iDevice therefore iAm

Not much has changed since launch day - getting your hands on an iPhone 4 is still easier said than done. Photo / Dean Purcell

I went into a Vodafone shop in Queen Street, Auckland last week and said 'my contract is about to expire, I'd like an iPhone 4 please'. They didn't exactly laugh; they were very polite. They said 60 iPhone 4s arrived last week and were gone in under 120 minutes.

I said 'can I pay for one and collect it when it arrives?' Nope. I had to put my name on a list, and if some arrive they will contact me, then it's first come first served. I put my name on the list.

If you've got one, how about telling us what you think, so far? And what you experience with reception. Please comment away.

How many NZ iPhones?

How about the number of iPhones In New Zealand? I am starting to see them everywhere. At the beginning of this year, I heard a figure of 30,000. Now some are saying it's more like 200,000, which sounds extraordinarily high.

Mauricio Freitas on GeekZone claimed 100,000, so National Business Review's Chris Keall asked corporate consultancy Frost & Sullivan just after they released a report on the Australasian and Asia-Pacific smartphone markets.

The corporate consultancy reckons the installed base of iPhones in New Zealand has reached 200,000.

Yeah, well I don't know. I am waiting for Kontact X at Vodafone to call me and, in her breathy, perhaps artificially masked voice, say 'warm', 'not warm' or 'you've got to be bleeding joking!' (But I'd say Mauricio is closer.)

Win an iPhone 4

Meanwhile, more and more NZ apps are appearing in the iTunes Store. George FM is an example. Somehow, George got an iPhone 4 and is prepared to give it away to someone who buys a ticket to CreativeTech, the Apple-centric tech conference that takes place September 10th and 11th at AUT's central Auckland campus.

CreativeTech, in case you haven't heard, starts geeky and deep with lots of developer stuff, then ends in a Kiwi celebration of Mac - and all things Apple.

All you have to do is have a ticket, then text the invoice number (it's emailed to you) to 966 along with the word 'CreativeTech'.

Sounds great, but people worry that they won't hear the draw when it's announced live on Friday 3rd September, just one week before the conference starts. George is only available on the airwaves in Auckland ... but it doesn't matter. You can buy the George FM iPhone app - it's just $2.59 and also works on the iPad. Failing that, you can listen online.

Food and people

Yellow Pages and menus.co.nz are another couple of new apps that are worthwhile.

Yellow Pages is from the Yellow Pages Group NZ, and it's free. It lets you search the Yellow and White pages anytime, and you can save numbers into your Contacts with one touch and get Google Maps directions to an address.

The app menus.co.nz helps you find the nearest Pizza place, takeaways under $20 and more, helping you explore the world of NZ food listed by the site. It's also free.

While we're talking about food, Subway is a NZ-designed app too, for the Subway fast food chain. Which might strike you as a little ass as Subway is a US chain. Nevertheless, with this free app, you can order Subway menu items remotely, and check your Subcard balances from iPhone or iPod touch. Nifty.

It was developed by New Zealand mobile technology development company Altaine. The iPhone application locates a customer's closest Subway store, lets you save your favourite order or reorder exactly what you had last time, and it features product images from the menu.

The new application integrates Altaine's QJMP architecture implemented by Subway restaurants in 2007.

iDevices for kids

In the US, you hear of schools giving iDevices away to students like apple-flavoured lollies at CreativeTech. Over here, there are certain budgetary constraints, but it has been proved by visionaries like Dorothy Burt (who is speaking both days at CreativeTech, BTW) that an investment in IT can really pay big dividends in learning, literacy and in raising kids' aspirations.

Berkley Normal Middle School in Hamilton, a school of 650 year 7, 8, and 9 students, started integrating iPod touches into the school in term 4 of last year. The school held a public meeting in November expecting 30-50 people, but got more than 450 come to hear Stuart Hale, who then worked at Renaissance, speak about the iPod in education. Teacher Greg Wallace told me: "We had a large response - and 220 students turned up on the first day this year with an iPod touch of their own. These are spread throughout the school and so we have about 8-12 per class."

Berkley's principal, John Crone, then went on an Apple Schools Tour to California with Stuart Hale in April this year. On returning, staff decided they needed a class with a one-to-one ratio to try and explore the educative possibilities in more detail. The school subsequently purchased 20 iPod touches to make up the difference for Greg's class. "The touches arrived in class about week 7 last term ... So far we've been using them for lots of obvious things; internet access, calculators, dictionaries, thesauruses, taking notes etc. These are all valuable benefits of the iPod touch and now the aim is to take it past the obvious and simple and use them for more creative, meaningful activities.

"We regularly use maths, reading and spelling games (Pop Math, Flow Math, Scamble, Word Bubble etc) for a lead-in to maths and literacy activities and find that student engagement is immediate and intense.

"We have also used Reel Director as a way of presenting our ideas in movie form. Students worked out how to use the app in about five minutes and came up with some very good finished products."

Greg says there are some excellent language apps for students. too. "Our school iPods have approximately $118 worth of apps on them and there is a huge range that will no doubt expand as quickly as the app store does."

The school website has more information about iPods in the school, including information for parents about restrictions and safety etc.

As usual, I'm always keen to hear your news.

- Mark Webster mac-nz.com