Caleb Hunt (.com)

Still following the #belltwit drama, and according to the CBC (as of about 7pm), it looks like Bell is actually stepping down from it’s position of “Twitter SMS Messages are Premium messages and therefore requiring a cost of 15 cents per sent/received message” despite the claims on Twitter’s blog that states: 

“Twitter and Bell have agreed that Bell customers on the company’s text messaging bundles will be able to receive unlimited incoming Twitter SMS messages at no extra charge.”

Looks like the good guys (being us) win? All that remains to be seen exactly whether or not these claims hold true. ..

I got my monthly reminder from Bell that my bill was ready to view online from February, and upon checking it, I noticed that there were indeed NO extra charges for any SMS’s to/from Twitter since the service was re-enabled on the 20th. The SMS events show up on my bill as “Short Code Programs” with a big fat zero beside it for charges. Even when Twitter was inactive from November until this past week Canada, I was able to send updates to 21212 with NO extra charges from Bell at all. And of course, prior to November when Twitter had full functionality in Canada, all incoming/outgoing tweets were always billed as “Short Code Programs” with NO extra charge outside of my regular text message bundle.

When I checked my “unbilled usage” for this month, I noticed that there were around 38 or so “Short Code Programs” which were obviously Twitter related,and wanted to find out if there were any extra charges associated with them outside of my unlimited text package. So I called Bell Mobility’s customer service at 3:30 today and spoke with a CS representative, who was absolutely clueless on the Twitter/Bell sms fiasco (although, I was not really surprised) and after a short hold confirmed that YES there were indeed charges associated with them, when I asked “How Much?” She said there were just over $5 worth and sure enough, 38 * .15 = $5.70. I was being charged for both incoming and outgoing SMS’s to Twitter. So after trying to explain to her this service was supposed to be free (as per what Twitter said their agreement with Bell was), and that they had always been in the past (explaining I had never been charged before) she said:

“This company (Twitter) is charging us, so we’re charging you what they’re charging us – We have no control over it. You’ll have to contact Twitter about the charges”. 

Well, it was at that point I said “this is going nowhere” and hung up. So, with pending charges on my account for next month (of which I’ll fight later – if it comes to that) I’m optimistic that differences were indeed worked out between what Bell thought was going to happen and what Twitter told us was going to happen… But that will remain to be seen on my next bill, I guess  I’ll have to play the waiting game until next month. *sigh*

Interesting development in the Bell/Twitter partnership I last blogged about. CBC Blog Watch is reporting that ALL users who use Twitter service via SMS with Bell Mobility will be charged 15 cents PER MESSAGE. Incoming or Outgoing it does not matter, messages will be charged regardless of whether you have an unlimited text message package or not. Apparently, it’s a “premium message service” so Bell intends on charging  a premium price for it. Bell has confirmed these charges (in their official press release), but Twitter’s own blog states that “There are no limits and no added fees (beyond your normal texting plan).” So WTF Bell? Who’s right? Who’s wrong? I guess I have to wait until my bill shows up tomorrow to find out…

What we were beginning to think was an awesome PR move has turned into an epic PR FAIL. If these developments are true, what ticks me off the most is that there was NO prior warning to these charges (Bell broke it’s own EULA on that one) and that even before Twitter service was canned in the first place back in November, there was never any cost to send messages to 21212 via SMS to update your Twitter status – so why all of a sudden is it now a “premium message”? There is some interesting twitter chatter with the #belltwit hashtag.

All I know, is that I am now closer than ever to ditching my Bell BlackBerry in favour of competition, this may be the final straw…  Could this actually be grounds to break a contract without penalty?

And because of this, I <3 Bell. I was awfully surprised when I saw a tweet come in on Friday via SMS on my Bell BlackBerry 8830 from Mark indicating two-way SMS was now enabled exclusively for Bell users in Canada. I was thrilled to receive this SMS as messages from Twitter had been non-existent since November when Twitter axed two-way SMS delivery services up north. It was too bad too, because months prior I had convinced a bunch of friends with unlimited text messaging packages to sign up for Twitter, and sure enough they all were hooked. It had been a dry-run since November, and since most of my friends who I got hooked on Twitter didn’t/don’t use smartphones, the tweets ground to a halt. Problem is, I’m also one of the only people I know using Bell Mobility as a wireless service provider (I’m on a corporate plan way too good to ditch) – so the tweets from friends are still pretty irregular.

I tried a bunch of Twitter clients on my BlackBerry – none of which I really liked at all. The simplicity of SMS for tweets, in my opinion, can’t be beat – and while it’s a small step for Canadian Twitterers, it’s an important one. I hope the other carriers follow suit and re-enable two-way SMS for Twitter. Let’s get things back to the good ‘ol days!

Original source from the Twitter blog

I’ve always been a Canon guy, anyone who knows me is well aware of this. However, this past weekend I had an opportunity to pick up an Olympus Evolt e-410 brand new, for under $200 with both the 14-40mm wide angle and the 40-150mm telephoto lenses. Now, this camera is now a couple years old however it’s successor, the e-420, didn’t introduce any groundbreaking changes. The deal was way to good, I couldn’t (and didn’t) pass it up and am thus-far thrilled with this camera. Here it is below, click the thumbnails for a larger, fancier (thanks lightbox) view of the images.

I’ve always been a fan of Olympus DSLR’s, they have offered alot of value for the money and in my opinion (as well as many more qualified reviewers out there) think that Olympus has *the best* optical quality in their kit lenses in comparison with the competition. I always wrote off this camera as “too small for me” especially considering that my Canon 30D dwarfs it by size comparison. After using it this past weekend, I’m starting to realzie that it’s size is actually it’s biggest strength. It is truly a “pocketable DSLR”, which given the nature of my heavy/bulky 30D was a welcome change!. I’d forever leave my Canon at home because I’d hate to lug it & all  my gear around, and dispite having a nice point-and-shoot (Panasonic FX-33 w/ 28mm wide angle) the image quality always leaves something to be desired.  I’m really hoping that this addition to our camera family will get us taking more pictures, especially with the nice weather on the horizon.

Anyway, I’m not going into a huge detailed review – there is plenty of those out there (DPReview’s thoughts on the e-410 here, highly recommended BTW) I just wanted to say – I’m a fan. I’m really enjoying this camera. Here are a few, untouched (except for cropping), shots from this weekend.

There’s the update I was talking about. This is now officially calebhunt.com.  Likewise, if you’re a Twitter user: my username is now @calebhunt. 

I managed to pick up the domain when the previous owner let it expire last year planning full well to eventually use it as a personal blog and space for my junk on the internet, so yeah, here it is.