clusty-simple&v%3Asources=webplus&query=Terabyte+Data+Transfer
LSS: they’re not limiting themselves to, mere, T-1 lines..it’d be akin to passing a River through a Straw..
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
@mike in nola
i second the tp2. ive had bb, iphone (jailbroken) and tons of regular phones. tp2 hands down is the best. big screen, excellent keyboard and the real secret of the winmo beside roms (currently running mm 6.5 here) is all the real applications not bs little apps that are basically webpages.
i predict that later this year you will be able to run android apps on both winmo and palm devices via native runtimes.
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:22 pm
sherm: I sprang for th eTP2 on a 1 year contract since there are so many new things coming out next year. Figure I can sell it in a year for more than the premium I paid for the 1 year contract.
Was not impressed at first, but after installing a cheap screen protector and increasing the sensitivity of the screen, I have decided I like it. If it had a capacitative screen and a snapdragon, would be awesome.
MS made a really stupid move with it’s app store. On WinMo you can buy an app from any developer and install it, you don’t need imprimatur from MS or Apple or anyone else. There were already 1000′s of Windows Mobile apps available before Apple started it’s store, with nary a fart app among them to my knowledge. Being Windows developers, the authors with good reputations and their own web stores aren’t that anxious to move to the store. So there’s really no way MS’s app store will catch Apple’s and MS is just giving Apple a PR point to make. I can see Jobs now with the graphs. Of course he’ll be ignoring the many quality WinMo apps already out they won’t be in the store, but MS has stupidly chosen to play Apple’s game.
Did look at the Droid awhile and was impressed with it’s quickness and nicer browser, but it doesn’t support Outlook or Exchange sync which is a big drawback for business. Also, intensive reading of the forums indicated there is still a good bit of teething trouble, like disappearing email accounts, etc. I’m sure it will improve as it gets more seasoned.
December 23rd, 2009 at 5:51 pm
Download and install the Opera browser onto your Blackberry. It is fast and works like a charm!
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:31 pm
i got screwed by Verizon so many times that i swore they never would see a dime of my money ever again. The last straw was an 800 dollar monthly mobile bill for text messages in a roaming area when I went to the 2006 BCS National Championship in Arizona. I cancelled everything immediately afterward and told them the bullshit way they do business and worst customer service in the world would forever make me shun them. I switched my mobile to Alltel with MyCircle and it was the best service I ever had. . . and then Verizon Bought them out, so now I am a Verizon customer against my own will. I think when my contract is up next year i might switch again.
December 23rd, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I *was* a google person until they had so many problems getting google maps to work with the GPS on my Tour. Bing works perfectly. My advice, Barry, is to keep Bing and use it when Google won’t.
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
F411: Thought the old Bing wasn’t bad. I haven’t tried the new version of Bing, but a podcast said the new Windows Mobile version, at least, wasn’t as good as the last one. You might want to stick with the older version. He also said the new google maps also had some problems.
The new Google maps mobile has an interesting feature of being able to show places that you have marked on a personalized map and saved. You have to log into the google maps mobile on your phone to access them.
December 23rd, 2009 at 7:56 pm
iPhone
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:33 pm
@Marc399 Says:
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:03 pm
My iPhone doesn’t have that icon. I love my iPhone!
—
I-Phone is only Apple Product in our Small Business or Home that is used. The “I-Phone” is tops…and the “Aps” are incredible.
We aren’t Apple folks….but this one is a winner… and out of 10 Business Partners only one uses an Apple computer so this isn’t just your usually “Apple Cheering Squad” who says “I-Phone” is simple, easy to use and you can do Google, GPS, and WEATHER….which is all one needs. PLUS..you can get your “Airline Delays” in there too.
What could be better than that and having “Stock Quotes Streamed?”
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:40 pm
@Mark E Hoffer Says:
Learn how to ‘roll your own’ -as LLouis Says: December 23rd, 2009 at 12:41 pm, and
dirtyjesus Says: December 23rd, 2009 at 2:05 pm note
ROLL YOUR OWN? WHA?
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:05 pm
@# bman Says:
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Don’t act surprised guys.
This is the end result of allowing monopolies to grow unchecked. I’d think the folks on this blog would understand that fact. And by the way, AT&T is not any better, nor is Google.
–
@# Mannwich Says:
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 pm
@bman: Nor is Apple, I might add.
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:29 pm
O, Dear..
TakBak,
‘Roll your own’ is a colloquialism ~”Do it yo’self”..
~~
this, http://www.dvorak.org/blog/2009/12/23/businessweek-tech-predictions-for-2010/
from Bloomburg BusinessWeek, ~12 min., I thought was worthwhile–10 trends for ’010..
