Tech Debug

A quick one today, but worthy of note is the upcoming now out WordPress iPhone Application. This means an update of techdebug.com is on the cards… You can read about it on the dedicated iPhone page. via TUAW

My petty whinging about iPhone prices and data really means nothing. My thoughts go out to the family of the recently killed Australian Solder. Since I have a number of family and friends whom are serving members (some overseas) – I have a very small idea how they must feel. I’m an ex-military and ex-Signaller myself: so I know how committed one can be to the job and the corps.

As I posted late last night – Vodafone had not announced their pricing. They did – then retracted it. This is a major factor for an IT and tech geek who currently uses Vodafone. I’m now seriously thinking of taking my business to Telstra (I use them for Cable and Internet already – so…?!). I have partially ruled Optus out due to their lack of non-metro coverage and decisions to expand their 3G using 900Mhz technologies.

If Vodafone Australia don’t release their iPhone pricing/data or respond to my Pre-registration ASAP (and I mean by midday Wednesday only 48 hours before launch) I’m going to unfortunately have to go elsewhere. What is the point of their pre-registration when: One hears nothing back from it except a “Watch your inbox” One goes into a Central Melbourne Vodafone shop and they say “We are not owned by Vodafone so don’t know about pre-registration or when the pricing is available” One rings the Vodafone Connect number and can NOT find any option – menu – or area that will answer your iPhone questions Optus and Vodafone 3G offerings outside Metro areas will use 900Mhz – WTF Carriers!

I’ve had an on/off outage for most of the past 4 days, so to avoid hassles I put the site into maintenance mode. I’ve actually had to decommission my 19″ server rack and the multiple servers I had for Tech Debug. There was a DNS server, kerberos, Database and web server. All the separate functions are now hosted on one OpenBSD VM that I’ve built recently. It’s running on the only remaining “non-laptop” left in my residence, which runs 24×7.

Developed initally on WordPress 2.3, it has successfully been tested on WordPress 2.7.1. Most of the other plugins out there either did this only in their “badge” or “widget” or where too full featured. This is a simple and quick plugin to get links in place to twitter people for the lazy blogger. Visit my plugin page, give it a try and let me know what you think.

Telstra have now announced they will be selling the iPhone as well. According to the Age, since Telstra’s NextG network covers 99% of the population the iPhone will get good coverage due to it using the 850Mhz 3G frequencies. Additionally the Age have reported on the pricing Telstra will offer on their bundles: The cheapest monthly plan will be $30, paying either $279 upfront for an eight-gigabyte iPhone or $399 for a 16Gb model.