Super Technology Man: Geekzone's Finest News Source

Why I think 3D TV is just a FAD

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 08:22:00 PDT

A lot of people are talking about the upcoming release of 3D TV’s and how their going to change the way we watch TV and even the way we game. While 3D television looks and sounds exciting, will they really live up to the hype? I think not!

Who wants to wear a pair of special glasses every time they want to watch some 3D television? I couldn’t think of anything more annoying! I can understand why people are so excited about it now, but if you had a 3D TV, do you really see yourself always wearing those expensive glasses every time something 3D comes on?

What’s worse is that you’ll need a pair of 3D glasses for every person watching the TV set in 3D mode or else it will look blurry and unwatchable. These glasses aren’t cheap either, costing at least a couple of hundred bucks per pair; they aren’t the cheapest of accessories. Not to mention, each brand of glasses only works on that brand of TV, so if you think you can just bring your pair to your friends’ house and watch the same movie together, you are likely out of luck. Chances are, they’ll have universal glasses soon enough or at least have a standard of some sort but the fact that you have to put on some bulky glasses really turns me off this sexy sounding new product.

I also believe the companies who invest heavily in 3D TV’s and the content, will end up loosing out in the long run. Big blockbuster films like Avatar will do well, especially on the big screen in theatres, but the majority of the content will be crap. Do we really need to watch Shorthand Street in 3D?

The only way I ever see 3D TV’s becoming streamline and something we all use on a daily basis, is if they can create the same 3D picture without the need for glasses. If this is possible or not, I have no idea. But if that can’t happen, I honestly never believe this is going to take off.

My opinion anyway, time will tell!

Harvey Norman finally have a website

Tue, 20 Apr 2010 05:03:00 PDT

It took them long enough, but they finally launched a decent website with most of their products searchable online.

http://www.harveynorman.co.nz/

GST increase - how will it affect mobile rates?

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 14:48:00 PST

Currently, Vodafone and Telecom charge 89c per minute on their prepay plans. Do you think they will either increase this to 91c per minute OR will they just absorb the increase in GST? Will they increase the price of TXTING from 20c to 21c? It just doesn't look as good does it.... I know when GST was introduced into Australia, their texting prices went from 20c to 22c as a result.

Will all their plan charges rise also? $29.95 sounds nice and pretty but $30,25 sounds just stupid!

I wonder how the Telcos and all other companies that use sexy marketing pricing will deal with the GST increase?

What's all this hoopla around Google Wave's instant chat feature?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 07:24:00 PST

Everyone seems to be amazed that Google’s new Wave service has made instant messaging even more instant with correspondent’s messages appearing on your screen character by character as they type, in real time.

I don’t see what all the hype is over though!

Back in 1996, ICQ was the chat software of the day and all the way back then, it had a chat feature that let users read each others messages as they were typing them as opposed to writing a message and sending it. I loved it and I always wondered why newer chat programs didn’t have the same feature!

Now 14 years later, Google has implanted this same feature and everyone thinks it’s an amazing new feature that the world has never seen before....

I don't get it!

Bring Back the McFlurry

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 08:30:00 PDT

This is something I feel very strongly about and I was prompted to voice my opinions after viewing an old picture taken with self and McFlurry back in 2002.

The McFlurry was more than just a desert, it was something a lot of people could relate to. I really think it would be beneficial for McDonalds to bring it back, the power they have in the brand is too good to pass up.

Here's the official word from McDonald's NZ

“Thank you for your interest in McDonald's New Zealand and particularly the McFlurry!

In answer to your question I can confirm that the McFlurry was taken off the New Zealand menu in 2003 due to a variety of reasons - the main reasons being low seasonal sales as well high operational demands. The McFlurry didn't sell well during winter, compared with our other desserts like Sundaes, and given the number of extra ingredients and the challenging operations involved it was taken off the menu.

We're excited about the level of passion regarding the McFlurry and bringing it back as a promotional product is on our radar. Our marketing plans work a year in advance so it won't be in the near future, but it is something we're considering.”

Do you want McDonalds to bring back the McFlurry?

Sella.co.nz, an alternative to TradeMe

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:24:00 PDT

The next time you want to buy something online, give www.sella.co.nz a try first! Sella is an APN website and has grown substantially over the past months.

All the products I have listed on Sella are at least $10 cheaper than the same products I have listed on TradeMe, this is because of Sellas “no fees’ policy which I pass all savings on to the customer. I’ve had good success with Sella, it’s been worth while listing products with them. They also tend to do a better job at indexing their listings in Google and getting relatively high positions.

TradeMe is a very powerful website, there’s no disputing that! But wouldn’t it be great to have two major players in the online auctions market? I don’t mind paying fees for selling a product and I don’t mind if Sella eventually do start charging fees but I do believe TradeMe’s fees are a bit too high.

There have always been smaller online auction sites around, such as Zillion.co.nz. The problem with these sites is that they have no selling point – why would someone spend $10 to active their account only to sell to an audience 50 x smaller than TradeMe?

