Apple’s WWDC keynote yesterday was probably one of the more exciting one’s we’ve seen for a while now. We got a few quick looks at Snow Leopard (and it’s amazing $29 price tag) and we got the big announcement of the new iPhone. I for one was completely excited. Unfortunately, there’s a huge stink brewing on the internet from iPhone 3G[pre-s] customers who are upset that they wont be able to take advantage of the $199 and $299 price points. To those people I’d like to say the following: “Owning a iPhone 3G[pre-s] is not different than owning a Blackberry, Motorola, or any other cell phone. If you’re ineligible for an upgrade, you have to pay more”.

This is the way the cell phone industry has ALWAYS worked. The cost of the phone is always far higher than what you’re paying. Your carrier, in this case, agrees to pay a portion of the phones cost if you are willing to guarantee them that you’ll stick with them for 2 years. This serves two purposes: 1) the cheaper price point is more attractive to the customer (you), and 2) they can afford to do it because they’ll make that money back by the end of the two years.

The whole ‘upgrade plan’ that all the carriers have (I think Verizon’s is called ‘new every two’ or something like that) is not them being nice to you. At the end of your two years, you’re no longer on a contract. This means that at any point you could just decide you want to move to another carrier and ditch them. So, they sucker you in by offering to subsidize a new phone for you. You agree and then you’re locked in.

Now if you ever decide you want to switch to a new phone while you’re still on the old contract, this causes a problem. Your carrier still hasn’t made that money from you completing the alloted term of your contract. So, why should they subsidize another phone for you? Well, the truth is they shouldn’t, and they don’t. It’s no different than any other phone upgrade.

I know, I know, I can hear the replies now. “but what about when the second phone came out. iPhone users didn’t have to pay extra to upgrade to the iPhone 3G[pre-s]!” You’re right, but I’d like to remind you of two VERY important facts regarding that:

1) The original iPhone was not subsidized! We all paid $499-$599 for the damn thing. ATT can subsidize our next phone because we’re not still paying them back for our last one.

2) The SAME EXACT price increase applied for ineligible people trying to upgrade to the iPhone 3G[pre-s] from their RAZRs and Blackberry’s.

So in short (well, you know what I mean), before you all get up in arms and cream out to the masses that apple is screwing over everyone who bought an iPhone last year. Just take a step back, breathe a bit, and realize that unless you want carriers to completely stop subsidizing phones all together, this is how it’s always going to be.

posted by Christopher Schnese

The Mac User’s Creed:

“This is my Mac. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My Mac is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My Mac, without me, is useless. Without my Mac, I am useless. I must run my Mac true. I must recruit greater numbers than my competitor who is trying to outsell me.  I must convert him before he converts me. I WILL…

My Mac and myself know that what counts in this world is not the numbers we crunch, the documents we draft, nor the pie charts we make. We know that it is the creativity that counts. WE WILL BE CREATIVE…

My Mac is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its iSight and its ports. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my Mac clean and ready. We will become part of each other. WE WILL…

Before God, I swear this creed. My Mac and myself are the defenders of my operating system. We are the masters of our competitors. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE.

So be it, until victory is Apple’s and there is no competitor, but peace!”

posted by Christopher Schnese

I know that just last Friday I wrote a blog post about my intention to buy the new 3G iPhone, but I guess I’ve had a little change of heart since then. It’s not really that I want the phone any less, it’s just that I’m feeling more and more satisfied with my current phone. The fact of the matter is that I honestly can’t justify the cost and the rate increase for what little of an upgrade it actually turns out to be.

I have this rule when it comes my gadgets. When I ‘upgrade’, it has to be a true Upgrade. I generally try to avoid buying the newer version of the same thing. When it comes to the new 3G iPhone, it unfortunately feels like more of the same. I would love the speed boost and the extra hard drive space, but I’m not willing to pay $300 plus the $20-30 a month over what I’m already paying just to get it.

