Simple, buy from Amazon

I buy ALL my cables from Amazon or their suppliers - never paying more than £7 inc the shipping. Yes, the shipping is a rip off, but that applies to all the small items they sell - and you can consolidate your orders sometimes to save on the total shipping price.

I have purchased a mini HDMI to HDMI cable for my (albiet) pricy Panasonic GH2 camera, for what, £3.95 or something, and it is excellent quality. Why should a few strands of copper and rubber cost any more when mass produced in China? Same for all the USB cables etc I have, each cost no more than a few quid and still work.

The high street stores are desperate for cash so are forced to flog all these extras, warranties etc. The solution is to buy your expensive items, such as computers, TVs, monitors from the high street (Richer Sounds, Curry's etc), where the really isn't much difference in price (+/- £50 mac), but you get the peace of mind of being able to try before you buy, support the high street retailers AND have somewhere to take it when it breaks - but then save money by purchasing all the extras online from Amazon, Play.com, Dabs etc.

Works for me!

Remember the tag 'polomarco'

That's all! ;)

Which begs the possibility...

Find: Waldo

Let's hope it 'takes off'!

(Snigger)

#smut

Actually, my employer is toying with the same idea

It is not as crazy as it sounds. This reverses the cloud concept such that we each own our own servers. Don't forget, that is what the Internet was originally all about - masses of disperate machines all sharing data to maintain the integrity of the 'system' after a catastrophe, such as nuclear war. All we're proposing here is what P2P wireless will hopefully do the (nefarious) carriers and that is eliminating the ISP from the equation.

If I told you in 1992 when we were all communicating using faxes and pagers that a few years later it would be possible to electronically share with anyone anywhere in real time any item of content, you would have thought me mad. Two years later, Mosaic changed everything.

Well, the personal 'server' and all manner of P2P comms will be as ubiquitous in a few years as the reverse is today. It is inevitable.

@oflife #p2pwireless #projectprecisely

Yet example of idiotic liberals in action

Having lived in several cities run by liberals, where criminals are treated with kid gloves, I can testify to observing higher crime rates (including murder) than cities with less lenient policies.

Liberals are doing more harm to our quality of life than any enemy of the nation. (Am referring to both the USA and UK.)

Here's to the first solar powered commercial airliner

A slow ride across the Atlantic, not a drop of carbon based fuel used. Nice!

@lifemachine

Reason is, Android is compelling & versatile

As a developer (software designer) and having had much time to play with or own iPhone and Android devices (not to mention the excellent Samsung Wave Bada handset), I find the iPhone 4 to be what WOW geeks would refer to as 'Meh'. Yes, it's sexy, but the screen is too small and the lack of certain features available on Android and other devices limit it's usefulness. Pickup a Dell Streak, play around with it (including surfing the web, viewing photos & video and using maps) and then go back to an iPhone 4. I am excited by the possibilities provided by Android, even if any apps we develop are limited to specific handsets, that is no different than being limited to a specific platform. Users will purchase the handset or platform that delivers the solution(s) they desire. And solutions is what this is all about. (To be frank, the masses buying iPhone 4 at launch are in it to be first with the blingiest phone, not because it offers much new. It is a very advanced fashion statement.)

The Home Sec is a Marxist

And don't ANYONE forget that. Britain is walking into a very dark and sinister future, blindly by the looks of things. ID cards should be 100% voluntary and the data behind them managed by the individual, with the law purely there to ensure data validity and security. And I should reserve the right to destroy my ID card (and ALL data behind it) at any time.

Socialists don't like small business

1. There is no socialist country that exports anything (name one, oh, ok, Vodka from Russia. Next?)

2. Britain is lead by liberals and trashy women with a massive chip on their shoulders who are undoing all the good that Mrs. Thatcher and the HONORABLE working classes did in the 1980s.

3. Within a few years, Britain will only possess state owned industries that produce dull low quality products, whilst Asia will boom. Talk about a reverse of poles!

Meanwhile, the 'government' (like those in other socialist and communist nations) will live it up and install more and more CCTV and PCOs to monitor 'the people' for fear of losing their grip on power.

Look outside.

