2degrees and my iPad...

I was contacted by 2degrees after my recent posts.

They now have a page on setting up ipads. I'm not sure if it was there when I was trying to do so. I certainly couldn't find it. Anyway... here it is.

http://www.2degreesmobile.co.nz/microsim

They describe the process as a bit fiddly. It certainly is.

For me, I will convert my Vodafone SIM to a micro-SIM and use an adaptor ($7 on Trademe) to run it normally in my iPhone. If I need 3G in my iPad (like a Xmas when we go to the inlaws) I will swap it into the iPad.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

More 2degrees progress

I think I have finally had success with getting 2degrees working on my iPad. I had to put the micro-SIM in my iPhone and add some credit and purchase the data pack. I got a confirmation txt.

I also rang up and got a web password txt to my iPhone.

I then returned the SIM to my iPad.

In short you absolutely NEED an iPhone to set up an iPad with 2degrees systems. This is pretty poor and they need to sort this out.

My experience with 2degrees continues to be poor. The promised $10 credit hasn't been applied. When I got the web password I asked to talk to a supervisor. But they could not speak to me then and were to ring back later. Someone rang back later. Unfortunately I can not understand their ascent so i don't know their name and they didn't leave a phone number.

The 2degrees web site is not very good. It does not show transactions immediately. I still need to confirm that I have bought a data pack.

So.... I continue to recommend avoiding 2degrees until they mature their systems. I've also had recent problems with XT as well. While technically both 2degrees and XT are more suited to Apple products, Vodafone seems to provide a better implementation.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Getting an iPad going on 2degrees

I have previously posted on getting an iPad going on the 2degrees network. Essentially I said it was easy.

I have now found that it is not.

It is easy to get going on a casual rate but that costs a fortune. It has proved to be almost impossible to get a iPad going on one of their well priced data plans.

The process seems to rely on you owning an iPhone 4.

The problem is the txt messaging SIM application that is required to buy the data pack. It has no way of receiving a txt. This means you don't get a txt confirming you have bought the pack. It also means you don't receive the txt saying the purchase of the pack failed because the moment you connected the SIM it chews 1cent of the credit meaning you don't have enough credit to buy the pack.

To check that the purchase of the pack is successful, you need to go on their website. However, you can not get a password to the website because the password gets txt to your iPad (and remember it can't receive txt)!!!

You can't get a password through their call centre either.

Basically you are stuffed. You have to buy the card AND more credit.

That doesn't seem such a big deal... If you know about it in advance. You can buy credit via their phone system.

That's if your name isn't Sym... In which case your credit card number is rejected by their system!

My only option is to buy vouchers from a service station... Which is pretty third world. Frankly I'm not sure it is worth the effort.

My current recommendation is to avoid 2degrees for ipads because they don't have their processes sorted.

I also wonder about their customer service. When, after 2 weeks, we finally got to the reason why I couldn't connect (despite regularly chasing them) and established that really their processes were stuffed for iPads, they gave me a $10 credit. This of course prompted me to try to add credit and then expose other faults in their system. A better customer service approach would have been to get me (customer) to the point I was trying to get to. That would have been a good customer experience... Not a poor one like I have had.

I won't be moving my iPhone from Vodafone anytime soon. Vodafone have looked after me well over the years.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Getting 2 degrees going on an iPad 3G

There is a lot of mis-information around about how to get an iPad 3G going on the 2 degrees network. My iPad is working beautifully on the 2 degrees network so I thought I would write down how to do this.

1. Buy a 2 degrees micro-SIM. These come with $20 credit on and cost $20.
2. Put it in your iPad.
3. Go to Settings/Cellular Data/SIM Applications/Send a txt and use your $20 credit to buy a data pack. You do this by txting 'buy 512mb' to 233.

That's it. Simple.

if you ring 2 degrees they will tell you that you need to activate the micro-SIM in an iPhone 4. Its rubbish.

If you talk to DSE, they will tell you there are micro-SIMs for iPhones which are different than the ones for iPads (and they don't have any iPad one left). Its rubbish.

It just works. And at least in Wellington the coverage seems good and strong.

The only criticism is the txt interface is awful. I mean truly utterly awful. But if that is the only issue, then its pretty good.

Whale Oil

So the latest news is that the Whale Oil blogger has put the name of a Nelson person who is on sex charges kind of on his site. Kind of because it is there in binary. Well kind of because actually the binary turns up a hexi-decimal string that then needs to be converted to ASCII.

The Whale Oil site is currently being attacked. So it is off line. It would be interesting to know who is doing the attacking. HOWEVER... good old google caches so much stuff that it is available through google cache. Bad luck the idiots trying to block the site through the DoS attack.

Anyway... it will be interesting to see if the Whale Oil guy gets charged with this one. Because he hasn't put the name on his site. He hasn't even put the binary conversion of the name.

Yet More Dropbox...

I played last night with the share file option. Very cool.

It basically means you can have a shared network directory with anyone you like, anywhere you like.

This would be great for groups working on documents or small/volunteer organisations where committee members could have the same files available.

More Dropbox

I have been doing some looking around at other options to DropBox.

