Monday Monday... (text version)

Been a good day today. Got an upbeat feeling about this week.

Chloe's back in the UK, the ship she was on docked into Portsmouth this evening. I'm glad to know that she's back in old blighty. I'm just a tad amazed that she didn't manage to start a major international incident, war with France, ejection from the European Union or something...

Her priorities are right on though. She was more worried that she'd missed some youtube videos from Yog's cast. (something to do with that Minecraft game she plays incessantly).

 It's now the second month of life with my HTC Wildfire S. I am still rather impressed with the nifty little thing. I'm getting more used to it, and have managed (as you would have seen) to shoot some video on the go with it, and use that to include into my (v)blog.

I have completely forgotten all the excitement that temporarily besotted me about the prospect of an Iphone (4 or otherwise). They still haven't deigned to announce to the world what the future looks like. Personally I think they like messing with us.

No, not feeling like I missed out Iphone wise. I am, however still longing for the Blackberry. I lament about the battery life of the Wildfire S, and although that's got better since I got the Juice Defender App, it does run low to unusable after a day's work, and that's without me really using it that much throughout the day. It's the lack of the keyboard, and the frequency of updates that I could comfortably get on my Blackberry (without shedding loads of battery life). The decision to not pay for unlimited usage, when I don't need that much has worked out ok, I don't actually use it all. I'm not exactly being frugal with my internet usage on the phone, just careful, and I'm not running out of the 1 GB I got with it (£20 a month). Nowhere near running out of voice or text messages.

Either way, it's not possible for me to change this phone, there's no way in hell I can afford to buy a simfree handset to use with this sim, or to get a different contract just on the whimsey that I have yearnings for the joyous ease of the Blackberry real keyboard. Touch type is all well and good, but it's annoyingly inaccurate. It's that couple of milliseconds slow (not anything like the unusable of the old Windows Mobile in the late 90s. God that was torture) and the faff of typing with my fingers.

Maybe I should file my fingers down, to make them easier to use with my phone ? Sharpen them to a point or something. That'd work, right ?

iPhone tracks movements. Shock horror. NOT !

You've just got to love how much some people have turned the iPhone vs other operating systems (there are some) debate into a story laced with fever pitched paranoia.

I am referring to the reaction to the unsurprising revelation that the Iphone (and the iPad and iPod touch) store date that records where it has been, and that this information can be accessed from the phone (if you know where to look).

It's not so much the obviously opinion led reporting (and perhaps this blog is no different, but I never pretended to be a neutral observer of anything - I have my opinions, that's rather the point of this exercise). What I find really disappointing is the comments on such news-sites where the story has been reported.

Seriously people, should it really be a shock that something that allows you to make a telephone call from anywhere there is sufficient mobile phone signal actually needs to record somewhere it's relationship with the mobile network's broadcast towers ? Really ? How did you think the system worked ? String between two tin-cans ? Fairy dust ? NEWSFLASH ! If the signal to and from your phone (and indeed anything else that transmits or receives ANYTHING) makes it to and from your phone, it stands to reason that somewhere along the line, if you pardon the pun, the location of your device knowing where it is, is going to be key to maintaining that connection. Simples.

The whole 1984 lobby want to bleat on about how positively Orwellian the iphone is, and how evil and twisted Apple are for putting something like this on their phones. Well, before all those shallow and rather thick people start turning their phones off in a panic (probably better they do that anyway, just to give them less ways to bother the rest of the planet, moe than anything else) this information has pretty much always been around on the device, it's just that Apple recently moved it to a more easily accessible location on the phone. It's always been there.

