I like my HTC phone quite a bit and will be sticking with it for the foreseeable future, but it definitely comes with some pretty annoying software. The HTC Sense interface is actually quite nice, but it's also a bit slow on the less powerful phones, so gauge carefully.

Well, there's an article in Slate about how T-Mobile is going to stop subsidizing new phones in exchange for 2-year contracts; I may wait and see what happens with that.

My phone is currently annoying but it's perfectly functional.

T Mobile has never made it worth my while to buy a contract and one of their phones that I wanted. Last time the salesperson tried to sell me a two year contract, I asked her to run the numbers on how long it would take that to be more expensive than buying the phone outright (from them--not even shopping around) and then ask me again if I want to buy it. Her reply was, in that case, 8 months and a shrug.

Seems Boxee has a new box out. Anyone have it yet? It looks like you can connect cable, but it says "basic cable" on the website, which leads me to believe it will not do cable card to unlock paid channels.

T-Mobile already offers that option with the "Value" plans you can configure from their website. I have stared at the 2-person family plan that gets 1000 shared minutes and 2GB of shared 4G data for $69.98 a month many, many times. We are currently paying about $100/month ($110 after taxes and fees) for a fairly similar plan on AT&T with less convenient data rules (wife has to stay under 200 MB or we get pinged for more money) AND with an employee discount we don't really qualify for. $720 savings over 2 years is enough to cancel out two subsidies for basically all mid-range smartphones, and it's not like we upgrade exactly every 2 years anyway.

For an individual, the savings are even more ridiculous. 500 minutes talk with 2GB of data on T-Mobile Value is $44.99 a month. The best similar deal on AT&T is $70/month - savings of $25/month = $600 over two years. iPhone 5 unlocked is $649 vs. $199 locked, so that $600 more than covers the difference. And that's the most expensive phone on the market. If you want unlimited texting, AT&T adds $20/month. T-Mobile only adds $5. Bumping AT&T to 5GB of data will cost an additional $20, while T-mobile will put you up to UNLIMITED for just $10 more. Like things unlimited in general? T-mobile gives unlimited talk/text/data for $70/month. On AT&T, that's $140/month and you still only get 5GB of data.

If you like T-Mobile's service and are willing to shell out full price for the phone every few years, the T-Mobile value plans are way better than the AT&T plans in general. (Of course, if you're an individual, you do even better with something like StraightTalk.)

I am pissed that my Galaxy Nexus doesn't have native calling over IP. That was the shit, because T Mobile doesn't charge for those minutes, and that takes care of home and work, and the shitty reception at the office was a non-issue. Now I'd have to do a GrooveIP thing, and I just don't want to get into the confusion...though maybe if I had Tasker kill the cell reception if it's connected to the work network and fire up GrooveIP...okay, maybe I'll give that a shot.

But, in general, phones should let you do that, and I shouldn't pay more money for a fancier phone that's missing an actual trufax handy moneysaving feature. ::no fair:: I honestly didn't think to check, because I figured I was trading up, yeah? And then I realised I didn't know anyone else whose phone did that, so I should suck it up if I'm not going to root it (I'd hope it'd be an option then...)

Anyway...I've made peace with the replacment NAS. I still can't get, for instance, the Oracle share to appear in the SHARED section of Finder, but I can navigate there from Volumes, so it's annoying, but a workaround. When I get some time I'll get back on the horn with support to get that and the weird Media Server behaviour ironed out, and it better not involve a new device.

I'm almost done migrating the files over, with some bonus reorganisation (but not too much--can't loose my messy cred), and what's the best way to wipe a NAS before giving it back? I'd rather make a due diligence cleanup attempt before I send it back--I don't care if they find my "reference" pictures, but it is where I was backing up my Mac and PC.

WTF are gaming chairs and how can I get one for my brother and kidlets?

Gaming chairs are low sitting chairs that are glorified pillows on the floor with a back rest. You can get them at Target: [link]

You can get them at Best Buy, and Amazon too.

2-person family plan that gets 1000 shared minutes and 2GB of shared 4G data for $69.98 a month

That is pretty tempting. We pay twice that on AT&T (for 4GB data and unlimited talk & text, but still).

Yep. And the $70/month savings would pay for two iPhones in about 13 months, so you get the other 11 months savings as pure profit.

Unfortunately, though iPhones work on T-Mobile just fine at 3G speeds, there's no LTE. I'm pretty sure they can use the T-Mobile HSPA+ frequencies, but even that might not be true. So you are losing something.