SG's Musings

Yes, I love toys. A little time left on my 24 month mobile phone contract with 3 but patience is not a virtue of mine - didn’t want to wait till that was up. Really wanting some free (as in uncensored) internet access during the day as from work am unable to see my yahoo mail, the Josh Hillis Coaching site and a couple of other sites I like to use. When I finally got an ipod (only last year believe it or not, because the disks weren’t big enough for me until the 160GB came out) it proved to be the best purchase ever. Absolutely in love with it. And have been admiring work colleagues’ iphones for quite some time now.

I visited the glass Apple store in the city on Saturday and played with the iphones there. Being a foodie, what sold it to me there and then - the All Recipes DinnerSpinner App (App = application, in iphone speak)

It is so cool. Select type of dish you are making, the main ingredient and time available, and voila a selection of recipes offered up. I tried “Main Dish”, “Chicken”, “Slow Cooker” and got 21 recipes back, including one which I’m going to try this week - a baked whole chicken very simple, with paprika, salt and pepper. And it is free. (Most apps cost a few dollars)

Big decision which network provider to go with. Choice of Telstra, Vodafone and Optus (3 don’t have iphone available). From all accounts Telstra’s network the best and Optus the worst (haha). But we had to weigh that up against cost. After spending a couple hours trying to put my own together, I found a link to this, very useful spreadsheet on the Whirlpool site. Also a lot of useful discussions about iphones and telco plans. General aside, it’s a great site to visit for information about broadband internet if you’re in Australia.

Conclusion - Optus and their $49 cap won out despite apparent network quality. And I ended up signing myself up for 24 months as figured with the amount of calls I make and internet data I’d use would have to pay $40-50 a month anyhow so might as well get the phone subsidised instead of forking out $900 or so. Telstra would have been nice but I also could very well be getting monthly phone bills of $150-200.

2 days later - it is a wonderful thing. I’m in love with it too. Wifi internet works great both at home and at Optus Wifi hotspots - found one in North Sydney by accident yesterday. Sitting at bus stop on Pacific Hwy near Walker St, my phone picked up an unblocked Wifi network from the Harbourview Hotel. Checked later and this is an Optus hotspot. And the Optus coverage has been fine so far too.

Have started using a few apps, will review and talk more about the phone in subsequent posts.