Yours,

A hard working well meaning entrepreneur who likes to hire people who take a common sense approach to life and don't thrive off victimhood

iPhone makes the process seamless

As a recent iPhone user (and previous owner of an iPod Touch and many other phones from other vendors), it is clear that the fact most iPhone apps seamlessly access the Internet without requiring anything more than a one off login drives these statistics. As per the microwave oven and DVD player, if you make something easy (insert dish/disc, press start/play), it will succeed. People have short attention spans today and if they are made to go through hoops to achieve a task, whether for business or pleasure, they will abandon it and move on.

I have not used an Android phone so cannot comment, but the Nokia E71 made email configuration a snap - and the iPhone is the same. Previous devices required complex technical information to be entered first. The same goes for other apps.

But will it run full OS X?

These customers are assuming the tablet will run a fully fledged version of OS X.

All said, as an iPhone user, I believe the iPhone OS is how computers should work, not OS X. It is naturally intuitive. The PhotoShop app (while of course very very basic) is considerably more intuitive (& fun!) to use than the desktop application thanks to the direct touch screen operation.

Effectively, Apple have to choose - do they scale down OS X to a smaller form factor device, or scale up the iPhone OS to larger devices?

We'll all moan here - and do nothing...

...about it. Don't know about you, but until recently, I had never felt frightened in my own country. Ever. Whether it is technology or politics, those visionary sci fi and political writers were only wrong about one thing, the exact timing of their prophecies which tended to be about 20 years ahead of reality. Almost there now children, almost there.

We could support these guys: http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/

But some of what they stand for may not appeal to us all, so what do to?

There are about five El Reg emoticons appropriate to this article. Ah, which to choose?!

@By Anonymous Coward Posted Monday 14th Sept

a) It is certainly not fugly, in fact, it is probably the nicest looking Android handset ever launched. While not a style issue, the keyboard is 5 row, a lot more practical too. b) It's 'too' not 'to'. LOL.

iPod Nano is shexy, but what's the point?...

...when one can buy a Nokia 5530, an exceptionally versatile music centric touch screen phone - and because it is a phone, you can upload your video to your blog or YouTube without needing to go home and sync with iTunes first!

I just don't get why Apple don't exploit the lovely form factor of the Nano and build in a phone - the young peeps who cannot afford an iPhone will love it. The scroll wheel is an intuive way to select contacts and then all you do is hit the middle button to place that call!

Logical, capi-tain. No?

Awesome, please contribute....

...any sustainable energy technologies to our forthcoming blog/community site at www.lifemachine.com.

Once complete later in 2009 (currently, just a list of services and products), LifeMachine.com will only be listing devices and services that are capable of being 100% self sustaining. For example, an iPhone charger must be capable of charging the device from zero to full without being connected to the grid at all. Likewise, hybrid cars, while technically interesting, are really just a marketing gimmick, after all, some non hybrid vehicles producing better mileage. However, cars running entirely on electricity (such as Tesla) will be included, because if they are re-charged using services such as that planned by BetterPlace.com, then (like the iPhone charger) the grid is removed from the equation. And that's going to be fantastic for the environment - as long as the batteries can be disposed of safely!

Sorry, but text messaging is for idiots!

You buy one of the most advanced phones in the world, and use it to send MMS? What is wrong with email? a) Email is free. b) Email is a reliable proven standard based on over 30 years of development. c) Email is versatile, allowing attachments of significantly larger size and format than MMS. d) Email is not a dubious money maker for the carriers who are duping billions of people across the world by using technology capable of allowing video conferencing to instead send 140 characters of ASCII plus a small bitmap - and then charging them silly money for the privilege.

Want to stop this madness? Don't text, email. And then Wave goodbye to that too as real time live multimedia sharing replaces email.

Good night.

$29 - £25, well there's a surprise!

:(

skjqdkqwdhkdk, random text so El Reg accepts my empty comment field posting.

This seems like a flawed concept...

