My trusty iPhone 3GS is starting to fail me. Now, granted, I’ve beat the living snot out of the thing for almost two years now, and it’s never once failed me. It’s been to Europe several times (using alternate SIMs and Carriers — jailbroken, of course), taken many falls to the ground, been manhandled by a 2 year old repeatedly, and lived in my pocket sans case for over a year. There’s no denying that it’s a great phone — definitely the best I’ve ever owned bar none.
However, about a week ago, I realized that I couldn’t put the headphone all the way into the headphone jack anymore. Not a big deal to some, but it’s huge to me. I spent probably 6-8 hours a day with earbuds in my ears, taking phone calls, pausing/un-pausing from the button, etc. Of course, now that the earphones don’t go all the way in, all I can do now is listen. Every time the phone rings, I have to disconnect my earbuds and pick up the phone. Sorry, but that’s a dealbreaker, ladies.
So, fine, it’s no big deal. I was planning on waiting out the iPhone 5 before I upgraded my phone, and skip the 4 all together. But after this little issue, I was going to drop that plan, get the iPhone 4, and go on with my life. I was going to do this on Tuesday, actually, right after a payment came in from a client.
And then Apple announced their subscription plans…
I’m not going to let this get into an out of control anti-Apple diatribe. It’s not worth it, as there are plenty of people on the internet complaining about it… with good reason. And, sure, Apple is sounding more and more evil everyday, when I know that it’s as much about user experience as it is about making money (yes, I do really believe that).
Honestly, my reason for this even being a factor is total selfishness.
Rhapsody basically said that they were going to pull out based on the initial description of the spec. And they’re damn right for doing it. Apple wants 30% of something that they’re honestly not making a ton of money from. Right now, Rhapsody’s payment overhead is 2.5% for credit card or Paypal transaction fees. 30% is downright ridiculous. Sure, it’s their platform — whatever — it’s robbery and I hope that the SEC starts sniffing around Cupertino starting today.
What do I see happening? I see every app who has a business model similar to Rhapsody jumping ship between now and July. I AM a MOG customer, and I’m also a Pandora fanatic. Pandora seems like they’re barely breaking even — and being forced to give Apple 30% of their premium service is outrageous. I only use about 10 apps on a regular basis, and I see 3-4 of them either being hurt by Apple’s new policies or just going away totally.
If cell phone companies weren’t crooks, this would be no big deal. But, unfortunately, you’re stuck with whatever phone you get for 2 years. If my apps go away in 6 months, I’m going to be stuck with a useless piece of crap for 18 more months. Selfish, right? Probably. But practical too.
The Motorola Atrix comes out on AT&T next week (supposedly). It’s a pretty feature-rich phone, even if it’s on Android 2.2 still. It’s the only Android phone with a front-facing camera on either AT&T or Verizon (seriously?!?), but it does seem like a nice piece of kit. I’m seriously eyeing it up, throwing my 3GS in a drawer for overseas trips, and living the Android lifestyle.
Here’s the thing, though. I’ve never touched an Android phone before. I know nothing about how it works, what apps even look like, what the App store is like, etc. I can go into the store and mess around with it, I guess, but I’m not sure if that 5 minutes is going to be enough for me to get the feel of it. We’ll see.
For a geek like myself, this is a big decision. Sad, but true. My phone is my lifeline, and with a lot of travel planned this year, it’s a big deal. I started working on a Pros and Cons list to see if that would help.
Pros
- Great Gmail integration
- Great Google Voice integration
- Has most of the apps I need (mainly Twitter, Foursquare)
- Can develop for it without giving Apple $99/yr or using Obj. C
- Never bought a thing on the iTunes music store, so I don’t have music issues
Cons
- No Instagram (yet! — though I can use PicPlz)
- Have to rebuy some apps
- Can’t share apps with my iPad anymore
- Can’t Facetime with my wife (but I can Skype video)
I’m sure I’ll come up with more. However, the pros are outweighing the cons at the moment. I just need to go to the store and familiarize myself a bit with the OS and the hardware. I think that if it “feels” ok and if I can leave my earbuds in my ears all day (and take calls and pause), then I think it’s a done deal. I think it’s time to try something new.