Life & Technology

We have had an amazing response to our segment this morning on the Today Show discussing Broadband options in Australia.
Visit countries such as Japan and they have optical fibre running into people’s homes. It’s not all doom and gloom though, good news is on the horizon with Senator Conroy moving forward with his plan for a new, national broadband network. His office is tendering for the construction of an Optical Fibre network that will connect to all the funny looking ‘node’ boxes in your street, and the internet speed will be guaranteed to be a minimum of 12 meg. This network will reach 98% of Australians. The 2% it does not reach will need to get a internet service through wireless or satellite, but these will be remote locations where this is the most cost effective way of providing a service and subsidies are available now, and will continue to be offered by the feds for this service.

So that is the landscape in the future, but what can you do now?

Here are some plans (or services) I think are well worth taking a look at. For me I am without broadband at home for the moment as the phone line in my street has corroded and my ADSL connection is dead (so is the phone line, but that is more a concern for my wife).

Iinet have always been an internet pioneer and their Naked DSL is worth a try. From the early days of offering a national local call number for their dial up internet service, to being one of the first to roll out a national Dslam ADSL2+ network Iinet have challenged the big players and the net result has been services and prices that have benefits for all of us. Check out their Naked plans, and remember there are two main trade offs. Firstly the phone call quality is lower than you experience now, because your calls are directed over the internet instead of the phone network. I am fine with that, in the end I will save money and have a great service. Second, there is a delay from when you sign up to the service to when the service begins. During this time you will have no phone and no internet service at all. However plans start at $50 which is great value.

Optus have thrown a lot of weight behind their mobile broadband service ‘Turbo G‘. The prices are OK, they could be better, however it’s the balance between network reach and price that impresses me. In the end it depends on where you plan to use the service that will be the biggest factor in deciding what network you use as Telstra, Vodafone, 3 Mobile and Optus are all rolling out similar services. The market leader for network reach for mobile broadband via the mobile phone networks is easily Telstra and their NextG service. However Before you sign the contract with your provider make sure you have a cooling off period. So if you take the ‘Dongle’ home and there is no network connection, you can return for a full refund. After the cooling off period you will most likely be on a plan for 24 months.

Contract or no contract is an important question you need to think about. Prices are lower and value is higher on a contract, however it does not work well for you if you need to cancel the contract during its term. I have always used contracts to get a better deal. I have always negotiated with my provider near the end of the contract term to gain price benefits and value sweeteners in return for staying with them after the contract has expired. It is as simple as calling your provider and asking “what are you going to do for me if I stay with you after my contract has expired”. The answer will sometimes surprise you how much they are willing to offer to keep your business.

My advice, have a copy of your contract and file it away. If your provider does not supply to the terms of the contract you might have a case that you can lodge with the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman. In that situation they will decide whether the terms of the contract are being met by the provider and whether you can be released without penalty.

Please post any questions you have or experiences you have had that will help other visitors.

Selling like hot cakes at Christmas last year, the GPS is now becoming a standard addition to our cars. I like to think of them as a friend providing sound directions at regular intervals while you are driving!

I could recant many times as my GPS has shown me the way somewhere, but I instead I will tell you one. I jumped on the freeway on the way home from a Product Launch event (it was an hour away from home) and the freeway was closed 5 minutes down the road. It was midnight and all the traffic was detoured off of the freeway to the middle of nowhere and the detour signs all of a sudden stopped. I was lost and it was dark, however satnav replotted the course and I followed it home. It took me ten minutes longer to get home than normal. To me, the peace of mind knowing that I was no longer lost and able to get home was worth the investment.

This morning on the Today Show we discussed a number of current market options that I think are worth a look. When thinking about the option that is right for you, ask yourself these questions:

• How often will I use this?
• Will I use the extra features like camera and bluetooth connectivity?

If you answer, “no” and “not very often,” then look at the cheaper options first. For about $400 you will get a really good device that will get you from A to B.

This morning on Today we looked at some of the gadgets around that will help you keep fit and well this year.

Gadgets in the area of video games get a bad wrap, often because video games are seen as the cause of kids getting less exercise than nutritionists say they need. But who can blame them? Playing video games is fun, challenging, and you can play games on your own or play with a friend. You can play video games when you wake up, you can play them when people come around for pizza. You can no doubt tell that I am an avid gamer, but yes, I too need to ‘manage’ the time I spend playing video games to ensure a correct balance between gaming and exercising.

The first product that I think Aussies will love is Wii Fit. The first thing to know is this is NOT an exercise video replacement. As the player, you jump on the Wii Fit balance board and get the game used to who you are. It measures your balance, you type in your weight, age, height and a few other details so it can measure your Body Mass Index, how many calories you will burn and other interesting facts about your Wii Fit work out.

Once you are loaded, you can play balance games, do some Yoga or work on your body strength by conducting exercises. The balance games are a lot of fun especially for the kids, and will be great at parties too. You need to balance on the board and use your balancing skills to accomplish goals like head butting a soccer ball or slalom skiing through gates.

The Wii Fit will be on sale from May 8th, and will retail for about $150. Remember you will need to have a Nintendo Wii to plug the Wii Fit into!

Next up was the Gamercize Video Game Stepper machine. I love this thing, you step and the video game machine let’s you play the game, as soon as you stop – it pauses the game. Brilliant! Karl mentioned that for us blokes doing two things at once is tough: I kind of agree. However why not have your mate work the stepper while you play and then swap? We all learned about co-operation from Sesame street and this is another great example. Check out Childs Play Fitness for more details and where to get it, it retails for about $300.