Today, I got another one of those annoying text-message adverts Verizon sends from time to time. They're the only folks who phone-spam me, and I don't appreciate it, but so far it hasn't happened often enough for me to get mad about it…
This one advertised a free 30 day trial of their latest downloadable SW for my phone. The SW accesses the phone's internal cell-aided GPS, and does all the usual GPS-ish mapping, driving directions, etc.
The thing is, this is the cell-aided GPS that's already in my phone, but that I currently am not allowed to access. Advertisers can access it, mind you (although I can and do turn this feature off). Emergency services and Verizon can access it (disabled or not). Me, the owner of the phone? Until now I couldn't use it at all.
So I think well, heck, I feel pretty ripped off having to pay to rent SW to use my own HW, but maybe I can live with it. So I go check the price.
$10 per month.
They want me to pay $120 per annum to rent hardware they let others use for free. For $120, I can get a quite decent name-brand standalone handheld GPS. Of course it won't be cell-aided, and I will have to carry another device. But…$120 to rent some SW for my phone!
This portable/laptop device and this CF card also look pretty cool. One of my colleagues swears by geeks.com, and I have to say he's been right so far.
I might pay $3.00 per month to be able to use the GPS built into my phone. More than 3x that is ridiculous.
I would try to make Verizon do better if I had the slightest leverage, but of course I don't. At least, maybe they'll take my suggestion as to a preferred location for their SW. It might be worth $10 per month to their CEO as a medical device. (B)