I really didn’t see this one coming, but there’s no denying that it actually happened. Suddenly every box under my TV streams video. I feel a little bit behind the times with this one because there have been streaming video products available for a long time, it’s just that now it seems everything is a streaming video player, and more importantly, that there are lots of places to get the video.

For a little while you’ve been able to put your hands on things like a PS3, or XBox 360 that had some sort of video rental service. To be fair the PS3 has always been ahead of the XBox in terms of the available video services. The PS3 has had LoveFilm and BBC iPlayer for some time. Smart TVs and higher end BluRay players have had similar functionality.

Now that functionality has expanded all over the place. With the recent dashboard update the XBox did what so many people are doing these days and added apps. You can now download the Netflix app, the LoveFilm app, the 4OD app, and the list goes on. There’s even streaming live TV from Sky.

In addition to that it isn’t just high end BluRay players that have all the streaming services any more. I just got a Sony S380 for just £89 from Amazon and that comes with pretty much everything you’ll find on a PS3 except the ability to play the games of course.

And there’s more. Today Sky announced that their Anytime+ service is now available to all Sky+HD customers. Before it was only available if you had Sky’s broadband service, but now that’s no longer necessary. On hearing that I did rush to stick an ethernet cable into the back of our Sky box but I don’t know how to make the Anytime+ thing work so I can’t tell you if it’s any good or not. I’ll write something else about it when I get it working. Perhaps the most surprising part of their announcement is that they’re going to have BBC iPlayer content available over the system.

Through all of this iPlayer is a service that is now conspicuous in its absence. We’re told that it is coming sometime this year to XBox, just as Sky say the content is coming to their system sometime this year. the fact remains that unless you’re a Sony fan (hello to that person) putting iPlayer on your TV is one of the hardest things to do. Before the BluRay player, I was doing it with a hacked AppleTV.

Ah but what of Apple? For a long time they have had a much loved but maybe undersold runner in this race. The Apple TV. The product that some people love so much, they think that there’s going to be an actual TV set made by Apple. I have just seen my Apple TV die this last week, not too upsetting as it is so old that it must have been part of the first run of the device. The current model is very small and very cheap. It streams content from your iTunes library to your television more easily than any other device on the market, although others can perform the same basic task. It will even let you rent movies from the iTunes store, which has the same basic new movie selection as the XBox, PS3 or the growing number of smarter TVs and BluRay players. It also has Netflix and YouTube functionality much like all the other streaming video players.

The Apple TV is in danger of becoming irrelevant as more and more devices replicate its functionality.  For a long time the Apple TV has been the cheapest of all the streaming video options, at £99 it is a great little device. However that simply isn’t true any more, and it does face another bigger problem. Look at that Sony BluRay player. For a start it cost me £10 less than an Apple TV would have. If I was just looking for a streaming video player then it wins on price alone. The important thing is that I didn’t buy the BluRay player as a streaming video player. I bought it as a BluRay player. That really means that I now have no reason to replace my Apple TV.

On top of that, I didn’t buy my XBox as a streaming video player either, that was bought as a gaming machine, and now it does more video than the Apple TV ever dreamed of. So with all of these devices I’ll not bother replacing the broken Apple TV. There’s just nothing that it does that need to do.

Right now we’re also lucky enough to see the start of a streaming service battle in the UK. We just got Netflix and they are aggressively standing toe to toe with LoveFilm, which is effectively Amazon’s UK based video offering. Both cost around a fiver each month and offer an impressive selection of video content, with more being added to each service all the time. At the moment I feel like Netflix has the edge on functionality, you can happily enjoy your online content through iOS and Android apps, LoveFilm don’t offer such a thing. However LoveFilm has a larger selection of content at the moment, but you’re locked to your TV or computer. Nether are perfect, and they both use Silverlight on their websites which just makes me angry.

So now we’re at the point where if you’ve got some sort of box plugged into your TV then the chances are that you can stick an internet cable into it and get yourself some streaming video. I suppose this stuff still impresses me because I remember our first VCR arriving at the house. Now I can pretty much be watching any film I can think of in the next 30 seconds. We truly do live in the future now.

If you are like me and own an iPhone then you know that you have a great device that goes beyond a cell phone. We have all see the Apple ads that show the many features of the iPhone so I will not go into that. Still companies like VooMote have made gadgets to enhance the iPhone.

I was able to review the VooMote One Universal Remote. The VooMote One transforms your iPhone (3GS/4G) and iPod touch (3rd Gen/4th Gen) into a universal remote control. The VooMote One clamps onto the iPhone while still allowing full control of the iPhone itself. Once the device is connected and the free app loaded, it instantly makes your iPhone into a fully functional universal remote for your TVs, DVD players, stereo systems, and more, ultimately eliminating the need to have several remotes to control your consumer electronics. Plus the VooMote One  provides you with a modern remote that doesn’t require batteries or deplete the battery life of your iPhone which is great.

Here are the things I liked from the VooMote One. The setup is quick and easy. The VooMote app is free and the interface is clear and easy to read. The remote is organized first by room and then by devices in that each room.  You can tell the VooMote the brand, it asks you to press buttons and note the results, and it figures out what you have in your room. If you have a really obscure device it can learn codes from an existing remote. You can control a lot of different devices in a lot of different locations and keep them working and not have any interference when using the remote. For more info on the VooMote check out their site and the item sells for $69.99.

The gadgets have been piling up, so it’s time to get crackin’…

Wicked Audio X-Ray Yankee Zulu 3D Headphones
From Wicked Audio comes a new series of headphones with 3D designs on the mid-size ear cups.  The XRay Yankee Zulu features the last three words of the NATO phonetic alphabet on the outside in raised, bold capital letters.  The cups swivel 180 degrees and comes with a nice long cord and volume control.  The sound is decent for a good price, as has become Wicked Audio’s reputation.  The headphones lack most on bass at medium to high volume, where a little distortion is noticeable, but a good deal overall and a nice pickup for the average iPod listener.  You can pick these up for about $20 right now on Amazon.

Bracketron Golf GPS/SmartPhone Mounts
This summer, golf got a little easier for me thanks to finally getting a decent phone and downloading a free golf GPS app.  Now that I had exact distances for my shots on my phone, the real challenge was where to keep my phone without having to pick it up every time out of the cart or out of my bag if I was walking.  Then Bracketron came along with 4 different mounts made especially for golfers, but that also work in the off-season in your car.  The version pictured here clips right onto your bag, the other versions come with a clamp to grab onto bars on a pull cart or regular cart, a suction cup to mount to a cart dashboard and an ingenious version that fits into a cup holder.  Unfortunately, the last one doesn’t work for me, as cupholder real estate is at a premium when I golf, if you know what I mean.  These mounts are solid and haven’t failed me once, I highly recommend them.  Each can be had for between $15 and $35 at various online shops or directly from Bracketron.

Nu Force BT-860 Bluetooth Headphones
Bluetooth headphones generally get a bad rep, either for sound quality or connectivity or even both.  Nu Force’s new BT-860s deliver in both categories, compared to their competitors.  On the connectivity side, these get a solid A, easy to connect to both my Android phone and my Bluetooth enabled laptop.  Was able to roam freely around my 500 sq. ft. basement with no problems.  For sound I give them a B, the bass is actually lacking a bit and the highs can be a bit tinny at times, but considering you’re hearing your music or phone calls wirelessly, they’re pretty damn good.  Another nice bonus is the comfort factor.  I was weary on opening the box and seeing rectangle earpieces made of the old school foam you used to have on your Walkman cassette players back in the day, but if you can get past it, they are actually quite comfy and also come with a smaller set so you don’t get as many looks while riding the subway.  The headphones are also lightweight and seem durable, but don’t fold up in any way, so if storage is an issue for you, you may be out of luck.  Phone calls are also nice and clear, and without the cheesiness of a visible microphone.  A pretty good buy for $79.99 from Amazon, but definitely not Audiophile-grade as promised on the site.

Swashbuckling BBQ Sword & The Spice Must Flow Apron
Only the warped minds at ThinkGeek could find a way to add nerdiness to the most mainstream, manly thing in existence, the barbeque.  These two fine items are now in my hands and on my torso every time I fire up the grill.  The sword is stainless steel and at 19″, with a protective hilt, is perfect for stabbing various kinds of meat, toasting 4 marshmallows at at time, or fending off a swamp rat with a taste for blood.  The apron is great not only for protecting your clothes from soilage, but also for sneaking in a Dune reference that none of your normie friends will ever get.  $24.99 and $19.99 at ThinkGeek.

Korg NanoPad 2
I like to be honest with my reviews. That being said, I couldn’t review this because I couldn’t figure out how to use it.  So the first thing I can tell you is that it’s definitely not some plug-and-play toy for Average Joes to hook up and play some digital drums on, like I was hoping it was.  Instead of telling you if it’s good or not, I’ll tell you what it is.  It’s a compact USB MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) controller mainly designed to digitally add drum sounds to tracks by hitting the 16 touch-sensitive pads.  It’s also got an X-Y touchpad and comes with some free software downloads as well.  I know we’ve got a lot of musicians, so check this thing out.  One thing I do know is that Korg is a good brand, so this little thing probably kicks major ass.  $59.99 at Amazon.

Reviews by Jay of Masters Of None

This post originally came from my blog at techsupportrich.com

I’m sitting here looking through my new triple play Blu-Ray set of Senna, great film by the way. This little pack has the Blu-Ray version of the film, a DVD copy of the film, and kind of almost a digital copy of the film. That’s the triple play idea. I can see the day coming where such a thing isn’t necessary. I only need a DVD copy of the film because I’ve got just the one Blu-Ray player. Can you imagine buying a DVD that came with a VHS copy of the film? That would be silly, but it’s effectively what we’re doing with these triple play sets.

However, what I’m interested in today, is the digital copy of the film. So why include a digital copy? I presume it’s so I don’t rip the DVD. Soon in the UK we’ll be legally allowed to transfer media from one medium to another, which will apply to ripping both CDs and DVDs. If the movie company are happy for me to have a digital copy, then why not include some software that would rip the DVD to a format of my choosing? DRM.

Saying that there is a digital copy included is true, but not the whole story. Each triple play set comes with a code which allows you to download the movie from iTunes. The digital copy included on the disc is encoded with Windows Plays For Sure DRM, which at this point means you can play it on a Windows PC and nothing else. I’m struggling to think of a popular portable device that can play this particular flavour of DRM. iOS can’t, Android can’t. As far as I know, even Windows Phone 7 can play Plays For Sure files. It’s safe to say that most people who buy triple play sets, are going to download the iTunes copy. It’s the only option I’ve ever taken because there’s just no way the Windows version will play on my Mac.

What I find most interesting about all this, is what this does for Apple. Making the iTunes version of the film be the digital copy, means that every triple play set is a reason to buy an iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch or Mac. It’s safe to assume that if you’re buying a Blu-Ray that comes with a digital version, then you intend to watch that movie on a portable device. Whether it’s your phone, or tablet. The only phones or tablets available that play the digital copy, are i devices. Genius.

