The main “gotcha” is that even if you pay for data, you might not be able to use it. If you “buy” 512MB from Vodafone or 2Degrees, for example, and don’t use it all within 30 days, you effectively lose the remainder. Telecom does a little better with their optional capped data plans, but you have to know about these to use them, and your prepaid credit still expires after six months. The overall effect is that I can’t be sure that my device will work when I want to use it.

Secondly, if I have multiple devices that use data (a smartphone, a data stick, and an iPad), there’s no way to share the data allowance between these devices. I either need three sim cards, or I have to swap sims between the devices before I use them.

Gripes aside, what can you get from each of the main mobile networks?

General Gotchas and Questions to Ask

There’s really no way to say which network is “best” for your data device, but there are some questions you should ask before choosing a network.

• Make sure you ask if your device can use 3G data over the entire network. The Apple iPad, for example, doesn’t get great 3G coverage on Vodafone’s network outside of main centres. It still works, but at a snail’s pace.
• Can you top-up your data from the device if you’ve run out? Devices like the iPad can’t send SMS messages, but 2Degrees have a nifty method for doing this. Otherwise can you call an 0800 number or similar to top-up?
• If you also want to use the device for calls and text messaging, you’ll need to look into add-ons and allowances for these, and check if your friends are on the same network to get cheaper txt packs.

In Closing

Look, I could go on for days about the shortcomings of individual networks, plans and protocols, but truthfully it’s fantastic that we can turn on a device pretty much anywhere in New Zealand and connect to the internet. You can check-in to your MyFace and twatterbleep from just about anywhere. We’ve come a long way baby.

I want to love Android, but it really is the Linux of smartphones. Technically great, but oh so broken for regular users. (via Twitter)

Took me a while to climb out from beneath the pile of horrified corrections and accusations from many angles, not least El Presidente of the New Zealand Open Source Society.

Look, here’s my point: Android, as Google designed it, makes some assumptions about the way the OS behaves. But because the OS is so open, manufacturers (aka OEMs), are free to run roughshod over those assumptions. I suspect this is a large part of the reason why Google developed the “gold standard” Nexus One – as a way to demonstrate how Android should be implemented. NB: I’m yet to have a hands-on with a Nexus One, so you could say my experience of Android is about on-par with most “regular” users.

So instead, you have a phone like the Samsung Galaxy S, which takes the normal Android assumption of a central homescreen (out of a possible seven), and instead decides to use the left-most homescreen as the default.

I have to ignore my own personal experience on this phone, because it’s an un-reviewable “pre-production” model (despite being out in other markets for a couple of months – as is the usual crap we deal with in New Zealand), and show you some other reviews:

Exhibit A:

“The main homescreen is split into 7 pages but the main difference with the Galaxy S is that the main page is page one right on the left hand side where as on other devices the middle page is the main one and you can swipe left or right to get too the extra pages.  Nothing major but something to get used too if you are already used to Android.”

Exhibit B:

The Galaxy S has seven homescreen panes with the default “home” pane on the far left; the Android OS is more used to the “home” pane being central, and so if you choose Google Maps as your Live Wallpaper – which normally uses GPS to center the map on your current location – the maps are offset since the center point is on homescreen four. Nit-picking, yes, but it’s the sort of poor polish that undermine a successful UI.

Exhibit C:

The HTC Desire’s main Homescreen starts from the middle with 3 more Homescreens on the left and on the righ. The main Homescreens for Samsung Galaxy S starts from the far left with subsequent Homescreens scrolling in from the right.

Exhibit D:

The phone’s software can support up to seven homescreens, and there is a reminder at the top of every homescreen showing which one you are on. Selecting a specific homescreen directs you to it. Unfortunately, the main homescreen is always the left-most screen, even if you try to add screens to the left. I would prefer if the main homescreen was always in the middle.

I’m not going to say much more here. It’s my opinion that the way Android allows different OEMs to fuck around with the core experience of the phone is detrimental to the platform as whole, and users in general.

Is it the case that deaf people in New Zealand have little or no access to modern technology to help them out? Or is it more the case that “standard” technology like iPads and Android devices simply aren’t usable by the people that would need to use them? What are accessibility standards like on these devices, from a real user point of view – not just someone like me who might just play with the “high-contrast” option to see what it looks like?

Is someone already doing this somewhere? I’m more than happy to help this happen from scratch, but are we wasting effort if we could be helping out an existing organisation doing similar work? Or are existing organisations not doing it “right”?

Nic Steenhout pointed out in a comment that ACC only covers adaptive technology for disabilities that come from injury. Even in this case, do they cover the choice of the user, or provide some standard technology from a catalogue, a-la Pharmac?

So many questions, and this is just scraping the surface.

Basically I’d love to know: would a fund to provide new, touchscreen and/or tablet-style devices to New Zealanders with disabilities be a useful thing?