...because: a) If a missile/rocket attack is launched by a foreign power, they will fire a large number of missiles. Just how many of these flying guns will we need? And how much for a large fleet? b) Surely a 747 is an easy target for air to air or ground to air missile? c) Surely the money spent on this could be spent on technology that could take out several missiles at once, such as some form of air burst explosion - based on the shut gun effect? d) And as an earlier poster mentioned, coating a missile in a reflective surface could render a laser obsolete overnight. Or is this thing way faster and more capable than we think? IE, capable of taking out several targets very quickly and able to penetrate reflective surfaces?

@K800i comment - agreed!

I have returned to a trusty K800i after having gone through three (excellent, except the camera and lack of letters on the number keys making punching in passwords a pain in the @*&#!) Nokia E71s, a Samsung ToccoULTRA (great camera & video), a Nokia N95 8G (possibly the best all rounder phone I have ever owned, but a little too bulky) and am managing to do all that I did on these other phones on the K800i - in fact, I own an iPod Touch, and while the apps are outstanding, Apple's web browser is too much work over the nice automated browser on the K800i (not sure whose it is, Netfront? Opera?) that formats the text and forms on the fly - IE, nationalrail.co.uk is all compact and nice and takes way less time to fill in and submit than on Apple's browser.

All said, it is the view of this here poster that the future lies with Android, as long as Google are able to build upon ALL the sorts of technologies Apple have under the hood of OS X and the iPhone OS, namely, advanced 3D graphics, multitouch and more.

Samsung Jet is a worthy contender

Check out it's specs on GSMArena.com (and soon, a shortform review) at Fonebox.com.

Very sensible Mum/backup phone

A great phone to give to Mum to leave on her window sill all day so she doesn't have to fiddle around with or worry about a charger - plus it looks easy to use. Secondly, keeping a PAYG version on the dashboard, sunnyside up will provide an ideal emergency phone in the event your main super duper do it all smart phone is nicked, breaks, runs out of juice or suffers an OS embolism. Less is more - in particular when carbon neutral.

Our advertisement in PCW

For the time I read it during the 1980s, PCW remained professional and covered all aspects of the industry, while the more focused publications (Acorn User, PCN, various Sinclair mags) appealed to the hobbyist. As evidence of our respect for PCW, we placed our only national branding advertisement in PCW in February 1988. (Ironically, due to a mixup at PCW, they placed our ad in the wrong location! However, they made up for this by re-printing the ad correctly in the April 1988 edition. You can see it if you visit http://www.owonder.com and click on 'History', where we have temporarily inserted a copy of the ad. (We were known as TECNATION back then.) I am saddened that PCW will no longer be around to offer their mature and robust journalism. Guy: This is a sad day. Moving on, we need to go for a beer sometime, to talk about your review of AMX Pagemaker! ;) Alex

Write on! Thinking about it...

...if he could apply this tech to a small (finger) ring, and use Bluetooth to transmit to a nearby storage device, phone etc, then one would not need to wave ones gadget around in the air like Magnus Puke after a double espresso and Red Bull. You could in fact probably wiggle your hand around in your oversized pocket taking notes almost in secret...

"Is that your index finger in your pocket or are you just happy to see me in a wibbly wobbly sort of way?"

Paris, because she likes gadget lads with large flexible objects in their pockets.

All the better for children...

...being diesel particulates are fairly harmful to the wee ones. Re outsourcing the smog to elsewhere (NIMBY), surely it is easier to clean up one or two power stations than X thousand vee-hic-ules. Where I live in Oxford, dirty vans running their engines outside lead to silt building up in our house - and it's back there after being cleaned up every week. Imagine how much of that is in our lungs! Way to go Leccy Tecchy White Van Man*! You're now a Green Van Man*! *Uhm, Person?

I wrote to Adobe many years ago...

...to protest at their decision to stop supporting SVG. (I knew deep down that Adobe were protecting Flash.) Google have it right on, SVG/HTML 5 'are' the web, while Flash and Silverlight are superficial commercial ventures designed to garden wall developers into a license based technology. Adobe should focus on building great content creation and publishing tools, and let Google and the W3C do the infrastructure.

Paris, because she's a Super Voluptuous Girl.

The price is a barrier to entry

If people are to adopt leccy tech then while one can be expected to fork out for top notch e-vehicules like the Tesla, itteh bitteh machines like zee e-car need to be priced according to their size and perceived value, IE, this thing should be about £9500 - similar to a mid range motor bike. No wealthy individual will buy one (probably for corporate insurance reasons), so which demographic unit is this machine targetted at? Other than price, it looks great.

