iPhone 3G data use a week later: perhaps original Rogers plans were based on research?
Not that long ago Rogers/Fido announced their iPhone data packages. They started at 400MB and went up to 2GB for $60-$115. The really stupid part is the SMS packages with 75-300 in the range of packages… but the data is where the consumers focused their rage. In response a $30 for 6GB promotional rate was offered to tack on your current plan so I got one.
What I did this past week was try and use 3G as much as I could but not over the top. Really I just avoided the campus wifi and only used wifi at home, 3G everywhere else. I used Google maps a lot, email, downloaded apps (not many though), and used the web browser to constantly check stuff. In one week I used:
- 1.8MB sent
- 34.7MB recieved
That means if my first week is close to an average week I will probably just top 150MB in the month. Certainly I will try and use more 
However, I think the original pricing Rogers offered was based on research and purely designed to discourage tethering. But I don’t get why they just didn’t offer unlimited plans. What a missed opportunity to be loved. It’s not like anyone but a few people will try and tether their iPhone to their laptop for a connection.
For the next few weeks I will try and use video more… but the other side of this is that heavy data usage kills your battery (as it does with your laptop). If I leave the iPhone as a ‘phone with benefits’ the battery could probably last days. If I use it as an online entertainment device the battery lasts 8-10 hours.
A look at Microformats for Higher Education
Almost a year ago now I started exploring the idea of a research paper on Microformats with regards to Higher Education. After doing some research I settled on assessing ten Higher Education web sites, their mark-up and their content, identify some common patterns and explore the viability of Microformats for the typical Higher Education home page.
- You can grab a version of my paper in acrobat.com but if you want a PDF version please leave a comment.
In my paper you will find a literature review, the method I used, all the data, and my results. I did write this over the winter so things might have changed a bit and it certainly isn’t a perfectly written paper… but I think it offers a way to approach semantic mark-up that I hope some people find useful.
From my research, I developed a process to identify a design pattern for Higher Education web sites in both the mark-up code and the content. It may not be the most efficient but it seemed to do the trick.
I used those design patterns to come up with a mock-up of what the University of Waterloo home page could be (not graphically, just semantically) and tried out how that could be useful. My mock-up has:
- hAtom for news
- hCal for event listings
- hCard for the University address with geo information
There is also some other semantic richness in there. I thought that maybe someone would find it useful as there really isn’t a lot of research with regards to applying Microformats and why.
update: I have another post that looks at how Microformats can help higher education
iPhone 3G, I got one but why?
On Thursday (July 10th) I was writing a nice email as to why I wasn’t getting an iPhone. Then I started looking into my plan and the $30 data plan Fido started offering as a result of the public backlash (likely). I decided to wait it out a bit… but then an act of stupidity happened and I found myself making sure I was at the Fido store on time to pick up a 8GB iPhone 3G. Here is the original post and then what the heck I am thinking…
The original post
I have been waiting until today (July 10th) to make my decision on whether or not to get the CDN iPhone from Rogers or Fido. If you haven’t noticed, there has been a lot of discussion about the cost of the plans in Canada vs those in the US as well as the 3-year contract. Rogers/Fido have tried to meet the storm halfway by offering a 6GB for $30 a month added to your existing plan. However, that doesn’t remove the need for a 3-year contract which is my main concern.
I have been with Fido for 8 years now, I have two accounts with them, and I went there initially because they were the only provider in Canada that didn’t require a contract. I have managed a new phone for a low cost ($200 or less) every 12-18 months and haven’t had much to complain about. Not having a contract gives me a little negotiating power with them, I don’t want to loose that. Having any influence over the telecommunications service providers in this country is rare and I just can’t give up my position.
What I am doing out of protest is reducing both my non-contract accounts to the lowest plan Fido offers and making an effort to use my phone even less. Oh, and not getting an iPhone for the moment. Maybe I will go buy an iTouch for now.
Besides, I am guessing that after Christmas (at the latest) they will drop to a two year or even one year contract. Maybe even a no contract option. My nokia 6300 makes me happy as it is and I know a new iPhone is likely already designed and in prototype phase. I can wait
Why did I end up getting one?
Forget that I destroyed by Nokia 6300 the night before (just after I wrote that original post), the primary reason why I got the iPhone is that Fido changed the package and gave people a $30 data option on top of their current plans. I constantly run up $10-$30 data charges monthly (with their stupid pricing) so $30 wasn’t a real big increase. But this is my package:
- $45 gets me 350 daytime minutes, unlimited evenings and weekends, unlimited North American long distance
- $8 FidoPro – an old package that gives me voice mail, call display, etc plus unlimited text messages
- $30 for 6GB of data (heavy use of iphone today saw a crushing 4MB of data transfer, 6GB might as well be unlimited I think)
That puts me at $83 a month for what is essentially an unlimited plan for everything but daytime minutes. I can live with that. Its not cheap, $53 a month was better but I could really use the phone for other stuff… I was going to buy an ipod anyway (own one pre-ipod photo). For now, at least, I think the device is pretty amazing.
Now why did I commit to a three contract if I was so against it? I haven’t even been married three years, how can I commit to a phone that long? Bell and Telus aren’t really impressive for starters. Talk about blowing an opportunity by coming off as the greater evil. I have been with Fido a long time, am I going to leave them? Not likely. So what the heck. It’s not an iphone plan, its a ‘3G phone’ plan. I can live with that.
Oh and it would have been stupid to reduce my plan… I would have had to pay two times as much for something similar in the future if I did. Lesson learned.