Paul Shadwell RTFM

iPad Prices Announced

Finally, as of today (10th May 2010) the prices have been announced for the iPad internationally for 9 countries, Australia, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Japan.

There have been both negative and positive comments regarding the prices and to try and come to terms with the seemingly vast differences from country to country I decided to work out what the real costs are.

All but Canada include their local Sales Tax or VAT in the price. Since the US price does not include Sales Tax I decided to calculate the differences based on the other countries prices per-tax.
I then converted this price into US dollars to come up with the difference we are actually paying over and above the US price.

Surprisingly (actually shouldn't be surprising at all) when all of the Euro countries remove the VAT the prices are very similar give or take a Euro here and there. It also turns out that the model with the least amount of difference is the 16GB 3G model, with a difference of under US$10 in some cases.

Here are the price differences per country in US$ over and above the pre-Tax price in the US. (Exchange rates calculated as of 10am, May 10th 2010):

Australia
iPad Wifi 16GB - $ 8.56
iPad Wifi 32GB - $13.46
iPad Wifi 64GB - $24.82
iPad 3G 16GB - $15.74
iPad 3G 32GB - $19.83
iPad 3G 64GB - $17.47

Canada
iPad Wifi 16GB - $27.47
iPad Wifi 32GB - $23.36
iPad Wifi 64GB - $19.26
iPad 3G 16GB - $22.13
iPad 3G 32GB - $18.03
iPad 3G 64GB - $13.92

UK
iPad Wifi 16GB - $41.36
iPad Wifi 32GB - $29.53
iPad Wifi 64GB - $55.49
iPad 3G 16GB - $37.31
iPad 3G 32GB - $25.49
iPad 3G 64GB - $51.44

France
iPad Wifi 16GB - $35.05
iPad Wifi 32GB - $42.07
iPad Wifi 64GB - $49.09
iPad 3G 16GB - $12.07
iPad 3G 32GB - $19.09
iPad 3G 64GB - $26.12

Germany
iPad Wifi 16GB - $37.74
iPad Wifi 32GB - $45.30
iPad Wifi 64GB - $69.00
iPad 3G 16GB - $15.30
iPad 3G 32GB - $22.87
iPad 3G 64GB - $46.56

Italy
iPad Wifi 16GB - $33.27
iPad Wifi 32GB - $39.93
iPad Wifi 64GB - $46.60
iPad 3G 16GB - $ 9.93
iPad 3G 32GB - $16.60
iPad 3G 64GB - $23.27

Switzerland
iPad Wifi 16GB - $45.47
iPad Wifi 32GB - $54.53
iPad Wifi 64GB - $55.20
iPad 3G 16GB - $41.31
iPad 3G 32GB - $50.37
iPad 3G 64GB - $51.04

Spain
iPad Wifi 16GB - $29.55
iPad Wifi 32GB - $39.90
iPad Wifi 64GB - $50.24
iPad 3G 16GB - $ 9.90
iPad 3G 32GB - $20.24
iPad 3G 64GB - $30.59

Japan
iPad Wifi 16GB - $ 8.35
iPad Wifi 32GB - $12.32
iPad Wifi 64GB - $16.28
iPad 3G 16GB - $13.51
iPad 3G 32GB - $17.47
iPad 3G 64GB - $21.44

These difference most likely allow for currency fluctuations and import duty per country.

I have published the spreadsheet I created for you all to take a look at:

iPad Price Differences by Country

Unlocking the Huawei E5830 aka 3 Mifi (Part Two) Updating the firmware

Following on from my previous post, there is one more step that will make the 3 Mifi easier to manage and that is to update the firmware. Updating the firmware reveals the web interface that will allow you to change settings on the unit without needing to physically connect it to a PC or a Mac running Windows.

However, to perform the firmware update you do need to have it plugged into a Windows PC or a Mac running VMware Fusion. If you followed my last post to unlock the Mifi then you can use the same environment to update the firmware.

