digitalkiwi.blogspot.com
	benedict_x

About Ben: Staying on the south island of paradise with his partner. Plans to make a living out of one of his hobbies: gadgets, entertainment tech and video games. Other things he likes to do when he is free: watching movies, tv shows, reading comic books, studying religion/philosophy. Mass Communications graduate well versed in the media industry with specializations in entertainment and popular culture. An aspiring writer and journalist; spends many an hour researching on the various Communication disciplines which include anthropology, psychology, religion and the social sciences in addition to journalism, advertising and public relations. Has his own blog about tech/mobile/gadget news related to NZ for everyday Kiwis to read. No complicated jargon or computer language used here. http://digitalkiwi.blogspot.com/

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News (54)

6:57PM
Commerce Commission Recommendations Out... And It's Not Good News. Two out of the three commissioners of the CC have changed their postions to seek government regulation on Mobile Termination Rates (MTRs), which would've given us cheaper call/text prices that match the rest of the world's. 246 views

9:52AM
Google Introduces Its Own Operating System: Chrome OS. With their fingers in so many pies Google has, on more than one occasion, threatened the status quo of the internet companies with their web-based applications, and now they're taking it one step further by challenging the two major giants in the industry -Microsoft and Apple- with the announcement of their own operating system. 479 views

10:42AM
Rumor: Google Phone Coming Soon. Tech-news blog; TechCrunch has it on good sources that senior Android engineers over at Google are currently carrying and testing a "super" Android phone that might be unveiled as early as next year. 528 views

8:05AM
Internet Speed/Cost Chart Shows We're Faster Than Australia But More Expensive Than Them. Shown here is a chart of the 20 top nations in the ITIF Broadband Rankings compared by cost, speed and broadband penetration rate. 571 views

1:41PM
Xbox LIVE Update Preview Program Now Open. Just like a couple of months before, Microsoft is accepting sign ups for their next Xbox Live Preview update which will bring social networking sites -facebook and twitter- as well as internet radio; Last.fm to the dashboard of Xbox 360s. 325 views

9:20AM
Black Wiimote Comes With Motion Plus, Is Cheaper. Quick calculation: Wiimote NZ$100 + Wii Motion Plus NZ$45 +Wii Nunchuck NZ$50 = NZ$195, which is a pretty high price to pay for what is essentially, a one-person controller for Nintendo's console. 518 views

9:17AM
Barnes & Noble eReader Coming Soon, Might Run Android. After being denied the Amazon Kindle here in New Zealand and no word from their PR on why/how this happened, a glimmer of hope presents itself in the form of the US book store Barnes & Noble who are expected to introduce their own eReader to the market soon. 758 views

11:25AM
Rumor: Vodafone NZ Might Bring The Kindle In. An article over at Computerworld hints at the possibility of Vodafone bringing in Amazon's Kindle, which was denied to us despite it being available to Australia and most of the world. 197 views

1:51PM
Kindle Now Available To New Zealand. (Update: Nope, None For Us) Amazon's device that displays and stores books in digital form is now available for Kiwis. 7946 views

11:11AM
'My Phone' For Windows Mobile Now Live. With the release of their latest mobile OS -Windows Mobile 6.5 (a.k.a Windows Phone)- Microsoft has launched their new My Phone service for all mobiles running Windows Mobile 6 and up. 322 views

6:16PM
NZ Xbox 360s (except for the Arcade) Finally Get Price Cut. As reported earlier this month, the Xbox 360 Elite in New Zealand has gotten its anticipated price deduction, dropping NZ$100 to NZ$499 while the soon-to-be-phased-out Pro has dropped to NZ$449 from NZ$499. 475 views

9:55AM
Vodafone UK To Sell Budget Android Mobile HTC Tattoo Soon A quick browse in the mobile phones section of the Vodafone UK site has uncovered that the overseas telco will be selling the HTC Tattoo in October and we were right about the phone having interchangeable covers. 300 views

11:19AM
Drop The Rate, Mate! Campaign Stands Behind IT Minister's MTR Decision Process Matthew Hooton, spokesperson for the Drop the Rate, Mate! campaign has commended Steven Joyce's (Communication and Information Technology Minister) decision to reject commercial offers on mobile termination rates from telco duopoly Vodafone and Telecom and will instead wait for the Commerce Commission to make a recommendation before making a decision. 220 views

