TTR Ep 2510: Telstra and NBN Co do a deal, Twitter's fail whale has busiest month in two years, Facebook issues detailed response to privacy concerns,, and we take a look at online banking - who's good and who's not so good.

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DATE : Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:08:38 +1000
Entered in Database : 2010-06-21 13:08:38
length : 50000000
Link to the Show / Show Notes

How often are consumers being treated with contempt by many of the major tech goods manufacturers? Have you ever noticed that the price of a particular piece of gear seems relatively and reasonably priced, then after you part with your hard earned cash, you find yourself the victim of an extortion racket when it comes to buying accessories for your new gadget? If you’ve bought a mobile phone in recent times, you would certainly have come across after market accessories such as car kits and blue tooth headsets. These are traditionally copies of original or authentic accessories, sometimes of a better quality, at half the price.



Last week the 4th generation iPhone was launched by Apple to less than a euphoric welcome, probably because apple had lost a few prototypes and we’d all seen it before, but on reading the fine print, Apple have chosen to use a micro sim which is not compatible with its recently released iPad.

According to Nick Wilkins, press relations manager at O2, a UK based carrier, an iPhone 4 micro-SIM inserted into an iPad will detect that it is not in a smartphone and will not work. He said "The micro-SIMs for the iPhone are set up to allow voice calls, SMS messages and data functionality, whereas the iPad micro-SIM is provisioned to allow pay-as-you-go data transfer only"

The decision will prevent Apple users from carrying over a data allowance from their iPhone to the iPad.
O2 said that it will in time make available a SIM which can be converted back and forth between the micro and regular sizes, but what about Australian carriers?

Another downside is that it will slow down the end users ability to swap sims out and change carriers based on their location or poor service unless they have a collection of micro sims. But not allowing the iPad and iPhone to swap sims looks only to be a sweetener for the Telcos that support the devices, ensuring Apple devotees have to buy two services. It also means, those with an older iPhone and a 4G iPhone, can’t swap between the two devices with the same number.

So before you all race of to the local apple store, just remember you’ll need a new micro sim from the carrier of your choice before you start making calls on your new toy.

This week on TTR
Twitter's fail whale has busiest month in two years,
Telstra launches T-box, and fixed line phone pricing to remain unchanged,
Facebook issues detailed response to privacy concerns,
Apple delivers a MobileMe update,
We put Orb to the test and
we take a look at online banking -  who’s good and who’s not so good.

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