internet cafes
 

Do the internet cafes provide software like PhotoShop that I could use to email photos?

Could I offload a digital camera there and be able to burn a CD with the photos?

Anyone recommend a camera store in Cairns and Christchurch to offload a digi, please?

Thanks.

Snazzy,

In my humble opinion, Australia is probably a bit more technically advanced than we are here in the States. You'll be able to find clean, well equipped internet cafes pretty much anywhere. I am an IT consultant and never have difficulty communicating with clients or even working (gasp!) while on holiday in Australia.

When you get to Cairns, simply open the phone book and call a few places to see if they will allow you to upload photos. I don't know about Christchurch but I would bet you won't have any problems there either.

John in Miami

Thanks, John.

John, we are traveling to Australia for 3 weeks in November and will need to be connected to our business here in the States. Are contemplating signing up with a WiFi service - any recommendations that will work for us in Oz? or should we just plan on checking in at internet cafes?

As John says there's many internet cafes in Cairns at very competitive prices and most accommodations have broadband internet facilities.

Can recommend Garrick's Camera House in Cairns Central Shopping Centre (MacLeod st entrance on ground floor) for offloading your digital.

I will agree with John that in most other international destinations you will find more and better equipped internet cafes, BUT I will disagree as to the reason.

It's not that we are behind, but internet cafes are quickly becoming a relic in US. Most if not all business people travel with their own laptops, many leisure travelers as well. It's still not that common in the other parts of the world. Most business and even leisure hotels in US offer some sort of high speed internet service, whereas there are still major business hotels in other parts of the world that offer a simple dial connection and nothing else. So, there is still a viable business in these type of places around the world, where it does not make any business sense to own one of these places in the US.

That said, you will find very nicely equipped internet cafes/stores that will allow you to burn picture CDs or download pictures over the net. In Christchurch I saw many signs advertising just that kind of service on many windows of photoshops and internet places. I just did not have a need for any of them so I really did not pay attention. I always travel with my own laptop as I take thousands of pictures and I like to have the time to work on them in the evenings in the hotel rooms. No need to look in the phone book, just walk around and you will see it.

To the second question about Australia? All the Starbucks have wi-fi service available as well as some hotels and airports. You sign up with a local service or if you already have T-Mobile account in the US you will be able to piggy-back for a small additional roaming charge with many of the majors there. No need to recommend any one particular service. When and if it's available, your laptop will catch all the signals and then you can decide who offers a better deal. In Chrischurch during my stay at a B&B right across the street of the Heritage Hotel, I was able to use their free service. The signal was weak so it was somewhat slow to what I'm use to but the point is that sometimes opportunites like that come up. :-D

The proliferation of internet cafes in Cairns is mainly due to high number of international backpackers who don't normally carry laptops and not all backpacker accommodation provides internet facilities. The nearest Starbucks to Cairns is on the Sunshine Coast, some 1700km south. Doubtlessly Starbucks will appear some day, at the moment everyone's happy with the excellent local coffee grown on the Atherton Tableland.

I agree Pat. When we travel we don't take a laptop either and we are not backpackers. Just ordinary tourists. We always use the Internet cafes and find them quick, easy and cheap. Hey, that description sounds familiar. lol

I live in Sydney and travel a lot.

I agree that Australia is probably AS advanced as the US (where I grew up), but certainly not more so.

If you are in any of the areas that backpackers frequent, you will have no problem finding internet cafes that can provide plenty of services. There are a lot of outlets here who will write your photos to CD or DVD for you.

If you DO have a laptop with you, you can always hook into a line at the internet cafes. We have done this in places here as remote as Cooktown. My husband runs a travel business where he needs to use proprietary software from his own computer, and we are generally able to do this from wherever we are.

As a backup, you may wish to see if you internet provider in your area has roaming capabilities. We have a service through the local phone company here which allows us to use other ISP providers by phone when we are just about anywhere in the world. Sure, it's not a fast connection, but it's available and cheap.

We have several roaming wireless providers here, such as iBurst, but I venture to guess they'd be too expensive to get for just a limited amount of time while you're here.

Here are a few URLs if you're interested in checking up on this.

This one requires you to cart around a modem which needs to be powered... so not practical, but cheap:
http://www.unwired.com.au/

This one requires only a PCMCIA card to connect just about anywhere you are:
http://www.chilli.net.au/iburst/flash.html

Thanks, folks.
I used the hotel computers, some reasonably priced and some not, for email.
Was pleasantly surprised at the proliferation of camera shops who did a great job offloading my CMF to CD's for me.
(As you've probably guessed, I'm from a small town without those services... Correction... two places opened up one two weeks ago and the other in the past few months so now we're almost up to pace with the real world.)
Great places to photograph in both countries.
Ended up with over 2500 photos.

Hi

On two trips to Oz and NZ I left the laptop at home - too much added luggage!! I found internet cafes everywhere and was quite able to conduct business as usual during our 30 days stays. Most times my cost was approximately $2 AU.

I'm from the DC/MD/VA area in the states and have never really seen the internet cafes take on any popularity.