Instrumentation

July 3rd, 2009 | brainjuice

I discovered today that, through the very good technology house Expansys, an unlocked iPhone 3GS costs pretty much a thousand pounds per unit.

Which is a bit strong for something that only learned how to do MMS five minutes ago. But.

A thousand pounds per unit actually forces you to recontextualise the iPhone a bit. That’s not a mainstream consumer street device anymore. That’s a digital instrument. That is something very different from a mobile phone. That’s something you don’t dare carry around in your pocket because it costs a thousand pounds. And if you do carry such a thing around in your pocket, you are either a wilfully conspicuous consumer of a piece with the people who used to lug mobile phones around when they came in briefcases or you are some kind of scientist performing science on the street with a digital instrument or else why would you be carrying around a device that costs a thousand pounds per unit?

Perhaps iPhone 3GS users need a bumper sticker for the backs of their instruments that reads IT’S OKAY: I’M DOING SCIENCE.

16 Responses to “Instrumentation”

  1. Of course, anyone who actually does spend a thousand pounds on an iPhone 3GS is a FUCKING IDIOT, considering they cost less than a hundred quid on contract. But hey, YMMV…

  2. Puts a whole new spin on the line from the game Portal’s end credits:

    “Look at me still talking when there’s science to do”

  3. Sure, if you’re prepared to go with a shitbox provider like 02. Anyone who wants to use a proper phone network would have to get an unlocked unit.

  4. SCIENCE!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rW9m9230LnA

  5. Uhm, actually I just got mine on Monday from the Italian Apple store. Nearly totally legal, unlocked, and it cost 700 Euro. Which is a lot closer to 500 pounds than a thousand. Oh, and I carry it around in my pocket, as I did with the old one.

    You are right though (all right, that means: I agree with you on this): You have to recontextualise the iPhone. It is not simply a mobile phone. For me, it was the first piece of technology since my very first computer (somewhere in the way early 90s) that has actually changed the way I behave and interact with the world. 500 pounds for that? A bargain.

  6. The difference between the grand paid for an iPhone and the one paid for an instrument is that production costs per unit are much, MUCH lower for the iPhone than for any real scientific instrument. There is no reason why they shouldn’t be in the same range as, say, the Nokia N97, which retails for less than £500. I bet that Apple is making more than 50% pure profit on that grand, and the rest is mostly marketing costs.

    So, if you spend a thousand pounds for an iPhone, you are not paying for an instrument, you are paying for Steve’s retirement funds. The sticker should read IT’S OKAY: I’M PAYING FOR STEVE’S NEW BOAT AND I’M HAPPY.

    Whether that would make an iPhone owner more (or less) of an idiot, is up to the reader to decide.

  7. I’m running out of reasons not to get an iPhone. I’m scared.

  8. The sane route is to get a shit phone for cheap and an iPod Touch, which would be perfect if Apple added a camera to the Touch. I barely use the phone part at it is.

  9. I have a t-mobile G1.

    I mean, seriously. It had copy/paste and MMS from the get-go, it got video later via a SOFTWARE upgrade… it could have multitouch but Apple is bastards about their patents (which they licensed/referenced/stole from the likes of Jeff Han of perceptive pixel anyway) via a software upgrade.

    Honestly, I don’t need that much in a phone. It’s a FUCKING PHONE. It’s tiny. I have to hold it up to my face to see anything anyway. I type the occasional note with it, make calls, read twitter, and IM. I don’t need it for anything else. And it has a real keyboard, not that bastard mutant touch screen one that sucks something from over Lambeth road.

    It’s all about control, on the iPhone side. If you’re buying an unlocked iPhone, you’re escaping the thumb Apple wants you under, so you’re damned well paying a tax for that.

  10. An unlocked 32GB iPhone 3GS from the Apple store in Australia costs AUS$1040.

    Which is 500 pounds.

    Though Expansus.com.au will sell you the phone at AUS$1974.99 inc VAT.

    If you’re paying 1000 pounds for an iPhone, you are most definitely not a scientist.

  11. I don’t believe the UK Apple store sells them unlocked.

  12. Get a colonist to hook you up.

  13. i’m just gonna make that sticker and put it on the back of my 5th gen ipod…
    i’ll just have to prove that tetris + escapepod is science. i think i can do it.

  14. That’s silly. Expansys are not cheap, but even they’ll soon have the HTC Hero (Android) for £350.

    If you’re not an Apple user now, be aware of all the other stuff you have to do to get your phone to work. Want to get music on to your phone? Then you have to deal with iTunes, and all that implies. No thanks, just give me something that does USB Mass Storage and I’ll just fire up Rhythmbox or Unison under Linux. We do not NEED Apple.

  15. @Andy Diggle:
    “Of course, anyone who actually does spend a thousand pounds on an iPhone 3GS is a FUCKING IDIOT, considering they cost less than a hundred quid on contract. But hey, YMMV…”

    Obviously paying (at least) £30+ a month for 24 months totalling (at least) £720+ makes a *lot* more sense then with depreciation and being tied into a contract then doesn’t it? Obviously.

    Most people would buy one off contract if O2 would unlock them, once they’ve bought it – but they won’t, so they get no cash from me. Even the shop assistant I spoke to yesterday didn’t bother trying to argue that one.

  16. It’s the contract as much as the device. Does an unlocked iPhone come with a reasonable contract that allows you to use the internet as much as you want? No. You’ll have to get a sim from Three (in the UK) and make sure you watch the amount downloaded per month.


