iMnot convinced

I watched Steve Jobs’ s Macworld keynote last night. At first I was taken in by the iPhone – mainly by the interface which has a huge “wow” factor. But then I began to wonder about the iPhone and some of Steve’s proclamations regarding mobile phones. According to Steve, existing mobile phones are so hard to use that people don’t even use their contact list, preferring instead to enter numbers manually. That’s absolute nonsense. My friends and colleagues all regularly share photos and videos with each other, set different ringtones for different callers, send loads of text messages and even make calls.

The actual iPhone itself is too big for me. I want a phone that I can slip into a pocket in my jeans. And for a product that’s aiming to revolutionise the mobile phone industry, it’s 2MP camera looks a bit low tech.

The touch screen. Wow. This is great but… the screen is going to get scratched. Worst of all it’s going to very quickly get pretty greasy and mucky. Someone’s already pointed out that Apple will probably sell us the iCloth at $39 to deal with this. The other thing about the touch screen interface is that it looks like it will be pretty difficult to send text messages with one hand, ie. using the thumb of the hand in whch you are holding the phone. That will at least stop people texting while driving (you would hope) but I can see that being a bit of a turn off for some of the younger generation who’s mobile looks like it’s been grafted onto their arm.

The Internet Communications Device (snazzy name) aspect of the iPhone is fairly underwhelming. Leaving aside Steve’s assertion that Safari is the world’s greatest web browser, the biggest problem with surfing the web on a small screen is all the scrolling and zooming you’ll have to do. The iPhone makes that process easier but it’s still a pain in the arse.

Finally, the iPod capabilities. Well it is an iPod and probably the best iPod apart from the fact that the storage space is too small. Personally I don’t want my iPod combined with a phone – I like my gadgets to be focused on their key purpose and for them to peform that function very well. But already you can see right there what the next generation iPod will look like and I can only see Apple’s (MP3 player) market share increasing even more when that hits the streets.

ubuntu

I've spent the last few days/evenings trying to setup a PC at home with Linux. I'm not one of those anti-Microsoft people, or an inveterate tinkerer, nor am I a free software advocate. I simply wanted to host a database driven website using J2EE technology on a secure, easy to maintain platform.

I'm a very experienced PC user and have used unix before – I once did an administration course for Digital Unix. However, I wanted a Linux distribution that was easy to use so I initially tried Mandrake. After a lengthy installation (which went OK) it would not even shutdown the PC properly. Oh and it didn't detect my (PS2) mouse. So in came Ubuntu. It installed perfectly from one cd.

But now comes my problem with Linux: installing software. It's a nightmare. To cut a long story short, I'm going back to XP where I can setup the PC, install and configure my software in a few hours. I haven't given up on Linux but next time I'll get a Dummies book to help me along.

we’re surrounded

Last night I setup my new home cinema system. I've wanted one of these since I first got a big flat-screen telly. I should really have bought and installed one when we moved into our house – then I could have hidden all the cables befor laying the floor – but the cost of moving and buying furniture and stuff meant it had to wait.

So now I've opted for a system with wireless rear speakers and I must say I'm very impressed. Surround sound is one of those things that you don't miss if you don't have it but once you've experienced it there's no going back. Last night I tested the new system with the start of Moulin Rouge – which really comes alive when any of the songs start. And then then beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan which really shows off the subwoofer and the surround speakers.

So now I have my old, but very good, hi-fi seperates to sell. Ebay here we come!

video vertigo

My latest gadget is getting good use. I'm not entirely sure why but I bought one of those hard disc video recorders (PVR) and whereas we hardly ever used to video anything on VHS, we've not stopped using the PVR. It's brilliant. The picture quality is fantastic and it's a doddle to programme – just select a programme from the EPG. I can't wait to hook it up to my next gadget (which should hopefully arrive today or tomorrow).

because I can

I don’t really have a good reason for doing this but I’m going to set up my own mail server. I have my own domain and an always-on net connection, so why not?

I’ve already setup a web server (the highly recommended, Abyss) which at the moment will host images only – the sort of stuff I might post in a discussion forum, for instance. And even though I love TypePad and it’s limitations, I’m also thinking about using Movable Type: either that or write my own site using ASP.NET.

don’t don’t don’t

I just tried Skype at the urging of some colleagues. Unbelievably good. I spoke to Gerd in Italy and it was crystal clear. This is hardly cutting edge news seeing that Skype has over a million users but I’d never heard of it.

open a slot for me?

I chose to use the hub. I’m now connected to the TNMS hub and am downloading all the UK shows!

It was surpisingly easy. Despite being in IT for 14 years, programming and web-coding at various times, building my own PC’s, capturing and editing DV, and once harbouring an ambition to be a sound recording engineer, some of the file-sharing and in particular music-sharing software and processes are technically daunting. All the software is written by geeks for geeks. Usability is not high on their priorities – functionality is. But it wll worked well and now I can look forward to using EAC and checking MD5 sums, etc. Yay!

share and share alike

It’s about time I had some Rush bootlegs RoIOs!

Judging by the trading forums on TNMS, it appears that every single gig is recorded by someone now. Certainly all the UK shows were and all reports (and some samples) point to the Manchester MEN show being of the highest quality. I really want that show plus at least the other UK shows I went to so I have two options: take part in some “weeds” on TNMS or put my broadband connection to good use and hook up to the TNMS hub using Direct Connect.

flickr

Some time ago while I was in Italy, I read about flickr on plasticbag.org. I was fascinated and signed-up immediately. Unfortunately the corporate firewall wouldn’t let me use it and I had no phone line in my apartment. Last night I was doing some email housekeeping and came across a welcome email from Flickr. So I gave it a shot.

After only a short spell online, I’m not convinced about how useful it is but the user interface is astonishingly good. The post below is the only photo I’ve uploaded and I’ve already received a comment commending the colours and shutter priority. Should I let on that my camera was in Auto mode with the flash manually disabled?

the lights are on…

The other day I got a new superslim keyboard for my PC. It’s silver and has a nice, quiet, laptop-style keys. Unfortunately, while attempting to remove the one-time cable tie I slashed through the outer cable and severed one of the wires. Last night I mended it and it works. Well, it works on one of my PCs. This is one of those infuriating illogical PC problems that just don’t make sense. Let me explain.