About a month ago, I got the following email from Mozy:

Dear Mozy Customer,

Thanks for being a valued Mozy subscriber. For the first time since 2006, we’re adjusting the price of our MozyHome service and wanted to give you a heads up. As part of this change, we’re replacing our MozyHome Unlimited backup plan and introducing the following tiered storage plans:

50 GB for $5.99 per month (includes backup for 1 computer)
125 GB for $9.99 per month (includes backup for up to 3 computers)

You may add additional computers (up to 5 in total) or 20 GB increments of storage to either of the plans, each for a monthly cost of $2.00.

While this policy takes effect for new MozyHome customers starting today, your MozyHome Unlimited subscription is still valid for the duration of your current 1 year term. In order to ensure uninterrupted service, you’ll need to select a new renewal plan.

As the leader in online backup, we’re committed to continually providing the highest levels of service and protection that you’ve come to expect from us as well as delivering those innovations you’ve been asking for. For more information on the factors that led to this change, please read my note or visit our FAQ.

Be safe,
Harel Kodesh
President

Since I was using Mozy to backup 390 gigabytes of music, pictures, movies, and documents… well, my monthly bill was about to go up 760% from $5 per month to $38. Not cool. Luckily, there’s plenty of competition out there, and I decided to give Carbonite a try.

I started with a free trial of Carbonite earlier this month but then just decided, what the hell, I’m going for it. With Carbonite, I prepaid $130 for 38 months or $3.42 per month. That wouldn’t even get me through 4 months of Mozy. Put another way, Mozy would have cost me 11 times what I’m now paying for Carbonite! Crazy.

Microsoft just came out with its second Laptop Hunters video. Personally, I think this one is better than the first one, but you decide (embedded below).

We’ve got a guy with a $1,500 budget looking for portability, battery life, and power. And he says he’s “technically savvy” and knows what he wants.

After spending some time in the Mac section, he sums up his experience by saying “Macs to me are about aesthetics more than they are about the computing power. I don’t want to pay for the brand. I want to pay for the computer.”

Ouch. That pretty much sums up the Mac critique of this commercial. Oh, and it ends with “I’m a PC Because I’m Really Picky.” Can’t wait to see how the blogosphere responds to this one! I’m sure there’s plenty to dissect. Interestingly enough, I had an exchange with VentureBeat’s MG Siegler yesterday that now seems relevant:

Bob Caswell: So are you saying you’d be a lot more convinced if someone was given much more than a $1,000 and still picked a PC?

MG Siegler: Yes, that would certainly be more convincing.

In any event, just remember that if you were offended or victimized before, who knows your state of being after this.

*Update* Good ol’ Dan Lyons offers his two cents to the Newsweek audience. He may be a little late to the discussion (centering around last week’s ad), but he’s got plenty of good things to say and uses numbers and stuff to back himself up rather than relying on opinion like we do here in the blogosphere.

Also, have to say, I love the latest discussion we’re having over at VentureBeat. And for those interested, you can follow me on Twitter: @bobcaswell.

Laptop Hunters #2 – Giampaolo

The title of this post was originally going to be “Delicious: A Review from a Late Adopter.” But that was four months ago and only a few days after I started using social bookmarking site Delicious. At the time, I found it useful even if lacking in a few areas.

But it only took a week before I went back to my old bookmarking habits with Firefox. And now I’m more excited about the latest bookmarking features in Firefox 3 (due out later this month) than the next version of Delicious, which is taking its sweet time.

The problem with Delicious (for me, at least) is that it required too much of me as a bookmarking service and didn’t provide me much as a place to find new content. The first problem could be with how I browse the web. I often find myself reading/browsing a dozen or so stories/websites at the same time. For the most part, it’s not a problem to have tons of tabs open in Firefox.

But I often get interrupted in my daily perusing and need to bookmark all the stories I’m half way through or haven’t started reading (the “Bookmark All Tabs” feature in Firefox). Although I’ve found a Firefox plugin that expedites the process of saving sites to Delicious, it’s still one site/story at a time. If I want to save a dozen at a time, I’m obviously going to revert back to Firefox rather than complete twelve separate tasks.

