Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Would go, but I'm not in Auckland for another week yet. In fact, pretty much exactly a week.
Anyway, how disappointing is the iPad?! Like the original iPhone, they've gimped it. Is this Apple's policy? They bring out a model that is seriously disabled, and then slowly make people pay money to get the features it originally should have had. No multi-tasking?!
Posted by carkitter
I think it's actually very good... for the small target market of rich American's whose luxury lifestyle this will fit into very well.
This is not going to interest hackers, serious gamers, people wanting an alternative to a netbook (as their only computer), people in developing markets, or anyone on a budget.
It will interest travelling business people, celebrities and others who are the target market for eReaders like the Amazon Kindle, along with tweens who want a cool device to watch and download iTunes and You-tube content.
It'll be interesting to see how the US publishing industry takes to this, it could be the lifeline they need in this digital age. I think universities are poised to take this on board too. At present it's kinda hard to see how this will be relevant in NZ except to local Apple fanboys.
Masseur and his kids will love it I'm sure.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-01-28 03:17 ]
Posted by yea g
Hmm... a large iPod Touch, good work apple, must have taken you years to come up with that thing
Posted by carkitter
The NZ Motor Cup: Feb 5-7 at Hampton Downs (next weekend)
-Toyota Racing Series
-NZV8 Utes
-Formula First
-Porsche Club
-Hauraki Muscle Cars
-Super Mini Challenge
$15 Adults, Children under 12 free.
This will be awesome. I decided not to spend $100 this weekend for my girlfriend and I to visit the 4 and Rotary Nats both days, I'll go this instead. I hope it's covered on TV at some point because the racing is sure to be exciting.
Public Open Day at Hampton Downs: Drive your own car around the track for $170. Helmet and overalls required and gloves recommended. Details
Hmm... I don't have a helmet, or a fast car. Shame
Posted by chunkybeats
Apple Ipad = makes no sense/failure
Posted by mrjulius
hello people
just visiting and say HELLO
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Hi mrjulius, how's it going?
Well guys, I know I'm not on here much anymore, but I might not be on here for a good week or two now. I'm starting out on my way to Auckland tomorrow and may not have internet up there for a good few weeks. I'll catch up with you guys when I'm settled in Auckland.
Posted by chunkybeats
Your off to Auckland Muhammad-Oli? Is it work commitment or personal choice? I don't like Auckland, I lived there for 6 months and it drove me crazy! I prefer Wellington, good nightlife and everything is near enough walking distance. The only thing I like about Auckland is they get all the cool bands playing up there! Wellington is it bit behind on the big bands except ACDC!!! Have a good move up!!
Posted by carkitter
I like Wellington too; I've holidayed there 3 times and stayed in Paraparaumu for 3 months in 1992. I'm overdue for my next visit there.
I built a desktop PC tonight in my AMES A+ certificate course. It even works!
Spec is 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad 1333MHz FSB, 4GB DDR3 RAM, 500GB SATA HDD, 512MB ATI Radeon DDR2 HD graphics, Gigabyte motherboard. DVD drive to come later. XP Professional to be installed via network connection shortly.
When I purchase it later on (without XP Pro) I'll need to add a Monitor, keyboard, mouse and wifi n card. I'm also keen to add a drawing pad input device too for my kids, any advice on these items?
I already have a copy of W7 Professional to put on it.
Check it out on my Twitter page under the WWW link
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-02-02 20:52:33, chunkybeats wrote:
Your off to Auckland Muhammad-Oli? Is it work commitment or personal choice? I don't like Auckland, I lived there for 6 months and it drove me crazy! I prefer Wellington, good nightlife and everything is near enough walking distance. The only thing I like about Auckland is they get all the cool bands playing up there! Wellington is it bit behind on the big bands except ACDC!!! Have a good move up!!
Moving up to go to Massey Design School. A big decision but hopefully it will pay off.
@carkitter: Nicely done! Unfortunately I don't have much knowledge of computers, especially building them, so can't help. Good luck with the project though.
