Archive for the 'tech' Category

nokia drops a bollock

Published
by
tyger
on December 20, 2007
in tech
. 2 Comments

El Reg has news that Nokia’s latest firmware update for their flagship cell, the N95, actually removes a previously free GPS “you are here” feature for use with Nokia Maps. As The Register points out, “even Microsoft would balk at removing without warning a feature through Windows Update.”

Following the *fairly* successful iPhone launch, Nokia has indicated that it sees its own N95 as Apple’s rival (the Nokia has a much better camera, SD memory card support, video, 3G, and some great apps - such as IM clients - that the iPhone currently lacks), and has increased the phone multimedia capabilities - and its head-to-head specs - by boosting the (onboard) memory to 8GB. So surely, if Nokia wanted to steal the initiative at every juncture, it shouldn’t be removing good features to chase meagre potential revenue streams. It doesn’t make any sense.

What Nokia needs to do, if it is to have any chance of heading off new entrants to the mobile market (and following news of Google’s Android platform, there are bound to be numerous, not to mention existing rivals such as Samsung and Motorola) is to concentrate on hardware - its core market and strength, and allow third parties to develop the software and even the operating system. Nokia are not software experts, they’re hardware manufacturers. Windows Vista is a perfect example of a company that has taken its eye off its core business, and Nokia shouldn’t follow in Microsoft’s footprints.

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best of the year

Published
by
tyger
on December 18, 2007
in art, books, cricket, culture, film, gaming, literature, media, meta, music, podcasting, politics, sports and tech
. 8 Comments

Best of lists are part of Christmas. Well, seeing as I have the power to publish my own opinions, here are my topper picks for the year…

Best Record
The Killers - Sawdust
Ok, it’s a B-sides n rarities comp. But The Killers are simply so far ahead of anything else out there right now.

Best Film
The Bourne Ultimatum
A fantastic, pant-wetting finale to a brilliant trilogy. Paul Greengrass is the best director in the world right now. Period.

Best TV Show
South Park
Nothing is quite as smart or as funny (worthy mentions: QI and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe were brilliant again this year).

Best Book
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Incomparable thrilling last book to a quite stunning series. Easly as good as the hype suggested.

Best Podcast
Guardian Unlimited’s Football Weekly.
This is exactly why MoTD is a waste of everyone’s time. Intelligent, witty, and much, much better than The Times’ Liverpool-obsessed effort. James Richardson is twice the presenter Lineker is (worthy mention: No Agenda with John C. Dvorak and Adam Curry).

Best Radio Show
Start the Week
Basically the Review section from the weekend’s broadsheets. With added Andrew Marr (worthy mention: Russell Brand).

Best Video Game
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Just, and I mean just ahead of Halo 3. The graphics and combat in COD4 are unmatched (worthy mention: other than Halo 3, I’d say Bioshock).

Best Gadget
XBOX 360
XBOX leads the way online. XBOX Live is unmatched, and the 360 offers far more quality games than either the Wii or PS3 (worthy mention: New iPod Nano - new form factor and new features. Now the true iPod classic).

Best App
Twitteriffic
Twitter is by-far the most enjoyable social networking site. It’s simple and genuinely co-operative. And I don’t agree with Dave Winer, simplicity is intrinsic to twitter’s appeal. Leave it alone.

Best Political Blog
Obsolete
A tricky one this, but septicisle’s analysis of the media - not to mention the abundant bile - is a joy to read (worthy mentions: Reading Mike Power is much better than scouring the net yourself. Mr. Eugenides still compels. And Ministry of Truth is still capable of brilliance).

Best Non-political Blog
scaryduck
Should be read everyday.

Best Politician
Alex Salmond
It’s hard not to admire the way the SNP leader has captured Holyrood. Even if he is an opportunist and a seditious git (worthy mentions: Vladimir Putin and David Cameron) (Note. this is not an endorsement).

Best Newspaper & Website
The Guardian
No other paper is quite as creative with formats and online offerings.

Best Magazine
Private Eye
Still completely essential (worthy mentions: The Week and Monocle).

Best sportsperson
Lewis Hamilton
I’m not into F1 at all. But you can’t argue - it was a phenomenal first year for the McClaren rookie (worthy mentions: Kaká, Kumar Sangakkara, and Christino Ronaldo were brilliant in 2007).

I may add to this list.

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test: 3 skype Phones

Published
by
tyger
on December 18, 2007
in tech
. Closed

I have been asked by the kind people at 3MobileBuzz to review the 3 Skypephone. I have two handsets for a month.

Initial thoughts are that the concept is fantastic. Remember, we’re a mixed-nationality household, so calls to Eastern Europe and Asia are frequent. And the Skype VoIP service is our preferred internet telephony service.

