Austin360 blogs > Digital Savant > Archives > 2008 > July > 01
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The good news magical happy blog links report
I’ve filled my quota for curmudgeonly grousing for the day (see my last post about iPhone nickel-and-diming), so for the rest of this Tuesday, I’m only going to share happy, sunshiny tech news. Look at all the wonderful things happening:
- Some local Twitter users are organizing a Twitter blood drive on Thursday. You can sign up, meet some cool people and help someone with your precious bodily fluid. Sign up!
- A Minnesota airport now features a Samsung gadget charging station that you can use to electrify your devices for free. I want one in Austin! Make it happen, Austin-Bergstrom!
- Speaking of our lovely airport, they’re one of several airports testing out a new kind of laptop bag that will allow you to pass through security without having to take your notebook out of the case. Truly we live in a time of glorious baggage.
- The Rhapsody music service is set to offer legal, copy-protection-free MP3s, just like Amazon.com. That’s good news!
- I was just getting over my Pixies “Doolittle” download only to find out that 12 songs from The Who are coming soon. Welcome to my Xbox, “Baba O’ Riley.”
- Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Junot Díaz dissects “Grand Theft Auto IV” and gets to be all slangy in the pages of the Wall Street Journal. He decides that “GTA IV” is certainly art, but it’s no “Godfather.” Fair enough. The medium is young. It still was an enjoyable read!
Happy Tuesday!
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Internet, Videogames
iPhone’s second coming: more pricing details
After Steve Jobs dropped the iBomb about the new iPhone 3G last month, things got very quiet information-wise. A flash presentation, then nothing.
Today, we’ve got iPhone 3G information coming out of our ears. AT&T and Apple have unloaded a boatload of info about the July 11 launch of the device, perhaps in an effort to distract us from the fact that text messaging with the iPhone now costs $5 to $20 extra depending on your plan (more on that in a bit).
AT&T has launched an info portal to answer questions about pricing, upgrading and new features. The iPhone 3G is still expected to cost $199 for an 8-gigabyte device (or $299 for a 16-gigabyte version) for new customers and those who are eligible to upgrade. That includes all buyers of the previous iPhone (at least through July 11). Those who are not eligible for the price subsidy will pay $399 or $499, in line with current pricing.
AT&T says, “Both options require a new two-year service agreement. In the future, AT&T will offer a no-contract-required option for $599 (8GB) or $699 (16GB).” O, the glorious future!
iPhone upgraders will pay an $18 service fee. New AT&T customers will pay a $36 activation fee.
I’ve said before that I may be a bit slow to upgrade to the new phone and the pricing hasn’t changed my mind about that. In addition to paying $10 more a month for the faster 3G service (reasonable), I’d also have to start paying for a separate text messaging plan that starts at $5 for 200 texts a months and goes all the way up to $20 for unlimited texts.
Want a 3G iPhone with unlimited data and unlimited texting? The cheapest plan for that, with only 450 peak minutes, will cost you $90 a month before all those taxes and fees that show up on your bill. Maybe we should just give up on texting altogether. It’s starting to be a lot pricier than just e-mailing or doing online chat.
If you want to hear lots more whingeing about the pricing, visit Engadget’s comments section, where people are unloading their spleens in more colorful ways than I could here.
Still: iPhone 3G. Lots of people will want it and won’t mind the nickel-and-diming. Such is the power of Apple.
Edited to add one important detail: The iPhone 3G goes on sale at 8 a.m., local time, Friday July 11, at AT&T and Apple stores.
Now, how do we make our old iPhone a hand-me-down? AT&T explains the process below as part of its series of “Get ready for the new iPhone” videos.
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment Categories: Gadgets, Phones, Shopping
