Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah I thought Vodafone's fair usage policy wouldn't allow us to use $375 worth and pay only $6. If the figure is true, it seems as if Vodafone would be making a huge loss. If not, they're at least making a bad financial decision... They could be making so much more off us! Not that I'm complaining...
And yeah definitely good news on the SE front in my opinion. But I'm personally more excited to hear that Howard Stringer is being put into the mix. I'm hoping this will bring SE in line with the likes of the PlayStation, Bravia and Cyber-shot brands which are at the forefront of their respective technologies.
[ This Message was edited by: Muhammad-Oli on 2009-08-19 07:37 ]
Posted by carkitter
I think it demonstrates how little on-net calling costs Vodafone and ultimately, why MTR's should be low or non existant.
Posted by yea g
I think vodafone are probably making $5.99 per month from people using bestmate and calling for about 500 minutes
Edit: ok I suck at england. By that I ment it probably cost vodafone 1 cent per 500 minutes on net calling
[ This Message was edited by: yea g on 2009-08-19 10:10 ]
Posted by carkitter
SE's problems aren't a lack of technology, it's a lack of sales. The niche market SE sells to has moved on to the next fad and that's what happens with niches. Apple inspired the current fad, SE needs to inspire the next one.
The questions are "What do we need that we don't have, that we don't yet realize we need, and when will SE make it available for sale?"
Posted by soane28
I will see what SE come up with by the end of the year i think before i decide how they are to fare next year. I just feel like we arent going to see anything exciting from SE until next year.
Saw the Nokia N86 8 megapixel yesterday when i was in welly. Very nice, solid looking. I do like it alot.
Posted by carkitter
I saw an N97 dummy in a Vodafone shop last week and it looked like a nice piece of hardware but the price... the iPhone looks like a good value proposition in comparison.
Has everyone checked out the new Nokia Smartbook? Not bad eh? I wonder how much Voda would charge per month for that coupled with a data plan...
Posted by soane28
carkitter - yes the N97 does look good aye? I did see that also but forgot to mention.
certainly not bad for a mobile phone company! Wonder how much it would cost? Or did i miss that bit?
Seriously considering getting the Nokia N86. The LG Renoir as much as i still love it, is extremely slow. Everything takes ages to load and its really getting on my nerves. Ive even installed a persons custom firmware that was made to help improve the speed with no luck! Dont have the money for the 12 megapixel gang, will upgrade to one of them at a later date.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2009-08-25 09:01:24, carkitter wrote:
Has everyone checked out the new Nokia Smartbook? Not bad eh? I wonder how much Voda would charge per month for that coupled with a data plan...
I think it looks stunning for a netbook. Who would have thought it would take a mobile phone manufacturer to make a netbook that actually had a point of difference over the rest of them.
You may know I have an HP Mini which is HP's netbook entry. They are really really great little things, and extremely portable.
Posted by carkitter
On 2009-08-25 13:52:35, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
You may know I have an HP Mini which is HP's netbook entry. They are really really great little things, and extremely portable.
I didn't know that actually; how big is the screen?
I struggle with small screens TBH, 10" is about the minimum I could cope with, I think. When I bought the Vaio, I agonised over the move from 15.4" to 14.1" screen but the chance to get a Vaio for 1200 bucks was too good to miss.
One of my fellow students has a HP notebook with an 18" screen, its gorgeous!
Another has a white Eee PC running XP and he swears by it.
BTW, I've made a few updates to the "Visiting NZ..." thread including some recent investigation into Prepay wifi. Has anyone tried Prepay wifi or wifi at Starbucks or wherever?
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-25 14:00 ]
Posted by carkitter
Some shockingly low prices at Expert Infotech at the moment.
T700 = $290
C510 = $319
G900 = $385 (is this the cheapest ever 5Mp camphone?)
C905 = $629
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2009-08-25 14:54:10, carkitter wrote:
On 2009-08-25 13:52:35, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
You may know I have an HP Mini which is HP's netbook entry. They are really really great little things, and extremely portable.
I didn't know that actually; how big is the screen?
I struggle with small screens TBH, 10" is about the minimum I could cope with, I think. When I bought the Vaio, I agonised over the move from 15.4" to 14.1" screen but the chance to get a Vaio for 1200 bucks was too good to miss.
One of my fellow students has a HP notebook with an 18" screen, its gorgeous!
Another has a white Eee PC running XP and he swears by it.
It's a 10" screen which is about as small as I could go too. I still mostly use my larger Mac at home, but the Mini is great for when I head away for a night or something. Surprisingly the Intel Atom processor doesn't slow things down too much.
Posted by carkitter
I just won a Trademe auction for a G705
Posted by yea g
I'd say 15" is about as low as I would go, but I wouldn't go any resoulution lower than WSXGA+ (1680x1050) (even though my current monitor is SXGA)
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2009-08-26 03:22:00, carkitter wrote:
I just won a Trademe auction for a G705
Nice one, is it for yourself or your wife? Brand new?
Posted by carkitter
It's for me.
