All the little blurbs I’ve heard about the new iPhone 3G made me want it badly. The “old” iPhone rocked, and the new one adds GPS, upgrades to 3G, and… something else, I think. And it’s supposed to be sold for $199.<\/p>\n
The problem is that AT&T’s page has this little asterisk saying “For qualified customers,” which Ars Technica suggests<\/a> may refer only to those who already own iPhones, and the rest of us start at $399. They don’t tell us that, though.<\/p>\n It’s also been widely reported that they raised the plans $10, but what I hadn’t seen before is that they also removed text messaging from the plan, so you have to pay extra for that.<\/p>\n This really<\/i> aggravates me, to the point that I think I might just refuse to go along with it. The old iPhone plan was expensive but worth it. But now they’re jacking the price up and<\/i> removing features?<\/p>\n And does anyone else think it’s preposterous that I could call someone and talk for quite a while, tying up a “whole” channel (or time slice) on them, or download hundreds of megs, for free, but to send a 160-byte message will cost something like 20 cents? They’re charging the most<\/i> for the thing that costs them the least.<\/p>\n It’s really no different than on the Internet, really: imagine using Skype for VoIP, e-mail and web-browsing, and IM. And your ISP allows you 450 minutes on Skype, unlimited web-browsing and e-mail, but charges you 20 cents for every IM you send or receive. It uses the least bandwidth, but gets prohibitively expensive.<\/p>\n That alone annoys me, but the fact that they dropped<\/i> the included text messages from the plan at the same time that they hiked the price seems like pouring salt in an open wound. I’ve been eying the Blackberry Curve<\/a> [WARNING: Site makes sound.] anyway. Not nearly as good as the iPhone, but maybe the company won’t spit in my face when I’m interested in buying it.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" All the little blurbs I’ve heard about the new iPhone 3G made me want it badly. The “old” iPhone rocked, and the new one adds GPS, upgrades to 3G, and… something else, I think. And it’s supposed to be sold … Continue reading