Apple iPad has arrived to New Zealand. We are not endorsing or denouncing the product, but our CEO Mark Weldon and Melbourne based tech developers Justin French and Marcus Crafter have been using them for some time.

They are happy to share some views about this much-hyped product with you.

What’s good about it?

Team comment:

“It’s better than my MacBook because it’s more portable, it’s lighter, it feels faster and has fewer distractions. It encourages focus, it has better battery life, it’s instantly available, it’s casual, it has a 3G connection to the internet from anywhere.”

• Lightweight

• Portability

• Long battery life

• Instant availability

• Good screen size

• Great at consuming information: reading email, browsing web, twitter, video/audio and podcasts

What doesn’t work well?

Team comments:

“Just like the iPhone, it’s a pain to have to synchronise with a computer. Plugging in to get OS updates, do a backup, or sync new music/podcasts is such a pain. They’ll eventually do it all over the air of course. It’s confusing in that it’s still only an accessory to a computer: you still need a computer with iTunes to sync with, you actually have to plug it in to activate the device. It’s not (yet) a true replacement for a computer.”

“My sense is that Apple is about to run into a wall managing the complexity of multiple formats across both software and hardware.”

• On screen keyboard

• Wifi

• Integration with other Apple devices

• Synchronisation

• Developing applications

• Creating, importing and exporting documents

How good tool it is for a business user?

Team comments:

“You can’t directly save or version your own documents. Pages handles saving automatically for you and lets you see all of your prior documents on an initial scrollable start-up screen. If you want to get your documents out of the iPad, or bring existing ones into it, you need to undergo a cumbersome process of importing and exporting them, either through iTunes, e-mail or by using a third-party application.”

“It depends on your job. I can’t really write software on it, my brother can’t really record music on it, but for most people, I imagine it does enough to negate the need for a laptop in meetings or on business trips — deal with email, deal with most documents, catch-up on news, access that file you really need.”

• Saving documents is cumbersome

• Exporting and importing documents difficult

• Good on catching up news, reading e-mails

• Easy to take with you when travelling

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Posted by Merja on July 29th, 2010 :: Filed under General, Hi-Tech
Tags :: NZX Tech, technology

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There has been quite a bit of interest amongst commentators about IPOs in the New Zealand market. NZX CEO Mark Weldon has been asked his views, which appeared in the NZ Herald on 24 July.

From the story:

Takeovers could wipe NZ Farming Systems Uruguay and Affco from the NZX but Weldon said he was more interested in the future than any losses.

“It’s the birth rate we need to fix rather than the death rate,” he said, predicting a return to vogue of capital notes, debt instruments favoured in the past by big businesses like Fletcher Building.

“Last year, we had $6.6 billion of new capital raised on the market, of which $3.3 billion was bonds, and a lot of that was to restructure balance sheets,” he said.

This year was slower. New Zealand’s thin market and lack of listings was nothing unusual internationally, he said, and the lack of capital was a big constraint on business overseas and here.

“It’s been very shallow in terms of listings. Companies are stockpiling cash rather than undertaking construction or new investment. It’s an important macro-economic question to ask where money might come from. Clearly, it’s good that shonky finance companies have gone but on the other hand, subordinated debt is a good thing if it’s managed well. We might start to see capital notes on NZX again but it will take some time before any mezzanine finance comes back because now everything has to go through Reserve Bank regulations.”

PS. Just a reminder what has been going on the world stock markets in the first half of the year. Market capitalisation in the Americas dropped 7.8% in first half of this year, 9.3% in Asia-Pacific and 18.4% in Europe/Middle East/Africa. This means an average drop of 11.5% in USA dollar terms.

Link to the Herald article:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10660830

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Posted by Merja on July 26th, 2010 :: Filed under General

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