I found 3 different locations and 3 different versions of the firmware update for the Huawei E5830 and each one had it's own set of useful additions however, out of the 3 only one allowed for the update of the APN settings via the web interface and this is important, especially for Mac/iPhone/iPod/iPad users.

I found this website to have the most up to date and useful information regarding the E5830 http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/.

Here are the steps to updating the firmware:

On your PC or Mac running Windows in VMware Fusion go to the following web page:

http://blog.brightpointuk.co.uk/huawei-e5-e5830-e5832-imo-firmware-update-available

Click on the FTP link and download the firmware file. It is a .exe file.

Make sure your E5830 is connect via USB and is turned on. Also make sure that neither the 3 Wifi Manger nor the DC-Unlocker programs are running as they will grab the connection and will prevent the firmware updating program from seeing the Mifi unit.

Now run the .exe file you downloaded. Don't worry, the firmware will not be updated yet, the program can also tell you the current firmware version and the status.

Accept the agreement and click Next:

Now you should see the following.

Click Cancel as you have one step you must perform before going any further and that is to put the E5830 into firmware update mode.

Rather than go through all of the steps here, here is a link to a PDF document that gives you a step by step guide to updating the firmware. Just ignore Step 5, is is a mistranslation, do not remove the battery.

After a few minutes your 3 Mifi will have it's new firmware. I did notice that the firmware version number reported by the tool does not change, this is misleading, it is updated and you can see evidence of this by going the the web interface as follows.

Disconnect the Midi from the USB and if it isn't already, power it on.
Press the Wifi button for 2 seconds and wait for the blue W to light up.
You should now be able to connect to it via Wifi.
On the Mac open System Preferences.
Under Internet and Wireless click Network.
Select AirPort and click Network Name to see a list of available wireless networks. Unless you have changed the SSID, you should see the Mifi listed as 3Wireless-Modem-xxxx where xxx is a unique number assigned to your Mifi.
Select it and fill in the password which, unless you changed it, will be written on a label found under the battery inside the Mifi.
Now that you are connected, open a web browser and go to http://192.168.1.1

You will see a login screen, the default password is "admin".
You are now in and looking at the web interface of you 3 Mifi!!! Woohoo!

I will just go over a few of the settings that you may find useful:

Advanced Settings -> System -> Modify Password

Go here to change the admin password.

Advanced Settings -> Dial-up Settings -> Profile Settings

This is where you will enter the APN information that is required by most carriers (see theAPN List).

To create a new APN enter an Profile Name, Dial Number, Username, Password and APN. (Note: not all of the fields need to have data, check the APN list for details)
This is what I entered for Swisscom:

Profile Name: Swisscom
Dial-up Number: *99#
Username: swisscom
Password: leave empty
APN: gprs.swisscom.ch

Once you have entered the details click the Save button.

Now go to Advanced Settings -> Dial-up Settings -> Connection Settings

You need to select the profile to make it active.

Other settings of interest:

Advanced Settings -> WLAN Settings -> WLAN Basic Settings

Here you can change the SSID if you wish. I also set the Wifi Auto Off to Disabled.

Advanced Settings -> WLAN Settings -> WLAN Advanced Settings

Here you can change the password (WPA Pre-Shared Key) you enter when connecting via Wifi.

Hopefully you have found both of these posts useful. Let me know how you get on. If you have any questions I will do my best to field them for you.

Unlocking the Huawei E5830 aka 3 Mifi (Part One)

Whilst in the UK recently I bought a 3 Mifi with a Pay As You Go SIM for £69. They also had the Novatel Mifi but it was only available with Vodaphone on a contract. So I decided to go for the offering from 3. I had read that it was unlock-able and had many more features than 3 were allowing it's customers.

As soon as I got home after my trip to the UK, I started researching what I needed to do to unlock the unit. Pretty much everyone was pointing to http://dc-unlocker.com for the relevant software. You have to purchase credits for the unlock code and 15 are required for the E5830 at a total cost of 15 Euros. The only issue is that it can only be done on a PC running Windows. After some testing I found that it was perfectly possible to run the unlock software and the firmware upgrades, using VMWare Fusion running Windows 7 as the guest OS. Once unlocked, you can do everything else from the Mac, using the web interface that is revealed after applying a firmware update.

