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Posted by rod@drury.net.nz in Mobile at 10:59 am on Tuesday, 10 October 2006
And of course they don’t tell you that in the ads or even in the vodafone shop.
Grrrrrr! My pretty white plastic device is therefore currently useless.
Intel software due in November (?!?). Vodafone, that completely sucks.
Update: So my very nice Vodafone rep called to say that, his manager said, I had two options
1. Bring everything back and they would zero it out (and I walk over the road to Telecom)
2. Put the connection on hold and that will cost me $10. That’s right. They didn’t provide software that works on the new macs and want to charge me to hold the connection I’ve signed up for. Too funny.
blog
It is a bit of a bugger - I’ve got an Intel iMac at home that needs a Vodem.
It does mention on the website that Intel support isn’t available yet.
http://vodafone.co.nz/mobiles/bb_devices.jsp
Bit of a scam . . The vodafone newspaper ad in the Herald on Sunday even features a Mac laptop with the card attached!
Not that is DEFINITELY broken…
Intel Macs have only been out since Feb…
What’s a Mac? Seriously if you are going to buy stuff for a marginalised computer (and relative to a Windows computer it is sales wise) then there will always be this pain. Now on a Windows notebook I am having no problem at all. If you are going to get a 3G broadband modem get the Merlin XU870 express card; you can upgrade the firmware at the end of the year when Voda upgrade to 7.2 mbps.
Now a more important issue (not for me though) is when not if Telecom moves to GSM and all the existing users have to dump existing kit. They should have gone to GSM rather than CDMA when they moved from AMPS - a very bad strategic decision and typical of Telecom.
Try this:
http://www.novamedia.de/index_e.html
I had the same problem on my powerbook when ERA in poland released blu connect and novamedia had software for it luckily. They are not cheap but it works fine with all devices I use with EDGE, 3G and even the new high speed stuff work fine.
New firmware out in two weeks’ time I hear. But, agreed that it should be made clear that the current version doesn’t work on Intel-based Macs or Windows Vista for that matter.
Overall, the Vodem software is really quite buggy in parts. It can’t handle your laptop going to sleep without crashing, and there’s no way to manually start up the connect application. Instead, you have to unplug/plug in the Vodem…
Hmm.
Just use a 3g phone + bluetooth connection - it’s what I use w/ my macbook. $50/mo for 1gb traffic. No goofy dongles either.
Thanks Ben, would you believe the BB 3G doesn’t operate as a modem with OSX.
[...] This will be cool because rather than buy an external device like a Vodem (which still does not work with Intel Macs - grrrr) you can connect through your 3G phone like the BB8707. [...]
Just wondering how any vodem users out there are finding the service? I’m not that happy with a) the speeds I’m getting and b) the quality of connection, it keeps hanging which is very embarrassing in the middle of a client presentation…
Checked again today. Still no software upgrade.
FWIW, Telecom’s mistake was NOT going to CDMA from AMPS; the earlier mistake was giving up the 900MHz GSM spectrum it won at auction for more AMPS spectrum. When it did want to migrate there was not then any 850Mhz GSM solution available. There is now; it’s what Cingular uses in the United States.
Micahe;
um … there’s a very good reason why telecon chose cdma coverage over gsm … so many kiwis are on or surrounded by hills, volcanoes & mountains … and the gsm infrastructure to reach everyone - or at least 90% of the population, including our kinsfolk on all the little surrounding islands and 200kms of nautical fishing zones … CDMA was the ONLY economical option for our national carrier to go with …
you can’t call home from the other side of the hen & chickens (or some areas of the bombays either) using vodafone, their gsm network only reaches 60% of the population and about 40% of the geography … whereas the cdma network covers almost all the above - including the top of mountains, around corners and out to sea …
telecom definitely made the right choice … although personally, i can’t stand either of the two big networks and reckon they’re both a pack of greedy c*nts !! - we can only hope for the best that a REAL 100% KIWI OWNED outfit sets up shop and blows them both out of the water and sends them packing to where they came from … in other words - they can both f**k off !!
as for the vodem issue with macs - last update as of today (30 april 2007) - the current mac software available on the supplied vodafone/vodem cd-rom will work with both PowerPC & Intel Macs up to Mac OS X.4.8 …
there are issues with the current version Mac OS X.4.9 and i’ve been personally told that their ‘Mec teknushins are on to t !! ‘ …
If i had a dollar ………. ;-|
I can comment on this last one - Telecom bought 900 Mhz spectrum fair and square - for about $5k from memory. The government required it to sell it and go down the AMPS spectrum path as it wanted technology competition in the region (as opposed to market competition). By the stage Telecom decided to go CDMA there was really no viable alternative to go to GSM in the 850 MHz band so would have required trying to get 900MHz spectrum for coverage reasons. The rest is history….
And as for wanting a fully 100% owned kiwi company doing this stuff - great idea - dont think it is in place in many other markets though
If you guys are still looking for software for Mobile Connect on Vodafone, flag away the NZ company and go to the UK Vodafone site. They have the downloads and claim that they work with Intel Macs. I’m still on a good old Powerbook with a U630 card and get all my software updates from the UK. Good luck.
Ok try this open your vodem softwere,wait for it activate, click it ,then forse quit the vodem program.
Go straight to your phone box in top corner or system pref and press conect to your vodem .
works for me give it a blast! . blazae