@Ian Davies: I cannot disagree more

Having owned three K800i phones - and back to one of them now, and sharing use of an iPod Touch, and played with the iPhone, the K800 is way way faster to navigate and operate with one hand. Just today, I checked my gmail, while listening to the stereo FM radio - and took some calls, all with one hand - on my bike. One can navigate music on it very quickly. The music navigation on the iPhone/Touch is a pain, just as it is on the iPods. There is no faster way to navigate information than using a DPAD or good joystick. Having owned about 50 phones (sad), where the iPhone and Touch do score is in browsing visual media, like photos, video etc. It is also way easier to browse web pages on the K800i, as it doesn't require zooming in each time, it formats the text perfectly.

And the camera is still one of the best.

Don't get me wrong, the iPhone is amazing (as is the App Store), but tactile navigation is (I hope) never going away.

A great example of market forces over law

The gov's scrappage plan, while well meaning, only attracted 35,000 takers (so far), however, with innovators such as Tesla and others offering appealing leccy vehicles, the people are obviously willing to speak/vote with their wallets, no politics required. The greatest immediate benefit of leccy vehicles will be the reduction in local particulate and noise pollution - as anyone who lives near a road can testify too! Great for children whose bodies are being flooded with muck from birth thanks to our reliance on carbon fuels, plastics and useless drugs.

Finally, after all this time, change is in the air! Happy times.

Google first to demo, not first to conceive

I proposed real-time shared document space(s) in 2003 and possibly earlier - originally to run our own projects - and then to commercialise. Called them 'Chatboxes' or 'chatspaces' and all my team know of it. The reasons behind the chatspace idea were also identical to Google WAVE, and I also specified using distributed content to reduce the need for a central 'provider' / host. However, kudos to Google for doing it and best of all, they have the resources to pull it off and scale it - in particular thanks to their faith in the open source community to extend the concept. Their translation system may well be amazing, but is it wise to substitute learning a language, something that is part of the challenge of life? On the other hand, learning Chinese to discuss something for a few minutes with a distant collaborator may be an argument in favor! This is all very Star Trek either way.

@The Mole: Way back when...

...back before teh multimedia intensive intertubes, I used a teeny weenie but very capable Nokia 8210 in conjunction with it's infra red port to get online anywhere using my lovely Titanium PowerBook. It was in fact quite reliable and of course, no silly second line worries. More recently, vendors and carriers have done all they can to make using your phone as a RELIABLE modem difficult. All so they can charge for another line. It's a complete waste of time. 3G phones with their modern multi-tasking OSes are more than capable of carrying out a voice call while simultaneously using the Bluetooth or Infra red to get online using a laptop.

The solution to this big rip off is simply to cancel a dongle account (as I'm about to do) and buy a slightly older phone that has not been knobled - or do the reverse, junk your mobile and use your laptop as your phone by firing up Skype. (Keep a small PAYG mobile in your pocket for those essential walking around town calls.) My 3G equipped Sony Ericsson K800i gets me online via my MacBook and Bluetooth. It's not as fast as a dedicated dongle (Vodafone in our case), but to be frank, using cloud apps such as Google docs on ANY wireless dongle is too slow (unless permanently at 7.2MB) - cloud apps need a very fast and consistent connection, and currently, that's only possible when on a good WiFi signal or connected direct to teh interwebs using a cable. I only use mobile wireless for checking email now. Rest of mobile time is used for reading and thinking. Ah yes, those where the days! :)

Less is more. I particular when it's your phone bill.

Lord Of The Flies

People, not wanting to sound old and crusty, but if you just study the history of Facebook and do some (deep) research, you will clearly discover that this is not a company founded on good will, but like an oil company, it will do anything to make money. (It's very origins are dubious.) Just as Google got burned with their Street View feature, these companies are run by people who while very savvy, are too young to be aware of their station. Meaning, they don't know the difference between right and wrong. Microsoft, for all their flaws, are run by wiser people who probably shudder at the blatent missuse of public trust by their younger competitors or partners. (Microsoft's service was proven to be the most reliable at deleting files.)