Consider this a clearinghouse – lets just braindump all ideas, issues, and questions here and then work out the next step in a few days.

Here’s what we should do:

• Revitalise the inner city. Close Queen Street to vehicles from Victoria St to the waterfront. Resurrect the Waihorotiu stream as a grassy-banked stream. Like in Aspen, but bigger.
  Cruise ship tourists can drop off their shoes at the shoe-minder in the Ferry Building, and walk barefoot on the grass up Queen Street.
• Harmonise the cost of driving with public transport. Primarily through a toll for single-occupant cars using motorways at rush hour. Electronically implemented so that couriers, wheelchair users, and others can be exempt.
  Use this income to reduce the cost of public transport, improve cycle lanes, and implement light rail (to airport, and the shore).
• Invite international architects to pitch for a new harbour crossing and (if we need it) a waterfront theatre. Both can be public/private and funded with tolls and ticket sales. Perhaps a waterfront stadium to host a second team in the Aussie football league?
• Aggressively pursue mid-scale international events for the city. Not the Olympics! Ironman, V8 Supercars, golf, an international-scale cycling criterium?

Expensive? Yes. Doable? Probably. Would you rather live in a city that has a crack at doing some truly interesting things, or one that seeks to chug along unchanged? Mustn’t grumble right?

Download (not a trojan, I promise).

But anyway, I lay awake at night thinking about you. “Am I pissing off my readers”, I thought, “with all this mumbo-jumbo about isolated storage and byte arrays?” And so a plan was hatched: Ben.geek.nz needs to channel Journey.

So as of today, the main landing page and the standard RSS feed are development-free. You won’t see any posts like the last couple unless you really want them. So, how do you get them? Let me count the ways:

• Here’s an RSS feed, and an email subscription of everything I post.
• Here’s an RSS feed, and an email subscription of just development subjects, and a landing page of the same.
• And here’s the RSS feed and email subscription without development subjects, which is what you’ll see on the home page.

Any way you want it
That’s the way you need it
Any way you want it

You all know I don’t say something like that lightly.

I’ve been using an iPhone for the last couple of years, because nothing else has come close to the usability and consistency of that device. Yes, I’ve played with a Nexus One, which was incredibly fast. Yes, the Android platform is noble by its very nature, but I don’t need a granola bar or some home-crocheted organic yogurt. I want something gorgeous and easy to use.

Don’t call me a fanboy. You don’t know the depths of near-autistic agony I go through when touching these devices. A font out of place, or a single glitch in a scroll is enough that I have to restrain myself from crushing it with my bare hands. Yes, I did see a couple of very minor glitches in these prototype devices, but the improvement since the early videos is stunning. The important stuff like touch responsiveness and scroll speed is bang-on.

So what else did I see in these devices that makes me so confident in Windows Phone’s impending superiority?

Convergence

Windows Phone nails convergence. Facebook, Twitter, Windows Live, Gmail, Outlook. Just bung your account details into the device, and watch in awe as everything is conglobulated into a seamless experience.

Design

There’s one line from the Metro design language presentation that really stuck with me: “Fierce Reduction of Unnecessary Elements“. And they don’t just pay lip services to this: if you wait for a few moments, the Windows Phone user interface does away with the battery and signal strength icons.

Themes – those warty appendages that are to blame for atrocities like Android phones running woefully out of date OS versions – are done away with. Want to customise your Windows Phone? Sure, you can select from a number of different highlight colours:

I kid (a bit). You can also completely customise the layout of the home screen, and you can choose a white-on-black design.

I’m not a complete font-nerd, but I do know what I like. The clarity and consistency of the WP7 design is just hands-down gorgeous. Did you ever think you’d see an article referencing Adrian Frutiger and a Microsoft user interface in the same context? Cats and dogs.

Flash

No, not Adobe Flash, I mean glitz, or what the kids call bling. Even with iOS4, the iPhone OS is starting to look a little dated. Put a brand new WP7 phone beside an iPhone (and yes, the 480×800 screen will just hold its own against the mad-dense iPhone 4G screen), and I can guarantee you’ll get more “oohs” and “aahs” over the new Windows Phone UI.

Dev

OK so this is one aspect I am utterly biased on. Learning to code for iPhone, while ultimately satisfying, was not a pleasurable experience. On the other hand, with the way we developers seek purity of purpose and clarity of code, the pure joy that is XAML and MVVM can be likened to a digital colonic. Or maybe that’s just the sad way I think when I can use 15 years of coding experience on a beautiful device.

There is an inherent risk here: the sheer number of semi-capable .NET developers that now have access to code for this device. If you though fart apps on the iPhone were bad, you can understand why Microsoft limits developers to only five free free (yes, free free) applications in the marketplace.

