D-Day: New Zealand Immigration Licensing Act 2007

The Immigration Licensing Act 2007 is enforced today in New Zealand. It is good news for some and sad news for thousands of potential migrants in New Zealand. Imagine you paid NZ$10,000 or $15,000 fee to your unlicensed migration consultant a few months ago for processing your work visa or permit, business migration or skill-shortage migration; your agent cannot proceed to act for you regarding your application. Many are left with delima now and uncertain how to move on to the next step.

This Act is shocker for the "amature" migration consultant; as there are about 171 licensed consultants out of the estimated 1,200 in New Zealand. This Act made it to the front page of New Zealand Herald newspaper, click here for the news. What does the Act says: * All NZ-based immigration advisers must be licensed from today. * Just 171 of the estimated 1200 advisers have so far got licences. * A licence costs $1995. * Unlicensed agents face fines up to $100,000, seven years' jail and reparations. * Overseas-based immigration advisers have until May 2010 to get licensed. You can verify more details information from New Zealand's government website http://www.immigration.govt.nz/ and it stated:

"From 4 May 2009 anyone who provides immigration advice in New Zealand must have a licence from the Immigration Advisers Authority, unless they are exempt from the requirement to hold a licence. From 4 May 2009, Immigration New Zealand will refuse to accept applications from unlicensed onshore advisers."

So, if you are planning to use a professional consultant with proper licensing, please check their names at official Immigration Adviser Authority website, you can searched for licensed consultant here.

If you are lost and need advice, please consult the guidelines on the New Zealand Immigration Service site for specific dettails. If you have more questions or doubt, click here for more information.

Some will claim that they are lincensed or even producing fake/forged licenses to hang on the wall. The one thing to make sure is check the consultant's legal name and verify it on the government IAA website.

Do not simply part with your money, put your faith and build your dream on those unlicensed consultant. Hey, to begin with, the consultant must be able to speak and fleunt English. Reputable and professional immigration consultant do not normall advertise on the media. They get tons of new clients from their success case.

Most noticeable of all are those chap who advertised on the etnic newspaper claimings absurd things like:

"No success, no fee. We standby our words"
"Largest migration consulting group in the world"
"We have helped thousands to get the PR (Permenant Residence)"
"The most trusted migration consultant in New Zealand"
"We the most reputable consultant and considered by many as the experts"

They can claim what they want, they are not legal and licensed consultant unless they real name is listed under the government website.

HTC Touch Theme and Software Download (David Lim, Auckland)

Look no further! I have found out a few links that provide free themese, software download for your HTC Diamond PDA

Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 and Link 4

Window Help: How to Cut and Paste? David Lim, Auckland, New Zealand

Right click on the image and save it to your computer. It is a GIF animated file, really cool to be used with your email attachment!

YouTube helps man deliver baby! Amazing Cyber Stories David Lim, Auckland

Marc Stephens watches an internet video to help deliver his wife's baby

An engineer in Cornwall delivered his baby son after watching an instructional video on YouTube.

Marc Stephens watched the videos as a precaution when his wife Jo started to feel some discomfort.

Four hours later, his wife went into labour and started giving birth before an ambulance could arrive at their home in Redruth.

"I Googled how to deliver a baby, watched a few videos and basically swotted up," Mr Stephens told the BBC.

Jo Stephens said they had planned a home birth, but not quite in this manner.

"I woke up and realised I was having contractions every five minutes," Mrs Stephens said.

"I woke Marc up and we phoned the midwife, but they were all so busy they couldn't come round to our house and told us to call an ambulance. But before it arrived, it all started."

Preparation

A few hours earlier, Mr Stephens has been reading up on home births and how to cope with anything unexpected.

"The videos gave me peace of mind. I think I would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier."

Mr Stephens said his wife was on all fours when he saw the head starting to come out.

"This is our fourth child now and while for our first I spent most of the time at my wife's head, now I'm not afraid to go down to the business end.

"I was still on the phone to the midwife and told her that 'this is it'," he said.

Mr Stephens said he felt no panic, putting his ability to stay calm down to his Royal Navy training.

After delivering the 5lbs 5oz boy, Gabriel, the Stephens went to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske, where both mother and baby got a clean bill of health.

Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition warms up the UK for the movie

As trekkies dust off their costumes and prepare them for the long wait in line for the premiere of J.J. Abrams' reboot, Nokia are offering something to help them accessorize - Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition. It will come preloaded with Trek-related content like a phaser app, which will definitely help fend of people with lightsabre applications. The Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition will be available in the usual color versions - red, blue and black/silver. Remember now, red uniforms are for tactical/engineering, blue are for science officers and silver… Okay, here our treknoledge betrays us. Other content that will come preloaded with the Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition includes Trek wallpapers, screensavers and exclusive ringtones including "Phazer Shot", "Red Alert" and "Kelvin Communicator". Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition will be available in the UK starting May 1st for free with a 25-pounds-a-month contract with either Vodafone, O2, T-Mobile or Orange. It's just in time for the movie, which opens on the 8th of May. Another interesting 5800-related piece of news today is that the phone will launch with Nokia's Comes With Music service in Brazil. During the first month after the launch, it will be available only through Brazilian operator TIM. There's heavy accent placed on Brazilian artists with several domestic labels signed up to deliver content. The phone will be offered for 399 Brazil reais (181 US dollars) with an unlimited data plan. Some promotion-related perks offered by TIM include two months of free download of content and free access to the Internet and email. Nokia 5800 Comes With Music is available in Brazilian stores starting today and everyone who preordered from the online store should get theirs by the end of the week.

Street view, Auckland, New Zealand, April 2009 (David Lim, s, y)

Some street views to share with you all via this blog. Sorry for the low-res as I used only my Nokia E71 phone to take these pictures.

Views are from Karangahape (K'Road) Road, Upper Queen Street, Aucland Central (CBD)

HTC Touch Diamond2: Director’s cut (PDA, Phone, Review, David, Lim)

HTC Touch Diamond2 is next on our roll call of MWC debuts but this time it's less about the brand spanking novelty and more about balanced and sensible upgrades. People tend to have second thoughts about sequels but this one here is signed by HTC and may as well be the director's cut of a blockbuster.

It is only recently that Windows Mobile fans are receiving the treatment they deserve after years of undeserved exile. The WinMo devices are no longer stigmatized as ugly bricks with awkward handling and HTC are one of the main agents of this change. The HTC Touch Diamond was one of the most complete devices and its stand-out styling earned it well deserved popularity.

We now welcome its successor, somewhat insipidly named HTC Touch Diamond2. Improving the functionality of the original Diamond, the Diamond2 comes with rather different design that is certain to raise some degree of discussion. But it's the performance that will make the difference between a mere Number 2 and a real gem.
Key features:

* 3.2" 65K-color WVGA display
* Latest TouchFLO 3D
* Qualcomm MSM7200A 528 Mhz CPU and 288 MB RAM
* Dedicated graphics chip (64MB RAM reserved for graphics)
* Quad-band GSM support
* 3G with HSDPA 7.2Mbps and HSUPA 2Mbps
* Wi-Fi and built-in GPS receiver
* Stereo FM radio with RDS
* 5 MP auto focus camera with excellent image quality
* microSD card slot
* Touch-sensitive zoom bar
* MS Office Mobile document editor
* Opera 9.5 web browser
* Standard miniUSB slot and Bluetooth v2.0 with A2DP
* Teeter game
* Great audio quality
* YouTube client
* Excellent video playback

Main disadvantages:

* Fingerprint nightmare
* Average sunlight legibility
* Questionable build quality
* No TV out port
* No standard 3.5mm audio jack
* No magnetic stylus

The HTC Touch Diamond2 outdoes its predecessor with a larger and higher-res screen, a vastly superior camera and more RAM. The TouchFLO 3D UI has also been improved and now covers the underlying Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional OS from tip to toe. Sounds like a decent update with a keen eye on the competition too, which is getting stiffer by the day.

While the original Diamond had only the Samsung i900 Omnia to tackle, the HTC Touch Diamond2 faces a tougher battle. With a few new arrivals on the touchscreen market (Symbian S60, Android and BlackBerry OS have all jumped in) the Diamond2 will need spotless performance to match its predecessor's success.

There is quite a lot to test so let's not waste any more time. On the next page we open the box and meet the contender. Will it be diamond hard or will it crumble under the lightest of touches?