EDIT: BTW, managed to get on here at a Taupo internet cafe.
[ This Message was edited by: Muhammad-Oli on 2010-02-04 00:09 ]
Posted by carkitter
We installed software tonight: Windows 2000 on one partition, XP on another - yes really.
Also some driver software, MS Office 2003 and a couple of media players.
@ M-O
North Shore libraries have free wifi for your Macbook/netbook but to use their PC's you need to become a member of the library which means proving you live on the North Shore by showing some bills (or maybe a tenancy agreement) and providing some ID.
BTW, Vodafone have further extended the free 3GB + 1000 PXT to iPhone contract holders until at least 4th March 2010.
It started in July last year and was supposed to end 30th September 2009 after just 3 months.
Posted by yea g
I'm gonna kill my school, I want to build computers for educational purposes (much more fun than 100 word essays
)
Anyway, windows 2000 is awesome for computers with less the 512mb ram, anything above that should have xp, and anything over 1gb should have 7. On drawing pads: you can get resistive touch panels that fit ontop of your lcd monitor (you have to remove the bezel to put it in) from ebay. I don't know how well they work, but it looks pretty cool. standard usb connection on them
Posted by carkitter
Spent the day down at Hampton Downs today, watching motor racing and doing some internet speed tests.
I have been unable to get a satisfactory performance from the Vodafone Network when using the iPhone down there. A little investigation found that that there is only 900MHz 3.5G and regular 2.5G available there, no 2100MHz 3G at all. The nearest 2100MHz transmitter is 21kms away at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
So I bought an XT prepay SIM with a $12 120MB Data allowance and did some comparison tests:
- Vaio + Vodem + 900MHz 3.5G + Vodafone website speedtester = 2Mbps download
- iPhone + XT SIM + Cisco Speedtest App = 1.5Mbps download
- iPhone + Vodafone SIM + Cisco Speedtest App = 60kbps download
These are not absolutely reliable figures nor directly comparable because they are done on different devices using different apps and most speedtest apps don't do a great job of testing 3G higher than 1Mbps because the file used is too small BUT...
it does demonstrate what I suspected. If you have a iPhone, you need an XT SIM to get any decent performance at Hampton Downs until Vodafone get their act together with some 2100Mhz 3G for the venue.
BTW, in West Auckland where I live currently, I get 2Mbps from the Vodem, about 1.2Mbps from the IPhone on Vodafone and 2Mbps from the iPhone on XT. Vodafone's upgrade to 21Mbps can't come fast enough.
Posted by carkitter
Thoughts on swapping SIMs and XT:
This is a real pain in the a--
You can hot swap the SIMs to XT without switching off the iphone but this is not the end of the matter.
This only allows the iPhone to make calls and txts on the XT network, not data and MMS. Tethering a laptop on XT is out completely (restricted by Apple). To enable Data and MMS, Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data Network and fill in the XT APN which is www.telecom.co.nz for Data and I don't know what for MMS but it should be easy to find out from Telecom. THEN Data works on the iPhone. This info will be lost when a Vodafone SIM is inserted and have to be re-entered every time a XT SIM is put in.
To switch back to Vodafone, first go Settings > Carrier (wait a long time) select vodafone NZ then switch off the iPhone while still on the Carrier screen. Change SIMs and switch back on. Everything should be ready to go with all APN's preset.
The iPhone is about the only phone where SIMs are hot swappable. This is fine for changing Vodafone SIM for Vodafone SIM but when changing XT SIM back to Vodafone SIM it causes problems. Because Vodafone SIMs disable the Carrier network selection, hot swapping will retain the Telecom XT symbol on the iPhone when connected to Vodafone. Because Vodafone and Telecom don't have a roaming agreement it's not possible to be connected to XT and billed on your Vodafone account. But it maybe possible with overseas SIMs from networks Vodafone do have roaming agreements with, so watch out.
