Alastair:

Why the iPhone 5 Will Be Cheaper

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 04:05:00 PDT

One of the things that has perplexed me about the iPhone for a very long time is the price differential between the iPod Touch and the outright purchase price of the iPhone. How does adding a 3G radio and GPS receiver more than double the price of the device? I believe that the answer lies in Apple's historic desire to steer iPhone buyers towards two year contracts with the official iPhone carriers, and make a mockery of anyone who chooses to go contract-free.

Fortunately for future iPhone buyers Apple appear to be loosening ties between their hardware and their preferred telcos. Evidence of this is clear when you consider that the iPad has been carrier agnostic since its launch, the iPhone has recently been made available for contract-free purchase in the United States, and Vodafone New Zealand's recent iPhone subsidy cuts. On top of all that the availability of alternative consumer level smartphones - many of which are available contract-free for very reasonable prices - must be leaving buyers wondering why they would to tie themselves down for two years with what may not necessarily be their preferred telco.

Apple knows that they have to start making the iPhone more accessible to those who would prefer to purchase the device contract-free, and with any luck that will manifest in the form of lower prices and wider retail availability of contract-free options when the iPhone 5 is released later this year. If they don't then their iTunes cash cow faces the jeopardy of a diminishing iOS user base, and Apple simply can't and won't allow that to happen.

15% for Act? I Doubt It

Fri, 13 May 2011 06:16:00 PDT

Hone Harawera's nemesis will inevitably be destined to join Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson to go down in history as one of the great polarising figures in New Zealand politics. The former reserve bank governor, turned corned beef eating bachelor, turned politician, was always bound to be a controversial figure as evidenced by state television's insistence on pitting him against Hone Harawera in a cheap attempt to sure up ratings, but there are two characteristics of Don Brash that members of the public throughout the political spectrum are likely to agree on. Firstly, Brash is too smooth with the ladies for his own good. Secondly, he is a walking political disaster irrespective of how compelling or otherwise his political ideology may be.

When the media last week pointed out that Don Brash almost led National to victory in 2005 I had to take a moment to gather my thoughts. Eventually I managed to recover my vague memory of that dark evening three years ago when I departed The Backbencher's election night event in despair at the realisation that the vote counting and re-counting would drag on for days, and subsequently made the mistake of drowning my sorrows at a pub in the left wing Wellington suburb of Hataitai where I ended up being preached to about why the government should be heavily subsidising doctor's visits. So, why is my memory so foggy? Well, aside from a couple of rather tasty beverages, it would have to be because National's 2005 campaign was overshadowed by political gaffes to the point where the outcome of the election very quickly became irrelevant.

Don Brash's "mainstream New Zealanders", "gone by lunchtime" and "walking the plank" blunders proved to be a potent fuel for Labour's online "Don Brash Flip-Flop-ometer" and his ongoing waffle about preferential treatment of Maori simply attracts the wrong attention even though it may be well meaning. Political commentators have been pointing out that Don Brash's target demographic could be sufficient to see Act lapping up 15% of the party vote in 2011. Whilst Dr Brash is a well qualified individual with a lot to offer the country the reality is that he won't reach that potential in a game where confidently demonstrating political astuteness to the electorate really does matter.

Xero Personal - First Looks

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:55:00 PDT

This morning I have put aside a couple of hours to try out the new personal product from Xero, which is currently being provided and marketed by BNZ. On the whole it's a slick and attractive offering that is easy to configure and provides useful information for those wanting to get a clearer picture of their spending habits. Unfortunately there are a couple of notable deficiencies which leave a black mark on what is otherwise a pretty complete package.

Firstly, when I enter the spending and saving section I can see my spending broken down by category over the last 7 days, 14 days, 30 days or 3 months and I can drill right down on these categories. That's great, but what's missing here is a comparison against the budget figures that I have set in the goals section. The actual spending figures should be shown alongside the corresponding budget figures and the variance between the two.

No problem, I thought; I'll just use the the current goal progress option to see how I'm tracking against budget. The problem with this feature is that I'm being given figures for May but because today is the first of May and I haven't taken my wallet out of my pocket today this information is useless. What I need is to be able to backtrack and see this information presented for the month of April, but there is no option for me to be able to select a particular time period - I'm stuck with this month or this week depending on whether I've set a weekly or monthly cycle for each expense. There is some reprieve in that I can click on each individual expense category, but it's a nuisance to have to do this.

