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The Digital Nomad: A Full Time Job - Part One
December 26, 2008
The reality of the “Microsoft House”
My goal in this whole endeavour was deceptively simple. I wanted to centrally store my media and share it across my home network to my various PCs and mobile devices. If you believe the hype, this should be simple, but of course, it’s not. The purpose of this article is to give a true and reasonable account of what it’s actually like to try and “live the dream” of the ideals set out in the “Microsoft House” and why it’s not what we all have in our homes, unlike Microwaves, DVD players and yes, iPods.
The recently banned iPhone ads (Apple are liars, but we all knew that) are a great example of what should happen, contrasted with what actually happens.
Continue reading »What Tech Have People Been Buying in 2008?
December 9, 2008
As the New Year looms expect to be bombarded with tonnes of lists about what has happened in the last year: the most searched word of the most visited website. However eBay have been a little ahead of themselves and have released their ‘end of year’ figures already, but although they may be a month early, they give a good indication as to what has happened in the commercial world within the last year and what is popular.
So, here is the top 15 tech toys and gadgets that were sold on eBay in the last year including related items (such as controllers):
- Nintendo Wii: 2,056,866 related items sold
- Microsoft Xbox 360: 1,297,903 related items sold
- Sony PSP: 350,591 related items sold
- iPod Touch: 281,361 related items sold
- Nintendo Wii Fit: 266,584 related items sold
- Apple iPhone 3G: 212,837 related items sold
- BlackBerry Pearl: 207,688 related items sold
- BlackBerry Curve: 193,788 related items sold
- Sony Playstation 3: 103,333 related items sold
- Guitar Hero III: 98,159 related items sold
- Halo 3: 91,067 related items sold
- Grand Theft Auto IV: 43,005 related items sold
- MacBook Air: 12,423 related items sold
- Guitar Hero Aerosmith: 3,749 related items sold
- Rock Band 2’s: 1,650 related items sold
The iPhone and the Windows Guy
December 2, 2008
It’s a bit of a strange one, this. I was going to write a straight review of the iPhone 2.2 Firmware, but I don’t think the circumstances under which I came to use it really qualify me to write a fair review, so I won’t. Instead, I’ll tell you about my experiences with Firmware 2.2, which I hope is perhaps just as interesting.
I’ve never paid a penny for an iPhone, and the one I have now is an 8GB first-gen model which was given to me by my Dad, who’s decided that he doesn’t need all the bells and whistles and just wants a phone (I know exactly how he feels).
Obviously it doesn’t work as a phone anymore, but it still works over Wi-Fi and functions in every way, apart from voice calls, cellular data and SMS. It’s not got GPS or any of the other enhancements in the new generation of iPhone 3Gs and this is the primary reason I chose not to do a straight review, because a lot of my iPhones failings may because of the hardware, so to make summary judgment over the Firmware alone would perhaps be unfair.
Anyway, the iPhone is basically a big fat lie.
Continue reading »iPhone TV Advert Banned
November 30, 2008
Apple has had another of their iPhone 3G TV adverts banned here in the UK for apparently being misleading and exaggerating how fast the actual speed of the device was when trying to access the Internet-based features. There were 17 viewers who complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.
The advert claims that iPhone 3G offers “really fast” performance because you can “download pretty much anything, really fast” – Apple argued that it was only meant in comparison with the first generation iPhone which only used the 2G mobile network and as such the internet speeds were much slower.
Continue reading »When The Windows Blows: A Post-Apocalyptic Commentary On Vista - Part 3
November 7, 2008
This Island Apple
I remember Betamax. It was superior to VHS in many ways. As it turned out, that really didn’t matter in the format war. VHS was backed by the most companies, was a little cheaper and was “good enough” for most of us. The fact that it was the best didn’t make Betamax the right format to back and the same is so true of the Mac.
Everything interesting always happens on the PC, because everyone interesting is almost always using one. The PC market is so overwhelming that innovators and developers will always focus their attentions there. Of course, the truth is that there is now no compelling reason to choose one format over another. Except for.. well.. it’s Windows isn’t it?
Continue reading »I’m a PC! (Advert) Are you a PC?
October 8, 2008
I’m a PC! Well I use a Windows PC anyway. After seeing Microsoft’s first couple of “funny TV commercials” starring the “comedic” double-act of Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld in which in true Seinfeld-style, they appeared to be ‘adverts about nothing’, you may have been scratching your head about all the potential hidden meanings!
However, perhaps the marketing worked, because at least they made people talk about Microsoft again and not in a Vista-bashing kind of way neither. The third TV advert now seems to have gone more mainstream with only a quick one-liner from Bill Gates and no appearance at all from Jerry Seinfeld – although Microsoft have said that he will return in future adverts.
Continue reading »iTunes 8 Review
September 28, 2008
As an iPod Classic owner, I’ve got pretty used to downloading new versions of iTunes over the past few months which don’t seem to offer any new features, but iTunes 8 promised something new, so I was looking forward to giving it a go.
There’s one new feature which you’ll notice straight away which is called “Genius”. Genius is actually two very different things in iTunes 8 with completely different purposes. The first is basically the “mini-store” from previous versions, but on steroids.
Continue reading »Funny TV Commercials for Microsoft?
September 18, 2008
Microsoft have recently released some new adverts in the form of some funny TV commercials featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Now anyone would think they are really trying to capture the spirit of the Seinfeld show, they seem as though they are “ads about nothing”, even stranger given that Microsoft have historically done very little in terms of advertising, so actually spending money for very little is rather odd.
Microsoft are paying approximately $300 million for this funny TV commercial ad campaign (supposedly around $20million of that is going to Jerry Seinfeld himself), so they presumably hope that they will do something to hit back at the Apple ads over recent years that compare PC and Macs and the ‘trouncing’ they have received because of them.
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