Archive for June, 2008

iPhone Firmware 2.0 thought

/ June 28, 2008 / Photography / 1 Comment

Here’s a thought:

Now that Rogers will be bringing the iPhone to Canada, I wonder what will happen when the 2.0 firmware is released (most likely July 11th)? Let’s say you have a first generation iPhone, connected to the presumably newly released version of iTunes (on July 11th) and update the firmware and you’re logged into your Canadian iTunes account. Upgrading to a new firmware version has always locked the phone back to the original state – but would it now be locked to Rogers or AT&T?

I would be shocked if the above scenario ended up with a Rogers locked first generation iPhone but you never know…I might take a legitimately locked 1st gen iPhone with a plan of my choosing with access to the Apps store, Mobile Me, etc right out of the gate than the abomination that are their plans that lock you in for 3 years.

Or maybe not since I travel enough that I like having an unlocked iPhone.

It doesn’t really matter either way since the new firmware will be hacked a lot quicker than previously as a lot more is known this time around than last year.

Anyways, just something I’ve been thinking about.

A little iPhone data plan math

/ June 27, 2008 / Photography / 6 Comments

Unlimited data ftw!In light of today’s news, I’ve had some time to think about the plans that Rogers/Fido are offering for the iPhone.

I happened to be heading down to Seattle/Portland for a little vacation and decided to ‘splurge’ and buy the $19.99 unlimited (edge) data addon for my AT&T Pay-as-you-go sim card that I use in my iPhone when I’m in the US. It’s a fairly recent feature that is available to PAYG users. You simply call up the GoPhone number (611) and have it added to your account. It expires 30 days after you add it assuming you have money left in your account. So for my 5 day trip, I have unlimited data on my iPhone for about $4/day. The cost will go further down if I travel again down here within the next 25 days after my return.

I figured this would be a good way to see what my actual usage will be and may help to decide if I actually signup for the iPhone 3G or simply add the newly added $30 for 300mb plan that Rogers has to my existing iPhone.

Here’s how my first day went:

I reset the data counter before I put my AT&T sim into the iPhone and turned off wifi so this is just today’s usage. This is a couple hours of web surfing, checking three email accounts every 15 minutes, a bunch of google maps lookups and sending a few photos to Flickr. No Youtube.

Basically about 15mb of usage for what I would call a slightly above average day…probably more consistent with a weekend day. Let’s say that I do 30mb on an average weekend and multiply that by 4 weekends a month = 120mb.

So let’s say I do 10mb on a weekday. 10mb x 20 days = 200mb for an average month of weekday usage. If we total this usage for an average month we get about 320mb. Keep in mind I haven’t done any audio or video streaming and only basic email and web surfing. Who knows what kind of usage things like the Apps Store are going to incur.

I’m trying to be realistic in my usage. I’ve had my iPhone for almost a year now so the ‘oooh shiny new toy’ feeling has long worn off. Let’s say just for fun, that my monthly usage is rounded up to 400mb/month…conveniently the same as Rogers least expensive iPhone plan.

The biggest problem I have with the plans probably isn’t the amount of data (of course I would have preferred something similar to what AT&T offers), it’s everything else. A paltry 150 weekday minutes and 75 text messages just isn’t servicable. Evenings/weekends that start at 9pm? COME ON!

Maybe this works with a crappy Motorola phone but not with the iPhone. Of course you can pay more to add on more….but why does it jump from 75 to 10,000 texts if you spend an additional $20?

There just is no middle ground.

This doesn’t even take into account (or at least speak to) what about people on family/couples plans? I currently have unlimited incoming voice. It would appear that I would lose that unless I can ‘buy’ it back.

I’m just curious who Rogers is expecting to spend upwards of $100 a month for a basic plan? I know a lot of people already pay this or more for their plans, but it’s usually either business users, people with shitty plans to begin with or people with huge overages. I’m talking about the base plan. The fact is these plans are bundles of shit that can’t be decoupled or mix’n'matched.

We’ll see how my data usage experiment plays out of the coming days. I just may be sticking with my 1st gen phone.

Stogats, over on HowardForums has posted some contact email addresses for all the people you might want to let know how you feel about these plans.

Also, check out Tod’s post with a lot more info about the iPhone rollout.

Rogers iPhone Data Plans = Epic FAIL

/ June 27, 2008 / Mobile / 35 Comments

This morning I woke up to discover that Rogers (and Fido) had released their pricing for the iPhone data/voice plans.

