Destiny: Check
Friday 25th March, I became a man.
Long gone are the days when I used to queue at midnight for the latest Nintendo console (2001-Gamecube, 2005-Wii).
For as I strolled through the west end of London following the Foursquare London meetup at Waxy’s, I wasn’t going to join the hordes of Nintendo Fanboys awaiting the launch o the 3DS.
I was gearing up for a much more important launch.
iPad2
I was releases from the office at noon to go and sit in the heat of Hanover Street. Continue reading “Destiny: Check” »
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Gadgets
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Andrew Smallwood
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Will Ping kill the competition?
As soon as Apple made their string of announcements on 1st September 2010, I was straight onto iTunes trying to download the update. After a few hours of re-downloading iTunes 9, I managed to get the 10.0 update.I quickly set up my account and I was away.
Sometimes though, jumping the gun can have it’s pitfalls. There was no one there.What is this? Google Wave?Ah, Rick Rubin, I see you are on Ping, a quick follow and I received some very random musical preferences on my profile stream. Great, who else should I follow? Hmm… that looks good, recommendations based on your musical tastes and people you follow. Great! Who’s on there? Continue reading “Will Ping kill the competition?” »
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Music, Tech
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Andrew Smallwood
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BBC News iPhone App – Finally!
We finally received word that the BBC News App would be released on Friday 23 July after months of waiting in the wings at the behest of the BBC Trust and many angry competitors. These competitors claimed that the release of a BBC app would be anti-competitive. But, in a period where news corporations are starting to charge to read their stance on world news, is it really anti-competitive or is it anti-capitalist?
The real question is, what does our licence fee cover? Initially, it has covered TV and radio but now that we’ve moved into the 21st century and the BBC are leading the way in online development. If they are spending our licence money in the online arena, surely an iPhone app (other formats to follow) is a necessary right to those that choose to purchase an iPhone.But is the app actually that good? It’s been waiting in the App Store queue for a while now so it was obviously finished some time ago. Has it been surpassed while it’s been sitting in the sidelines?The initial splash screen oozes the quality that we are used to from any BBC production. Continue reading “BBC News iPhone App — Finally!” »
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Andrew Smallwood
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Is it a mistake to upgrade to the iPhone 4 on launch day?
The iPhone 4 launched to a rapturous audience throughout the world this week with 75% of purchases coming as a result of an upgrade.But early indications show a fault with the iPhone reception and it’s not a far distant cry from the wireless issues that haunted the release of the iPad. Is it better to wait for 2nd generation releases or software updates that fix these issues?Personally, I’m waiting for the White iPhone 4 and that is the only thing that stopped me queuing up with the rest of the Apple fanatics on the first day of release. But now, I might wait for these issues to be addressed. The iPhone 4 reception issue is surely a hardware fault and nothing that a software patch can fix so I’m currently sitting pretty with my (old) 3GS. Although rumours are abound that a software fix will be issued in days.Another issue that affects us here in the UK is the end of unlimited data plans. If I want to upgrade to the latest iPhone, not only do I have to pay off the rest of my contract (albeit at a discounted rate), I have to buy the phone as well, start a new contract and then forfeit my unlimited data. I thought that opening the iPhone up to competition would make the contracts more cost effective. Continue reading “Is it a mistake to upgrade to the iPhone 4 on launch day?” »
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Andrew Smallwood
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3D what?
No sooner was it announced that the iPhone was stealing many portable gamers away from more traditional consoles, Nintendo announced the 3DS.A new iteration of the outstanding DS series, it will actually render 3D graphics without the use of glasses. Nintendo are constantly at the forefront of technical advances in gaming and there’s no doubt that there would be no XBox or Playstation without them. (The fact that the first Sony Playstation was codesigned with Nintendo is testament to this).
But, Nintendo have always taken the same stance as Apple in waiting until it is ready to announce their product. What makes this announcement even stranger is that it came straight after the release of the DSi XL in Europe. Although it has been out in Japan for many months, surely an announcement like this will put off any would be DSi XL purchasers? Continue reading “3D what?” »
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Tech, Video Games
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Andrew Smallwood
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The iPad looms
The iPad is looming but will it succeed?Hindsight is a wonderful thing, it’s so obvious now that it was always going to be called the iPad. How awful does iSlate or iTablet sound, whoever circulated those names should be ashamed.There’s no doubt that the iPad is a welcome addition to Apple’s roster of products. We all knew that they had no intention of entering the netbook market.
The big question would be Mac OSX or iPhone OS? Again, in hindsight, that’s obvious too. Why would Apple bust a gut getting Snow Leopard working on a tablet when there is no direct competition for a tablet of this nature.Snow Leopard would have bumped up the price and reduced the battery life and after living with an iPhone for the past year, these are important points.Instead, by jumping on the iPhone OS, Apple have capitalised on one of the major successes of the past few years. Apps. Continue reading “The iPad looms” »
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Andrew Smallwood
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Snow leopard; was it worth it?