At least with Sella, there is no risk involved – that’s the key difference between Zillion.co.nz and Sella.co.nz

Internet television has arrived with the launch of Ziln

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:54:00 PDT

Ziln launches on Tuesday September 1st at 6PM with a range of New Zealand Channels and International News and Business Channels streaming live

Watch Zilm TV on demend or stream it live. Also coming to and ipod near you.

I’m really excited about this; finally we are getting a real internet TV service!

Ziln will be backed by TelstraClear, so i'm assuming TelstraClear customers may get free bandwidth to Ziln content. I know they currently do this with their tv3 videos so here's hoping!

http://www.ziln.co.nz/

EDIT: It appears international content is already available.

Powershop: Will You Save Money by Switching?

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 15:28:00 PDT

Thinking about moving to Powershop but aren’t sure if you’re really going to save any of your hard earned cash?

For me, Powershop is cheaper, about $12 a month cheaper. There are no daily charges, all fees are included in the per unit price you pay.

EDIT: It has also come to my attention that as users consume for power, their unit price is redcued. For a more accurate way to see if you'll save money from switching to Powershop, please use their official savings calculator http://www.powershop.co.nz/pricing.html

Slingshot/Callplus Launch New Mobile Prices/Plans

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 12:36:00 PDT

There will be two plans to choose from.

Mobile 1:
Will have a contract length of six months and cost $10 a month
First minute will cost 50c, second minute will cost 40c and third minute and there after will cost 30c.

Mobile 2:
One-year contract at $20 a month
25c per minute to any mobile/landline in NZ

Text addons can be purchased at $6.95 for 600 anywhere texts or $9.95 for 2000 on net texts

Data is $20 for 200mb and $10 per 100mb after that.

Calling is charged by the second after the first minute.

If customers have their broadband and homeline and tolls with Slingshot, they will get an additional 2GB for every mobile registered to use on fixed line broadband.

No information if any additional addons such as BestMate or Family can be added to these plans.

Bain found NOT guilty - what news portals didn't crash?

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:54:00 PDT

David Bain was found not guilty at 4:45pm this afternoon.

As many of you may know, this case has been followed vigorously by the media and has had live streaming of the court room on many occasions along with constant updates on each publishers website throughout the trial.

The 4 main news portals noticed increases in traffic around important times in the Bain trial but as i have been wondering over the past few weeks, how will the big portals cope when the verdict is read and everyone flocks to their site? Here are the results:

3news.co.nz - slow video streaming, broken links
stuff.co.nz - no issues.
nzherald.co.nz - slower page loads when the verdict was issued.
tvnz.co.nz - site was overloaded and service was unavailable for 10 minutes after the verdict was read.

The question here is, is it acceptable for a news portals websites to crash when a major news event occurs? Or is it not worth investing in the bandwidth for events that seldom occur?

Google News Jumps from 4,500, to 25,000 News Sources

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 05:48:00 PDT

This week Google News claims to track over 25,000 news sources, up from 4,500 news sources it previously claimed to have tracked.

It used to state:

"Search and browse 4,500 news sources updated continuously."

Now it states:

"Search and browse 25,000 news sources updated continuously."

I guess that's quite a lot, however not all sources are real news are they? Geekzone blog posts are counted as "news" on the site so surely this must include many other blogging sites also. I guess it's all news though isn't it? Whether there's any merit behind the source it doesn't matter....

Vodafone groupCall

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 10:12:00 PDT

Did you know that Vodafone offer free group calling to all on account users? Only problem is, it�s not automatically available. All you have to do to enable it is call up the call center on 777 from your mobile and ask them to activate the groupCall service on your account. From then on, you�ll be able to make conference calls with up to 6 people at the same time. Of course you�ll have to pay for the airtime of each caller in the conference call, however your plans bundled minutes will be used up first. If you have an add-on such as BestMates or Family, these numbers won�t be charged which means you could call every member in your Family plus two BestMates, link them all up via groupCall and pay nothing.

NATIONAL - more roads, less clean alternatives

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 15:01:00 PDT

The National government has today announced they will be cutting planned expenditure on clean green methods of transport such as cycle lanes and walking paths in favor of more highways and roading projects.

Why are they doing this? Well their answer is because 87% of the country is getting around by truck, car or motorbike already so they need to expand our roads and highways to keep up.

If they stopped and used their heads for one minute, they would ask themselves the question “why do 87% of New Zealander’s get around by car, truck or motorbike?” The simple answer is because there hasn’t been enough invested in alternative transport, particularly in Auckland.

I just think their whole reasoning for building more roads and highways doesn’t make sense. This is history repeating itself.

Stem Cell Research

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:13:00 PDT

Isn’t it funny how the only people who seem to oppose stem cell research are people who don’t suffer from a condition its success could potentially cure and/or are extremely religious who are already brain washed.

Stem cells will be researched; those that oppose it can only delay its success, they can’t stop the inevitable.

