Need for speed

I'd just like to say thank you to Virgin Media for my free upgrade... it's not often you get a whole lot more of something for no extra money. This time yesterday I was running at just under 2Mb/s, so this is quite an improvement!

Essential upgrade - maybe

Word on the street (i.e. internet) says that there will be a new version of the iPod Touch arriving as early as September this year. And, if rumours are to be believed, it could come complete with everything from a built-in camera to a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The things I would most like to see, and the things that are most likely to be included in the update, are a camera (hopefully the autofocus/macro model from the iPhone 3GS) and the GPS capabilities (also from the iPhone). These two things would make the Touch even more indespensable than it already is. The number of apps that would benefit from a camera are immense, and equally GPS for being properly "location aware" would be brilliant. Less likely, but also high on my personal wishlist, would be a built-in microphone. I'm guessing a processor speed bump and more RAM are a given, as is the version 3.0 OS.

However, if these things really were included the the third-gen Touch, wouldn't it be straying just a bit *too* far into iPhone territory? Already it's 75% iPhone, and these additions would push it to about 90%. The only thing missing would be the telephony features. I'm thinking that Apple would be wary of eating into its iPhone sales (and associated revenue from the stupidly long and stupidly expensive tarriffs).

Needless to say though, if they did manage to put a camera and GPS in the next model, mine would be straight on eBay and I'd preorder the day it was announced - providing it can come in at a sensible price. Let's hope that the money men at Apple see the sales opportunities for a better Touch and don't fret too much about their iPhone contracts...

And... thanks for nothing.

So the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and it was all a bit... well... meh.

The iPhone 3.0 OS looks like a good upgrade, but it wasn't exactly a surprise as it was announced months ago - and if I want it on my iPod Touch it'll cost me, whereas iPhone users get it for free. What's that all about?! But it's definitely worth the outlay as it will give me the ability to CUT, COPY, PASTE AND UNDO!!

As for Snow Leopard, again it looks like a worthwhile step forward. And the best bit? Only $29! That's a serious bargain. Oh, wait... what's this?! Intel only? Ah. Not for me, this brave new world. There will be no snow on my ageing G5 Leopard.

And so on to the much anticipated new iPhone hardware - the iPhone 3GS! Marvel at the camera that is THREE WHOLE MEGAPIXELS WHICH CAN RECORD FRICKIN' VIDEO! Gasp in wonder at the introduction of HSDPA! WHOA! What is this, 2007?!

Way to go Apple. Sometimes you disappoint me greatly. But I still love you. I think.

WWDC today - but do I care enough?

With only a few hours to go until Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference 2009, it is now pretty much accepted wisdom that there will be an announcement of a new iPhone. If this is true, it'll be the third year on the bounce that they've released new iPhone hardware. Now I'm all up for technological advancement, and bearing in mind I'm about 6 weeks away from the end of my current mobile phone contract I may well be in the market for just such a device.

However, I have a few issues with the whole iPhone sales model. If Apple continue this 12-month cycle of hardware upgrades, how are customers going to fare with this incessant pace of change? If I got myself a new 18-month contract for a 3rd generation iPhone as soon as it's released, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have an obsolete model after 12 months. So do I then get the 4th-gen iPhone when the contract expires, knowing that if I'm just a bit more patient I can have the 5th-gen in just another six months? My god, it's enough to make your head spin!

But my *real* problem with the iPhone is unfortunately more fundamental than the obsolescense of the hardware. The cost is just a bit rich for my blood. I know that you're getting what is arguably the best mobile phone in the world, but the monthly cost is what's putting me off. The cheapest contract for an iPhone is £30 a month, for 18 months, with an upfront cost of £100 for the 8GB model. For that outlay, you get 75 minutes and 125 texts and unlimited data.

Now I can get a super-shiny Nokia E71 (which admittedly, isn't an iPhone but is widely recognised to be the best smart phone on the market bar none) for free on an 18-month contract with 200 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £20 a month from three.co.uk.

There's an interesting comparison between the two phones from Wired.com - just try to ignore the geeks and concentrate on the phones...



So over the life of the 18-month contract the iPhone will set me back £640, the Nokia will cost me £360. That's some significant margin - £280 is a lot in my world.

So there's my problem - I *know* the iPhone is better. I *know* it's cooler. I *know* it's made by the almighty Apple. But when I already have an iPod Touch (which is 75% of the iPhone anyway), I just can't justify the cost. My iPhone-owning friends have all said "but it's only an extra £10 a month", but the flip side of that is that "it's a WHOLE £10 extra a month".

So yes, let's have some shiny new hardware. Let's make the best phone in the world even better. Let's bask in the glory of Apple's design and vision. But more than any of those things, LET'S MAKE THE DAMN THING CHEAPER.

*** UPDATE ***

So now the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and Apple have announced their new iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS. So far as I can tell, it's very similar to the old model but now sports HSDPA and a 3 megapixel camera with video capability. Both of which the Nokia E71 has had since it's introduction over a year ago. But the best bit? The upfront cost for the 8GB iPhone 3GS is a bargain at only £185. Which, from my earlier calculations, pushes the total 18-month cost up to £725. Excuse me if I don't rush to buy one.

