Click below to
find interesting
information from our
November 2010
newsletter
relating to:
Roaming
Travel
Mobile phones
Roaming
Roaming
awareness
Many New
Zealanders using
their phones in
Australia are
unsure of how
much they are
paying for the
service.
Although we
haven't seen a
similar survey
of Australian
travellers, we
think the
results would be
similar.
Over
the past few
months, the NZ
Ministry of
Economic
Development has
been surveying
travellers
returning from
Australia.
Results show
many travellers
are unsure of
what they are
paying for and
how much it
costs to use
their mobile
when overseas.
Although the
vast majority of
respondents
travelled with
their phone,
more than 20 per
cent were unsure
how much they
would be charged
to receive a
call and 53 per
cent did not
know if they
would be charged
to receive a pxt
(picture text).
vRoam offers
Australian
travellers a
cheaper
post-paid
alternative.
Travel
A380 - a
setback
for the
superjumbo
In
the news
recently
has been
Qantas'
engine
failure
near
Singapore
on one
of their
flagship
A380
super-jumbos.
The
Rolls-Royce
#2
engine
had what
is known
as an
"uncontained
failure"
of its
intermediate-pressure
turbine
section
which
caused
pieces
of the
engine
to fly
off at
extremely
high
speed,
some
parts
shooting
through
the wing
and
disabling
quite a
few of
the
A380's
systems
(including
control
to the
#1
engine
further
along
the
wing).
The
flight returned
relatively
uneventfully to
Singapore,
although it is
now clear that
the passengers
had a large
degree of luck
on their sides
(the failure
could have been
much worse), and
a large degree
of experience
(the flight crew
in particular
did a superb job
of controlling
the more than 50
systems faults
that ensued and
landing with
little further
incident). It
appears that
internal oil
leaks caused an
internal oil
fire that
triggered the
catastrophic
damage.
Other A380s
flying with
Singapore
Airlines have
been grounded,
and it would
appear that
quite a few
engines may need
overhauling once
a fix is
available from
Rolls Royce. The
Qantas aircraft
will need
substantial
repairs.
Emirates
Airlines, which
also flies the
A380 albeit with
a completely
different
engine, is
unaffected by
the Qantas-type
problem.
Mobile phones
Second-hand
smartphones
An analysis
by Disklabs of
second-hand
smartphones
purchased on
e-Bay has shown
that more than
half contain
private personal
information.
Typical
information
contained on the
handsets
included
non-deleted text
messages,
photos,
recently-called
numbers (on the
call logs), home
addresses, even
PIN numbers and
credit-card
information.
Increasingly,
personal
information is
contained in
apps installed
on the phone.
A large
number also had
the
International
Mobile Equipment
Identity number
(IMEI - the
serial number of
the handset)
changed. This
indicates that
the handset was
previously lost
or stolen. You
can find a
phone's 15-digit
IMEI by dialling
*#06# and you
can check its
validity at
www.numberingplans.com.
So, if
selling a
handset, a
factory-reset is
probably the
safest way to
erase personal
data. if buying
a second-hand
phone, check it
is a valid one.
Also look out
for encryption
apps that help
keep personal
information safe
(there aren't
too many yet,
but surely they
will appear to
meet the
demand).
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