July 2008 – Page 7

The First Five

Today I installed 5 iPhone apps on top of iPhone OS 2.0 which was made available early through an Apple ‘phobos’ link. There’s a good chance it’s final but it’s refreshing to have something new to play with. Alas, it actually makes me want an iPhone 3G even more. Remote: Use your iPhone as a … Continue reading “The First Five”

Remote: Use your iPhone as a remote for your iTunes. You need to be on the same WiFi network as your iTunes-bearing Mac or PC but it allows you to select song or playlist, select multiple speakers (on AirTunes) and play or pause or whatever. It’s free. So why the hell not (and it means that during a party you can leave your precious Mac hidden away so you can control what plays from your phone and prevent guests from futzing with it. Perfick!)

AIM: it’s AOL Instant Messenger. On your iPhone. And I’m uninstalling it. It’s buggy as hell. Please. Someone. Make. A. Good. Instant. Messenger. Application.

Exposure: if you use Flickr, it’s going to be hard to justify not using Flickr Premium, the Â£5.99 version of this free app. But for me this is going to be uninstalled. I don’t use Flickr. And the ‘photos near me’ thing is, frankly, creeping me out. Brrr. It’s amazing what ConnectedFlow has done and again, Fraser Speirs proves that he’s a master of providing what’s interesting to photographers. He’s now a master of social photography. But this ain’t for me.

Super Monkey Ball: More than anything else, this is the best technology demo I’ve seen for the iPhone. I’m not fussed on Super Monkey Ball as a game in itself but this is a thing of beauty. I think the kids will love it. The thing that surprised me more than the amazing visuals was the speed of it. The graphics scroll really smoothly and when it gets up to speed, it’s simply breathtaking. It’s a steal at Â£5.99.

Twitterific: It’s beautiful. The scrolling is slow and jerky but other than that, this is even better than the desktop version in my opinion. Craig, if you read this, I love it. Now, fix the scrolling.

So, those were my first five. I was expecting some other apps to be up there and it’s a shame they’re missing. I reckon as the weeks go by we’re probably going to see heaps more.

Ones I’m considering?

South Park ImaginationLand?

EverNote?

Any you think are fabulous?

Stupid DRM

Over the last while I’ve not spared the BBC in terms of the ridiculous rigmarole that is iPlayer – how they encode at least three versions (Windows DRM, Desktop Flash and the iPhone version). It’s annoying because it was license fees which paid for it. ITV and Channel 4 have long escaped my beady eye … Continue reading “Stupid DRM”

ITV and Channel 4 have long escaped my beady eye but I’m kinda fed up that while the world is consuming platform-neutral video, these companies insist on putting out video which can only be consumed by someone with access to Windows Media Player 11. As they’re an ad-supported network, I can’t understand why they’d want to restrict things this way.

Compared to them, the BBC are doing a stellar job with iPlayer – I, for one, wouldn’t be without it.

Contentment. To be both avoided and strived for.

Mike Cane describes why Microsoft’s execs may have issues in the future: All of those people are now fat, contented cats who no longer have to chase after mice. If they all lost their jobs tomorrow, they could sit on their fat asses and watch TV. They donâ€™t have to go out and hunt for … Continue reading “Contentment. To be both avoided and strived for.”

Mike Cane describes why Microsoft’s execs may have issues in the future:

All of those people are now fat, contented cats who no longer have to chase after mice.

If they all lost their jobs tomorrow, they could sit on their fat asses and watch TV. They donâ€™t have to go out and hunt for their daily food. Theyâ€™re vested and rich and contented.

Bill Gates didnâ€™t come from an impoverished background, but he still had a hunger.

I think I was mulling over a similar thought over the last week since Bill Gates’ departure. In late June, some internal memos came to light from inside Microsoft which showed me several things.

Microsoft used to be great.
Bill stopped paying attention and the company got sloppy
Once sloppy, it couldn’t be turned
Bill decided to leave.

I’m going to be talking a bit about Microsoft, including highlighting some of the great work they are currently doing in some areas but I am expressing concern that, being an Apple consumer, I may have done a disservice to Mister Gates.

Bill Gates, for all of his faults (and convenient memory lapses during the Department of justice investigation into his company’s wrongdoings), was an exceptional person and should probably be remembered as such now that he’s no longer working in the industry. It’s a shame though because there are few people who could turn Microsoft around again and the Redmond giant is now going to experience some of the succession pains that Apple will have to go through in a few short years. There’s no-one obviously to fill Bill’s shoes and that’s such a terrible shame.