Then there's the lot that scream it is Apple in particular that are evil for making this dreadful thing possible. But don't all phones / devices that allow 'geotagging' or any other similar function needing to do that very same thing ? Truth is I don't think this technology is anything new, or unique. There are things stored on or by all of our devices that leave mucky little trails of what we've been up to. My advise ? If you're that bothered then either find a way to disable these functions or don't get a mobile phone, computer or even telephone for that matter.

http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/

If we want to be connected, we need to be.. er, well, connected. It really is such a non story, that I just had to make more of it by moaning about it here as well. Pete Warden has written an application that takes this data from your phone and then shows you a lovely little map of where you (or at least your phone) has been. This is data that mobile phone companies would already have for example, based on your relationship geographically to one of their mobile phone masts (Cell Towers if you're an American).  Nothing new, scary or terribly accurate either. When I use google maps on my blackberry similar technology pinpoints roughly where I am, with an accuracy of 1400 meters. Not terribly useful to anyone really trying to track me down, unless they know exactly where I live or work, and in which case they'd just try those places anyway.

Is 'Big Brother' watching you ? No.

So, bearing in mind this sort of data has been around for years, the only change here is that it's available (without the need for a data protection act request, or court order) to the person whom the data pertains to . I'd call that progress rather than snooping. No one is doing anything else with this data, why would they ? Sure there are all sorts of things that COULD be done with it, but why, oh why, oh why, would anyone want to ? Only if you are a person of some sort of specific interest, engaged in some sort of criminal activity would this be useful to the 'powers that be'. Of course, in order to get it in this country they'd need a court order or warrant. Personally I'd hope that our security services are using tracking methods a little more sophisticated, reliable and accurate to track down would be terrorists than their own iphones. I'm sure that functions like this are used by law enforcement agencies across the globe, but this again is nothing new at all. Often if someone goes missing the police will have asked the mobile phone company for the location of their last call etc. Besides, if 'big brother' really could be bothered to look in detail at all the data that we throw on the internet about ourselves anyway they'd learn so much more about us. I'm also struck by the sheer illogical nature of the thought that the vast majority of people are interesting enough to warrant such attention, or indeed that any government is organised enough to do such a thing.

Maybe this is the way to solve unemployment ? Pay people to just sit there looking at Facebook or Twitter and applications such as this to track the whereabouts of every citizen in the UK.

If you see a Blackberry flying past you.... an angry me may be nearby....

Blackberry battery death. My world has fallen apart two days running now. When I recount the event, it seems so insignificant and spoilt of me that I am almost ashamed. Though, I guess not so ashamed that I prevented myself from sharing it on the interweb.

My beloved Blackberry's battery decided to die yesterday half way through work, it had not been an extraordinary day in anyway, I had not taken or made lots of calls from it. I guessed that perhaps I had forgot to turn the charger on at the wall when I plugged it in on Sunday night, or that somehow I (or someone else) had left the wifi or bluetooth switched on. None of these things turned out to be the case.

As luck would have it, I had taken my netbook to work with me, so that I could make some progress with Laptop, this meant that I was able to hide myself away at the back of the bus on the way home, and get some charge into my phone from my netbook. This was just as infuriating, as not having the phone at all, as I began to be deluged with messages, voicemails and emails from people wondering why I wasn't responding to them. Why is it that people don't understand the definition of 'urgent call' when you advise them that you have next to no power yet ?

The evening was only completed by me having left work late, rushing to get home (as much as you can rush when you are dependant on whatever time the bus driver thinks is acceptable to get you anywhere), trying desperately to sort out the phone issues and ending up leaving the water running in the kitchen sink causing a small flood. What is it they say about more haste, less speed. Well it certainly was true last night. The more I rushed, the more annoyed I was getting. I realised that not only was I completely unprepared to go anywhere, but that with further public transport connections required I wasn't going to get there until about 8:30.

This on top of a succession of those text messages being from people telling me that they wouldn't be able to make it to drama. I could have screamed. I think I should have. Maybe it would have helped. In the end, poor Helen ended up trying to make a session of interest for the 5 people that did turn up, without me. I felt awful, and just wanted to go to bed so that the day would end sooner.

Today's battery death was entirely unexpected, having a decent set of charge bars at lunch time (4pm today due to a later shift), I was surprised (I am being generous, my feelings were better described as something else but I won't use those words here) to see that again the battery status was in red and the pretty much as I left the building, it decided that there was not enough battery left to do anything of any value, turned off the mobile connection, and then 5 minutes later shut down completely. It took all my strength not to hurl the bloody thing across the car park.