As for using Delicious as a way to discover new content, well, I’ve found it hard to filter out the noise and am generally uninterested in the majority of what the world is bookmarking (apparently).

What about Digg? Even if Delicious came before Digg and is popular in its own right, Digg took the Delicious concept and made it really work as a more social way to find and share new content online. But that was the Digg of what feels like a long time ago (Digg is running on its third major revision while the second version of Digg was arguably the best).

We have covered Digg issues plenty before. The site’s problems are easy to sum up in one sentence: It’s slow, bloated, outdated, gamed, policed, etc. As a result, the front page content is pretty lacking to say the least.

Now on to Reddit. While Reddit has been around for a while, I never took it seriously, always thinking of it as “Digg Light.” But it turns out that it does what Digg does but better and faster. The latest version was released recently and makes it even more accessible to the masses. I could go through all the reasons individually in detail, but I’ll just summarize: fairly interesting content, intuitive interface, and very fast response.

So there you have it. For my needs, I find bookmarking is still best handled by my browser of choice while social news and content discovery is best handled by Reddit. What do you use for bookmarking and content discovery?

While Walt Mossberg is getting buzz for calling Firefox 3 the “best browser for web — for now,” I thought I’d point out my first time paying for something to do with a browser. I purchased the Dictionary Tooltip extension for Firefox 2 for $3.99. And while I’m anxious to give Firefox 3 a try, I’m waiting for the big kick off later this month.

Actually, that was really my only reservation for paying for an extension: whether or not it will work with Firefox 3. As I’ve mentioned before, Firefox 2 is my browser of choice despite the at least weekly lock ups and slow downs due to memory leaks. The reason being that I really like the dozen or so extensions that help streamline my browsing experience in a way not possible with other available browsers.

But the memory leaks and slow downs are frustrating. And losing half my functionality each time I want to upgrade to a new version is even more frustrating (since extensions break version to version). But having said all that, I still found myself willing to pay $3.99 for an extension one month before it might stop working just for how cool and useful it is to me.

In fact, perhaps I’m alone here, but I wouldn’t hesitate in paying $3.99 for every extension I use if it meant a seamless upgrade from version to version of Firefox. Otherwise, I guess it’s true that “you get what you pay for.” And, for now, I’m only willing to pay for really useful extensions insomuch as my ownership appears to be limited to the current version of Firefox.

Anyone else out there willing to pay for extensions?

My last two laptops have both been Dell. I had always loved the fact that I could customize my laptop fairly specifically at the same time as getting a great price. At the time, other companies generally could only offer one of those options: a prepackaged bundle with a good price or customization with a premium.

During that same time, however, Dell was not without its faults. Its computers often weren’t as aesthetically pleasing (more utilitarian and clunky looking than some of its competitors more slick and glossy offerings). And the phone support system was (and still is, to a certain degree) a nightmare of touch tone loops which felt like its sole purpose was to make sure you never spoke to a human.

But those disadvantages never bothered me specifically. My laptops’ boring looks were good enough for me. And I went years at a time without ever needing tech support (though I had plenty of friends with Dells that had serious issues). Bottom line: I need a shopping model that provides me the best price on the exact configuration I specify.

This past month I decided it was time (it’s been almost three years) once again to get a new laptop. So I, of course, started at Dell’s website. But it didn’t take long before I was confused and annoyed. Any of the consumer models with a decent price also has pretty obvious limitations in their customization options (i.e., no option for a dedicated, rather than built-in, video card).

I could, of course, customize to my heart’s content if I were to select the appropriate higher-end model. But then the price seemed especially inflated when the only reason I was looking at the particular model was because it has one or two more features available when compared to a perfectly acceptable lower model.

So that’s when I began exploring alternative brands (including HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, and Acer). And that’s also when I discovered just how well HP has taken the Dell model and made it work better than Dell itself (all while keeping its existing model of selling through retail).

I got exactly what I wanted for a price hundreds of dollars less than the Dell equivalent. I’m sure Dell could offer me a similar competitively priced laptop. But it chose instead to gamble with my loyalty by focusing more on the upsell than on the specific customization I needed.

