Posts by manicseacreature

Steve Jobs no longer Eggman as Beatles hits iTunes

Odd - the white version of LPs delayed indefinitely...

ho ho!

Apple to lead fanbois 'Back to the Mac'

Leo would be a stronger name

Lion sounds a bit naff. Leopards are a bit sexy, as are tigers. Cougers.... not so much.

Lions seems less dynamic somehow - all those regal connotation. Whereas a Leo would have a bit more of a pimp swagger about it and be a far more catchy brand name.

Panasonic TY-CC10W Skype camera

Ah - I see the internet's big brains are all over that idea...

ZDNet wrote an interesting blog about the convergence of facetime and this sort of webcam

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/facetime-could-be-apples-itv-killer-app/9311

So - how long before we see Apple TV with a similar plug in camera

Now we've seen the Apple TV tear downs exposing an A4 processor, decent RAM and 8GB of flash inside the Apple TV, isn't it only a matter of time before facetime hits the living room via a similar webcam device... interesting.

As someone who skypes often with my partner to other couples or family, I think sofa to sofa makes much more sense to me than having four or more people crowded around a couple of PCs so there is a really good usage case for this. A niche - but potentially a decent sized one.

This panasonic device and its like are likely the thin edge of a wedge.

Jobs offers relief for iOS 4-running iPhone 3Gs

Forced me to upgrade the handset, grudgingly....

Turning off multi-tasking specifically for 3G made me think that iOS4 had been optimised for the 3G too - after all Windows 7 had been shown to work better on older machines than Vista so that's not wholly improbable. I expected a bit of roughness around the edges but was truly astonished as to how badly the 3G fared and there's no easy way to downgrade again.

I'd been planning to but a iphone 4 anyhow so this forced my hand to make the switch sooner, and I could only wonder if that was Apple's plan all along. My two year old handset was amazingly robust. Maybe the hardware was proving too durable for the software division's business plan, so they needed an upgrade to sabotage that legacy kit to force the upgrades.

This pretty much had me shopping around for an Android handset, but none of these was quite what I was after and I also realised that I'd have to spend money on replacing all my apps. So I stick with Apple, but not at all happily.

The penny drops. Welcome to the new world of smartphone ecos-systems. It will get to the point very soon where switching platforms will be as painful as going from a Canon to a Nikon SLR or Windows to Mac.

All that said, the iPhone 4 has been an absolute dream to use and to own and far exceeded my expectations (as I imagine would any of today's top handsets compared to a three year old model).

The point is, if you're buying in now for the first time, you should look very carefully at how well each of these brands aims to interact with its existing customers. Apple have set out their stall as being great for those who keep pace with their own corporate roadmap (a plan that will only work as long as the hardware continues to fulfil its promise). I'd be interested to see how things shape up with Google (and Android vendors) and Microsoft. We know about Apple now, but how will these alternative providers want their users to behave?

Apple iPhone 4

"I think the puppet on the left gets my vote..."

When reading all this apple vs google vs palm vs microsoft rivalry, I'm always reminded of Bill Hicks's quote about choosing between two presidential candidates that both represent the same basic hegemony.

Surely you know that all of these are basically the same type of company that will behave just as badly when they get to the top of the market. Google doesn't love you. Microsoft aren't likely to save any sick kittens this quarter. And yes, Apple are pretty terrifying now they're the new Microsoft.

I'm sure you all know this, and this forum is filled with people enjoying the irony. Unless of course you are all die-hard evangelists engaged in a holy fan-war to rivalled only in violence by the Twilight saga's Edward vs Jacob schism.

So, hat's off to the Reg for a non-dogmatic review that rates a pricey incremental upgrade accordingly. The Iphone sounds like a good device if you like that sort of thing.