There are no free ones.

Allmydata and LiveDrive are similar services that offer unlimited storage BUT you pay. Both offer iPhone connection like Dropbox.

So for the home user, Dropbox is the one.

DropBox Review

Ok. So I have been playing around with a new free program/service called DropBox.

Basically you can install it on PCs, Macs and iPhones. Whatever gets put in a folder on any device gets synced to all of your devices and gets saved in a secure online storage place.

This is very cool.

You get 2Gb of space free. This is more than enough for important documents like wills, accounts, CVs, scans of various certificates etc.

The really cool thing is that these documents are then available on any machine you have this service running on. If you change the document on one machine, it is updated on all machines!

This is great for collaborative working.

If you are not backing up your documents, now you can for free. It is easy and it is at a level that is better than most businesses have.

Oh... and if you ask me for an invite, you and I get an extra 250Mb space each!!!

Dropbox

I am playing with Dropbox.

Basically you get 2Gb of free space on the web that automatically syncs. You can sync it to multiple computers (and iPhones).

Pretty cool for backing up files (it means you get an offsite backup) and for moving data between computers.

AND IT IS FREE!!!

Internet

I am currently looking at moving from our Telstra cable connection. We have been with Telstra for over 10 years (originally Saturn). However they have not reduced their price or increased their service for many years now. Other providers with their ADSL2 offerings are now substantially cheaper and if we get a good connection, potentially much faster.

Currently I am looking at (in order of likelihood):

Vodafone

Slingshot

WorldxChange

AppleCare

If you want to know how much warrantee you have left on your Apple product... go here

https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

9999

Hit the 9999th visitor!

Problems with my blog

I seem to be having some issues with my home page showing. Hopefully I can fix this soon.

I did my last post with Safari v4 beta. Hopefully it did not kill it.

New course at our church

These are three posters I whipped up with Pages in iWORKS for a marriage and relationships course we are running at church. It took me about 30min with Pages which is so easy and has such cool templates.

Interview with Driscoll...

Wellington's New Winter Look

Despite it being summer, today Wellington got hit my a big storm which made it look more like Irkutsk in the winter

Kidzui

If you have kids you must check this out. It is free and it is brilliantly done.



www.kidzui.com

Someone has gone to town on the integration of a whitezone firewall and a ultra graphical browser. The implementation is just fantastic.

This is a way of ensuring what your kids view via the internet is safe. Full stop. End of story.

And it is pretty cool in the way it works.

MacBook review after 6 months

So I got my 13inch MacBook 6 months ago. So I thought it was time for a real life review.

In summary: DO NOT BUY ONE. I am a full on Mac fan but my "expert" opinion is stay away.

I will tell you the good points. Then the issues. Then tell you why not to buy one and what you should do instead.

The Good Points
The screen is very nice
The keyboard is excellent
The mag plug is a fantastic idea. SO good when you have an infant
The built in camera is very good as is the microphone positioning (no echo)
Speed is good
The wireless is very strong with being N compatible
The battery life is very good.
The magnetic latch works very well
The RAM access for upgrades is easy
The software, particularly the OSX is just the best.

The Bad Points
The case has sharp edges (called suicide wrists). I sanded mine off.
The plastic internal surfaces are weak and break with normal use.
The bumpers for the lid act as knives cutting into the opposing casing (obviously a lack of design understanding and testing)
The internal frame is weak. It bends causing the DVD not to eject. An Apple technician had the nerve to tell me not to pick the laptop up with one hand. IT'S A LAPTOP DUDE!
The fan is noisy
The case itself flexes and seems to be poorly constructed and designed
The white surfaces show dirt


In short, stay away from an MacBook. They just are not well build. Instead... spend the extra and get either a MacBook Pro or Air. The metal case is fully worth it.

Many of us really wanted a small 12inch MacBook and held out as long as we could. In hindsight I should have just gone to the 15inch MacBook Pro and accepted I was not going to have a small laptop. As it is the MacBook is as wide as a Pro so I would not have lost much more.

Apple has missed on the netbook (ultra small laptop) instead pumping the iPhone and iPOD touch. They might be right but I don't think so. One can but hope that rumours of a 10inch tablet are true.

Livestation

I have been trialing a new program/service called Livestation. It is a free download (MAC and Windows) that gives you live TV. The channels are awesome... BBC, DW-TV, Euro News, RT, Al Jazeera, France 24. And they seem to be adding more.

It really chugs through the data cap but it is pretty stable.

http://www.livestation.com/

What impresses me is the quality of channels.

The Vodafone iPhone stupidity continues

This cartoon hit the nail on the head. I am sure a few people will be stupid like Adam and Eve but the rest of us will wait until Vodafone folds like Rogers of Canada has just done. They have just announced a 6Gb (YES 6Gb) data plan for $30 Canadian dollars. That's NZ$40 per month for more data than I can download on my MacBook in a month... and I am a heavy user. Apparently Apple gave their executives a bashing and said sort out your offering or you will get next to no iPhones.
Vodafone NZ is too small to come onto the radar so consumers will need to smack Vodafone by either buying overseas or waiting until Telecom has a 3G network (very soon).