The world is going gaga over the iPhone, yet again, thanks to the announcement that the iPhone 4 will be out at the end of June. Just my luck to have finally picked up an iPhone 3gs just a week ago, three days before they announced the new model! At first I felt bad, not because of the model upgrade but because Apple was cutting prices. But then I remembered – this is Israel, and I’m signed up with Orange – where the prices go up, not down, no matter what!
In Israel, iPhones really are for elite power users who have “resources” (ie money) to spare. It appears that the cellphone companies (Orange, at least) splits its “phone world” into two; iPhones and everything else. If you want to be in the iPhone world, be prepared to pay – more than you bargained for. In my case, it was (almost) the data network I had to pay for, without even realizing that I was being charged, and after doing everything I was supposed to in order to avoid the extra charges!
Here’s the story: Being in need of a couple of cellphones for members of the tribe (one to replace a broken device, the other for a new high school student traveling every day), I thought about upgrading to an iPhone, to replace my Nokia XM5800, which I had relatively few complaints about (and in fact outdoes the iPhone in some ways!). The reason is not because I consider myself to be part of some “cellphone elite”; so many of the companies I write about are doing apps for the iPhone (and Android phones or Blackberry, but not for Nokia’s Symbian phones) that I felt I was missing out on being able to write accurate stories about their technology. So things just sort of fell into place for a Shamah iPhone.
When I pick up my already ordered iPad in the States in a couple of weeks, I’ll have a whole Apple family – Dad (iMac), Mom (Mac Mini), a couple of teens and tweens (Macbooks, aluminum and white version), Junior (iPad), and Baby (iPhone)!
And the iPhone is everything they say it is – a beautiful screen, far advanced UI (light years ahead of the Nokia’s clunky UI), and an endless amount of apps that do anything and everything. While I really missed the lack of multitasking (a no-brainer on the Nokia, and a lack that will be resolved with the new iPhone OS due with the iPhone 4) and no ability to record phone calls (that one hurts!), it’s easy to see why people love their iPhones.
One big plus for me is the iPhone’s built in ability to tether its cellular connection to a laptop, enabling you to use it as a modem (I used a separate program for that, called Joikuspot, on the Nokia, but the iPhone’s implementation is far better). I use the modem program (known as tethering feature on iPhones) to connect to the net when the router goes down (an occasional problem where I live).
As it happened, the day after I got my iPhone, the internet was out for a few hours while I had “crucial” on-line work to do. So, I tethered my device to my Mac (that’s a story in itself, because I had to do a “mini-jailbreak” from the block Orange put on tethering!), and did my thing. Great connection via 3G – much faster than I ever had with Joikuspot on the Nokia! So I was happy.
But only for a little while. After about 2 hours (it was a long outage) I got an SMS from Orange saying that I had used up my internet surfing package, and would now be charged per megabyte. I thought it was strange that I had used up a full 150MB of upload/download time so fast – clearly it was the 3G, I thought – and realized I had to upgrade from my “middling” package (150 MB/NIS 47 per month, better than the free 30 MB they give you, but not as good as the 5 GB/NIS 88 a month I was planning to order). But that was for another day. For now, I went to settings, and turned off “Enable 3G” and “Data Roaming” on the Network settings.
Flash forward about a week. I still hadn’t gotten around to upgrading the package, but that was OK, because I seemed to be able to find a Wifi connection when I needed it (even when we ate out at a place in Herzliya for my wife’s birthday!). On that day (about a week after I got the phone), I got two phone calls from Orange – the first to try and sell me “screen insurance” (at NIS 47 a month I said no thanks), and a second from an Orange rep asking me if I liked the phone, did I have any questions, etc. (than in itself is a sign that they look at iPhone customers as being in a different league – no one called me when I had my Nokia, Sony, or any previous device!). Very helpful and thoughtful, I said to myself.
I said thanks, everything’s fine, and was about to hang up – when I figured that now would be a good time to order the 5GB wifi package. “Good idea,” he said. “You know you’re over the limit on your 30 MB connection package.” Whoa – 30 MB? Shouldn’t that be 150 MB? After all, they transferred my previous Nokia plan to the iPhone – or so they told me they would do in the Orange store!
But no – they apparently “forgot” to upgrade me, and now I “owed” them over 50 MB over my allocation! That works out to about NIS 95 that I was going to have to pay!
