Fake Steve has picked on the iPhone Ireland ripoff. Just don't take the hollywood Oirish accent stuff too personally.

Jaysus! Howja make a fookin phone call with this fookin thing?

After the Sunday Business Post highlighting the rip off of the iPhone in Ireland, lots of other stuff is cropping up now.

Apparently is was in the Mirror today and here is a selection of links discussing the same thing.

The high price of iPhones in Ireland - News.com

Irish telco firm blasts O2/iPhone price package - Silicon Republic

O2 Ireland defends controversial iPhone plans - Mac NN

O2 Ireland defends high iPhone costs

Dear Ms. Danuta Gray

iPhone hits Ireland with rip-off tariffs

O2 - The Irish iPhone Rip-off

iPhone launch 14th March on O2 Ireland...

Found this useful Google Maps setup while browsing shared feeds in my Google Reader. I am finding Google Reader great. I have used the now free NetNewsWire for Mac for years which is also fantastic RSS client but am finding the integration of the Google apps very useful these days. Also really like the way Google are slowly integrating more social elements into their applications. Far more useful than the viral application clutter on Facebook etc.

Irish WiFi Hotspots using Google Maps. Setup by Eirepreneur and updated by many...


View Larger Map

The Sunday Business Post have highlighted the rip off going on with the iPhone in Ireland.

I can't find an online link but they highlight the difference between the packages available in the UK and in Ireland. As they put it, "When it comes to 'Eire surcharge' that mobile operators traditionally levy on Irish customers, its business as usual with the iPhone. Basic package customers pay four ties the tariff per minute than British customers do and five times the texting rate. From the phone's basic cost to its data allowances, we will pay more for less than our counterparts on the same operator in Belfast or London. Only on calls outside package limits is the Irish customer better off.'

The thing is, there are so many minutes in the packages in the UK it makes no difference that the outside package minutes cost more.

Basic Package

I have just read on AppleInsider that O2 will not be implementing Visual Voicemail in Ireland. Thats just nuts. One of the few features that might have kept me wanting a legit is gone.

Two things happened in the last two days. This morning the iPhone was announced for Ireland, as I pretty much expected O2 got it, they had it in the UK so it made sense.

However, also as you would expect the prices are a joke. €399 for the 8GB and €499 for the 16GB. It sells at these prices elsewhere in Europe so I suppose no surprise there.

The other thing that happened was that the Euro reached a new high against the dollar, $1.51. So €399 is now $602, and €499 is $753.49. In the states these two handset models sell at $399 and $499. So even accounting for VAT, we are still looking at over a $100 premium on the handset alone.

Then there are the tarrifs which are as follows:

Additional Data 2c per MB

Voicemail 15C

Well the 1GB data limit it clearly a joke, I don't think much needs to be said on that. We get ripped off for mobile data in Ireland unless you get one of their broadband modems. But if I can buy the modem and get 10gb for 24 euro I don't understand how they couldn't work that into their 100 Euro price plan.

Currently I am on the Business Time 500 plan. For €70 I get 500 minutes talk time, 150 anytime minutes or 250 texts, extra calls are 17c and extra texts 8c.

So price wise the €65 iPhone plan would be the equivalent plan. However, for the privilege of paying out a few hundred for a phone, I would have 150 minutes less talk time, 100 less text and actually pay MORE!! for additional calls and texts.

Only in Ireland.

It has to be said the idea of sticking to my existing plan, getting in a phone from the states, unlocking it and ignoring the fact that I have mobile safari on the phone is still looking like a viable option. Its still likely I will end out getting an iPhone but with these plans they have hobbled the use of a great device.

In the last few weeks we have hit a couple of instances of Irish Banana republic public services.

We moved in to our offices and naturally wondered about how to get our bins collected. We have no room for a wheelie bin. We are on the first floor, we have no access to the back of our building and the front goes straight out on to the street. So we figured its no problem, we will get those stickers for the bags.

So we called Dublin Waste only to be told under the current rules we cannot use bags. Now bear in mind, we can see other people using bags. This was about six weeks ago.

After numerous calls by Naoise we were told we should use a private company, Greenstar. We called them. They didn't come out. Well ok they did but only after calling the guys supervisor on the fourth or fifth call. Then out he comes.

