iPhone 3G: Not for Me
Today was a reflective day, after leaving the Steve Jobs reality distortion field, I did the math and noticed the total cost of ownership of a new iPhone 3G: $199 + $30 * 24, which is $919. I currently have a 4GB iPhone that I love, and I don't mind the speeds, and my Garmin Nuvi is all the GPS I need (which is secluded to driving 99% of the time for me). So what benefits does the 3G iPhone have for me? Larger capacity.
What if I wanted to upgrade my phone? Well, I did that today -- I watched Craigslist, and attempted to get an 8GB iPhone for $250 or a 16GB iPhone for $350. Why would I do such a thing? First, I called AT&T, and confirmed that if I upgrade my current iPhone with an existing current-gen iPhone, my contract will not be extended. Secondly, I've wanted to get my wife an iPhone for a while, and the 3G phone was supposed to be the excuse. She's in a situation currently that she would benefit greatly from having one, and with her potentially traveling more as an opera singer, having internet on the go is a big deal.
Lastly, let's say I got the phone for $250 and stuck with AT&T for 2 years. The total cost to ownership is: $250 + $20 * 24, which is $730, $189 dollars cheaper in the long run!
The end result of today: I'm not the only one, after a lot of "out-bids" on Craigstlist, I finally found someone reasonable and walked away with a flawless (I can't find a scratch or anything) 16GB iPhone purchased last month. Now my wife gets my old iPhone, I've got a larger capacity iPhone, and the net savings over the 3G route: $189.
I think the 3G iPhone looks like a great device, and it's going to make a lot of people happy. But, it just isn't for me -- I still get iPhone 2.0 software when it comes out, and the only thing I desire in my phone is some of the 3rd party apps. So, I'm anxiously awaiting July 11, with our two iPhones.
Discuss | Posted on Wednesday, June 11, 2008, in apple, iphone
Welcome to my new "blog"
Since I originally started NilObject.com, my interests and desired topics have changed drastically. Additionally, WordPress, although a nice blog engine, was too much to keep running, especially with rampant comment spam. I've decided to start anew.
I wrote my own custom static CMS solution in Python to do exactly what I wanted, and I may get around to releasing it. I use a great host, and I can keep my costs even lower by removing the need to havea MySQL instance running. With this in mind, I also decided I wanted to just make everything as static as possible, and for now that means that I'm not going to be accepting comments on posts.
Fear not, however, I'm up for discussing the posts. You can discuss them with me on Plurk or by email (jon at thisdomain).
Also, I have archived the old site data, but have no plans on republishing it in its entirety. Some of the articles may make a reappearance. If you can't seem to find something, please contact me and let me know what you're looking for.
Discuss | Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008, in random
WWDC 2008 Live Reactions
I've been following along and plurking a little bit, but I wanted to give a bit more detail on my thoughts. I'm listening to an audio feed and reading MacRumors and MacWorld.
The first interesting detail is that the SDK is very popular. Twenty-five thousand people have applied to the paid program, and only 4,000 have been allowed in.
There have been some fun applications announced so far, but in reality, I'm getting a little bored by it all. All of the products end with "will be available for INSERTPRICE when the App Store launches." Let us know when already!
They're building in a push-notification service to all developers. External servers can push notifications to Apple which will then push it to the phones.
Finally answered the question: early July launch for iPhone 2.0. Interestingly, you can use the App Store on the cell network, if the app is less than 10 megs.
.Mac seems useful now: MobileMe pushes your data around wherever you are. Even syncs photos. This is the sort of functionality I was hoping for out of it.
6 Million iPhones sold, not too shabby. New iPhone obviously. Challenges were 3G, Enterprise, 3rd party apps, more countries, and more affordable. Comes out on June 29. Thinner, black plastic back, solid metal buttons, same display, flush headphone jack, and better audio.
GPS, I wasn't expecting it even though it was being rumored. The GPS tracks in the maps application, showing a dot as you move. Awesome.
Battery life looks really impressive. Standby 300 hours, 2G talk 10 hours, 3G talk 5, browsing 5-6, video 7, audio 24.
Tons of countries -- 70 total countries including China, Japan, Australia, Canada, Mexio, etc. Update: According to some sources and pictures, it appears that MacRumorsLive may be mistaken about China being part of the 70 for this year. I'm sure more details will follow on other sites, just wanted to make this post be as accurate as possible.
$199 for 8GB, $299 for 16GB. White version in 16GB will be available too.
Rolling phone out in 22 countries on July 11.
That's it. Snow Leopard is being kept further under wraps, and will only be talked about in the Mac OS X State of the Union. Overall, I'm happy. It's certainly easier on the pocketbook (heck, at that price I may even get my wife a 3G one too).
Now, the waiting game.
Discuss | Posted on Monday, June 09, 2008, in development, wwdc, random, apple, iphone
