Betrayal, Trickier, Sadness, and the Sorts
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I know I promised no more Apple related posts for a while, but I figured that since this is going to bash Apple and AT&T that you would perhaps forgive me. As I mentioned in the last post, the iPhone is now 200 bucks. Cool right? Amazing right? Affordable right? wrong :-( While I would expect this from AT&T - after all they are a conniving, bloodsucking phone company - I, along with everyone, expect more from Steve the man Jobs. So what's the problem? Well, let's go over it. The iPhone is 200 bucks on paper. Everyone from age 12 to 60 would walk into a store, see that price, hop up and down like little kids, childishly claim they want it, and hand over their seductive credit card, finally obtaining the shiny piece of metal they so desperately desire. They would have to sign the 2 year contract in store (more on this below) and then happily play with their iPhone for a month. One sad day a month later come the bills which are 70 bucks (without tax and the five extra bucks it is for texts), which then causes these unlucky people to drop their iPhones and yell excruciatingly loud. Why? Because these people have just realized how badly they had been cheated. Let's outline it.
| Old Plan | New Plan
-------------------------------
450 mins | 39.99 | 39.99
Data (req.) | 19.99 | 29.99
Texts | Included | 4.99
------------------------------
Total (-tax))| 59.99 | 69.99 (w/o tax)
Over the required two year period, you would end up paying an extra 240 dollars (24 months x extra $10) in the new plan. This essentially makes the iPhone $440 instead of the unbelievable $200 that it is advertised for. Now you see why AT&T is able to subsidize the iPhone for so much. In the end, they really are gaining much more, and because they require you to activate in store, they will no longer lose phones to unlocking unless the person does not care forking over 2000 dollars over two years. Overall, the process is now against the customer, as before activation occurred in the comfort of one's home and the phone plan was not so expensive. Despite this deceit, I still recommend the iPhone, since in actuality, all this pricing is beacuse of AT&T and not Apple, so don't ignore your thirst for technology just because the plan seems expensive. In my opinion, of all the phones out there, the iPhone does the best of really paying itself off in the form of usefulness.
Moving away from the iPhone, I have now submitted all my MIT forms that were due by today. I guess that's a good thing right!? My housing preferences are as follows in order: Simmons, Baker, Macgregor, and BC. I cannot wait to find out which one I am placed in. Does anyone know if we find out our roommate at the same time? I also submitted an application for the FPOPs. My desired FPOP is definitely the Mechanical Engineering one because building a soccer bot is without a doubt the best way to spend the last hours of the summer.
Well, this marks the end of my fun-filled post. Sorry there were no pictures. I'm a little tired from studying 18.02 and because of the lateness and so didn't feel like scavenging the vast space that is the internet for pixels to please your eyes. Instead I hope you enjoyed my table! Until next time, stay classy!
| Old Plan | New Plan
-------------------------------
450 mins | 39.99 | 39.99
Data (req.) | 19.99 | 29.99
Texts | Included | 4.99
------------------------------
Total (-tax))| 59.99 | 69.99 (w/o tax)
Over the required two year period, you would end up paying an extra 240 dollars (24 months x extra $10) in the new plan. This essentially makes the iPhone $440 instead of the unbelievable $200 that it is advertised for. Now you see why AT&T is able to subsidize the iPhone for so much. In the end, they really are gaining much more, and because they require you to activate in store, they will no longer lose phones to unlocking unless the person does not care forking over 2000 dollars over two years. Overall, the process is now against the customer, as before activation occurred in the comfort of one's home and the phone plan was not so expensive. Despite this deceit, I still recommend the iPhone, since in actuality, all this pricing is beacuse of AT&T and not Apple, so don't ignore your thirst for technology just because the plan seems expensive. In my opinion, of all the phones out there, the iPhone does the best of really paying itself off in the form of usefulness.
Moving away from the iPhone, I have now submitted all my MIT forms that were due by today. I guess that's a good thing right!? My housing preferences are as follows in order: Simmons, Baker, Macgregor, and BC. I cannot wait to find out which one I am placed in. Does anyone know if we find out our roommate at the same time? I also submitted an application for the FPOPs. My desired FPOP is definitely the Mechanical Engineering one because building a soccer bot is without a doubt the best way to spend the last hours of the summer.
Well, this marks the end of my fun-filled post. Sorry there were no pictures. I'm a little tired from studying 18.02 and because of the lateness and so didn't feel like scavenging the vast space that is the internet for pixels to please your eyes. Instead I hope you enjoyed my table! Until next time, stay classy!
Paul
June 15, 2008 at 1:28 PM
As for housing, I seem to recall finding out what room I was in a few days after the actual results came out...then I searched around Facebook until I found the guy with the same room number. :D (Unfortunately, unless they've changed things, they don't tell you your roommate directly.)
By the way, thanks for the update on the iPhone...some of my geekier friends have been complaining about it as well.