Simon Hendery: Speed factor may not be enough to win over geeks

Phone geeks have been salivating this week after Apple announced the long-anticipated arrival of its latest cellphone: the iPhone 3G S.

The new model, which Vodafone New Zealand says is likely to hit our shores next month or in August, is less of a revolutionary upgrade than the 2007 leap from the original model to the 3G version.

The addition of the "S" brings with it enhancements including a faster operating system, a better camera, and longer battery life.

The overall look and feel of the device remains unchanged and some disappointed commentators have argued that the new iteration will not be enough of an advance to encourage existing iPhone 3G users to upgrade.

Vodafone is not yet able to say how much the new S version will cost locally.

BLESS YOU, GOOGLE

Coinciding with the onset of winter, and with swine flu still very much top-of-mind, internet juggernaut Google has begun its intriguing "Flu Trends" service into New Zealand.

Introduced in the United States last year, the clever service monitors the influenza-related queries people are typing into the Google search engine, and from that data is able to monitor outbreaks of the snuffles across the country.

It's claimed that while some flu tracking systems may take days or weeks to collect and release data, Google Flu Trends stats are updated daily which means they can provide early detection of outbreaks.

Google worked with historical seasonal flu data from the World Health Organisation National Influenza Centre at the Institute of Environmental Science and Research and its own "anonymised, aggregated historical search data" to build a model for New Zealand broken out for the North and South Islands.

Dr Matthew Peacey of ESR said while Google Flu Trends cannot replace WHO influenza network surveillance, "this does provide an indication of influenza trends that complements our enhanced surveillance put in place to meet the country's needs, particularly during this novel influenza A/H1N1 [swine flu] outbreak."

TOO MUCH FIBRE IN OUR DIET?

As details around the Government's promised $1.5 billion fibre-optic network to deliver high-speed broadband to most homes continues, global technology research firm Ovum has warned that the so-called fibre-to-the-home network infrastructure is "no sure bet" as an investment.

Ovum research director David Kennedy, pondering planned and completed FTTH developments in Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, concluded: "The idiosyncrasies of different markets are important."

"Singapore is a city-state where the cost of FTTH rollout is relatively low. In contrast, Australia and New Zealand are characterised by sprawling, low-density suburbs.

"To make matters worse, both governments envisage public contribution in the form of commercial investments, not the grants being offered in Singapore."

Something for Communications Minister Stephen Joyce to bear in mind.