On Rogers and Apple

I posted a critical blog entry a while ago about how much I hated the pricing and policies of Rogers and Apple. Well, I am here to eat some of my words, in that I finally caved in and upgraded my phone to a 16GB black iPhone. And I won't mince words ... these things are as good as everyone says they are.

I needed a new iPod, because my current iPod sits in my car almost all the time. The Alpine deck I bought uses only iPods and memory sticks as sources, and memory sticks are poorly organized at the interface so iPods are it. The sound quality is stunning, and the iPod simply belongs there.

I also needed a new cell phone, because I came to hate the Blackberry I was using. It often changed its internal time and set alarms an hour off, and it started to run low on batter much too quickly. This because charging it is simply inconvenient.

So I killed two birds with one stone and have no regrets.

Of course, data plans are another thing entirely. I refuse to pay $30 for 1GB or $80 to 6GB ... that just stinks. So I will wait for Rogers to come to their senses and offer 250MB for $10 or something like that. Something that almost anyone would buy into.

Coupled with a reasonable overage rate like $0.06 per MB and they would really have something. For very light users, this would be an inexpensive way to have all-time access. Users that regularly hit 1GB would pay $55 instead of the $30 they would pay on the 1GB plan.

This would provide an incentive to get the higher plan for heavier users without crippling those who need to go over for one month. They would pay more to Rogers than the bulk rate, as is fair. But they would not have to remortgage their homes, which the initial data plan largess was threatening for some.

For now, I had them enable the feature that disables 3G at the phone. Simple, effective, cheap. The wifi support is so good that I hardly miss it. But I'd still like to get a data plan one day ... I hope you are listening Rogers ...

Bottom line ... I fully support Rogers and Apple with these phones ... they are actually better than people realize. The applications are really useful, and so very cheap. The sound quality is excellent. The iPod function is wonderful. Integration with iTunes is first rate. In fact, I buy pretty much all my music there now.

Get one ...