The 3 network coverage is obviously a concern, so I’ll be taking note of how often I’m unable to latch onto a reception. I’ll report back after the holidays.

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hello

Published
by
tyger
on December 18, 2007
in admin, journal and tech
. 2 Comments

No action on the blog for a couple of days as I’ve been very busy. It was the penultimate Christmas Shop yesterday. Everything but a handful of DVDs bought, so annual panic over. Work is also absolutely manic.

Yesterday’s Casting the net is here. And today’s here. Enjoy.

More blogging later. BTW this* is effin’ hilarious (Linux and Mac users will LOL).

*via. DK

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you learn something new every day

Published
by
tyger
on December 15, 2007
in tech
. 8 Comments

Stephen Fry has a tidy piece on Firefox extensions. Apparently, they *should* work okay with other Gecko-based browsers (such as Camino, Flock, etc.). Excellent - it’s only the excellent foxmarks extension that has prevented me from using the [IMO] more stable Camino browser for the last year (anyone else think the FF2 build is garbage? Bring back v1.5…).

Cue some testing on Monday.

(ps. I also need to try the latest Shiira build)

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what a bastard, eh?

Published
by
tyger
on December 6, 2007
in tech
. 7 Comments

cancer5yrOld

I’m really struggling with facebook. I know there will be times in the future when it’ll be useful and I’ll need an account, but I really don’t want to be there.

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facebook under attack

Published
by
tyger
on December 5, 2007
in tech
. Closed

There are plenty of tech-writers lining up to stick the knife into Mark Zuckerberg’s facebook social networking site. But few pieces are as fierce or as cutting as Josh Quittner’s RIP Facebook? article on Fortune Magazine’s Techland blog.

It could have all been avoided with a smart adult running things. Facebook has no old hands in its corner, no advisers to tell the kids how to behave. Netscape had its Jim Barksdale, Google (GOOG) its Eric Schmidt. This company has no one babysitting it. And watching it now is like watching an unattended child play with a pack of matches in a wooden house.

Facebook’s problems are well known. They started when young Zuckerberg stood up and made preposterous statements to Madison Avenue — who let him say that stuff? What genius wrote those immortal lines and had such a tin ear for how it would play? The situation worsened when the company compounded its hubris with lies. Its ongoing contempt for the press and disregard for the First Amendment doesn’t help. And now, it has no one in its corner that anyone in the media trusts. [more...]

Ouch. The arrogance of facebook, not to mention that of Zuckerberg, appears to be turning the site from media-darling to online-pariah.

UPDATE (20:10): From The LA Times: -

Beacon, the online advertising system that was supposed to light Facebook Inc.’s way to riches, has created such a dark storm of controversy that Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg today told users they could turn it off.

The dramatic reversal in the face of huge public outcry is an attempt to restore the company’s battered image with its more than 55 million users and the marketers trying to reach them. Zuckerberg posted a mea culpa on the social networking site’s blog (http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7584397130).

UPDATE (20:50): How to block facebook from “watching” you online, via Firefox.

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on dab radio

Published
by
tyger
on November 15, 2007
in tech and uk
. 2 Comments

Jack Schofield has an interesting article about DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), the digital radio frequency used in the UK, in today’s Guardian Technology section.

As a geek, digital Radio appealed to me for a long time, yet I never invested. Here’s why:

I’m an avid radio listener, but I only really listen to two channels: Radio Three and Radio Four (plus a couple of Radio Two Podcasts). Radio 3 gives me an insight into Classical Music - which I don’t know a great deal about (but remain very interested), and Radio Four makes up the rest (about 90% of my radio diet).

As Schofield explains, the output from DAB is actually worse than FM Stereo (with a good reception, a position taken by many audiophiles), so it’s absolutely no choice for Classical Music, where the richness of the sound is imperative. And Radio Four? Well it has great national coverage and - being speech - is perfectly adequate on the one-speaker Sony FM wireless we have in the kitchen or on the car stereo. I don’t need, or particularly want, DAB. If the country upgrades to the cheaper - and better - DAB+, I might think again.

Britain bought wholesale into the DVD format because the improvements over VHS were clear. Likewise, Broadband internet and HD-TV have excellent penetration because they’re much better than the technology they have superseded. DAB, regardless of the millions spent pushing the format, has never really convinced the British public that the change was necessary. Popularity in technology is, of course, self-nourishing (popularity ensures greater production and therefore lower marginal costs), and the tepid response to the format has meant that DAB radio remained expensive until only recently. Only a few years ago you would pay £80 for a stand-alone DAB unit, while £20 DVD players were stacked high at the supermarket.

DAB has missed the boat, and it’s time to cut its throat.

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capitalism online

Published
by
tyger
on November 10, 2007
in culture and tech
. 2 Comments

Shoeboxed.

