As if there aren’t enough gadgets cropping up to get excited about. Now Microsoft is entering the game with its own mobile phone creations in the hopes of getting a piece of the pie being dominated by the iPhones and Blackberrys of the world.

Called the Kin 1 and the Kin 2, these Microsoft powered devices are reportedly to be made by Sharp, who also made the popular Sidekick series.

Though both phones are boxy affairs, the curved corners look sleek enough to be considered eye candy. Both the shorter, square shaped Kin 1 and the longer, rectangular Kin 2 also sport a touch screen that should appeal to the technologically savvy young crowd that Microsoft hopes to win over. In fact, Microsoft had this market in mind and made the Kin series to be handy devices for the social networking generation.

This could be a big leap for Microsoft who has so far never ventured into creating its own mobile phone. In the past, the company has put itself in the software corner of mobile technology and has made good money on vending its Windows Phone 7 software to other mobile phone manufacturers.

No announcements have been made so far on its pricing scheme, but Microsoft has high hopes that the Kin will help it get ahead of the top two mobile phone makers Apple and Blackberry. Here’s hoping the Kin lives up to expectations!

As if history never repeats itself. Bebo, which was once one of the most promising social networking sites on the web is finally bowing out of the cutthroat social networking rat race after its parent company AOL, pulled the plug on further funding and development.

This can only mean that the failed AOL venture would either be shut down or sold.

Too bad for the 400,000 or so Kiwis who are registered members of Bebo.

But then again, this might not be taken as badly, whose preference for social networking sites have switched, unsurprisingly, to Facebook. Currently, Facebook has swept the NZ market, pulling in around more than a million users in the country alone.

But this wasn’t always the case. A few years back, Bebo had the momentum going in NZ, making it a popular destination for social networking users. A few years and an AOL buy-out later, however, Bebo’s growth stagnated and Facebook took over without a moment’s hesitation.

Experts blamed the demise of Bebo to its AOL sale, and for good reason. History has shown us a lot of good examples of how small, innovative start-ups wither and die at the hands of monster umbrella corporations, which stifle creativity and innovation. Bebo should have looked to the past for clues about its future.

Now, all seems to look bleak for the site, and it is yet to be seen what future awaits the ill-fated company.

Never has there been an electronic device’s arrival more anticipated than that of the iPad, and yet, Kiwis who cannot wait to get their hands on this nifty little tablet will probably have to wait much longer than their US counterparts, who have been promised an April release date – a little over 2 months since its launch.

Apple distributor Renaissance Corporation, which has been bringing Apple products to Kiwi homes and businesses for over 20 years recently said that Apple has yet to provide New Zealand with a release date for the iPad.

Yes, patience will have to be a virtue – whether we like it or not. Short of flying to the U.S. and lining up outside your friendly neighborhood Apple store, New Zealand residents will have to wait it out indefinitely before they can call themselves proud owners of the iPad.

This is due mostly to the unanticipated demand for the iPad. It’s huge presale interest has driven back even the US release date by a few days. In many cases, the demand has simply outstripped the supply, which just means more waiting for markets outside the US.

Other markets like Japan, Australia and Canada expect to have their iPads in by the end of April. Kiwis, however, will just have to wait and see.

Who ever said Steve Jobs is the only one cashing in on the iPhone?

Enterprising Kiwis are also getting a slice of the applications pie ever since the Apple Apps Store started getting worldwide attention and eventually became recognized as a powerful platform for such purposeful software.

NZ computer professionals and their start-up application development companies have been seeing steady growth alongside the booming development of the Apple Apps Store. Application development companies like Polar Bear Farm, Orsome and Smudge Apps are just some of these New Zealand companies who are responding to public demand for useful applications for their iPhones.

These companies have been responsible for bringing best-selling iPhone applications. Polar Bear Farm for example put ShowTime, one of the first video recording applications on the iPhone on the most downloaded apps list, while also producing Face Match, a software that uses image detection technology.  Smudge Apps, on the other hand, is responsible for such top rated apps as Flicks, a movie schedule finding application and Chords, which identifies a played note.

Another software development company, Orsome, has a different approach to applications development. They believe that finding a niche is important for an applications development company to prosper, a need that Orsome’s Peter Watling thinks is not totally being satisfied.

Watling believes that for an app to really be useful, it has to be relevant to its locality. This belief led Watling to create the MetroInfo app, a utility to help Christchurch bus users get wait times on their buses and updates on their MetroCard credits. Though it has yet to climb to the top of the App Store’s bestseller list, Watling’s app has been particularly useful to Christchurch residents and is something that he is constantly getting local praise and gratitude mail for.

Taking all of these into consideration, it seems that there is a future for IT professionals and software developers to go into applications development. The rapid growth of technology will create demand for technology experts to create more diverse software for users. Suffice it to say, you won’t find IT jobs wanting in this niche of the technology industry.