So for me, at least, HP is the new Dell.

I should note that I’ve kept details intentionally vague because in a matter of weeks hardware configurations will change. What I wanted to capture here is a principle that won’t go out of date as quickly as the hardware used to illustrate it.

Mozy, the online backup solution I use and have mentioned a couple times, is responding to HP’s Upline debacle in an interesting way. First, some background information:

Two weeks ago, HP released HP Upline, a service similar to Mozy that provides unlimited storage for $59/year. HP also released free accounts of the service, limited to 1GB and one year (Mozy does free too, but their version is 2GBs and has no expiration date). About a week and a half later, the Upline service went down for several days.

Soon after, I received an email from Mozy explaining how they’re trying to win some extra Mozy fans as a result of HP going down. So if you go to Mozy’s site and sign up, you can get 25% off biannual and annual signups (through April 30) with promo code UPLINE. (That’s better than the running deal for TechConsumer readers using promo code TECHCONSUMER to get 10% off an annual subscription or TECHCONSUMER2 to get 10% off a biannual subscription.)

It should be noted, however, that Mozy is getting pressure from more online backup/storage solutions (and let’s not forget the infamous rumor of Google coming out with a “GDrive”). Mozy does one thing, and one thing extremely well: backing up data.

But consumers are starting to look for more features (easy access from anywhere or sharing with friends). I, for one, haven’t played much with other options simply because Mozy does exactly what I need, and I’m not about to disrupt that. But that could change as my needs change. (So here’s hoping Mozy keeps up.)

For more info on what Mozy has to offer compared to other services, see this post.

Slingvine is a free application that allows you to send files over the Internet. For me, it felt like a replacement to email attachments. Here’s how it works:

You download and install the client on your computer. Then you right click on any file or folder in Windows and click on “Sling Selected Items.” This uploads your files or folders to a temporary webpage (url) that you then give out to whoever you want to receive your files.

The nice thing is that you can send any type of file (music, photos, video, etc.), any number of files, and any size of files. And outside of the quick application install, it’s as simple as can be (no configuration, no passwords, and no online accounts).

That’s not to say that I don’t have a couple of suggestions for SlingVine. For one, it’d be nice if the queue (where it shows you what you’ve sent/received) had two separate sections: one for sent and one for received. As it is, all your files (sent or received) or in the same list.

I should also mention that this is peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. If your file or set of files is larger than 50 megabytes, then the source computer needs to stay on in order for others to receive the files being sent.

When I first started using SlingVine, I did run into a snag. But I emailed SlingVine support and received a response (and fix) within an hour on a Sunday. Not that there’s any guaranteed response time, but it definitely made a first impression!

Bottom line: I think SlingVine is useful for particular situations. For me personally, I like the idea of an easy way to send a group of files while preserving file structure (something not possible with email). It’s definitely convenient.

Phone support: it’s all around us. Even with the Internet being last decade’s next big thing, somehow we’re still on the phone when we need help. And how is it? Has there been innovation? Improvement? Hardly.

In my experience, not much has changed with phone support in terms of today versus, say, ten years ago. And I’d say that, on average, I’m on the phone for support almost weekly (at least multiple times a month). Other options are available, of course, like email or chat.

But email isn’t good enough because you have to wait at least hours, often days, for a response. I don’t think I’m alone by saying that I want (dare I say, need) many of my customer support issues to be addressed more quickly. And I’ve had varying degrees of success with chat. Even if it’s available (which it still isn’t widely, as a form of support), the rep on the other side is often handling half a dozen concurrent chats, which often makes the supposed “instant” of instant messaging less appealing.

So back to phone support: the hard-to-replace, one-on-one service that we’re all used to. It’s almost always available as an option and often is 24/7 (for many products I use, anyway). It deceptively feels like it’s the best option. But it’s all relative. This past week I had two different support phone calls, and they reminded of what still hasn’t changed:

Automated Phone Menus

Perhaps I’m alone on this one, but I’d say that over half of my support calls don’t fall into one of the predefined categories that I’m supposed to select via the options that are presented to me. But then, you often have to listen to all of them before pressing 0 (or whatever equivalent) works to get to an operator. And 0 itself is frequently disabled, meaning you have to pick something just to talk to someone who usually isn’t the right person.