Mike continues:

…what about Steve Jobs? Heâ€™s old too.

Yeah â€” but heâ€™s still a mad malcontented son of bitch who causes trouble and shits on everyone elseâ€™s efforts

Contentment. To be both avoided and strived for. It’ll kill you.

ShinyShiny highlights The Big Word Project

You know you’ve made it when you’ve made it to the front page of ShinyShiny. They’re offering up thousands of words, and will link straight from their online dictionary to your site. Their explanation is that they’re “exploring what different words mean to different people” but at $1 per letter, they’re also building themselves a … Continue reading “ShinyShiny highlights The Big Word Project”

You know you’ve made it when you’ve made it to the front page of ShinyShiny.

They’re offering up thousands of words, and will link straight from their online dictionary to your site. Their explanation is that they’re “exploring what different words mean to different people” but at $1 per letter, they’re also building themselves a significant nest egg – so far there have been 5,500 words purchased and redefined.

Lee Munroe, one of the guys behind The Big Word Project, talked at BarCamp and was trapped by me at the recent sell-out Belfast OpenCoffeeClub meeting while I ranted about Digital Content and the like. He also said he wouldn’t be taking a space in the CoWorkingBelfast site. Splitter!

Good to see more coverage. By your fifty thousandth word you should have paid off your student loans!

The future’s somewhat unclear…with Orange

HerIndoors is looking to get a HTC Touch Diamond and the only company that seems to be offering them is Orange. Orange looks good in this. Â£30 a month for 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile browsing. That beats O2’s iPhone tariff. Not so good. The “unlimited” browsing is for TWO MONTHS IN EVENINGS … Continue reading “The future’s somewhat unclear…with Orange”

HerIndoors is looking to get a HTC Touch Diamond and the only company that seems to be offering them is Orange.

Orange looks good in this. Â£30 a month for 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile browsing. That beats O2’s iPhone tariff.

Not so good. The “unlimited” browsing is for TWO MONTHS IN EVENINGS AND WEEKENDS. After that they get to charge their ridiculous data rates for browsing. Then it’s Â£5 a month for an OPT-OUT data plan which is still only evenings and weekends.

When you compare this deal to O2’s iPhone tariffs, it makes the iPhone look like a steal.

is there ANY carrier that offers the HTC Touch Diamond subsidised with a decent data plan?

Shape

photo posted from my iPhone Related posts: Movember update, Week 3 iPhone. 4. Ten Apps I Want… Movember update

photo posted from my iPhone

Microsoft outlines Vista strategy

InformationWeek has some choice quotes from Microsoft executives: “We’ve got a pretty noisy competitor out there,” Brooks said of Apple whose “I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC,” commercials criticize Windows Vista. “You know it. I know it. It’s caused some impact. We’re going to start countering it. They tell us it’s the iWay or … Continue reading “Microsoft outlines Vista strategy”

InformationWeek has some choice quotes from Microsoft executives:

“We’ve got a pretty noisy competitor out there,” Brooks said of Apple whose “I’m a Mac… and I’m a PC,” commercials criticize Windows Vista. “You know it. I know it. It’s caused some impact. We’re going to start countering it. They tell us it’s the iWay or the highway. We think that’s a sad message. Software out there is made to be compatible with your whole life.”

Considering the number of anti-trust suits Microsoft has had to file and the lawsuits regarding their blocking of compatibility with SAMBA and other network clients plus the arguments over the Office file formats, it seems ironic that Microsoft talks of compatibility.

“We broke a lot of things. We know that, and we know it caused you a lot of pain. It got customers thinking, hey, is Windows Vista a generation we want to get invested in?” So Brad Brooks, Microsoft’s VP of Windows Vista consumer marketing, fessed up publicly this week.

Microsoft has a budget of hundreds of millions of dollars in order to rectify this. They’re going to spend it on marketing.

“Windows Vista is an investment in the long term,” Brooks said. “When you make the investment into Windows Vista, it’s going to pay it forward into the operating system we call Windows 7.” All the more reason, Brooks said, to upgrade to Windows Vista sooner than later.

Translation: Please buy Vista now and then Windows 7 in about two years time (assuming it ships on time).

This month is going to be bumper….

