I'm back (again)

I'm back again. ... hopefully more updates via mobile blogging....

Iphone 4s v Motorola Razr v Samsung Nexus Prime

Three new beasts have entered the mobile phone arena:

Iphone 4s;

Motorola Razr; and

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Prime.....

This isn't a review of the handsets themselves, you'll find plenty of those all over the net. My only comment is slight disappointment. I was expecting big leaps from Iphone and Samsung and something ground breaking from Motorola......

Unfortunately to my eyes there don't seem to be any major leaps forward (4s is 4 with a few bolt ons; Nexus is similar to SGS2 in terms of processor etc; Razrisn't that different to any other premium Android phone out there). While there is no doubt that these are top class leading devices, I can't see why I waited for these devices.

Now it may just be a testimony to how good the original devices were in comparison and how it is now to make big leaps forward.

Anyway I do need a new phone I'll think a little more before I pick one.....

I'm back (again)

For the nth time I am going to try a return to blogging, its been a while since I last blogged, and to be honest its been a bit of a struggle trying to think of anything interesting, hopefully

My iPad

Well I finally did it, two weeks ago I gave in to temptation and bought myself an iPad (actually a more precise version of events would be that my wife gave me permission to buy one!!!!!!!!!). So now i'm going to give a brief review of my new toy.... but don't expect a detailed breakdown of specs, size, weight, screen resolution, processor speed.....except to say it's a good size and weight, screen is good enough and functions respond fast enough).

Well first I'll start with what it's not... That is a laptop replacement. I couldn't really use it to carry out edits to documents or update spreadsheets, but realistically I wouldn't want to, the form factor doesn't lend itself to it (although apps are available if you want to try). If I brought some work home I would just fire up my laptop and chug away, (although I am erupting this on my iPad so it isn't that bad).

There is no camera for still or video picture capture, but then I wouldn't really want to be walking around trying to use something this big to capture those magic moments.

It's not a phone.... Well not exactly "not"!!!!!!! I have downloaded Skype and am making free or fairly cheap from the iPad (using the home wifi network..... I'll test out the connection over 3G when I get back to Blighty). But again I wouldn't really use it to make calls on the go as my mobile phone is glued to my @ss fairly permanently.

What does it do well:

Always on, unlike a laptop it doesn't take five minutes to fire up, so the web surfing, mailing etc is quicker to access than on a laptop. So for ease of access it's the first port of call.

Speed, the iPad is very quick and responsive so lots of time isn't wasted waiting around for things to load up. The interface is fairly slick and easy to use as expected.

Web surfing (Safari) over the wifi is a joy, as I said its always on, the screen is good to look at, fast to load and most sites i want to look at are accessible. It's much better to look at the smaller smartphones, although occasionally it does direct you to the mobile version of websites which can be a tad annoying when you have a large screen to use. The lack of flash will mean that you may not be able to get the best of all sites, but for now I haven't any major issues.

E-mail (native app), checking and sending my yahoo and gmail is great. Again as its always on it's quicker to check than a laptop, however, iPhone/Blackberry/Android users would boast of the same benefits with the added advantage of ease of use on the go. A point to note is that not all accounts are fully supported in the native app (e.g. Hotmail) but it's just as easy to check on the web browser.

Photos, again it's great here, the screen size is ideal for showing off holiday snaps etc when you have guests, much better than smaller phones, quicker than firing up a laptop and space saving compared to physical albums. The app is great to navigate around as well.

Ebook reader, this was a great plus for me. Now I generally wouldn't have bought a separate ebook reader (even though I love to read), but having one handy is great. The free native app is easy to use but you can also get kindle and other readers for free. There are a wealth of free books available (mainly classics) on all the different readers. The big plus here is the ease of loading up PDFs. I can fire lots of these over to the iPad and use it as a reference source (again the always on functionality is key).

Music player personally I would just steal my wife's iPod or use my phone, so not a biggie in that department (music/podcasts etc). But its not a bad thing to have thrown in.

Apps and games, a wealth of free games and apps are available, however, i used to find the AppStore on my wife's iPhone a tad easier to use. There aren't the same number of apps for the iPad as you have on the iPhone but hopefully that should change over time.