It's a one week old, unwanted gift. I saved $115 on the new price.
You'll know I've picked it up when my Avatar changes...
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-26 09:47 ]
Posted by yea g
Wow everythings seeming to be low price at the moment. I might buy this monitor AOC F22 because its so damn cheap! Full HD for only $230!! I might even get 2 for that price
Posted by carkitter
You're right, that is very cheap for the spec.
Posted by carkitter
Got the G705
This is the new home of my 2 Degrees SIM...
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-27 09:43 ]
Posted by yea g
Nice! Is it brand new or second hand, and how much did you pay?
Posted by carkitter
On 2009-08-26 10:43:00, carkitter wrote:
It's for me.
It's a one week old, unwanted gift. I saved $115 on the new price.
You'll know I've picked it up when my Avatar changes...[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-26 09:47 ]
I paid $300 instead of $406 -$415 at EI.
I was actually going to get a W980 for $339 at EI but when I saw this sitting at $156 on TradeMe and the seller said the reserve was 300 bucks, I though I'd better grab it!
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-27 12:08 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Looks nice carkitter! How's the WiFi and so on?
Posted by carkitter
The wifi connects fine but surfing is a lot more cumbersome than the iPhone unsurprisingly.
I'm having to get used to buttons all over again; I'm not sure I want to.
Multitouch is definitely the way 
and every other manufacturer should go.
The iPhone will remain my main phone but I wanted to have something with which to stay in touch with where SE are at.
I'm looking forward to testing out the camera tomorrow.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
I can't handle juggling two phones and taking them with me everywhere. I know that from when I was running a Telecom and a Vodafone. Those were annoying times, but I'm sure you can handle it. It's nice getting new gadgets anyway!
I look forward to your impressions on the camera. I've heard good things about SE's 3mp non-AF cams.
Posted by carkitter
1200+ words written about the G705 so far and I'm only about halfway there...
Should be up by next weekend.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Nice one.
Guess what finally arrived after I was one of the first to sign up...
Posted by carkitter
Your 2 Degrees SIM card? Really? That took ages; maybe Rhys sent it via his mate, the academic sheep, all the way from 'actual' Cambridge...
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2009-08-29 07:02 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah, weird thing was that it arrived inside my brother's torn open Auckland University information envelope. So NZ Post screwed something up bigtime by the looks of things.
Haven't opened it yet cause I've been busy, but I'll trial their service tomorrow probably.
Posted by carkitter
@yea g
Got any tips on how to get my G705 browser to work with a wifi network?
The wifi connects fine but both browsers (I also downloaded Opera mini 4.2) still try to connect via 3G.
Posted by yea g
Try this
Menu>Settings>Connectivity>Internet settings>Allow local connection
Set it to yes
Posted by goarthur77
Maybe in here. Maybe in here...
Posted by rhea
Hi sir goart wow we are in new zealand:-D
Posted by carkitter
Hope you guys are getting my birthday present ready...
Just kidding
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah goarthur77 and rhea, you'd better get your act together!
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
JESUS
Anyone else tempted?
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Hmm... Still tempted. I've decided I don't need WiFi, would prefer a slider over candybar, won't be able to afford Aino when it's out here, and would love GPS especially for next year. What do you guys think?
[ This Message was edited by: Muhammad-Oli on 2009-09-01 07:01 ]
Posted by yea g
maybe the x or 2 button stopped working on their calculator
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
They crazy part is that they're undercutting Expert Infotech by $46. I'm gonna be having a real good look at this phone at a Vodafone store tomorrow. My first impressions of it weren't much but this price demands a second.
Posted by carkitter
On 2009-09-01 08:04:18, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
...My first impressions of it weren't much...
I agree
On 2009-09-01 08:04:18, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
...but this price demands a second look.
Agreed again. Any 5.0Mp, slider phone with TV out needs to be compared to the N95 1GB which is a 'classic'; C903 misses out on S60 and wifi but is substantially cheaper... makes the W715 look substantially overpriced! Definately worth a look but not a patch on the Aino or Satio I would expect. Hard to say what to do... guess you'll make your decision in the store. Which colour would you go for?
Don't forget that C905 is only $629 and W902 is $479 at EI...
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2009-09-01 12:59:46, carkitter wrote:
On 2009-09-01 08:04:18, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
...My first impressions of it weren't much...
I agree
On 2009-09-01 08:04:18, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
...but this price demands a second look.
Agreed again. Any 5.0Mp, slider phone with TV out needs to be compared to the N95 1GB which is a 'classic'; C903 misses out on S60 and wifi but is substantially cheaper... makes the W715 look substantially overpriced! Definately worth a look but not a patch on the Aino or Satio I would expect. Hard to say what to do... guess you'll make your decision in the store. Which colour would you go for?
Don't forget that C905 is only $629 and W902 is $479 at EI...
Some good points there. I honestly can't see myself being able to afford Aino or Satio when they're out. I'll be a student again next year, and back to a tight budget. That's what makes this so tempting. I'm not hugely into the C905 or the W902 to be honest. The C905's looks have worn off on me, plus there's a lot of faulty ones about. The W902 is almost no upgrade from my C902. I really could use the GPS because in all likeliness I'll be studying up in Auckland with you guys next year.