Obama today reversed the embryonic stem cell research ban that Bush had in place during his time in power. This is a great day of hope for millions around the world who could one day benefit from the success of this research.

Don’t give me your moral stances either, an embryo isn’t a living human; it doesn’t think, it doesn’t feel, it’s simply the seed. Think about living humans who suffer tremendously on a daily basis that could benefit.

And that’s my opinion on the matter

Vodafone 720 - Review

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 09:26:00 PST

The Vodafone 720 is a Vodafone branded mobile phone sold for around NZ$199, if you shop around you can get it cheaper – I got it from Noel Leeming for $179 on sale.

In short, this is a great 3G phone for the price.

I’ve found it easy to use, though not quite as easy for texting as its predecessor the Motorola v3x.

The phone itself comes with stereo headset and USB cable which is very good for Vodafone to include. It’s very easy to connect the phone to your computer with the drivers required loaded into the phone memory. When you plug the phone into your computer, you have three options to pick from. You can either chose to read the memory card as a storage device, initiate the Vodafone PC Assistance software or use the phone as a 3G modem.

The Vodafone PC Assistant software allows you in export/import and edit your contact list and calendar information. It also downloads all your text messages. My favorite feature is that it allows you to send and receive text messages via your computer through your phone, just like an instant message conversation.

While the phone is plugged into your computer via the USB cable, it also recharges itself…. I’ve never had to actually use my standard charger.

Great phone for the money, recommended for all who have a small budget yet need a 3g device.

How To Download And Convert YouTube Videos

Wed, 02 May 2007 09:45:00 PDT

This is my easy guide on how to download an convert any YouTube video. This can be extremely useful if you want to store some great videos on you iPod or computer.

No software installation is required, this is the easiest and fastest way to get the job done and it’s extremely simple.

First of all, you need to visit this website:

http://www.downloadyoutubevideos.com/

On this site there is a box for entering in the YouTube web address of the video you want to download.

Enter the web address of the YouTube video in here.

Please note: You must enter the web address and not the embedded address of the video itself.

Click on “DOWNLOAD” and save to a folder on your computer.

Tip: I usually just save the file to my desktop for easy access, plus you can delete this file after we have finished.

The downloaded file will be in the .flv format, you may have a flash video player installed on your PC, in which case your done. If you don’t have a flash player installed on your PC or if you intend to put this video onto your iPod, you’ll need to convert the video in a different format.

To change the video to a different format, such as .avi or .wmv or any other format, visit this website:

http://media-convert.com/

This is an awesome website. All you have to do is select the file you downloaded from step two above, make sure the “file” box is checked.

In the “Input Format” box, select “Flash Video (.flv)”

Scroll down the page until you reach the “Output Format” box.

Select “WINDOWS”, or if you’re running a different operating system, select that option instead.

Now select the video format you want the file to be converted to. Ipod requires the MPG4 file format, so if you intend to view the file on your iPod, change the file format to MPG4. Other good formats include .avi and .wmv for storage on your PC.

Accept the terms and conditions and hit “convert”

Wait for the website to do it’s thing, this may take a few minutes.

Once the file has been uploaded and converted, you will be provided with a download link.

Download and file and you’re away laughing, no software downloads!!!

Good luck J

Sky Mobile TV

Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:35:00 PST

Sky Mobile TV is available now only on Vodafone. For $2.50 per week, you can enjoy unlimited viewing of the 8 mobile TV channels on your Vodafone 3G handset. At $2.50, the offer seems to be reasonably priced with no additional hidden charges. That’s unlimited viewing people, as much as you want, all you can eat!

The channels currently offered are Sky News, Sky Sports News, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network, E! Channel, CNN and Sky Movie Trailers. CNN is the only live broadcast; all other channels only provide trailers/highlights and are looped.

We have tested Sky Mobile TV on several handsets in several regions around Auckland. The service runs surprisingly well, providing you’re in 3G coverage. Viewing Mobile TV channels while in a stationary position provided an excellent stable connection, we were impressed so we decided to see how well the service would run driving out to a few different suburbs on the North Shore.

We put the phone onto CNN and left Hillcrest. We drove all the way to Milford, back through Glenfield and then home to Hillcrest. We experienced no cut outs or buffering, service on the run was a 5/5.

We then tested the service running from the North Shore into Auckland CBD. We left from Hillcrest and jumped on the motorway, service was running nice and smoothly. Just before we hit the harbor bridge, we lost service and the content stopped streaming. This occurred in several other tests conducted on different days. It was quite surprising that there was full service driving around suburbs, yet driving along a 4 lane motorway, the service continuously cuts out. Once we reached the harbor bridge, service was restored and remained connected through Auckland CBD as expected.

Battery consumption is obviously a cause for concern with this service as the power consumption is huge and drains battery power much quicker than normal use.

SUMMARY:

• Excellent coverage providing you’re in 3g coverage.
• Content is no more than average, could do with more true live streams.
• Power consumption is an issue if no charger is available.
• Very reasonably priced with no hidden charges and unlimted viewing.