News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
News, Reviews and more from Australia's Macintosh Authority
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It had to happen. Telstra has boosted the anaemic data offerings on their iPhone plans.
The $10 mobile data pack now includes 150 megabytes of data - up from 20 megabytes. However, most of Telstra's iPhone plans include the $29 mobile data pack. As of tomorrow this will now include 300 megabytes of data - up from 80 megabytes. Better yet, excess data usage rates have been reduced on these two data packs from $1 per MB. Customers are sent a reminder SMS when they are get to 80% of their data allocation and again at 100 per cent. Data use on the web.
If you're a Telstra customer already using a $10 or a $29 browsing pack you'll automatically have the additional data allowance added to your plans over the coming months. Why they're saying the "coming months" is a bit of mystery. Other telcos, such as Three, are able to increase user caps overnight so we'd be hoping Telstra customers see the extra capacity on their usage meters pretty darn quickly.
Frankly, while Telstra's plans still aren't as cheap as Optus's they are now much more competitive. Telstra's $59 per month package costs $1815 over two years and includes $399 up front, $25 of calls and 300MB of data. In contrast, Optus's $59 plan costs $1584 including $350 per month, 500MB of data and $7 for the handset. Optus still offers the better value in our view but the difference isn't so great now.
This morning Apple released a new version of its iPhone SDK for developers. iPhone SDK beta 2 includes Interface Builder, a component of Apple’s development tools that lets developers create the interface for their applications. That seems to be the only major change in the latest build, according to the SDK’s read me, which continues to list some known issues. Apple says “this second beta is known to be incompatible with installation folders other than the default /Developer.” Given the importance of UI on the Mac, Interface Builder is a pretty critical tool in the development process, and some developers had chosen to hold off on their efforts until the SDK was revised. Apple unveiled the iPhone SDK at a special event earlier this month, allowing developers to begin building applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Several high-profile companies have already jumped onboard, demoing their applications at the event. Highlighting the demos was AOL with a native AIM client; other applications from Electronic Arts, Salesforce.com, and Apple were also shown.