Do you know if Vodafone sells it in other colours? I have only seen white dummy units and the website only shows white... Have you seen others?
Posted by carkitter
I rang Sony Ericsson
and asked about colour availability, and was told that though Vodafone are offered all the colours, they only chosen the white model at this time. SE has a C903a available for XT but at this stage they haven't taken it up.
I spoke once again to the very pleasant and knowledgeable Stephen who does seem to have an understanding of the realities of the NZ market. I wish Vodafone has more CSR's like him.
That would be great to see you in Auckland! I think an inaugural Esato NZ Members Gathering might be in order!
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2009-09-02 00:10:52, carkitter wrote:
I rang Sony Ericsson
and asked about colour availability, and was told that though Vodafone are offered all the colours, they only chosen the white model at this time. SE has a C903a available for XT but at this stage they haven't taken it up.
I spoke once again to the very pleasant and knowledgeable Stephen who does seem to have an understanding of the realities of the NZ market. I wish Vodafone has more CSR's like him.
That would be great to see you in Auckland! I think an inaugural Esato NZ Members Gathering might be in order!
Haha cheers for doing that!
Thankfully Vodafone didn't choose the ugly red. Would have suited them but would have been a flop in my opinion! Actually now that I think about it, maybe this price-drop is due to it being a flop anyway. Did you manage to get any more upcoming SE information?
Yeah I'm quite looking forward to coming to Auckland. It will be an exciting change with possibly both my brother and my girlfriend coming up to study too. It's going to be rough though because we'll need a flat that makes it easy to get to Massey, Auckland University and AUT where we're all likely to be studying!
I'm definitely keen for a meet up at some stage.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Well I'm back to report my findings.
The deal is a Vodafone (not First Mobile, DSE, etc) exclusive deal for the month of September. But did I buy one?
No. The reason being that the Vodafone staff who were very helpful told me that the black one should be out sometime soon. The showed me a black dummy and a white working model and I can't decide! I love the blue keypad and camera accents on the white, the black is more classy but a huge fingerprint magnet. I think I prefer the white slightly cause I'm sick of the plain black of my C902. They said it might be worth it to wait it out until closer to the end of the month if I decide I want black.
The phone itself seems so much better than the dummies. The slider is smooth and the camera cover doesn't open on weird angles. The software is what we're all used to but there is a big GPS icon on the desktop which is the big one for me. Not sure about plastic quality. I think it is just so glossy that it feels sort of cheap.
Not sure at this stage so I'll use my month to think about it more. On a side note, First Mobile staff didn't believe me about the deal Vodafone are offering. They were actually quite negative and seemed to be accusing me of lying. I'll never shop there again, not after today and after that time they tried to sell me a used W910i as new.
Posted by yea g
I hate first mobile. When I first bought a phone/sim card, they directed me to dicksmith (which was down the road a bit) because they didn't have any of that phone or any simcards. Seriously, they specailise in mobile phones yet have no prepay simcards in stock??!??!?!? They also wouldn't send wap settings to my phone cause it was a parallel import (C905) (I found the wap settings page of vodafone's site eventually later) I told them just to send for c702 but they wouldn't. And, to top it all off, I once saw them selling a micro sd card for $120, and it was 1GB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (at that time 1gb retail was about $25)
Posted by carkitter
Yeah, had run-ins with First Mobile up here too.
You'll want a place on the North Shore preferably but they're not cheap - $350+pw.
East Coast Bays is the best or Albany.
Glenfield if you have to.
Avoid Birkdale, Beachhaven and Northcote.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Thanks for that carkitter. We'll have a look, although $350 is a bit much for three students. My girlfriend is an ex-Auckland girl though, so hopefully she'll know what she's doing.
Decided at the moment not to get the C903. I'll wait before buying a new phone I think. A lot of expenses coming up, so we'll see after that! It was exciting thinking about getting a new one though.
Posted by yea g
was gonna suggest north shore but I don't know where auckland university is
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Apparently not very close to the North Shore! Too bad for my brother!
Posted by yea g
There will be busses etc, to get there though, although good luck getting over the harbour bridge in early morning traffic! The public transport in north shore isn't nearly as bad as it is out here in west auckland
Posted by carkitter
North Shore is definitely the way to go because Auckland Uni is in the CBD which is easily accessible by bus, or bike+ferry if your brother is keen. AUT and Massey University are on the Shore and both next to major Bus Stations.
Auckland accommodation is NOT CHEAP compared to South Island. And North Shore is dearer still. You'll be pushing it to find a 3 bedroom under $350pw but split 4 ways would make it worthwhile. You just to find a 4th student which shouldn't be too hard to do around Jan/Feb next year.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah my girlfriend has been looking at flats in Northcote which is apparently near/on Northshore. She has seen some nice 2 bedroom places for $300/week which I think is still a little pricey for the three of us, but I guess that's my Christchurch mind talking.