I retired from personal blogging in July 2008.
But you can find me over at http://blog.xero.com.
I’m noticing an increasing number of iPhone users around NZ at the moment. Not just geeks, but people traveling who have picked them up and got friends of friends to get them working.
I get asked all the time whether someone should pick up an iPhone while in the USA or UK.
My recommendation is no. Unless you have a furry geek at your beck and call that can keep your iPhone working as Apple keeps upgrading the software.
The iPhone is very early in it’s life so it will upgrade frequently. Also you would have to expect a 3G iPhone out next year which can leverage the fairly good (though stupidly priced) mobile data networks here.
My suggestion is get your iPhone fix now with an iPod touch. It has the pocket wow factor and is really useful. And you can give it to the kids when your iPhone arrives next year.
Vodafone must know exactly what the iPhone usage is on their network and I’m sure they’ll be monitoring that closely. Voda do know what the (big) kids are into and with Telecoms GSM based network due next year they would not let Telecom launch into that market with an iPhone. So we’d have to expect Voda to do iPhone’s next year. But I bet Telecom has biz dev folks trying to get the NZ rights as we speak.
I’m still a BlackBerry fan. For enterprise email the keyboard is essential for me.
blog
I’d agree, I got one for my daughter & yes it definitely has the cool factor, but with the iTouch now being available in NZ, that would be my choice at this point, though I would say the text ui is pretty dang impressive.
As an aside, do you not mean a tactile keyboard is essential for you :).
P.S. My daughters iPhone is still on 1.0.2 firmware.
Rod, totally agree. There are several issues with the iPhone that you can see if you look past that Geek factor, must have the latest toy at any cost view.
Resellers of it in the UK agree the interface is great but the phone itself is not leading edge. Why? Developed primarily for the US market which is not as advanced as the European phone markets. Camera is low spec compared to N95 and others. No 3G.
iPod Touch is amazing and I think you will see lots of other devices like this. I think if they produced one with a larger screen, say 5 or 7 inches it would still be small and they would sell millions.
Great product. They should develop a SDK for it.
I reckon you’re right about Telecom, and my guess is that they’ll will win those rights. Great story to tell at the launch of the new GSM network.
In the meantime I’m hanging out for the first production http://openmoko.com
I agree Rod. I recently posted about the very same dilemma. I eventually opted for the Blackberry curve, and as a business device I have to say it is totally brilliant.
The iPhone is way sexier, but it doesn’t come without risk at the moment. I made the call to wait until it’s legit here, and hopefully by that time the firmware and phone would have moved on a few iterations. Look at the first iPods compared to what they are now!!
I tell people to get one. They totally rule - just get it unlocked at any firmware and leave it there. The phone totally rules and there’s bound to be an aftermarket of little computer shop dudes that can upgrade and hax it for you.
I like the camera and the anywhere internet.
I was riding the zugspizter glacier (highest point in Germany - 70cm of powder) today - listening to mp3s on my iphone - then did a run talking to my friend on the handsfree kit.
Then I emailed him the view of the alps from the gondola.
Can’t do that with a touch. :)
Ben
Most resellers of the phone in the UK consider the iPhone to be a below average phone by todays standards. No 3G, in the UK relies on the EDGE network of O2 which has limited coverage. iPod Touch is much better and smaller.
Now if Apple or others made a Touch with a 5 or 7 inch screen they would sell millions.
All we need now in NZ is more Wi-Fi connections in the big cities for temporary connections. People would pay a reasonable price. WiFi is good for this, not very good for your main Internet connection though.
Apple, we need a SDK to Touch as well. Think market share not control.
Looks as if Vodafone think it’s a bad experience anyway. They’ll be saying that looking at the amount of churn that the Iphone is creating in the UK. Personally I’ll stick with my N95 for now.
Telecom is already handing around demo iPhones to certain people (not sure if they were supposed to be talking about it in a lift though hehe), so they must have something planned.
It’s a tough call.
I ordered a 16 GB iPod Touch the day they were announced and haver had it since late September. Great little box. But now I’ve been … provided with … an 8 GB iPhone. The Touch has twice the storage for the same price and is smaller and lighter (and may be less robust). But the iPhone comes with more apps, built in speaker and microphone, bluetooth, camera And of course it’s a phone. I don’t make or receive many phone calls, but it’s the best thing ever for SMS conversations, which is a very practical thing in NZ with Vodafone’s TXT2000 for $10/month. Don’t let anyone tell you the keyboard is no good. I can enter messages on the iPhone more quickly than I can with the T9 on my Sharp gx29 and far more quickly than with T9 turned off. Just trust it to guess what word you mean in the same way as T9 does, but with better accuracy and vocabulary.
It’s very easy to unlock an iPhone with 1.1.1 firmware. The instructions at http://iphone.unlock.no/ are clear, easy, work, and don’t even require the iPhone to touch a computer in order to be unlocked.