6:08PM
First 250GB Xbox 360 Is A Modern Warfare 2 Bundle. Ships Nov 10, NZ$85 more than US. Microsoft's first Xbox 360 to come with a 250Gb HDD will be a bundled pack that comes with 2 wireless controllers, a headset and a copy of Modern Warfare 2. 469 views

7:57AM
UK Android Prepay Phone Is Great Value If you've been waiting for an affordable Android phone to purchase and you got contacts in the UK then you're in luck. 356 views

8:43AM
Today Is Snow Leopard Day Apple's latest OS -set to compete against Micosoft's Windows 7- is now available for purchase. 400 views

9:36AM
PSP gets Minis and Digital Comic Reader Along with the major PS3 Slim reveal today Sony has also announced that their Playstation Store will come with an additional category selling casual games for the Playstation Portable. 309 views

9:25AM
Playstation 3 Slim Announced. Other Countries Get It Cheaper. Announced today at Sony 2009 Gamescom in Germany, Sony's revamped console; the PS3 Slim comes with a 120GB hard drive and is 33% smaller and 36% lighter. 689 views

9:42AM
Xbox 360's Games On Demand Service Unfair To Kiwis (And Aussies) The Xbox 360 update was released 2 days ago and it brings with it many improvements and features like a dressing up your Avatar in game-themed clothing, the ability to download full Xbox 360 games to your HDD and a 5-star rating system for all games on the console. 1231 views

9:54PM
Telco Rip Off: A Cliff Notes Version Of The Fight Against Telecom and Vodafone This is a summary of the current telco situation in New Zealand regarding the fight against Vodafone and Telecom by 2degrees and other New Zealand organizations in attempts to lower mobile termination rates, thereby giving mobile and landline users cheaper call/text costs and encourage fairer competition amongst the telecommunications market.  397 views

11:42AM
"Drop The Rate Mate" Campaign Launches. Fights Against Vodafone And Telecom. The day of expensive mobile charges is over. 369 views

10:52AM
Vodafone Lowers Its Easy Plans, Still A Tad Too Expesnive Just over 2 weeks after announcing their lowest text/call plan (in New Zealand) Vodafone has decided to further cut their prices for Easy plans in order to compete with newly launched telco 2degrees. 164 views

4:51PM
2degrees Announces Its PrePay Prices 2degrees revealed their prepaid mobile services today at a press conference in Auckland. 387 views

5:13PM
2degrees launches August 5th. Everything else to be announced the day before. Highly anticipated telco -2degrees- has just announced on twitter that they will be launching their network on the 5th of August. 369 views

11:05AM
Microsoft Accepting Windows Mobile Applications Submissions Now. Contest Information Detailed Microsoft is now accepting submission ideas for their Windows Mobile Marketplace due to hit smartphones (along with Windows Mobile 6.5) in the Spring (NZ). 207 views

10:58AM
iPhone 3GS Is Bad For Business People A recent article in Wired has talked about how the encryption of Apple's new iPhone can easily be broken into within two minutes with readily available software found on the internet. 500 views

2:06PM
Sony Notebooks To Have Touchscreen With Windows 7 and Playstation Network. All Products to be Cheaper? In an interview with the vice president of the Sony Information Technology Products Division -Mike Abary- tech blog Laptopmag was given details on the new features and marketing plans for their future notebooks. 592 views

10:56AM
Apple Tablet Due Next Year  Credible sources from the Apple camp have commented that the long rumored Apple Tablet will be hitting the market in the 1st quarter of next year. 1861 views

2:58PM
The Duros 8404 Rugged Tablet: A Computer For Us Outdoor Kiwis Ever went to the slopes for a bit of skiing and while admiring the beauty of nature that our country has to offer stopped and thought to yourself: "Wish I could read my email or look at that chart I made." ? Well Duros has the answer for you. 361 views

2:56PM
Google Latitude On The iPhone Is Out But Only A Web App  Google has released Latitude -their location-based network- for the iPhone and iPod Touches. 238 views