I bought my iPhone over a year ago and I was never really happy about the fact that Apple made a exclusive deal with ATT in the US to be their only service provide for the iPhone. To be quite honest: If I would have had an option to go with someone else I would not be an ATT customer anymore. Until now the quality service was never great but it was at least working most of the time. But the issues I’m experiencing right now are close to unacceptable. In downtown Manhattan the data service is not working at all. ATT claims that they are experiencing an outage from 3 different towers there which they also said already last week when I complained. How long does it take to fix that? Almost every single call I make drops after a while. According to iLounge and Appleinsider, a Genius bar employee at the Soho Apple store claimed that it’s around 30 percent dropped calls in average which I doubt. But I seriously hope they are not proud of that percentage. Problems really started when they release the 3.1 firmware when I was forced to upgrade by ATT because I wasn’t able to receive any calls anymore using 3.0. Currently my iPhone seems to be more an expensive iPod instead of a phone and if the quality continues like that I will consider to cancel my contract. Fair enough, Manhattan has the highest density of iPhones of all the metropolitan areas and it might not be that bad outside of Manhattan but why are they not willing to spend more on increasing their quality of service?
Archive for September, 2009
What’s wrong with AT&T?
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009Alles Gute Zum 70er!!!
Monday, September 28th, 2009
Happy belated 70th birthday, Papa! I hope I will be as cool and fit as you, should I ever become that old.
Schnitzel & Things
Thursday, September 24th, 2009
This July a guy from the Ukraine who lived in NYC for the most of his life and spent a year in Vienna came up with the Schnitzeltruck. A street vendor truck that sells Schnitzel and Bratwurst. The regular choices for Schnitzel are Chicken, Pork or Cod Schnitzel which you can get as Sandwich in a ciabatta bread or as Platter with 2 sides. Sometimes they have the real Austrian Wiener Schnitzel from veal as special. Since they are in Downtown close to my office on Thursdays I had to get a Schnitzel today. I was looking forward to eating a real veal Schnitzel but unfortunately they didn’t have it today. So I got the Pork Schnitzel Platter with French Fries and Cucumber Salad. Other side dishes are Austrian Potato Salad, Braised Sauerkraut, Green Lentil Salad, Beets and Feta Salad and Mesclun Salad. The Pork Schnitzel tasted really authentic and I was also very happy with the Cucumber Salad although they had a little heavy hand with the garlic there.
What I really was missing on the Menu was Lingonberries or Cranberries. Only a little bit of sweetness accentuates the full flavors of sweet and sour in an Austrian Wiener Schnitzel dish. I am actually surprised that a guy that lived in Vienna for a year is not offering that as condiment but maybe a little email will solve that little flaw. Overall a nice Schnitzel experience for lunch that brought some homey feeling to my heart and stomach 
Check out their blog for their weekly schedule and their daily announcements on twitter.
UPDATE:
Schnitzeltruck won the Vendys “Rookie of the year” – Award.
Twitter Updates for 2009-09-24
Thursday, September 24th, 2009- Win a new Canon 7D (or 2500 photo scans) from @ScanCafe & Scott Bourne. Pls RT. Details here: http://bit.ly/dgYgA #
- The AC at my office is killing me….way too cold
# - to all the ladies out there: how smelly must your feet be at night when you're wearing that lined UGG boots at high 70s all day??? #
Powered by Twitter Tools
My favorite time of the year
Sunday, September 20th, 2009September is my favorite month of the year in the city. It is not as hot and humid in August but it is mostly sunny and in the lower 7os with a light breeze. Same goes for the last weekend. I decided to use Sunday for a nice walk from my place all the way up to central park and read a bit in the sun. I just started to read the new Dan Brown – “The Lost Symbol” and I really like it so far. Since I know you guys like to see pictures here are a few that I took on my way to central park.
George Foreman Grill
Sunday, September 20th, 2009My newest addition to my small kitchen is a George Forman Grill. It is a small electric grill but it really does the job and I am very happy with it. If it is a nice juicy Rib Eye Steak with some green string beans or Salmon on creamy vegetable pasta or even sausages everything is ready in a couple of minutes without using one drop of oil.
Chrisi and Ralph in town
Saturday, September 19th, 2009My lovely little sister and her boyfriend spent the last 10 days in the city. She is the first of my 4 sisters that had enough courage to come over and visit me and she really had fun doing the usual tourist tour. On Ellis Island they found out that there was a Josef Pumberger who immigrated to the US from Austria in the year 1907. And they also did some major shopping of course I am pretty sure and I also hope that it wasn’t their last visit in NYC.
We spent one weekend in Washington DC where we saw thousands of Republicans demonstrating against the current US Government and we also saw president Barack Obama landing in his helicopter in front of the White House. See pictures below.
Apotheke
Thursday, September 10th, 2009
The German word for pharmacy. That’s a bar in China Town and not just a random bar it is a really nice cocktail bar with special cocktails. Cocktails of a kind that you have never tasted before. Founded by an Austrian, Apotheke serves cocktails like Strawberry Fennel or Lavender Raspberry and they really taste awesome. They try to take oils and flavors into their cocktails which make them special. And all their staff wears white coats as they would be working in a real pharmacy . Whenever you come to NYC and you are up for cocktails you should really try this place. It is not easy to find but just aim for the red sign with the “9″ on it. Just make sure you are there early as they pretend to be having a “private party” where you have to be on the list if you try to get in there after 10 pm.
Next door (on the left hand side) is actually the best Vietnamese place which we also had to try out tonight. Awesome! Nice and fresh food. Highly recommended!
Indian Lunch in the office
Friday, September 4th, 2009I had the pleasure of organizing an event in my company today. The idea came up when I heard of the movie “outsourced” and thought that might actually be fun to watch that with a couple of colleagues since it covers pretty much the scenarios that many of the companies in the US including mine are going through. My original plan was to have some lunch/dinner in the office and then watch the movie in a small group afterwards. But my boss liked the idea so much that we extended it to be a company event for the whole NY office for this Friday including lunch, beers and movie.
And looking back now I have to say the event was very well received. The lunch we ordered from Baluchis (Malai Kabab, Seekh Kebab, Chicken Tikka Masala, Saag Panir, Panir Bhurjee, Naan, Rice) was excellent and just the right “appetizer” for the movie.
Some people might have been scared that it would be offensive and exactly the wrong kind of movie to watch especially during though times like now but I think the mood in the office has not been that good for the last couple of month as it was after the movie. Agreed, the beer might have helped a little bit but I think it is also helpful to watch such a comedy with the right sense of humor. Yeah, it is a comedy and therefore of course exaggerating most of the times but I think it is entertaining and also shows in a funny way how cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings from both sides. Overall a very successful event.