June was pretty busy with me racking up 99 posts in 30 days. Currently this is the 41st post in July, in 8 days which means around 5 per day which means, if I keep this up, there could be nearly 150 posts on the blog this month. I think people would get sick of … Continue reading “This month is going to be bumper….”

I think people would get sick of reading very quickly so this is just a warning. In fact it could be worse…

iPhone 2.0 software is being released this week. There’s going to be a lot of playing with this while I figure things out.
AppStore is being opened this week. Just browsing the App Store is going to be an adventure in itself and looking at apps which have, til now, been under NDA.
MobileMe is coming Half a dozen web apps which should change completely the way…uh…okay, I’ve been doing this all along…
Applications will become VIRAL. Trust me. There’s going to be apps on my iPhone, apps on HerIndoors iPhone and apps on friends iPhones. It’s going to be messy. And cool. And some people will be able to afford pimp cars.
iPhone 3G will be about this week and there will be endless comparisons to the old one and against other models. Nokia N95 users will still tell us they have it better.
No less than 5 apps will be downloaded to my iPhone. No less than this. Maybe more. And games. And grainy photos of same.
This weekend is the 12th July and I’m in Northern Ireland. This guarantees roads will be closed and I will be annoyed. And lots of pollution-spewing tyres will be burned.
OpenCoffeeClub BBQ is on next Wednesday and I’m going. I’m going to be speaking to some interesting people and eating lots of half-cooked meat.
I have a job interview tomorrow. Big step.
I’ve been getting in contact with lots of ex-pats who have been successful in technology, digital content, software and media. Should be heaps to talk about.
I have a stag do to attend sometime between now and month end. Mine…
I’m getting married on 1st August.
HerIndoors is considering switching to a HTC Touch Diamond
My honeymoon is a two week cruise around the Baltic. Stopping off at Stockholm, Helsinki, St. Petersburg, Tallinn, Wernemunde and Copenhagen. On the way over we’re stopping for a night in London to see Wicked.

My…the next month is just packed!

They never had this when I was growing up…

SeriousGames.ie Welcome to the DIT Experimental Gaming Group Wiki. EGG (the Experimental Gaming Group) is a cross faculty research group for digital games in the DIT. EGG has members from the School of Computing, Digital Media Centre and the Learning Technology Group. Our aim is to develop courses and research on digital games, serious games, … Continue reading “They never had this when I was growing up…”

SeriousGames.ie

Welcome to the DIT Experimental Gaming Group Wiki.

EGG (the Experimental Gaming Group) is a cross faculty research group for digital games in the DIT. EGG has members from the School of Computing, Digital Media Centre and the Learning Technology Group. Our aim is to develop courses and research on digital games, serious games, robots and toys.

I wonder if I could get an invite to visit there? (They might have a hard time getting me to leave!)

I recently watched a video podcast (via iTunes) from the Learning Games Initiative from the University of Arizona regarding culture and language acquisition through game interactivity. Imagine playing World of Warcraft or The Sims if the language and culture presented was all Turkish or Chinese. It would add context to the ‘roleplay’ situations often presented to students learning languages (as I recall from French, German and Mandarin classes). Students would also be better motivated to discover – though the game has to be enjoyable. I certainly enjoyed playing my Francais versions of Age of Empires and Call of Duty 2 I picked up in Paris one year.

Though I’d not consider my own mis-spent youth to have been particularly educational (too much Manic Miner and Saboteur), I think that games are already educational. Consider that I’d never heard of a Banyan Tree before playing games and look at the Myst games as examples of how an entire culture can be related through a hypercard stack in the form of a game (and consider how this can be tied into Location-based services turning a tourist guide into a game, a challenge and a learning aide).

I have some plans in this regard. Looking for a few good eggs.

TVital 08. Denied!

Ian Robinson is the harbinger of bad news: Tennent’s Lager regrets to announce that the Tennent’s Vital festival will not take place in Belfast this August. Due to the difficult conditions prevalent within the wider festival market this year the festival has been unable to secure a sufficiently high standard of talent. That said, it’d … Continue reading “TVital 08. Denied!”

Ian Robinson is the harbinger of bad news:

Tennent’s Lager regrets to announce that the Tennent’s Vital festival will not take place in Belfast this August.

Due to the difficult conditions prevalent within the wider festival market this year the festival has been unable to secure a sufficiently high standard of talent.

That said, it’d be very unlikely that I’d be in the country anyway.