                                              Sent      Incoming
                                              Text      Text       Visual
    Price   Voice                    Data     Messages  messages   Voicemail
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $60 /   150 minutes + unlimited  400 MB   75        Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $75 /   300 minutes + unlimited  750 MB   100       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $100 /  600 minutes + unlimited  1 GB     200       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    $115 /  800 minutes + unlimited  2 GB     300       Unlimited  Unlimited
    month   Evening and Weekend

I guess my previous optimism was blinded by the thought of a new device and that Apple was going to be able to influence change in Canada.

I’m going to have to think this over a bit before I decide if I’m going to upgrade or stick with my 1st generation iPhone. In the scheme of things, these aren’t horrible rates….they’re just not good ones…kinda like that sandwich in the vending machine – you don’t want to eat it but it’s the only option you have.

These plans don’t even include caller id or a reasonable amount of text messages. Of course, they’ve created additional ‘value packs’ for those things. It’s unknown if these plans automatically roll over to the next tier if you go over your minutes/data/txts in a given month or if you’re subject to high per minute/kb overages.

Get the whole sad picture here or directly for Rogers or Fido.

Update: They have finally updated the website with the plan details.

What will you do with your $100?

/ June 23, 2008 / Uncategorized / 4 Comments

Just got my $100 ‘Climate Action Dividend‘ cheque in the mail today. 

What are you planning on doing with yours? Me personally, I’m depositing into my home fund. I already do a lot to help the environment so I figure it should just go into the account I have for household related expenses. This will undoubtably go towards buying more CFL’s, more energy efficient appliances or something similar for my house.

It’s not really going to make too much of a dent in my gas expenses since I commute a fair distance to work (it equals about two weeks worth of gas for my car) and it’s purpose is to partially offset the forthcoming carbon tax that will be added to gasoline in BC starting July 1st.

I’m not sure this dividend is the best way to deal with carbon offsets but I’ll take the money anyways.

iPhone 3G predictions: how did I do?

/ June 18, 2008 / Mobile, Site News / Comments Off

Almost a month ago, I posted my predictions for the next version of the iPhone. Let’s see how I did:

Prediction #1: Details about the iPhone release in Canada will be announced on June 9th

Steve Jobs himself will announce them during the WWDC Keynote as he reveals the next iteration of the iPhone (version 2.0/3G/whatever) and details the rollout of the iPhone to a number of other countries/carriers that also had similarly worded (brief) press releases regarding the iPhone coming out “later this year”.

1 for 5 – although this one was pretty easy if you follow Stevenotes – Mr. Jobs like to make the big announcements.

Prediction #2: Rogers will offer the 3G iPhone to Canadians.

2 for 5 – No surprise here…as I mentioned before, what better way to purge the network of the first gen iPhones?

Prediction #3: there will be a decent iPhone data plan for Canadians.

Still 2 for 5 but this part hasn’t been officially announced yet – hence my delay in commenting on my predictions. There are some pretty solid rumours floating around that seem to confirm something in the range of $30/month for unlimited data for consumers and $45/month for business users. Whether you think $30 is a decent price for unlimited data or not, it’s exactly what folks in the US will be paying on AT&T (up from $20) plus now they have to pay ($5 more) for SMS messages whereas before they were included. This is unprecedented pricing in Canada on a handset as capable as the iPhone. I’ll update this post when it’s official which is rumoured to be Friday, June 20th.

Prediction #4: the Canadian iPhone will sell for no more than $399 with a two year contract and be available before the end of the summer, if not immediately.

Not sure how to score this one….of three scorable points, I’d say I got 2/3 – The phone will be $199 with a 3 year data plan and available on July 11 – well before the end of summer…possibly even before summer if you live in the Vancouver area.

Prediction #5: I could be completely wrong about all of this.

I think I did pretty good overall….we may have to wait until July 11th (or later) to really get an idea of what Rogers/Fido are offering to Canadians. There are still a lot of unanswered questions with the rollout of the new iPhone. Here’s some of my outstanding ones:

  • what is the handset price for people that recently did a hardware upgrade?
  • can 1st gen iPhone get hooked up with the $30 unlimited plan (if it’s true)?
  • how are the handsets going to be distributed? Instore, online or both?
  • will getting an iPhone cause me to break out of my family plan?
  • (assuming it’s real) are there any limits (hard/soft caps) with the unlimited data?
  • what about 3rd party applications….Apple has this Apps store, perhaps you’ve heard of it?
  • will the iPhone 3G be Rogers branded/feature disabled in any way? My guess is no.

Counting down the days til July 11th.

