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Update: Data Roaming still a rip off.

Paul O’Flaherty writes: I was looking up the charges for WiFi access in Dublin Airport and realized that it was a complete rip-off at 3 euro ($3.78) for 30 minutes. … It turns out that 3 will give me 2 Gigs of data for 10 euro, which is very agreeable to me considering the airport … Continue reading “Update: Data Roaming still a rip off.”

Paul O’Flaherty writes:

I was looking up the charges for WiFi access in Dublin Airport and realized that it was a complete rip-off at 3 euro ($3.78) for 30 minutes.
…
It turns out that 3 will give me 2 Gigs of data for 10 euro, which is very agreeable to me considering the airport rates, but, if I decide to turn in on in the U.S. it will cost me 5 euro for 1 (one) MB of data.
…
Yes, I know there is a connection fee involved with roaming and all the carriers want to get their cut, but seriously – 1000 times more expensive?

With an upcoming week long trip to the US and a two week cruise around Europe, I tried the “recommended solution” for data roamers, MaxRoam, and found them to be €3.90 per megabyte for a “Global SIM” and €5.90 per megabyte for an “iPad SIM”.

For the european leg of my travels, I had thought a Vodafone SIM will do the trick as they charged £4.99 for 25 MB in Europe. But as is typical with carriers, they’ve fucked it up by increasing the charge by a factor of 4.

You can use up to 25MB a day (midnight to midnight UK time) for just £4.99 in Europe – and for £14.99 elsewhere in the world. 25MB is approximately 500 mobile friendly web pages.

From 15th June our new data roaming pricing will come into effect:
Europe: £1 per MB for the first 5MB and £5 for every subsequent 5MB
Rest of the world: £3 per MB for the first 5MB and £15 for every subsequent 5MB

It used to be that a fiver would buy me 25 MB, but now it’s £6 for 10 MB (and costs £21 for 25MB)

For Fuck Sake. In this case, new != better. That’s a pain in the butt but it’s still better than any other carrier. With O2, that £6 would buy me 1 MB of data in the US.

Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds

From Bloomberg.com U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity … Continue reading “Adobe is trying to bring in the Feds”

From Bloomberg.com

U.S. antitrust enforcers are considering an investigation of Apple Inc. following a complaint from Adobe Systems Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.

Adobe says Apple is stifling competition by barring developers from using Adobe’s products to create applications for iPhones and iPads, said the people who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the case.

The complaint triggered discussions between the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission over which agency should review the allegations of anticompetitive behavior, the people said. Neither agency has decided whether it would open an investigation, one person said.

The problem in Adobe’s plea is that Adobe’s products can certainly be used to develop for iPhone and iPad. Photoshop, Dreamweaver, even Premiere, can be used to create compelling content for iPhone and iPads. Acrobat’s PDF format has long been a first class citizen on the iPhone platform and comes into it’s own on the iPad.

Just not Flash.

And for those of us who choose to use Click2Flash, we can see why. As Adobe have failed to deliver a good experience of Flash on Mac OS X and has no plans to enable Flash on iPhone (note their project was for a cross-compiler, not something that would make Flash on iPhone just work).

This is all about control. It’s Apple’s platform, not Adobe’s. Adobe wants to be everywhere and they’ve asked the Feds to force Apple’s hand here.

Worst Game Ever

Saw this slide during Jesse Schell’s DICE 2010 talk “Design Outside the Box”: Related posts: The Creative Industries Innovation Fund The State of Funding in 2009 in Northern Ireland Worst Videographer in the World Game changing research networks for the Video game industry Arts and Humanities Research Council

Saw this slide during Jesse Schell’s DICE 2010 talk “Design Outside the Box”:

IP: A New Definition

This has been going the rounds but I got it from @keithbelfast. It’s a letter from The Right Honourable Stephen Timms, MP, one of the masterminds behind the Digital Economy Bill. Some select quotes about Stephen Timms from his biographical entry on Wikipedia: Timms is currently the Financial Secretary to the Treasury. He is also … Continue reading “IP: A New Definition”

This has been going the rounds but I got it from @keithbelfast. It’s a letter from The Right Honourable Stephen Timms, MP, one of the masterminds behind the Digital Economy Bill.

Some select quotes about Stephen Timms from his biographical entry on Wikipedia:

Timms is currently the Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
He is also the Vice-Chair of the Labour Party, with particular responsibility for faith groups.
Timms worked in the telecommunications industry for 15 years; he was the manager responsible for producing reports on the future of telecommunications.
In August 2009, he was given additional responsibility for “Digital Britain”

Which of course, makes all of this even more tragic.

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.

