WordPress have released a handy mobile portal which can be reached at http://m.wordpress.com

The portal allows you easy access to your blog from anywhere, meaning you can now blog on the bus, on the loo or in bed, like I am now!

And people say geeks don’t get any action!

It’s 2am, so clearly time to blog. I bought an iPhone 3G! …the irony of doing this after my previous post is not lost on me. However, in my defense, I’ve managed to jiggle the plans around until I got one I was happy with. The change from my previous hatred and bile is that I’ve realised that the $50 standard Vodafone plan gets me almost the same deal as the $80 a month plan. Of course, the $80 plan has lots of minutes and texts, but I don’t make that many calls, and the $50 plan has 20 minutes of calls (yes, I know Rest of World, WTF), which will do for me.

The $50 plan has a data cap that’s almost the same as the $80 plan, and if I go over my limit it remains pretty cheap. I also threw on 2000 text messages for $10 bucks. So all up I got a good deal, got a discount on the phone for signing up with those plans, and I’ve got me an iPhone. I’m also quite happy that a combination of selling Second Life currency and other gaming stuff netted me the cash I needed to buy the phone itself.

Yay! iPhone! Yay New Zealand for being first in the world to get it! Boo Vodafone and Telecom NZ for their crappy plans!

Good night!

Vodafone have announced their iPhone plans. We’re now in the elite club of being among the most expensive places in the world to own an iPhone. We’ve even made the US tech press

Check this lovely table made by a chap over on Geekzone. It shows the total cost of owning an iPhone in NZ over the 24 month contract period.

There’s already at least one petition out there. I signed, but willingly accept it was probably a complete waste of time. There’s also a great grilling of some Vodafone wank on Campbell live for you guys to watch.

I don’t understand the reasons behind their expensive plans. Vodafone have a unique opportunity to draw a very large number of people to contract, and an equally large number of people away from Telecom. What was surely a slam-dunk businesses opportunity, one that comes along maybe once in a decade, has been casually thrown away.

I used to be a fairly big fan of Vodafone. They’ve offered a good service and I’ve loved seeing them put the screws on Telecom. But after today’s price announcement I’m rapidly losing any appreciation I had for the company. For the first time ever I’m thinking I’ll keep an eye on Telecom offers in the future.

Well done Vodafone, you’ve annoyed the hell out of a long, long term customer and you’ve missed a great business opportunity.

New Zealand will be the first country in the world to get the new iPhone! Around 9am Friday Vodafone stores will open and us eager tech geeks will rush in to buy. Only problem, we’ll have to line up in the freezing cold is my guess. No pre-orders, no idea how many are going to be in the shops, we won’t even know contract plan details until Friday morning. Sounds like a recipe for chaos and annoyance. But.. I’ll be there I bet!