Matt Darey’s Nocturnal Podcast

/ June 16, 2008 / Site News / Comments Off

Matt Darey's NocturnalI recently stumbled across Matt Darey’s podcast (iTunes link) which is basically a rebroadcast of his show on the XM satellite radio station BPM.

It’s completely free and from what I’ve heard so far, it is fantastic. The first half is his own stuff/mixes followed by an exclusive set by a guest ‘superstar’ dj. If you’re a fan of electronic music, I encourage you to check out his podcast and the rest of his site which has a media player.

Did I mention it’s free, high quality electronic music? Hours and hours of it (over 200 hours worth)!

Even if you don’t like Matt’s style, chances are you’ll like one of his guests.

‘Warcraft’ Sequel Lets Gamers Play A Character Playing ‘Warcraft’

/ June 13, 2008 / Video, Videogames / Comments Off

This is too funny…

via @justinkeller

Hang on to that 1st gen iPhone!

/ June 11, 2008 / Mobile / 5 Comments

HawaiiPhone 2008If you take a look at ebay or craigslist right now, you’ll see that people are selling off their ‘old’ iPhones left and right. The prices are dropping through the floor as the ‘new’ iPhone 3G gets closer to release.

But I say hold on a minute.

Many sites are reporting that you will no longer be able to walk into an Apple or AT&T store (in the US) and leave with an unactivated iPhone. They are changing their previously open policy of letting you activate it at home. Unfortunately for them, a lot of people were unlocking and using them in other countries as Steve Jobs implied during the keynote on Monday.

What this means is that currently, aside from craigslist or ebay (and similar places) selling the 1st gen iPhone, there won’t be any place to get an unlocked iPhone without some kind of contract (string) attached. Even after the 2.0 firmware has been unlocked, most, if not all, 3G iPhones out there will be part of a contract. The 1st gen iPhones will also be getting the new firmware (and many features aside from 3G and GPS support, of course) so that will inevitably be unlocked as well.

To me, it seems likely that the value of an unlocked iPhone will start rising very soon. Even with 1.x version firmware, these iPhones will be a hot commodity to people that don’t want to lock into a long contract, users that live in countries that have multiple GSM providers or those that do not yet have the iPhone.

More thoughts on the WWDC Keynote

/ June 10, 2008 / Photography / Comments Off

One thing I didn’t touch on in my earlier posts about the WWDC Keynote today was the App Store and the addition of the Enterprise features to the iPhone.

First the App Store.

This is something that’s been in the works for awhile and is shaping up to be a very important part of Apple’s strategy. The App Store will allow developers to offer software applications to iPhone/Touch users with installation as simple as buying a song from iTunes. Judging from the demos of a few games and apps today, there are some pretty polished products waiting in the wings to be unleashed. Games from companies like Sega, with Super Monkey Ball (watch the demo linked in the middle of this page) prove that the iPhone could be a worthy contender against other handheld devices like the Nintendo DS or Sony PSP.

Dedicated apps like the auction browsing one demoed from Ebay and the music making app, Band were impressive as well….although these kinds of apps have been available on Installer for jailbroken iPhones for months, albeit not necessarily from the source company as in the Ebay case. A location based social networking app, Loopt was also demoed but reminds me of Twinkle that I covered previously which is arguably better since it’s using Twitter as the base social network. I’ll reserve judgement until I play with it myself though.

It’ll be interesting to see how stable and reliable these will become when they are legitimately available via Apple although some will be at a cost, like Monkey Ball which will be $9.99. I guess that price is okay considering a DS game would be triple that but it makes impulse purchases less likely than if it was priced in the $5 range. It’s unknown if demos will be available to download before purchase which may clinch the sale.

A very welcome feature of the App Store, unlike the iTunes Wifi Store is that as long as the app is under 10mb, you’ll be able to download it over Edge (or 3G) instead of having to use the desktop iTunes/sync method or Wifi. So if you’re on the go and want to check out that new app that came out, most likely you’ll be able to do it no matter where you are. The update notification will be nice too.

Okay. On to the Enterprise stuff.

One of the biggest things that needs to be done in order to help the iPhone penetrate the corporate world is offering integration with Microsoft Exchange Activesync servers which Apple will soon be offering. Corporate (push!) email on the iPhone will be a dream for many Blackberry toting people although I can understand the reluctance to give up the tactile keyboard for some of the people. When I had my Treo I thought there is nothing that could replace a physical keyboard for me but I’ve adapted to the touch keyboard quite well so they shouldn’t fear it. I wouldn’t hold my breath either for a bluetooth keyboard add-on. Apple doesn’t roll that way and neither should you.