Each carrier in each country has a different APN (Access Point Name), you need this information when using another carrier's SIM in the Mifi. Here is a useful site with all the most common carriers by country and the relevant APN info: APN List

I did find a lot of information but it does seem to be all over the place, so in an attempt to consolidate the information here are the steps I took to unlock the Hauwei E5830 and update the firmware, so that it is possible to change the APN via the web interface.

On a Windows PC or using VMWare Fusion running Windows go to the following URL:

http://www.dc-unlocker.com/

Click the "Free Download" link

Click the download link

Now run dc-unlocker_client-x.xx.xxxx.exe (the Xs are the version number which was 1.00.0486 when I wrote this) and install it.
At this point, plug in the Mifi using the USB cable it came with into a USB port. Then power on the Mifi and wait a few moments for it to be recognised in Windows and for the drivers to install. If you are using VMware Fusion, make sure you are in Windows when you plug in the Mifi, otherwise it will try and come up on the Mac side. If this happens, go into Fusion and select Virtual Machine from the menu, then USB, then click "Connect HUAWEI Mobile Connect" if it already says "Disconnect HUAWEI Mobile Connect" then the Mifi is connected and working.

Now run the DC-Unlocker client from the icon now on your desktop. (Make sure that the 3 Wifi Manager software that you may have installed, is not running before starting DC-Unlocker)
You can now click the search button:

After a few seconds you should see something similar to this:

The difference being that yours will say Locked where the arrow is pointing.

When you are ready, click the Buy-Credits button, this will take you to the DC-Unlocker website. You will need to purchase 15 credits to unlock the HUAWEI E5830 you can see the list and credits required here: Unlock Huawei E5830,E5832,E583x,E5836, E5837

Select PayPal and fill in you details:
Credits for: New User
User name: Create a username that does not already exist.
E-mail: Enter a valid email address as you will be sent a password.
Credits: Enter 15 as this is the number required to unlock the Huawei Mifi.

Click confirm
You will be taken to PayPal where you pay 15 Euros for the credits. When complete you will get an email with your username and a password.

Go back to the DC-Unlocker client which should still be running:
Click the Server button shown and fill in the username and password you were sent in the email.
Click the "Check Login" button to make sure everything is working.

Now click the Unlocking button and click Unlock

Within a few seconds the window will refresh and the SIM Lock Status will be unlocked

That's it, you can now use your unlocked 3 Mifi with other carriers and in other countries using locally obtained SIMs. There is a further step to make it fully usable and that will be in a follow up post that I am working on now.

Apple brings iPad launch forward 2 days!!

In an uncharacteristic announcement today (28th of March 2010) Apple spokesperson, Gordon Bennet announced that the iPad launch has been brought forward to the 1st of April.

Mr. Bennet said "Today we are announcing that the iPad launch will occure on Thursday the 1st of April. Apple stores in the US will open at midnight Wednesday to allow customers who had pre ordered to collect in person if they so wished. Deliveries of pre-ordered iPads will continue as advertised and will be delivered on the 3rd of April where possible."

Additionally Mr Bennet announced "To coincide with the iPad launch on the 1st of April we will also be publishing global pricing and avalability of the iPad worldwide"

When asked why the launch had been brought foward, Mr Bennet's response was "that most Apple employees were wanting to take the Easter weekend off as holiday so we changed the dates to accomodate".

I shall be giving away an iPad but you will need the Ken Ray's Secret Crypto Wonder Badge App from the Apple App Store here. Then enter the following code:

Alpha A1: 1 6 29 17 3 7 20 10 10 3

Energy Saving for Geeks

Today has been interesting in that I woke up and went straight to my Mac Pro, that is usually running through the night along with all my other computers, and checked Twitter. I noticed Bill Thompson mention Dr Who, don't know why that caught my eye, I'm not a big fan or anything like that but all the same, there was a link that took me to a recording or a radio interview with Andy Stamford-Clark and engineer at IBM who has wired his Isle of Wight house up to send Tweets when certain things happen.

