Be Excellent To Each Other

Yes, I just ordered a 15" Macbook Pro.

Unless I'm missing something, you're talking 100 quid or so over the unit's life. I'd strongly recommend waiting a month or so (to see whether the hardware's prone to faults) and then picking up the new model. The 3G's fine, but it's now the low-end.

The 3G 16Gb has also been dropped, so the choice is 3G 8Gb, 3GS 16Gb, 3GS 32Gb.

Hmm...

Sound advice. I'm not sure what the deal with upgrading mine would be, seeing as I'm only just approaching twelve months of my contract, but even if it'd cost me a couple of hundred quid I probably wouldn't mind, especially seeing as I could probably get a sizeable chunk of that back by selling my current 16GB 3G phone on Ebay.

You'd need to buy out of your contract at (monthly rental)x(months left). A 16Gb 3GS will then cost a fair bit -- £185 on £35/mnth and £90 on £45/mnth. Add another £100 if you want the 32Gb phone.

As I said on Twitter, these are about £100 more than the 3G iPhone launched at, whilst the US price is the same. The weak pound strikes again.

Quite expensive, then.

Mm. Funny how much bitching's going on about this fact*, though. "You mean iPhone users aren't special? You mean I have to honour the contract I signed? Fuck you, O2! Fuck you!"

EDIT: * Not anyone here, though.

Not necessarily. I know that some mobile phone contracts allow you to buy yourself out of your contract by paying a cancellation fee that's usually equivalent to two or three months' worth of payments.

Whether that applies here or not I couldn't tell you.

Well last year they offered an in-contract upgrade path for 2G iPhone to 3G iPhone, so I'm not surprised there isn't interest in the same thing happening here.

O2 specifically told me on the phone I couldn't have a special deal. They'll make an exception for high priority customers, I'm sure.

The 2G one sold without subsidy in the first place though.

I'm not

I can only assume I am.

Anyway, I'll have a look at the costs shortly after the new phone is released, and weigh up my options. There isn't really anything in that list of features I don't want.

I meant I'm not sure they'll make an exception.

Thats not an iPhone specific trait. Thats a 'Knowledge of consumer affairs and rights extends no further than what was on Watchdog and Moneysavingexpert.com because I simply can't be bothered taking care and responsibility for myself' trait. Which appears to affect about 75% of the people in this country.

I see little in the 3GS that makes me want to upgrade. All I need is to fix my cracked back and I'll be reet. Or, claim on the insurance as it is accidental damage, when it finally hits critical point.

Although I am annoyed that you can't upgrade until you are in the last month of your contract, as I was sure it was last two months as I noted the difference from Orange which is 3 months. That takes me to Feb rather than January if this one holds on.

Does it look the same as the 3G?

I am, because the O2 Twitter rep was saying "call for a quote for your account". So I did, and after they looked, I was told it was a flat months left x monthly charge. But the Twitter guy was really evasive about solid info -- making me think at least some people get preferential treatment.

Essentially yes. The same cases fit, even. There was a rumour of one with a matt plastic back (think Nintendo DSi) but they seem to have been false, or a rejected prototype, or Apple yanking people's chain.

Yeah, and I'm saying that if they would make an exception, it's likely they'd make one for me (my clients). And they won't.

Yet.

Maybe, maybe not. They might have different metrics for business and personal users, or any number of wacky business rules around ARPU.

These aren't business users though. We have a resale deal to our employees for personal devices. 300,000 of the more affluent of folks are worth a lot to O2.

Oh. Well, I dunno then. Perhaps deals will start appearing in a few weeks after they've scalped the early adopters. Could be a stock control issue.

I wonder what my 16Gb 3G would fetch on ebay now. I'd almost be better off getting a PAYG 3GS and putting my current contract SIM into it.

You'd probably get £400 for it on eBay.

That'd give you a £50 upgrade price to the 3GS.

The more I ponder that, the more sense it makes. I buy a 3G S for £440 (16Gb) or £540 (32Gb). I either 1) unlock my 3G and sell it and the O2 PAYG SIM card (with one year's free data) on eBay or 2) put the PAYG SIM in the 3G and sell that.

