Blog's from the Bush

Maybe someone is paying attention, as I mentioned in our previous post on the iPhone costs for UK users have been somewhat higher than their American cousins. As a result one of the direct impacts appears to be a lower than expected number of iPhone sold in the first quarter.

O2 tariffs for iPhone [From O2 tariffs for iPhone - iPhone - O2]

Starting Feb 1, though, that's all about to change - O2 will be migrating existing customers to the new tarrifs by mid-March at the latest. The new O2 tarrifs for the iPhone will be more inline with the AT&T Rate Plans in the US, although they still have the shorter 18 month minimum contract compared to AT&T's 2 years.

In fact apart from little things like different contract lengths (oh and AT&T's free night and weekend minutes) they are remarkable similar, both them have the crucial unlimited data, Visual Voicemail and (with AT&T) generous non-peak time free calls. To give this some context for Australian iPhone hopefuls I converted the rates to A$ and did some basic average to try and line up talk time in minutes per month. That gave me a quick chart that looked like this...

You can find the supporting Numbers document here... (Windows users need not apply... :D)

As you can see at the low 450 minutes end there is only an AT&T option for about A$67.00 while at the high 3000 minute end there is only the O2 option at about A$168. The important point is that for the rest of the options between 600 minutes (10 hours) and 1200 minutes (20 hours) the plans are within cents of each other.

So, the billion dollar question is this... can Australian users expect a range of plans that cost between $67.00 and $168.00 per month for 10 to 20 hours of talk time? (We can hope and dream for this... I am...) Or are we more likely to get screwed over by the big telco that "wins" the iPhone deal? Here's hoping that Apple's ability to extract a good deal for iPhone users extends to Australia in the not to far of April/May timeframe... (I can dream can't I?)

Posted by craig at 11:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Here's a quick tip, if you use NetNewsWire and like me you've been using it for a few years here's a good read from Brent in response to the resent survey. Appropriately titled "Things you may not know about NetNewsWire 3.1" it could easily have been called "Things you've forgotten about NNW".

I confess to being one of those people that replied to the survey say I'd like it to support Flash Video... it took this nice little article to remind me of a preference I'd turned off some time ago. Admittedly I turned it off because I was having problems, but I'm lead to believe that its much better these days...

[From inessential.com: Weblog: Comments for ‘Things you may not know about NetNewsWire 3.1 (part one: browser stuff)’]

Anyway have a read if for no other purpose that refreshing your memory!

Posted by craig at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

No matter how anyone dies its a tragedy for family and friends, when its a talented and well respected person like Heath Ledger its a greater tragedy. This is a guy that only brought himself to the screen and was a brilliant actor because he knew himself, which is why the ignorant hate monger's discussed in the following article make me sick to my gut.

[From Heath Ledger Death: Baptist Group To Protest At Memorial - Yahoo! News UK]

The worst bit is that, while this particular group is close to the extreme end of town they are still supported and interacted with by the more moderate section of their particular branch of Christianity. If Christ was everything I was raised to believe, then surely he'd be equally sickened by them and those that support and tolerate them.

Enough said, if I keep writing I'll probably go off in a fit of blograge...

Posted by craig at 5:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Is it just me or is FSJ getting a real attitude lately...

[From The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs: Pope blasts media in pathetic attempt to boost his own pageviews]

While I'm no big fan of the religious establishment, I'm also thinking that there is a theme/meme appearing in FSJ's commentary of late...

Luckily I agree so I can keep enjoying the FSJ blog.

Posted by craig at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well it looks like the carrier for the iPhone in Australia isn't fixed in concrete yet...

[From Optus enters iPhone race - BizTech - Technology - smh.com.au]

Thanks to the "open" telecommunications market here it was somewhat of a foregone conclusion that Telstra would be the carrier even though they initially told Apple to "stick to your knitting". Especially after Sol Trujillo (our imported CEO of the largest national carrier) gently recanted and said "The answer is simple: yes we'd be interested and we're exploring that option". (see here also)

Of course this means a 3G iPhone is in the works (and according to various people due in Australia in the April/May timeframe). The advent of a 3G iPhone has already been leaked, although leaked might be a mis-characterisation for a direct statement by AT&T's Randal Stephenson.

The advent of Optus is interesting in two ways:

1. Telstra is big on arrogance, it's possibly the most arrogant consumer facing company in Australia. So, coming head to head with the personality driven Apple of the 21st Century is a sure recipe for head butting and lots of it, after all Sol is not exactly the retiring wall flower type either.
   
2. Optus is in much bigger need to kick a goal than Telstra and could easily be willing to concede more dollars than Telstra is. They also used be, in days gone by, an entirely Mac house - I'm not sure of the status these days but I don't think Mac's dominate there anymore.

Unfortunately, I don't think its a win-win situation for the Australian consumer no matter which one of these carriers gets the iPhone. Firstly the whole Optus setup is really underpowered in terms of 3G coverage - step outside of the major metro's or off one of the national highways and signal quality drops off pretty quickly. Also in the sense of Optus implementing the software changes to their network that visual voicemail will require resources might be a little thin on the ground (sure they can do it but how long will it take and how well will they do it?). After all it's unlikely that AT&T is handing out the network side software to telco's around the world...

