It’s nice to see the list of big name games growing for the iPhone/iTouch, not that the independent games aren’t sometimes just as good. Game industry leaders like John Carmack have already said that the device is a very powerful hand held device for gaming.
Today I caved and bought Spore for my iPhone. I almost didn’t want to, given the outrage over the PC version of Spore and it’s draconian DRM protection, it’s just unacceptable and that’s no way to treat your paying customers. Again the legitimate users lose and the pirates get a DRM free version. Anyway, back to Spore for the iPhone.
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If you own an iPhone you may have noticed that you can bookmark websites and add them to your home screen. These are called Webclip Icons and they are either a snapshot of the website or an actual website icon similar to a favicon that shows up in a desktop browsers address field. If you want to add an iPhone icon to your site it’s very easy to do.
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So my long debate over what phone to get is finally over. Yesterday morning I picked up an iPhone at the Fido store. I had already played with the first iPhone and the second iPhone along with the iPod Touch so I knew what it was all about. Even though I had played with them, I was still blown away at the ease of use and so far I’m extremely pleased with my iPhone.
My first iPhone street car ride home was spent catching up on my Google Reader feeds. People have asked me why I need to be connected all the time, so I tell them it’s really not much different than reading a newspaper in the morning only my preferred method is digital and the content I want to read for the most part won’t show up in the morning newspaper. Couple that with the fact that I hate how a newspaper feels, lets face it, they have a horrible user interface.
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Today I finally took the plunge and decided to buy an iPhone. I figured that I had waited out the rush, done my research and decided on a plan, all that was left was to pick a colour and go pick it up. I’m one of those people that take forever to make a decision on purchases and having so many choices makes it even harder. The HTC reviews didn’t impress me, Android is too far away, and the Blackberry Bold, well it sounds like a pretty cool phone but the iPhone won me over. Since being connected to the web is my number one goal with a smart phone I figured the iPhone was probably my best bet. The decision was a big one for me, but once I started heading to the Fido store I was on a mission.
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Now that the coveted iPhone has been released in Canada and the hype is dying down I find myself still unable to decide if I want one. Maybe decide is the wrong word, I absolutely know I want one, but I’m not sure if I want to break the bank doing so while locking into a long term agreement of 3 years with a big company I dislike. The big question is how practical the device is for me compared to other devices.
The other option I have been weighing in on is the Eee PC from Asus or one of the other emerging mini laptop or netbook solutions. This laptop is a little bit larger than a paperback and incredibly light. Although I would have no wireless 3G web experience I would have a super practical commuter computer and long term it would be a heck of a lot cheaper.
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So maybe all the protesting over at Ruined iPhone and other places on the web have paid off. The whole iPhone outrage even hit mainstream news media. Basically Rogers and Fido (which are the same company) will allow you to take a phone plan and add a $30 6 GB plan to it. This is a temporary “deal” you can buy into with a 3 year contract before Aug 31st. It is a much better deal, but a lot of people are asking why it’s only temporary?
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Today Rogers announced no unlimited data plan and a ridiculous 3 year lock in for Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone. Rogers announces iPhone 3G plans, unlimited data isn’t one of them on Engadget has all the details. The official Rogers iPhone voice data packages are online too.
This is pretty disappointing, you have this really cool phone, but if you actually use it much you will pay through the teeth. No YouTube for you! I hope some day Rogers has some real competition, and I hope everyone remembers their monopoly and horrible prices. The rumours appear to be wrong, nothing is going to change up here in the north.
Now the question is do I give in and get one anyway? I’m not sure yet, but I’m leaning towards no.
The Rogers website has the iPhone up now. I guess they figured out that the mysterious teaser wasn’t fooling anyone. No word on packages yet, but we can probably assume that they will be expensive with a really long contract. More details on costs can be found over at iPhone in Canada.ca.
There’s a lot of buzz in the blog sphere today about a leaked Rogers iPhone data plan. Prices are rumoured to be about 30 dollars a month for the data plan which will average 90 dollars once you add a voice plan. Top that with a 3 year lock in. Just think, the iPhone 5 will probably be out by the time your Rogers contract is up.
I don’t think I’ll be picking one up, but who knows, it might be hard to resist. I know Android phones are just around the corner, but they probably won’t have a much better data plan either if you live in Canada. A sweet spot for me would be around 60 dollars for voice and unlimited data, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. The only time I would use the data plan is during travel to and from work, so it’s hard to justify a lot of money on it, especially considering that in downtown Toronto their are lots of free wireless hubs.
WirelessNorth has more details, and has calculated that if these data rates are true it will cost around $3440 over the life of the contract.
Update June 18th: It looks like the iPhone search volume has completely spiked, surpassing original spikes, but I still think there’s a lot of saturation in the blog sphere. I will do a follow up after the phone is released.
Today I have been playing around with Google Trends and the BlogPulse tools. While trending some of the newest smartphones out there I noticed something odd with the iPhone data. It seems that last week when the new iPhone was announced there was actually a far larger spike in iPhone news than actual interest.
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