We generate about one bag of waste a week. The guy comes out and explains that we have to buy the bags 200 at a time and in total it will come to about €1500. Now ok, we are a business and I accept the fact that we have to pay for things but paying for four years of bin service in advance seemed a bit much to me.

To top it off at the same time we got a letter "demanding" the first "moiety" of our rates. I highlighted the two words on purpose. Firstly, they demand the rates. This is the first communication we have received about this "moiety". Given we can't even get our bins collected you can imagine how we feel about this. The second problem was I didn't have a clue what a moiety was, unless we are talking quiet man stuff here and someone is a "moiety fella". A quick search turns up the fact that moiety is the old french word for half. So these people who can't even collect our bins and demand our money can speak old French.

In the end Naoise got on the phone to Dublin Waste and threatened them with calls to politicians. The guy then says, while he was on the phone, that the inspector has just approved our request. Hmmm.

This has all happened in the same week that our telco left us without a phone for a week and now I have just been told I am getting no post at home all week as the postman is holidays and there is no cover.

I'm supposed to pay some VAT and PRSI now but I'm just not feeling it.

There is a great new yoga studio called Yoga Flow opening up in Terenure in Dublin 6W shortly. You can sign-up to be alerted to the opening and their newsletter on their site.

We have partnered up with Yoga Flow and Yoga Dublin on an interesting new project more of which will be revealed later. Now, I'm off to do some sun salutations.

Personal note: If someone would open up a Yoga Studio on the Dublin North-side I would be eternally grateful. Somewhere along the coast between Clontarf and Howth would be ideal. :D

Google have a new blog covering their mapping products. Now, if they would only get some decent maps of Ireland into their products. I have never seen an explanation for why Google has terrible maps for Ireland. Does anybody know?
Both Yahoo maps and Microsoft's live maps have proper detailed maps for Ireland so is a mystery to me as to why Googles are so poor.

World Wind from Nasa, an open source project now available in Java looks to be a really interesting project. At the JavaOne conference in San Francisco Sun's CTO of software and Patrick Hogan of Nasa demonstrate their new open source geospatial browser in this video from CNet.

With the Irish Elections getting closer, web coverage is getting better. RTE have launched their election site which has lots of useful info, including info on what candidates are running where. Some more sites with election info and coverage:

http://www.rockthevote.ie/ Irish Times Election Coverage

Fintan Palmers blog has some coverage of Barcamp Dublin which was on over the weekend. We would loved to have gone but we had other commitments. Will really have to try and make the next one. Great to see some events like this happening in Ireland now.

More about Barcamp Ireland here: http://barcamp.org/BarCampIreland3

Perspectives on the Dublin market. Current market problems are a temporary setback and this makes it an opportune time to buy, says Mark FitzGerald in the Irish Times.

Future Shock:Property Crash which was shown on RTE the other night offers an extremely pessimistic view of the Irish Property Market and is presented in a laughable way with doom laden music, and at certain points, film like visuals which seem to have been inspired by Hitchcock or David Lynch. Also features sinister voices.

Prime Time has some discussion on the what's possibly going to happen to the property market here. Professor Morgan Kelly of UCD and Jim Power of Friends First offer differing views. You will need Real Player to watch the videos on RTE. It's a pity RTE don't offer the ability to embed videos in your blog yet. Though it is great they are putting more video content up the web now and the new site is a great improvement.

The impression we get here, is that some people almost seem to be willing a property crash on. Others obviously want to talk it up positively as it is in their interest. Somewhere in the middle there is reality, which seems to indicate a cooling market/soft landing in progress without all the drama.

The Dublin Docklands Development Authority has unveiled a dramatic design for the new Luas Bridge across the Royal Canal at Docklands North Lotts.

More details here...

I have to say I applaud the Irish Government for making the effort on E-Government.

We had to do our first annual return recently and it was great to be able to use the web based system to file the return. The system also has a lot of helpful prompts when you make a mistake which of course a paper form can just never do.

There was one silly problem though. I got to the end of the form and everything validated fine and then it explains I needed an account with CRO.ie, right at the very end. Now to get this account you have to fill out and post a paper based form. Had they have explained this at the start I would have filled it out in advance but now I have to wait on the Irish postal system.