I almost didn't notice it was spam...

I was checking through the recent comments I've received on my postings earlier on, and as I was going through and deleting all the obvious Cyrillic-character rubbish and adverts for Viagra, I ALMOST DIDN'T NOTICE THIS LITTLE BEAUTY WAS SPAM. Honestly - it could almost have been a real comment couldn't it?! Incidentally, I've deleted out the hyperlinks just in case anyone felt the urge to click through.

"Once in a while my internet disconnects and reconnects all eveningand one day every 2-3 weeks. stiga quickplay indoor outdoor table tennis table. It's bewildering, seeing as flanders valley proper for flanders valley the most part0 my internet works penalize and is trouble-free. sampras tennis star sampras tennis star. Although the infrequent cosmos of the disconnections is not all that bothersome,lee on solent tennis clublee on solent tennis club it is EXTRAORDINARILY annoying and apt to the character of my deal with I ask for a unchanged, sure and unwearied connection at all times."

Yeah. Good point, well made. Couldn't have said it better myself. SPAM FAIL.

Pump up the volume

I've had a Nokia N73 mobile phone for about 15 months now, which means it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't know about you, my phones seem to take quite a battering - sometimes literally - and when most phone contracts these days are for 18 months, the last six months prior to an upgrade can be a bit touch and go as to whether the phone will survive. Needless to say, I'm not about to spend an extra £7 a month for a luxury like phone insurance either.

So my N73 started playing up the other day. The rocker switch - which controls the earpiece volume when making a call or the zoom when in camera mode - went worryingly flaccid and refused to function. Rather annoyingly, I managed to turn the volume right down and then couldn't turn it back up again. Doh!

Upon opening the phone up (always have a T6 torx to hand I say) I discovered that the microswitch which controlled it had broken right off the mainboard and my soldering is in no way up to the job of replacing it. I sent it off to have it looked at under Nokia's fairly generous 2-year warranty, but they sent it back unrepaired saying that the warranty doesn't cover "physical damage". What the hell does it cover then?

Anyway, I discovered a way round the problem. Go and find that headset that came in the box with your phone (probably still shrink wrapped and unused...) and plug it in. This has a button on it that allows you to control the volume remotely. Get it back to the level that you want, unplug and your problem's solved.

Doesn't fix the camera zoom, but you'll just have to walk closer to your subject... :o)

Ubuntu 9.04 on the Eee PC 901 - U, K or X?

So you'll no doubt be aware that a while back I wrestled with trying to get a fully-functional version of Ubuntu onto my Asus EeePC 901, and had to jump through some fairly complicated hoops to get it all working. Then Canonical went and released their beta version of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope and all my problems were solved - all the Eee hardware working out of the box. Superb.

So, with the arrival of the official release of 9.04 Jaunty, I decided I'd try out the three main distros of Ubuntu - plain GNOME-based Ubuntu, KDE-based Kubuntu and the stripped down XFCE-based Xubuntu. In addition, I also thought I'd give the official Netbook Remix of Ubuntu a spin as well, just for the sake of completeness. For all four distros, I downloaded the ISO, and set up a 2GB USB flash drive using Unetbootin to run a live version, and then used this to install to an 8GB SD card in the Eee 901's card slot.

I have to say, I'm surprised by the performance differences between these four versions - because they are quite marked. Good old vanilla Ubuntu runs just fine and dandy. The only thing wrong as far as I can tell is that it's a bit sluggish running from SD, but I guess that's to be expected. The package is well-rounded and it includes most things that you'd need, apart from maybe Skype (but that's a doddle to install).

I tested the Netbook Remix (NBR) version next. Now undoubtedly this cosmetic tweak makes things a bit easier to navigate on the small 9-inch screen of the Eee, but I really noticed a performance hit. It showed a remarkable amount of slowdown over ordinary Ubuntu, and changing between the tabs was quite painful - about a second between clicking and it actually changing. The general sluggishness meant that I couldn't put up with it, so it had to go.

Then I tried Kubuntu, with it's all-singing-all-dancing KDE 4 interface that I've been hearing so many good things about. Now I'm sure if I was installing it on a fully-fledged desktop machine it'd fly along, but running off the SD card was - again - just too slow to be usable. In addition, the interface isn't at all suitable for the tiny Eee screen, as the top and bottom of each window were not visible. Also, no Firefox as standard is a black mark against it as far as I'm concerned.

So onto Xubuntu. The whole idea of the XCFE interface is that it's designed for lower-spec machines. As such, on the Eee it positively flies along! Admittedly it's not quite the slick, full package that ordinary Ubuntu is, but it still has everything I need, particularly on a netbook which really only uses Firefox in anger. I quick trip onto the interweb to install Skype and I'm as happy as Larry. I reckon this will be the distro that's staying on my Eee, at least until I feel the urge to start tinkering again.

Just to clarify - my comments above are my personal experiences of running these distros from an SD card on an Eee PC. This is NOT the ideal means of running these distributions, and if you're up for it you'd be far better installing to the primary SSD instead, and you'd be even better off installing to a proper desktop machine. However, for my purposes, Xubuntu is the one for me.