DRM? Love DRM? Get more of it then! TVNZ is launching its TVNZ On Demand service, which provides access to library of TV shows, ranging from the last week broadcasts to old kiwi classics.

Users can access the shows in two ways: by streaming the content (which is always free), or downloading the content (which attracts a cost).

Downloaded content is paid for with PlayPoints, which can be purchased in batches of $10, $20, $50 or $100. A 30 minute programme will cost 4 PlayPoints, or  about $2. When you register you get 20 bonus PlayPoints (the site says 10 bonus PlayPoints but my experience was different).

Downloads are fast, and through Akamai servers, but the Download Manager is less than perfect in terms of user interaction. I've downloaded a 23 minute show (30 minutes without the advertising) weighing in 225MB and all worked ok. The first time I tried to play the .WMV file it asked for my user name and password, or offered the option to create an account right there.

The file played on Windows Vista and WMP 11 with no problems at all. The quality was really good even on full screen, and with no artifacts I could see.

When you "purchase" a download you are actually only purchasing the right to watch that specific file on that computer only, and for seven days - no more. A shame, I'd like to be able to have it for longer periods, perhaps do like some music store where you pay a monthly fee, and providing the subscription is current you can access and play any song in the library. This would make a lot of sense. As it is, I can see that a lot of people will be put off of having to pay $50 to buy 12 one hour shows... It can be quite expensive at the end.


To be fair, all streaming shows are free though.

The website is quite nice, and they are going to make some money with advertising I see... Not a problem seeing that somehow they need to pay for the free streaming. But they could put a bit of effort and make that welcome e-mail better looking.

All in all, a great initiative. A shame Telecom New Zealand's plans for IPTV haven't come true yet, even after a couple of years of work on their part. And I do hope the Internet infrastructure in this country is well looked after, because this kind of service will no doubt stress the networks even more...

UPDATE: There is a good discussion about TVNZ On Demand on Geekzone.

This is not exactly high technology but it is one of the most hilarious electronic product I've seen lately: the VOCO Clock.

No, I don't have one here for testing, but if you visit their website you will be able to listen to some of the "wake up call" messages, recorded by Stephen Fry.

You will hear gems such as these:

I'm so sorry to disturb you sir, but it appears to be morning. Very inconvenient, I agree, sir. I believe it is the rotation of the earth which is to blame, sir.

I'm delighted you have survived another night. May I add my own congratulations to the roar of the world's approval? Thank you, sir.

I'm afraid the staff has absconded, sir. And it is my day off. I trust it will not be too onerous to make your own esquisitely sliced toast and perfectly cooked breakfast?

Come come, sir. Let us not be defeated. Let seize the day, and take it roughly from behind. As the Colonel used to say in his unfortunate manner.

The world has been very anxious to hear from you for the last eight hours. Shall I inform the news agencies you are about to rise, sir?

The rising and the shining cannot be postponed indefinetely. Though shining isn't compulsory in this world, the rising eventually is.

Just got an interesting box here at home, coming from Vodafone New Zealand. Outside it says "Novice travellers dream of foreign lands", and inside it says "Experienced travellers dream of home".

The box is the welcome kit to a new "by invitation only" exclusive service offered by Vodafone to business account holders.


The booklet explains that +64home cardholders can call two special numbers called "Roaming Priority Service" and "Rapid Response".

With Roaming Priority Service travellers are able to contact Vodafone customer services and get into a priority queue for quicker assistance. The number is only available to card holders while in overseas trips - while in New Zealand people should continue to use 777.

The "Rapid Response" service comes in two flavours. "Rapid Response Concierge Services" is similar to some offerings from American Express and other gold or platinum credit cards. In summary is a concierge service for travellers abroad, with 24/7 access to a help line with someone that will the user organise important things from hotel bookings, organising car hires, message relays and even arrange gifts to be sent to someone.

"Rapid Response Medical Information Services" can help the traveller talking to a doctor, arrage a doctor visit, or help with admission to hospital.

The box also comes with a small cologne spray "New Zealand", by Demeter.

