KEY POINTS:
Internet provider Orcon has been the only company to publicly vent about the conditions that come with Telecom's new naked DSL service, but from the conversations I've had with people in the industry in the last day, anger is widespread.
Those ISPs that have been early into
the VoIP game have been eagerly anticipating the arrival of naked DSL as it allows them to bundle a line with broadband and a calling package without the customer having to continue to pay line rental to Telecom every month.
As Aardvark points out, for tech-savvy early adopters, the prospect of being able to get cheap VoIP calls through their PCs or their home phone using an adapter, is very attractive.
Orcon's major bugbear with the naked DSL service on offer is that Telecom has capped the number of naked DSL connections it will deliver to 50 a week, with a maximum of "five to ten" per provider.
That's a pathetic amount to be sure. Telecom is also restricting naked DSL to new broadband customers of its rivals. Telecom claims the limitations will be removed when its sure the system is running smoothly.
That better happen sooner rather than later to avoid outright revolt in the ISP industry - all of the second-tier players have plans to use naked DSL - 50 new sign-ups between them just isn't going to cut it.
Apple has patched its iPhone with a 152MB software update - staggering large by any measure.
The main advantage of the update is that it allows access over Wi-Fi to the iTunes WiFi Music Store. Those with unlocked iPhones probably won't be upgrading to avoid having their phones rendered inoperable and will therefore miss out on all the bug fixes and the WiFi access. I don't think anyone will be too upset.
Palm has also followed up the scrapping of its ill-fated Foleo device with the release of a US$100 Palm OS-based smartphone, the Centro.
It has a colour touch screen, runs on the CDMA-EVDO high-speed data network and allows for email access and web surfing.
At US$100 it is also the cheapest smartphone on the market in the US, where Palm has stitched up an exclusive deal with Sprint to launch it. It looks like a good move by Palm which has done well with its Treo smartphones but needed a decent entry-level offering to bring smartphones to a wider audience.
I should have pointed out in my blog yesterday about the new Amazon music download store that you can't access it with a
