This week looks good for us Kiwibank customers - a few new things have been introduced.

Secure Mail

Too afraid to talk over the web to banks about your problems using conventional email?

Kiwibank has introduced Secure Mail:



Here's the contents of that introduction message:

At Kiwibank we take internet banking security seriously - that's why we've introduced a new secure way for you to contact us using Secure Mail.

What is Secure Mail?
It's a totally secure, free service that lets you email us through internet banking.

You can ask us in private about your accounts or anything else you want to know - without having to pick up a phone or visit your local Kiwibank.

How it works:
- As you may have noticed, when you log in to internet banking, Secure Mail shows on your Welcome Page.
- To ask a question, click "create your message", type in your question, then send
- You'll receive a reply within two business days in your Secure Mail inbox on your Internet Banking Welcome Page.

Secure Mail is protected by the internet banking security firewalls, so the information you send and receive is completely secure.

Mobile Banking on the Web

Their mobile site has been improved to include Windows Mobile and mobile browser users as well as more improvements to the exisiting iPhone presentation like enhanced landscape views.

http://www.kiwibank.co.nz/mobile/index.asp

The title says it - it has been renamed

I actually knew this around a week ago - a few catalogues from different companies had listed the service called "home phone wireless".

Here was the text in the Vodafone catalogue: (the same catalogue I used for the Vodem stick pricing)



I was curious - but at least now people know from the name that it isn't just a super cheap usual home phone service (as you can't run quite a lot of things over it)

I screwed up some things for last time, so...

• call caps now included
• calls are now at 30min intervals (please see comment at end of post)
• TelstraClear's other free calling plans/products are included (see info below)

Also, I have included Vodafone home phone plus national plan, just as a comparison for a $40 home phone product which is dotted in the graphs to completely differentiate it from everyone else as I don't think it's a fair comparison, but it still shows that huge savings can be made from a comparably priced phone service.

TelstraClear with it's average calling plans were pretty expensive, so I've included Talk 24/7 and also the dial in Z-talk too, as they're still free, they still count towards the "standard" home phone service.


Do note that the minutes below a graph are a total of all calls, inclusive of local calls, as I've used a call volume table presented by Telecom which includes local to distribute minutes. This means each component (national, international, mobile) will be a portion of the minutes shown.

Everything is averaged as per the last post.

Compared plans:

	Company			Plan
1	Compass Communications			Homeline (Wellington 04 calling region, Christchurch city and most suburbs)
2	Compass Communications			Homeline (in all other areas)
3	Orcon			Homeline
4	Slingshot			Homeline
5	Snap Internet			Snap Voice - Christchurch/Wellington
6	Snap Internet			Snap Voice - Rest of NZ
7	Telecom New Zealand			Homeline (Wellington 04 calling region, Christchurch city and most suburbs)
8	Telecom New Zealand			Homeline (in all other areas)
9	Telecom New Zealand			Anytime (Auckland city, Wellington 04 calling region, Christchurch city and most suburbs)
10	Telecom New Zealand			Anytime (in all other areas)
11	Telecom New Zealand			Anytime Plus (Auckland city, Wellington 04 calling region, Christchurch city and most suburbs)
12	Telecom New Zealand			Anytime Plus (in all other areas)
13	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline Basic
14	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline
15	TelstraClear			InHome Phoneline
16	Vodafone New Zealand			Home phone (in some regions)
17	Vodafone New Zealand			Home phone
18	Vodafone New Zealand			Home phone Red
19	Vodafone New Zealand			Home phone plus (local plan)
20	Vodafone New Zealand			Home phone plus (national plan)
21	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline Basic + Talk 24/7
22	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline Basic (using Ztalk dial in service)
23	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline + Talk 24/7
24	TelstraClear			Homeplan Phoneline (using Ztalk dial in service)
25	TelstraClear			InHome Phoneline + Talk 24/7
26	TelstraClear			InHome Phoneline (using Ztalk dial in service)

Standard home phone services graph, up to 1800 minutes:



From cheapest to most expensive at 1800 minutes:

1. 20
2. 24
3. 23
4. 26
5. 25
6. 4
7. 1
8. 19
9. 11
10. 2
11. 12
12. 16
13. 5
14. 18
15. 17
16. 6
17. 22
18. 3
19. 21
20. 9
21. 10
22. 7
23. 8
24. 14
25. 15
26. 13

Standard home phone services graph, up to 12000 minutes:



From cheapest to most expensive at 12000 minutes:

1. 20
2. 4
3. 11
4. 12
5. 1
6. 2
7. 24
8. 26
9. 19
10. 23
11. 16
12. 18
13. 25
14. 17
15. 5
16. 22
17. 6
18. 3
19. 21
20. 9
21. 10
22. 7
23. 8
24. 14
25. 15
26. 13

(Sorry for the bad colours - all of them are auto-selected by Office)

I hope my new graphs solve the viewing problem.

I have used colours to represent company (except TelstraClear, which is both light blue and blue) and different dot/dash styles offered by Office.


I have used a call of length 30 minutes for each call. Is that good or not? (I'm not sure what the average call length is) - I can easily just change this and instantly make new graphs.

You can finally find it - the Vodafone Vodem Stick is here.

With 7.2mbps HSDPA (where available) and 900MHz 3G coverage support included, it's a miniature device but more advanced than the Vodem.

Pricing for it seems to vary across pages though:

• $199/$99 for 1GB/3GB plan (respectively) on 24mths
• $99/FREE for 1GB/3GB plan (respectively) on 24mths

The blog title is slightly wrong, but I'll get to that in a sec.

After a week waiting for my iPod touch to be repaired - it finally got back.

When I looked at the description of the repair from the report:

On 11/8/2008 From 3:00 To 3:30 At the None Rate, for a total of $0.00 Worked On by ipod.
Confirmed fault found.
Ipod not working.
Replace under warranty.

So a brand new iPod touch now lands at my place - 1.1.4 preinstalled (2.0 Software Update will not be provided on new iPod touches, so for people buying new ones now, you are going to be on the same level as everybody else)

Good thing as I hadn't had a case for it for 3 months and the back was heavily scratched during that period (damn the soft chrome backing)

I do notice that the screen is now significantly brighter - really really bright - to the point I thought that the picture would wash out.


But it has been really worth the wait - now that I got a factory fresh, OEM-like packaged iPod touch (gotta love the packaging)

Here are some photos of the unpacking:




Pretty neat packing there by Renaissance.


Even comes with a factory barcode!





Mmm... fresh packaging smell.

Right now, I'm upgrading my iPod to 2.0.1 and probably restore my old backup, and get things back to normal again (no iPod = no wireless life - why did my laptop have to fail?)