The other deficiency is the lack of cashflow forecasting. I can use the net worth tool to get a snapshot of my current cash position, but what I really want to be able to do is define dates when my salary and regular expenses are processed and based on that determine my cash situation over the next few days or weeks.

So, a good start from Xero with their first entrance into the personal finance area, and hopefully these gaps will be plugged as the product evolves over time.

Looking Back on this Week's iPod Announcement

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 03:21:00 PDT

Now that the dust has settled there are two major new features that have stuck in my mind from this week's iPod product launch event. One of those is the hotly anticipated camera, and the other is FM radio. Curiously both of these have been added to the Nano, but neither has been added to the Touch.

The esteemed leader of the Mac cult has been widely reported as stating that these new features were omitted from the new Touch in order to drive down prices and hence make it more accessible as a gaming platform. This is somewhat believable, but given the bargain basement price of the components required to support these features I couldn't help but come up with a theory of my own. Let's say I buy an 8Gb Touch at the new price point with a low end phone handset also thrown into my shopping basket, and consequently empty $500 from my wallet. That's little more than half the price of an 8Gb iPhone, yet the product differentiation here comes down to the lack of a camera and GPS on the Touch. Having the two seperate products makes sense though, as the Touch can be pitched to teenagers looking for a gaming platform while the iPhone appeals to those who object to carrying two seperate devices and who have the opportunity to benefit from generous carrier subsidies. There is no doubt in my mind that this market segmentation is extremely healthy for Apple's bottom line.

As for the FM radio, in many respects this is a more interesting move than the video recording camera by which it appears to have been overshadowed. Historically Apple's philosophy appears to have been based around the idea that iPod and iTunes users should obtain all of their content from iTunes itself, though they did ease up a bit on this when they released the now defunct radio remote accessory back in 2006. Meanwhile, consumers have been demanding the addition of FM radio as a standard feature since podcasts simply can't match the live and always available nature of traditional broadcast radio when it comes to obtaining up to date news and information. Limiting this feature to the Nano is curious, but I suspect that we will see it added to the iPod Touch and the iPhone in time assuming that there are no technical barriers associated with coupling the headphone socket as an antenna.

Prior to the event I had been contemplating buying either an iPhone or an iPod Touch, but given that I want a lowest cost solution and an FM radio it seems that the Nano is now the way to go.

How Technology Can Dumb Us Down

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 13:34:00 PDT

I have no doubt that most of us, myself included, believe that technological progress is a good thing but it does come with some negative side effects. Those negative consequences have, in three key areas, become very apparent to me over the last couple of years due to their 'dumbing down' effect.

Let me being by looking at music. When the compact disc was introduced we realised that its audio reproduction quality may be limited by the resolution of the digital media but we accepted that the sound quality of a CD would not be appreciably inferior to vinyl except on the most expensive audio equipment. Now, with the introduction of online music downloads we have lowered the audio quality bar a bit more by accepting heavily compressed audio files. Sure, most of us seem to be pretty comfortable having our music encoded in 128kbps AAC format, but technological progress should have seen audio quality get better, not worse.

The second key area that concerns me is photography. Manufacturers of compact cameras have all joined the trend towards including features such as scene modes, human face detection, and even detection of subject movement. These features make it easy for people with minimal photographic skills to capture good shots in a range of different situations but the problem here is that these features often deprive the user of the opportunity to understand the requirements of achieving accurate focus, exposure and composition. This means that when the user is faced with a challenging shooting situation that the camera is not equipped to deal with, they find themselves lacking the knowledge and technique to achieve a pleasing result.

I won't dwell on the third point since I'm not the first person to complain about the effect that text messaging is having on the integrity of the English language. If teenagers want to send text messages to each other in abbreviated form then I have no problem with that, but when this assault on the English language begins to spill over into email, marketing material and NCEA exams then we have cause for concern.

As the technology marches forward we need to ensure that our skills, knowledge and thought processes do not step backwards.

Apple Media Presentation Next Week

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:36:00 PDT

Apple regularly takes the opportunity to tease their fans by sending out invitations to the media for their major product announcements, and the next such announcement is due to happen on Tuesday (Wednesday NZ time). Given the status of their product update cycles, Apple's insistence that next week's presentation will be Mac related, and widespread rumours and speculation, it seems that it's a no-brainer that we will see the next generation iMac announced. Those with good memories will recall that the design of the current iMac dates back to the G5 PowerPC days, so a significant refresh would be due about now.