Overall, it's not a great idea to go swapping SIMs regularly and it's also clear that XT has quite a sizeable advantage over Vodafone when it comes to reception on the iPhone due to the iPhone being a 850/2100MHz WCDMA device. I found 2Mbps data every where I did a speedtest on XT. If Telecom would just stop being such evil a------s about how they run their business and plan their networks in NZ maybe they would be a viable On Account option for iPhone owners.
Posted by yea g
Pfffft @ apples restrictions, I'm pretty sure it would be able to be hot swapped if you jailbroke. Anyway, I have heard that the iPhone has a problem in that 850MHz HSDPA is alot faster than 2100MHz HSDPA, so if you want faster data until apple fixes the problem, you need to go on xt. I don't actually have an iPhone yet, but I will probably get one when apple releases the next version
Posted by carkitter
I think the problems are due to network traffic rather than Apple hardware/firmware.
eg: Vodafone and Telecom both have about 2.4m customers but Vodafone has 500,000 data customers while XT's entire customer base is approx 170,000 and not all of those are using mobile data.
Therefore the Vodafone network is under considerably more load than that of XT (which one breaks down the most eh?) and that difference in traffic affects the download/upload speed.
Download speed on Vodafone's 900MHz frequency is a lot faster than their 2100MHz frequency simply because of the massive number of iPhone's all browsing together. I'm sure an X10 will browse faster than the iPhone for that reason.
Posted by carkitter
I've just noticed that Chrome now has extensions - maybe everybody else knows this - but has anyone tried the Cool Iris 3D wall browser extension? It is AWESOME!!! Browse Youtube Videos, Google Images, even pics and videos stored on your own computer, all in 3D with smooth scrolling. WOW is the only other word to describe it.
Apps also available for iPhone and Google Nexus One (Android).
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-02-08 23:21 ]
Posted by yea g
I have had that extension in firefox since mid last year
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Haha.
Man, went to Sylvia Park today which was very nice apart from the nasty food their foodcourt served us. But getting home was terrible! It took us 2 hours! We left at 4pm and arrived back at our flat at 6! Luckily I had my Walkman with me and we listened to drum and bass all the way.
Posted by yea g
Welcome to Auckland traffic
Posted by carkitter
@yea g
That's the whole point. A lot of Firefox extensions have been ported to Chrome; now there is no reason to stay with Firefox...
@Muhammad Oli
So you saw Auckland Traffic on a good day. Wait 'til a truck falls over spilling its load and crushing a car killing the occupants. The cops will shut the motorway for 4hrs and Auckland will grind to a halt. On those days you might as well walk or stay home.
Any rainy day will add an hour to going anywhere.
You're in the Big Smoke now sunshine, there is no escape! Muahahahahaha [lightning flashes, thunder sounds]
BTW for Drum and Bass tune in to George FM 96.8, I listen to The Rock 90.2 and ZM 91.0 mostly.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-02-10 04:14 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
On 2010-02-10 05:09:53, carkitter wrote:
@Muhammad Oli
So you saw Auckland Traffic on a good day. Wait 'til a truck falls over spilling its load and crushing a car killing the occupants. The cops will shut the motorway for 4hrs and Auckland will grind to a halt. On those days you might as well walk or stay home.
Any rainy day will add an hour to going anywhere.
You're in the Big Smoke now sunshine, there is no escape! Muahahahahaha [lightning flashes, thunder sounds]
BTW for Drum and Bass tune in to George FM 96.8, I listen to The Rock 90.2 and ZM 91.0 mostly.
Cheers for that. Had a great dance station back in Christchurch that I used to listen to, but didn't know of any Auckland alternatives.
Not looking forward to seeing Auckland traffic on a bad day, but luckily I hardly ever need to leave the North Shore. We only head into the city when we want to sight-see or shop. Even then there is a lot we can do while staying on the North Shore.
