iPhone Prices?

There are so many blog posts today with the iPhone launch in Australia tomorrow that I won’t waste too much time on this (having a busy day!)…but thought there might be a few people out there wondering when we’re going to get confirmation on pricing for the iPhone.

Gizmodo managed to get screen grabs of Vodafone’s pricing before they took it down this morning…no idea what happened there!?

Optus’ pricing is up.

I’ve called Telstra today but you can’t even get on a waiting list to get an iPhone with Telstra, their website is asking everyone to go to their T-life stores from 6am tomorrow….that’ll be FUN! The guy I spoke to on the phones didn’t know much so it’s all very top secret.

He recommended calling up or going in store tomorrow, when ALL WILL BE REVEALED…

The Telstra rep did say there is a difference in speed, the iPhone with Telstra is on their 3G network (256KB/sec) whereas the Telstra NextG network is 550 – 3,000KB/sec, average speeds three times faster.

APC Magazine has published a leaked document on Telstra iPhone pricing today and according to them Telstra’s cheapest cap plan is $105 per month, $86 more than Optus’ cheapest plan. All unofficial of course.

For updated pricing and reviews on the iPhone, visit the MacTalk Forum. Here’s another very comprehensive review on the iPhone, originally from Australian Macworld.

Telstra launches QR Codes in Australia

If you haven’t heard the buzz on QR Codes already, there will be half a million Telstra customer handsets with QR Code readers on their mobile phones from July 1, so it’s now a reality in Australia & the other carriers will most likely follow suit if it takes off like it has in Japan.

 

According to the Telstra press release, “This is the first time in the world that barcode readers have been automatically installed on mobile phones for free.”

 

The codes can be put on any surface from clothing, to packaged food and drinks, business cards, outdoor posters, so I guess the sky’s the limit and what’s exciting for digital marketers is that new level of interactivity that’s now possible in bringing products and services to life through digital content.

 

More information on this at Gizmodo.

 

Here’s the Telstra microsite with a demo if you’re Qrious!

Is anyone else worried about privacy these days?

With more and more social technologies allowing us to monitor every minute of our friends and enemies lives, is anyone concerned we’re opening ourselves up to too much transparency?

Fortunately this new application hasn’t yet launched in Australia, but have a look at Dirt Search, which searches public records data in the US. i obviously couldn’t search for myself, so I searched for Paris Hilton in New York who came up ‘dirty’. Her ‘Dirtscore’ is 1 times dirty, but the site it sent me to for details came up with no records. Hopefully this site isn’t genuinly searching public records and making them available to anyone searching online?

Another application I came across yesterday on springwise.com is Sense Networks’ Citysense service, which allows consumers in San Francisco to see the top nightlife hotspots. Citysense explain how it works “Using a billion points of GPS and WiFi positioning data from the last few years – plus real-time feeds – Citysense sees S.F. from above and puts the top live hotspots in your hand. You don’t even need to sign up, just go to citysense.com on your BlackBerry, download, and open.”

As a digital marketer, this kind of application opens up enormous potential for highly targeted consumer messaging, but as a human being I find this a bit freeky…does anyone else worry that this might be a great tool for terrorists to find the perfect place to set off a bomb?