Contacts and calendar are useful tools to have and sync with my PC, but again it's one of those things that a decent enough mobile phone could handle for you.

Videos, the native app means you have to convert movies to the iPad format which can be a bit of a pain (but there are plenty of free utilities out there to do the job). As with the iPhone there is a dedicated YouTube player which is great. The screen dimension means that there will be black bands above and below the screen when watching widescreen but it's bearable. It's definitely a jump up from a smartphone. It also has advantages over a laptop if you fancy watching a movie in bed or on a plane. One cool app I have found is CineXplayer which let's you play avi files on the iPad.

Negatives

iTunes and backups. iTunes is just about ok for file transfers. But the library function is a pain as it doesn't automatically monitor folders to check when they have been updated for pics etc. However, the biggest problem is backups. This part of iPad/iTunes blows away the myth that Apple stuff "just works". Depending on what you have on the iPad backups can take hours, this is something that Apple need to address as it is a major user complaint.

Computer needed. You can not use the iPad straight out of the box. Before you can use it you need to download iTunes and sync it before first use. So if you haven't got a computer you will have a problem. If you buy one while you're out travelling without a laptop forget using it till you're back home.

Marital discord has increased slightly since the purchase of the iPad. Firstly, I'm not trusted to not damage it so I'm constantly being told how to store and look after it by the wife (but I guess anyone who knows my record on destroying things probably sympathizes with her). Secondly, my wife complains that I spend too much time on it and not enough on her. Thirdly, we're always arguing over who should use it.... And as usual it's an argument that she always wins by laying the smack down on me!

The usual suspects with anything "I" related are multitasking and a flash player. But this all depends on your usage. If you frequent sites that are flash heavy then this is not the toy for you. But for my web habits it's fine (especially since they made a standalone Farmville app). I'm also not going to use it for intensive work purposes so the lack of multitasking is no issue for me.

Future

I think the advent of a forward facing camera would be the killer tool in a net gen iPad. Using Skype on it is great and if I could make a video call I'd definitely pick up the next version. It would be nice to have some always on widgets on a home screen, but I don't think Apple are two keen on it.

Overall

It's a nice new toy, it's not a laptop replacement and does nowhere near as much, but what it does do, it does extremely well. I would recommend getting one but look at what you are going to use it for.

Return of the Slick

It's been just over a year since I last blogged. One of the big reasons for my absence was the subject of my last writing.....my dearest darling wife........ As well as my adventure in Libya.

Well now my Libyan adventure is coming to an end and i'll soon be returning to the UK. My time with Petro-Canada has come to an end.......I'll be job hunting as well shifting my life from one continent to another..... So there should be plenty to write about.....as well my views (or lack of) on current affairs.

My Wife

Hi to the dear fan club…. I just want to share with you the fact that I am very happily married (to my wife in case you are wondering!!!!!).

I am very lucky as I have a very very very beautiful and intelligent wife (but clearly not as intelligent as me). She can sometimes be a little moody – but I put this down to me being so irresistible that she gets upset being away from me!

Actually, on a serious note I do doubt her sanity – after all she did marry me and she is actually way more stunning then I thought I would ever get. She’s actually a girl I fell for a long long long time ago – but then she broke my heart and rejected me – it took me forever to recover – but she seems to have had a momentary lapse in sanity and she decided to marry me.

Like I say, I think I’m very lucky as she is way better then anything I deserve and ever dreamt of. I only pray that I can keep her happy (or keep her medicated so that she doesn’t come to her senses and realise what a mistake she’s made!!!)

Anyway, any tips on married life would be appreciated as this is more difficult then expected – women are weird!

Star Trek

Watching the latest Star Trek movie made me wonder……  how does the Federation in Star Trek survive... in every battle the shields go to 5% after taking the first shot and the warp reactor goes offline..... whatever evasive manoeuvre they try they get blown away!!! There photon torpedoes can't penetrate a tomato!!!!! Physically everyone else seems to be harder than them!!!

If it was purely down to who had the better hardware I know whose side I’d be on…….

Thank god we have Kirk and Picard on our side!!!