What is less certain at this point is the fate of the Mac Mini. The current Mini and iMac models were both released in September 2006 so it seems very likely that the Mini will be updated alongside the iMac, but there has recently been some speculation which would suggest that the Mini is about to join the G4 Cube and Newton to be confined to Apple's history books. At first this seems hard to believe considering that the Mini was intended to provide a convenient stepping stone for those considering the migration from the Windows platform to the Mac, but it's not hard to argue that the current Mac Mini represents poor value for money. For example, the base Mac Mini without a display is only $700 ($NZ) cheaper than the base Macbook, with the latter offering much better specifications and true portability. It could also be said that the concept of the Mac Mini is somewhat inconsistent with Apple's philosophy of providing an end-to-end solution to the user.

So, will we see the Mini killed off in favour of a new low-end iMac or iMac Lite next week? We don't have to wait long to find out.

Apple really has taken over the world.

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 13:54:00 PDT

Tonight on 3 News it was reported that a man who injured a woman when he crashed his car into an Auckland church was clutching an Apple Powerbook and shouting something about Steve Jobs before exiting the vehicle. I've heard people refer to Apple as a 'cult', but I didn't realise that Mac and iPod owners were completely insane. If the runaway success of these products continues then we could all be doomed!

Small Business Expo Round-Up

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:09:00 PDT

I spent most of Thursday afternoon at the small business expo at the TSB Arena in Wellington and whilst my main reason for going was to help the company that I work for to make its presense felt, I did spent a lot of time talking to other exhibitors.

Woosh

The rep here admitted that Woosh's coverage in Wellington has not been expanded for some time as far as additional transmission sites are concerned, but the configuration of the network has supposedly been tweaked a lot. When I commented that I am currently using Vodafone's wireless Internet service his comment was that Vodafone is one step behind Woosh because they are a phone company and not an Internet provider. I don't know about that, but I did have a dig at him about the ongoing speculation about Woosh's future and he assured me that the investors are big players and are still 100% behind the venture.

Orb

Here I had the opportunity to have a look at some Telecom handsets. The Sanyo M1 is a multimedia rich handset with bluetooth functionality coupled with what appears to be a decent music player and camera, but unfortunately its 1Gb internal memory cannot be complemented with external memory cards. I was also shown an older Samsung handset with a good music player but apparently this model is end-of-lfe. As far as new releases go, the ruggedised Sanyo 7050 is due to be available on Monday. Generous handset discounts are available for Flexi Anytime 24 month contracts, but that generosity largely evaporates if you opt for a 12 month term, or anything on the Flexi Mytime plan. No surprises there.

Vodafone

Unlike Orb Vodafone had little in the way of hands-on demonstrations of actual devices, instead preferring to use young blonde women to draw attention. I questioned why the Vodem and mobile connect cards are so expensive given that it costs only a little more to get hold of an HSDPA capable handset, but the guy who I spoke to wasn't really able to satisfy my curiosity on that one. He did tell me that more HSDPA capable handsets are on the way but he understood that for now Vodafone has an exclusive arrangement with Motorola for the supply of handsets with this functionality, much like the exclusive deal that they have for push-to-talk technology.

Cadmus

A few years ago I used to sell Cadmus Eftpos terminals so I was interested to visit this display to see how much has changed since then. I was able to take a brief look at the replacements for the old AC4500 and CP01, and I was also shown a terminal which allows buyers to pay in their native currency by making automatic currency conversions at the point of sale.

Corporate Consumables

As the name suggests these guys are in the business of supplying consumables for business equipment, but they also offer an impressive range of computer peripherals and accessories with some pretty sharp pricing. When I asked about their ability to supply notebook computers I was told that they could source these from Toshiba or HP and would be happy to provide pricing on request, but the rep had to admit that Dell's offerings are hard to beat in this product segment.

Konica-Minolta

We currently have a 'Bizhub' which we use for little more than photocopying. I was interested to know what's involved in unleashing its faxing capability, and it seems that a reasonably affordable fax kit is all that's needed. The machine can print incoming faxes just like an ordinary fax machine, or it can simply store them electronically and forward them via email. It can also interface with OCR software to allow incoming faxes or scanned documents to be edited.

As well as talking to these exhibitors, I spoke briefly to several other vendors and attended a rather uninspiring presentation on 'how to turn workplace problems into opportunities'. It was an enjoyable event and I look forward to an even bigger and brighter one next year.