Ok. So now I am amazed and appalled by this pathetic overreaction to the loss of the ability to communicate with people so lazily as my mobile phone allows. In my typical 'there's no middle ground' style (it's just one extreme or the other folks) where I was only recently considering changing to an iPhone 4 when my contract comes up for renewal, I am now considering NOT getting a new phone or contract at all.

Yeah right. Anyone want to take any bets on how long THAT idea will last ?

Forgive me Iphone, for I have sinned....

Not that I spend a huge amount of time trawling through the Internet for ridiculous stories to blog comments about...

You can now get an app on your Iphone that allows you to make a confession. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up.

Now I know that a lot of Apple fans are pretty near to registering it as a bone fide religion but this is enough to make you, well, laugh, cry or I guess pray. As if people didn't need any more encouragement to treat their shiny apple devices like demigods.

Now, I would try and make a joke out of it, and say 'what's next, a prayer app ?'. But that wouldn't be funny, as they already did that. Three years ago.

The cheeky thing, is it's not even free. If god is supposed to me almighty, and omnipresent, then a) why would I need my Iphone to communicate with him/her/it ? b) Why has he started charging ?

Maybe, just like Sky there's a premium prayer and confession app, or you can buy extra forgiveness ? I mean, that stands to reason, men are well used to spending money when they are feeling guilty. Even when they are not sure what it is they are guilty for, they have been rather efficiently conditioned to 'buy' forgiveness. The flower and chocolate industries are pretty much built and paid for by thousands of years worth of male guilt. Fact.

Now, what about all the Blackberry or Android users out there ? Are they sentenced to eternal damnation because they chose the wrong handset manufacturer to believe in ? No parallels there then. Ho hum.

All your iEggs in one basket ?

Apple have announced that Steve Jobs is taking a leave of absence due to ill health. This becomes newsworthy because apparently each time he takes some time off because he's not well, Apple's share price takes a beating. Why ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12205173

So the mythos goes, he personally oversees every development in the Apple range. Can this really be true ? Is one man really the gadget messiah ?

You can't deny that during is time, Apple have certainly blossomed and created a niche for themselves in bright, shiny, expensive and gorgeous technology. Who would really have thought, before ipod, or iphone that technology would be such fashion.

Surely it doesn't make good business sense to really build the foundation of your company's future on the shoulders of just one man ?

What's all this about the Ipad ?

Apple introduced the world to it's latest baby this week, the Ipad.
There's been much excitement, and as normal, much 'boo hoooing'.

There are, admittedly lots and lots of people that will gush with
excitement at anything new and shiny, not to mention all those Apple
followers who would make Scientologists look sceptical. There are also
those that are predisposed to an instant reaction of 'it's rubbish' or
'over priced tat' or 'underwhelmed, I was hoping for so much more'.

It's funny to see that reading some of the comments online, about what
sort of device people would have liked to see, most of them haven't
taken any time to look at the information Apple have launched, or that
they seem to think that our technological capabilities are something on
a par with those of Star Trek The Next Generation.

Having seen the details on Apple's website, I've come to the conclusion
that it will be a 'game changing' device, and will end up being used in
so many more ways than we are able to imagine now, it is SO MUCH MORE
than a 'large Iphone' (without a phone connection). From what I've seen,
I'd like one, but I'd also like to be able to buy a house, but I can't,
because I don't have enough money.

So funny that all the negative comments are roughly similar to the ones
that are made every time Apple makes a new product announcement. 'Its
not a good as I thought it would be, it doesn't have x,y,z' or 'what do
I possibly need a device like that for ? It'll never work'.

Millions of Iphone & Ipod owners prove that wrong. The public, can be,
by and large stupid and gullible, but not so much so about parting with
their hard earned cash. (They're not bankers, so they have to earn their
money before they spend it).