hertenberger.co.za

iBurst has been my only reasonably-priced option for access to the Internet from home. I’ve been a customer for some time and have, until recently, been happy with the levels of service provided. But my patience is starting to wear a bit thin.

A few months ago, internal system changes at first resulted in my daily usage reports not being sent on a regular basis. Not too huge a problem, until a change to the company’s billing system created a discrepancy in the actual amount of bandwidth consumed versus the reported amount used. Some interaction with the call centre resolved that. Usage reports came back up, only to falter a short time later. A promise of free bandwidth to make up for the inconvenience could not be held by the customer call centre. No problem: just provide the paid service.

But the biggest annoyance that I’ve been trying to deal with in the past month is the inability of the self-service login to function. At first, its failure was explained away as a result of an upgrade to the site certificate. That should take a few minutes. I gave the service more than 24 hours. More than two weeks later, I still cannot login.

I consider the invitation to call a human being to boost my bandwidth ridiculous and of no use whatsoever: like I explained in my Screamer rant, I am unwilling to telephone someone to interact with a company that bills itself as an Internet service provider. If that procedure involved a fast interaction, I might even consider talking to a human being. But to have to provide personal details each time I want to spend ZAR 50 on a bandwidth booster is just not worth the effort.

Hoping to get more information and assistance, I tried iBurst‘s once-responsive Twitter account. No help there. And to think that a the Talk to us feature on the dysfunctional website would actually elicit some kind of response is a pipe dream. Like all other interaction features of this nature, messages seem to end up directly in the trash can. Talk to the hand would be a more appropriate heading for this service.

Bad service. An unresponsive company. Time to check out whether I have an alternative provider I can take my business to. iBurst seems to have lost the plot…

Sometimes honesty is the best policy:

An error has occurred

Sorry, this site is not available to render the service you requested. A bug in the system has caused an error to occur.

Honesty may not be the best way out when you’re dealing with a product that is IT-based.

Thankfully, the activation and recharging of a Mascom data-enabled SIM worked without too much of a hitch. Better than paying the hotel about BWP 50 for one hour’s use of their crappy wireless network. The MiFi is doing quite nicely…

The iPad is still some way away, but that hasn’t made me worry any less about the micro SIM card the device is purported to require to access a GSM network. Whilst I may initially decide to go ahead and purchase WLAN only model, the real deal is obviously a device that can reach the Interwebs via 3G or HSDPA. Micro SIM cards are not yet readily available and may not be available for some time in certain parts of the world. Some informal digging has resulted in me deciding that the micro SIM can easily created by cutting a current mini SIM down to size.

Based on information found on the ETSI site and Wikipedia, it seems that the only difference between the two SIM cards is the actual size of the cutout. The contact area is apparently identical.

The Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil provides an interesting paper that compares the different form factors.

PDF link here.

That would mean a simple bit of cutting on an existing mini SIM card would suffice to enable the iPad to go online. I wouldn’t suggest anyone try that with their one and only SIM card required for use in another device. But prepaid cards can be had for about ZAR 0.50, which is cheap enough to allow for a bit of trial and error. I’ll definitely give this a go, but that’ll only be possible in another 90 days or so. Or is that already 88

Whether this is due to the Seacom cable having been connected or simply increased competition is pretty irrelevant. iBurst has migrated my 5GB service to one capped to 8GB. Best of all, the monthly price remains the same and the purchase of additional data bundles will be slightly cheaper. From the press release, it looks like the per GB cost could be as low as ZAR 39.

Though it’s not been in effect on my account, stepping over the boundaries of ones allocated data bundle will no longer incur a per MB charge and no throttling of data will take place.

Though I’d still rather have a piece of wire to connect me to an exchange, until the time that that becomes a reality, I’m bound to wireless Internet access. The lower cost and higher cap will certainly be welcome.

Since most everyone has upgraded to systems that utilize SATA hard drives, it’s quite obvious that that technology will require an overhaul soon to ensure computer users spend money on the next-fastest storage connectivity technology. Intel has recently showcased their effort to provide blazingly-fast interconnections between peripherals and computing hardware. Codenamed Light Peak, the new technology eschews traditional copper wire in favour of fibre optic connections.

Utilizing the glass strands, Light Peak-enabled devices should be able to talk to each other at the not-to-be-sniffed-at speed of up to 10Gb/s. And that’s just for starters. With the technology expected to be shipped in the first desktop and mobile computers late in 2010 that speed could increase by a factor of ten, enabling devices to transfer data at up to 100Gb/s!

Other advantages of optical technologies include the ability to manufacture much smaller connectors and have the capability of running multiple protocols over the same medium simultaneously. That means Light Peak could become the new standard of the future, necessitating the purchase of new keyboards, mice, displays, hard drives and goodness knows what else. Both eSATA and USB 3 may become irrelevant rather quickly…

Read more about Light Peak here.

The popular GMail service has been available in many shapes and forms, as well as being supported by both Google and third-party applications on mobile devices. The one feature that has been missing for some time is native push notification of new emails arriving in the inbox. Workarounds have been available, but those required additional software to be installed and in some cases, purchases to be made. Now, Google has made push notifications available for iPhone/iPod Touch users, as well as for Windows Mobile devices.