Whingers Should Stick to Talkback

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 13:12:00 PDT

This morning it was with great interest that I read a posting on Engadget regarding US telecommunications provider Sprint's decision to voluntarily say goodbye to 1200 of its customers. The reason? These customers have been identified as the company's most notorious whingers, cry-babies and drama queens.

This is arguably a brave move - perhaps one which utility providers here in New Zealand would be too shy to replicate - but Sprint clearly believe that they can do without these customers and they're probably right. From all accounts the quality of customer service that we receive from our utility providers is generally far from stellar but there is no escaping the fact that when a customer with an axe to grind makes countless phone calls to a call centre purely for the purpose of punishing the service provider or further boosting their own inflated perception of their problem, they tie up precious resources which would otherwise be available to customers who are in genuine need of assistance.

Businesses make decisions based on where they see sound investment returns, and customers who fail to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of their anti-social or self-centred behaviour are not a worthy investment. I can totally understand why Sprint would want to show them the door.

Top Three Kiwisaver Misconceptions

Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:11:00 PDT

As Kiwisaver's commencement date has drawn closer, I have become increasingly convinced that those who will join the scheme are those who would have been saving anyway. This view is largely based the following three misguided ideas which appear to be widely believed among the New Zealand population.

Myth : A successive government will scrap the scheme and run off with all our money.

Fact : Participants in the scheme will retain the title to their own investment funds just as they would if they were participating in a non-Kiwisaver superannuation scheme. The government's only role in Kiwisaver is to administer salary deductions and remit them to the employee's chosen Kiwisaver scheme provider. Furthermore, National has stated that whilst they may make changes to Kiwisaver, they will not scrap it altogether. So, unless we end up with Robert Mugabe as our next prime minister, the government will not be dipping into Kiwisaver funds.

Myth : You're better off investing your money elsewhere.

Fact : If you earn $40,000 per year and opt to contribute 4% of your salary, then your annual contribution will be $1600 but the balance of your account at the end of a year will be $2640 once the government's tax credits are deposited. That's an effective rate of return of 65%, and this figure would be even higher once returns on the managed funds, the $1000 starter, and the homebuyers' subsidies are taken into account. Provided that you don't need to be assured access to your funds prior to reaching the age of 65, you can't get a better investment anywhere.

Myth : The scheme is not safe because it's not government guaranteed.

Fact : Kiwisaver is no different from any other investment in this respect. People who believe this obviously spend every last cent of their income and never deposit money into bank accounts or term investments. Kiwisaver is intended to be a long term savings scheme and if investors do suffer losses in the short term, these losses will almost certainly be recovered in the long term.

I haven't yet formed a strong opinion as to whether Kiwisaver is a positive idea or not, but I believe that the majority of those who are opting not to get involved are coming up with very poor excuses not to do so. One of the unanticipated side effects of Kiwisaver is that it is highlighting New Zealanders' extremely poor standard of financial literacy.

Vodafone's Manage Your Account Still Confused

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 04:18:00 PDT

Most 3G Broadband users are probably, like me, in the habit of keeping a close eye on their monthly traffic usage to ensure that they don't get caught out by excessive overuse charges if they go over their quota. Unfortunately, this means that the limited information available through Manage Your Account during Vodafone's billing transition has caused quite a bit of nail-biting.

When I now log in to see my account information, it appears as if all usage data is complete. But wait! What happens if I want to check my 3G Broadband traffic usage for the month so far?

I begin by requesting a total of all unbilled usage from the last 30 days. This gives me a figure of 659Mb, based on data collected from the 3rd of June to the 16th of June. That can't be right, since my current billing cycle commenced on the 22nd of May.

Next, I select all usage from the 22nd of May onwards. This gives me a figure of 1855Mb which seems a little excessive, so I add up usage logged on each individual day to get a total of 1230Mb. So how was the figure of 1855Mb arrived at?

To confuse matters even further, the cost column suggests that I am being charged for all usage over and above 1Gb even though usage beyond 1Gb but below 2Gb should be capped at $10. I trust that Vodafone will write off these charges at the end of the month, or they may just receive a rather rude phone call from me. Interestingly they have charged me for a total of roughly 260Mb which, added to the initial 1Gb allowance, would back up my belief that my total usage for the period is around the 1260Mb ballpark.

I really hope that Vodafone will improve the reliability and consistency of information provided by the Manage Your Account tool before the billing transition deadline on the 30th of June, or they will have a lot of flustered customers.