Then after delving further I found more information about what Andy does and that his setup also monitors and tweets the electricity power consumption of the house as well as individual appliances. It was only the other day when we were faced with paying what equated to be a large electricity bill, almost double what I usually pay and I was wondering what could be drawing so much energy.

The web pages led me to find that what Andy was actually using, was a device that uses a sensor around the main power cable going into the house, that detects the flow of electrical current in the wire and that in turn is displayed wirelessly to a device with an LCD screen. The device also has a serial port allowing it to be connected to a computer. More details here.

For more detail go and take a look at his video presentation and read the interview found here. I have now ordered the monitoring hardware via eBay and I shall blog about it's installation and setup when it arrives.

I have also ordered a Viglen MPC-L for just £104.75 with £11 postage, which will run the setup described by Andy.

IBM is offering the MQTT service for free to those interested in participating in the social side of this project. I can see this becoming an ongoing project for my house in Switzerland. Stay tuned.

Not only does this look like a fun and reasonably cheap project but it can also potentially save you money spent on your energy bills. How cool is that?

My Podcast Debuts

Some people have been asking me about my guest appearances on podcasts so here are the episodes of the International Mac Podcast I have appeared on so far and the Mac 20 Questions.

IMP Live 025 Swiss Paul
IMP Live 029 Terms & Conditions Apply
IMP Live 033 The Clone Wars

Mac20Q PodCast 11

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

If you'd like me to appear on your podcast just drop me an email or contact me via Twitter.

New Swiss Apple Store opening Friday

The new Apple store in Glattzentrum is opening this Friday, the 26th of September at 10am.

The first 1500 customers will get a free Apple t-shirt.
Unfortunatley I won't be there as I have a prior engagement with a few thousand other Harley owners in Italy.
If you go to the Apple store opening, tell me how it went and post some pictures.

New Geneva Apple Store and already a possible lawsuit

I have a colleague who runs his business out of an office that is situated behind the new Apple store on the Rue de Rive in Geneva. The store is due to open before the end of this month and today they powered up the air conditioning systems.

The block that my friend is working in backs onto an open area between the buildings where there are fire escapes and the roof of the ground floor establishments.

Apple's new store runs into the middle of this area and during reconstruction a lot of noise has been generated by the workmen there, so far the neighbours have tolerated this but today seems to be the final straw.

When the air conditioning units were powered up the noise was so great that it would drown out any noise that the workmen had previously generated. Even with all his office windows closed the noise is unbearable he tells me. Prior to the Apple stores refurbishment works it was possible to have the windows open as it was a relatively quiet location compared to the usual noise and bustle of the Geneva high street just the other side of the building.

Residents and other businesses living in the block have already complained so watch out for any new law suits coming Apple's way. Not a great start for the 1st of 3 new stores due to open before the end of the year.
The other two stores are in Bahnhofstrasse, Zurich's exclusive shopping street and until recently said to be the most expensive street in the world. The other store will be in GlattZentrum which outside of Zurich in a large shopping center (mall) near the town of Dubbendorf.

The new Geneva store has already caused some controversy as it is situated only a few doors away from the well known Apple reseller FNAC which sells Apple products alongside other consumer goods.

Macs in Business

Now that I have persuaded a company to go with Apple Macs as their standard client hardware I am now thinking about how to put together the right tools for the job.

So the first machne I have to put together is a MacBook Air and I will install the following software tools:

VMware Fusion 2.0 RC1 with a Windows Vista VM and Micosoft Office 2007.
Superduper
Adium
Office 2008 for the Mac (Maybe)
X-Lite VoIP Softphone
Skype
Skitch

If you know of other applications that I should consider, I'd love to hear from you.