Posted by yea g
If you havn't been yet, go to queen st. Its so busy its totally awesome. My friend decided to do a wifi search and got 101 wifi networks lol, plenty of internet there
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-02-11 06:24:16, yea g wrote:
If you havn't been yet, go to queen st. Its so busy its totally awesome.
It's busy with overseas tourists and Asian immigrants most of whom live in Hostels or apartments in the city. There are plenty of drunk party goers pub crawling and a few people visiting the cinemas, Civic Theatre and Aotea Centre hoping their cars don't get stolen...
Those with money go to Parnell or Ponsonby for the evening.
On 2010-02-11 06:24:16, yea g wrote:
My friend decided to do a wifi search and got 101 wifi networks lol, plenty of internet there
Those would be company networks or apartment networks with a few public networks floating around too.
Have you visited Parnell? Free public wifi (requires you to setup an account which is easier done on a laptop than smartphone), lots of private art galleries, fine dining (I recommend Iguasu if you can afford it), cafe's, rose gardens, close to Tamaki Dr which is good for walking/jogging/cycling...
Posted by yea g
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Don't worry yea g. I liked Queen St too. I love how it has the atmosphere of big overseas cities and it reminded me a lot of Sydney. People everywhere and some nice shops too. I have to check out one of the Parallel Imported stores one of these days.
Posted by carkitter
I've put a pink C905 on laybuy at EI for my girlfriend's birthday. I was humming and haa-ing over red T700, pink T715 and decided to go top-of-the-line instead. Plus $464 is an insanely good deal for a C905 IMO.
I'll probably add Vodafone Broadband Lite $10/100MB and it's camera will get a workout; this should be the right phone for the job, whatdya think?
Posted by yea g
It should be ok so long as they have fixed the manufacturing faults. I still need to fix mine
Posted by carkitter
Should I have waited for an X10 Mini Pro?
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
A C905 is a good present. I'm sure she will be pleased with it.
Anyone know of anywhere that is hiring part time staff on the North Shore, preferably near Albany? The shit has kind of hit the fan and the job I thought I had isn't happening. Pretty much need a source of income or I won't survive up here.
Posted by carkitter
Plenty of shops in the Mall and Mega Centre but you already knew that.
As a last resort (and I mean last resort) you could try casual labour at Coverstaff, NZ Labour Hire or Allied Workforce Silverdale - skip Allied North Shore branch. You'll end up swinging a shovel on minimum wage with a bunch of gang members but at least you'll have a roof over your head until you find something permanent.
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Thanks carkitter. I'm off to hand my CV in at some places today.
Posted by carkitter
Nice little song about XT to be found here. Warning - you will fall off your chair so watch out!
Posted by carkitter
Tsunami warning for east coast of NZ; due in Auckland at 10.22am.
Posted by yea g
whats it gonna be this time, 3cm?
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-02-27 21:52:23, yea g wrote:
whats it gonna be this time, 3cm?
1.5m wave hits Chatham Islands
Tsunami warning to stay in place/One metre surge hits Northland
Crazy people head for beach
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-02-28 00:21 ]
Posted by Evilchap
shame it wasnt a bigger one, could have cleansed us of some stupid people, lol
Posted by carkitter
On 2010-02-14 08:08:17, carkitter wrote:
I've put a pink C905 on laybuy at EI for my girlfriend's birthday...
Might be picking this up today! I have permission to post some photos
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-03-03 21:05 ]
Posted by carkitter
Videos about Telecom's mobile service are not new.
Part 2 here.
[ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-03-03 22:13 ]
Posted by carkitter
This C905 is quite impressive and my girlfriend is very happy with it.
The smile shutter is quite amazing
and the flash is blindingly bright. I think some very high quality photos should be the result.
I've kinda got out of practice of taking good photos since I've had the iPhone
so I look forward to using the C905, when I can prise it out of my girlfriend's hands that is.
Hahaha! I just got in trouble for spelling girlfriend's without the apostrophe! [ This Message was edited by: carkitter on 2010-03-06 02:07 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
That actually looks really nice! And it's not over-the-top girly pink either, which is probably a good thing if you're going to be stealing it from time to time carkitter.