Meat Pies to Become an Important Election Issue

Sun, 10 Jun 2007 12:23:00 PDT

Anyone who follows politics knows that a successful political party is not necessarily one which makes decisions in the best interests of the country, but rather one which provokes the right reactions when dealing with issues which tend to stir up emotions or conflict among the general public.

It would be fair to say that it would be unsurprising to see a certain degree of cockiness displayed by a third term government, and this became evident a few weeks ago when Labour grossly underestimated the public backlash to the smacking issue. In a desperate attempt to reunite her tired government with the hearts and minds of the average New Zealander, Ms Clark last week jumped aboard the media circus surrounding the Muliaga family and wagged the finger of disapproval at that greedy state owned enterprise for daring to make a profit at the expense of joe public's perception of the state of social justice in New Zealand. Sadly for her, anything that she may have gained from that performance will be well and truly buried once nostalgic middle aged parents begin to react to her government's authoritarian approach to fatty and sugary foods at school canteens.

Like many generations ahead of me, I have fond memories as a teen of being crammed into a queue of smelly turds (I doubt that kids use that term these days for fear of offending some hard done by social minority) in the blazing hot sun in anticipation of getting my hands on an ice cold Coke, some jet plane lollies, and a meat pie. The government's proposal to end this tradition will trigger outrage from all but a few loony Green supporters on exclusive tofu diets. I am deadly serious when I say that this could cost Labour the election. I am also serious when I say that this is likely to be the beginning of a series of gaffes that will fuel an increasing degree of resentment over the decree that Helen and Michael know best. Watch this space.

Too Much Sex Too Early in the Morning

Wed, 23 May 2007 14:49:00 PDT

Recently part of my morning routine has been to read the news on Vodafone Live's feed from Stuff.co.nz while waiting for the bus. Timely and convenient delivery of news, events and current affairs isn't the only thing that Vodafone Live has to offer, though. A brief perusal of the Vodafone Live homepage over the last few mornings revealed links to interesting content such as:

"Nikki in her knickers."

"Horny, busty babes."

"Stripping babes get horny."

Now, I've come to expect this sort of filth when I arrive at work and open my email inbox, but to see it on an information and entertainment portal administered by a reputable company like Vodafone is nothing short of disgraceful.

Show some moral decency and social responisibility, Vodafone. It's widely acknowledged that children in their early teens, and even younger, now have access to multimedia capable mobile phones and one can only wonder what impressions they are given about how to treat the opposite sex when tasteless rubbish like this is handed to them on a platter.

I'm amazed that parents and Internet watchdog groups have not displayed outrage, but perhaps this is a reflection of how out of touch they really are with what young people can and do gain access to as a result of their ever increasing technological tools and knowledge.

Bain-Mania; Who's Had Enough?

Sat, 19 May 2007 06:39:00 PDT

The media have always been fascinated by rock stars, sports icons and politicians but it seems that they turn their obsession up a notch when the subject of their attention is an alleged murderer whose conviction has recently been quashed in a high profile legal case.

Okay, it's not surprising that the media would want to report on the feelings and experiences of a man who is at the center of a case that has attracted a great deal of public interest over the last thirteen years. I can understand them shoving microphones under his nose as he left court. I can understand the media scrums which took place at both the departure and arrival airports when Bain travelled from Christchurch to Auckland. I can even almost understand a Christchurch radio station wanting to get some publicity by fitting out Bain with a jersey knitted in Canterbury rugby colours, but what I'm seeing on Stuff.co.nz today is bordering on ridiculous.

Not only have journalists reported the type of fish that Bain caught in the Bay of Islands, the location of the bach where he is staying, the appearance of his tattoo, the fact that Joe Karam almost received a speeding ticket on the way up there, and what was purchased when Bain and Karam went shopping in Kerikeri, but an 'exclusive' David Bain photo gallery has also been published. For gawd's sake; can't the man have just a couple of days in peace?

Vodem Finally Working?

Thu, 10 May 2007 14:19:00 PDT

[Update : 13/5/07] Well, since posting the item below I have experienced three connection lockups and one disconnection. So, it would seem that my week of trouble free 3G broadband was simply a case of good luck. Because I believe that the connection freezing issue is a result of the device sometimes being unable to wake from dormancy as noted below, I have decided to set my email client to check for new mail at intervals of one minute rather than five minutes in the hope that this may make some difference.