The decade of appalling (and embarassing) voyouristic celeb culure, 'reality' TV and worse has sadly created a generation of self serving people (and politicians, in particular here in the UK) who should not be in any position of power.

@Midas Touched: Spot on

Values, like fees, are cleverly promoted to hook people. IE, "Our service is free - for the first 6 months." Likewise, "We do no evil - until we have enough of you hooked." I have to say, as someone impressed with some of Google's technology, it amazed me how stupid they are when it comes to some issues and their failure to monotise some of their offerings, when it would be quite simple, then they would not need to use these outlandish 'threats' to obtain yet more of our personal data. For example, there are now advertisements at the base of some YouTube videos, so why isn't Google making money of that? And how about improving Google Docs - and making it so good, people will pay for it? And then Google can encrypt all our data so it's as secure as we dignified freedom loving humans like it.

Well deserved...

...Daimler Benz started it all with regards to the internal combustion engine, and Tesla are the first company to make a serious practical electric vehicle, so what better a partnership. This is probably the best news for the planet in a long long while due to the strength it will give the leccy tech industry. Now we need Better Place to be factored into the equation too.

Business model is easy...

1. As they are currently doing, insert ads into the playlist every 15 mins or so - just like radio. They can even advertise new tunes similar to ones you are listening too - as Apple's iTunes Genius does. (I object to any demographic info being shared - I want to be who I am, not labelled, but don't mind my music taste being shared with a 'puter.)

2. If Spotify listener wants to own the track, he or she can buy the DRM free file for use on their gadget(s) de jour.

3. If listener wants to have a Spotify party, with no ads, but with unlimited music, then why not allow them to buy (say) 6 hours of unlimited usage? (Buying tracks for a party is silly as you may not like all of them.)

Oh, and remember 'PONYUP', the first concept for DRM free music, possibly coming in the future.

Easily the most unethical act by this gov...

...since their last unethical act. Anyway, this begs the question, at what age is the 'child' removed from the database? (By the way, if I had children, I would refuse their details to be held in this databsase unless I as a parent had FULL control over the information held.)

What we have here is a government so lacking in comprehension of their station (think Lord Of The Flies by William Golding) that they do not know when they sin nor see the dubious flaws in their actions. Just look at the expenses fiasco.

This catch ridden offer offer is why...

...people are in so much debt today. Let's see now: a) Unlimited texts: Did you know that if you send a text longer than 160 chars, you pay for the two or more texts required to delivery the full message? b) 08XX numbers: They are not included in your free minutes, yet more and more firms are making them their point of contact, such as your bank or favourite computer manufacturer. c) You take advantage of this latest Vodafone offer, only to forget it expires in August and are billed into submission. Not to mention, you have to keep a list of countries on you. d) Sending an email is pretty much free (on a data plan), yet sending an MMS costs 38p! So much for technology making life easier. The issue here is not the cost, it is the deceptive terms that mean consumers will mistakingly pay far more than they intended, making cash flow management impossible - no matter their good intentions. Why are we British so easily duped?

@robin thakur: Yes, but...

...the iPhone is difficult to be creative with. It is, after all, a very slick money making machine for Apple. You buy one, and rather that listen to the latest tunes on the (FM) radio for free (as I do on my none iPhone phones, are forced to purchase music from iTunes, or apps from the appstore. You cannot use a stylus to get creative, nor beam pics, ringtones and tunes to your friends. And despite the excellent photo browser, if you want to carry nice photos on your iPhone, you have to go out buy a real camera, snap away, plug you iPhone into your computer, upload the pics to iPhoto and then sync with the iPhone. (And it's a pain, I have an iPod Touch V2 - lovely device, but the whole issue of sharing and other every day instinctive tasks is impossible. It is all very constraining.) Apple need to improve the camera, allow for finger or stylus input, make sharing content easier, extend the battery life and improve the call quality. Remember, for all it's brilliance, the iPhone is not a very good phone! (I often lose connection to my iPhone buddies as their batteries die or the signal drops.) On the other hand, a Nokia N95 8G does everything well, just not as slickly. The video recording is amazing, the camera is tops and it multi-tasks well. The Nokia Maps software and GPS are great - and work out the box for 3 months for free. And you can beam any content to other Bluetooth devices with ease. I currently have a Sony Ericsson K800i and Bluetooth my pics to my Macbook. Try doing that on an iPhone.

