Poll that needs you

If you can spare me a click or three, could you please take my poll on mobile website delivery?

http://www.iamsteph.com/poll

See you at Future of Web Apps tomorrow!

Eamon Ryan putting Muckinish on the map?

The National Broadband Scheme was unveiled today by Eamon Ryan & partners Three Ireland today. Apparently under this scheme Ireland will have 100% coverage by 2010. Wow, happy days if this is so but, I have my reservations being a girl from the fair countryside of north Co. Clare who up until about 6 months ago, could use only dial-up Internet when visiting the folks. Not the end of the world you say until you see your dad trying to download forms from the Dept. of Agriculture website for his day to day business at crawling speeds, my sister trying to fill out her CAO application praying the connection won't die & my mum telling her college lecturers she can't receive the course notes by email as the connection is too crap to receive anything bigger than about 50kb. I purchased a 3/Three dongle (seeing my mobile was getting their 3G signal) despite warnings from the sales rep that our area wasn't covered. Popped in the SIM and viola, a guaranteed minimum 1MB download for €20, quite a bit less than the 4c per minute from Eircom dial-up. They're like pigs in poop since. There's plenty others in the area and wider areas who aren't so fortunate and are still in an age where email is non-existant, booking a flight, concert ticket or renewing insurance means a drive to the nearest town/city. 

But, according to RTE it's only 10% of the population that's without cover so it can't be that bad, right? "While Ireland has over 1.2 million subscribers to broadband, approximately a third of the country is without coverage." Ok so that means Ireland has a population of about 1.3 million people? That doesn't seem right. And a third of the country without coverage? Are we talking geographical now? Huh? Broadband in Ireland has a long history of dodgy claims on stats and we're heading into more of the same if you ask me.

While 3 winning the competiton for the job hasn't been the most popular decision (and indeed maybe not the best decision) it might be a bit of a kick in the arse to Eircom, who being the owners of most of the fixed line system in Ireland should have a lot more broadband rolled out than they have thus far. I'm a firm believer in the notion of not bothering to do something unless you're going to do it right but in this case, any progress is progress and if means 100 people being able to check their email without re-dialling 5 times, I'll be content with that. 

Phone Poll

Some background to my poll (see right) in which I seek advice on purchasing a new phone on my very first bill-pay plan type thingy.

History
I've always had a pre-pay phone, which has been fine for the most part but recently it's become an increasing pain in the rear. I was with O2 for almost 7 years and then in January 08 I changed to 3's '3Pay' as I like using my phone for general internets, Gmail, Skype, Twitter etc. Currently pushing a Sony K530i beyond its limits.

Now
Ideal plan: Vodafone's Perfect Fit 200 but Vodafone doesn't have any sexy phones. Ideal phone: 3G iPhone (with a better keyboard & camera, 32GB - I don't want much do I). I'll want to put apps & music on the phone but I'm a big mobile emailer/texter so easy typing is important.

I honestly have no idea what to do so any guidance is most welcome.

Copy Paste

There's been many a mention of various phone manufacturers "copying" aspects of the iPhone but this one really takes the cake. Have to admire them for their balls at least!

IOGRANE website - video is at the end of the page, little slow but you'll get there. If it's a spoof, it's still brilliant.