For iPhone users, the installation of the iPhone update to 3.0 is a prerequisite. One restriction that will prevent me from using this feature is the fact that one is able to create only a single Microsoft Exchange mail profile on most devices, including the iPhone.

I could easily do with three or more such accounts on my mobile device, but need to restrict myself to the most important one and then retrieve mail from the other Exchange-based accounts in alternate ways.

That’s a huge pity and something I hope will be rectified soon. If you are using GMail and don’t yet have an Exchange mail account set up on your device, the Google Sync help page provides step by step instructions on how to configure the account.

The only other limitation I’m aware of is that it is not possible to search through all mail in the GMail account – only those messages downloaded to the device are searchable. That’s no different to having a non-push GMail account on the phone.

Of course, it is possible to synchronize your Google Calendar to the device as well. See this page for more details on how to do that.

A new firmware release has just been made available for the DOVADO UMR. Firmware revision 4.0 includes a number of interesting enhancements and a good dollop of additional device support. The one  feature I am waiting for has still not been incorporated – that’s disk sharing via a mass storage device plugged into one of the USB ports on the device. Maybe in 5.0?

Nonetheless, the 4.0 release is certainly worth updating to for the following:

• GPS tracking and positioning – this allows a standard USB GPS unit to be connected to the UMR for tracking and positioning information to be made available.
• Wake on LAN (WOL) functionality
• Internet bandwidth usage monitoring
• a new wireless LAN driver for the device to enhance stability
• inclusion of a Telnet API for extending the functionality of the device
• various cosmetic enhancements
• additional HSDPA modem support

The DOVADO UMR firmware 4.0 may be downloaded here.

Very good news for South Africans is that the popular Novatel Wireless MiFi is on its way here and should make an appearance sometime this month.

The MiFi is a credit-card sized device with a built-in, rechargeable battery and SD card slot. Over and above that, its claim to fame is the inclusion of an HSDPA modem and wireless router functionality.

Using the MiFi is pretty simple. Once charged, the device should provide about five hours or so of continued use. The MiFi is charged by way of a USB cable. Since it is really small, it can be switched on and carried around in a pocket or bag. The wireless network has a range of roughly 10m and allows up to five devices to be connected simultaneously. Internet connectivity is achieved through a cellular network, ideally HSDPA for highest throughput. That’s it. In contrast to the Dovado UMR, the MiFi has the advantage of having a much smaller form factor and not having to rely on an external power source. The creation of an ad-hoc wireless hotspot in the car, office or anywhere else is finally a possibility.

But that’s not all. The MiFi includes an SD card slot that can accept SDHC storage cards up to 16GB in size. With a card inserted, the MiFi not only acts as a wireless access point for connected devices, but also becomes a very basic SAN that is capable of file sharing. The MiFi is GPS enabled, but I’m not sure whether that’s a mobile network geolocation service or an actual GPS chip.

No local pricing is available yet from Autopage, but the unsubsidized cost in the US seems to be around the USD 200 mark. If this is offered at a reasonable price here, I’d be first in line for one! Let’s wait and see…

My Logitech Harmony remote control is capable of controlling all devices near the LCD, except for the PS3. I had considered purchasing the Sony PS3 remote control, but after seeing this I’m glad I held out: Logitech will begin shipping a special adapter that will interface the products of the Logitech Harmony remote control range with the PS3.

The Harmony adapter is a sleek device that requires a power connection but does not use up any of the PS3‘s USB ports. Instead, the adapter is paired to the PS3 unit as a Bluetooth device. Once the necessary device has been added into the Harmony‘s internal configuration, all PS3 Blu-Ray commands are available through the Harmony remote control. For more information, see the Logitech product information page. The Harmony PS3 adapter will be shipped to Europe and Africa sometime in July.

The concept of a mobile broadband router is quite appealing, especially if it supports popular USB modems and enables Internet connectivity sharing over a private LAN. I had cast a quick glance at the Edimax 3G-6200WG but my past experience with products in the Edimax range didn’t boost my confidence enough to consider a purchase. Today, the Incredible Corruption offered a deal on a comparable device that was too good to pass up (the less ZAR 600 applies until 3 May):

The DOVADO UMR (USB Mobile Broadband Router) has a rather interesting capability for users of the NeoConnect Prime device – this is a phone with a USB connector and is connected to a single PC. To share that Internet connection, the PC must be setup to share the Internet connection. With the DOVADO UMR, the NeoConnect Prime device can be connect directly to a router, permitting the Internet connection to be shared with both wired and wireless devices. Think about the extra use you could get out of that ZAR 999 per month uncapped broadband… Other than the Neotel device, the UMR supports a wide variety of popular USB modems, including the Huawei E220. The list of supported devices is rather extensive.

The packaging includes the router, a power adaptor, aerial and excellent user manual. Attaching the aerial to the router is a simple exercise of screwing it into the back of the device.

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