This little move by Apple does something very special. It changes iTunes from being a store like Amazon or Play, into a format like DVD or Blu-Ray. Steve Jobs once described Blu-Ray as a bag of hurt. I don’t think he always felt that way.

Anyway, while we’re talking about this, isn’t it obvious that Google have to do something about this? I don’t doubt that iOS will become the default standard for people who buy tablets, but the closest competitors will be running Android. There are also more Android phones out there in the world, than there are iPhones. Wouldn’t it make the most sense if the two files that were available to you in your triple play set, were the iTunes copy, and something that runs on Android? Because, well, here’s the thing. I want a copy of my film that plays on my Android phone, so I’m ripping the DVD, which is what they didn’t want me to do in the first place. And I plan on getting an iPad so I’m downloading the iTunes versions too. Why not? I payed for them.

But HANG ON! I just thought of something else. That code for the iTunes movie, only works once. As soon as I use it, the code becomes useless. That means that I no longer own a triple play Blu-Ray set, I own a double play one. At least as far as anyone buying my used copy is concerned. By making the digital copy on the disc totally pointless, and by giving you a code for a one time only download of the useful copy, they give a swift kick to the second hand film market. Movie companies hate it when normal people sell their old DVDs and Blu-Rays to each other, because somebody new sees the movie, and they don’t make any money off it. I suddenly feeling dumb for going through all my discs and making sure I’ve downloaded the digital version from iTunes.

This is the Kindle Fire tablet from Amazon. It’s a brand new, top of the range, Kindle, tablet. It’s running Amazon’s own take on Android Gingerbread, has a 7″ screen, dual core processor, and most importantly of all, costs $199. It’s available for pre-order in the US right now.

Already some people are calling this the iPad killer, I am not. It isn’t an iPad killer. It looks very nice, and should they ever release it in the UK, I will probably buy one. But it’s not an iPad killer. As far as I’m concerned, that ship has sailed. The iPad will always be the definitive tablet computer, and the one that everyone wants, even people who settle for an Android tablet. At this point, nothing is going to kill it. However, I do think there is room for more than one tablet in the world, it’s just not at the top end.

OK so let’s imagine that we’re on our way to Comet to buy a tablet. We’d like an iPad because that’s the one we’ve seen on TV. We had an iPod, we’ve got a MacBook, and maybe we’ve got a few friends who have iPhones, so we know that Apple stuff is good and we like it. Unfortunately it’s a bit expensive for us at the moment, so we’re going to shop around a little bit. When we arrive at the shop, we see that not only are there iPads, but there are lots of other tablets available from other people. Clearly these other tablets aren’t as good as the iPad. When you compare them side by side, it’s obvious that the Android tablets have a long way to go. They are, without a doubt, a compromise. To make matters worse, they aren’t really any cheaper. The Motorolla Xoom is there are the same price as the iPad, so is the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and that horrid thing that Asus make. All of them look worse, work slower, and have a poorer selection of software than the iPad. It stands to reason that these other lesser tablets would be cheaper, but they aren’t.

That’s where the Kindle Fire comes in. If you’re buying a tablet and cost isn’t a factor, then you buy the iPad. If cost is very much a factor, then Motorolla, Sony, Samsung, and their friends, aren’t there to help you. If you’re buying based on cost then you’re buying based on this one rule, which tablet will do what you need it to for the lowest amount of money. That’s the Kindle Fire. It will play your movies, music and games. It’s your e-reader, it’s your portable games console, and it has Facebook!

Like I said, the Kindle Fire isn’t going to hurt the iPad. But the 7″ tablet from HTC is dead. The BlackBerry Playbook is dead. Everything that isn’t an iPad, is dead. Nobody at Apple lost any sleep over this device, but the team working on the new 7″ Galaxy Tab certainly will.

The part that amuses me the most, is that not only will this device seal the fate of the Playbook, but it is a Playbook. Really, it is made by the same people, comes out of the same factory, everything, it is a BlackBerry Playbook. Remember that RIM don’t own a factory that’s knocking out Playbooks all day, and Amazon don’t own one that makes Kindles. Instead there’s a guy in China who owns a factory that makes generic black tablets, and he sells them to RIM and Amazon who put their software and logo on it. Interesting then that the Kindle is selling for £199 and the cheapest I can get a Playbook for is £399, roughly $624.

The Fire is being sold as a gateway to Amazon’s media services like streaming movies and TV shows. The lack of those services outside of the US pretty much confirms that this will be a US only device until the streaming services are there to go with it. If this thing rolls out world wide, then Amazon are going to shift a lot of them.

My main problem with social networks, is that they make things simple for people who can’t work the internet. Can’t understand email? Then there’s Facebook messenger. Can’t work Flickr? Then there’s Facebook photos. Personally I’m of the belief that if you can’t be bothered to learn how the internet works, then you shouldn’t be spoiling it for the rest of us. Unfortunately, people don’t really think about how these social networks operate either. Let me give you a rough example of something I experienced the other day.

1. Person posts an opinion about a film they’re watching

2. People start to comment on that post, including me. Comments are about the film the original poster is watching.

3. A friend of the poster comes on to comment about the film, and for some reason ends their comment with “How are you anyway?”

4. A conversation between the poster and the last commenter begins, talking about their holidays, weddings, babies etc.

5. All of their conversation gets sent to my phone comment by comment, and I’m forced to read their talk of babies when all I did was say a film was shit.

So let me take you through social networking etiquette. In this lesson you should learn that comments on status updates, are for commenting on that particular status update. If you want to know how your friend is, send them a private message. Please remember that not all of their friends know you, or give even the slightest crap about your holiday or wedding plans. Better yet, remember that there is such a thing as email, and you can use it to chat all you like in total privacy, without annoying people who don’t know you. If you don’t have the email address of the person you’re trying to contact, perhaps they don’t really want to hear from you, just sayin’.

The following post is from Jacob Norton (a.k.a Warp Factor on our forums & @jacobnorton on Twitter). This post can also be found on Jacob’s blog which can be found at - http://warpfactor1701.wordpress.com/2011/08/31/firesale-a-review-of-the-hp-touchpad/

The weekend before last, HP decided to give up on the webOS system they had acquired when they bought Palm last year. This decision meant that the only webOS device that had already been released, the Touchpad tablet computer, was discontinued. In order to get rid of stock as quickly as possible, HP decided to let retailers sell the devices off for under 1/4 of the usual RRP in a so-called “firesale”.

A 9 inch tablet for roughly £100 seems a pretty good deal so the Touchpad briefly became the most sought-after gadget in many countries, with shops and online stores selling out within minutes of lowering the price. On Tuesday, my boss managed to get hold of 10 from one of our suppliers at work and they were quickly snapped up by colleagues, including me, arriving by courier the next day. So the question is, was the money I spent worth it, given the lack of app support and the chances of significant numbers of new apps for an operating system that is basically dead being slim?

I have to say a resounding yes! If I had the money, I’d probably buy an iPad, but I can’t afford that and the Touchpad is a pretty good alternative. The iPad is lighter, a bit faster, and has a great app catalogue but other than that, I can’t see any way that it would be better for what I need than this (I say “this” because I’m actually writing this review in the excellent WordPress app on my touchpad).

Firstly, webOS is a great operating system for a tablet. The multitasking is much better than I’ve seen on Android or in my limited experience with iOS (I should point out at this point that I’ve never actually owned an iOS device, but I have used other peoples). It just feels a bit more like a computer, which I like for something that I am using as an alternative to buying a netbook. In any app, I just click the main button and the app I’m using becomes a “card” on the screen, like a window on a computer.

These cards are arranged in “stacks” of related cards on the screen (for example, the Edit Post card I’m currently typing in, gets stacked on top of the main screen of the WordPress app). You can swipe between different stacks to change what you’re doing & stack and un-stack cards, arranging them as you wish. To close a card you simply swipe it off the top screen.

One of the major things I’ll be doing on this device is web browsing and the browser is the most fully functional I’ve seen on a mobile device. It seems to incorporate full flash and HTML5 support, I’ve not yet encountered a website that isn’t displayed properly. The only slight niggle is that unlike most mobile device browsers, when you pinch zoom, the text does not wrap around to fit to the width of your screen. Fortunately, on this screen I’ve yet to encounter any text that I couldn’t read without the need to zoom.

The email app is also really great. Quickly synced with my gmail account without any issue. There is support for multiple accounts and it looks like it’ll auto-setup for all the major webmail providers with just your email address and password. Basically, you’ve got three columns; folders, emails in selected folder, and a preview of the selected email. One of the great things about a lot of webOS apps is the column customisation. It’s a simple one click to hide the folders column to give the email preview more space or to hide both columns and open the selected email in full screen. Simply click the star next to a folder in any of your mailboxes to add it to your favourites and keep it at the top of the folders column.

The calendar is simple and easy to use, obviously stylistically inspired by Google Calendar with which it syncs almost instantly. I should mention that when you add an account it will ask you exactly what you would like to sync from it. See the screenshot of an example sync screen for my google account.

Less important – to me at least – preinstalled apps include maps (provided by Bing and requiring a WiFi connection to work), calculator, alarm clock & Adobe PDF and MS Office document readers (you can add your dropbox account and read your dropbox documents on the tablet using these), also messaging which will allow you to text chat using your Skype, Yahoo, Google or AIM account. The Phone and Video calls app will let you make calls – including to normal phone numbers – over WiFi using either your Skype account or via a Palm webOS phone connected wirelessly to the touchpad. The music app will play all the major formats without problems. The interface seems ok but I’ve not used it as of yet. (EDIT: Since I wrote this part of the review, Quickoffice, which is the MS Office reader mentioned above, has been updated and can now edit and create new Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, making it much more useful)

Finally, the photos and videos app. When you add the accounts, your photos from Facebook, Photobucket and Snapfish will sync to the device. I was impressed by the speed of this sync. Within a minute of adding my facebook account and asking it to sync photos I was browsing all of my facebook photos in the pictures and video app. As far as videos are concerned, it plays very nicely on the 1024×768 screen with a simple interface that allows you to switch between widescreen and 4:3 cropped modes for widescreen content. Format-wise, video playback is limited to mp4 files encoded with MPEG4, H.263 or H.264. The app will also remember your position in the last video watched while the device stays on so you can switch to other apps without having to find your place again when you come back.

So the built in apps cover a great web browser, email app, calendar, video and music playback as well an MS Office document editor which are most of the things I’d use a tablet, with one major exception. As some of you may know, I’m a frequent user of Twitter, so a good Twitter app is essential and there’s a good one in the App Catalogue named SpazHD. It uses a column system similar to the desktop version of TweetDeck. It has a few less features, but has all the essentials, such as URL shortening, image previewing, conversation view and more. Speaking of social networks, the Facebook app for touchpad is the best I’ve seen.

There are a few other good apps in the Catalogue too. Mosaic is a good RSS reader & Sky News and the Guardian have decent news apps. AccuWeather is there for all your forecasting needs, and WordPress for your blogging. I’m sure there are a handful other good apps in there that I’m yet to find, but I’ve not spent too long looking.