Unacceptable, I told the (now formerly) “helpful and thoughtful” fellow on the other end of the phone. In fact, it was impossible for me to have gone into such megabyte debt; did I not turn off 3G as soon as they warned me that I was now going to be charged for cell data connections, making sure to use only Wifi? After much hemming and hawing (and keeping me on hold for about 10 minutes), he came back with his best offer – Orange would knock off half the charges, and I would end up paying only NIS 45 (from my previous complaints to Orange, it appears that they have a stock policy of giving energetic complainers half off whatever charges they’re complaining about).
Nothing doing, I said – rather loudly, by this time. “It’s not my fault they didn’t transfer my 150 MB package, and anyway I was only using Wifi. If I still had my 150 MB package, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, because I only used 80 MB of allocation – and anyway, I was only using Wifi!” Unable to do more, he gave the number of customer service for data plans. I called, and spoke to another rep, who also listened, gave me an argument, then regave me the 50% discount – and then, after emphasizing numerous times my chief arguments and that I was not willing to pay a shekel for this – they knocked off the whole thing (or so she told me on the phone; it remains to be seen if they try to sneak the NIS 90 onto my final bill. As of now, it appears on my account usage page on the Orange site).
One of the reasons she gave me an argument was because of the following: Even if you turn off the 3G, you are still connecting to the data network via 2G, even if you’re just surfing Wifi! Accoourding to this Orange rep, you CANNOT connect to the internet without using a cell network, with just Wifi; the Wifi takes precedence, but if you move out of range, the 2G network AUTOMATICALLY kicks in – racking up the charges on your account, adding a phantom 50 MB in data usage. “The iPhone is the only device that does this,” she said. “You can connect using any other device using strictly Wifi, but not the iPhone.”
Needless to say, I though I was dealing with some ridiculous excuse to justify the charges – or some Orange-only scam (like disabling the internet tethering feature so they can charge you to open it!). Jumping to that conclusion makes sense, since Orange is very good at relieving you of your money in small increments (“nickel and diming,” they call it); the way the Orange website is organized gives you a clear indication of how they operate, but that’s a post for another day.
Anyway: Not believing this story, I actually called up Apple in the U.S., taking an educated guess that the device actually came from the U.S. (I was right, and anyone in Israel who wants can buy the Apple Extended Warranty for iPhone directly from Apple for $69! I don’t know how much Orange or iDigital sells it for, but I suspect it’s a tad more than that). And unbelievably, the Apple rep confirmed what the Orange rep said! Even if you turn off the 3G to save surfing megabytes, and even if you make sure to stay near Wifi hot spots at all times, you are STILL going to end up connecting to the cell data network!
The implications? If you have the iPhone, you are REQUIRED to have at least 500 MB in your data plan (since the next jump after 150 MB is 5 GB, that’s what you need to do, at least with Orange). Even if you plan on using just Wifi. Is this a “feature” Apple built in to help the cellphone companies it sells to? Why haven’t I heard this fact before (I did a lot of internet searching before calling Apple)? If this is the case, how can they let a customer walk out of the Orange store with only 30 MB in their data plan?
Once again, our local “business sharks” take what was supposed to be a nice, fun experience and use it as another excuse to shake down loyal customers. Lessons for the future: There is no way an iPhone is going to cost $200 (the price announced for the 16GB iPhone for last week) if you buy yours from an Israeli cellphone company. And two, when the iPad finally comes around, get ready to spend – $499 just isn’t going to do it. If they treat iPhone customers like millionaires who can throw money away on large data plans (who have no choice in the matter either), I can imagine what they’re going to do to the “super exclusive” iPad crowd!
Remember that old commercial, “Is it live, or is it Memorex?” That’s a question we will soon be asking about what we see, not just what we hear, thanks to the development of a technology called Augmented Reality. Using a device’s camera, GPS, Bluetooth, digital compass, wifi, and other networking and input capabilities, you can turn reality into a video game, run through “what if” scenarios, or get a text or video overlay on something that they are looking at.
Example: You’re checking out what movie to see at the multiplex, and you forgot to check out the reviews. With an AR app on your phone, you could point your phone at a movie poster, and then get reviews displayed on the screen, without having to press any buttons! More sophisticated versions would let you see a trailer, or even buy tickets. It’s not at all science fiction – actually, an application like this exists for some Nokia smartphones, and there are already a slew of AR apps for Androids and cellphones (I could have used this onewhen I installed my non-YES satellite dish a couple of months ago!)
As it turns out, an Israeli company called Ogmento, is deeply involved in developing AR applications, especially for the iPhone. If you want to try it on the web, check out the application they developed for Vampire Academy. Scary!
One of the great things about a smartphone is the ability it gives you to connect to the wider world – through its data connection. And now, with relatively fast 3G internet networks, you can really hook into lots of great services. While the iPhone usually gets most of the glory, plain old Symbian or Windows devices can do most of us just fine.