It’s about time! – is what we at ITJobs.co.nz think about this current piece of news that came out confirming Kiwis are finally dropping the dial-up in favor of faster internet connections like broadband.

And rightly so. Dial-up speeds are slower than snails on a racetrack, and personally, in this day and age of megabyte speeds, dial-up has been due out the door for quite some time. I guess it’s just taking us, Kiwis a little more than usual to realize the potential of other Internet connections and finally drop our hold on dial-up and embrace newer, faster technology.

This, according to the World Internet Project survey, which presented the following statistics:

• Kiwi broadband usage increased from 67 percent in 2007 to 82 percent in September of 2009.
• Dial-up connection usage decreased from 31 percent to 16 percent.
• The increase in number of broadband users in New Zealand is the sixth fastest growth rate among the 30 member countries surveyed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation.

Does this mean that in the future, dial-up will be non-existent in the average Kiwi’s technological landscape? That may very well be the case, but it won’t be totally eradicated. There will still be some old-schoolers out there who will rely on their telephones for Internet connection, but rest assured, the trend is turning and it’s doing so quite quickly, and in the next few years, there will definitely be more broadband subscribers than dial-up users.

So if you’re one of the remaining few still using dial-up, it might be time to rethink your choice of Internet connection. Faster technology out there will be better able to facilitate your use of the Internet. Whether it’s for business or pleasure, anything faster than dial-up will definitely do you a world of good and with more people moving to Broadband it can only lead to more tech jobs in New Zealand

In light of our celebration of Fraud Awareness Week this week, we are taking a closer look at social networking site Facebook and micro-blogging service Twitter and other similar websites and how these sites, though popular among many, are actually prone to providing criminals with enough personal information about users to commit identity theft.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the website, along with other similar social networking sites are going to help usher in a new and unprecedented trend in sharing among users, one that isn’t just real-time, but also of greater volume. He predicts that as Facebook grows ever more popular and more people continue to patronize it, people are going to share more information about themselves, their activities and their preferences.

This is quite a bit alarming since we’ve also received word that identity crime is increasing. Two things seem to be helping cyber criminals along. One is that as technology is getting more sophisticated, these criminals are becoming more cyber savvy; and two, people are sharing more and more personal information on these social networking sites, making it easy for identity thieves to access personal information and commit their brand of crime.

In the past year alone, the cost of identity crime in New Zealand has soared to $200 million - a staggering amount. National Cyber Crime Center’s Detective Sergeant John van den Heuvel said that people freely posted information on the internet – from their date of birth to their pets’ names, where they worked and what they did.

This breach in security is also compounded by the fact that these social networking sites also have weak security, and often users do not even bother to avail of that security setting, leaving them susceptible to phishing scams and identity crime.

So, a word of caution to the trigger-happy micro-blogger or the enthusiastic status-updater slash photo-poster, be careful what you share about yourself on the internet, and filter the people whom you add to your circle of friends. If you do not know them, do not add them. And if you’re not sure that the information you want to post can be compromising to you in any way, don’t post it. If you can’t help it, then familiarize yourself with the site’s privacy settings and protect yourself as much as you can.

The new DSi XL doubles as an e-book reader. Compared to the original DS, shown in white, the DSi XL shown here in pink is definitely bigger than its predecessor.

Gamer? Check.
Avid reader? Check.
Gadget enthusiast? Check.

If you’re all three, like me, you’re gonna love what NZ is welcoming to its shores this April. Nintendo is releasing the latest gadget off its production line – the Nintendo DSi XL.

Just like its incredibly popular older brother, the DS, this baby is made precisely for gamers who also want more out of their portable gadget. And with the growing popularity of e-books through Amazon’s Kindle, Nintendo has come up with the perfect marriage between games and books.

Now, it could be argued that there are plenty of other devices already in the market that can offer exactly what the DSi XL is offering only recently. Fact though, is that it has already offered it before in previous versions of the DSi and the DS, but here’s why we like the latest addition to the DS line over its competitors as well as its predecessors.

First, the DSi XL has been upgraded with a bigger 4.2-inch screen than the previous versions, which were at 3 and 3.25 inches respectively. That’s even bigger than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch diagonal display. Great news for those who have been struggling to read off of the smaller screens currently available.

Second, and here’s the kicker, I love that the DS’s two-screen format is the only gadget around that comes closest to the way we traditionally read books – unfolded down the middle (just like the DS), with two pages in view simultaneously.

This means that the DS can actually let you read an e-book by holding it up the way you would hold a normal book. Cool, isn’t it?
Can’t wait to get my hands on it when it hits New Zealand stores this April

Congratulations are in order for our Kiwi digital artists who won in the recently concluded 2010 BAFTAs or the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, an accomplishment that truly makes us all proud to be Kiwis.