As for games, the free selection is pretty limited but it does have Angry Birds and a great little game called Tanked where you control a tank and battle other players either online or up to four player splitscreen on the same tablet. The splitscreen is a little ridiculous, but great fun. If you’re willing to pay a couple of quid, there are lots of other games available.

So, it’s time to sum up. The touchpad really is a good device. webOS is a great operating system, especially on a tablet. The tablet essentials are all there, plus a few good extras and a couple of good games. It is a little underpowered, freezing for a few seconds on occasion and it does have a limited app collection, but the good web browser makes up for this in most cases. I’m glad I bought it and I’m sure I’ll get good use out of it. HP have announced that after the unexpected demand, they will be manufacturing another batch of touchpads. They’re expected to retail for about double the original firesale price, but at that they’ll still be less than half the price of an iPad and if, like me, you want a 9″ tablet but can’t justify the cost of an iPad, then I’d recommend trying to get hold of one of these when the next batch comes through, it’ll be well worth it.

The Smartphone Wars are currently being waged by three major factions: the iPhone, the Blackberry, and the many Android devices. However, Microsoft recently stepped — or perhaps tiptoed — into the ring with yet another option: the Windows 7 phone.

I’m a long time iPhone user, but I’ve recently been given a Windows 7 phone. Here are my thoughts.

The Windows 7 phone falls firmly in the “touchscreen” camp like the iPhone and Android, but with a lot of Microsoft Office integration. It clearly has its eye on the business crowd that right now are Blackberry’s territory.

The look and feel of the interface are somehow advanced and dated at the same time. The giant tiles that launch applications do look a bit passe, but the icons native to the phone dance with information. The contacts icon is a mosaic of Facebook profiles, the Gmail tile is counting up your mail, other icons are alive with weather, message counts, and news headlines.

The usual suspects are there as far as web browsing, wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity, GPS, camera, and add-on apps you’ve come to expect from a smartphone.

For my money, here’s what’s different from the usual experience:

You know you’re on a Microsoft product because it’s been heavily branded. Top to bottom you’re searching with Bing, your maps are not Google but Bing Maps, you surf with Explorer, and you dig up that old MSN account for a lot of extras.

There’s complete integration with Microsoft SkyDrive, MS’s cloud service. Your photos can be uploaded to your SkyDrive in real time. Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents on your SkyDrive are accessible (you really need the latest version of Office on your home machine to take full advantage of this). Contacts and calendars sync with the SkyDrive and MS OneNote leverages it for your multimedia note taking.

If you’re an XBox 360 user, there’s ntegration with your XBox Live account. You can keep tabs on your account and your buddies here, but you need to the pay service to use some of the “advanced” features, like sending a message. (This part seems goofy to us PC gamers.)

Remember Zune, the Microsoft MP3 devices of yore? Well you use Zune software to manage your MP3s and videos on this thing. As a longtime iTunes user, I expected to not like it much, but I kind of dig it. The fullscreen graphical modes make it nice to run on a media center. Also, you can do clever things like drag a DIVX or XVID avi to your phone and Zune will automatically convert it and stick it on your phone. Try doing that with an iPhone! I will say the podcast support was a little weak compared to the iTunes library, and you manually have to cut and paste each RSS feed you want into the player.  If you’re reading this on Simply Syndicated, you’re bound to be a podcast fan.

The Facebook integration is pretty excellent, automatically grabbing everyone’s photo and using it as their contact picture.

The video on this particular model (Samsung Focus – 5 megapixel camera) is pretty outstanding, I’m really happy with it.

There’s a speech command button which, (get this) actually works. You say “find me a pizza” or “call Anne Shirley” and it will do these things, so far with 100% accuracy. JASON’S EDIT: There’s still no word yet on how the phone responds to, “Oh my giddy aunt.”

Other features on the MSN Web site include “Find My Phone” (on a map) and “Ring My Phone” which other phones have but most involve a subscription payment of some kind; this does not.

I’ve given you the plusses, but let’s be fair. Llet me tell you what I’m not digging so much about it.

Obviously, apps can make or break a device like this. The usual suspects are here, along with a lot of platform exclusives in the gaming arena — but there is simply not the same wealth of selection as there is on other app stores, and the prices tend to average about double the price of an iPhone app. But Netflix, Kindle, YouTube, Facebook, and Angry Birds are all present and accounted for. While the home screen with your front page of icons is eye catching, all other apps are just alphabetized on a second screen. There are no folders or categories like an iPhone. It’s virtually the same as a Windows PC with a wallpaper and a Start Menu.

The wi-fi connectivity can be sluggish at times, not waking up by itself without coaxing. This can be frustrating and never seems to be a problem on my iPhone.

This particular model (Samsung Focus) does not have quite the same quality as the iPhone, with a very thin plastic backing that has on at least one occasion dropped off and spilled out the removable battery. On the plus side though… removable battery!

Apparently the new version of the operating system (Windows 7.5 codenamed MANGO) is around the corner and will bring with it a whack of improved features for the Windows phone. It will definitely be worth revisiting at that point. In my opinion, if it were the same cost as an iPhone, I’d choose the iPhone, but if there were significant savings with the Windows 7 phone I’d consider it a more than capable replacement.

The following letter has just been published…

“To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

Steve”

As I write this, I must admit I’m holding back tears. I’m not worried about Apple, Apple will be fine. There are many people there of exceptional talent who are more than capable of continuing the fine work that has gone on there for the last few decades.

I’m not a person who has many heroes. I’ve always felt strange about looking up to others, almost like it’s admitting that there’s something I’m personally not capable of. There is one person, however, that I have been in complete awe of and the only person that I have allowed to become the single hero that I have, Steve.

Steve Jobs is a man who without knowing it, has taught me that you simply do not give up in something that you believe in, and that you pursue that belief as much as you can. Have pride in what you do, and in what you leave the world. It’s just sad that a great man has been dealt such a blow, especially one that has so much more to give the world. I’m sorry for Steve and I’m sorry for his family.

There’s not really much to say about this, and gushing with emotion doesn’t really get us anywhere, so I will leave you with the two things Steve has said that are the driving force behind everything I do that you people get to see. These are the words that are in my head when I work, and when I think of things that I’d like to do. Some people like to consider what Jesus would do in a particular situation, personally I find these words have influenced everything in my life that could call a career. I hope that those of you who know me at least a little will understand in what way these words have influenced me, because that means I’m living up to it.

Strangely enough, these quotes actually form some sort of coherent paragraph that I think explains the motivation behind the website you’re reading, and the podcasts you listen to.

“Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?” “Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”v“I want to put a ding in the universe.”

Steve, please take your family, go somewhere really hot and sunny, get a little bit drunk, and a little bit high. Safe in the knowledge that if you dented the universe any more, you’d probably end up breaking it.

I just wanted to say a few words about a little issue I have with the Android Market. Unlike the App Store that iPhone users are used to,  the Android Market doesn’t check apps out before they become available to download. Some people think that’s a good thing,  and some don’t. Personally I’d prefer it if Google handled things a little bit more like Apple.

Because apps aren’t subject to a vigorous set of rules,  you end up getting some that are less than brilliant,  but more significantly it means you get a great deal of porn. If you’re amused by games that result in you seeing a picture of a naked woman then these apps are right for you. I’m not 15 years old,  so they hold little interest for me. Luckily they also hold little interest for other people too, so Google gave us a way to get rid of them from the market. We can filter apps according to their maturity rating.

As I search through the market I can tell it not to show me apps with a high maturity level. is makes sure that I don’t see apps that involve porn. But here’s the problem. Unfortunately lots of none porn apps are also classed as high maturity. The two that come to mind are the Google +  app,  and the IMDB app. Both those apps are fantastic and i like to have them on my phone. The problem is that to either find or install them I need to turn off the maturity filter.

So the system needs a little tweek. Perhaps it would be better if rather than filtering by the maturity level,  i could filter by key words. How about being able to say to not show apps with “sexy” or “babes” in the name? Of course to implement that you’d need a company with a lot of experience and good reputation in search. If only there was a company like that connected with Android.

What follows is a set of conditions that I have agreed to live by today. I will not falter from my task, I will live by these rules.

I, Richard Michael Tiberius Smith, being of sound body and mind, swear to live by the following conditions. My agreement to these conditions allows me to continue being apart of the podcast, Tech It Or Leave It, and allows me to continue living with Allison Downing. Failure to comply with the following conditions may result in the loss of the afore mentioned privileges.

1. I will not go on about which phone I’m going to buy until August 3rd 2013.

2. If a phone I would rather have is released in the next six months, I will not moan about it.

3. I will not wish I waited for the iPhone 5/4GS

4. If I do wish I waited for the iPhone, I will not reveal this to anyone, ever.

5. I will not moan about any feature of the Samsung Galaxy 2 S. The only exception to this are any apps or services created by Samsung, which are an unnecessary addition to the Android OS.

6. I will not moan about the Three network. The only exception to this is any major problem created by the network, eg billing problems etc.

7. I will not wish I had waited for ANY other phone.

8. I will not wish I had a 3D phone.

9. I will not express anything other than complete joy about my phone.

10. Coming soon, an in depth review of the Samsung Galaxy S 2.

I have made my bed and now I must lie in it.

In case you don’t know, I love pie. Not the number, the food. From an English perspective pie is a savoury dish, usually including some kind of meat. To our North American friends, pie is a sweet dish that could well include some kind of cream. Either way, pie is a pretty versatile and varied food, that comes in all shapes and sizes. Now imagine that everyone in the world loves pie as much as I do. Where ever you go, you see people eating pie. Some of them are meat and potato pie, some are banana cream pie. Nobody really agrees on which is the best pie, but they’re all pretty good in their own way.

Then, one day, in this pie world, a new pie seller comes along with a totally new kind of pie. “What’s in it?” we all ask, with a bit of dribble at the side of our mouths. “Poo!” the pie maker replies. “Poo?” we cry out in unison. “Thats right, poo! This pie tastes bad, is bad for your body, has absolutely no nutritional value what so ever, and it will turn your teeth brown and make your breath smell”. The world looks at the poo pie man, laughs and walks away. All except for a couple of confused looking people. They walk up to the poo pie man, buy a pie, and start munching away. It’s time to end the pie analogy and introduce you to the customers of RIM.

RIM make the Blackberry. I’m looking at their website now and it’s mind blowing. Don’t they know people can see it? I haven’t payed much attention to their current line up of phones so I’ve got five of them side by side on the site’s comparison page, and it raises more than a few questions. Have the product designers at RIM seen other smartphones? Why are they making these? Who is really buying this poo pie?

It’s rather difficult to tell which is supposed to be the best phone they make. At the moment I’m comparing the Storm 2, Bold 9780 and Torch. Just for fun lets through the iPhone 4, HTC Sensation and Samsung Galaxy S 2, and the unreleased iPhone 5 into the mix and see how RIM really do compare. This is going to be an easy one.