UPDATE: I am now unsure of "launch" as it seems this is not a new offering, but just that only now I was "invited". Perhaps because I have a business account and have been all over the world in the last two months?

Last week I got a Sierra Wireless Aircard 595 to connect to Telecom New Zealand's CDMA EVDO Rev A service here in Wellington... Only now I had a chance to use it, since I've been in Australia most of the week.

And here is my first speed test:


That's right! Download speeds of 2668 kb/second (kilobits per second) and uploads of 789 bk/second.

Previously I tested Vodafone New Zealand's HSDPA service with a Merlin XU870 HSDPA card, and got only download speeds of 1400 kb/second down and 80 kb/second up.

Telecom seems to be ahead on the mobile broadband game, again.

Today is the day when Microsoft and Telecom New Zealand part ways in the on-line portal segment and start their own services.

If you visit the (now defunct) www.xtramsn.co.nz site you are greeted with a message and the option to visit either portal, msn.co.nz or yahooxtra.co.nz.

Telecom partnered with Australian Yahoo7 to create their local presence, and is pushing hard on Yahoo! Messenger, Yahoo! Mail, and other tools. Microsoft partnered with Australia PBL and ACP Media to bring the information to the portal, with a small presence from New Zealand's TV3.

The MSN portal looks a bit "dry" at the moment and the Yahoo!Xtra seems more lively, but still has some dead links.

It ill be some time before things get in a position we can see the market share split, but until then I recommend you read a series of Lance's posts on his blog:

http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/msn-vs-yahooxtra-round-1/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/02/28/msnconz-round-2/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/xtrayahoo-vs-msnconz-rounds-34/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/yahoo-versus-msn-searching-for-love/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/yahoo-versus-msn-video/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/yahoo-versus-msn-searching-for-work/
http://elevatorfactoids.wordpress.com/2007/03/01/yahoo-versus-msn-advertising/

Balanced, but I think Yahoo!Xtra seems to have the lead for now...

You would think a hotel charging AU$280/night would be able to offer decent Internet access. Think again. The Hilton here in Brisbane offers appaling Internet service. I am lucky if half of the images on a web page load at all - if the domain name resolution doesn't fail first.

Wow... Lance Wiggs says a lot about the current state of telecommunications in New Zealand:

Telecom is to blame, although I do not know whether to point the finger at their lawyers for foot-dragging, their management for under investing, marketing department for over-promising (and over-spending), management for worrying about government regulation rather than customers, senior technical staff for general incompetence, management for not listening to senior technical staff/contractors or contractor Alcatel for under performing.

What do you think?

This has been talked about very lightly, and I am worried about it. The U.S. Congress has changed the dates for Daylight Saving Time (DST) in the United States starting in 2007. Canada has adopted similar DST dates.

Microsoft has released an update for Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Windows-based PCs and Windows Mobile devices. I am aware Palm has also released an update for their Palm OS-based devices. Apple has also released some information on how to update Mac OS PCs.

I am not sure what's going on with Nokia and Sony Ericsson - or with any other platform for that matter. I found a post through Darla Mack's blog of a Nokia Time Zone updater. Nokia update information comes with just a small comment, without any information of why, when, who is going to be affected. Not helpful at all.

This is my comment on Darla's blog:

Interesting this is not being publicised a lot by Nokia, since the DST changes affect US and Canada, and starts in 2007. In summary if the devices are not updated, any appointments created before the DST period but falling within the new DST dates will be shifted by one hour when the DST comes into effect. Similarly, appointments created during the new DST period but falling outside the DST period will be shifted an hour when the DST ends.

This will have huge effects on businesses, travel, life as we know it but people are not really moving to update their devices.

Microsoft and Palm have released updated software for their mobile devices and Microsoft released automatic updates for Microsoft Exchange. I haven't heard anything from Nokia or Sony Ericsson. Not a word on how this affects their devices, or what to do to prevent problems.

Are we clear now on how important is this update?


UPDATE: more information and links to downloads for Windows Mobile updates are here.

I don't regularly visit Digg, the social news site where users vote on stories brought by other users. But I have their RSS feed in my reader.

