iPhone in Hawaii

Hawaii will probably be one of the last places where people in the United States will be able to get the highly anticipated Apple iPhone. While I am a big Apple fan and user of Macs and iPods, an iPhone is not a device that I am getting anytime soon. Sure there is a coolness factor associated with it and that it is laden with all kinds of neat features including audio & video playback, web surfing, text messaging and well... talking on the phone too.

Frankly I don't own a cell phone and may be one of the few people in the world that choose not to own one. The iPhone as cool as it may be, will not push me into the ranks of the millions of cell phone users.

For those waiting in line at various locations around Hawaii... "good luck". I hope you get an iPhone today. For those who will wait for later or wait forever, but want to see what the fuss is all about, check the following video feed from Hawaii:

HawaiiGeek.TV

Ryan, a self professed geek and early adopter will hopefully be lucky enough to snag one of the coveted iPhones and share his experience with all those who have or want one. Enjoy!

Kilauea Rocked by Earthquakes

A swarm of small earthquakes have hit the Big Island’s Hawaii Volcanoes Natonal Park area for more than 24 hours now. The quakes range from undetectable micro quakes to locally felt tremors of 3.2 to 4 on the Richter Scale. All of the quakes have been centered at Kilauea Volcano’s upper rift zone several miles above the current, active eruption.

As a precaution, park rangers evacuated a handful of campers within the national park and closed most of the park yesterday.

The earthquake swarm could be a signal that a change may be happening with the current eruption and that a new eruption could begin. Scientists are not exactly sure and say this is unusual activity for the volcano. The earthquakes also mean that hot lava is moving fairly close to the surface, about 1 to 2 miles under the volcano.

I just hope this latest geological activity on the Big Island does not trigger any earthquakes that are larger than yesterday’s 4.0, which was apparently only felt within the local area, and not statewide. No tsunami was generated.

• Kilauea Rumbles with 260 Earthquakes
• Kilauea Quakes may herald Lava Breakout
• Hawaii Island Earthquake Map
• Hawaii Volcano Observatory
• Discussion Topic @ HawaiiThreads.com

NOW is the time to Take Advantage of the Low Inter-island Air Fares

Lively, on-going discussion taking place at the HawaiiThreads.com website regarding the inter-island air far war. There are definitely two camps in this ongoing debate. Non airline industry types and consumers like me who appreciate what Go! Airlines has done to make inter-island travel affordable again; and those industry-insiders and sympathizers who take every moment to criticize Go! as a "predatory" airline.

What Go's critics fail to understand is that the public loves the opportunity the fare war has offered them. My recent post on the subject follows:

As consumers go, most people don't care about an airlines' long term future if another firm in the same market is offering a good to extraordinary deal on ticket prices and travel.

Pricing is for now. The public makes up their mind as to whether or not to fly NOW and not 2, 3 or 5 years down the road, when perhaps there will only be one or two airlines.

NOW is the time for cheap fares.

NOW is the time consumers take advantage of those cheap fares, whether they be a dollar, $9, $19, $29 or $39. Most people don't care if it is Go, Hawaiian or Aloha. Whoever has the cheapest seat NOW will get the public's cash to fly to a neighbor island.

If in the future when one of the airlines leaves the market, and prices do inevitably go up, then you know what... the traveling public will adjust. They will cut back on flying inter-island and see grandma or grandpa not 2 or 4 times a year, but maybe only once a year, or once every 2 years.

If Go drives Hawaiian or Aloha out of business then surely Go and the remaining incumbent will raise prices and the public will adjust.

If the the 2 incumbents drive Go out of the market, they for sure will raise prices, and the public will adjust. Maybe not for the good of the airlines once they realize the sticker shock of $119 inter-island fare for coach class seating again as the bargain rate.

But that is in the future. The time is NOW and the bargains are to be had NOW. People have taken advantage of the fare reductions.

Surely $1 fares were the cause of Go's website crash because the DEMAND was created. The demand for $39 fares (which is a good price) on the same day as the $1 fare was simply not there, noting that both Hawaiian and Aloha's websites functioned normally as they always do.

So yes, the traveling public took advantage of the fares and tried to get in. At offices all over the state the next day after the Go fare, people were asking "did you get the dollar ticket"? Most like me probably did not, but I am happy for the people who did.