WTF?

via. mike

guitar heroes

Published
by
tyger
on November 8, 2007
in music, nostalgia and tech
. 2 Comments

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video: flight patterns

Published
by
tyger
on November 7, 2007
in culture, design, tech and usa
. 1 Comment

by Aaron Koblin

via.

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everyone’s a hack

Published
by
tyger
on November 1, 2007
in media, tech and usa
. 1 Comment

Bloggers are journalists, apparently.

No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count as journalists, but the recent federal decision from South Carolina does indicate that at least some bloggers are journalists. It’s not about the title, it’s about the content, said Judge Henry Hurlong, Jr.; a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the “real” journalists.

Not sure about that. They should take a look at some of the dodgy chaff that passes itself off as the cream of UK political blogging (no names, obviously).

Via. ars technica

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digital hermits

Published
by
tyger
on October 29, 2007
in liberty, politics, tech, uk and world
. 1 Comment

An excellent – if quite fantastical – piece in yesterday’s Observer advises people on how to disappear from the nation’s growing network of computer databases, CCTVs and electronic registers.

Nick Rosen, editor of the “Off Grid” website, argues that “thousands” of Britons are choosing a life without utility companies, credit cards, supermarkets, and cars in order to be invisible to an institutionalised web of data-collection points that track almost every facet of our lives.

Personally, while I have no desire to scream, “stop this digital world I’m getting off,” I do worry about my digital footprint. I have various online accounts with companies such as facebook, PayPal, MSN, and flickr that could - and in all likelihood will - enable them to create a profitable profile they could use or sell for marketing purposes (or, IMO much more insidious, pass onto government agencies). A good friend, Political Penguin, argues that this readiness to pass on my information to private companies is hypocritical in light of my opposition to the proposed UK ID Cards. He has a point, but then, to the best of my knowledge at least, flickr hasn’t been accused of flying its customers to Syria for “electric-aided interrogation” (with regard to MSN, I couldn’t be so sure).

Also, I actually trust certain web-based companies more than I trust public institutions. Many governmental departments are riddled with people happy to pass on your info for a nice backhander. As Rosen points-out, 300,000 people could be authorised to view your centrally-stored medical information (what would insurance and pharma companies pay for such info?). Yes, such economic realities apply to private employees too, but I have a little more confidence in data security based on corporate profit and customer confidence, as government rarely cares about such confidence in the civil service.

I guess we web-users have to trade a little privacy for access to applications such as facebook, and yes, we must also accept that “free” apps have to be paid for. The outrage at the increasing level of advertising on facebook is mislaid and somewhat idiotic. Social networks have huge amounts of traffic and these commercial enterprises have to generate revenues from somewhere. We all enjoy technological advances thanks to significant shareholder investment, and investors must be rewarded with growth and dividends.

Conversely, we’re also right to be suspicious of companies who hold our data, and this is where watchdogs are necessary - however the nature of the web means that any accountability is perfectly possible through nebulous web-based activism, rather than governmental intervention. Through technology and communication, consumers can hold the companies they use to account. Had a washing machine that survived its warranty by only a few weeks? Tell the world on an independent whistle-blowing site or post a review to a consumer forum. Technology empowers both the customer and the service provider, so it’s in the interest of the customer to embrace it.

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btw

Published
by
tyger
on October 24, 2007
in tech
. 2 Comments

I had cause to buy a 15m ethernet cable today. I have about half-a-dozen 5m ones. Grrrr. I went to Currys in Newark - the only place that had one this long.

They wanted £35 for a Belkin one.

Thirty-five fucking quid. For an ethernet cable! That’s a gnat’s knacker over $71 at today’s exchange rate.

I ordered one online for £6.49 +p&p.

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the blackberry is no more

Published
by
tyger
on October 24, 2007
in culture and tech
. 3 Comments

I ditched the BlackBerry.

Now before we go any further, BlackBerry’s are fantastic. There is not a cell on the market that comes close with regard to handling email. The BlackBerry/Vodafone push email service, and the excellent keyboard, make writing text and sending email a breeze.

But for £15 per month? £180-per-year? (On top of my cell contract.)

Not bad if you’re on the road a great deal. Usually I am quite mobile, but recent projects have meant working from home or a Wi-Fi hotspot. So I have my Mac for email. I.e. I don’t need a BlackBerry.

I have pulled a Samsung D900 out of retirement. It’s a good phone with a 3mp camera and autofocus (not as good as my old Sony Ericsson K800i, but Mrs. tyger seized that some time ago). I can’t see the point of lugging around a big QWERTY BlackBerry just for texting and calls. Much better to have a half-decent camera and lighter pockets. The Samsung is very smart, too.

(p.s. offers welcome for the BlackBery 8800 :) )

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