Anyone who has actually played with the phone knows that the best part of the phone is the 2.0 firmware, which I’ve had since the day before the phone was released. I have all the apps I want and my EDGE iPhone still does everything that it would do if I bought the 3G version. You know what they say. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’

posted by Christopher Schnese

From the moment I unboxed my original EDGE iPhone, waited more than 10 seconds for a webpage to load, and maxed out its hard drive with one video and a few CD’s, I knew I would one day buy it’s successor. Then when the SDK was announced and they admitted the iPhone 3G’s existence, I committed to buying one right away. Finally, when I found out that my Bush Stimulus check would be arriving the same day of the subsidized phone, I decided it was fate (lol). So this morning I decided to take a little stroll over to the ATT store to fulfill my destiny. This is what happened instead.

So this morning I woke up a little earlier than normal with hopes of possibly procuring an iPhone. I normally wouldn’t want to pick one up on Launch day (because of the mayhem), but I’m going on a camping trip this weekend and I won’t be able to pick one up till later next week. So, without too much expectation, I decided to just drive by a few ATT stores on my way into work and see how bad the lines were. Of course, they were horrible and with all the reports of failed activations I figured it would be better if I just went in to work early and waited a few hours for the lines to die down. So I did just that.

Around 10:30am I pulled out my phone and try to call up the closest ATT store. Instead of a customer service rep, I got some stupid recording with a bunch of different options. After about a minute and a half of that, I just hung up and decided to head by the store and see for myself. When I showed up to the store, there were still about five people in line, but it wasn’t enough to turn me off. I hopped in line assuming that there wouldn’t be a line if they were out of phones. Just then a guy pulled up in his car and yelled, “hey, do they still have phones?” Almost in Unison the line replied, “um… yeah… I think so… I sure hope so…”

Now keep in mind that at this point there was an ATT customer service representative standing in the front of the line in full view and ear shot of everyone. So I stood there for a grand total of about seven minutes before the woman, who had just gotten to the front of the line, asked the representative which models they had left. It’s only then that the guy told the woman that there weren’t any phones left. Here’s the thing. He just told it to her as if it wasn’t important information to the rest of the people in the line. It wasn’t untill she turned around all upset and told us that we even knew.

Here’s the best part. As we were all standing there pondering who’s genius idea it was to keep it a secret that they were all out of phones, a UPS truck AND a FedEx truck rolled up and start off loading boxes of iPhones. We all sort of looked at each other for a second, turn to the rep, and said “those are iPhones, right?”. You know what his response was?

“Yes those are. But those are Saturday’s shipments and we’re not allowed to sell them till tomorrow.”

Are you kidding me? Really? I mean I sort of understand it, but what the hell? Then they started pushing this stupid fulfillment order nonsense. Basically asking everyone to sign up now, and ATT would special order them a phone that would arrive in a week or so. Now I’m no rocket scientist, but why on earth would I sign up now and wait a week for my phone from these guys when I could just walk into another store tomorrow or monday and have plenty of stock available (like what happened with the EDGE iPhone). So I left, and I’m going to buy my iPhone from an Apple store  in a few days.

All in all, I wasted only about 30 minutes, but I completely lost what little respect I had for ATT during that time. It’s not like it puts me back much since I’m going to be camping all weekend and I’ve been using the 2.0 firmware and the new apps since yesterday, but I thought it was seriously lame.

posted by Christopher Schnese

As of right now, I’m nurturing my little baby: setting it down on desks carefully, making sure to not jam cables into the ports, closing the lid gently, and just generally trying to take care of it. The thing is, in a few weeks I’m not even going to think twice about plopping it down on my desk, throwing across the room onto my bed, or sliding it across a table to better position it. None of that will matter. Which begs the question, why does it even matter now.

The same thing happened with my iPhone. For the first two weeks I had it in a case and was afraid of it getting scratched. Now I never use a case, I’ll set it on any surface around me, I throw it around when I’m bored, and I drop it all the time with no worries (at least not when it’s on a carpeted floor).

Why do I even bother being so protective now if I’m going to care less later on. I mean, if I will be completely comfortable throwing something around and getting it all scratched up later on down the road, then what’s the real harm in putting a few scratches in it right away. It’s not like it loses function with every scratch.

It’s a question that I’ve been pondering over since earlier this evening when I took a sharp turn in my car and, almost in a panic, flung my hand out to stabilize the MacBook Pro sitting in the passenger seat. Do we act this way simply because we like to keep new things new? Do we do it because we just haven’t yet tested the durability of our new possession? Or is it just some weird behavior that we all share?

posted by Christopher Schnese