[Original Article : 11/5/07] When my one year contract with Woosh expired at the end of October last year, I decided to take up the offer of a discounted Vodem and move to Vodafone's 3G Broadband service in order to enjoy the benefits of better portability and having my phone and Internet billed together. Unfortunately this was a decision that I later regretted due to my experience of the widely known problem with connection freezing, whereby 3G Broadband would remain connected but the Vodem would refuse to send or receive any data until being manually disconnected, reset, and reconnected.

After many weeks of frustration, the connection freezing issue disappeared and 3G Broadband offered reliable service for a brief period of time until the dreaded random disconnections began. This problem was very similar to the connection freezing issue, except that the Vodem would disconnect at random intervals rather than intermittantly failing to wake from dormancy as it did when I was experiencing connection freezing.

Becoming increasingly frustrated with these regular dropped connections, I began to keep logs of dates and times when the problem occurred for diagnostic purposes. I ended up recording six disconnections between the 17th and the 27th of April, albeit with no consistent pattern. Mysteriously, I experienced no further disconnections after the 27th of April but the connection freezing resumed for a period of six days commencing from the 29th of April.

After suffering for six months, I'm finally pleased to report that it has now been a week since I last experienced a dropped or frozen connection despite extensive usage during that period of time. The domancy wakeup sometimes takes a while and the throughput isn't consistently good either, but I'm comfortable with that because if I needed stellar performance then I would have instead opted for a more expensive and less convenient wired Internet connection.

I'm finally starting to regain my confidence in the Vodem and the 3G Broadband service, and I'm crossing my fingers for another week free of reliable connectivity.

Why Freeview is a Dead End Technology

Fri, 04 May 2007 09:27:00 PDT

My regular visits to various online chat forums have recently revealed that New Zealanders are increasingly turning their backs on commercial radio stations and their excessive advertising airtime, annoying DJs, and repetitive programming, in favour of instead enjoying the personalisation offered by the iPod/iTunes model and other similar technologies. This is quite revealing as it is a clear indication that the whole concept of broadcast media is becoming outmoded, and this will soon extend to television.

Those of us from the microwave generation are likely to be subconsciously disgrunted with the idea of having to watch a certain television program at a certain time or pre-program a recording device. We want to push a button on impulse and have our meals, our cash, our music, our photographic prints and our television programming delivered to us on demand. Sure, we could get into a debate about whether our existing broadband infrastructure is able to deliver quality video on demand, and whether unbundling will deliver Mr Cunliffe's 'cheaper, faster broadband', but I don't think there is any doubt that our connectivity will have improved substantially by the time the analogue airwaves get the axe.

There is nothing wrong with digital broadcasting as part of the natural evolution of broadcasting in general, but I have serious doubts as to whether pre-programmed real time broadcasting can or should evolve. Freeview may do little more than delay its inevitable demise.

Bishop Tamaki Regrets to Announce...

Mon, 30 Apr 2007 13:43:00 PDT

I have to admit to being more than a little curious as to what the Destiny Church's 'Gladiators 2007 Corporate Bootcamp' is all about, so naturally I was absolutely devastated to see that it has been cancelled. Maybe this is an indication of why the Destiny Church opposes the ban on smacking? Still, it'll take a lot more than the demise of a bootcamp or a ban on smacking to wipe that smile off Brian Tamaki's face.

The True Meaning of Affordability

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 04:20:00 PDT

In the typical fashion of the mainstream media, this week's reports of OECD feedback suggesting that New Zealand's living standards are deteriorating has been worded in a tone which would suggest that we are expected to be shocked by this news. We shouldn't be. The declining affordability of housing has been widely publicised for some time, and this is a very strong indication of falling living standards.

The term 'affordability' is often thrashed about in the context of housing, but it seems that the government is narrow-mindedly attempting to address the perceived high cost of housing without acknowledging that affordability is also heavily influenced by household incomes. Even if house prices were to remain unchanged, we could improve the affordability of housing by improving our labour productivity which would be far more beneficial to the country as a whole than simply increasing the supply of housing or subsidising the purchase of it. Another factor in determining the cost of housing is interest rates, and there is no doubt that many households are hurting as a result of the many interest rate increases which we have experienced in recent times.

It's not often that I praise anything that this government does, but if the rumours surrounding tax free Kiwisaver contributions prove to be true when the budget is announced then I would consider this to be a significant step in the right direction. Increasing our national savings rate will ease the upward pressure on interest rates, and improve our labour productivity through increased investment. This is promising, but it could take some time before we begin to see the benefits.