Apps

The App marketplace is another shining example of the improvement in this platform:

• Full try/buy integration in the marketplace. None of this stupid “Lite Version” crap that goes on in the iTunes App Store. Developers have access to an “isTrial()” API, which can be time limited, and is checked against the marketplace when online and when syncing.
• Beta distribution through the marketplace. Again, no need to go and ask your testers for their device IDs. Just get their Live email address and send them a link.
• And the marketplace app itself is as gorgeous as the rest of the UI.

So?

The only unknown is hardware. Microsoft have laid down some stringent rules, but we haven’t seen any physical manifestations. I’m hoping we’ll see some slick designs, along the lines of the HTC HD2 or other super-slim devices.

I want one. Do you?

Am I correct in stating that this the first official, carrier supported Android device running 2.1?

It’s great to see more Android phones hitting the market. Let’s hope this phone is better than the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.

Full press release follows:

MEDIA RELEASE
16 June 2010

A Milestone for New Zealand mobile users

Telecom is set to deliver a Milestone to New Zealanders, with the launch of its latest Android phone on 1 July.

The Motorola Milestone™ is the first smartphone to be powered by the Android™ 2.1 operating system available in New Zealand and is exclusive to Telecom XT customers.

Android is the fastest growing mobile operating system in the US market* and gives users a mobile internet experience about as close to a computer as they can get.
Telecom Retail CEO Alan Gourdie says, “Since its inception, the Android platform has shaken up the mobile world, and we have been watching it closely, looking for a device that makes these features come to life for our customers – we believe the Milestone is it.”
The Milestone allows users to surf the web on a high-resolution screen and look up favourite sites, videos and music quickly with the high-speed processor and the fast XT network connection.

But search capabilities on the Milestone go beyond the web. Users can find their way around town with MOTONAV turn-by-turn navigation and Google Maps™ with Latitude™.
The Milestone benefits from closely integrated Google™ apps. Google services such as Google Search™ and Gmail™ are tightly integrated with the platform.
And there are endless personalisation capabilities, allowing users to configure their mobile to look and behave exactly how they want. They can customise their homescreen with Facebook™ or download applications for music, sports, news, games and business.

“With internet search and personalisation features similar to what you’d get on a desktop, plus the ability to toggle back and forth between applications, it’s a very slick experience,” says Mr Gourdie.

Being open source, Android gives developers access to powerful and flexible platforms that will encourage increased innovation and competition in the mobile applications space.
Managing Director, ANZPI, Motorola Mobile Devices, Timo Brouwer says, “We are delighted to be working with Telecom to bring an easy and fun mobile internet experience to their XT customers.”

The Milestone is a thin, touch screen phone with a QWERTY keypad and slider design.

It features a DVD quality video recorder, a 5 megapixel camera and 8 gigabytes (GB) of storage – with the option to upgrade to 32GB.

Its introduction marks the re-launch of Motorola into New Zealand – a mobile manufacturer who has been lauded in overseas markets as a leading innovator in Android.

The Milestone will be available exclusively to Telecom XT customers for RRP $999 from 1 July.

Telecom is currently offering a Risk Free Trial when signing up to the Telecom XT Mobile Network. Find more information on this here.

*According to market tracker, NPD Group.

It’s a bit strange though: TomTom seem happy to offer free map  updates for the iPhone app, while cutomers with TomTom hardware have to pay for updates.

Anyway, here’s the riveting press release in all its glory:

Auckland – 10 June, 2010 – TomTom announced today that it will introduce multitasking to the latest version of the TomTom app for iPhone.

The next version of the app, which will be compatible with iOS 4, will be submitted to Apple for review after the 21 June release of iOS 4.

Among the new features on the latest TomTom app for iPhone will be support for multitasking functionality*, allowing users to get turn-by-turn guidance at the same time as operating other applications. Moreover, the new TomTom app version will also include the latest available GeoSmart® map of New Zealand.
The current version of the TomTom app for iPhone (version 1.3) is available for purchase via the App Store, and both current and new owners of the app will be able to update to the new version for no additional charge upon its immediate availability.

As an additional incentive to new potential users of the TomTom app, TomTom is currently offering the New Zealand app at a discounted price of NZD $94.99.

“As TomTom continues to innovate and to take advantage of new capabilities of the iOS 4, users of the TomTom app will benefit from the combination of TomTom’s most advanced and acclaimed features and the iPhone’s unique functionality,” said Chris Kearney, Marketing Manager, TomTom Australia & New Zealand.

“We are pleased to integrate multitasking capabilities to the newest version of our TomTom app, and to be able to ensure that users can now enjoy other iPhone features while continuing to receive the best routing directions from their TomTom application.”

*Available on iPhone 3GS and iPod Touch 3rd Generation devices, running iOS 4.

The image on the left is a custom designed website built by my friends at Cactuslab. The image on the right is another website being palmed off as a custom design by some douchebag.

I’m not positive that this isn’t a well-executed troll, given the obvious other ripoffs on http://www.mcgarritydesign.com/, and the way @stunnix lives in Title Case. Either way, what the hell?