digicasts

Went a bit grey for a while. Sunshine now. Alas a bit too windy for a BBQ. So having one on board, which will be a first. Hope we don’t catch fire.

Look. It’s 24 the energy drink.

From the can: When the clock is ticking. Revive and conquer jack bauer style. You can pack a lot of action into 24 hours. Every second counts.

Not tried it yet though. Don’t want to be awake all night.

But I look forward to the moment I do.

Worldwide Places Hit by the Blue Screen Of Death | Walyou

Now I know these are not technically all Blue Screen Of Deaths, but still amusing. There is a fancy plasma info system at Elephant and Castle that looks very expensive, but I have only seen it operating once. The rest of the time it the good old BSoD.

All of my experiences of The Post Office have been, well… shit.

Rather than try to sell those in the queue “the peoples pet insurance” or “the peoples credit card” why not try to do the one thing you are supposed to do and that is deal with the post.

There is always a massive queue and always only 10-20% of the available counters open. Today I was waiting outside the Post Office as the queue was so long. And was just made angry at the constant looping ads and posters trying to sell me Post Office services. The idea of using the Post Office to withdraw money is laughable, does anyone really want to queue for that long to get some cash?

If there was an alternative I would use it, alas there isn’t. Perhaps if they sold real commercial advertising space in their queues, they could hire more staff and then we wouldn’t have irate old ladies slamming on the windows (as happened today). Or perhaps companies can buy a square of advertising space next to stamps. No more imposing than the piles of junk mail we get every week.

Also I really don’t like the term “The peoples Post Office”. What is that supposed to mean anyway? Are they just mooching off Diana? A Post Office for the common man? Did I miss the launch of the Post Office for the rich and affluent man? No, so just call it the Post Office.

My issues are with the Post Office, altogether I am quite pleased with the delivery service (though the random times of day you get a delivery in London is a tad annoying). But typically for a thirty odd pence you can send something to the other side of the UK and it will normally get there the next day.

Rant over - and relax…

One of life’s little coincidences or clever ploy?

Smashes out of poster

If you don’t want to be over-geeked, try to ignore the narration, better still scrub through with the sound off.

It still seems pretty techie and a long way off being a consumer or even a professional product, but i like the idea of feeding the software a some video and some super hires stills I took of the same object/place and combining the two.

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene from pro on Vimeo.

The_Homer_by_Carlos_Bisquertt.jpg 1440×705 pixels”>

I have had the new 3g iPhone for three weeks now and here is my ickle report.

When the 2.0 firmware was launched, it was like having a new iPhone, the applications available way surpassed the quality of applications available to the previous installer on jailbroken phones. The big boys were now playing, there was money to be made and the app store model was a great way to make it.

It was surprising that iPint (a viral type app from Carlsberg) was available from launch. Now more and more marketing apps are appearing, Chanel even now have one, and it wont be long before iPhone apps become one of the lists of things on a marketeers project plan.

Games such as Super Monkey Ball and Crash’s Nitro Racing really show of the power of the phone. The same iPhone that was demoed a year ago is now running full 3d apps with Wii like motion control. I don’t see the iPhone as being a replacement to a dedicated gaming handheld, but it has potential and certain games that require simple control will do well.

One on my favourite apps is BeatMaker, it costs £10.99 and is a 118mb download. But it features a full sequencing application, not a little “tap the pictures of a drums to make a drum sound” apps we have seen before. BeatMaker links to you mac so you can add your own samples, create banks, export to wav files etc. On the phone you set your sequences using pads, lay out in a sequences, you can even chop up your samples, apply effects, use EQs and rearrange and tweak everything. A lot of time has been spent on this app to make it pro tool and its developers deserve all the praise and money for seeing the potential on the iPhone. It is an app that has already generated a lot of buzz and its great fun trying to be the next Timberland.

Apps not being made by Apple do mean that some are a bit buggy and will crash, but it is still a new technology and as more apps get made more knowledge will be shared.

The 2.0 upgrade was not good enough, I had to have the new 3g phone and the new price was a major desicion maker as I had only brought an iPhone in March after deciding I couldn’t wait. Improved battery life and better sound were also desirable as you kinda need to give the iPhone a charge about once a day. But I do use it more than a normal phone, constantly checking it through the day, seeing what people are doing on Facebook or just checking emails or trying out new apps.

So I have it, it is lighter than the first iPhone and slightly larger (maybe a millimeter or two). Its curved back does make for a comfortable hold, but when on a desk tends to rock a bit when not holding it in your hand. There is no dock supplied with the 3g, not a big deal as mine was never really plugged in due to the dock not fitting an iPod and I stuck with the plain old classic USB cable.

The GPS is there, but is a bit slow, certainly not the speed they show on the adverts, but any GPS device when first activated has to triangulate the satellites, and it starts by first giving you your position based on your distance from signal masts in your area, and then drills down to the pulsing GPS dot. I haven’t really used it on the move yet, but it does pick up my stationary position well enough. Though it tends to place you on the nearest road on google maps.

Then there is the 3g, this is a bit touchy, I have tried it and I do get better speeds (about 110kps) but not the 3g speeds I was expecting. When you activate 3g the signal strength goes from full to one bar and because it is on the cusp, the iPhone is constantly looking for a 3g network which really drains the battery. We (the iPhone community based on forums and articles read) are not sure if the blame is with Apple or O2. I live in zone two in London, an area according to O2 has very strong 3g coverage, so I should be getting more than one little bar. Will have to wait and see on this.

I have turned 3g off now (as I mainly use wifi networks to browse) in an attempt to save battery life.

Speaking of battery life, it could be due to 3g, but i haven’t noticed a difference. It was only on friday that i turned 3g off so will need a few more days to decide is there is an improvement.

Sound wise, the internal speaker does sound marginally better, but phone call quality is now perfect. It was a bit hazy on the first iPhone, but I do not make many calls on it, it is used as a little internet device more than a phone (I feel like Al from Quantum Leap using his “Ziggy” device).

I guess my verdict in hindsight is that I would have been more than happy to have stuck with the first iPhone. Even with that first iPhone I would rarely need to use web out of a wifi areas (still too scared to get it out on the street due to the risk of being mugged). I have only used 3g to test rather than needed to use it, same is true with the GPS. The improved battery life would have been good, but the extra drain of the 3g and GPS do use up this extra capacity. Not that it is a major hassle as I have iPod cables everywhere so am never far away from a place I can charge. And it is always nice to hook up to my mac at home and get everything from my phone backed up by simply plugging it in (don’t even have to open and app or click anything, it just does it)

It is the 2.0 upgrade that has really created the excitement and the difference with me, something that was available to all iPhone and iPod Touch owners.

Ho hum

Quite a definitive collection, though it does get a bit dull towards the end. Easy to laugh at them, but in 10… maybe five years time we will be laughing at iPhone ads, the humble amounts of memory and storage we used to use.

One thing that does stand out is the amount of copy in these ads, you just don’t see anything like that these days.