Sprenzy Shopping Blog

Through my food blog, Sunday Nite Dinner, I’m participating in the 4th annual Menu for Hope charity raffle, which brings together food bloggers from around the world in the fight against hunger. Bloggers offer prizes that you can win by purchasing a $10 raffle ticket. The proceeds of the charity raffle goes to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP).

I was amazed to learn that in the last decade the number of people suffering from hunger and malnutrition rose from 791 million to 854 million. The WFP is the world’s largest humanitarian agency: each year, WFP gives food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 56 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world’s poorest countries.

The number of people suffering from hunger is staggering. We have seen it first hand in our travels to Africa and Southeast Asia. Participating in Menu for Hope is one small way to help people much less fortunate than us.

The charity raffle runs from December 10th - 21st with raffle winners announced on January 9th. Prizes vary from homemade cookies to touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià. Since I’m a complete gearhead, I have donated an Apple iPhone 8GB (US) as a prize in Menu for Hope. I use my iPhone all the time to keep track of shopping lists, find restaurants while out and about, get directions, take pictures of delicious dishes, and surf for new recipes on my favorite food blogs and forums. It’s the perfect phone for the on-the-go cook or food lover.

The prize code for the Apple iPhone is UW27. Shipped within the US only.

How to Enter/Donation Instructions

1) Choose a prize(s). For a complete list of prizes offered worldwide, visit Chez Pim. For a list of prizes from West Coast food bloggers, visit Rasa Malaysia.

2) Go to Firstgiving, the online fundraising company used to manage the Menu for Hope charity raffle, and make a donation.

3) Specify the prize you would like to bid for in the ‘Personal Message’ section of the donation form. Every $10 donated will get one raffle ticket toward a prize.

For example, a donation of $50 gets 5 raffle tickets, which can be distributed between different prizes, such as 3 tickets for UW27 and 2 tickets for UW33. This would be entered as 3xUW27, 2xUW33. Important: Check the box marked at bottom “I am happy for the page owner to see my email address …”! This will allow the organizers to contact winners.

Please spread the word to your friends and family to help in the fight against hunger! Let me know if you have any questions and thanks in advance for your generosity.

Yesterday, Steve Jobs announced that Apple was cutting the price of the 8 GB iPhone to $399 from $599. I was shocked at the 33% price cut, less than 10 weeks after its initial launch. Even though I was surprised by the price reduction, I wasn’t mad at Apple and just wrote it off as the penalty for being an early adopter of tech gadgets.

It turns out that a lot of early adopters were extremely upset and flooded Apple with complaints via email and on the Apple iPhone forum. In another surprising move and in response to the customer backlash, Jobs wrote an open letter to iPhone purchasers offering a $100 store credit…

“Third, even though we are making the right decision to lower the price of iPhone, and even though the technology road is bumpy, we need to do a better job taking care of our early iPhone customers as we aggressively go after new ones with a lower price. Our early customers trusted us, and we must live up to that trust with our actions in moments like these.

Therefore, we have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. Details are still being worked out and will be posted on Apple’s website next week. Stay tuned.

We want to do the right thing for our valued iPhone customers. We apologize for disappointing some of you, and we are doing our best to live up to your high expectations of Apple.”

I’m surprised that the Apple marketing machine didn’t anticipate the negative customer reaction to the $200 price cut. But, I applaud Apple for listening to customer complaints and offering a $100 store credit, which is fair mea culpa. I can’t recall any other company who offered a credit to early adopters after a product price drop.

If the store credit isn’t enough for you and you purchased your iPhone using an American Express card, you have another option to recoup your $200. Call the AMEX Return Protection Program at (800) 297-8019 and ask to file a claim. Although AMEX’s price protection program expired October 2006, they are making an exception for the iPhone and will price protect it. There’s one caveat, AMEX is not guaranteeing they will accept your claim. However, if you are a customer in good standing, they will most likely credit your account $200 plus tax. Depending on the authority level of the AMEX rep you speak to, you may be able to get credit within 24 - 48 hours, otherwise you’ll have to wait 2 weeks for the claim review.