Let’s start by looking at the screens of the phones, mainly because it’s the first feature on RIM’s comparrison list. All the Blackberry phones I’ve mentioned come with a 480 x 360 pixel screen. You might remember such low resolution screens from such phones as the iPhone 3GS and Android phones of around two and a half years ago. Now you simply cannot put your hands on a phone with such low resolution as a Blackberry. There isn’t an Android phone maker on the planet who has something so old to sell you. Even Apple are only selling the 3GS as their low price budget phone, and I’d expect it to be gone for good once the iPhone 5 comes out probably some time in September. In the next twelve months we’ll start to see Android phones will full 1280 x 720 screens, and once those screens are out there expect the next iPhone to have a screen that makes the current retina display look like a toy.

Then there’s the camera. A part of the phone that has become at least as important as being able to make a call. The best offerings from HTC and Samsung have 8MP cameras, and while the iPhone 4 has a 5MP one, it’s still considered the best on the market. I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the iPhone 5 with an 8MP version that is amazing. Wile the Bold and Torch both come with 5MP cameras, the Storm 2 and Storm 9500 both have 3.2MP versions. That might not be a big issue because the Storm might not be the best phone that RIM make, like I said, it’s hard to tell.

How about the onboard storage. It’s where all your pictures, movies, music and apps live. The iPhone is available in 16 or 32GB versions. The HTC Sensation has 4GB with an 8GB memory card included, and the Galaxy S 2 has 16GB or 32GB versions that also allow up to 32GB memory cards, so you could have one with 64GB of storage. The Blackberry Bold has 512MB of storage, but don’t worry because it comes with a 2GB memory card. Seriously. That’s a real thing that RIM decided to sell to people. The phrase “behind the times” must be RIM’s company motto.

I’m basing that company motto on more than out dated specs. The comparison list takes the time to tell me that all their phones are 3G capable. A phone without 3G? I remember that from the very first iPhone, and even then it was considered the weakest part of the iPhone. Perhaps even more stupid is the graph RIM are showing me that says all the phones have such amazing features as a colour display, and backlighting. They even have a function that they’re calling “font size”. I have no idea what that means, don’t all fonts have a size even if it’s really really small? Anyway, I’ve not seen a phone that didn’t have a colour screen for over a decade, and I’ve never ever seen a phone that didn’t have backlighting. Are RIM so out of features that they’re seriously telling me their phone screens are back lit?

Further exploration of the RIM website informs me that Blackberry phones have an integrated earpiece and microphone. You know, like every phone since the invention of the phone. They even get themselves confused about their own products, time for a screenshot.

You can see that the chart says that none of the phones I’m comparing have dedicated media keys. Don’t worry, to add them, all you have to do is scroll down.

That’s a nice trick that even Apple haven’t figured out yet. How to add features to a phone with a mouse wheel.

Now I know I have this habit of forgetting that some people can’t afford the latest and greatest smartphones. Sorry about that. I suppose we should go over to a phone network site and see how much cheaper Blackberrys are than other phones. I’ve had a look around, and they kind of are cheaper. Not by much though, a Torch will set you back around £5 per month less than a Galaxy S 2. However it comes with significantly fewer minutes and texts as part of the deal. If you make a lot of calls or send a lot of texts you’d probably be better off getting a bigger tarif anyway, which puts us back in high end Android territory. Even then we’re forgetting the mid-range of Android phone. What about the Desire S? It’s not the absolute best Android phone on the market, but it beats the pants off every Blackberry available too. O2 will sell me one for the same price as the top end Blackberry, which still isn’t as good as the mid range HTC model.

At this point in time there is simply no reason to buy poo pie. The handsets are amongst the worst in the world, they look like they were designed by a blind person in the dark and they aren’t any cheaper than better alternatives. The Blackberry email system is no longer the only thing going and has now been greatly surpassed by Gmail and Mail on the iPhone. The last remaining reason for buying a Blackberry I hear is BBM. The famous Blackberry Messenger. If you’re not familiar with this, it’s basically an instant messager app that only lets you chat to other Blackberrys. That must be a very one sided conversation. Besides there’s Gtalk on Android that not only lets you chat to other Android phones, but also people using Gtalk on their desktops and laptops, and is integrated into Gmail and now Google+. Even Apple are bringing out iMessage which pretty much does the same thing on iOS 5. Both of those systems have what BBM doesn’t, people you can chat with.

Hey since we’re talking about apps, the Apple App Store now has 37 billion apps in it, the Android market place has 28 billion apps, and the Blackberry Market has seven apps, six of which don’t work. That last sentence is a lie, I exaggerated to make a point. But I think you get what I’m talking about. Maybe you’re a fan of Seesmic, the famous and popular Twitter/Facebook client for smartphones and computers. They make their app for everything that can run it, except Blackberry. And it’s not just that they never made it for Blackberry, they actually stopped making it for Blackberry, leaving their users with the message that said something like “If you want to use Seesmic, buy a real smartphone”. So not only can you not get the latest and greatest apps, but they’re taking away the ones you can get already.

I know some of you are complaining that you have to use a Blackberry for work. You people have my greatest sympathy. Not only do you work for a company that gave you a rubbish phone to begin with, but they also don’t understand that both iOS and Android are quite secure and safe for company email. Besides how many email company secrets do you really have, especially now the US Government is making the switch to iPhones? Either way you’ll know what I’m talking about when I call the Blackberry a poo pie.

So what does the future hold for them? RIM’s grip on the smartphone market has slipped, as has Nokia’s. I really don’t see a way out of it for them. These days a phone isn’t just about the handset, it’s about the eco-system it lives in. You need to have developers on side making apps for your phone or you might as well not bother. RIM are now in what I refer to as the Palm Position. You’ve got one last stab at making a phone that people actually want to buy, and if they don’t you might as well sell yourself to a bigger company. The trouble is that Palm were in that position with a completely new product. Before the Palm Pre they were making Windows smartphones, so technically they could sort of claim that the rubbish handsets weren’t entirely their fault. Also they were living in a pre-iPhone world back then. Blackberry have been living in a post-iPhone world for several years now and still haven’t come up with a single product that even looks like a viable alternative.

Going on to look at the Playbook, RIM’s competitor to the iPad, there’s no reason to expect them to turn things around any time soon. They shipped the damn thing without the ability to do email. Who does something that dumb? RIM, that’s who.

Seriously people, listen to me now. If you want an iPhone and can’t afford one, get an Android phone. If you can’t afford the top Android device then get a smaller one. DO NOT at any point consider a Blackberry. Unless of course you’re 14 years old and are amused by the idea of a pink handset. The Blackberry is available in pink. If only Apple could come up with great ideas like that.

Almost exactly a year ago we visited the O2 store in Bradford Foster Square run by one Mr Kamran Khan. The reason was to buy a brand new HTC Desire for Allison. The intension was to get the phone on an 18 month contract, but this was advised against by one of Mr Khan’s store staff. The lady in question recommended that Allison should take out a 24 month business contract which would allow a handset upgrade after 12 months. That’s why we were back in Kamran’s store today, to collect the new phone.

However when we attempted to do so the store informed us that in January of this year O2 changed their contracts, and now everyone who took out the deal that Allison did, is now required to sign up to another two year contract in order to get their new handset.

There are a few problems with this. First of all O2 have changed the contact without informing the customer. Second, you can’t change a contract without the customer agreeing to the new contract. Third, they now expect Allison to continue to the end of her two year contract, still paying the full monthly contract cost which basically doubles the price she’s paying for the handset.

She was told by the store and by O2 customer service that if she wishes to cancel her new changed without her knowing contract, that she’ll have to pay the costs for the rest of the next year, another £540 which is a bit steep to say that she’s already given them £540 for the previous year which would more than cover the cost of the HTC Desire. Note that I’m not saying HTC Desire S, not the new phone. I’m talking about last years model.

I fully expect to find something that says “O2 reserve the right to change the terms of this contract without informing the customer” on the contract. While that might make this legal, and I’m not 100% sure that it does, it does’t make it right. For O2 to be treating their customers in this way is down right dishonest and wrong.

If you’ve had any experiences like this with O2 we would very much like to hear from you. Please email techitorleaveit@simplysyndicated.com to let us know. I have already spoken the O2 press office who will begin looking into this tomorrow, and hopefully we’ll have some sort of statement from them by the time we cover this on the show.

Is this just another example of phone networks treating customers like something they’ve stood in because they think they can get away with it? If you are an O2 customer concearned that they’ve changed your contract without telling you I advise you to contact them as soon as possible, you can find them on the phone or @o2 on Twitter.

Rest assured that I absolutely will not let this drop until I get some answers and can let you know that it’s safe to become or stay an O2 customer. O2 are looking into the matter and I will keep you all informed as to what they find out.

UPDATE 2/6/11 20:17pm

After some further investigation we’ve uncovered the following:

Things aren’t as clear as I first thought. Originally when getting the mid-term upgrade what happened was that the second year of the first contract is thrown out and a new two year contract begins again. It is stated in the original contract that a minium term new contract would apply if taking the upgrade. However it used to be the case that when another two year contract was signed then the customer could still get another new phone after another year. That has been stopped. Now the only options are to either use up the remaining year of your original contract without a new phone, or to sign up to a full two year contract that doesn’t allow a mid-term upgrade. It’s the mid-term upgrades that O2 have done away with.

While that isn’t exactly the same thing, it still stinks. The customers don’t get what they originally thought they were getting, which was a new phone every year as long as they stay with O2 and keep signing new contracts. Now they have to either stick with their current phone for an extra year in which case they’re paying far far too much for their handset, or go with the dastardly long two year contract.

Customers should be given the chance to significantly reduce their monthly fee after a year, or in this case be allowed to leave O2 without cost. Being forced into a two year contract because O2 have decided to change their deals is simply unfair and not the way to have happy customers.

Consider the finances of this for a moment. O2 charge Allison roughly £540 per year for her phone and the service. If the HTC Desire costed around £400 sim free, which it did at the time, they would make roughly £140 profit from her over the year. If she upgrades and is given a £500 phone for free and stays with O2 for the remainder of her contract they would make roughly £40 profit from having her as a customer.

These changes mean that if she stays with them for the remainder of her contract they will make roughly £540 profit from her over the next year in addition to the £140 they’ve already made, adding up to £680 profit, significantly more than they would have made by offering the upgrade as originally promised.

If she were to walk into a store as a new customer today and buy the same handset she was going to upgrade to it would cost at a minimum £32 per month over two years, which adds up to £768. That means a minimum profit of £228 more than giving her the phone as the upgrade she expected.

So O2′s choice is to either let her continue as she originally thought in which case they make £40 and keep her happy. Or they can upset their customer and make a minimum of £228, but more likely she won’t upgrade so they’ll make another £540 out of her. From their point of view if they upset her and she leaves they make a minimum of £228 and if they try to make her happy they make £40. It’s no surprise to see what they’ve gone for.

So money made from happy customers = Hc

money made from unhappy customers = Uc

Money lost by upsetting customers = Ml

If (Uc>Hc) > (Ml<Hc) = Go for it.

Sure they’ll loose customers over this, but they’ll still make more money by charging these customers more over the next year and loosing them than they will by keeping them happy and not loosing them after a year. It’s good business but it’s still treating people badly. It reminds me of that part of Fight Club where he’s explaining the cost of a car recall.

