For those who don’t follow me on Twitter/Facebook - today I’ve been watching the Senior TT at Governor’s Bridge and, earlier, the inaugural TTXP zero-emissions race.
First place in the Senior TT went to Steve Plater, with second going to Manxman Conner Cummins and third to Gary Johnson.
Pictures are on Flickr, as ever:
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Many will be aware that Twitter is currently a-buzz with iPhone and Apple users bemoaning O2’s policy towards upgrades from the old 3G to the new 3G S - under the hash-tag #o2fail - as well as what seems an extortionate rate for data tethering.
The upgrade problem comes through O2 somewhat setting expectations with the upgrade from the original iPhone to the iPhone 3G. Naivety on both sides has played a part here - customers in believing that there was an ‘implied’ promise to allow upgrades on the same terms when Apple refresh the product, and O2 in not thinking early adopters would interpret that offer in such a way. O2 have, quite rightly, pointed out the original iPhone was not subsidised, whereas the 3G has been - hence the drop from £269 to £99 for the 8GB. Some foresight from O2 might have allowed them to ensure the terms were absolutely clear; that the upgrade offer from old to 3G was a one-time deal because of the unique manner in which the original was provided. Perhaps also, knowing Apple’s refresh cycle, O2 might have been better off-setting the subsidy over 12 months instead of 18.
So - we shouldn’t have expected O2 to write off the subsidy, and O2 should have been clearer on terms. Mistakes made, lessons learnt - etc. HOWEVER, where O2 are currently failing is in their inability to provide a ‘fair’ means for the fans, early adopters, whatever you want to call them to commit to another 18 month contract without buying their way out of their current one. I’m currently paying £35 per month and my contract expires in February, 2010. It would cost me £315 to buy my way out of that contract - on top of the cost of the £275 iPhone 3G S (32GB as the space is the main factor in my upgrade decision). So, that’s £590 and I’d also be paying £35 per month for my new O2 contract.
A fair deal would be allowing the upgrade while recovering the subsidy cost. Looking at the pay-as-you go costs, the iPhone 3G 16GB would probably cost roughly £400, unsubsidised (between the 3G 8 and 3G S 8 pay-as-you go prices). Given I paid £169 for my iPhone 3G that’s £231 of subsidy (ignoring that O2 will have a margin built in to the pay-monthly cost - so these figures are at most - and give O2 some of that margin on the hardware too!). That’s £13 a month of my contract paying off the subsidy - with 9 months left I’d pay £117 to pay that off. Still not cheap, but a lot more reasonable than £315 - and O2 retain my business and I get a new shiny thing; win-win, right? There are a number of people saying ‘tough, you signed a contract’ on Twitter in response to #o2fail - but I’d argue that good business here would be to offer a deal as I’ve described that addresses O2s costs while not bleeding their loyal customers dry.
Next up is the price of Tethering - and this applies to all iPhone users, new and old. On our “Unlimited Data” service we would be charged £14.68 to use 3GB of data via tethering, or £29.36 for 10GB in a month. The argument from O2 is tethering uses more data. Maybe so, but data is data and when they launched the iPhone O2 couldn’t have been more clearer on what unlimited meant. This is taken from an artle on the Telegraph.co.uk:
”Customers find ‘unlimited with limits’ confusing, plus most people don’t speak in megabits or understand what they equate to,” said O2 UK chief executive Matthew Key.
”So we’ve taken the decision to remove the fair usage cap so that ‘unlimited’ really does mean ‘unlimited’ – this is a market first.”
Well, O2 - you’ve gone and confused your customers as by charging for tethering you’ve essentially said that you’ve yet another definition of “unlimited” that includes “limits”.
O2 = Fail.
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I’m currently at my parents watching over sis’ while they’re at a party for a friend and it’s been a warm and sunny day. I’ve spent the afternoon sat outside reading “American Gods” and occasionally getting some shots.
This squirrel appeared once but I had my wide-angle lens on and by the time I changed he had run off. But thankfully he returned a little while later and by then my camera was prepared.
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This weekend was a fun one - especially as the weather was rather kind. A group of us headed to the Lake District camping - which has to have been my first camping trip since Stainsby Folk Festival back in 2000.
We stayed at a site called Park Gate which was in a pleasant area near Ravenglass. The site itself had the basics - toilet and sinks, and stones ready for camp fires. No showers. The owners were very pleasant and came round each day selling firewood (which came in handy when what we bought from a Texaco garage wasn’t quite enough to satisfy our need to burn stuff).
Getting there was… interesting. I managed to get the address wrong so the directions I followed on the iPhone took me somewhere near Hawkshead. Once I got to Ambleside I felt that we were probably not in the right place, and getting to Hawkshead confirmed it. I eventually got a reasonable enough EDGE connection and located the right place; some 25 miles away over the hills. Nearly two hours and a very fun drive (seriously, it was nice to try my car on the winding country roads and hills) later we arrived at the correct place - just as the rain stopped and it started brightening. I had a beer and a rest then put my tent up. I say I put it up, but really I took it out the bag and others pretty much did it for me as I looked so useless; in fairness I was given the tent and hadn’t taken it out of the bag before. I think I’ll get a better and bigger tent for Glastonbury next month.
After the tent was done we had a quick bite to eat from the barbeque, pictured here:
A little later we went for a walk and found a pub to have our evening meal from (Steak!) before heading back to the camp site, getting the fire roaring, and drinking a quantity of alcohol.
A late night was followed by an equally early morning - and the sun was out for a beautiful Sunday. We recovered from the night before for most of the morning, enjoying the sun, before heading to Ravenglass followed by Muncaster Castle and grounds.
The evening started with a barbeque again before we headed to a beach near Ravenglass for the sunset. The destination was partly because Kate and Paul wanted to check out a geocache nearby. We got a little lost and I ended up turning around at the entrance to some kind of waste site that seemed like it might be a bit of a military-like base. We got to the beach which was nicely marked with an MOD sign warning of markers and gun testing. I took some photos of the sunset until a police car arrived and seemed to take a keen interest in us and my car.
They followed us to Ravenglass before eventually heading off. I hoped to get some nice pictures across the bay there; but that turned out to be a bit rubbish because the tide was out. Unfortunate timing. Dave introduced us to Pinchy, the crab, who we hoped would become a friend to us all - until Jane panicked and dropped the poor thing. We’ll miss him.
Finally it was back to the camp site for drinks around the camp fire once more before bed time and the journey home the following morning.
NOTE: No crabs were harmed in the making of this blog post.
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The ring flash arrived today and I’ve taken a few test shots. Liking it and the funky shadow and even lighting it provides. I’ve put some pictures up on Flickr:
As ever, click the image to go through to my pictures on Flickr.
I’ve ordered a Lee Filter kit for my camera but unfortunately that’s out-of-stock; which is a shame as I’m off to the Lake District, camping, this weekend and it may have come in handy for some landscape shots. I just hope it arrives before I go to the Isle of Man.
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