“The Italian Job” to be remade in Hindi

Now this could be a disaster beyond all proportions or a fantastic success (and lets face it, it can’t get much worse than the American remake).

I’ve just read that an all time cinematic classic is to be remade in Bollywood.

I’m looking forward to this in eager anticipation and trepidation. Anticipation because a well done remake of this classic could be great……

……But trepidation because…..

…..I’m not sure how humour from the swinging sixties can be effectively placed in modern India….

…..I can’t picture it with singing and dancing……

…..I have no idea what car they would use…..

and

….I can’t imagine how they’re gonna bring in the classing line….

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!",

(but one scene I can picture is some poor fruit sellers cart being overturned in the car chase)!

lets wait and see………………………….

Are you really you???? (Philosophy 2 of 4) – Are you same person who started reading this????

Part two of my ripping off a the BBC philosophy article is here…… again let me know of you’re thoughts!

“Consider a photo of someone you think is you eight years ago. What makes that person you? You might say he she was composed of the same cells as you now. But most of your cells are replaced every seven years. You might instead say you're an organism, a particular human being, and that organisms can survive cell replacement - this oak being the same tree as the sapling I planted last year.

But are you really an entire human being? If surgeons swapped George Bush's brain for yours, surely the Bush look-alike, recovering from the operation in the White House, would be you. Hence it is tempting to say that you are a human brain, not a human being.

But why the brain and not the spleen? Presumably because the brain supports your mental states, eg your hopes, fears, beliefs, values, and memories. But then it looks like it's actually those mental states that count, not the brain supporting them. So the view is that even if the surgeons didn't implant your brain in Bush's skull, but merely scanned it, wiped it, and then imprinted its states on to Bush's pre-wiped brain, the Bush look-alike recovering in the White House would again be you.

But the view faces a problem: what if surgeons imprinted your mental states on two pre-wiped brains: George Bush's and Gordon Brown's? Would you be in the White House or in Downing Street? There's nothing on which to base a sensible choice. Yet one person cannot be in two places at once.

In the end, then, no attempt to make sense of your continued existence over time works. You are not the person who started reading this article.”

and if you want here is the link to the original article..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7739493.stm

VAT cut - its not to help the average person!

I think that the proposed cut in the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% is a pointless exercise. Its not been clearly thought out and won't really help those at the lower end of the income scale anyway.

Will the high street really pass the VAT cut on????

Most high street retailers pick price points i.e. they pick prices that appeal to the public, at a price they think the public will be ready to pay i.e £9.99, £10, £15 etc etc - they don't think..... I'll sell this for £x plus VAT!

Do you really think that most retailers will sell a £9.99 product for £9.77 or a £25 product for £24.47 after the rate has been cut?

The answer is NO - most will stick to the price points that have already been identified as attractive to consumers.

If a retailer has identified that it can sell its product for £10 then they will keep the price at £10 and pocket the difference (23p). That might not seem like a lot for the average perosn - but actually it amounts to billions in the pockets of the businesses.

Retailers are more than capable of changing the total cost (inc VAT) as necessary i.e £5 off in order to have attractive price points.

Before you say that I'm being cynical - I thik that retailers have already shown that they are ready to exploit loopholes to keep as much money in their pockets as possible

http://images.vnunet.com/v6_static/oracle/pdf/fd/nov_vat_fdbrief.pdf

No I think the savvy retailer will simply pocket the difference in order to bump up its own profits!

The only way to truly test this is for someone to keep a track of all prices pre and post the cut - but no one is really goingto do this now are they!

Will it make a difference??????

The actuall impact in the retail price of a product will be just over 2%. When a retailer has a sale they would normally slash a minimum of 10%-25% of goods to get people through the doors. Just imagine how busy the January sales would be if the offer was 2% off everything???? Not very I would guess!

In these depressing times are you going to celebrate being to save 20p off a box of chocolates or £10 of a £500 plasma tv!!!

Why

Ultimately, I think it a sound bite - "look what we've done to help the public".

I guess you're going to ask what would I do - to be honest I don't know - but this is too little, poorly targeted and pointless!

What makes it worse to my mind is that none of the mainstream media (tv, newspapers) seemed to have picked up on this pointkess exercise!