I think it was two years ago that I bought a multifunction printer. That name is a bit misleading because it’s actually a multifunction device which has printing as one of the functions. It was a printer, fax machine, scanner, and photocopier all in one. The problem was that each function was rubbish. I now have a printer that’s just a printer, and a scanner that’s just a scanner. I don’t need a fax machine because it isn’t 1989 any more. My point is that usually multifunction devices are a bit…rubbish.

I have another multifunction device. It’s a mini computer that isn’t as powerful or as functional as my desktop computer. It’s a camera that isn’t as good as my camera. It’s a video camera that isn’t as good as my video camera. It’s a music player that isn’t quite as good as my iPod. It’s my phone.

Historically devices that do lots of things in place of lots of devices that do one thing, are usually much worse at all those tasks. Based on that I’m trying to figure out why the PS3 sells so many units just because it’s also a blu-ray player. I just can’t accept the answer of full compatibility with BD-Live, the online functionality of blu-ray discs.

BD-Live is something that seemed like a good idea at the time and has become completely pointless. Blu-rays have been available since 2006 and the only BD-Live content that any I’ve seen play is ads for other Blu-Ray discs. In other words, I could live without it.

With that in mind, and the fact that you can now get a Blu-Ray player that’s just a blu-ray player for around £50 now, what is the point of the PS3? I’m still totally convinced that the way to go is XBox 360 and a separate Blu-Ray player which would cost less than the average PS3 package from Amazon. Is Little Big Planet all that good? Maybe it’s the brilliant online offerings?

If you bought a PS3 I’d love to hear why. Was it just for the Blu-Ray player? If you’re about to buy a new console are you thinking about the PS3? Why is that?

In today’s round of Why I’m Buying An iPhone I present to you Plants vs Zombies for Android. PvZ is one of the best little games to come out on the latest range of portable devices. It’s a basic tower defence game with some plants and zombies thrown in. It’s available for nearly every platform going. I personally own it on PC, Mac, iOS and Xbox. It’s also available for the Nintendo DS and I think it’s on the PlayStation too.

Of all the devices it is on, it’s not on Android. Pop Cap, makers of the game have been promising it for well over a year, since late 2009 as far as I know. Now it’s actually coming. I got all excited for a minute, ready to click buy on it despite the charge I’ll pay for using my bank card with the Android Market. Unfortunately I can’t.

PvS will be coming to the Amazon App Store exclusively, where It will be free to begin with. That’s all well and good, but at the risk of getting my map of the world out again, the Amazon App Store is US only. I can’t pay to play the game I want because a US based company has decided that it should be exclusive to US only customers for a while.

I don’t think that’s what Amazon have set out to do however. I think they’ve decided that it will get more customers using their store, and to hell with the rest of the world. That’s the unfortunate side effect of Android exclusivity. The same thing happened when Skype was released for Android. It was a Verizon exclusive app. That was so Verizon could offer their customers a reason to choose them over one of their competitors. That’s all well and good, but no matter how many exclusive apps Verizon have I can’t become a customer of theirs or their competitors, yet I still couldn’t download Skype because Verizon had an exclusive deal on it.

This doesn’t happen with the iPhone. There are apps that are country specific because of various different reasons. For example, you can’t download the Pandora app in the UK App Store because Pandora doesn’t operate in the UK. Fair enough. But there aren’t any apps that I can’t buy because one particular iPhone carrier wants an exclusive deal on it. There aren’t any apps I can’t buy because one app store is having a war with another app store.

As far as I’m concerned this is just another example of the problems with Android that Google aren’t going to do anything about any time soon. It’s very nice that I can play a little game on my phone if I plug it into an exercise bike, but I don’t want to do that, I want to buy apps. That’s what they won’t let me do. Apple don’t seem to have as much of a problem with taking my money.

There has been a  lot of speculation recently, saying that Apple will release the next version of OS X, Lion, through the Mac App Store. There’s lots of evidence for this, mainly that they are already distributing beta versions of the OS to developers via the App Store. At this point I’d say a download version of Lion is a pretty safe bet. 

That’s not to say that only download versions will be available. It’s still quite likely that Apple will make versions of Lion available on DVD too. After all, they still sell many copies of their operating systems through third party resellers like Amazon. Amazon would have nothing to sell if it was only available for download from one source. There’s also the problem of people in various parts of the world having poor access to high speed internet. Expect to see a disc based version.

That’s all pretty simple stuff that we can predict with a degree of certainty. The part that still has me puzzled is how the download version will work. Obviously it will arrive on your computer like any other app from the store, and then it will start installing itself. In truth this part of the process seems OK. Apple have strived over recent years to make their OS upgrade process better and better. My own experiences show that. My Mac was born with Tiger installed. Since then I’ve installed both Leopard and Snow Leopard as upgrades without a single problem. In addition to that everyone I’ve helped to upgrade their Macs have also had no problems what so ever. I can tell you that the upgrade process is best in class.

But what if it goes wrong? As good as the upgrade process is, is it perfect? I willing to bet that of all the millions of copies of Snow Leopard that were sold, there were at least a few that went wrong during the upgrade process. It could have been for any number of reasons, my point is that nothing in home computing is perfect and somebody will always find  a way of making it go wrong.

If for some reason your upgrade doesn’t work and you managed to destroy the OS you have installed, the worst case senario is that you reinstall the OS, if you have a disc. If the program you’re installing came as a download you now have a problem. This brings us to the double install. You can download apps from the app store as many times as you need to, so getting another copy of your new OS isn’t going to be a problem. You do however, need an OS to run the App Store and download the new OS. That means reinstalling Snow Leopard so you can download and install Lion.

While the double install makes sense and would probably work, it’s not very Apple like. It’s the least graceful and most complicated system I can think of. That’s not what Apple do, they like things to be simple, easy and smooth. So how do you get around the problem? One way would be to offer the opportunity to make a DVD out of your download. While technically very easy to do, it isn’t something that’s built into the way the App Store works. There aren’t any apps on there are the moment that you would be allowed to burn to disc, and we’re not expecting to see it any time soon. It’s also not very in keeping with what Apple are trying to do. Encouraging you to download the new OS just so you can burn it to a piece of plastic seems to be quite a contradiction, that said, it works better than the double install.

A third possibility would be Apple shipping a physical copy of the OS to everyone who buys it from the App Store. They already have your address so that wouldn’t be a problem. This just seems to be as bad an idea as letting you make your own disc.

I must admit that I’m stuck now. I can’t see a way around the problems created by not having a physical copy of your operating system. I don’t think this should be too easily dismissed as a big problem. It’s not only a problem if something goes wrong during the upgrade, what if you need to reinstall following a hard drive crash, or just to clean everything out. What then?

I am forced to conclude the following. First of all that Apple believe their upgrade process to be perfect, or at least perfect enough if there is such a thing. As long as few enough people suffer problems with the upgrade then Apple get away with it. As for the people who want to blank their hard drive, Apple may tell them that OS X is advanced enough for them to not need to do that. Apple may also tell them that they need to go out and buy a copy of Lion on disc. With any luck it’ll be at least as cheap as Snow Leopard was.

You did it didn’t you Google. You’re making me bring the globe graphic out again aren’t you. I thought we’d seen the last of this since the Americans stopped whining about only having the iPhone on one carrier. Oh well….

In case you’re wondering what happened today, I should fill you in. Today Google started their annual conference for developers. It’s their version of Apple’s WWDC. It’s where all the people who make things for Google products get together and learn more about what Google are up to and how they can work with it. Just like WWDC, Google kick things off with a keynote where they show us what they’ve been working on. Unlike WWDC most of it was uninteresting and disappointing. So what did they cover and why did I have to bring the graphic out again?

Google TV

Last year they showed off Google TV. Everybody seemed interested and Steve Jobs though it was a dumb idea. Steve was right. In the year that passed since the release they’ve sold around 2 Google TV boxes. If you own one, you’re the guy. It’s basically a system that connects to your TV (although it can be built in) and your cable box. Then you can use the Google search magical algorithms to look for TV shows, the point being that GTV will find them both on the internet and on your cable box.

The main problem I have with it is that I can’t have one. It doesn’t matter how good it is or what it can do, it’s US only with few or no plans to bring it anywhere else. That makes it difficult to care about. Today they announced that they’re putting Android on it along with Android apps. WOOT! Oh wait, yeah, I can’t have one.

Google Music

Remember that cloud drive Amazon released a month or two ago. Well it’s like that only it says Google on it, and it will let you make playlists on your browser. Did I mention that it’s US only?

Actually this one is a double don’t care. Not only do I not live in the US, but unless you live in a place with good 3G or better phone service, it’s pretty useless to you. Again it doesn’t matter how good it is, most of the planet can’t use it. I’ll be surprised if this one ever shows up in other countries.

Also please note that at this point in the keynote, they reminded us that they also have a service called Google Books which works pretty much like Amazon’s Kindle Store. That would be a good service that I’d probably use, if I lived in the US because strangely, it’s US only.

OK so maybe I’m still sore about the US only Google Voice. At least with Google TV and Music they don’t insist on putting an app on my phone that reminds me many times a day that I can’t use the service like they do with Google Voice. Besides it’s a big keynote, maybe they’ll announce just one product that isn’t US only.

Google Movie Rentals

Isn’t this cool? Now you can rent movies from the Android Market and play them on your computer or Android phone. That’s pretty cool and I like movies. I’ll just take a look at the site for it…..IT’S US ONLY!

At this point in the keynote I gave up on hoping for a new product that I could actually use. With any luck what follows will be all about the next version of Android for phones. I love my Android phone. It’d be cool to see what they’re working on.

New Version Of Android For Tablets

D’oh! I’m sorry Google. Android tablets could be free and come with a Ferrari and Megan Fox, and I still wouldn’t buy one. The ship has sailed and it’s an iPad ship. I don’t want a tablet, I want an iPad. I wasn’t sat around thinking “Those Motorolla Xooms look pretty good. I’d get one instead of an iPad if only it had resizable widgets”. Unfortunately Google believe that most people are sitting around thinking that and have added resizable widgets to Honeycomb. It’s not that it’s a pointless function, it’s that it’s not really something you’d use to indicate a whole new version of an OS and it’s certainly not something that convinces me it’s better than the iPad. Remember that the iPad isn’t only the best tablet, it’s the cheapest. If you want me to spend more on a Samsung tablet you need to give me features that I can’t live without, not features that try to catch up to an existing better product.

At this point in the keynote Google switched from things that I can’t have to things that are just strange and disappointing.

Google’s Thingy For Making Android Work With Other Stuff

Are you just desperate to make your Android phone work with other things around your house? Don’t you wish you could have your alarm clock turn on your bedroom lights? Didn’t think so. Google didn’t let that stop them. They’ve invented a whole new way for developers make Android phones plug into stuff. They showed it off by plugging a phone into an exercise bike and playing a little game on it. I swear I’ve seen something like that before, where was it, let me think, oh yeah…1997. Exercise bike plugged into consoles is nothing new. I’m willing to bet you’ve never owned one, never seen one, and have probably never been to a gym that has one. They’ve existed at least since the PS1 was out.