For instance, I like having the option of hooking up internet phone calls on my cellphone using Skype. Skype has an application, called Skype Lite, which lets Java phone users dial into Skype via a regular cell phone call, with the call forwarded from the local connection to your Skype contact anywhere in the world. That’s a great way to save on international phone calls, but if you want to avoid the phone call charge itself, you can make a free Skype call using your smartphone, if you’re using a wifi connection. What if there’s no wifi? A smartphone lets you easily switch between the different connection options, such as WAP or 3G.
My Nokia 5800 phone is a Symbian device, and as of now Skype doesn’t have a native application for Symbians. So, I use an app called Nimbuzz, which very neatly lets you connect with your Skype account and call your contacts – as well as your the contacts in your phone book (I used Fring for awhile, but found Nimbuzz to be much neater in its approach).
Other notable apps that let you hook up with the rest of the world: Qik, a great app that lets you broadcast (via e-mail, Twitter and Facebook) whatever is happening around your phone live to the rest of the world; vTap, a video sharing site for mobiles; and Waze (http://www.waze.co.il or http://www.waze.com), which uses your phone’s GPS settings to determine where you are, and informs you of traffic problems or speed traps in your area.
As I wrote in the Jerusalem Post, you can connect to services like these via wifi, or 3G. But when using cellular internet, you are being charged by the kilobyte for all data you transfer on the network. For Orange customers, for example, the basic surfing package gives you almost unlimited surfing within the Orange site network, but once you try and connect to the rest of the world, you find that the 30 MB in data transfer you get with the basic NIS 21 package just isn’t enough.
Unfortunately, the concept of unlimited data connection is unknown in Israel, unlike in the rest of the world. On the other hand, the commensurate cost of the data connection is cheaper, because you get to choose from one of four data connection packages, so you can decide how much or how little you want to spend. Fortunately for me, I’m able to do a lot of my work in wifi-friendly environments, so I use my phone’s wifi connection to connect to most of the cool services I use. But having that 3G backup “insurance policy” is essential; for example, I was able to use soft modem Joikuspot to get my work done while helping my wife keep vigil recently at the hospital for a sick relative.
Having already received a warning that I was running out of allocated data time, I decided to upgrade from the 30 MB to the 150 MB package, which costs NIS 41 a month (to fund it, I dropped the GPS, which was NIS 21 a month, so my bill is essentially the same). The next package in the series, 5GB of data connection time, should put paid to any concerns I would have about going over the transfer limit; but that package is NIS 81 a month.
Since I don’t want to pay any more on my monthly bill than I already do, I didn’t upgrade to the 5GB plan – but if I could drop another NIS 40 in existing services that I don’t need as much, I would. Unfortunately, since most of my bill consists of set charges (for minutes and SMS usage), there’s almost nothing I can cut out without going to a different call package. But if I could shave off some of that cost – maybe take a package that doesn’t include 200 free SMS messages (I don’t use nearly that many), I could cut down the talk package and apply that money to the data package.
So here’s what I’m planning to do: I’d like to call Orange and figure out what the absolute cheapest package they offer is, and figure out whether signing up for that, along with the 5 GB data package (or even the 20 GB package, for NIS 80), comes out cheaper. My wife, for example, pays a basic charge of NIS 8.57 per month, and then by the minute (about 60 agurot). Which sounds expensive, and would be if I used it to talk the 200 plus minutes a month I usually use my cellphone. But – what if I were to make all my calls using Nimbuzz/Skype? I’d still have to pay SkypeOut minutes if I call non-Skype customers, but maybe that would be cheaper than paying for the cell phone minutes.
And even if it cost the same (I suspect it would), I would have the greater flexibility of being able to use the data package anyway I wanted, which is much more efficient than having services I don’t really need or want (extra SMS messages, which Orange is always giving away for free anyway – their latest promo was 1,000 free messages in honor of Ramadan!). With 5GB (or 20GB!) of data connection, I wouldn’t even have to use Skype; I could contact everyone directly on Facebook, Messenger, or e-mail, with actual talking over Skype taking place only when necessary (how many times do we just need to convey information, as opposed to getting into a conversation, when calling colleagues, customers, etc.? That’s why SMS messages are so popular!). If nothing else, this would be a cool topic to write about. I figure I could get three columns out of it!
I’m always on the outlook for cheap cellphones, considering how much I (and my wife and three teenagers who have lost a coule over the years) depend on them. But I got tired of getting ripped off by Orange, Pelephone, et al, not so much for the service, but for the old phones they try to pawn off on us, selling them for twice the price they retail for when new! As I wrote a couple of years ago, all you had to do was compare the web stores for the Israeli phone companies where they list the prices for their devices, and compare them to the prices you can buy them for unlocked on Amazon.
