It’s good that TUAW went and ask some questions. I am still bitter about the whole thing, but it’s interesting to see that if are an existing customer you can keep your existing plan upon renewal for at least the foreseeable future.
I also did some math on the tethering option. Right now to have an iPhone and a MiFi it would cost you $90/month in data fees for 5 GB on each. For $85 under AT&T’s new system you can get 6 GB of share data. The fact that you can turn tethering on and off at will is nice. There is a good chance I will take advantage of this at some point.
Skype apparently quickly retracted their plans to charge for 3G Skype to Skype calls on the iPhone. I have yet to see anyone explain why they were going to do this in the first place. Skype to Skype calls are free on computers. I suppose they may feel like there will be a big spike in usage, but nothing else to me makes sense.
I suspect they will ponder this for the rest of the year and give an explanation before they actually start charging people.
Crazy price changes coming to new AT&T data plans. The “unlimited” plan went from 5 GB to 2 GB and dropped from $25 to $30. The argument is that most people only use 2 GB and now they can make money off the people who use more because the only option for more bandwidth is $10/GB extra.
My take on this is that it officially kills any chance of a Verizon iPhone being announced next week unless AT&T really has no idea that it’s coming. This would kill their iPhone sales for sure.
I don’t really agree with the concept of taking things away without a significant price reduction, but it seems like telco companies do this a lot.
Another good perspective on the rumored update to the Apple TV. I agree that Apple is late to the party on this one and that if it’s strictly a way to get stuff from iTunes (and not Netflix) I don’t see what it offers me that the current Apple TV doesn’t. I can’t see Apple supporting Netflix since it competes with their movie rental service, but they do allow it on the iPad so who knows.
If the rumor of apps makes it basically a TV connected iPad is true, it’s interesting. This could be step one in phasing out the Mac as we know it.
Interesting survey about people who would jump ship to Verizon if they got the iPhone. But I too tend to agree that with the newly increased early termination fee (I think it’s like $375) no one will bail early. I still know plenty of people who are tired of AT&T’s service that no matter much they improve things between now and (theoretical) Verizon iPhone they would leave anyway.
TUAW has a nice post on starting with zero apps on your home screen, figuring out which apps you use most and then moving them over one at a time as you need them. I did something similar a few months ago. It makes it a lot easier to find things and I have deleted a lot of unneeded apps.
I have always been lukewarm on Rotten Tomatoes. I generally agree with the reviews but I don’t spend a ton of time on it. Most of the time I will just check a movie out and decide for myself, but it’s a pretty sweet concept nonetheless.
New info on the latest iPhone OS beta…
To the right of the orientation lock is a set of three controls for play/pause and track skipping in the iPod app, as well as a dedicated icon for the app itself. It seems likely this will replace the current “notification window” method for accessing iPod controls via a double-tap of the Home button.
I figured they would have to do something in regards to iPod controls. Presently, you double-tap the home button to bring this up, but now double tapping will bring up the multitasking dock.
Last June when Apple released iPhone 3.0 and officially announced tethering for the iPhone it left many people salivating with excitement. I personally couldn’t wait since my in-laws don’t have broadband and it would be nice to use when I am there. But shortly after the announcement we found out AT&T wasn’t ready and we were left waiting. Ten months later we are still waiting, with no end in sight.
Three years into the iPhone’s life and AT&T is still unable to promise good performance. I know it’s been said before, but I am sure Apple regrets the decision to pick AT&T over say T-Mobile. This is completely unacceptable. No one knows the terms of Apple’s agreement with AT&T. It it were ending this year I think we would have heard by now, so I suspect we have at least one more iPhone left before it ends. Meanwhile, people are switching left and right just to avoid AT&T.
Interesting that Microsoft killed their dual-paned Courier device. My personal feelings are that they were two years from launch and worried that Apple had too much of a head start.
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