Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in San Antonio. Only 14 other American cities can boast more. Our neighbor to the east, Houston, is second in the nation with 23. (New York City takes the top spot with 44.) Dallas ranks fourth nationally with 11. But San Antonio isn't doing too shabby ranking third in the State behind a couple of Gamma world cities.
The five companies that make San Antonio their home and their rank in the Fortune 500 are as follows:
- Valero Energy (#15)
- AT&T (#39)
- Tesoro (#132)
- USAA (#189)
- Clear Channel Communications (#252)
I might be going out on a limb, but I'd bet the most recognizable name on that list for most red-blooded Americans is old Ma Bell herself, AT&T. Okay, okay, so maybe she's not herself after last year's merger with SBC. If we're going to get technical about this, the real Ma Bell was AT&T Corp. After the merger, Ma Bell died and a new company was formed called AT&T Inc., sort of a zombie Ma Bell....but she's still Ma Bell. At least I think.
Anyway, that's all beside the point. You see, despite its size, San Antonio doesn't put on airs. A buddy of mine who moved from here to Houston once commented how strange it was. "Houston has a museum district and a theater district," he said, "not just a museum and theater." You're not going to find street signs written in Vietnamese in San Antonio. Nor will you run into that many Hmong families shopping at the local grocery here either. But what San Antonio lacks in its cosmopolitan-metropolitanishness, it compensates with small town charm and neighborliness. Need a cup of sugar or a babysitter in a pinch, just let it be known and you'll get it.
That's why it came as no surprise last week when I got a call from my neighbor, AT&T. She had concerns about a new product and invited me out to her place to get my opinion on it. We checked our schedules and agreed that next Thursday evening would be best.
Well, Thursday finally rolled around, so after work today I hopped in my truck and rolled down to Ma Bell's place. She had coffee and sandwiches waiting on me and had invited four other folks over as well. We spent about a half an hour munching on food and introducing ourselves to one another. One of the ladies there worked in the same building that Mrs. T and I took our parenting classes in last spring. "We loved your lactation center." "Oh, thank you, ya'll need to come back." "I suspect we will." Once we were all good and acquainted, Ma Bell took us upstairs to her living room where we all grabbed a seat on the couch.
She told us that since we all subscribed to her Dish Satellite Network service, she was curious about our opinion on one of her newer products called HomeZone. It's a box that looks like this:
Photo: Endgadget
We discussed each of this thing's features, then told her our opinion. The whole point of the HomeZone is to enhance the connectivity between your TV and the internet. Initially, I was most excited about being able to download movies and watch them on my TV. But a movie download would cost $3.95, her catalog was limited and you'd only have access to it for 24 hours upon download. I had to tell her for less than $20 bucks a month I get all the movies I can possibly manage delivered to my mailbox, with no due date, a far more extensive catalog, plus all the additional features that come on a DVD.... so her movie deal was a bust.
The HomeZone also functions as a DVR. I let her know from the get go that there needs to be a way to save recorded shows to disc or at least send it file form to your computer where you can burn it, until then my programmable VCR will take precedence. Alas, that day had not arrived. But there were a couple of nifty features that improve upon my current DVR. For one, there's a great search engine for the TV guide and a keyboard is built into your remote:
Photo: Endgadget
Photo: Endgadget
The other cool feature was the ability to rewind a show to the beginning that was already in progress when you turn on your TV. We were all absolutely stoked over that. But then there was a but. Ma Bell told us, "but it can only rewind the program that's on the channel the receiver was set to when the TV was off." You could feel the disappointment settle quick and heavy. "Keep working on that one, lots of potential." I said.
There were other features too, the ability to upload slide-shows, browse and buy music, check local movie schedules and remotely access your DVR from a web-based account among other nifty albeit not terribly revolutionary concepts.
In the end I was only moderately impressed with the product. I told Ma Bell I wouldn't pay a premium for it. In fact, I told her those were the types of innovations I expect from her and that the functions of the HomeZone should come standard for customers who subscribe to her Satellite and Internet services as a bundle. Ma Bell thanked us for our frankness and said she'd be sure to keep our opinions in mind as she moves forward. We thanked her for the sandwiches and she thanked us for swinging by. But hey, ain't that what neighbors are for?
Credit: Off the Grid 
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