I even proved that it could pay for Israelis to order the phone; even after you pay the customs and the sales tax and shipping, the “full price” devices the Israeli companies are selling can be had from sites like Amazon for a third of the price! And when it comes to the “kosher” phones they market to the Chareid public, the Israeli cellphone companies outdo themselves; for their “mehadrin” lines, they take TEN year old analog phones (probably purchased for 2 cents on the dollar!) and sell them for even MORE than they charge for the latest 3G phones!
So, I took a conscious decision a couple of years ago – never again would I buy a phone from Orange (with whom I currently have my account). Instead, I order unlocked tri- or quad-band GSM phones from Amazon, to be brought back either by me or by friends. Comparing the prices, it made sense.
Somehow, though, this week I found myself in an Orange store – where I saw their latest ads for the latest “deals” they were offering. Like a dog that’s been whipped one too many times, I of course looked the other way – but the salesperson was available and I had to wait around for something anyway. One of the deals showed a tiered pricing system on some devices – like, if you speak a certain number of minutes a month, you pay less for the device. Maybe there was a deal to be had. Who knew?
So I asked. I explained to the salesperson what my strategy was, and how I was going to save a ton of money buying a top of the line, relatively new phone directly and unlocked. He checked his computer and told me, “well, you speak about 200 minutes a month and pay X amount per month on that phone. So you’re a good candidate for a deal.” Yeah, but how good?
“How about this: I’ll give you the Nokia for 499, and a package for 18 months that will give you 200 minutes, 200 SMS messages, 3G internet (the device has wifi too), and I’ll even throw in two months of GPS free.” 499!?! But I told him I was paying 299.
It took me a couple of seconds (yes, I can be “slow”), but then it hit me. This is Israel! And he’s offering me a $299 phone for NIS 499 (in six interest-free payments) – which is about $140 at current exchange rates! Not to mention the 35% I am now saving on my actual phone use! And, to top it off, he threw four Orange painter caps into the bag with the phone (and we all know that we die for the cute “freebies” the cellphone companies give out!).
I’ve been checking the phone out, and it seems to work. I’ve also been searching all over for a “refurbished” sticker and I can’t find one. I mean, there must be a catch! Why would Orange be selling this phone so cheap (of course, they should really be giving these things away, like companies in the rest of the world do). The only issue I could find is that phones manufactured before February 2009 may have an issue with the earpiece getting loose. I haven’t been able to determine the manufacture date of this unit (logic would say that these discounted phones are leftover stock that had problems, but equal logic would say that it’s unlikely Orange or any retailer would have had such a large stock of phones left over from more than six months ago). However, if this is one of the problem phones, I’ve got a one year manufacturer’s warranty, so I’m covered there. Still scratching my head, though – what’s come over Orange to make them so “generous?”
(P.S.: This happy occurence does not make me more optimistic about the pricing structure for the iPhone when it finally comes out in Israel. I explain why here).
After many months, the Modu phones finally go on sale in Israel this week. The Modu, for those not familiar with it (informative article about it right here) is the modular phone that changes its functions, depending on the “sleeve” you put it in. They have, for example, a sports module, which lets the phone record steps, running speed, distance, etc. Another module turns the phone into a mini-boombox, which plays great stereo music. Yet another module turns the device into a full screen video system, letting you watch movies anytime, anywhere.
At 43 grams, the Modu is the lightest cellphone in the world, all by itself (you don’t need a sleeve for the basic phone functions). At NIS 500 (about $130), the Modu is a bargain, considering the usual cost of phones here. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Cellcom customers right now. It is also to go on sale soon in the Philippines, Central and South America, India.
The Modu was supposed to have been released months ago, but according to Modu CEO Dov Moran, the project suffered unforeseen delays, with investors getting cold feet and supply issues (Texas Instruments, which Modu relied on for the phone’s chips, announced it was getting out of the cellphone business, and the Chinese company that manufactured the unit and the sleeves shut down). All’s well that ends well, though, and Moran finally has fulfilled the Modu dream of developing a phone with advanced functions that won’t strain users’ budgets.
Yes, the iPhone is coming to Israel, but I wouldn’t get too excited – unless you like overpaying and getting stuck with what’s probably going to be a whopper of a voice/data plan. If I know the Israeli phone companies, customers who buy the iPhone from the carriers – Orange Israel (Partner Communications) and Pelephone – are going to be paying… and paying… and paying some more!
