Be Excellent To Each Other

I'm going to wait until some dick complains to Watchdog, Nicky Campbell gets on his high horse, and we all get given upgrades for freeez.

Grr, pack in this sort of talk.

I think that's highly unlikely, although granted, AT&T in the US seems to be cutting people deals now.

ZOMG Iz +h1S b0R1Ng y3T?

Woah woah woah, slow down. Envirofone will give you £200.10!

Don't jump in. How long have you had the 3G? It really isn't worth £225 and a load of faffing around. The 3G is a fantastic phone, and you know that by the time your contract runs out (presumably a year at the most), there'll be an even more awesome version available which you'll be able to get as a free upgrade.

Also, you're just justifying O2's ridiculous extortion of Apple fanboy fools. They know the Apple crowd have to have the latest kit, and they're taking the piss. Boycott and get a good deal in a few months!

Or, y'know, their perfectly reasonable refusal to sell new kit at new-contract prices when in the middle of a contract.

Don't even think about it, Campbell. I see you.

But we're special! Aren't we? Aren't we?

By.. how? Improving their product and offering it for sale?

Boo Apple!

Well, that makes all the difference!

Exactly a year. There was only one phone I used for longer than a year, which was my HTC piece of shit which I clung on to because I was waiting for the iPhone 3G to come out so I didn't want to commit to a contract.

It is my DUTY to PROP UP THE ECONOMY MAN. What are you, a TERRORIST?

Joking aside, and in all seriousness now, I would very, very much like the upgraded speed and the upgraded camera. Everything else on the 3GS is window dressing but I would legitimately use both of those things. I get very cross when I bounce out to Mail to do something, come back to Safari, and it's reloaded the page and lost my place in Google Reader.

Nope. I have six months on this contract. By that point we will (probably) be six months away from the release of a v4 iPhone, which means it's the worst time to be committing to a futher 18 month contract at that point. If I want to upgrade every year and have to work around 18 month contracts, the best way to do it is to alternate a contract renewal one year with a PAYG one the next. Then spend 18 months in the contract and 6 months on a cheap SIM-only 30-day tariff.

It's not particularly extortion, y'know. Off-contract high-end GSM phones have always cost this sort of money. Also: what makes you think they'll drop the price? The iPhone 3G sold at the same price for 10 months before they had a very modest price cut to shift stock before the 3GS came out.

Frustrating, isn't it. Especially when you're on a forum using #unread, you get interrupted, then when you go back Safari reloads the the site and you're several pages ahead of where you left off!

The thing that pisses me off most is when I'm in Google Reader and I spawn a new window to read another site. I like the article, so I want to star it in Reader (I used "search in starred items" a lot for when I'm trying to find something I know I once read). I close the external window, go back to Google Reader, and watch, annoyed, as it reloads. But now because it doesn't show you stuff you've already read I can't star that article any more -- it's essentially gone unless I click through to "show unread items" and go hunting for it.

Yeah, first world problem I know. But it bothers me.

Wha? No, I'm talking about O2 and their utterly ridiculous price plans...

Yes even Ornage do this, I havd to wait for my 18 months to expire so I could upgrade to my Nokia 5800.

There are a lot of Apple Fanboys out there, but it is cool they are happy.

Yeah, okay, that's more annoying.

Seriously hard life, isn't it.

What ridiculous price plan? £440 for a top of the line UMTS phone? That's not ridiculous, it's the going rate. For example, the HTC Magic at expansys is £505.

You offer good justification and with 6 months left I'm more inclined to see your point of view. Assuming another new phone arrives a year from now, though, puts everyone in a shit position again. Nothing we can do, I suppose.

But seriously, the O2 price plans are outrageous - I'm certain they're much more expensive (for a completely new contract) than the original iPhone/3G.

Both of those prices are ridiculous! It's a phone! A very good phone, sure, but it's only a marginal improvement over the current one that I got for absolutely nothing. Maybe my opinion is skewed because my iPhone was a free upgrade from my N95 which was also free... Did everyone else have to pay for their iPhone 3G?

edit: And I realise we're talking PAYG prices and not contract here. I dunno, I think over £200 for a slightly better phone when you have six months left on your current contract is a bit silly. I mean, I'd love the 3GS and I could certainly afford to get one if I really wanted one, but I'd probably feel a bit of buyer's remorse.

It's not O2's ridiculous prices though, it's the market's. That's how much top-end phones cost.

No -- I'll be contract free in Dec. So I move to SIM-only for six months and then I'm ready for an upgrade in June 2010, if we see a v4 (which seems likely).

Oh yeah, they are. Weak pahnd, innit. The monthly spends and the minutes are the same but the upfront costs are about +£100. Apple tends to fix prices in stone for 6-12 months at a time, which is weird amongst computer makers, so the last set of prices were set when the pound was very strong and are now being reset when it's very weak. Some of the laptops have gone up quite a bit whilst going down in price in the USA and on the continent.