Another interesting item as part of the Enterprise rollout is that the supported email attachments has expanded to include Keynote presentations. This means you can email your presentation to the phone (would be nice if you could sync or retrieve via browser) and then plug in the av cable to the iPhone and then plug that into a projector to display your presentation. Will be interested to see how that functions and if you lose anything in the process like transitions or video playback if they are included in the presentation.

Good for the Enterprise but sad for the employee will also be the ability to lock down the apps on a company deployed iPhone. I understand that this is a necessary evil but still don’t like it. I guess a locked down iPhone is still better than a Blackberry. Custom application downloads will also be available to the Enterprise via their intranet.

I wonder how Rogers will try to entice companies away from their competition using the iPhone now that it can compete against the Blackberry.

WWDC 2008: Mobile Me

/ June 9, 2008 / Photography / 4 Comments

While the 3G iPhone was the ‘big deal’ announced at the World Wide Developer’s Conference today, Apple also announced some other things. One of those things was ‘Mobile Me’ which is basically a rebranded and upgraded .Mac service offering using the cute me.com domain. This time it includes a lot more features for iPhone/Touch users.

Upon checking my .Mac email after the keynote, I got this:

Dear .Mac member:

Today Apple announced a new Internet service called MobileMe – taking the best of .Mac and adding a host of new features. As a current .Mac member, your account will be automatically upgraded to MobileMe in July. For a closer look, watch the MobileMe Guided Tour and read below for an overview of your new service.

Mac integration you know and love. With MobileMe, you’ll continue to enjoy features that take advantage of seamless integration with Mac OS X and iLife – Back to My Mac; access to your iDisk in the Finder; Mac-to-Mac syncing of Dock items, preferences, and more; iWeb site publishing; and photo and movie sharing directly from iPhoto ’08 and iMovie ’08.

New web applications for when you’re away from your Mac. MobileMe features a suite of web applications at www.me.com that have the familiar look and feel of the applications on your Mac. Because these web applications stay in sync with your Mac and other devices, you’ll have the same information wherever you go. Here’s what you’ll find at me.com:

Mail, the anchor of the new suite, is even better with a refined interface.

Contacts has a new three-pane interface, contact groups, maps integration, search, and photo support.

Calendar is a brand-new web application that feels just like iCal, featuring multiple calendars, click-and-drag event creation, and more.

Gallery lets you manage your collection of shared photos and movies from anywhere. You can now upload photos, rearrange their order, and set sharing preferences, all from a browser.

iDisk now has the familiar look of the Mac OS X Finder. It features drag-and-drop filing and an easy new way to share large documents, by sending an email with a link for downloading the file.

Account lets you manage settings such as storage allocation.

To use the new web applications, make sure you have one of these browsers: Safari 3, Internet Explorer 7, or Firefox 2 or later.

Push email. Push contacts. Push calendar. In addition to Mac-to-Mac syncing, MobileMe now keeps your iPhone, your iPod touch, and even a PC in sync. MobileMe pushes new contacts, calendar items, and bookmarks to your Mac or PC, and over the air to your iPhone or iPod touch. For example, if you add a calendar event on the web, the change will automatically be pushed to your Mac and iPhone. New email will be pushed to your iPhone in seconds, eliminating the need to check for messages manually.

As a MobileMe subscriber, you can continue to use your mac.com address for email. You will also be issued a me.com address with the same user name that you can use if you prefer. The choice is yours.

Double the online storage. To give you plenty of space for your email, photos, and other files, MobileMe doubles your storage from 10GB to 20GB for an individual subscription.

We’ll be sure to update you when the new service goes live. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the upcoming transition from .Mac to MobileMe, please visit the MobileMe FAQ.

Sincerely,

The MobileMe Team

I only have a .Mac account because I got it dirt cheap…otherwise, I wouldn’t have it because it’s very overpriced for what you (currently) get. I have been using it to sync my MacBook Air and my iMac address book and calendars which then update my iPhone when I dock it.

One big thing that Mobile Me is offering me is the ability to sync this wirelessly. I’m still not sure it’s worth the $99US price tag as that feature should have shipped with the 1.0 iPhone. It remains to be seen if you can ‘roll your own’ server setup and do this yourself as many people have with the .Mac type services.

The other parts of Mobile Me look nice but I’ll have to wait and see once I’m upgraded in July to see how compelling they are to my normal usage. The fact that they are integrated into almost everything Apple makes might make it harder to not renew next year. Push email adoption will also depend on the data plan pricing for the iPhone in Canada as well.

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