Superfluous, Time Wasting Catch Phrases

How many times have you heard this message: “If you know your party’s extension, please dial it now.” But then, I wonder, why am I even hearing this? Maybe I’m missing out, but I don’t have personal support contacts for companies that sell their items at Best Buy (for example). Every time I hear this, I feel like the message is more like, “Are you a member of our secret club? If not, get ready to listen to your options and wait.”

Here’s another one: “Please listen carefully as our options have changed.” First of all, even if the options haven’t changed, it’s rarely the case that I have a choice to do anything but listen to them. And secondly, isn’t that message just a given? I mean, it’s like someone reminding me that the sun sets at night. I know already. I’m not sure what would be more surprising: a menu option that didn’t change or a day without a sunset.

My personal favorite is: “You can find out more information by checking out our website at www…” Where do they think I got their phone number from?! I’ve already been to their website, and despite my high hopes, no, the FAQ didn’t do it for me. For whatever reason, I often find myself with questions that don’t show up in FAQs.

And the big lie: “So that we can expedite your call, please select from the following options.” The funny thing is, it’s not expedited at all. Would a human on the line ever say, “So that I can expedite your call, I won’t listen to you and will instead list predefined categories that may or may not come close to your reason for calling. Whatever you do, don’t tell me what it is you need, I’m trying to expedite your call. Please listen to this list.”

Of course, the real reason for this method is “so that we can save money.” The truth is, though, that I’ve yet to go through a phone system that gets me to the right person faster than an operator can.

Repetition

Both support calls I made this week had me enter in my account info or service tag number. The theory is that when the call gets given to the person who is to help me, that person will automatically have my account info up on their screen.

But in both cases? Not so simple. I key in 15 numbers or even get to say my account info (wow!) while the computer understands. Nifty, computers can understand voices now. Oh wait, when the live person got on the phone, I had to give my account info all over again (both times). I’m not sure why, but this happens time and time again.

No Accountability

What if the person refuses to help? Or you want the next level of service because you’ve called in before and want to skip the “rebooting you computer” or “resetting your router” step that you’ve already tried before calling? Nope. You’ve got to go through the same steps every time.

How hard would it be to retain useful information like this so that the next time I call in the person can say, “Oh, I see that you’ve called about your router three times in the past month and resetting it doesn’t solve the problem.” Everything is supposedly automated / stored / recorded. Why not use it? Keeping track of customers’ disappointments in this way would only help the situation.

And have you ever heard some iteration of “I’m sorry, that’s just something we can’t do for you.” You can, of course, ask for them to put someone on the phone who can do something for you (like a supervisor). But you’d just as soon have more luck pulling their teeth out through the phone. It doesn’t happen without a lot of time and effort.

So let me end with a question. I’m having a hard time finding a decent answer to this one, if it exists. Have there been any major improvements to phone support in the last ten years? If so, do tell. I personally can’t think of any. As far as I can tell, a lot of work is still needed, now more than ever.

*Update* Interestingly enough, the same day I write this TechCrunch makes an announcement about Fixya. It’s an online community that uses “crowd sourcing” to give anyone free tech support. I’m not sure how well it works, but I agree with what’s said in the first paragraph:

“Companies hate providing good tech support for their products because it is expensive. And consumers hate calling up tech support when they can’t get a gadget to work properly because they usually get the run-around.”

Backing up your computer is something you don’t want to think about; you wish it would just happen. With that perspective, I thought I’d bring up the online backup service offered by Mozy. I use it for both my laptop and desktop and now think of backups only when I desperately need to restore something (which can happen more often than you think).

Mozy has a free version, which allows you to backup two gigabytes of data. It requires no credit card and is quick and easy to install. And it’s no different than the version you pay for in terms of features and options. The only difference is that if you do pay $5 per month, your backup has no size limit (if you are interested in the Mozy Unlimited version, when signing up, use promo code TECHCONSUMER to get 10% off an annual subscription or TECHCONSUMER2 to get 10% off a biannual subscription).

