Tag Archives: PDA

You can now check, in the UK, to see which operators are serving you well with Sitefinder Mobile. Simply input your post code and a map will pop up showing the cell sites that are nearest to you, and clicking on the markers will provide further information about them. I checked mine and 3 have 2 high-powered sites, Vodafone has an average site and Orange has one. No T-Mobile and no O2. All of this explains why 3 is so good for me at home. via The Clove Blog.

Dribbble is a clever new website which gives designers, developers and almost anyone else the chance to show off what they are working on. It is for general design, but there are quite a few mobile apps already posted.

“Dribbble is show and tell for creatives. Designers, developers and other creatives share shots—small screenshots of the designs and applications they are working on.”

Pocket-lint has published an article about yesterday’s Apprentice episode in which the two teams had to design mobile apps. Without doubt the worst app won, but it gave a small insight into how a good app can fail and a bad app can succeed. I would feel sorry for the losing team, but I don’t think I have ever seen a group of people as annoying as all of this year’s contestants in all my life.

“As it turns out, Grapple managed it in 20 with the help of a development and testing team willing to bring their sleeping bags into the office and a constant supply of food from Domino’s Pizza, but building the apps was only one part of the problem. The other was getting the various mobile platforms to accept the software onto their app stores within the same time frame; fortunately something that all of them were happy to specially speed up – all but one that is.”

“Now downloading Skype update 3 of 68,,, why do I see this coming?” Nice tweet from James Kendrick about the Microsoft acquisition of Skype.

‘Friend’ is a word that has taken on a whole new meaning in the past few year’s of social networking and if the subject interests you, check out this article at Boston.

“What the term “friend’’ signifies seems harder to pin down, at any rate, having been Facebooked (ugh) into a transitive verb and overworked to the point where compliant preschoolers are encouraged to call everyone at school a friend (indeed) whether that label truly applies or not.

“To me, the term is constantly in flux,’’ says Charlene DeLoach Oliver, a local blogger (CharleneChronicles.com) on health and fitness issues for young moms. “A teen, for instance, will have a completely different perspective on who’s a friend than my grandmother will. To her, a friend is someone she sees once a week, in person. Me? I have virtual ‘friends’ I’ve never even met.’’

Her toddler-age son faces his own challenges in determining who’s a friend and who isn’t, according to Oliver. “At his daycare center, they’ll say things like, ‘Johnny, we don’t hit a friend, do we?’ ’’ she says. “Some might say that’s nice to do. But what are kids growing up to understand? It becomes a label without deeper meaning.’’

I am sure that many of you, like me, look after your smartphones to keep them looking like they did on the day you bought them. However, Remy Labesque has a different view on this and the results are stunning.

“After 3+ years of having been carried in the same pocket as a ring of keys, the iPhone has acquired a polished patina over its aluminum shell. Abrasion of its hard-anodized surface has revealed the raw aluminum within. The camera’s shell has been worn in a very similar way but instead reveals black plastic concealed by silver paint. Slightly less flattering. The camera’s emulated metallic finish is only surface-deep and its wear tends to emphasizes awkward artifacts of the injection molding process used to create it. At this point the Canon camera’s shell looks like garbage while the iPhone’s is starting to resemble something more like an heirloom pocket watch.”

An interesting insight from The Guardian- “If any further evidence were needed to prove Apple has a teflon image it came with the reaction to the Apple Store going offline for several hours on Tuesday. For any other company this would be the cue for a swathe of negative stories about brand damage and dodgy technical platforms. Not Apple. The blogosphere kicked into a frenzy that the outage, for an upgrade, must be for a flash new product, reported the Indy. It was (the new iMac) and so potential negative PR is replaced by the usual Apple fever.”

It is curious how what would be regarded as a fault elsewhere is a good thing for Apple.

Quality Time, Redefined is a fascinating article from NYT which looks at how one family spend their quality time, and how technology is involved.

“One family. One room. Four screens. Four realities, basically. While it may look like some domestic version of “The Matrix” — families sharing a common space, but plugged into entirely separate planes of existence through technology — a scene like this has become an increasingly familiar evening ritual. As a result, the American living room in 2011 can often seem less like an oasis for shared activity, even if that just means watching television together, than an entangled intersection of data traffic — everyone huddled in a cyber-cocoon.”

Macworld has posted a detailed look at why RIM, Microsoft and Nokia are producing flops, with just a touch of glee included. Thanks to Bob.

“Research in Motion’s BlackBerry PlayBook is so bad that Verizon Wireless may not bother carrying it—a spokesperson said so the day after the PlayBook debuted to customers. AT&T won’t let BlackBerry users download the essential app (BlackBerry Bridge) that brings email and communications apps to the PlayBook. Carriers are arms dealers, selling weapons to anyone for a price, but even they are drawing the line at the PlayBook.

That’s a huge fall given that the PlayBook’s creator, RIM, is the successful patriarch of the mobile market—inventing the smartphone category, in fact. And RIM is not alone.”

“Why are such established technology powerhouses failing so spectacularly in mobile? How can they not see the self-destruction in their approaches? For RIM and Nokia, the failings threaten their medium-term existence. For Microsoft and Dell, the failings prevent them from growing where the market is moving.”

The above comment comes from Anatomy of failure: Mobile flops from RIM, Microsoft, and Nokia by Galen Gruman. It is a long article, but required reading if you have an interest in the wider mobile world.

I have suffered from a serious digital habit in the past and I bet some of you have as well. Jemima Kiss has written about the way she kicked her habit here and it’s a thoroughly good read.

“Ordinarily, my next thought would have been to pull out my phone and take a photo, send a tweet or record a video. Connecting is something I do unconsciously now. Tweeting is like breathing and photos and video have documented nearly every day of my 21-month-old son’s life. The meaningful merged with the mundane, all dutifully and habitually recorded – my enjoyment split between that technological impulse and the more delicate human need to be in the moment. This is how we live.”

Great article at Gigaom entitled Are Apps Like Flipboard the Future of Media? which looks at how we access media on various devices. Maybe one day the internet will be merely a background tool that we rarely see in the flesh. Thanks to Trevor.

“If you spend any time at all with an iPad, it soon becomes second nature to swipe through webpages, books and magazines with just a finger stroke, to the point where this has become the preferred way of consuming content for many digital natives — whether it’s a book, a newspaper or a Twitter or Facebook feed. Flipboard was one of the first to take advantage of this with a magazine-style, swipe-powered interface. Others have come along as well, including Zite and Pulse, as well as video-based apps like ShowYou. If nothing else, such apps are showing traditional media entities what readers really want when it comes to digital content: smart aggregation, customization and personalization, and a better interface.”

With Apple suing Samsung for copying the iPhone hardware and software, the Wind Top AE2410 from MSI also looks like a prime candidate for some future legal action. Remind you of anything?

MSI All-in-One PC Wind Top AE2410, a 1080p Full HD 24″ LCD monitor coupled with the newest 2nd generation Intel Core i processor brings obvious improvements in both CPU and integrated graphics performance. The fantastic 1080p display brings real colors in every image. The AE2410 is also equipped with two USB 3.0 ports, allowing users to transfer data ten times faster than before. These useful features provide more convenience and freedom to enjoy life!