FulltimeCasual

Today on Twitter it seems like everyone I know is moving to Telstra. I completely understand the sentiment and Telstra’s new iPhone plans are unbelievably good for a company more traditionally known as evil and expensive, but I’m sticking with Optus. Considering Anthony at Mactalk hates Optus so much he’s written a guide to switching from the company, I thought I’d post the reasons why i’m staying.

Contract

The simplest reason. I still have 17 months on my Optus contract. Breaking it would cost me $895 for the contract and $165 for the handset repayments, money I can’t justify for Telstra’s better speeds. However, the reason I have 17 months left is thanks to the…

Excellent Optus Twitter Team

These guys were able to replace my stolen iPhone at no extra handset charge. They unlocked my phone in less than an hour after a dm, helped me sort out my sister’s contract, put her on a new plan better suited to her usage, and even put up with my bullshit complaining to them at times, all with good humour. Customer service that good goes a long way to making me loyal. Thanks Rhys, Julz, Dave, Scott, Meg, Andy, Holly, and whoever else I’ve harassed in the last 12 months. You guys all deserve a raise.

They’re Honestly Not That Bad

When the iPhone 3G was released, the Optus network ground to a halt. For two whole weeks you could hardly make a call or open a webpage as thousands of new iPhone users started playing with their new toys. If nothing else, I’m fascinated to see how the network performs once all these early adopters jump ship to Telstra. The network today is nowhere near perfect but it is a hell of a lot better than it was. Telstra are still miles ahead but Telstra are miles ahead of almost every telco in the world. But looking at my data usage with the excellent iphone app Consume, these days I manage to average about 400-500mb a month in data, and on my last trip to Melbourne i clocked up 700mb in 4 days. So for all of the complaints about Optus on Twitter (and Jesus, some people never shut up) I reckon I get my $59 a month’s worth. The new $59 2gig business plans (with free tethering) are pretty compelling even if my contract were up.

The Optus network still bugs me. Optus’ 3G network falls over at concerts or Sydney Swans games, places where many phones are trying to use the same tower I’d assume. I still can’t maintain a 3G signal in Glebe or in Bondi, two suburbs I spend a lot of time in, and two suburbs that really should get 3G coverage in 2010. Looks like Optus have 17 months to fix these remaining issues.

City2Surf for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

And sponsor me you bastards!

Its free. It’s adorably retro. Its Scott fucking Pilgrim. Get it already.

Pilgrim’s Punch-Out for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Another $1.19 well spent: Pix’n Love, addictive Retro Awesomeness.

Pix’n Love Rush for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Yesterday i posted on Twitter that I couldn’t find a way to accept, or even view, an .ics invitation on the iPhone. A few people responded with the same problem, despite this feature being promised as part of iPhone 3.0.

My set up was a Google Account running Exchange for Calendars and IMAP for Mail. I don’t really remember why I wasn”t using Exchange for everything, but i wasn’t. Anyhoo, this would cause Invites to appear in Mail.app as .ics files I couldn’t click, and no invitation would appear in Calendar. I Disabled the IMAP account and added Mail under the current Exchange settings, but still no invites were working.

Next I nuked both the IMAP account and Exchange account completely, then readded the Exchange account as per Google’s instructions. Finally it worked! Kinda…

Under the Exchange system invites still don’t appear in Mail, just in Calendar. In the Calendar app you can view Invitations (yay!) but cannot accept or decline them. But now opening Google Calendar in Safari shows an Accept/Decline window that wasn’t there yesterday… I really don’t understand why this is the case, but hey, atleast its working now…

And the most adorable tale of two megalomaniacs trying to save the world. All this and more on this thrilling installment of FulltimeCasual Podcast.

 

 iPhone 4, Wolfman, Misfits, The Riches [50:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If you’ve ever spent a night like this:

Then you need to buy Wiki Hunt, the iPhone/iPad game that turns Wikipedia into a treasure hunt of related articles. $1.19

Wiki Hunt – The Wikipedia Game for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store.

Here’s a Flickr set on initial testing of the iPhone as a 3G Modem for the iPad..

It seems MyWi uses roughly 20% of an iPhone 3GS battery per hour, which is actually much better than i expected, after reading MyWi battery horror stories over the last few weeks.

Australian 3G iPad pricing better be bloody competitive…

I’ve been asked about this a few times about ‘hacking’ your iPhone to use T-Mobile’s Sidekick Data plan. The procedure is dead simple, so here it is:

First, buy a T-Mobile Prepaid SIM for about $10. You’ll be asked if you want the ‘Pay by The Day’ plan or the ‘Pay by The Call’ Plan. Tell them you have a Sidekick phone and you want the Sidekick Only plan. From T-Mobile’s site:

Next, Take your iPhone to a Starbucks*. Turn around, theres one across the road from the T-Mobile store you’re in, I guarantee it. Connect to Starbucks Wifi (you need to buy a $5 Starbucks card to use the wifi, but its worth it, you’ll now get free wifi at any Starbucks in the US). Once connected, Open Mobile Safari and click on this link:

http://iphonesidekick.co.cc/

Buy the .99c access plan, pay via Google Checkout, and you will be prompted to download new carrier settings to your phone. Anyone who has ‘hacked’ their phone in the past to activate MMS, enable tethering or use another carrier will be familiar with this step. If you’re not, dont freak out. Its perfectly safe.

Once the new carrier settings are installed, switch of Wifi and test you have data. T-Mobile only offer EDGE, so don’t expect blazing fast data. If you have data, finish your Venti Latte and leave. If you don’t, reconnect to Starbucks Wifi and Google what you did wrong.

It’s really that simple.

*Depending on the US city you’re in, you might be able to go to Peet’s instead, which is vaguely drinkable coffee.

Just stumbled across this iPhone Web App for tracking tv show times, via this collection of beautifully designed Mac/iPhone apps, via Daring Fireball. Adding Shows via one long list is quite annoying, but once set up it really is gorgeous.