One of the reasons why I don't regularly visit the site is just because of those spammers, or linkbait tactics usage. Because of the extreme traffic generated by highly voted stories, bloggers really want their "15 minutes of fame". And so do some spammers.

For example, I've noticed that anything with the words "Apple", "Steve Jobs", "Kevin Rose" or "Digg" will get votes. People seem to like to vote with the others, and Digg seems to be the highest ranked term. Diggers digg Digg. Anything with "Digg" on the headline or summary is digg material - and highly voted.

Just for some examples I have selected a few Digg pages so you can check how these headlines or summary texts have nothing to do with Digg itself, but are more like URL drops:

Family-Friendly Social Networking with Famster - Podcast
Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported on the growing influence of Web sites like Digg. Last summer a popular Digg contributor commented favorably on a family-friendly social networking site, Famster.com, thereby causing traffic to skyrocket at the site. Great podcast showing Famster features hosted by Phil Leigh featuring their executives.

Digg gives noisy debunkers the tools to bury meaningful reporting
There is no doubt that the explosion of the social content website DIGG.com is helping us reach an audience that would not normally read our material here at Infowars and Prisonplanet. However, it is also true that Digg provides debunkers a quick and easy way to bury our content should they choose to cling to their security blanket...

Digg is $42.9 million, whats the best you can find?
Some friends and I were having a competition to see who can get the most expensive domain to come up (I know this is an old article) but I was wondering what you could come up with, the algorithm has been changed since I last saw it...

What about some lovely spam... The link goes to a "Love Calculator", but look at the description:

Australian? Charge any mobile in Australia $6.60 with website hack
OK this has been done to my friends and I think the best way to get it shut down is to publicize it. I know no better place than Digg so .. go to the site I linked. Click through and enter your friend's mobile. Click OK, it will go to a confirmation page. View page source and find txtPin.value != 'NUMBER HERE') .. enter that number, click OK. Done.

This is a "iPhone review", where the author has not come close to any iPhone - mainly because there's nothing to review yet. Really deep stuff:

Iphone and TV Online
Review of IPhone and expanded news on TV shows from a previous Digg post. "[O well,] Apple Iphone is stil great, cause of all its features and well its a new toy about to hit our local streets all over the World, probably in your neighbourhood."

Get my point? Digg is a great way to share things, but it's becoming infested with spam, spam, spam. And unrelated stories.

I like this post about diggers digging digg however. Yes, you can Digg that post on Digg and help the self-perpetuating Digging keep going.

A friend commented on my previous post about the Sierra Wireless Aircard 595 CDMA EVDO card working on Windows Vista. At the end of the post I bash Novatel and their lack of 64 bit drivers for their Merlin XU870 HSDPA card.

He agreed to let me post his comments publicly:

Until Vista 64 bit becomes the mainstream OS for most people, I don't think it's right to dismiss the Merlin card because it doesn't have drivers for it yet. Not even Microsoft is plugging Vista 64 at this stage, so I don't see any point in being a hardliner over it.

Otherwise you end up sounding like a FOSS troll who refuses to touch anything that doesn't run on a certain Linux distro or contains a firmware BLOB with proprietary code (just as an example).

Fair enough comments, and I agree entirely. I am probably the only person I know around my inner geek circle (including the coffee group and user groups), running Windows Vista 64 bit. And so far almost all devices I use have 64 bit signed drivers, including a very old Epson C45 inkjet printer, but excluding the Disc Stakka, and Windows Mobile devices (I can't use them as a modem via USB because of lack of drivers).

The reason why I am on top of Novatel though is because they have a support option on their website, where one can log a question, and wait for a reply. Guess what? Novatel support is crap, and after two weeks I didn't get a reply to my question. Then I updated the question with a follow up and after four weeks I still didn't had a reply.

I know they got the questions because I received an e-mail with a case number, and if I click the link it's visible with all dates and times. Why their support people (are there any?) won't reply to a question is simply beyond me.

Not it's not like I am asking something out of the blue. In fact I do have a Merlin XU870 card here, so I am asking a legitimate question.

So, yes, I am not giving it a hard time because of not having drivers, but because they have sub-standard support services.