MacCraic

Hello MacCraicers , know these posts have been thin on the ground but just want to point out the odd price (possible saving) situation that is occurring re mobile connectivity that you might choose for the iPad you may have bought in Ireland on launch.

At the moment and I’m taking the base model iPad for the simplest comparison, the 16GB model with just wi-fi retails for €499 while you will pay an extra €100 premium for the 3G model (this pricing differential is the same for the different models in the line).

If you choose to get the Vodafone Micro-SIM ( assuming of course you’ve paid the €100 premium for the pleasure of the 3G model) you have option of paying:

1 day iPad Plan

€3.99 per day

5GB data allowance

30 day iPad plan

€20 per month

500mb data allowance

Remember, like AT&T there are no termination fees for ending the contract after 30 days or a day depending on which plan you choose above.

Now here’s where this gets strange, at the moment Vodafone Ireland are pushing on their site the Vodafone mobile broadband hotspot (Mi-Fi anyone)

for the following tariffs:

Vodafone mobile broadband

€19.90 per month

10GB data allowance

Vodafone mobile broadband unlimited

You can purchase the hardware on Vodafone Ireland’s online store for €39 with the above plan of choice.

So let’s think about this for a second, you can pick up a 16GB wifi iPad €499 + VF mobile broadband hotspot €39 = €538 and for sake of comparison you choose the VF Mobile Broadband package-10GB monthly allowance (€19.90 per mth X 12mths) €238.80 gives a figure €776.80 for total cost of ownership initially.

However, if you decide to pay the premium & plump for a wi-fi+3G model and VF data plan then it works out as follows – 16gb wi-fi+3G €599 + again for comparison take the 30 day iPad plan-5GB allowance (€20 per mth X 12 mths) €240 which gives a figure of €839 for initial total cost of ownership

This means that you can save €62.20 by plumping for the first option of buying the base wi-fi model with Mi-Fi initially and enjoy double the monthly data allowance (10Gb vs 5GB). In 2nd & subsequent years you save only €1.20 per year but still get double the data allowance.

Know which iPad & plan you would choose ?  :-)

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Just after reading a good article over at Appleinsider about reveal that new & improved Zune HD2 will effectively be MS answer to the iPod Touch ( Haven’t we been here before ? ) as per following section:

“At this week’s Game Developers Conference, Microsoft unveiled its new XNA Game Studio 4.0, which allows developers to create games that can run on a variety of devices, including Windows desktops, the Xbox 360 and future phones running Windows Phone 7 Series. In addition, ZDNet’s Mary-Jo Foley said Microsoft is working on a “Zune HD2″ that will be similar to the iPod touch, in that it will have no phone functionality.”

And what about the current ZuneHD owners ( How many are there ?), will they get to share in this new version of the dev kit ? Unfortunately not as the new dev kit is only compatible with Windows Phone 7 & the new Zune HD2.

Would you seriously consider this lot again considering that 1G iPod Touch (2007) still runs apps from App Store just fine. Have’nt seen Apple break support yet.

Think Different before you buy into the next MS device (they’re throwing enough money at it as usual).

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Well the event finished last Wed & I’ve had a few days to digest the whole “latest creation” factoids & now have a question or two about this device.

OS Software Update (similar to OSX or via iTunes only) ?: I was under belief that this device if it’s a replacement for a Netbook would operate on some basis kind of like a cross between OSX & iPhone with certain elements being closed off so that this device can be sold to people who don’t need or wish to fiddle with such items as Finder windows etc. Have realised now based on conversation on “Chit-chat across the Pond” over on the latest Nosillacast that this iPad seems to be more like an iPhone/iPod Touch in that unless we find out otherwise to update the OS it could be necessary to attach the iPad to iTunes & update the software in that manner. That would be unlike updating OSX via a SW update or updating on a Netbook, that would therefore preclude selling this device to those who don’t have a computer available but who are interested in the iPad. Now I know people out there will have relatives who could sync & update on iTunes on their own computer for them, but that would not meet any claim that this device is a Netbook replacement. I would be kinda worried about this if Apple are intimating that this device could have the option to be used on its own, but no such evidence exists on the iPad specs page on Apple.com.

File sharing between apps, will it be allowed ? : Obviously, on a netbook (apart from multi-tasking (background apps running)) it is possible to create a document in one app (e.g Word) and use it in another (Email client). How will this be possible on the iPad if for simplicity reasons, no Finder app is available to navigate to the word-processing document in order to bring it into the Mail app. According to this excellent Roughly Drafted Magazine article the documents created by an app are stored within the installation directory of that app (if you delete the app-the docs related to it are removed also), will the documents be locked into the apps they are created in only ?

Update: Looks like the file sharing question has been answered by macrumors.com here (with thanks to Infinite Loop)

Two questions I wouldn’t mind getting an answer to, but guess will have to wait less than 60 days to find out.

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Was just surfing the net, checking my RSS feeds out when I came across this nifty little OSX program  on Macupdate. The software is called Movement 1.3 (not related in any way to MacCraic EP48 – no epsom salts required here, thank you) and it’s purpose is to allow you to organise the apps on your iPhone/iPod Touch. The developer of this app is Jeff Stieler (not sure if there is a pun intended there-LOL) but the problem is that this can only organise the apps on a jailbroken device (boo-hoo!). Here’s hoping our fave fruit company can come up with a similar feature at the Music event on Wednesday in ‘Frisco (after all they’ve already “adopted” some of TextExpander’s elements in SnoLo). See pic of the app below..

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Have just finished reading a Gizmodo article here that reports that Windows 7 will come in 6 different packages, however two of which Home Starter & Basic will only be sold to developing markets.

No matter how good a response people have had to the beta release which judging by it’s feature set is on a par with the Home Premium SKU, this smells of Vista with varying SKU’s being sold that will confuse potential customers.

As a result however, this could be a great opportunity for Apple to gain some more converts from PC land with it’s mid-year introduction OSX Snow Leopard which will not be feature crippled like the clowns up in Redmond are preparing to do. It should retail in one version (not 6) for $/€129.

As a futher note Gizmodo state that most people will end up choosing either the Home Premium or Professional version, but why should home consumers not get file-encryption, location-aware printing & advanced backup out of the box ? Should’nt a home consumer be able to secure their data like a professional on a Win7 installed machine.

Considering that these features are offered out of the box in Leopard currently for $/€ 129 can’t wait for the next wave of switchers to come over.

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