Posts Tagged ‘iPhone’

Days 8-14 – Two Weeks Down, 50 Left to Go

January 20th, 2010, posted in 365 Challenge, Photography

I’m a couple of days late on compiling week two, but I’ve managed to keep up with the challenge so far. I think the interesting thing about doing a photo a day is that at the end of it all I will have a photographic record of the year and the things that caught my eye or that were of interest at the moment. I wonder what I will think a few years down the road…but it will be fun to look back on these. A couple of things that made me decide it would be a fun and rather innocuous project were a small book I bought, and a photography website I follow.

The site is Digital Photography School and contains a Tips & Tutorials Blog that I subscribe to. It has some great ideas that can spur me on to be a bit more creative than taking pictures of the same things all the time. In particular, there was one article that caught my attention and made me decide to do a 365 Challenge – Consider Starting A Photography Project365 In The New Year

The other kicker was a little book I came across called “The Best Camera is the One that’s With You” by a fellow named Chris Jarvis. He subsequently released an App for the iPhone that has some fun features. But what I liked about the book was the way it was a diary of a year of sorts. It’s not like the pictures are stellar shots in perfect sharpness with fantastic colour. Couldn’t be farther from the truth. The photos are captures of everyday scenes, but often from different angles, in low light, with blur and grain…. frequently grungy, often amusing. And I like that. It’s real.

Anyway, here’s week two…

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And Baby Makes Three!

November 24th, 2009, posted in Mac Stuff, Technology

No, no, no! Stop thinking that!

I rounded out my happy little Mac family the other week. I started with a desktop, the MacPro. I loved it so much I didn’t want to leave it….so I bought a MacBook. And just the other week I finally broke down and bought an iPhone.

It wasn’t an easy sell mind you. I have had the same cell phone plan for…oh…ten years or so! I had a really good plan, it worked for me, and it was billed by the second, not the minute.

So when Telus announced it was getting the iPhone, I called. And got a dim-bulb who didn’t know anything. So I waited until they actually launched it…and then I called again. And got another dim-bulb.

The dim-bulb told me the phone wouldn’t work without a new plan. “Right, can I have your supervisor please?”

Next in line is always the nasty snot. And I got him. So he basically told me that there was simply no way that they would give me a deal on iPhone even though I had been a client for 15 years. Too bad so sad. he tried the same “It won’t work” tactics, which I shot down. And he knew I was right. so he just switched gears to Mr. Snotty. After about 20 minutes of comments like “Well why would you want it without a data plan anyway!” To which I replied….”Uh, it works with WiFi and WiFi is pretty darned ubiquitous.”

Eventually he stopped arguing with me and just settled into being snotty and confrontational. Finally he asked me the question I was waiting for (I’ve played this game with Telus before, it’s pretty predictable) “Well, you’re not going to get anywhere, but do you want me to escalate this?”

“Yes please!”

Then I settled in and tried to be patient, waiting for the call I knew would eventually come. And it did. One of the big honchos from the “Department of Customer Retention” (Tragic that they need such a department…but understandable when you deal with their customer service department).

After a relatively lengthy and friendly discussion she and I came to an agreement, and the options were laid out on the table.

#1. I could buy the iPhone at a discount and keep my existing plan
#2. I could buy the iPhone at the 3 year contract price if I bought the lowest rate plan and she would kick in a few incentives for me.

The incentives were good and the plan actually will only cost me about $5 a month more. That outweighs the inflated cost of buying the iPhone at the no-contract price.

So, we both got what we wanted. I am still a Telus customer and I got the iPhone for a decent price and managed to swing a reasonably similar contract to what I used to have, but in the end did get a data package too.

So, all is wonderful in the world of Mac…for another three years anyway… because then I will have to play the renegotiation game again.

In the meantime…I’m finding out just how many “Apps” there are!

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