How come our Internet connection is so erratic and so slow today? Who knows what is exactly happening? Is it acceptable in 2008 to have such technical problems paralysing the whole country? What are we exactly paying for?
Web
Obama winning…
At 7:20 today, based on CNN estimates, Barack Obama has 174 electoral votes and John McCain 69. The first one to reach 270 electoral votes wins.
Signs show that Florida (the infamous Florida from 4 years ago!) might vote for Barack Obama (27 electoral votes). Of course, California (with its 55 electoral votes) has always voted for Democrats. So it seems that Obama will make history in becoming the first non-white American president and this will cause major disruptions in the whole world!
For fun, I fooled around with the CNN online electoral map to come up with this dreadful situation:
In this worse case situation, Barack Obama still wins! He wins Washington, Oregon and California on the West coast, Hawaii and none whatsoever of the “inside” states and he gets 271 electoral votes: 1 more than the number required to become President of the United States of America.
Alé Barack Obama! Or should I say: “Félicitations Barack Obama!”
[An update: I’ve created a I want a Mauritian Barack Obama on Facebook. Feel free to join.]
Apple iPhone 3G in November in Mauritius
Patience is a virtue.
I’ve been told that the iPhone 3G will shortly be available in Mauritius for purchase. To be more precise, the devices are coming to Mauritius this month and are expected to be sold as from November.
Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about the price but I’ll hazard a guess of around Rs. 20,000 for the 8Gb model and Rs. 23,000 for the 16Gb model in line with the quoted price in the Hong-Kong Apple Store. I know this is steep but you need to bear in mind two important things:
Firstly, the iPhone is not only a cellphone despite its name. It is a Wifi-enabled computer (with a powerful browser and enterprise-grade email client) and a video iPod and a GPS receiver and a game console and a digital camera which can also be used to make 3G phone calls. Additionally, hundred of free and commercial applications can be downloaded from the Apple iPhone AppStore (direct link to the AppStore for iTunes users) greatly increasing the capabilities of the iPhone.
Secondly, the price (if confirmed of course) compares favorably with what Americans pay. The 8Gb and 16Gb models of the iPhone 3G cost $199 (about Rs. 6000) and $299 (about Rs. 8500) there. But, and this is a massive but, you are forced to subscribe to a voice plan (to make calls), unlimited data plan (to access the web) and (optionally) a SMS plan (to send SMS) at around $75 (about Rs. 2000) per month for two years. For the 16Gb model, this amounts to Rs. 8500 + 24 x Rs. 2000 = Rs. 56,500 (mind you, for unlimited data i.e. browsing, emailing, chatting and Facebooking which does not really exist here.)
Of course, here we’ll have to pay for pre-paid voice and SMS credits as well as 3G data. For the sake of argument, let’s say we accept to pay Rs. 56,500 – Rs. 23,000 = Rs. 33,500 for 2 years. This equates to, say, downloading 2Mb of data (Rs. 0.01 per Kb i.e Rs. 20), sending 10 SMS (Rs. 6) and making 15 minutes of voice call everyday for two years which I find excessive.
Personally, I don’t intend to use my future iPhone in this fashion. Remember, it has a Wifi antenna and, as I am nearly always near an access point, I will use Wifi when browsing and checking my emails. What I am implying is that I don’t think I’ll have to buy more credits to be able to use my future iPhone compared to what I’m paying now with my trusty Nokia 6288.
So, in a sense, we’re getting a better deal than Americans as we have the choice of not using (and not paying for) the data plan if we don’t want to. Heck, we can even choose not to use 3G!
The image above
I already have an iPhone 3G… except that it is just a software simulator. In fact, today I installed the Apple iPhone Software Development Kit on my MacBook (you need a Mac…) which, in addition to all the tools needed to build iPhone applications, features this iPhone simulator. It works, it’s nice-looking and it gives me the opportunity of making nice screenshots.
What can I ask more?
I know!
I need to convince my Minister of Finance (aka my dear Christina) to allow me to ask Father Xmas a black 16Gb Apple iPhone 3G in December :-)
Alleluia.