Again, the iPhone GUI is amazing and you are spot on about LG trying to copy it embarassingly, but they have built in a mass of features that make their phones useful. All said, as per my prior posting, Android is going to force Apple to open up. I have played with an HTC Magic, and despite initial sceptism, I was impressed with the GUI. It is fast intuitive and clever - even the on screen keyboard is more reliable than the one on the iPhone thanks to Google's nice finger proximity detection. And with browsers becoming more versatile and capable, 'apps' will become obsolete anyway. You'll simply hit a site and it will BE the app. It's all about the funky AJAX, dude. Watch this space!...

Sounds boring and lacking originality

The original iPhone, from a GUI angle, and then with the superb app store, was (and still is in some ways) a revelation. However, the world has moved on. There are phones out today with true multitasking, mechanical keyboards, FM radios, Bluetooth sharing and excellent cameras. (A resolution of at least 5MP plus a good lens is essential to create a print that looks good A4/letter sized or when viewed on a wide screen home display/Apple TV etc.) If all this next iPhone is is a slightly improved 3G iPhone, a lot of us (this poster included) will choose to a more flexible platform where the quantity of manufacturers will guarantee a phone for everyone. For example, the forthcoming 5MP camera & OMLED display equipped Samsung i7500 (and rumored 'Bigfoot' with slide out keyboard) - both run the rebelious open Bad (green) Robot OS. And that is not something Apple can afford to ignore. Open up Stevie, you cannot get away with being (overly) greedy and controlling forever...

(Good Stevie icon because he's learned before and as the wide range of iPods prove, Apple can appeal to a wide sector of the market when they put their creative minds to it.)

Well, paradigms shift

While Apple are currently rock solid, they have totally failed to take 'the cloud' into account - or introduce a downturn friendly OS X device. Palm, who don't forget, produced some fantastic devices before their flawed entry into the Windows Mobile world, are capable of some ground breaking innovation. If they produce devices that are tightly integrated into the cloud, affordable and most importantly, easy to develop for, they may make it yet. BUT only if they produce a number of devices, including an affordable 'Netbook' with a full size keyboard and even some desktop terminals. Their Folio may have been just a few years too early. But today, it may be relevant.

Apple's hardware today is in my view, while sexy, massively overpriced (their new laptops are based on yesterday's technology, even if well built) and not at all 'cloud' friendly. Yes, you read that correctly. Now if they produce a tablet based on iPhone OS, then Palm have problems because Apple will then have a full suite of devices.

Each time a major technoligical paradigm shifts, it is always new or 'different' companies who take the lead.

As it happens, I think the greatest threat to Palm is Android, not Apple. And in fact, Android, if backed with a killer app and some good games, could take them both on. It's all going to be about price over the next few years - and slick cloud integrations, something only Google and Android do well to date. Go play with an HTC Magic, and you'll see what I mean.

Not surprising - if you have flown a flight sim...

...you'll know how hard it is to land. In fact, it is harder than landing a real aircraft where you can instantly look around to confirm your barings and 'feel' the aircraft using more tactile controls.

Even a well trained 'pilot' sitting in a room surrounded with displays cannot be as focused and on the ball. There is no risk (of death) and therefore no stress to generate the essential adrenaline required for such a focus intensive operation as landing a $$,000,000 aircraft.

I concur with this study

From experience in business and socially, I have found a direct correlation between the behavior of those who frequently use Facebook and/or Twitter. I do not count those who (like me) have created accounts simply to see what it was all about, but do not use the services on a daily, even weekly basis. Here are my (plain to see) observations:

1. Lacking in social skills that would be common prior to online communications

2. Exceptionally poor at returning communications of any sort

3. Socially short term. IE, will arrive for an event only to 'move on' later to another 'event' perhaps itself triggered by Facebook, Twitter etc.