In either version, the software automatically detects what it thinks are your most important files needing backup and compiles them into “backup sets,” such as Favorites, My Documents, Music, Photos & Images, Videos, etc. But if you’d rather backup your data from a typical Windows Explorer kind of view, that option is easily accessible by just clicking on the “File System” tab.

The company has had a serious credibility boost via an action-packed year last year. Here’s a wrap up:

• It now works for the Mac which Michael Arrington of TechCrunch calls the “first really useful Mac hard drive backup solution.”
• Even Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal seemed impressed by the backup service.
• General Electric bought MozyPro (the enterprise version of Mozy) for all of its 300,000+ employees, which more than doubled Mozy’s customer base.
• Last but not least, the company was acquired by EMC Corporation for a rumored $76 million.

See below for a chart that sums up nicely what Mozy offers when compared to the competition. Keep in mind that this is straight from the company’s website, though I can attest to having used many of the features listed that aren’t offered by the competition (same goes for Mossberg in his review). It can be the little things that seem to make the difference, such as the option to have all your files sent to you on DVD or Mozy keeping multiple versions of your files for 30 days.

So if you want a free, simple-to-use backup, try the free version of Mozy. If you want a more complete backup solution for your computer, it’s hard to beat the unlimited service offered for $5 per month. And if your backup needs are more robust, MozyPro is definitely an option, which includes a bunch of additional features: 24/7 support, server backups, administrator control for the IT department, etc.

Disclosure: Mozy is a sponsor of this site, though I have been using Mozy as my backup solution well before it was a sponsor (and before any of the positive news from last year). Sponsor or not, I use it and recommend it.

Back in November, I asked for help in deciding between HD DVD and Blu-ray. I ended up choosing HD DVD via an amazing Amazon deal: HD DVD player and 10 HD DVDs for $174. (That deal is now over, but now there’s an even better deal: HD DVD player and 7 movies for only $132.)

But it wasn’t just the price being nearly half of any Blu-ray equivalent (check out Amazon’s Blu-ray page, where every player is well above $300 with not nearly as many included movies), it was other little things. For instance, HD DVD is region free. This means that any movies bought in Europe or the U.S. can work on any player bought anywhere as well. The same isn’t true for Blu-ray.

And HD DVD technology allows for backwards compatibility with regular DVD players. Most of the HD DVD movies I own are dual format discs. They work on my HD DVD player but also work as regular DVDs in any DVD player (including Blu-ray players). But Blu-ray technology has no backwards compatibility. Another aspect of HD DVD that was superior: all players are required to have network support which makes updates more convenient and allows for some interesting features. Blu-ray, on the other hand, has plenty of players that don’t have network support.

And while the format wars have been raging on, I’ve been using Netflix which automatically sends me any available movies in my queue in HD DVD format. This has allowed me to enjoy plenty of high definition content over the past couple months (and will continue for some time until HD DVD officially dies).

So the less expensive, region free, feature-rich, backwards compatible format was beaten by the more expensive, restricted format. And let’s not forget that no matter how many Playstation 3 consoles Sony will sell (which include Blu-ray), a true DVD replacement will need stand-alone players. This is where Blu-ray has failed big time so far.

Plenty of people are speculating that even if Blu-ray has won the battle against HD DVD, its death isn’t too far off. News is coming out every day of more options that allow for digital content to be delivered straight to the TV with no separate disc player required. This war isn’t over yet. And if Blu-ray dies in the next battle, its expensive, restricted, non-compatible format will die with it.

As it stands, I appreciate what the HD DVD group has done to make its death less of a pain for its users. If it were Blu-ray dying, the same couldn’t be said.

*Update* The Financial Times claims Paramount will drop HD DVD via a clause in its contract that allows the company to switch sides if Warner chooses Blu-ray (which is exactly what Warner did). But now Paramount seems to be denying any such intentions and says it will stick with HD DVD.