If the price wasn’t too much of a giveaway, the meager one hour it took to install this ‘upgrade’ to leopard was. Everything from the name to the official wallpaper shows that that’s exactly what it is. An upgrade. It won’t go head to head with Windows 7. It doesn’t need to, it’s already streets ahead.On the face of things, I can’t see any noticable improvements with the user interface. Nothing sparkles the way it did when upgrading from Tiger to Leopard. Yes, exposé is a bit more organised and you can now scroll in stacks but these minor improvements pose the question ‘why wasn’t it like that before?’ There is the new QuickTime player (but I use VLC) and there’s support for Microsoft exchange (but I use gmail). So these changes simply don’t affect me. The greatest difference was the space it freed up. Leopard left me with 19GB on my hard drive, Snow Leopard gave me back 12GB extra space! Pretty amazing when my other laptop Asus eeepc with XP has no room on the partioned C drive for any software because it’s full to the brim with the operating system and common files!So in conclusion, Snow Leopard doesn’t give that wow factor received succeeding the installation of Leopard but for £25 and an early release, what did you expect? What will the next big cat be? That’s the one we want to look forward to!
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Andrew Smallwood
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Snow Leopard prowls this friday
Snow leopard will drop on 28 August 2009! It is official!I will be in the queue on Friday ready to pay the tiny fee of £25 to upgrade. But should this figure concern us? Surely if it only costs £25, there can’t be much to differentiate it from leopard.I plan to get a new Mac soon anyway! So why upgrade? Well the main reason that I’m going to be upgrading (other than the price) is because I’m hoping it will give my aging MacBook a new lease of life. As my Mac struggles to run 9 programs at once and I feel the need for speed by purchasing a shiny new MacBook Pro. I’m hoping that this new operating system can restore my faith in the 3 year old mac that’s getting so hot nowadays it leaves scorch marks on my desk! (While I save up for the new one anyway)
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Andrew Smallwood
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Chrome, more than just a browser
We should have seen it coming, the rise of Google has resulted in Docs, Calendar, GMail, Picasa and Orkut amongst many others. Wave is on the way too. But then they announced Chrome OS. It just makes perfect sense for Google to take their portfolio of applications and turn it into an operating system, and perhaps only they can take on Microsoft.They even had the audacity to take a dig at Microsoft:
“We are completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.
“It should just work,” said Google. from BBC News
They intend to work WITH other companies instead of against them. For example, Google will be working alongside Adobe in efforts to integrate Flash and Air as much as possible. Microsoft decide that they need to develop their own ‘Flash imitation’ called Silverlight. We need De Facto standards, not rivalries.
Microsoft are the biggest name in the industry but Google are snapping at their heels because they collaborate with so many other companies. Apple will survive because of it’s cult following. The rest of Silicon Valley had better help Google because it’s in their best interests.
It may take a good decade but finally there is a realistic threat to the monopoly that is Microsoft.
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Tech
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Andrew Smallwood
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iPhone, therefore ical
I am trying to vary my blog posts but 3 days into owning the holy grail of current technology, I felt compelled to post about the iPhone again. But, this isn’t an ordinary post! For those that find it, it can serve as a tutorial on how to receive push calendar combining iCal and gCal. There is an added twist as well!I’ve used girlfriend for the duration of this explanation, please alter accordingly1 – The SituationI lead a pretty hectic life if you include work, freelance work, mates, girlfriend, family, girlfriends mates (in no particular order). I do not own a diary, the iPhone was going to be the answer to my prayers. A diary at the touch of a button, great!My problem is that when my girlfriend tells me she’s arranged a date for the diary, it goes in one ear and out the other. Although, I swear that sometimes she never tells me and just assumes that I know (but that’s neither here nor there).The solution, my girlfriend can update my calendar from her iPhone or the Internet and it will wirelessly update on my Mac, on the Internet and my iPhone, no wires attached! You may say it’s easy, but you may also have a MobileMe account, or you may have paid for BusySync or NuevaSync etc… If you are like me and you’ve already shelved out enough money on the phone itself, I’d rather do things as cheaply as possible – or free. Believe me, this is going to stop a lot of arguements and my grey hair growth may slow down as a result.Solution:
- Sign up for Google Calendar (I’m sure you already have).
- In iCal, add your gCal account in preferences using CalDav – View tutorial (you can now read and write from iCal – gCal, test by refreshing)
- Set up CalDav in your iPhone – View Tutorial – (you can now read/write from your iPhone – iCal & gCal, test by refreshing)
- Share your google calendar with your girlfriend. Give her read/write privileges (under settings)
- Download the Google Apps App for iPhone on your girlfriend’s phone
- Log in to Google Calendar (gCal) scroll down and click settings, you may need to deselect>save>exit, reselect>save>exit the shared calendar in order to make it visible in the browser window
- Test it, your girfriend should be able to edit something in the shared Google Calendar (on iPhone/Internet). This should update in your iCal (Mac), gCal (internet), iCal (iPhone).
- Ta da! No more arguments, well, no more arguments about arranging your life.
- A nice touch from the lovely people at Google is that if your girlfriend edits something that you’ve already input, you’ll be sent an update email! How nice!
Issues:I haven’t gone to the trouble to find out how to totally share iCals from iPhone > Internet > iPhone because I don’t need to. My girlfriend still uses an old fashioned filofax but she can keep me updated wirelessly.I haven’t found out how to share and update multiple calendars so I’m just going to use one.I’ve trawled the web looking for a free answer to this so when it happened, I thought it was too good to be true, I’ll update you if there are any bugs because I can’t believe that I’ve solved this problem. Alternatively, let me know if this is easy and Ive just been looking in the wrong place! I look forward to your feedback (as long as it’s constructive).
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Gadgets, Tech
by
Andrew Smallwood
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