I have filed my claim with AMEX already and anticipate getting a $200 credit on my next bill. Coupled with a $100 Apple store credit, I’m a very happy iPhone owner, whose iPhone net price will be $300, not bad for being an early adopter?!?

Looking for a uniquely colored iPhone? Well, ColorWare allows you to customize the colors of the back, bottom, frame, button, logo, earbuds and dock. Custom coloring starts at $149, if you already own an iPhone. Or you can order a 4 GB or 8 GB iPhone directly from ColorWare. The processing time for your custom paint job is 2 to 3 weeks.

Custom painting isn’t just limited to an iPhone. ColorWare can also custom color the Sidekick 3, iPod Nano, iPod Video, Zune, Thinkpads, Macbooks and gaming consoles.

iPhone… Overhyped? Overpriced? Poor business phone? Bad network? Maybe. Is it the ultimate all-in-one converged device? I think it’s the best one available right now. Say what you want about the iPhone, just make sure you test one out to really appreciate its simple, elegant and absolutely amazing user interface (UI).

I have owned a Windows Mobile 5.0, a Pocket PC and a Palm device and it always took me a few days to completely figure out how to use the phone and operating system. The iPhone’s UI is so well designed, it only took me a few minutes to understand it. There’s truly no need for a user’s manual.

I can’t say enough about the iPhone’s interaction design and functionality integration (between the phone, iPod, Internet, etc.). Using your fingers to scroll, zoom and navigate is pure joy and puts a smile on my face each time I use the iPhone.

Here’s a review roundup:

• Apple’s iPhone: an initial (but in-depth) review from AppleInsider
• Apple iPhone review by PC Magazine
• Review: Apple IPhone Rocks, Rolls, and Doesn’t Disappoint by Wired
• iPhone Review at Engadget

I love my new iPhone, but it’s not without flaws, which are highlighted in most reviews. Despite these flaws, it’s still hands down the best and most entertaining phone I’ve ever owned. The beauty of the iPhone is that its deficiencies can be fixed through software updates. The only thing that can’t be fixed with the iPhone is 3G data connectivity.

I didn’t plan on buying an iPhone and was going to wait for the 2nd Gen phone. But after reviewing my Verizon bill, the $50 a month I pay for unlimited data and 250 text messages is a complete ripoff. So on Saturday morning, I went down to the Apple store in San Francisco and picked up an 8 GB iPhone. I’ll be saving $40 a month by switching to an AT&T plan, which means I’ll break even in 15 months compared to sticking with Verizon’s overpriced data plan.

Sorry Verizon and Motorola Q, it was fun, but there’s a better and cooler gadget that you can’t come close to competing with… Hello iPhone!

After watching Steve Jobs’ Macworld keynote address and introduction of the iPhone, all I can say is… wow, brilliant, amazing, spectacular, fantabulous… there aren’t enough superlatives that I can give the iPhone. The user interface and design are simply beautiful, intuitive and elegant. The iPhone consists of three devices rolled into one.

1. A widescreen iPod with touch controls

2. A “smart” phone

3. A mobile Internet device

If Apple released these products individually, each device would be revolutionary. Words cannot describe how cool and mind blowing the iPhone is. To truly appreciate this gadget, you’ll have to watch the 2007 Macworld keynote address. If you can’t watch it all, skip to 01:23:20 in the keynote address or 00:57:00 in the iPhone introduction video to see Steve Jobs demonstrate a real world example of iPhone use… music, phone call, photo, email, web browsing, end call, automatically back to music… wow!

Unfortunately, the iPhone won’t be available until June 2007. Pricing is $499 for a 4 GB model and $599 for an 8GB model. Both require a two year contract with Cingular, the exclusive iPhone wireless carrier.

I’ve had a bad experience with Cingular in the past but I’m completely ready to drop Verizon and my Motorola Q come June. As you can tell, I’m super excited about the iPhone but I’m just as psyched for future Apple products using multi-touch technology.

Is the iPhone the holy grail of gadgets? I don’t know, but it comes pretty darn close. Maybe Apple can add 3G, wireless iTunes synching, GPS, over-the-air HDTV antenna, a heart rate monitor…

To get a complete overview and specs of the phone, go to Apple iPhone.

Update 01.17.2007: Added an entertaining video from Dave Pogue of the New York Times.