They also showed of a giant marble game controlled by a phone. It looks really good in a demo, but unless you own a giant marble game it’s a bit pointless. The problem is that most things we use tend to just work without the aid of a phone app, and most, if not all of them, wouldn’t be improved by the addition of one. Obviously imagining real world use for this is quite difficult so Google demonstrated how a phone could turn lights on and off. Many is the evening we sit in the dark palming away at the walls trying to figure out how to work the light switch. Now there’s an app for that.

To quote Dr Ian Malcom – “Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

In 1994 we had an app for the Macs at school that would allow the computer to do things like turn a light on and off, control a motor and other things like that. Its amazing how far we’ve come in 17 years. That said, Google did say that they have a company making light bulbs that work with their new system. Can you guess which is the only country in which these bulbs are available?

In conclusion

If you’ll excuse me I’m off to find the blood of a Windows user to offer to the great Steve God in the hope he’ll forgive me for all the things I’ve said about his phone over the last year. I’m sorry Steve, you were right, I was wrong. I should have listened to you and I was stupid enough not to. In one hour Google showed me everything that’s wrong with things you aren’t in charge of. If you want to sell more iPhones and other Apple products, just run the Google keynote where people can see it.

Google, I’ll see you later. Don’t worry, I’ll keep using Gmail even though I live in the blue bit of the map.

Microsoft have bought Skype, but that’s the kind of thing that shows up on your shopping list when you’ve got $8.5 billion to spend. My shopping list has things like Coco Pops and toothpaste. Anyway, they’ve bought it. Now what?

Skype has had it’s share of problems. The main problem being that the current desktop client is clearly work that was done on bring your son/daughter to work day, and the engineers didn’t have much input. It’s honestly the most offensively bad piece of software that I’m forced to run on my computer other than Photoshop. It’s not that it doesn’t work. If it didn’t work it would just be bad software. This is offensively bad software, that means that it works, but it makes you work hard in order to experience that.

Microsoft also have a patchy past depending on who you ask. As a Mac user I have decided not to use Windows, but I’m quite happy to accept that there are people at Microsoft who are talented and passionate about what they do. Microsoft actually do make several really good products, the Xbox being the most obvious. There are other things that also prove this, such as the design of Windows Phone etc.

Now they own Skype. People seem to see this as a bad thing. I see it as something that can only be good. When you’re starting at the bottom you can’t fall any further. Right now Skype sucks, and presenting me with a questionnaire at the end of the call isn’t going to solve any problems. If Microsoft adds some of the good work they’ve been doing with some of their other products to Skype I think we’re in for something that could only be seen as an improvement.

I also wouldn’t worry about Skype moving off other platforms. Microsoft make software. That software runs all over the place. There are Bing apps for Android and iOS, there’s Office for Mac, and loads of other stuff too. In actual fact I’m struggling to think of any big Microsoft apps that only run on Windows PCs.

Overall I think this is exciting news. Good luck with it Microsoft.

What phone should I buy?!?!? That’s the question that I get asked more than any other. So without further a do I present to you the best Android phones available on all the UK phone networks.

O2

To say O2 were the first in the UK to get the iPhone, and the first to get the Palm Pre, they really have let themselves down in the Android market. Their selection is really rather poor. At present they have five Android phones available. Of those five, one is the Dell Streak which is more of a tablet than a phone so discount that one. One is the Samsung Galaxy S, which has now been replaced by the Galaxy S 2 so you can’t really count that one either. One is the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini, which is nowhere near as good as the two that remain. This leaves us with the HTC Desire S and the Samsung Galaxy S 2.

That creates a little bit of a problem because you can’t really compare the two. The Galaxy 2 is Samsung’s big flagship phone, and the Desire S is more of a mid-range model, it isn’t meant to compete with the Galaxy.

The Galaxy 2 has a 4.3″ screen, dual-core processor and 8MP camera, where as the Desire S has a 3.7″ screen, single core processor and a 5MP camera. See? It’s a mid-range phone. If you’re intent on sticking with O2 then it really boils down to how big you want your phone to be. Personally I’d go with the Desire S because I’m still not convinced by phones over the 4″ screen mark. The Android OS hasn’t yet advanced to take full advantage of the two processing cores it has available to it, so you only see speed increases on very graphically advanced games. If you don’t play games on your phone then you won’t need it. The Desire S will serve 99% of buyers perfectly well, and as I recently said about my own original Desire, I want a new one because there is a new one, not because I’m unhappy with what I already have.

Vodafone

These guys have a great range of Android handsets, one that puts O2 to shame. There are currently 16 Android phones available from them, even the legendary Nexus One is still available and still one of the best phones from the last decade. However it’s a bit long in the tooth now so it’s maybe time to start looking at the newer models. Beware that most if not all of the networks will quite happily sell you very old stock that they can’t get rid of. For example the HTC legend which was considered an old phone at the beginning of 2010, in 2011 it’s amazing that they’re still available.

The best phones that Vodafone have available are the Nexus S, HTC Desire HD and soon the HTC Sensation. Remember how I said you can’t compare the Galaxy S 2 and the Desire S? Well it’s the Sensation that you should compare to the Galaxy S 2. It is HTC’s new all singing all dancing model and I think it looks absolutely fantastic. However I’ve never had my hands on one and it isn’t quite out yet, although it will be in a couple of weeks and is available for pre-order. If however you find HTC’s new beast a bit on the large side for you with it’s 4.3″ screen, then you won’t go far wrong with the Nexus S. It’s made by Samsung and is what’s known as a Google Experience phone. That means that as soon as Google make an update for Android available, you’ll get it right away. It doesn’t come with any bloatware or interface skinning by the manufacturer, it’s just a pure Android phone with nothing messed around with. It’s a very nice, very powerful, compact handset and maybe the one I would buy if I had to get a phone today.

It’s worth noting that Simon of World 1 Stage 1 and Tech It Or Leave It owns both an iPhone 4 and a Nexus S, I think he’d tell you that the iPhone is a better phone. I’d tell you that the iPhone 4 costs £139 on a £40pm contract and the Nexus S is free on the same tariff. In whatever way the iPhone might be better,and that just comes down to personal opinion, it isn’t £139 better.

Orange/T-Mobile

For shame. Two current model Android phones? Oh well. It’s down to the HTC Desire HD or the Desire S. The HD is the big one that’s about to be replaced by the HTC Sensation so I wouldn’t buy that. That leaves you with the Desire S. Go to a different network if you don’t want the Desire S.

Three

Again they have a terrible selection of last year’s phones. It’s the Desire S or Desire HD question. Nothing more to say on that one. They do however sell the Sony Ericsson Arc which is Sony’s big new Android phone. Unfortunately you have to give them money to get it and at the moment there’s no way I can recommend that you give any of your money to Sony for anything so steer clear of it. They are also notoriously bad with software updates so you could forget ever running the latest version of Android. Look, just get the Desire S, it’s great, you’ll love it.

Conclusion

It looks like Vodafone are way out in front when it comes to Android phones. However Vodafone managed to wiggle their way out of a 6 billion pound tax bill just as the big budget cuts hit the UK. I find it’s more of a moral decision when it comes to giving them your money and one I wouldn’t be happy making. If you’re ok with that then I’ve found them to provide an adequate service and like I said they have the best selection of Android phones in the UK. Maybe the best thing to do would be to get a sim only deal from one of the other networks and buy your phone from Amazon.

At the moment the best handsets available are the HTC Desire S, Desire HD and Sensation. The Samsung Galaxy S 2 and Nexus S. These days it really boils down to how big you want your phone to be. If you’re happy going beyond 4″ in screen size then get the HTC Sensation, if not, go with the Nexus S or Desire S.

Apple have roughly 68 billion dollars in the bank. That’s not as assets like property, real estate or the like, it’s actual cash on hand. They could spend $68 billion tomorrow if they wanted. Personally if I end up with £20 in my wallet at the end of the week, it starts burning a hole in my pocket and I feel compelled to troll Amazon looking for an XBox game I’d like. What could I get with $68 billion?

Idea 1.

Apple can run for 7 years, at their present output, if they never made another penny. Imagine that! If nobody bought another iPad, iPod, iPhone or Mac again, they could still be in business for another seven years. Clearly that’s not going to happen so I think it’s safe to say that they don’t need to worry about it. But what if that was part of the plan all along? What if tomorrow Apple put something on the front of their website declaring that your next Mac is free. All you have to do is convince a store employee that you need the particular model of Mac you’re asking for. If they’re convinced, you walk out of the store with a brand new, free, MacPro. They also make it so that your next iPhone or iPad is completely free. That would be something for the Windows fans to think about. A free iMac. OK so they’d take a massive financial hit, but we know they can run just fine for seven years, so it certainly wouldn’t be the death of them if they gave me an iMac. Over night they’d leap up in market share.

Idea 2

Buy Microsoft. Never gonna happen. Couldn’t happen. It’s illegal in all kinds of ways. It’d be fun though, maybe it could be announced at the same keynote that Steve tells us all that he’s retiring. One more thing… we’re buying Microsoft!

Idea 3

Buy the entertainment industry. All of it. Every movie studio, every record label, every TV production company, all of it. No more negotiations, no more file sharing law suits, no more worrying about cloud based music lockers. Just Apple making and selling most of the world’s entertainment. Again, this is probably illegal and the monopolies people would probably have something to say about it. OK, so what if they just bought Sony? That gives them access to a massive movie, music and TV library, as well as electronic products that Apple don’t currently make such as TVs and BluRay stuff. Heck, they’d own BluRay! I wonder if we’d see it in Macs then.

Idea 4

Buy the telecommunications industry. Maybe they’d have to do it in bits, one country at a time. But we know they like vertical markets. Apple sell you a thing, the thing that you plug it in to, and the stuff that you put on it. It makes sense for them to buy people like AT&T or O2 so that when you buy that iPhone it comes on the Apple phone network. I’m pretty sure (being the great lawyer that I am) that they’d probably be allowed to do that, as long as they don’t try to buy everyone.

Idea 5

A huge money bin. Haf of the cash is turned into gold coins, the other half is invested in developing a way to swim through the coins.

Idea 6

Do absolutely nothing with it and leave people like me to wonder what they’re going to do with it.

Idea 7

Buy Facebook. I know I’ll have pulled you away from Ping just to read this article, but what if they bought Facebook? Right away they’d own the biggest social network in the world, and all the programming tallent that goes with it. At the very least I could see them making Facebook actually work properly.

Whatever they decide to do, it’ll probably result in me spending money on a new product. Damn you Jobs!

It’s strange to think that I don’t own an iPod any more, which is to say, all of the iPods I do own are in a box somewhere. There was a time when I couldn’t have left the house without knowing that my iPod was in my pocket. Now we all use our phones. We tend to compare the two major smartphone operating systems by the number of apps they have available in their app stores. But there’s something that is all too often overlooked. The availability of media.

That iPod I used to love won the battle to become the definitive media device for one simple reason. the iTunes Store. All that stuff! Music, TV shows, movies, podcasts, audiobooks and regular books. Going on a long flight? No problem! Get yourself to iTunes and load up on the latest most exciting stuff. These days the same applies to the iPad and iPhone.