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/colloquialism
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
BTW…half of us in our business use “Outlook” and other use “Firefox” and the I-Phone works with both…plus the other mailboxes we use for ” stuff” that we order and personal business that are free that don’t clutter up our business mail with unnecessary personal business.
No one has had problem (so far) with I-Phone. We are an older demographic, though. That might skew things. We have Blackberry Converts to I-Phone but most were using other phones so I-Phone to them was an incredible revelation of technology that was so easy to use…it got them doing things they never could have done with their non-Blackberries. And, most of us are folks who were used to having “secretaries and others” who did work for us sorting out problems. We are now the new class of “Business Consultants/Entreprenuers” that Bush wrought on us and now Obama is perpetuating. IOW’D's ….we were downsized after the Tech/Biotech Bubble imploded in early 2000 so we’ve been on our own out there. And so far…we’ve been successful….but it’s been a huge learning curve, so we aren’t really the kind of folks like the kids who throw out one cell phone and the plan to get the latest thing…and then throw that out and go back again to what they had before that they think improved. It’s just a difference in business models, life experience, money and time…plus learning curve to deal with it all..
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Half use MS-Outlook..rest use Firefox/Thunderbird…Correction.
December 23rd, 2009 at 10:04 pm
It’s the outlook/firefox app/ browser on iphone that is so darn attractive. And I don’t have to look at the ridiculous Bing or Vz icons either. Gawd, they make me want to wretch.
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Outlook, FireFox, Skype, all capabilities, and overlooked capacity in this discussion. Having a smart handheld device is not the problem. Having a smart handheld device that is capable of using the existing technologies, in a coherent and cheap package is a failure of our very own market system.
12/23/2009
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:28 pm
“YOU’VE BEEN BINGED.”
I propose that phrase whenever an unwanted icon shows up. Notice the pop-ups on your TV to remind you which channel you’re currently watching? There probably was already a condescending phrase for that. But, it’s not nearly as catchy.
~~~
BR: Brilliant!
I’ll change the headline.
December 24th, 2009 at 7:39 am
LLouis @ 12:41 pm:
‘UBUNTU, OPENOFFICE and FIREFOX anywhere you can. Its about time to free the world from the microsoft behemoth dictature. From what I just read UBUNTU has reach a great maturity, in the next weeks I’m going to read all about it and maybe switch to it.’
I’m very interested in how you make out with Ubuntu…let us know please
December 24th, 2009 at 10:10 am
it would be great if search deals that device manufacurers make translated into to lower service rates for the consumer. it can hurt to have a lack of choice but at least bing is providing superior search results than google.
there must not be a lot going on in your offices today.
if you want google as your search engine for mobile, you can look forward to buying their devicein the near future. this is not about allowing monoploies to grow unchecked. its competitive positioning in the device market and strategic alliances are being created for long trm sustainable advantage.
December 24th, 2009 at 2:38 pm
i actually prefer bing to google re search-
and i certainly prefer the bong to bing – but a fat spliff is ok too
December 25th, 2009 at 11:39 am
wuns “the pop-ups on your TV to remind you which channel” .. how about the popup to tell you what audio spec is currently goingon* – do engineers ever use there own stuff?
well on topic – my provider gave me half what I want for Christmas (saw in the stores) (if I buy in) .. I wanna a phone that can surf the coffeeshop on their dime not mine … I told them (again) .. and they got back to me in 24hrs witha “message received” … I told em I wanna Blackberry (is that a mistake?)
http://www.net10.com/phone_details.jsp?model=UCMTST_008181
* on every f ‘ in channel change
January 15th, 2010 at 8:25 am
update on the above 11:39am post – the net10 phone for me .. got it yesterday but the package’g has been updated in some stores .. I see terms and conditions can change without warning on both boxes .. seems fees that net10 users are accustomed too are being changed concerning this phones ability to access the www .. I would like the affordable ability to get into the web in an emergency or wim to stay in the Dec09 terms
http://www.net10.com/phone_details.jsp?model=UCMTST_008181
January 19th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
normally nobody checks deep down in here unless the Google brings them in .. since I’ve got a net10 thread inside of a thread going here fyi: I opened the package to keep it .. ported my number & swapped the contacts (by hand – the SIM is not transferable Nok to Sam) .. it went very well .. the unattended robotics hit a snag (tried to strip 1K minutes) so a human took over .. the 72hr possible transfer happened in 10 minutes .. I like the phone and I’m a Happy Camper :-) .. its a big step forward in phone stats for us in this playing level …
1 issue: the WebBrowser is to easy to initiate & a minute ding because .. should be fixed in software firmware hardware in the future (you guys listening?) … the browser terms thing – we’ll see whats going on there in future months .. looked around some more & only Target had that package change (Reseller-provider maybe)
January 19th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
ps – that was 1K outta 2.1K saved up .. maybe a Y2K glitchy like thing