Thanks Go! for making inter-island travel affordable, even if it is only for NOW.

Who knows, there may not be a tomorrow. Enjoy the ride!

Read the thread topic and the follow-ups to my post. When it comes down to consumerism, having choices, whether they be airlines, restaurants, grocery stores or kinds of cars to drive, having a range of them with competitive prices will always win the day for me.

Photo: I flew on Go! last year and found their flight to be quite pleasant. This is the CRJ-200 aircraft that Go flies inter-island. Photo by Mel.

Fare War Brings Price Down to $2!

So today, Mesa Airlines Go! subsidiary offered inter-island flights for as low as ONE DOLLAR each way, based on a round-trip ticket. Needless to say I tried in vain to access Go's website and obtain a couple of these tickets on trips planned for later in the year. All morning, to no avail, could I connect to Go's website. Seems that demand for $1 tickets have seemingly outstripped the capacity of the website and almost certainly the amounted quota of 1,000 seats being offered during the 12 hour promotion.

I already secured $9 one-way tickets for a $30 round-trip to Hilo on Hawaiian Airlines after Go! held another promotion at the end of last month. My price for that round-trip which comes up June 26 was $18 plus another $11.80 for an airport "security fee" (read: Terrorist Tax). The same tax will apply to the $2 R/T that is being offered today.

$30 or $20 for a round-trip, the tickets to the neighbor islands are now certainly cheaper than filling my Toyota Corolla with a full tank of gas! The low interisland air fares won't continue forever. Someone will take a hit before this expensive game of chicken between the local interisland carriers ends, and after that prices will certainly shoot up to pre June 2006 levels.

Until then take advantage of the bargains while you can and enjoy the ride!

• $ 2 Round Trip, StarBulletin.com, June 11, 2007.

Graphic: A rarity for interisland flying: $1 tickets. Thanks Go!

Fair Use Rights Threatened by Proposal

I received the following from the folks at Defective By Design, an advocacy group that champions fair use rights for digital media:

Last weekend DBD members hit the streets to spread the word about DRM (story and pictures), Disney and Big Media's backing for the proposed Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 (IPPA2007).

This week we're helping spread the word online. The EFF is running an email campaign to contact your elected officials in Washington urging them to oppose the IPPA2007.

The Department of Justice has drafted this outrageous legislative proposal that threatens ordinary Americans with jail time and the sort of property forfeiture penalties applied in drug busts for P2P users, mixtape makers, and mash-up artists. The law would stiffen penalties for "attempted infringement", basically removing the requirement that the government or Big Media companies actually prove that infringement occurred. The IPPA would also authorize massive wiretapping to investigate copyright infringement by individuals. The government has plenty of tools to investigate and prosecute large scale criminal enterprises engaging in bootlegging, the IPPA will target every citizen.

This legislation will be a boon to Big Media by getting US taxpayers to foot the bill for what should be civil law matters, not criminal. Say no to the IPPA and send a message to your representatives urging them to oppose it.

In Solidarity,

Gregory, Peter, Henri and the DRM Elimination Crew

Once again the big media companies and the government is trying to take away traditional fair use rights from consumers in regards to digital media. This must be stopped.

It was 40 Years Ago Today

It was 40 Years Ago Today
Originally uploaded by macprohawaii

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" by The Beatles was released to the world on this date, June 1, 1967 on Capitol Records. I've owned this album and variations of it on LP vinyl, cassette, Playtape cartridge, CD and now on MP3 (ripped from my CD). 40 years ago, I never imagined I'd be listening to this classic album on a CD, much less on a Macintosh computer or an iPod!

It's coincidental that Apple Computer and EMI Records started selling DRM-free music at the iTunes Store this week after making a big announcement about this in April. I was pleasantly surprised to see iTunes feature the back catalog of Paul McCartney to the iTunes store in conjunction with the EMI tracks. Could The Beatles classic recordings such as Sgt. Pepper be making it to digital soon?

Additional Links

• Sgt. Peppers' Lonely Hearts Club Band
• The Beatles official website
• iTunes User Reports at Macintouch
• Apple Launches iTunes Plus
• iTunes Plus Personal Info Raises Hackles
• Beatles coming to iTunes in 2008

Photo: Taken from my Power Mac G4 running iTunes while playing the Sgt. Pepper album.