Now imagine for a second that you’ve rushed out to buy your Motorola Xoom. Maybe you also have a long flight tomorrow and you’d like to load your brand new tablet device with some movies and music. What do you do? So far nobody really had an answer.

Not being able to buy music on an Android phone isn’t really the problem we sometimes make it out to be. In actual fact, it’s not a problem at all. There’s the Amazon MP3 Store. It works pretty much like iTunes on the iPhone, only you get the music from Amazon. It arrives DRM free and can be synced back to your desktop computer.

Last week Amazon launched Cloud Drive. It’s basically an online storage locker for media. Any music you buy from Amazon is automatically put in there, but you can also upload your local music collection. Then everything is made available to your phone via the new Amazon music player/music store app. Sadly it’s US only at the moment.

Hey I almost forgot. Android gets it’s ebooks from Amazon too. I know you can get Kindle books on the iPhone too, but that’s not the point here. The point is that it’s on Android. Let me explain.

Amazon pretty much own the following spaces of Android. Music sales, online music storage, and books. They also launched their own Android App Store. Again it’s US only, but as far as I can tell, it solves every problem I have with the existing Android Market and I can’t wait for it to be available to me so I can start using it. So it’s safe to say that they’re in a position to really make an impact in the app space too.

Don’t forget that in the US Amazon also rent and sell movies and TV shows. How much work can it really be to make any movies you buy automatically add to your cloud drive and stream to your phone? Amazon are now in the position of becoming the default source of media and apps for the Android operating system.

Did anyone see that coming?

Then the other day we got news of an Amazon phone. It was a joke. Here’s a link to GizmoCrunch where I read the story. Forget all the news of high tech specs and other stuff and just think about the concept for a moment. So Amazon release a phone. Everybody was shocked when they originally released the Kindle, we thought they’d never make hardware. Now the Kindle has sold in the tens of millions or more. Why can’t they make a phone?

It’s totally possible for them to make something that comes with their own user interface, app store, media store, kindle app, and app for actually buying things from Amazon. What a mighty device that would be, especially when backed up with the support of the fantastic Gmail and Maps apps from Google.

As an after thought it hit me how cheap this phone could be. If you’re presented with a phone that has access to all this stuff then the chances are you’ll spend some money on it at some point. That means money for Amazon. Apart from Apple, no other phone maker is in that position. It doesn’t matter how many apps or songs I buy on my current phone, HTC aren’t going to see a penny of it. If Amazon sold me the phone, it would be a very different matter.

So really the question isn’t “Are Amazon going to do a phone?” it’s “When is the Amazon phone coming?”

And in conclusion… I would buy that.

There are some cries for help that I just can’t ignore. Especially one from @missarrie that said “So, I’m getting the HTC Desire, anyone got any app recommendations?” There’s just no way I can turn that down. So without further a do, here’s what’s on my phone, part one. There is a link bundle here.

1. Amazon MP3 Store

Very handy for downloading new music to your phone. It has access to the whole Amazon MP3 Store as you might have guessed. The music is all DRM free so you can sync it back to your computer whenever you’re ready.

2. Androzip File Manager

You need a way of getting to all your files, and I think this is a pretty good one. It also does a good job of opening compressed folders like .zip files.

3. Angry Birds

It really is a good game, and it’s free, although I’d appreciate a pay version without the ads.

4. Barcode Scanner

Because scanning barcodes is just the best thing to do these days. You’ve probably seen those QR codes around the internet that will allow your phone to go straight to a URL, and you’ll need a barcode scanner to do it.

5. Beautiful Widgets

You might be lucky enough to have your phone come with some really nice widgets. If you aren’t then these are very good indeed. They certainly sit on the home page of my phone.

6. ChromeMarks

For some reason Google doesn’t have a system that allows you to sync bookmarks between Google Chrome running on your desktop, and the browser on your phone. Until they do, there’s ChromeMarks.

7. Classic Text To Speech Engine for Android

The text to speech voice that comes with Android is a little lacking. This one is much nicer.

8. DoggCatcher Podcast Player

I tried to find a good way to sync podcasts from my computer to my phone. It turned out to be much easier to just download the podcasts to my phone. I like this program the best.

9. Dropbox

If you use Dropbox you’ll need a way to use it and upload files. The official app is perfect.

10. Evernote

Like what I said for Dropbox, only for Evernote. It’s a great note taking app.

11. Glympse

Sharing your location can be useful but it also comes with a lot of privacy concerns. Glympse allows you to share your location with individuals for a short amount of time. So for example I can send my location to Allison for the next hour, and then it automatically shuts off.

12. Go Launcher EX

One of the bonuses of Android is the ability to change your app launcher system. At the moment I’m using Go Launcher EX because it’s fast and offers a nice range of functionality, and it’s free.

13. Go SMS

The SMS app is something that phone makers like to mess with, and I haven’t seen a really good one yet. Go SMS has some great features and again, it’s free.

14. Chrome To Phone

This app works along with a Google Chrome extension. You find yourself on a web page, hit the button in your browser and the web page shows up on your phone. It’s handy for maps too.

15. IMDB

If you don’t have this, what do you do when a movie is on?

16. Kindle

Handy for when you don’t have you Kindle with you.

17. Firefox

It’s a nice alternative browser, and shares bookmark sync with the desktop version.

18. Nimbuzz

Get your IM on here. It works with pretty much every IM system in the world.

19. RockPlayer

RockPlayer is one of those “Can play anything” kind of video players. It works with XViD and DivX too!

20. Winamp

This is in my opinion the best music player for Android. You may not agree with me as there is a wide range of other very good players. The best I can do is tell you that I like this one and your milage will vary. I will also say however, that if you use Winamp on your PC then you can set up a Wi-Fi sync for your music.

There are two conflicting views when it comes to selling apps on phones. There’s the Apple way, which involves a very closed system. Every app that goes in the app store is pre-approved by Apple. They take the time to look at each and every app, doing their best to make sure that the apps do what they should be doing. There is a down side to that. Just ask any developer who has spent a lot of time and money on developing a new iOS app only to have it turned down by Apple at the last minute.

A lot of people don’t like the idea that you can only buy the apps that Apple want you to be able to buy. For those people there’s Android.

Just like with iOS, Android has an app store (huh, guess it must be a generic term). The difference is that Google couldn’t really be said to be “running” an app store in the same way that Apple is. This has freedoms that iOS doesn’t provide, such as anyone being able to upload any app and sell it. But while that brings freedoms, it also brings catastrophic problems.

A week or two ago it was discovered that there were some pirated apps running on Google phones that caused lots of problems for users. They were real apps, all be it stolen, and they came with some extra software built in. That extra software captured the IMEI number of your phone and started doing all sorts of hacks that the user would be unaware of until their phone bill arrived, showing all the texts and things that their phone had been sending without their knowledge. Luckily Google dealt with the issue appropriately and quickly, but no such thing would be remotely possible on the iPhone.

But let me get in to that pirate apps issue for a minute. People are selling pirated apps in the Android Market. It is exactly what it sounds like. People download apps by other developers, re-upload them with their own name attached and start making money from other developer’s work. The situation is almost in crisis. It isn’t happening a little bit, or from time to time, it’s happening a lot.

I’d like to end this post here having just informed you that people are selling pirated apps in the store, and that some pirated apps have trojan viruses in them. Unfortunately the problems don’t stop there.

A few months ago I bought an app called Live 360. You might know it, it’s an app that lets you log on to your XBox Live account and see who’s online playing games. Quite handy. The app cost me roughly £2. Now even though I’ve bought the app, I can’t have it any more. The developer was contacted by Microsoft and told that his app violated their terms and conditions for XBox Live. Did he fix it? Nope, he just pulled it from the store. That means I can’t have the app that I payed for. I haven’t been offered a refund, and to rub it in, the free version of the app is still in the iOS app store. Why should I bother to buy another app if the developer can decide that they don’t want me to have it any more?

Then there’s the issue of pricing. When you visit Apple’s App Store you get to see all the prices of the apps in your own currency and when you buy one, you pay Apple for it. It works just like buying music, renting movies or downloading TV shows, and the chances are that you’ve already done one of those things on the iTunes store. When you buy an app from the Android Market you pay the developer using Google Checkout. The problem there is that developers don’t all live in the same country as you can they don’t use the same currency. Some of them charge in Pounds, some in Dollars and some in Yen. When I buy an app that’s priced in Pounds everything works perfectly. It’s when I try to buy something in Dollars, and there’s a lot of those, that the problems really start.

My bank, and every other bank, charge a currency conversion fee. Whenever I buy something that results in a foreign transaction I get a £1.25 charge. In this 21st Century internet world there are certain situations where you just accept that. For example that charge is applied each month when I pay for my Dropbox subscription. On a monthly fee of around £10 it isn’t exactly a deal breaker. When it’s applied to a 99 cents app it’s a different issue all together. A fee of £1.25 pretty much triples the price of the app! I’ve have spoken to my bank about this and they inform me that this is a very standard charge and that there’s nothing I can do about it.

And so we have to put up with Google making statements about them being sad that nobody is buying Android apps. Just to recap, if I buy an app I may have to pay three times the listed price, the app may well have a virus, and even if it doesn’t there’s no guarantee that I won’t have the app taken off me at a later date.

I have learned my lesson. I have seen what happens when you think that Steve Jobs is wrong, and there was a £1.25 bank charge on finding out. I bought an Android phone because it was cheaper than an iPhone 4. If I buy 100 apps then I’ve payed the price of that iPhone in bank charges. I think I know what I’ll be doing when contract renewal time comes around.

Come in feature phones, your time is up. No longer is your phone just a phone. If you want to keep living in the past that’s fine, you’re entitled to live your life however you like. However I do ask that you take a little while to consider what you’re missing out on. I’m going to go through a few of the things I often hear from people as excuses for not upgrading.

1. I like my phone to just be a phone.

Why is that? Have you tried a smartphone before and didn’t like it? Are you assuming that all smartphones are the same? This statement more than any, I consider to be a lie. It’s not really a meaningful reason is it? It’s as if you’re in some way suggesting that smartphones don’t really work as phones and will actually do things to hinder you from making a call. That’s a silly thing to think and you know it is. Do you really think all those iPhone owners are walking around unable to connect a call? OK bad example, but my point still stands.

I think this is a masked admission of fear. It’s as if the person is actually saying “I like my phone to just be a phone because I can’t mentally cope with any more” I refuse to accept that about anyone. Especially anyone who has enough brain power to get on the internet and read a blog. Remember that these devices are designed by humans for humans. Apple, HTC, Samsung, Sony, Motorola and everyone else spends millions of dollars each year to research how best to make things work. I read once that part of the design brief for the iPod was that it should be able to be operated by anyone within fifteen seconds of picking it up. That’s the sort of thinking that goes in to these devices. You can work one and really you know that.