4. Unfocused in their work, significantly reducing their productivity

5. Obsessed with their online status and number of friends or followers

6. Trying to impress 'someone'. Thing is, who?

7. Generally unskilled. None of the people I know who are excellent at something (music, coding, rowing, other aspects of life) have time to use such services that are a drain on personal productivity and the physical activities that are good for ones health and mental wellbeing.

The excuse that such services help people keep in touch is untrue. All those I knwo who are true friends go to the effort of exchanging new phone numbers and/or email addresses becuase they value their friendship to such a level they will make that effort.

Either way, while these services do have their pluses, they will not continue to grow once people realise their bodies have evolved to use all 5 senses.

Apple are light years ahead

I'll be the first to critique Apple (they do screw up once in a while), but the iPhone (not the Mac or desktop OS X) really is 5 years ahead of the competition. When Apple announced the iPhone I believe they stated it had been 5 years in development. It shows. Today, I have acquired a Samsung Tocco UltraTOUCH 8MP camera phone. While the camera, video and radio are unique or way better than what iPhone offers, the GUI, while quite fun, is years behind where Apple were two years ago. I got to play with an iPhone yesterday again and as I scrolled through some Twitter feeds on it's slick smooth screen, I realised that it was very hard to argue against owning ANY other device. Even the top Blackberries, Nokias and Sony Ericssons have nothing that touches the iPhone's usability, stability and processing power. Ironically, I don't think enough people have toyed with one to realise this and Apple's marketshare could in fact become equivalent to that of the PC market that MS owns, IE, over 50%. Android, while offering creative possibilities to developers, fails as a 'solution' for the person in the street.

All said, if Apple fall over when it comes to DRM and application openess, another company with industrial and software design savvy could hone Android into something equal or better.

Solar handset

Samsung and LG showed fairly reasonable solar panel equipped handsets - that would be useful as it could trickle charge constantly during the day - solving one of the two issues here, battery life.

It is sad people today are not as ethical or concerned as in the 70s and 80s. Back then, shows like Blue Peter encouraged charity and creativity, while today, it is self promotion, celebs and victim mentality. I know this is not the forum for such sentiments, but every day spent in the UK gets more depressing. Sadly, I'm probably alone on this so expect to be flamed.

Why not just use a mobile phone?

Why is it that companies produce these things when most modern phones (such as the new Samsung & LG models) can record video at 720 x 480? Not quite HD, but with the addition of stereo sound and a slight increase in resolution, that would mean one less gadget to carry around.

New Samsung ('Tocco 2') 8MP UltraTouch...

...that I am evaluating produces the most superb daylight images of any camera phone I have ever seen. (I have not tried the Sony C905 that is supposedly the best to date.) The Samsung doesn't have a Xenon flash, but for lower light snaps, the LED flash is incredibly bright. The phone (S8300) while not suited to business, is a great 'social' phone. (It also shoots video at 720x480 30FPS). If Apple can put this sort of camera in the next iPhone(s), it will mean less to carry around and of course, be idea for blogging decent quality pics direct to MobileMe, Flickr etc. The images from this Samsung are good enough for most photography needs. When viewed normal size in iPhoto on my widescreen monitor, (no zooming), it is impossible to tell them apart from those shot on my old SE K800i or even Pentax K10D. Agreed, when you zoom in, the lack of optical resolution is apparent (the lens in a phone cannot of course ever be manufactured to the size of the glass in a pocket digicam or DSLR), but for most uses, the quality is enough. And with more and more imagery purely for viewing online, perhaps shooting for A3 print quality is not longer going to matter for most people?

Not a new idea...

...they have already announced and started installing these in the US, California in particular.

Either way, a good start. A blend of these atop 50% of roof space, with the rest of (strong enough) roofs turned into gardens, and we'll be sorted.

Phorm are the devile incarnate

These companies (FaceBook is no different) are run by people who never had ethics and have no comprehension of their station. Tim Berners-Lee on the other hand has wisdom, common sense and a compassionate forward thinking grounding, so speaks the truth. The sooner people rebel against any entity that collects our data and infringes on our privacy and dignity, the better. The long term soliution is the law, but the problem is, the government is in bed with the corporations because they like to snoop too.