iPhone Breakdown (Update 1)
Okay. I've lived without a cell phone for years now. I keep getting asked for my number (especially at school) and I keep saying "cell phone? NOPE!" Well, the time has come for me to seriously consider getting one. I'll need one definitely before school starts, and preferrably as soon as possible, especially with my current escalating involvement with the Mysterium Committee. As such, I've broken down two plans that I would use:
iPhone Nation Family Plan:
- Fee for family plan: $69.98 per month.
- Nation 550 Family Plan, starting with 2 lines: $59.99 per month.
- Additional 3rd line: $9.99 per month.
- Fee for iPhone data plan: $60.00 per month.
- First iPhone data plan: $30.00 per month.
- Second iPhone data plan: $30.00 per month.
- Unlimited nights (9pm to 6am) and weekends (Friday 9pm to Monday 6am).
Grand total per month: $129.98 (Taxes apply.)
Splitting family plan fee with three people: $23.32 per phone per month.
Each iPhone user pays individual data plan. Added to family plan fee: $53.32 per iPhone per month.
iPhone Individual Plan:
- Fee for Nation 450 Individual Plan: $39.99 per month.
- Fee for iPhone data plan: $30.00 per month.
- 5000 minutes nights (9pm to 6am) and weekends (Friday 9pm to Monday 6am).
Grand total per montht: $69.99 (Taxes apply.)
So that, folks, is the breakdown. Basically, I save $16.66 a month by sharing monthly minutes with three other people. I don't know how feasable that will actually be. Personally, I can see myself using a lot of minutes over a month just with emergency school-related calls. Team projects and such. I was asked many times last semester for my cell number, and I imagine if I gave one out, I'd be dinged with multiple 5 minute calls that would eat up the family pool of minutes. So would it be worth it for me to pay extra for a guaranteed 450 minutes every month (plus insanely high, though not unlimited, minutes for nights and weekends) or do you think I could fit within the family share?
Another concern is that once I'm locked into a contract, I couldn't move from, say, family plan to individual plan with my iPhone. Capella, however, was able to switch from individual to family, and since going from family to individual means more money in AT&T's pocket, I would assume it's okay to do that. I don't want to be stuck in family or individual for 2 years. (Although I don't see myself moving a considerable distance away from my family while I'm in school, which will last at least 2 more years.)
Yet another concern is about getting a texting plan. Should I? I won't text. At all. I'll use the 3G data plan I'm paying out the wazoo for to use IMs or something instead. The iPhone 3GS supports background applications, right? AIM in the background is all I'm asking for and texting I would never use. Then again, the question was never if I would use texting but if other people insisted on sending them to me anyway. Then I'd still have to pay for all their little crappy messages. Is there a way to block texts? Is this even that much of an issue? How many people have trouble with people sending them unwarranted texts?
Then, of course, there's the coup de grace: Which iPhone do I get? I've waited all year to get a cell phone because I knew Apple was coming out with a new one and I wanted it. Above all, I wanted a bigger, better still camera that also functioned as a video camera. Wish granted! Clearly, I want a 3GS, but which size? To be perfectly honest, I'm thinking about getting the 32GB version. I can see myself extensively taking photographs and videos and perhaps recording lectures and definitely putting music on the thing, not to mention downloading all those awesome Tower Defense games from the App Store. My only issue lies with the fact that there is no iPhone disk mode like the iPods have, otherwise it would double as a portable hard drive like I use my iPod for all the time. Then I would totally justify the cost of the 32GB version.
We shall see... Anyone have any advice?
UPDATE 1: Then there's also the Unity family plan which costs 10 more dollars per month, offers 700 monthly minutes, plus doesn't cost said monthly minutes when calling both AT&T cell phones AND land lines! For $10 more total ($3.33 per person that will be using this plan), I think I would pick that. Calling home for free would be nice.
July 8th, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Minutes will really depend on how much you call, who you call, and when. That's hard to predict, but the inclusion of AT&T rollover minutes helps; if I should ever go overtime one month, I'm certain to have plenty of leftovers to cover it. You might also ask about the ability to change minutes mid-contract as well. Contracts are pretty well dead-set, but the details can usually be changed without much trouble at all. They should let you sign up with one plan, then change it next month if your usage is dramatically different than you expect. The AT&T app lets you manage your account (including paying bills), and keep an eye on every minute and kilobyte of data.
Unfortunately, the iPhone still does not support third-party background processes. What it does support is the push notification system; any app that wants to notify you of an update, when not currently running on the phone, has to set up it's own server for push notifications. They show up instantly, like any phone call, text message, or error notification from the iPhone OS, and will usually let you directly open the app when notified. It's a nice system and prevents major issues with multiple third party apps running at the same time, but still very limited... it is, after all, an alternative to multitasking.
No twitter apps, as of yet, include push notifications, and only a few instant messenger apps do so far - Beejive, IM+ (both utterly hideous), and the official AOL messenger (which doesn't support anything but AIM). I'm still waiting for a better multi-protocol app like Nimbuzz to add push, and hopefully TwitterFon... but we'll see. As for the iPhone 3GS, there are a few OS issues to smooth out, but it's a pretty sweet phone! There are already a couple music videos shot using just an iPhone... heck, The 88 recorded their latest single using an iPhone and FourTrack. What can I say? It's a fun platform.
And the updated camera in the 3GS is SIGNIFICANTLY better. I don't have one, but the comparisons are night and day.
One thing to keep in mind... I use the iPod quite a bit, but thought that applications like SimplifyMedia would make limited space a non-issue (and it is pretty nice, plus last.fm, pandora, and imeem all have apps as well). Unfortunately, only Apple's "native" applications can run in the background, so the only way to play music while gaming, for example, is to use the iPod app. So space can be a small issue, depending on how you tend to use it as a music player, media, audio recording, photos, video, etc.
July 9th, 2009 at 9:32 pm
OR you could get the HTC Dream, aka T-Mobile G1. It's pretty T-Riffic and continually impresses a friend of mine with an iPhone because of all the free applications available (the iPhone counterparts of which cost money). Besides the software perks, it also has a full keyboard.
One thing you should definitely find out from AT&T if you get the iPhone is if instant messages count as "data" or as "messaging." It could be important.
July 10th, 2009 at 9:52 am
Addendum: from what I've read, IMs do fall under the data plan on the iPhone. On the G1, the native I'M programs (besides Google Talk) use SMS, but I use a free app called Meebo IM that let's me log into multiple IM services as data transfer, and it runs in the background fine and shoots a notification when an IM arrives.
Did I mention the G1 is synced to your gmail account in real time? You get instant email notification and your contact list syncs with your phone book -- pictures and all. Of this my iPhone friend is also jealous.