It's not ridiculous. It's what phones actually cost and it's also the price the market will bear. You have a skewed perspective because you're only used to getting them with long contractual tie-ins that add up to very large amounts of money.

Yes, I paid £69 with a 18 month commitment (initially £45/mnth, moving to £35/mnth after 9 months). That's a £789 total cost of ownership.

http://shop.o2.co.uk/update/paymonth.html

You're telling me the 3GS price plans aren't ridiculous when I got my iPhone 3G for nothing on a £35 a month 18 month contract?

BUT, you get calls and texts for naff all.

Listen, I don't want to argue about this. I'd love a 3GS, but I just think the pricing is a little ridiculous, especially when I got an iPhone 3G for fuck all on the same pricing plan I was last year.

Of which I use very few. I had to reset my iPhone t'other night but I think total lifetime call timer was about 20 hours or something, and a few thousand SMSs. I'd certainly spend very little out on a PAYG tariff.

Well this is perhaps where you and I differ. I actually use the phone, see? And I see the extra gubbins as an awesome bonus.

And if you get the 3GS 16G you'll pay £35 for 18 months and £180 for the phone, which is an £801 cost of ownership. £22 is a reasonable upkick, I would have said.

Fair enough. Don't get me wrong, I need a phone -- it's my only phone, there's nothing plugged into my landline -- but I don't use it very much. And I'm totally satisfied with it as a device, with what it cost me, and with the amount of use I get out of it -- probably more than any other thing I own.

I still want that 3G S.

But he'd still have to buy himself out of his current contract to do that, which is the craziness I object to. Getting in early you pay for a premium price plan, you have to actually pay for the phone AND you'd have to pay O2 a chunk of money just for a the privilege. If Gaywood waited for the contract to expire, they'd almost certainly let him have the 3GS for free and keep his current price plan.

But, I understand that he wants it now, and it's a really cool gadget that he obviously really wants and will use to the MAX.

Right, but you were saying that the prices were ludicrous. They're not, they're perfectly fine. If people are silly enough to buy out of a contract just to get new shinies, that's their lookout.

Craster is just comparing 2008->2009 prices here, not specifically to my situation. He's right too, I hadn't added it up, but that means 3G and 3GS pricing is much closer than I thought.

It's their lookout for not realising that the PAYG ones work out much better, too. I mean, it'd cost me £210 right now to buy out of my contract, for which I would receive -- what? The right to start spending another £35/mnth on the exact same service I was getting anyway! That's a neat parlour trick. It essentially doubles your rental.

I think mine was £35 a month for 18 months, plus £160 for the phone. £790 total, 2008.

Yeah I hadn't realised that either. Bloody Craster. But seriously, the buying yourself out of your contract thing is the real issue here. I think O2 should've offered an upgrade option. £200 for the 3GS and your contract starts again at month one. I would've snapped it up.

You paid 630 at £35 a month.

A 3GS would cost 713.82 at £29.38 a month.

It's 13% more for a significantly better product. Doesn't seem all that ridiculous, if you're in the habit of spending that much money anyway.

It was £169. I saved £100 by getting the £45/mnth contract -- then after 9 months, I dropped back down to the £35/mnth one. I came out of it a tenner up, I had a ton more minutes and texts (not that I used them), and I spread the cost out instead of paying it upfront.

Yeah, but I'd have to buy myself out of my contract in order to do that!

But the only reason you get a discounted phone in contract is because they get to tie you into a full term. Why would they then turn round and 'forgive you' half that lock-in?

To be nice.

Ah, it was £169 was it? Not that it really matters.

I read your plan of downgrading when I was purchasing my phone, but decided saving a tenner for minutes and texts I wouldn't use was a bit overkill, and having to phone customer support for any reason usually infuriates me.

They were actually really good about it, didn't keep me on hold, and didn't mess it up -- but I think you may have been wise anyway

Any way, can I have a GPS tagged, compass info-included picture of your cock MMSed to me when you get it?

First iPhone apps with Push support. Mostly a load of crap. Seems IM+ is the only IM client with it so far. I'm hoping for a Beejive IM update soon.

Edit -- looks like the current version of IM+ doesn't support push, there is a version under review with Apple that does though. Same is true of Beejive, the author submitted a push-authorised version over a week ago and is waiting on approval.

IM+ looks quite powerful. As well as the usual raft of chat protocols it can do Twitter, Facebook, and Skype text chat.

I do like IM+ - but it does 'push' its' 'push' functionality quite a bit too much though, given that it isn't really there. All it does is stays logged in to the sites at their server end, so that when you reconnect, it delivers any messages you received while you were logged off.

No no - I'm talking about proper push using the new-in-OS3 API.

Surely 'Mail' is the first app that supports it :0)

I understand, what i was saying is that the current Non 3.0 version of im+ somewhat over eggs its pushing.

Oh, good work.

does mail support it then? when using gmail?

also i prefer nimbuzz to im+ , hope it will push as well