They are the first all-Kiwi team to win in the BAFTAs, or any other award giving body for film for that matter – a fact that the team is extremely proud of and excited about.

Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew Jones, all digital effects artists from Weta Digital make up this award-winning team who created the amazing effects that allowed James Cameron’s “Avatar” world to come to life.

The film, which made more than $2 billion since its December debut was a 3-year digital labor of love for the Weta team. But for now, they are enjoying the award, which they accepted in London last Sunday, 21st of February, and are looking forward to the Oscars, which they are also nominated in for the same category.

Another Kiwi team was also nominated in BAFTA for their sound work for the film District 9. Michael Hedges, Brent Burge, Dave Whitehead, Ken Saville and Chris Ward were all thrilled to be nominated even though they lost to big winner Hurt Locker.
Great job, guys!  

(L-R) Richard Baheham, Andrew Jones, Stephen Rosenbaum and Joe Letteri

Two network outages in just as many months may be exactly what XT subscribers need in the way of a push out the Telecom door and into the arms of a new network.

Why not? When the cellular blackout occurred in December and then in January of the following year, two things became pretty clear to me, and I’m guessing, most of the mobile users south of Taupo who had to endure a grueling number of hours without cellular service.

One, that we are increasingly dependent on our mobile phones for instant communication and connectivity to a wide world of personal and business contacts as well as for information about what’s happening in our immediate and sometimes wider environment.

Most of those who experienced degraded mobile service if not outright couldn’t use the network to send and receive calls and messages found out that it was not only extremely inconvenient but also costly to not be in contact via mobile phone. Many business owners and professionals were crippled as a result of the network blackout.
Two, service reliability is something that customers are willing to pay for, and if XT continues to act up, subscribers will not hesitate to switch to a different network.

Which is why chief executive of Telecom’s Gen-I business unit Chris Quin has been touring affected areas together with Telecom retail head Alan Gourdie. The two have been trying to calm down subscriber fears of another XT outage in order to stop the bleeding.

Aside from this, Telecom has recently announced that they will be deploying 33 extra XT cell sites to strengthen mobile coverage, saying that this was something slated for 2011, but that in light of recent setbacks, the construction of new cell sites will be pushed to start this year.

This should allay some fears and calm some nerves. Subscribers need to know that something is being done to make sure that they stay connected and that this doesn’t happen again, which is something Telecom management wants as much as subscribers do.

The network outages may have cost them more than a few subscribers jumping ship. After the second outage, Telecom has announced that it will compensate users who were affected and that the total compensation package amounted to around $5 million. Add to that the recent financial losses as its stock plummeted in the market, and you can see why Telecom must be working hard to make sure that nothing like this happens again.

Apple vs. Everybody Else           Round 1: Taking on the World Apps Market


Being an iPhone user for over a year now, I share the same sentiment as most other iPhone users when generalized claims of Apple’s dominance in the smartphone market is staked by anyone and everyone who sees the sheer genius of its creation. This is precisely because in my humble technological perspective, the iPhone is the genius device that puts the smart in smartphone.

Need I elaborate on the reasons behind Apple’s dominance not just of the high-end phone market with its iPhone, but also of the mobile applications market with the iTunes App Store?

The mere reality of this situation has prodded telecommunications companies around the world (24 of them to be precise) to get together try to wrest back control of the mobile applications market from Steve Jobs’ successful takeover.

Short of ganging up on Apple and taking down the biggest competitor, these companies, namely, Singtel, Vodafone, Orange, AT&T and Chinaphone to name a few, seem to be intent on getting their slice of the mobile applications pie.

Now these companies, collectively known as the Wholesale Applications Community, are trying to get developers to create applications that will run on a universal platform.

Let’s hold up there and take in the implication of the WAC’s primary objective. Creating universal platform apps will allow users to run the same applications on their phone, regardless of device or software.

If you think about it, this does sound kind of fair to everyone involved. Creating a universally accepted application will reap the following benefits:

• Developers don’t need to write more than one version of their application to run on different devices or platforms. Less work is required.
• Developers will be able to market their applications to a worldwide market that doesn’t narrow down the customer base to the number of platform or device users in need of that specific app version. That’s around 3 billion consumers all over the world.
• Users don’t need to subscribe to different app stores just to square in on their specific device, any app store will give them the app they need.
• Telcos will get a fair share of the app market and everyone will get a slice of the applications pie.

Seems like everyone will benefit, that is, everyone except Apple, whose monopoly of the applications market will surely be broken.

But, oh the dreams of a utopian society! Though this seems like the perfect solution, some tech big wigs are questioning the feasibility of this venture saying that it’s always been the dream that will never be fully realized. This is precisely because developers often have a bias towards a certain software or platform, and that deciding on one universal platform to run on all phones will cause a great big debate that not even a cooperative of telecoms will be able to agree on.