WTF. This sort of logic is daft and alarmist. Does Word close off the Internet? Does “God of War” sanitise the net? Does “Photoshop” have a net negative impact? These are just apps, little applications that people want – that the market wants. They don’t sanitise the Internet, they don’t restrict anyone. As long as … Continue reading “Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.”

WTF. This sort of logic is daft and alarmist.

Does Word close off the Internet? Does “God of War” sanitise the net? Does “Photoshop” have a net negative impact?

These are just apps, little applications that people want – that the market wants. They don’t sanitise the Internet, they don’t restrict anyone. As long as you have a web browser you can go anywhere you want.

Except for Flash, of course.

But then when Adobe was locking up the ‘net in closed, proprietary DRM’ed Flash, with entire web sites developed in their inaccessible muck, no-one listened because no one cared. So the difference here is simply hypocrisy.

Apple at least is telling people to build their web sites using open standards. At least they’re pushing a Flash-free future and they’re not telling you to create apps to replace them – YOU’RE ASKING FOR THEM. We all want features that don’t yet exist in HTML5. We want these things and we want them now.

Every time I visit a web site which is 100% built in Flash with no open standard fallback I think “This company is scum”. Strong words but that’s what happens when you subscribe to total lock-in.

The N97 lie

MobileInc tears into the N97 – one of the Symbian smartphones which every Nokiabot was harping on about. It succeeded the N96 which was meant to best the venerable N95 except that they shipped it with a crappy processor and GPU. Nokia, for fuck sake, you’re doing your best to look like idiots here. Related … Continue reading “The N97 lie”

Nokia, for fuck sake, you’re doing your best to look like idiots here.

Ah for fuck sake…

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MobileMe Saved The Day

Lost my iPhone earlier today. Could have been in one of three places. MobileMe to the rescue, saved the day. Related posts: Compromise: pull and background Mobile Me ‘me.com’ addresses working for some… Mememememememe iPhone. 4.

Lost my iPhone earlier today. Could have been in one of three places.

MobileMe to the rescue, saved the day.

The Ministry of Space…

…would have been a better name than the UK Space Agency, but I love their logo. Its establishment should bring more coherence to space policy – something critics say has been missing for years. In particular, it is hoped an executive agency that can champion British interests abroad will help an already successful space industry … Continue reading “The Ministry of Space…”

…would have been a better name than the UK Space Agency, but I love their logo.

Its establishment should bring more coherence to space policy – something critics say has been missing for years.
In particular, it is hoped an executive agency that can champion British interests abroad will help an already successful space industry to grow still further.
“The action we’re taking today shows that we’re really serious about space,” said Lord Drayson, the minister for science and innovation.

Tablets have always sucked…

Tom’s Hardware gives five reasons why Tablets suck: Let’s admit it: tablets suck. They’ve been around for at least a decade and many are faster and offer more capabilities than Apple’s iPad. But why haven’t you bought one yet? Tablets Are Niche Devices Full OSes Were Always There, Yet Those Who Complained That The iPad … Continue reading “Tablets have always sucked…”

Tom’s Hardware gives five reasons why Tablets suck:

Let’s admit it: tablets suck. They’ve been around for at least a decade and many are faster and offer more capabilities than Apple’s iPad. But why haven’t you bought one yet?

Tablets Are Niche Devices

Full OSes Were Always There, Yet Those Who Complained That The iPad Doesn’t Have One Still Never Bought One

High-End Hardware Specs Sometimes Don’t Matter

Interface, Interface, Interface

Lack Of Tablet Apps

They are right. Thousands of people who didn’t give a fuck about Tablets are now telling us not only that the iPad sucks but that the next Tablet from whomever is going to kick ass.

It’s not going to matter which operating system they run but I have much more hope for Android based tablets rather than Windows 7 based tablets and this is because Android is at least designed for ‘touch’. Windows 7 on a low end Atom processor will not give anyone a satisfactory experience. From scroll bars to a lack of applications which are ‘touch-optimised’, a lot of people are going to be terribly disappointed with the experience of Windows 7 with a touch interface.

Folk think that Flash will make a difference. HP even reckons mentioning Flash will help their new Slate sell. You have to remember how many online Flash apps rely on ‘hover’ in the user interface – they need the mouse to be there, to hover over controls and they act on ‘click’. You don’t get this ‘hover’ with a touch interface and that means you can’t play them.

Seriously guys, read the Tom’s Hardware article and do what they suggest – spend a bit of time thinking what makes the iPhone so popular and how it’s going to make the iPad popular. It’s not about the OS itself, it’s about the apps. You can make the best tablet in the world but if your tablet apps are uniformly shit (because, for instance, they require a mouse, keyboard, stylus) then you’ll get the initial sales because “it’s not Apple, it’s not an iPad” but you’re breaking more trust with the consumer.

Tablets have always sucked. What makes these new models different?