2. I don’t like Twitter.

Yes it’s true that there are a lot of people going on about how wonderful it is to use Twitter on their smartphone. So much so you might end up thinking that’s all they’re for. Clearly that isn’t true. I know what’s confusing you though, it’s the “phone” part of the name isn’t it. I honestly think that smartphones would get to more people by being referred to as small computers. Everybody knows what a computer is and everybody knows what small is. If I tell you that a gadget is a small computer you can get a quick understanding of the device I’m talking about. In fact I’d argue that it actually makes the whole thing less daunting. You already know how to work a normally sized computer so a smaller one should be easy. The reverse of that, the smart-phone is a lot more frightening. It’s not just a phone, it’s a smart-phone. For years Nokia have stuffed you with a crap operating system and four directional buttons to muddle your way through it. Feature phones are difficult to work and that puts you off the idea of getting something that’s supposed to be more complicated.

3. I can’t afford one.

This is a tricky one. I know there are a lot of people who don’t have a lot of money to spend, and I know that some of you even have better things to spend your money on, like your kids and stuff. That said we’re assuming you’re in the market for a phone here so there must be some cash in your pocket. That point of this one is that smartphones aren’t as expensive as you might think. Yes, the iPhone is very expensive. Whether you like it or not, it’s pretty much the most money you can spend on a phone. That doesn’t mean that all smartphones are the same price. Android phones are generally cheaper, and they come in a range of shapes and sizes. They can get to prices nearing the iPhone range, but they can also be had for free on a £15 monthly contract. As I understand it they’re practically giving away BlackBerry and Nokia smartphones, although I wouldn’t recommend buying either.

Personally I think the way to get the best deal on a phone is to buy it sim free. That means buying the phone without a contract from a website like Amazon. I know there’s a bigger up front cost. Usually somewhere between £300 – £400 depending on how good a phone you want. Then you just get yourself a cheap sim deal from the network of your choice and you’re good to go. Make no mistake, that phone you get with a contract might be free at first, but you’re still paying for it month by month. Take my own case. I have an HTC Desire and I pay O2 £40 each month for my contract. The phone was free. Had I bought the phone from Amazon.co.uk for £399 then a £15 monthly contract from O2, I’d be saving £25 a month. Over an 18 month contract that’s £450. Getting the phone for free cost me £51. Millage will vary depending on the tarif and phone you choose, but it’s definitely something worth thinking about.

4. I don’t have email on my phone now, why would I want to put it on there?

Did you know that as soon as you give people functionality that they didn’t have before, they start using it. You might think that I’m the person my family comes to for technical help and advice. In most cases you’d be right. Not in the case of phones. When my mother last bought a phone there were steps taken to ensure that I didn’t find out what was happening. My father rightly found it ridiculous and told me what was happening. Whilst I was on the phone to him he asked her why she didn’t want me to know. Her words were “He’ll just tell me to buy an iPhone and I don’t want one of those”. That wasn’t what I’d have done, but it shows that my Mum was afraid of the smartphone. To be clear, my Mother isn’t a daft woman. By day she’s a primary school teacher, and at home she’s more than happy to live with the array of gadgetry my Father brings home. She’s recently made the transition from Windows to Mac, plays Guitar Hero (really, she has her own guitar), is a fan of sat-nav in her car, and loves the Kindle she got for Christmas. This is the woman that doesn’t understand the benefits of extra functionality in her life? Surely not. She went out and bought the cheapest, simplest, most basic Nokia phone.

What she wasn’t expecting was email. It has been a long time since I had or even looked at a feature phone, but it seems that basic email has filtered down to them. A few weeks later, without me asking, she began to tell me about how her new phone did email and how amazing it was. She’d been checking her email on her phone all day. After refusing to get a smartphone, she had actually started using the basic smartphone like features. If you can sneak features into people’s hands they will start using them. They just need to realize that.

Had Mum been brave enough to take the leap she might have ended up with a Desire or iPhone and would now be loving it. She’d be showing off the latest apps she’d bought every time we go to vist. Maybe next phone around.

In Conclusion

I hope I’ve gone some way to explaining a few things. Be brave and take a leap in to this new world of portable computing. It isn’t difficult to do and you can learn. If you made it this far you can go all the way. Using modern technology to its fullest allows you to take advantage of all sorts of life enriching experiences you’ll otherwise miss. That can range from making new friends, to downloading podcasts, to better communications to all sorts of things that haven’t been imagined yet. Putting those things in your pocket makes life easier. I know you don’t need them, we’ve been getting along just fine without mobile phones for a long time now, but before you finally say no consider this one last tale I have for you:

A couple of weeks ago Allison was getting her hair done after work. We had arranged for me to collect her from the salon when she was finished. I had, and still have, no idea where this salon is. It wasn’t so long ago that she would have to just tell me the address, I’d look it up in the map book, work out a route, write that down and try to follow the route in the dark, driving whilst trying to read the map. What actually happened was that Allison opened up an app called GPS Share. That app found out where she was and texted the location to me. I opened a link in that text which automatically opened up Google Navigation and gave me turn by turn directions with voice instructions from our front door to the salon. Rather than driving along with the map open, I drove with my eyes on the road, my hands on the wheel and a voice telling me to take the next left.

Ok people it’s time to talk ebooks. Paper is over and done with, printing on dead trees is finished and carrying heavy text books is a thing of the past. It’s time to meet Kindle. The Kindle is actually a fantastic case study of a new technology starting out primitive and expensive, only to end up brilliant and cheap a couple of years later.

A little over three years ago the first Kindle device was released. It was as big as a house, cost a million pounds and weighed about as much. You could only buy it in the US if your name was Jeff. (not really). A year later the second generation came out and was only as big as a family car, only cost half a million pounds and could be carried around in an average sized wheel barrow (again, not really). Finally, just before Christmas last year, the third generation device was released. Now we’ve got something that fits in your hand, works perfectly, costs just over one hundred pounds and is available around the world no matter what your name is.

So what is Kindle and what does it do? Think of it as an electronic book. It’s a book that can become any book at the touch of a button. The Kindle is a black slab tablet device, with a small keyboard at the bottom and an eink screen. You get your books from Amazon, they’re synced to your Kindle and you read away. Simple as that. Let’s take a look at some of the key features.

What’s the screen like?

It’s E Ink. Rather than go into too much detail I’ll just refer you to this page on Wikipedia. The main thing you need to know about it, is that it looks like a page from a book. Let me be very clear about this. You might be thinking of something like the iPad that displays a picture that is of a book. The Kindle is exactly like a book. Got a paper back book there? Open it up, look at it, and now you can see what the Kindle screen looks like. It’s that good.

There’s no back light so you can read it for long periods without your eyes getting tired. Remember too that you’ll need a little torch or something if you want to read in the dark.

When you put the device into standby you get a wonderful graphic displayed for you. It changes each time you put the Kindle to sleep. It wasn’t long before I found myself switching it off and on again just to look at the pictures. While it isn’t colour, graphics and illustrations look spectacular. Almost like they’ve been drawn by hand with a pencil.

Unfortunately you can’t see a Kindle in a store, so unless you know somebody who has one, you’ll just have to take my word for it. In some ways the Kindle screen is the best I’ve ever seen. OK so it isn’t super high res, or displays more colours than your eye can see, but in terms of making you want to look at it the Kindle is simply amazing.

Where do I get books from?

All ebook readers need a source of books. Otherwise there wouldn’t be much point. You aren’t exactly going to spend time scanning all the books you already own as if you were ripping your CD collection for your iPod. There are some independent ebook retailers which I haven’t looked at yet, but most ebook readers have their own store linked to them. Obviously in the case of the Kindle, that store is Amazon. In my entire adult life, and I must only just be young enough to say this, but I can’t have bought more than one or two books that didn’t come from Amazon. Do you know how many books they have? All of them, and that’s quite a collection.

Not all the books are available as ebooks yet. That said Amazon claim that their mission is to make EVERY book available in the Kindle style, and I haven’t searched for one that isn’t there yet. Your milage will vary. Books range in price from free to not free. Honestly the best thing to do is to take a look for yourself and see what they’ve got and if it’s in your price range.

You can buy your books directly from the Amazon website for your country, or you can browse the book store on the device. There are two versions of the Kindle available, one with 3G and WiFi, one with just WiFi. If you get the 3G version there’s no monthly fee for the service as it’s built into the cost of the device, and the really clever thing is that it works world wide.

What if I don’t have my Kindle with me?

Here’s the really clever part. I hear that the people who make the Kindle device, and the people who make the Kindle software, are two different groups of people. That’s actually a very clever idea because it means that the software people aren’t limited to working with one device. Sure you can use your Kindle to read Kindle books, but it doesn’t stop there. At present there are Kindle apps available for Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. I have my library on my Kindle, on my Mac and it lives on my phone too. So if there’s ever a moment when I could read a few paragraphs, maybe when I’m waiting in line, I can pull out my phone and start reading.

I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that having all these books in different places isn’t a good idea because you’ll end up on a different page in each place. [as a side note, Kindle books don't have pages, they have locations, which allows for you to alter text size] Fear not! For Kindle comes equipped with “WhisperSync” a cloud service that you don’t have to think about, but which keeps all your books on the same page so to speak.

So what else does it do?

Before I tell you what else it does let me remind you that doing one job well is no bad thing. The Kindle is an ebook reader, it allows you to read ebooks. If you want to play Angry Birds then you need something more complicated. However there are a couple of nifty things this device also does.

First of all the text to speech function is excellent. Some of the best voice synthesis I’ve heard that wasn’t produced by a desktop computer. It’s certainly good enough to switch it on and read along with it. The Kindle even moves to the next page automatically when it needs to. You can listen via headphones or the built in speakers, which are excellent for a device of this size. Unfortunately some publishers have really kicked off about this function. It was originally intended as an accessibility function. If you’re partially sighted then I imagine text to speech is essential. However publishers have seen it as competition for audio books. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, but it isn’t that good. Anyway the upshot of this is that not all books have text to speech available, but of the ones I’ve downloaded more have it than not, and all the public domain books do.

Speaking of audio books, being that Amazon owns Audible you can listen to your Audible audio books on the Kindle. I expected it to be a “thrown together last thing on a Friday” kind of thing, but it isn’t. When you play an audio book you get a page dedicated to it showing player controls and all the information about the book. Again you can listen through the built in speakers.

There’s bookmarking and note taking of the books as you would expect, but those bookmarks and notes can be posted on Twitter or Facebook right from the device. I’ve had a little play with that function and I can see myself tweeting passages from books that I like.

Finally there’s a basic web browser which Amazon put in the Experimental section of the menu to make it clear that you shouldn’t expect great things. It’s OK for what it is, but it is a small E Ink screen and won’t be playing YouTube videos any time soon.

Should I really buy one?

I’ll put it this way. Before Kindle, I didn’t read books. I had technical books about PHP and Java, but I didn’t read what you might call proper books. That has changed. Less than a week in to owning a Kindle and I’m on my second book. That was something that I just didn’t expect. This is one of those devices that is a joy to use. You’ll find yourself smiling as you scroll through your library, and a device that makes you happy like that is something you should really look into. If you read a lot already then you absolutely need one of these, and if you don’t read then you should and this might be a way to spur you on. Maybe if you were in a bad mood and looking for something, you might be able to say something bad about the Kindle. Personally I think it embodies everything a gadget should be and is one of the finest products to be released by somebody that isn’t Apple in a long time.

Click here to see the Amazon Kindle with 3G

Click here to see the WiFi only Kindle