Playing Along With The Phishermen

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 15:13:00 PDT

Tonight I was having a cleanout in my throwaway Yahoo email account, and noticed that Paypal has been pestering me to log in to their site to 'verify my details'. Naturally, I decided that I'd better get onto it straight away so I proceeded to click the link in one of the emails.

Be it boredom or be it uncontrollable curiosity, I've always wanted to work my way through a phishing site to see what would happen, so here's what happened.

The journey began at a page which appeared to be identical to Paypal's genuine site, but the Romanian domain name 'energypizza.ro' in my address bar was a dead giveaway. Apparently this particular phisher had made very little effort to make their URL resemble the genuine site's URL as many phishers have been doing recently. I looked this domain name up in a whois search and the registrant contact details appear as if they could be genuine, but I can't be sure since I'm hardly an expert on Romanian geography.

The first step was to enter an email address and password. I made both of these up, and as a precaution I based the former on a domain name which I knew to be non-existant. This lead me onto another rather convincing looking page, still based at the energypizza.ro domain name, where I was asked to enter my name, address, phone number, and social security number. That's not enough for them though - they want your credit card details as well including the number, cardholder name, expiry date, CVV2 code and even the PIN!

Having fabricated all of that information, I was then forwarded to the genuine Paypal site. This appears to be a ploy to ensure that it's not immediately obvious to the user that they have provided their confidential details to a malicious third party.

This was certainly a fascinating insight into the mind of a phishing scammer.

The Beginning of the End for DRM

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 14:39:00 PDT

During the weekend, MacRumors.com reported that Steve Jobs is expected to appear at an EMI press conference in London in the next few hours, speculating that EMI is about to announce their intention to back down on DRM. It appears that the Wall Street Journal have now also put their weight behind these claims.

Having displayed an overwhelming degree of arrogance with regard to this issue it's hard to believe that anyone from the industry would even contemplate distributing music without the DRM ball and chain, but with the mounting consumer backlash, slumping CD sales, threats from European government agencies, and Steve Jobs' public appeal for DRM to be given the heave-ho, it appears that there may now be light at the end of the tunnel for frustrated music fans. If speculation regarding EMI's announcement turns out to be correct then it's possible that other record labels may resist this change for a while, but it seems inevitable that they will eventually give in.

So would this make me willing to purchase more music online? Hell, yes. With my Nokia 6630 unable to play music encoded with any form of DRM, and my iTunes Music Store purchases effectively tied to the iTunes/iPod platform, I would welcome the opportunity to be freed from DRM.

Edit : The accouncement has gone ahead as expected. 256kbps AAC tracks without DRM will be available on the iTunes Music Store for a $0.30 premium over and above the price of the regular DRM encoded track. Steve Jobs has indicated that half of the iTunes Music Store library will be available free of DRM as other record labels come on board between now and the end of the year.

Old Style of Policing, New Style of Management

Sun, 25 Mar 2007 14:24:00 PDT

John Campbell couldn't quite hide his disappointment as he announced tonight that representatives of the police have declined the opportunity to appear on the show to defend their organisation against the latest shocking revelations surrounding the recent high profile police sex trial. The silence at the top of the police hierachy despite public attempts by Annette King and Helen Clark to restore confidence in recent days tells us a lot about who is really in control of the New Zealand police force. In turn, this piece of theatre presented by politicians, the police and the media goes a long way towards explaining the long term loss of public confidence in the force.

Whenever the police release periodic crime statistics the media take to these statistics like starving wild dogs, knowing that these all-important numbers affect the perception of a significant element of the goverment's performance, and it is becoming increasingly obvious that the police now exist to serve the government rather than the general public.

One possible solution is to make the police directly accountable to the public rather than politicians. But how? As it happens, we already have a model for this in the form of district health boards. Extending this model to the police would mean that senior figures in each policing district would be elected by members of the community, and unwelcome senior cops such as Clint Rickards could be removed by means of a democratic process. The general public are a much more important stakeholder than power hungry MPs, and it is time for that to be acknowledged.

The Problem with Vodafone Live!

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 14:56:00 PDT

As someone who has a reputation for watching every penny, I find using Vodafone Live! to be very frustrating because I have to pay a fee for every little scrap of information that I take from it. Everywhere I turn, it's 50 cents here and 50 cents there, and before I know it I've spent a considerable amount of money for a short period of browsing.