The risk at the moment is that while there will be an official SDK for us all to write our own programs for the iPhone, SIM unlocking will still of course be a no-no. And yet it is essential as long as the iPhone is not sold in NZ and is not available unlocked elsewhere. And even if I was in the USA or UK or Germany I would unlock it anyway because there is no way I’m ever going to spend US$65/month on my phone.
I’m waiting for the new openmoko too … mostly because I run my own asterisk exchange at home and want the to be able to hack it up so that phone in my pocket rings whenever I’m called at home and I’m in wifi reach somewhere (in the world)
I agree - iPhones rock (yes I have one - Singapore, $600NZ unlocked) but not 100% sure I would recommend it to others.
Has anyone managed to get data to work (albeit @ 2G speeds?). I can get it to work on wi-fi but not thru vodaphone. Normal calling and SMS works fine though
Feel free to email me directly if you dont want to reply here: richard @ fitnessnz and then add a .co.nz on the end :-)
Richard
Coming from a WM5 ’smart’ phone I can say the iPhone is worth every sent. I use IMAP mail, web browsing, the camera pretty much everything all the time.
Its hard not to find an open network in Auckland - 9 times out of 10 I’ll find a WIFI network to connect to .. you can also connect to Telecom Hotspots for mail - as long as you don’t try and web browse seems they allow port 25 mail traffic through .. same with Akld airport ;)
(Richard - Sent you an email about the data connection .. )
The data connection Just Worked for me when I put my Vodafone SIM in. In fact the hard part was to *stop* it working when there was no usable wifi signal because casual data rates are just stupidly high. The trick is to install a program called Services.app which lets you really turn off (and on) EDGE/GPRS.
The iPhone like every other device has its share of nay-sayers, the majority of people in the UK that have picked up an iPhone absolutely love the device as it is extremely sexy, if tech can get sexy this is it. The media have also been very favorable towards the iPhone except for the initial £270 + contract cost, phones are almost always free here on contract and Apple are going to struggle with that model.
Personally I went for the 16 GB iPod touch as there is no subscription fee to pay and once Jailbreak is installed it functions with the iPhone apps, the Touch is the best device bar none - it has raised the bar again as Microsoft have release Zune 2 which competes favorably with the iPod Classic the touch goes a level above.
If you have a spare £270 to spend, the iPod touch is a device you will not regret.
Bruce: careful about services.app, it doesn’t seem to not work very well at keeping Edge turned off. :) The real trick is to go into EDGE settings and convince the APN to be something that doesn’t work. However, if you have a set of valid settings (on Vodafone, NULL values will work) and then set it to invalid ones, they reset when you reboot your phone (subject to the length of time it’s actually turned off).
Top it off with the default being changed in 1.1.1 to NULL, and you see what happens. :)
The ultimate trick is to edit “UnknownCarrier.plist” to set the default APN to an invalid one. (Google for the file name for where it is and how)
And that leads nicely back to my recommendation. If you aren’t comfortable with SSH/SFTP and firmware, don’t buy one, this is not for you.
Jason
Richard: To get edge working (it’s dog slow), go to:
Settings->General->Network->EDGE
If you are on 1.0.2, you will probably find some settings for Cingular in the APN, Username and Password fields. Clear them out, leave them empty.
My favourite test is the stocks tool. Click Stocks. If you don’t get the “Could not activate EDGE”, it’s working.
However, remember that once you have working EDGE settings, it is hard to turn it off again.
Thanks for the advice Jason. Services.app has been working for me fine so far, but I’m keeping an eye on the usage screen. I’d heard elsewhere that rebooting the phone will cause EDGE to get turned back on again, but as reboots are likely to be far and few between I don’t see this as a big problem.
Hi. I have just bought an iPod 16GB Touch and so far, very impressed with its features. However, could someone take me through the steps for setting up the connection to WiFi. I am an Telecom Xtra broadband customer.
Thanks
Another silly question. I tried to set up an account with I-Tunes and although I set it to NZ, I keep getting asked to put 5 digit post codes, my province (even though there is no panel for it) and 3 digit area phone codes. I want to download the pay for enhancements. Any suggestions?
I have resolved my questions above
With an ipod touch has anyone managed to configure the mail setup to sync with their paradise account?
Howdy from potential iTOUCH buyer:
Are there any WI-FI NETWORKS down here in Tauranga? Or smaller cities round NZ?
Someone reckoned that in 90% of Auckland you can connect to the Internet via this iPod for FREE - is that really true?
Please advise to my email:
lighthouseaudio@maxnet.co.nz
Cheers!
The iPhone kicks ass….there is no other phone onthe market as far as I can see.
Check out this site:
http://www.iphonefreestyler.com
It ius a free site that shows you how to unlock your phone so that you can use it on any network.
JP