Any shots taken yet?
Posted by carkitter
Yes, we took some shots yesterday but haven't put them on the computer yet.
We've added Broadband Lite this morning, installed WAP, MMS, Internet and Email settings, tried out Google Maps for Mobile (including Street View) and browsed using the Netfront Access Browser. Once we install the PC Suite, Media Manager, drivers etc on her Laptop then we'll get some photos up and install Opera Mini 4 as well.
Phew! So much to do!
Posted by carkitter
Did I mention how AWESOME this C905 is? Having reviewed all the features with my GF (it took most of the weekend) who is unfamiliar with
phones having come from a Motorola SLVR L7, it's is simply staggering what a phone can do especially when it's combined with Vodafone Mobile Broadband, MyPhoneExplorer and Theme Creator.
I can't wait to see what
have included with the X10. This phone could be spectacular.
On 2010-03-06 22:58:38, Muhammad-Oli wrote:
That actually looks really nice! And it's not over-the-top girly pink either, which is probably a good thing if you're going to be stealing it from time to time carkitter.
You're not wrong. I like the colour scheme a lot, and I'm not one who would give pink a second glance normally. Combined with the chrome highlights and silver camera cover it is a very elegant design which only gets better the more you look at it. And the purple animated theme that is included with the phone matches it beautifully.
Considering getting a purple IPC-40 case to go with it now...
Posted by yea g
Heres a nice trick to get files off it easily:
Connect it to your wifi, and turn on network sharing. Then you can access the phones file on any pc on the network, as long as the phone is in wifi range. Imo its better than bluetooth
Edit: Just beware, wifi sucks alot of battery, so does gps. With both on, the battery will probably only last 2 hours maximum
[ This Message was edited by: yea g on 2010-03-09 04:17 ]
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Man my brother is extremely keen for the X10 at the moment. Looks like he'll probably score one as soon as the importers get them in, which sucks cause I live so far away now! And I can't afford one for myself!
Posted by carkitter
Well I generally baulk at paying more than $800 for a phone mainly because I know how fast they go out of date and Android phones seem to have a shorter shelf life than anything else. It's been nice knowing my iPhone is still relevant and ahead of most smartphones even though I bought it in October 2008.
I will definately not buy as soon as it comes out, I'll be too broke after the C905 purchase for one thing
I will wait til the price comes down a little but how long I can stand to wait after it's release I don't know. Once I see one in a Vodafone store it'll only be a matter of time...
Posted by Muhammad-Oli
Yeah, normally I wouldn't be too keen on paying over $800. I think my Aino just broke $800 when I got it, and before that my C902 was just over $700. Both of those were pushing it. It's definitely true that Android phones have less of a shelf life so far, but then some of us replace phones more than once a year anyway! And I think that as Android matures and improves, then they'll be fresher for longer.
My brother has just got a new job, and he lives at home (so no expenses) so he can afford to splash out I guess.
Posted by soane28
Im interested in X10 too, but i feel its too outdated already (V 1.6). Motorola MILESTONE catches my eye much more for some reason, prob cos they are upgrading it to 2.1, and its a more recent version. Love the QWERTY too.
Posted by carkitter
X10 will go to market with v2.0 + 16m colour screen AFAIK. No other released Android phone that I know of has an 8.1Mp camera or a 4" screen making Xperia X10 ahead of (not behind) the others. I think you'll find Timescape and Mediascape kick a$$ too.
More relevant to NZ is that the only officially available Android phone (HTC Magic) has disappeared from Vodafone and with nothing else confirmed, X10 could be NZ's only Android phone available through official channels. It'll be available in both 900/2100 UMTS and 850/2100 UMTS so who'll get it first - Voda or XT?
Google Nexus One has just been released in an XT friendly version, will XT get this to market before the X10?
Posted by Evilchap
I hope Voda get this first, looks so pretty, I must have one.