With this in mind, it amazes me that Vodafone's clever marketing people haven't yet come up with the idea of offering Vodafone Live! subscription packages. These subscription packages could offer access to a combination of general information services such as news, weather, traffic, webcams, and maps for a discounted package price. This would make the whole Vodafone Live! experience more user friendly, provide better value for customers, and potentially increase revenue by compelling users to take advantage of services which they would otherwise not have used if individual service fees were incurred.

So, how about it, Vodafone?

New Zealand Will Never See the iPhone - Or Will We?

Tue, 20 Mar 2007 14:41:00 PDT

Many of us who are currently using handsets with Vodafone's customised firmware are known to often curse under our breaths as we battle with slow and unreliable user interfaces and system functions. Still, it's something that we've come to accept as Vodafone's philosophy in recent years has strongly favoured the practice of Vodafone-ising the majority of handsets sold through their dealers. This brings into question the likelihood of Vodafone providing its support for the iPhone. Recent reports have suggested that Apple have domineered the relationship established between themselves and Cingular apon the announcement of the iPhone, and it would be reasonable to assume that a similar relationship between Apple and Vodafone would be a rather unhappy marriage.

So, with Vodafone likely to turn their backs on the iPhone when it becomes available in the Asia Pacific region next year, is there any hope that New Zealanders will be able to get their hands on this must-have gadget without resorting to parallel imports? It seems that a ray of hope emerged this week when it became apparent that Telecom will almost certainly begin building a UMTS network at some stage in the future, meaning that Telecom could eventually offer a UMTS based revision of the iPhone.

Sadly, this won't happen in the near future. New Zealand will be low on Apple's list of priorities when it comes to launching the iPhone, and anticipation of the launch will probably drag on for many many months, similar to the delays in launching the New Zealand iTunes Music Store. Furthermore, it may take some time for an 850MHz UMTS revision of the iPhone to become available and for Telecom's UMTS network to become operational, but one day we may see the iPhone locally available in New Zealand.

The Big Battery Question

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:33:00 PDT

Remember the old Alcatel phones which allowed their users to escape an awkward situation by whipping into the petrol station and grabbing a pair of AA batteries when the regular phone battery ran out of juice? Interestingly, phones and (decent) digital music players which run on AA or AAA batteries are now extremely rare or even completely extinct, but many camera manufacturers are persevering with AA batteries in models where size and weight are not considered to be a major burden.

All manufacturers appear to favour proprietry Li-Ion batteries on fashionable ultra compact models but less compact models such as Canon's Powershot A series and S3is, along with Fujifilm's S6500fd, operate on AA batteries while Panasonic has instead opted for a Li-Ion battery in their FZ7 and FZ8. So who's right here? Personally I prefer the Li-Ion battery as it offers better life than AA batteries of equivalent size and weight and receiving a battery and charger in the box when purchasing a camera provides a cost saving, but understandably some people prefer AAs due to their low replacement cost and the ability to quickly and easily source disposable batteries if required.

The current market allows camera buyers to choose between AA and Li-Ion powered cameras based on their own personal preference. Let's hope that it stays that way.

Under Attack

Sun, 25 Feb 2007 12:35:00 PST

Since registering my domain name two years ago, I have had it set up for 'catch-all' email forwarding, meaning that emails sent to any address ending in @alastair.geek.nz would reach me. This configuration worked fine for me up until this weekend when some spammers decided to open fire.

The drama started on Saturday night when I started receiving a constant stream of 'undeliverable message' notifications, which initially appeared to be responses to spams sent out with various bogus @alastair.geek.nz email addresses as the return address. However, having spoken to a more knowledgeable collegue of mine, I now understand that the spammers are in fact bombarding my domain name with a deluge of spam in order to try and identify active email addresses hosted at my domain name. Since my domain name has a catch-all email configuration, all of these spam messages are getting through to me without bouncing and the spammers undoubtedly think that Christmas has come early.

Unfortunately Mac Mail's adaptive spam filtering feature is unable to pick up these spams, probably because they are disguised as bounce notifications, meaning that the only short term solution is to set up a filter to dump any email sent to any @alastair.geek.nz address other than the one at which I expect to receive genuine emails. The permanent fix which I hope to get sorted tomorrow is to ditch the catch-all email configuration and set up a single mailbox, meaning that any email sent to any fabricated email address at my domain name will not get the opportunity to raise my blood pressure any further.