A brand new 8Gb PAYG is £340, so I guess I'd get at least half that for my battered 16Gb, leaving me with an upgrade cost of £250ish and ensuring I'll be out of contract for a potential v4 iPhone next year. Still awfully spendy, but a much better deal than £210 to escape my contract then £200 with a new 18 month contract commitment.

For realz? Ebay prices might take a while to settle out in light of the new devices.

Edit -- wow, you may well be correct, this might change things.

Well, I paid £330 for an 8GB 3G a month and a half ago (and don't I feel like a sucker now) off eBay.

Was it unlocked?

It was claimed to be, but it turned out that he meant "had tried to unlock it and failed miserably because, being a pillock, I upgraded it to 2.2.1 with the latest baseband which hasn't been cracked yet and can't be downgraded".

Which meant I had to take out a 30-day contract with O2.

Which saved me money on my existing 30-day contract with Orange anyway.

So I didn't mind.

I would like to look at one of these shiny new telephones. When do they appear in shops?

Seems to be the 19th of this month, but I'm not entirely sure.

My 16Gb 3G iPhone is covered for accidental damage on my house insurance. From next week, the only 16Gb model will be the 3GS.

I am making no plans involving a combination of the two statements above.

See, I was thinking of that before. Mine isn't insured, mind, so it wouldn't work for me. But what if…

My 16Gb 3G iPhone is covered for accidental damage on my house insurance. From next week, the only 16Gb model will be the 3GS.

I am making no plans involving a combination of the two statements above.

See, I was thinking of that before. Mine isn't insured, mind, so it wouldn't work for me. But what if…

Why would you not take out the £5pcm insurance on a £400 phone?

Accidental damage cover is remakably cheap, when compared to say *plucks randomly selected example from the air* the upgrade cost of an iPhone when you are in contract.

I should state that my iPhone is actually damaged and probably won't make it through the contract period alive. I'm not using the policy of my friend who has 'accidents' every time he feels like upgrading something. Although strangely, his insurance cost never seems to increase.

I've had a mobile phone for a decade and have never damaged one in the slightest. £5 a month for ten years is £600 I haven't spent in premiums.

Mobile phone specific insurance is stupidly expensive when for the same price per month, you can have extend your contents to include accidental damage. £5 on a phone alone, or on all your worldly goods? Then, if I throw the iphone through the TV...

Annoyingly this happened with my old Samsung something or other. They still had stock of the ancient model when I claimed on the insurance.

Indeed. I'm going to be extending the household insurance to cover my mountain bike fully anyway. I'm not spending £60 a year on just phone insurance.

You obviously don't have a wife that confuses her iPhone with a basketball.

Stocks of the iPhone 3G 16GB aren't going to run out just yet though.

I don't! I don't think I've ever damaged a single gadget of mine.

They are low though, are they not?

I think he means refurbs (which are still preferable to one with a crack in it). Like I said yesterday, there is nothing in the 3GS that would make me upgrade if my phone wasn't broken.

£5pcm on phone insurance will be shit cover. It's more like £10pcm for decent stuff, and recall I have mates who work in CPW; I know it's a scam.

I don't have dedicated mobile cover because I have fairly badass household cover. The excess is £50 (I think) for stuff like gadgets, but the risk is low; I've had mobiles for eight years and never damaged any of them.

The trick is to swap your broken old 3G for a refurb and put that on eBay as "L@@@K BRAND NEW", maximising sale price, then buy a PAYG 3GS and roll the existing 3G contract SIM into it. Then sell the PAYG SIM too, as it comes with twelve months of free data.

Well, the case for my iPhone arrived today, and it is now installed.

Urgh. I've turned something that felt lovely and delicate in the palm of my hand into something plasticy, heavy, unresponsive and difficult to fit my fingers around. But enough about my penis...

Incidentally, the gold master iPhone OS 3.0 is being widely distributed on torrent sites if anyone can't wait until the 15th.

Indeed it is. Just "upgraded" to 3.0, rather underwhelmed to be honest. The landscape keyboard will come in handy but other than that and the new SMS queue there's little there to be excited about IMO.

Most of 3.0's new stuff is for developers, not users, and there is legitimately lots of great things. Hopefully we'll see some new apps next week to use this new stuff.

I would have thought Spotlight alone would make iPhone users jump for joy. Tsk! Some people are never happy.