Sunday 29 June 2008

Witopia now offers PPTP

You remember I bashed Witopia a while ago due to its usage of the Witopia offers PPTPWindows OpenVPN client and their stupid refereres trying to cash in on my page rank for VPN. Well now Witopia VPN has launched a PPTP service, which will offer easier integration than the old OpenVPN stuff.

OpenVPN got lots of problems on Microsoft Platforms - and have given me plenty of headackes. But with PPTP you get little less safe VPN than with open vpn – but no hassels on Windows or iPhone VPN.

Head over to Witopia http://www.witopia.net/ and sign up. And I’m NOT affiliated with them in any way! Performance have never been an issue on Witopia - so they are safe. Use the “iPhone or Whatever option” to get PPTP that works with iPhone and Windows without any problems!

Nokia S60v3 E90 VPN officially available from Nokia

It has been a long wait but now in silence Nokia Business solutions have released an updated VPN client for S60v3.1. So now in theory my E90 should be able to connect to my Cisco Pix

Nokia VPN New features:
Policy Maker application – a windows based software that helps you generate the policy file from your windows desktop. No longer a need for hand making a policy file and then “encrypt” and “sign” it. So a one-step policy file maker!

Nokia E90 optimized!

But the big problem is still that you need a VPN setup (like sip) for EACH of your Network connections. So on settings file for each 3G network. One settings file for each WiFi link. Why the Network settings are not just “online or offline” like iPhone or Windows Mobile – I still do not understand.

Nokia – please solve it so we have a “network connection center” and just can tick off which WWAN/WiFi access points that the VPN should use for tunneling!

But head over to download from
http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/mobile_vpn_downloads.php

Unfortunately Cisco instructions are still not there – so if any of you are better VPN experts than me – then please ping me with PIX setup instructions.

Friday 6 June 2008

What's in the Box? The 3G iPhone Lands Down Under

Just saw this on MacTalk forums and though you deserved to know:


The 3G iPhone Lands Down Under?

Late yesterday afternoon MacTalk received the above photo from a very reliable source who can not be named for obvious reasons (fear of assassination by the Apple Secret Police I presume). Word on the street is that resellers across the country have also received similar packages. As seen by the picture, it's contents are protected under NDA until Tuesday June 10 - does that date ring a bell to anyone?

What's in the Box? The 3G iPhone Lands Down Under - MacTalk Forums.

Thursday 5 June 2008

HP Overcharging in the Middle East

As you might know – I do a lot of photography – about 10-15.000 images a year. To print them out I currently HP Z3100 US Pricehave a HP DesignJet 130nr 24” printer. I like the printer – but the head keeps drying up – despite AC on constant temperature, and humidity about 50–55 pct.


But now I want to upgrade to the HP DesignJet Z3100. In the US the retail price is $3.395 – quite okay price. So I went to investigate what the price is in Dubai (where rumor says everything is cheap..) – and much to my surprise the exact same printer here is almost twice the price. $6050. YES - $6050.


And that is EXCLUSIVE of a $1.000 trade in discount you can get in the US. AND excluding taxes which I can only assume is excluding the 4.7% import duty in the UAE. And we are talking the EXCACT same model – the Q5669A.
So why is that?


Of course a premium has to be paid for transport. But $3000? For US$3000 I can get a 21’ container to transport it to the UAE – all alone in the container! Or I could even buy 2 – and have one as a spare parts here. HP Z3100 Middle East price - twice as high!

But who knows why HP is overcharging here. They might think everyone is a Petro Dollar Sheik? Or do HP think people in the Middle East are less clever than in the rest of the world? Or is there something else they are not telling us?


So in the US i can do a trade-in and get the Z3100 for $2.395. Here I have to pay $6050. That is a 152% overcharge…