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Not Even A Secret One

Kieron Gillen - 09 Feb 10

Complete Plan B Archive

Kieron Gillen - 09 Feb 10

The whole run of Plan B magazine has been released as a single 670Mb PDF. That’s 46 issues of some of the finest music writing of the decade. And a lot of posturing pretentiousness too. It’s like two of my favourite things for the price of one. Or none, as it’s a free PDF.

If you’ve any interest in music in the 00s, or music full stop, this is a great thing to just have on file. You’ll discover a new band every time you browse it.

Hell, it’s even worth getting if you’re one of the games journalist sorts. For the first 10-20 issues or so, I was doing games stuff for it. And Quinns and Mathew Kumar too, who I bullied into contributing. Very much written for the non-gamer about games which get pretty much no coverage, we had fun trying to decode the concept of Outsider Games.

Whole thing here. Go gets!

Coilhouse is Hiring! Apply Here.

Coilhouse - 08 Feb 10

Back around the time of Issue 03, we launched the Small Business Advertising Program to create affordable ad space for indie companies in the print version of Coilhouse. By the time Issue 04 rolled around, the number of advertisers had grown significantly – by this time, we had record labels, jewelry and clothing designers, sculptors, other magazines, web hosts, toy makers and graphic designers advertising in our pages. Click here to see them all. With editorial duties taking up more and more of our time as the weeks go by, the moment has come for us to seek help with the advertising side of running the magazine. We’re looking to hire an Ad Manager for our Small Business Advertising Program, starting with Coilhouse Magazine #05… and possibly subsequent issues.

Full details after the jump!


Read the rest of Coilhouse is Hiring! Apply Here.


Post tags: Coilhouse

Untitled Post

blissblog - 08 Feb 10

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blissblog - 08 Feb 10

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blissblog - 08 Feb 10

State of South Carolina Secretary of State Subversive Agent Form

jwz - 08 Feb 10

Check the appropriate box. Do you or your organization directly or indirectly advocate, advise, teach or practice the duty or necessity of controlling, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States, the state of South Carolina or any political division thereof?
[ ] YES [ ] NO

If yes, please outline the fundamental beliefs. If applicable, attach a copy of the bylaws or minutes of meetings from the last year.

"Inflection Points" Presentation

Open The Future - 08 Feb 10

For those folks who are interested, here's the Slideshare version of the presentation I gave last week at the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute annual meeting. I was asked to talk about foresight thinking, as the event theme was "The Big One of 2056: What Went Right?" a look at a fictional 7.8 quake in the SF region that was handled as well as they could imagine possible.

My goal was to offer a bit of reassurance to the audience that there is some real utility to thinking about the future, and to spell out (in a cursory way) the kinds of big picture issues they should keep in mind while looking ahead forty-six years.

By and large, it was a successful talk. The post-talk questions were engaged, with little push-back, and I'm told that the overall response from the audience was quite positive.

The talk was video recorded, and I'm told will eventually be available to the public. I'll link when that happens.

CAN GIFTING ECONOMIES SCALE?

John Robb - 08 Feb 10

A gifting economy is different from a barter or market economy in that valuable items are given away to those that need them, without any quid pro quo, exchange, or payment.  Gifting economics (lots of great papers on this topic) were/are the economic heartbeat of hunter-gatherer tribal cultures, the social organization where we spent 99% of our time as homo sapiens sapiens.  Barter was, in contrast, a mechanism for economic interactions between tribes.  

This gifting economic system wasn't based on pure altruism.  It did have an enforcement mechanism to ensure compliance with the system over the longer term.  On the positive side, there was an intangible increase in the social status (using personal or societal metrics) of a tribal member that gifted an item.  On the negative, a failure to offer hospitality or gifts to those in need was considered a mortal slight that could incite violence or expulsion from the tribe.

There were also a considerable number of drivers for gifting at the tribal level.  Here are some:

  • The survival of the tribe, as a group, was more important than the survival of any individual.  However, the loss of any individual could put the tribe at risk.
  • The generation of surplus and innovation was highly uncertain.  Sharing reduced that uncertainty to manageable levels.
  • Sharing reduced internal friction that could put the tribe at risk.

Scalability

It's pretty clear that the societal drivers of tribal gifting economics and the mechanisms of enforcement didn't survive the transition to a global social system composed of billions of members.   Simply, the connections between any two individuals (outside of immediate familial relationships) are too abstract for these drivers and enforcement mechanisms to be relevant.   As a result, market based mechanisms for economic interaction have gained dominance.

However, the ongoing shift of the global market-based economy from a trade in rival goods (tangible items that invoke zero sum economics) to digital non-rival goods (items that can be copied at no expense or diminishment, endlessly) provides a window of opportunity.  It may be possible to revive gifting economics for non-rival goods to amazing beneficial effect.   Some ideas on how this could scale:

  • Automated reputation metrics that enhance social status based on contributions.
  • Mechanisms built using MMO gaming as a way to tie successful gifting to status improvement (leveling) or an ability to attract investment.
  • The creation of an inside/outside barrier that separates a gifting economy from the global economic mainstream.   Automated mutual interdependence (see my friend Bruce Sterling's absolutely brilliant story on this:  "Maneki Neko").

Latest on SNOW

Jean Snow - 08 Feb 10

Latest on SNOW

So what’s the latest on SNOW? I guess two new developments art that I added a dedicated Twitter feed, and also created a Facebook fan page. The Twitter feed is mostly just automated with new articles from the site — because some people actually prefer that over RSS feeds these days — but I do keep an eye on it, and will reply to questions and comments. The Facebook page is just another way of putting the site out there, and should be a good way of informing members of SNOW-related events as they happen.

Regular content updates have also continued over the past week, with a few new guest columns and my regular news items. Here’s a list of what you may have missed over the past few days.