Kindle Price Drops

Argh! I just saw on the Amazon home page this morning that the Kindle price has dropped to $299. Anyone want to buy me one?

70 Days

It's 70 days and counting down till I land in Kigali, Rwanda and I'm off on my big adventure. I can hardly contain my excitement; it's very hard to concentrate on work these days, as you can imagine. Yesterday I paid the final payment to the travel group; I've got all my gear bought; I've got the camera gear backpack laid out; I just need to send my passport off to get the visas. I'll be doing that later this month. W00t!

I just know I'm going to forget something. Like boxer shorts.

It's About The Customer Service

[Updated below]

Yesterday's announcement of new hardware and software for the iPhone was welcome news. I'd been waiting to see some of the improvements to the WWAN radio to take advantage of the faster speeds Europe and Asia has already had for years on their mobile networks. I will be buying a new iPhone 3GS (the "S" stands for "Stupid Branding" in my opinion) very soon after they become available.

However I am disappointed and irritated with at&t at the slowness to implement MMS and tethering, and their general mercenary tone-deafness with regard to customer service and existing customers upgrading their iPhone hardware.

Leaving aside for the moment at&t's astounding, out-right refusal to unlock iPhones when users request it, in clear violation of US federal law, I find the idea that at&t tells me when I "qualify" for upgrade pricing on a new mobile phone completely absurd. And they've been screwing customers like this for years.

Ars Technica is reporting:

For current iPhone customers, however, the options are a little tricky. "Upgrade eligibility varies with each customer, but in general you will become upgrade-eligible the further you are into your service agreement," AT&T spokesperson Seth Bloom told Ars. Typically AT&T will allow for full subsidized pricing after about 18 months. AT&T's website wasn't updated at the publish time, but you can check your "eligibility" online via Apple's online ordering page. (For those of us on staff who bought an iPhone 3G on launch day last year, it looks like we won't qualify for subsidized pricing until this December.) We have already heard expressions of severe dismay from many other iPhone 3G users being told they cannot upgrade before 2010.

If you're not eligible for standard subsidized pricing, you can get an "early upgrade" to the iPhone 3G S for $399 for a 16GB model or $499 for a 32GB model. If you just want an iPhone 3G, you can get an early upgrade for $299. None of those options are much of a deal, but if you want an iPhone 3G S as soon as possible, that's what it will cost you. Either way, upgrading will include a new two-year contract and an $18 upgrade fee.

Hello, at&t! When you treat customers like this you do not endear your company to your customers. This is, of course, the ongoing complaint I have with at&t: they treat us like children, and after-thoughts. It doesn't help that they are the only real choice for mobile 3G connectivity, either. They know they have us by the short hairs and they act like it. Verizon and Sprint simply are not options for anyone that travels outside the United States, like I do, who still wants to use their mobile phones internationally.

In all fairness it is not just iPhone users that at&t treats this way. They screw all 3G phone users on the data plans and text messages and every customer they have has to deal with this "qualifying" just to buy a new phone bullshit. We need some serious federal regulation on these mobile providers to force them to be more consumer friendly and to be more competitive with providers in Europe and Asia. If more Americans traveled with their mobile phones outside the US I think they would be appalled at how far ahead the rest of the world is in the field of personal communications.

Get yer act together at&t. It will only benefit you.

[Update] Now that the iPhone will support 7.2 Mbps HSDPA it really will be a truly international phone. Now if at&T will just get their damn act together and upgrade the domestic 3G network I'll be a little happier with them.

Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM

Alert! This post is more camera gear nerd-talk. So if you don't want to read about that stuff you can skip this one.

Over the weekend I laid down the big bucks and bought the last bit of kit I will be buying for a while. I got the Canon 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM and a Canon 430 EX II Speedlight flash. As regular readers know I had been weighing my options on which long lens to buy for several weeks, and on the last SF Photo Tours walk I had decided to take another look at this lens. Long story short I bought it, and since it was the lens I wanted in the first place I made the right decision.

The lens itself is not much bigger than my Sigma 70-200mm f/2.8 EX DG HSM II when it is no extended, which is nice because this means I don't have to struggle to pack it in either of my big bags. I actually think the Canon weighs a bit less than the Sigma as well, because it seems lighter when mounted than I had expected. This does not mean that the lens feels cheap. On the contrary the lens displays the standard Canon attention to detail and quality. This lens can stand some serious bangin' around and will probably still work just fine.

So over the weekend I went to zoo to get familiar with the lens, and did a little light birding in the backyard. I learned that I still have some learning to do to be able to use the lens effectively, since I had to do post processing on all the shots I got at the zoo. But that is just user error rather than the fault of the lens. The lens, on the other hand is sharp as a tack; the auto-focus is fast, accurate, and quiet. Check out this Flamingo.

That is why I bought this lens.

I was a bit uncertain about the push/pull zoom method, but once I used it for a few minutes it became as natural as breathing. I need to find just the right tension level on the zoom mechanism, but that is not a big problem. It will just take some practice. The most important thing I learned about using the lens was in my backyard, shooting some American Scrub Jays that live in my tree. The best shooting mode to use the lens in appears to be Program mode.

Since the lens is a variable aperture lens Program mode allows the camera to choose the best shutter speed and aperture, based on the metering through the lens, while I still have control over ISO, White Balance, etc. I got some good pictures of the jays using this method after I got a several crappy ones while trying to adjust the aperture to accommodate the shady and sunny yard.

Overall I'm quite happy with the decision to go with this lens, instead of settling for the Sigma I also was considering. This week I hope to be able to head down to Linda Mar beach in Pacifica and practice shooting some surfers with the lens. Keep an eye on my Flicker feed for those pictures.

I'm still working my way through the manual for the new flash, so I'm not sure what-all it will do yet. I'll figure it out soon.

Baby Gets A Name

The baby lowland gorilla that was born at the San Francisco zoo finally got a name recently: Hasani. And he now has a surrogate mom, Bawang, who seems to be enjoying her new role immensely. Check out this video from the zoo:



Just 96 days until I am in Rwanda and embarking on my own gorilla trek. Whee!

100 Days

That's it. In about 100 days I will be in Kigali, Rwanda. Argh! I feel like I'm in a Heinz ketchup commercial.