How do I know? Because that’s just the way things work here. Israeli cell phone companies don’t give out any free lunches – or free phones. Unlike in America, where they give you a phone for nothing (or for a very nominal cost) when you sign up for a plan. Here, you have to buy the phone, for full price – and then some!
Yes, you can pay it off in 36 payments, at NIS 29 a month. So what. Even over three years at 21% interest, with minimum monthly payments, it comes out a little cheaper buying it from Amazon!
But that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that this phone is an OLD phone (old in “cellphone age,” that is). It was announced almost a year ago and went on sale last fall (2008). That’s why it’s marked down at Amazon from its $319.99 original price (the original Orange price was correspondingly higher, too). Here, Orange isn’t selling this phone unlocked; it expects you to use it for the next three years, and is treating it like a premium/top of the technology product! Not that there’s anything wrong with this Sony model (we have several Sony phones and they’ve all been great). But why do we have to pay top shekel for older phones that they’re giving away for nothing in the U.S.? Correction – they’re not even giving away that phone anymore; it’s too old! The phones they’re giving away are phones like the Blackberry Curve 8900, the LG CU920, and the Samsung i637. Just for signing up for a plan!
So how much do you think they’re going to want for the latest top of the line iPhone? Answer: It doesn’t matter. Given the history of phone costs in Israel, I predict that regardless of what they decide to charge (note that iDigital, the Israel Apple reseller – which is NOT an Apple Store – is buying the phones from Apple and reselling them), it will be cheaper to spend the $100 on the iPhone in the States, sign up for a month of AT&T service and then pay the cancellation fee ($175) plus other various and sundry costs!
P.S.: There’s much more to say about taking the cell phone service providers taking top shekel for outmoded cellphones; the biggest scam has to be how the companies bought up old analog cellphones for pennies, rebranded them, and sold them for ridiculous amounts of money to Haredim as “kosher” phones. But that’s for another post!
Uri Geller may or may not be a phony, but thanks to Israel’s TrixCell, anyone can pull a Geller – using their cell phones! Trixcell’s latest digital trick is so cool, it’s even better than the one where your cell phone spews out money – a trick that got Trixcell nominated for a Meffy!
I see by the look on your face that I am going to have to explain that last paragraph! It’s actually very simple: Trixcell makes “magic tricks” you can use on your cellphone. Yep, you read that right! In one of their tricks, for example – called Pyro – you get a picture of a fire on your screen. Blow on it – and the fire goes out! But even better: After you’ve blown the fire out, “relight” the screen, and pass it around to others – and watch them huff and puff, trying to put out a fire that just won’t go away!
A digital coin is trapped inside the phone. It acts realistically and moves in sync as you tilt, shake and rotate the phone. A final jolt kicks the coin out of the screen, causing it to materialize as a real coin in your hand!
So how do they work? What, you expected a magician to give away his secrets? I met the guys behind Trixcell - Shlomi Grandes and Menny Lindenfeld, the latter a world famous magician – when I interviewed them for an Israel21c article earlier this year.
In another trick previewed for me by Grandes, CEO of TrixCell (which he said would be great to use for bar bets) I was asked to think about one of four alcoholic beverages I preferred – beer, whiskey, martini, or wine. And – you guessed it! In about three minutes, Grandes guessed my preference, with the drink being virtually drained as he spoke. Repeat performances didn’t change the result, by the way – Grandes batted 100%, guessing my choice each time!
And then there’s that spoon-bending trick, a la Uri Geller – you concentrate, stare at the screen, and watch the piece of cutlery of your choice (knife, spoon, fork, etc.) as it bends! Check out this video!
Now, Trixcell has been nominated for a Meffy – a top award from the Mobile Entertainment Forum, in the category of best content of the year. Considering the cellphone giants nominated along with TrixCell (see the list), this is quite an accomplishment!
Now, everyone loves a magic trick, as anyone who has ever seen a streetcorner magician knows. So, getting a TrixCell trick puts you in a very cool category! So what can you do with this new power? The sky’s the limit – take bar bets, for example, and make some drink money. Just be ready to run for it if you hoodwink the wrong person and they decide to demand a “refund.” Grandes, though, is a lover, not a fighter – according to him, the TrixCell tricks are a great way to hook up with that “special someone,” impressing him/her and breaking the ice. A cellphone application that makes love happen – now, that’s real magic!
Israel is the world leader in hi-tech innovations. So many of the internet, cellphone, and gadget inventions that make our lives easier and more fun are born right here in Israel! Get the inside track on the newest ideas and innovations in our bi-weekly Digital Israel Newsletter. Sign up right here!
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