iPhone Pricing For New Zealand

Australia is getting the iPhone on prepaid. The 8GB iPhone 3G will be $729 ($928 NZD) and the 16GB iPhone 3G will be $849 ($1080 NZD). Italy will be getting the iPhone prepaid as well. It will cost €499 ($1036 NZD) for a 8GB iPhone 3G or €569 ($1181 NZD) for the 16GB model. Now this leaves Vodafone New Zealand to release pricing. We can expect New Zealand to pay a bit more than Australia because, we always pay more and it's a smaller market. It is good to see that Australia is paying less than Italy but that could just be because of the VAT (20% in Italy, 10 in Australia). New Zealand has GST (VAT) of 12.5% so I think the NZ price will be more like the Australian one. I believe that it will be $950 for the 8 GB version and $1100 for the 16 GB one.

You never know, it may be cheaper to buy it in South Africa!

New Zealand Getting iPhone In July 2008

There is not a lot of competition for the Apple iPhone when it comes to NZ in July, the Nokia N96 is really good but it costs quite a bit more than the iPhone. Vodafone New Zealand has announced that it will be coming so here is looking forward to it :)

Vodafone announces the iPhone is coming.

NZ Herald article with a bit more detail on the launch.

I don't have one so lets ban it

As found here; The current Transport Minister Annette King and the Transport Safety Minister Harry Duynhoven are now discussing "banning radar detectors and other detection and interference devices". This will require law changes to define what you can and can not have in your car. Why don't we ban hot coffee or screaming children? We are talking about introducing a penalty of 25 demerit points for failing to wear a seatbelt! A seatbelt should be optional right? If you want to hurt yourself a bit extra or die in a crash thats your business. This is another case of the New Zealand government getting far too involved in your life. They brand it as making us safer but does it achieve that? One could argue that if you banned everything but drinking and eating you would be safe but what's the fun in that. This bloated government that thinks we don't know how to run our own lives has got to stop. To those that actually think the government knows better than you. "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both." Happy Holidays all

Should party pills be banned?

Why won' t a simple no suffice. Why should be ban anything? Because people are bad at making decisions. So we get special 'people' to make the decision for us. That special people I am referring to is the New Zealand government. I don't even want to use the party pills because I am informed on them and they don't entice me. Don't worry, I won't deprive you from having them.

link: Should party pills be banned?

KiwiSaver Hurting Non-Profit Research

KiwiSaver was created to incurage savings so that people can have more money when they are 65 and older. This is New Zealand's superannuation plan. The government forces businesses to contribute to KiwiSaver and then compensates them with tax breaks. This can work for a business that pays taxes. What about non-profit organisations? They get no incentive but must also contribute. This seems to be a loophole that is not publicised much. Non-profit research in New Zealand just took a 4% hit of all donations forever!

New Zealand's Power Cut Tragedy: The Facts

The news stations and websites have been making a huge deal about cutting someones power and them dying. There are very simple reasons why it shouldn't have happened but they seem to be overlooked. Firstly, someone who is reliant on power should not be put in a standard house as power cuts do happen often enough that you probably wouldn't survive 6 months. Secondly, pay your power bills on time all the time if you think that losing power will affect your well being. The Press wrote a reasonably non biased article trying to play down some of the craziness that has been going on here. The Prime minister has even jumped on the band wagon to try and gain popularity. Possibly because she is very unpopular right now.

A Slap On The Hand To Be Illegal In New Zealand

Why is New Zealand trying to ban smacking children for discipline? I truly cannot understand why the government needs to do a straight out ban on it. I don't support smacking children and I think if I had children I wouldn't smack them. It would be more like a last resort. If they ban smacking I won't be able to even deter them with saying I will smack them. Parents might have to result to punishment that won't leave marks like some forms of water torture like waterboarding although I hope they don't take it that far. I got a few smacks when I was younger but my mum at dad knew that every time they did it, I lost a little bit of respect for them. You could see it in my eyes. They eventually found a way to get what they wanted without smacking but maybe others don't know how. I suppose I have to leave it up to them as it's their children as we created the government to help us, not tell us how to raise our kids.