sethcheek.com

My last post’s title is wrong.  Though to be fair, I did qualify what I meant later on in the post, I feel a little silly about it now.

First off, I have an iPhone 3GS, and I really like it so far.  Secondly, I didn’t even pay the discounted retail price for it, so my sentiment about the price not justifying the features still stands.  However, for what I paid for it, it’s definitely worth it.

My dad recently joined the ranks.  When he was deciding what kind of phone to get, I showed him my iPhone, and he seemed genuinely impressed.  He decided to get one.  Then, in looking at pricing, he debated the 3G for $99 or the 3GS for $199.  Then he thought of a third scenario.  He’d get the 3GS, and let me pay the difference, then he’d take my recently replaced 3G with a brand new Apple Care plan on it, and I’d take the new one.

Dad has a 3-week old 3G and I have a 3GS now.  When we separated this morning from the AT&T store, he was confident he could make and answer calls.  After a brief session with some of the apps last week, we now know that Dad wants the Google app, Vlingo and a few others neither of us could remember.

Saturday, I’ll be heading over to his place to get him fully set-up, with Wi-Fi at the house, the apps he wants and an overall comfort level with his phone.

With the enhanced camera and video camera, I’ll try to get some more stuff up on my site more often.  Maybe I’ll put up a cool image gallery or something, instead of the turd of a photo page I have now.

By the way, looking at some site data for my blog, I found that a few dozen people found my site by a goofy joke I’d typed in the last post about the iPhone 3GS+.  This is how rumors get started…

Seth Tech, iPhone

As much as I love my current phone, I’m going to pass on this new one, at least for now.  Here’s why…

First off, I’m not saying that I wouldn’t take one if someone handed one to me and said “it’s on us”, but at the price point, the features it offers are not enough to justify the cost.  I suppose my post’s title could be a little misleading, but “iPhone 3GS – I Would Want It Either Offered More Features or Took a Price Cut” wouldn’t fit in many RSS readers.

Arguably, the biggest feature of this new phone is its camera.  Both the video feature and the fact that it’s more than just a cell phone camera are compelling.  In demos, they showed off the ability to click an object on the screen that the camera is looking at, and that object will be what’s in focus.  So if you had a foreground, a subject and a background, clicking on any one of those elements would make THAT element crystal clear.  It’s also a 3 megapixel camera, which is leaps and bounds better than the turd on my current 3G.  However, I don’t take enough pictures with my phone for a better camera to be an attractive feature.  It’s not REMOTELY what I bought or use my iPhone for.

A feature that I WOULD want, if the price were right, would be the voice activation/dialing/etc.  However, a week before launch, I’m not completely assured that the voice activation isn’t in, or can’t be added to, the new 3.0 OS that EVERY iPhone will be getting soon.

I guess if the phone was more attractive to me, personally, I’d be more up in arms at the fact that as a 3G owner, I’d have to pay full retail price for one, starting at $399, instead of what NEW owners get to pay, starting at $199.  But that’s if I wanted one.  As it is, I’m not upset because I don’t think it’s a worthwhile upgrade for what I want out of the phone now.  As time goes on, I might change my mind.

Now, my friend Chris is looking forward to getting one, and for good reason.  One, he’ll be getting it at the acceptable price, and two, he’s moving up from his EDGE phone.  He’ll have the jump in features that made the 3G so attractive, PLUS the bells and whistles of the 3GS.  Hell, the jump from EDGE to 3G in itself was the most attractive thing to me about switching phones last summer.

Maybe I’ll wait for next year, and see what the iPhone 3GS+ can do…

Seth Rant, iPhone

And he knows why.  This was pretty funny, and clearly he has a sense of humor and appreciation for his past and what made him famous.  This in itself might be reason to record his show tonight.

Seth Family, Funny

New for me, anyway.  I just bought the car featured below.  I REALLY love it.  Before getting it, I considered things like air conditioning and a radio to be luxuries.  Now, I suppose I own a ‘luxury car’.  The video was on Kenny Kent’s website, but Sean helped me pull it off, so enjoy a video that would make Ken Burns cringe.

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This is also a eulogy for the 1990 Plymouth Voyager, known by Luke and Liv as the “Sweet Van”.  It’s coming up on its 20th birthday this year, and has been a loyal vehicle, albeit without a lot of features used commonly for driving, such as power brakes, an aim-able driver-side mirror, a driver-window that rolled down, a functioning oil gauge, AC, heat, a radio, a functioning lock on 2 of its three doors and several others I’m sure I’m forgetting.

I’ll put a picture up next time I’m home and near the van.

Share your memories of the Sweet Van in the comment section.  (If you’re having trouble, pretend it’s Bunny or something…)

Seth Car