If Telstra take the iPhone on board its likely to be fraught with problems that can only occur in a massive-I-don't-give-a-shit corporation, much like the problems with the Blackberry network rollout, or just ignoring problem products in the market. Then there's the whole cost of using Telstra - put it this way compared to the rest of the world our phone plans are pretty expensive on Telstra - compared to Optus, Virgin, etc they have a way to go - hopefully its cheaper than the Blackberry plans [PDF] which range between $49.95 and $54.94 for the Email Only plans with voice extra.

Of course having said all of this, it'll be like the MBA in this house the orders will go in as soon as the pre-order website goes up. Just keeping my fingers crossed that I don't have to take out a mortgage to afford the data plan or end up with a carrier that doesn't reach beyond the metro boundary...

Posted by craig at 8:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

We now interrupt your interruption to our regular programming to bring you this breaking comic...

Hopefully by now you've found "xkcd" before this, but in-case you haven't: xkcd describes itself as "A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language" Or to put in in shorter terms - its a geek comic.

[From xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe]

We will now endeavour to return you to normal programming.

Posted by craig at 6:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Now for a brief interruption to our regular progamming...

[From Cectic - On Arguing]

Sorry, I couldn't resist having been through this process once or twice both on the subject of religion or how a particular computer system works.

We now return to your regular programming…

Posted by craig at 10:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It was inevitable I guess but it still pisses you off. Luckily only the newbies and gullible will fall for this one - so pass the word to all you Mac using friends and we'll make sure no one gets bitten by these scumbags.

[From First Rogue Cleaning Tool for Mac - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab]

So far the net is taking it pretty calmly and no one is declaring the death of Apple so that's good. Here's current Google search results, most interesting are c|net and the Webware guys.

Interestingly - like most Windows products the site is so dumb as to present the same dialogues and messages to Windows users even though the software is purportedly aimed at Mac OS X. These guys must all be of the species or something... maybe they all suffer from platform blindness...

Whatever the case, don't download this junk and make sure your Mum, significant other - anyone else you act as the Mac support for - know all about it.

Posted by craig at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[From The Associated Press: IBM to Add Software for Apple Devices]

[From IBM, Apple Team on E-Mail for iPhone | bMighty.com ANTenna]

Personally I don't have any good memories of Lotus after IBM took control but as they say YMMV and it has been some time. On the flip side there are a lot of corporates that don't use Exchange as their messaging system but do use Lotus/Domino etc...

Given this includes both iPhone and Macintosh version of the Lotus Notes email software and they're bringing the free Lotus Symphony to the Macintosh one has to wonder if MS realises exactly how much the iPhone is changing the market place. For those not familiar with Symphony, think Open Office and you'll get the idea.

Speaking of Open Office (which is available for X11 on Mac OS X)- they've commenced the building of a native version, ie. a version that runs in the standard Mac world of Aqua interface elements. As you can imagine porting from a techno geek UI environment like X11 wouldn't be an easy job so don't expect this project to travel at lightspeed – but its another great alternative for your humble Mac user. I wonder if Symphony will be an Aqua native? To paraphrase it's Exciting times at Ridgemont High! *

I wonder how Office 2008 will fare competing with 2 serious software suites that cost nothing... wouldn't you like to see those sales figures. Don't hold your breath though I'm think I'm safe in saying we won't be seeing much detail from MS on that front... can you imagine the fallout if Office 2008 had as bad a launch result as Vista?

Feel free to sound off in the comments. What do you think will Lotus & Symphony on the Apple platforms make a big difference?

––––––––

* (DVD Movie Guide Entry) "Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Widescreen Special Edition)" on Amazon

Posted by craig at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

MacHeist is fully unlocked and now includes Pixelmator !

If there wasn't incentive for you with CSSEdit and Snapz Pro X then surely Pixelmator will push you over the line - go on get MacHeist!

Posted by craig at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The latest MacHeist applications to get unlocked are CSSEdit (normally US$29.95) and Snapz (normally US$69.00) which is a total bargain! After all the whole bundle is only US$49.00

So much so that I had to sign up and buy into the deal.

Of course there were a few other things that helped push me over the edge, I've always wanted to dabble in a bit of stop motion animation since the early '90s when I headed up the software development on a bunch of animated multimedia titles for children. That and Wallace & Gromit of course.

So, if you're thinking of getting the bundle why not use my referal link and help me get a copy of LaunchBar?

Posted by craig at 12:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

DDB Sydney has released a print campaign to raise awareness of the fact that the number of teenagers dying as a result of listening to ipods whilst they cross the road is beginning to reach “epidemic proportions”.

[From » NSW Police Department advertising/design goodness - advertising and design blog]

OK, maybe I'm missing something but the last time I checked "epidemic proportions" actually meant something like the "much higher than the expected rate". So, are they saying that the number of pedestrians dying in total has dramatically jumped? Someone please point me to the numbers...

And they're blaming this on iPods? Again someone point me to the numbers that show all of these dead people are actually listening to their iPods (as opposed to the numerous other reason they have for walking out into the traffic. (Like the real things, like their lives going to shit or their brains being full of alcohol and/or other chemicals...)

I wish it was a joke but adgoodness has been around for a couple of years now and seems to on the ball with this sort of stuff...

I wonder how Apple will take the obvious iPod used in the photography and the NSW Police's press release on the subject... notice the little "p" in their press release - maybe someone not quite up on the mp3 player/dap scene wrote the release thinking that iPod was a generic label...

Wouldn't like to be them right now...

Posted by craig at 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)