Some exciting developments have taken place over the past couple of months in Malta when it comes to acquiring a new Mac. Whereas previously we had the monolithic BDS, then bought out by Gasan who merged it with another company to form SG Solutions being the only supplier of Macs and Apple products on the island, now we have Klikk becoming the second officially recognised retail partner.

SG have in the past tried to have their Macs sold through a network of local retailers but let’s say it wasn’t an inspired move. Also, in a move which surely has irked Klikk, Scan have started selling Macs too. However, there is no literature to indicate they are an official Mac distributor and where they source their stock from. Training staff for after sales is something very important and it’s all part of the renowned Mac experience, abroad at least! But one thing is for certain, wherever Scan are getting their Macs from (options are SG solutions or parallel importing), they sure know how to compete on price.

There was a time not too long ago where pricing a Mac Pro vis a vis the US price showed a rediculous price difference of some Lm300 - that’s almost €700 or the price of a flight to NYC. OK, it’s never fair to compare local prices with the US, comparisons with EU prices were still not at all favourable. When the Euro was introduced here comparisons were even easier. However, Mac prices were still quite more expensive. Now, thanks to Klikk and Scan competing with prices for all to see on their respective websites, I have finally seen a Mac with the identical sticker price as in another EU country.

Here’s the pricing of a Mac Book Pro:
SG Solutions €POA
Klikk €1,819.00
Scan  €1,799.00
Apple.com Ireland online store - €1,799.00

So there you have it - and the pricing follows similar patterns with Klikk’s prices between a few euro more expensive than Ireland and Scan’s being more or less the same. However, Klikk has more models in stock and more accessories. Both didn’t have Mac Pro pricing on their sites but right now I’d have to sell a kidney or two to afford one at the moment. They are an official partner so warranties and after sales should be better, hopefully time will tell. One very annoying thing about Klikk however, is that their site is almost completely unusable on Safari.

This morning I visited three retailers in the search of a 20″ + lcd monitor to use with my macbook. My requirements were simple - it had to be over 20″ and under €250. Most 24″ - 26″ were out of my budget, I was therefore left with models between 20″ and 24″. I’m handing my g5 + 20″ apple ADC equipped lcd to my sister, so monitor size was a definite issue. I’m used to working on large displays - at work I have 2×19″ displays side by side and my ideal system would prolly be 2 x 26″ displays.

Now when I said my requirements were simple… I lied! I’m a geek and a designer, a monitor is extremely important to me. I didn’t want to buy online because I wanted to see it in person and I want to return it if I find a single dead pixel! My other main requirements were again simple - it had to be branded and it had to have a DVI connector. I was perhaps given about 6 models from the 3 retailers which matched all my requirements. All but one - they lacked DVI! One display attendant at Scan tried to convince me that all new monitors don’t even bother to include DVI and that there wasn’t any difference. Well in the past I’ve seen the difference and guess what… my macbook adaptor is DV fucking I. I have a VGA one too but that’s for my TV.

And why should new LCDs be equipped only with VGA 15pin D-sub connectors? It’s symptomatic of how the PC industry hangs on to legacy ports. Apple admittedly goes to the other extreme, killing off legacy ports completely and abruptly… But on my G5 which is 5 years old I have a DVI out and an ADC, on my 2 year Mac Pro at work I have 2 X dvis. Now I bought a PCIX graphics card for a work PC and it had three connectors - one DVI, one HDMI and lo and behold… a VGA connector.  Grow up PC world - cut out PS2, serial and VGA. It’s a wonder we have any advancements. Don’t get me wrong legacy connectors can be very useful but there is legacy and then there is antique. The only monitor I came across that matched my needs was some OEM brand and it was quite ugly to be honest. My mistake was not taking my laptop with me to ask for a proper test. The in shop multi monitor adaptor didn’t do any of the displays justice.

So I had to order online like I’ve done for my modems and hard drives. Let’s hope well.

It finally happened, Malta has finally caught up with the rest of the third world and had its very own iPhone launch day. I was told people were queuing up to pick up their ordered iPhones from various Vodafone outlets. I even got a little email from the local apple agents…

Will I be getting one? Not unless it’s a present from some rich admirer (donations towards the iphone fund will be accepted).My ipod touch and cheapo phone are enough for now and I’ve spent too much on toys of late.

The pricing isn’t awful but could be better. The most interesting price for the local consumer is the prepaid contract free package which is actually just the iPhone. The 8gb model comes in at €515 whilst the 16gb model weighs in at a hefty €599 - thats €15 and €30 more expensive than in Italy. 

Full pricing for the iPhone from Vodafone Malta can be found here - I will try and compile comparison charts with other countries in the coming days. 

A pre-registration page has appeared on the malta vodafone site. I don’t want the iPhone so bad as to pre register. I want to know what the price plans are and if it will be available prepaid. Ah well. I’m off to try and fix my stylesheet.

Being the grumpy dissatisfied SOB (son of a bat) that I am, I’m not content with ripping Melita a new one, Go - my ISP, Malta’s national telecoms company and main competitor to Melita, deserves a Frogbattian lament too. Quite simply, I’ve been overpaying my internet bill for the past couple of months. \\\although it is mainly my fault because I kept forgetting to deal with it.

Basically, every Trade fair or ITT fair for the past 2 years has seen Go and Melita try and one up each other with their offers. Being a longstanding and long suffering Maltanet customer I was pleased to see them revise their rates and offers. However when it came to my online payment options I was stuck with my previous price. I had a faster connection now, supposedly 12mbps rather than the previous 6, and my bandwidth was a whopping 200gb. Howevr, this was a carry over package. Their official packages offered less bandwidth and a cheaper price. Also, more importantly – i was still connecting at about 7-8mbps. My phoneline it seems does not support faster connections for the time being.

I called and rectified the situation by asking for a downgrade. I am now paying half what I was previously, and compared to before am still getting more bandwidth. The funny thing is, I’d rather stick with these guys than jump on Melita especially since it was my fault really. The whole point of this little post was that people should check to see if they’re overpaying for a service they’re not getting in full.

The above video clip is from Apple CEO’s Steve Jobs’ Worldwide Developer Conference keynote address. Basically every year Apple organises a developers’ conference where the Apple developers congregate and clap the latest announcements from Cupertino. Often, it’s been used to announce new consumer products. Case in point - this year’s unveiling of the new iPhone 3G. Not only (as mentioned in a previous post) has Apple listed Malta as one of the 70 countries it will be available in, but at the end of the presentation announcing the countries, Steve Jobs remarks that the next time someone is Malta they can get themselves an iPhone! His tone was jovial but it might be construed as condescending to our proud nation rock. Oh well we’re on apple’s site And steve Jobs mentioned us any publicity is good publicity isn’t it? I’m just glad I waited out the first gen iPhone. Now we wait with baited breath for the pricing announcements.

Thanks to my PHB for pointing this out.