Carrier Matters: Case on point

Image via Wikipedia

I have discussed this in a recent post about the importance of mobile phone wireless carriers in the real world.  As people interested and immersed in the tech world, sometime we forget that all these cool devices, technologies and services need to be connected to work.  If you then want the full experience, that connection needs to be there when you need it, and reliable as well.

In the last post, I mentioned how the choice of carrier is really more important than your choice of device.  This can be more so the case in the world of smartphones where most of the experience is reliant on being online.  Remember, though, that another use for the mobile phone device is also to make calls.  Many of us here in Oz picked up mobile phones more so for safety and communication while traveling from home.  But the gist was that people complain about their device, when the problem is really their choice of carrier.

On Saturday the 12th I was doing just that.  I was taking my two young girls to the in-laws, some 4 hours from home, when on a dark and rural road I was second on the scene at a single truck accident. I arrived at a scene my years of computer games, movies, and imagination hadn't really prepared me for.  The driver had dozed off and come off the road, and came to a sudden stop at the base of some established trees on the side of the road.

I slowly drove past the inferno that was once the cab and trailer of the truck and I think I swore, even in front of my girls.  It was so alight that I stopped thinking of survivors, and focused back on getting to safe distance from the possibility of exploding fuel tanks.  The accident can’t have been more than minutes old, but the fire was so fierce that I could only hope the driver had died on impact.

Once past, I saw a woman on the road by her car.  I pulled up in front of her car and got out and heard her yelling she had no signal.  We were kind of in the middle of nowhere, but only about 20 minutes from a major town.  My first thought as I pulled out my iPhone 3GS was that if she had no signal, then what hope did I have?  Well I tried “000” anyway and  I got through, on a couple bars of signal. 

At the time of making the call, I didn’t know that the husband of the woman had actually dragged the driver clear of the cab before I had got there, and that when asked by the operator “Fire, Police, or Ambulance?” my weak reply of “better send all three”, was going to matter.  For the husband’s quick actions, and (if you could have seen the fire that greeted me) bravery, and getting through to get the ambulance quickly, saved the drivers life.

I can’t really say how long I was at the scene but it was punctuated with lots of exploding fuel tanks.  Once the Police and ambulance arrived, I gave my details and left so I wouldn’t be in the way.  The interesting thing was that while I was on the phone and during the time while we waited for help, a number of cars pulled up to the scene.  I was the only one with signal, my carrier was Telstra.

I grew up on the land so maybe my choice of a carrier with better coverage was just a natural one.  But it did surprise me a little that even those who lived in the area had gone with carriers whose coverage is lacking where they live.  This is not a Ad for Telstra as I could fill many posts about their faults, but a call to common sense.  If you want the service, choose your carrier before your device.  My iPhone beat up better phones because I had a bar of service, and they didn’t.  I could use Google Maps to find my location and the nearest crossroad and call for help.

Anyway, I’m proud to share the same first name with Jason, who did something that I can only hope I would have the courage to do if I had been first.  If we catch up, drinks on me.

Jason Remnant

...if it is Broken, sometime all you can do is sit back and enjoy the fuel tanks exploding.

iPhone: The Aftermath

Image via CrunchBase, source unknown

It may be a little early to be judging the 3G iPhone's success, or failure, but that isn't stopping the tech press.  ARS Technica has a nice "One month of the iPhone: what Apple needs to fix" article which gives us a look back over the month that was the birth of the new way to communicate, again.

I normally ignore this sort of press, because all the problems tend to appear and then go away in the first couple of months of any new technology.  But this time it validates one of my previous articles posted before the launch, so I though I'd better chalk one up and do the "I told you so" dance.

My post "Caution iPhone Unloading zone" pointed out that, as beautiful as a device as the 3G iPhone was, it was a new piece of hardware, and software, and should be treated as such. 

"Well, the first iPhone may be a year old and have the odd million out in the marketplace, but the New iPhone is kinda New, with a New radio (G3), New GPS, New Sync software, New Carriers, and New battery.  Looks to me like the only thing tried and tested is the hype surrounding the launch."

The above point stands firm and unfortunately the early adopters are really battling with the problems that it's newness is presenting.  One interesting problem is the 3G issue.  When the first iPhone was realized, within weeks of the launch the press and consumers alike were asking for a 3G version.  It was the top complaint next to the "no cut & paste", everyone wanted the 3G data network.  One of the biggest complaints with the new iPhone now is the 3G, what, they didn't look at the 3G coverage maps before now?

I have got to hand it to Apple for being able to sell ice to the Eskimos, or 3G phones to those without 3G coverage.  It should have been a warning when the software for the App store was going to work with both the old and new phones that Apple wasn't planning on the new iPhone being for everyone.

In the wrap up, the 3G iPhone had the same problems with the activation and setup as the old iPhone.  There are some hardware problems and the odd software problem, and all in all, it sounds like the first version of any ambitious new electronic release.

I'm still keen to pick one up though.  Here in Oz, the 3G coverage isn't too bad, I've been using a Jasjam for a year now and there are fewer and fewer places without coverage.  And now that Telstra have bumped up my download limit to 150Mb per month, I'm feeling like I could really utilise the iPhone's potential ;)

Jason Remnant

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Little known insider info...

Image via Wikipedia

I have some friends in the telecommunications industry, yes, I know it's hard to think of me having friends, but just look at it as hope for my geek brethren.   As I was saying, I chased up my friends on the inside trying to get the goss on the iPhone launch for Telstra.  Well, I even offered chocolate but no dice, this could mean two things, 1) There is no news regarding the iPhone launch for Telstra or, 2) I need to get some new friends, ones who are easier to bribe with chocolate.

It wasn't all a loss though as they sent me this link:

http://www.qrious.com.au/main.html

I got this a few days ago, and due to being a little busy I didn't get to post about it.  There was this cool countdown thing and it was all mysterious, but there wasn't much actual information.  I did fire out the link on Twitter in the hope that a new friend may have some insight, which got me this link this morning:

www.qmcodes.com

In the tech world we see a lot of crazy ideas, and most of the those ideas stay crazy.  If you are a fan of the TWIT Network you may have heard the discussion about adding a barcode reader on the iPhone.  The idea was that you would be able to walk into the store and using a app on the iPhone from, say, Amazon, scan the barcode of the item you want and purchase the item online and have it sent to your home.  But this isn't it, I think.

Although this Telstra service will probably turn into another of their gimmicky services that goes nowhere, I have to give them points for trying.  And maybe it is the start of something useful, maybe Myer or Big W will pick up on it and we will be able to walk in, make a wish list by taking pictures of the Qmcodes with our phones, and order the items online after we have checked that the item will fit, plug in, or is approved by the significant other.

It looks like only a couple of phones will be able to work with Telstra's version of Qmcodes, although we may be able to download the software from qmcodes.com.  That being said, I'll be waiting till there is more to do than just checking out old Bond clips.

Jason Remnant