Question: Platforms?

What platforms do you use on your smartphone and / or tablet and PC? For me it is iOS, iOS and Mac OS. Looks like Apple has got me for the moment…

My fragile iPad

If there is one thing that causes me to think about how I use my tablet, it is the fragility of the unit. It isn’t just the iPad, but every tablet I have owned has required a case. It has required a big case which offers a lot of protection because if you drop a tablet, it will almost certainly break.

This is understandable because the unit is basically a screen with a back cover and some rigidity in between, but the way a tablet can be used is currently in direct contrast to how you can actually use it. I want it to be as thin as my tablet is now, but to be able to casually drop it on the coffee table, on the passenger seat of my car or anywhere else. Instead it sits in a case all of the time just to keep it protected.

I am not being paranoid here because this is how an iPad, for example, needs to be protected when used away from the home. The iPad form is ideal, but it needs to be ruggedised to make it a ‘take anywhere and not worry about it’ device. Maybe I am hoping for too much, but I would still like to see it.

The Galaxy SIII reaches the UK

The Samsung Galaxy SIII has been officially launched in the UK, but supplies are limited mainly because of the case colour problem. Some stores are sold out, but some mobile networks are claiming to have lots of stock. I am expecting one for review from Vodafone on Friday and will post my thoughts next week. Quite excited to see if it lives up to the hype.

What's to say that the smartphone of today won't die away?

The image above is a representation of a concept designed by Julian Grote. In the concept he sees a future where a mobile assistant can be a watch, projector and all sorts of other things thanks to the flexible form factor. Who says that a smartphone will have the form we know now in the near future? It's exciting to thing what they may become.

Castaway Island

Excellent cartoon from The New Yorker showing some of the products that now reside on castaway island.

The iPad 3: the truth

It would seem as though some high-end games actually play worse on the new iPad in comparison to the iPad 2. Add to this the lower battery life, slightly larger size and extra price and I am left feeling quite smug that I stuck with the iPad 2. I never did believe that the screen made as much of an impact as it was expected to.

"That’s why not many titles support Retina iPad gaming natively. What most games do instead is they rendered in 1,024-by-768 with full detail and anti-aliasing to reduce jaggines then upscale individual frames to 2,048-by-1,536.

Though the results usually look pretty good, nothing really beats the crispness and sharpness of native Retina iPad gaming. By the way, 1080p games on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 often employ the same upscaling trick."

Game inspired movie posters

This type of art is not normally my thing, but something about these creations caught my eye. Quite inspiring.

Question: Duplication?

Do you have any apps installed that duplicate their main function, but which do things in a different way? I think I have a few note-taking apps installed that do similar things.

Goodbye old friend

I bought my Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 (catchy name) many years ago and it has been a constant companion with my laptop at meetings and my home computer throughout that time.

It has survived countless PCs, a Mac Mini and now my iMac and is always the first accessory I use with any new computer. Forget the fancy Apple mice, they just don't work for me, and forget all of the more expensive mice on the market. Nothing works as well for me as the Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 (catchy name).

I all of the years I have owned it, 2 battery replacements have been needed and it has never, ever let me down. It works consistently and never breaks. I must admit to becoming quite attached to it when I think about how loyal it has been and no day has passed, barring holidays, without it.

And then it broke.

The shock, the sadness, the moment had finally come. The trackwheel has fallen apart after so many miles of scrolling and was unreparable. I was stuck between sadness and needing to find a replacement quickly.

Fortunately it broke on a Saturday so I could buy a replacement quickly. The Microsoft Wireless Mouse 3500 (catchy name) was my choice and so I proceed to get back to work. But it wasn't quite the same. The sides were not as grippy, the trackwheel was not as thick and it wasn't quite the same size. It was in fact almost identical in every way, but minor differences made it feel completely different. I was expecting some differences and maybe even a newer model of my broken one would feel different for a while.

So I popped onto eBay and 10 minutes later I had ordered 2 originals for £15. They will be here in 3 days and I will be back to my old self with a spare on hand should the travesty (!) happen again.

The Microsoft Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 4000 (catchy name) is probably no better than any other mouse, but it is the one I know well and has proved to be incredibly efficient and reliable. And despite not liking a lot of Microsoft products, I have to say that they really do know how to make a mouse.

32GB for £22.95

Peter C. spotted a good deal on a Samsung microSD card over at Amazon- £32GB for £22.95 is not bad at all.

"The world’s most trusting and leading technology has made Samsung top in the world for 19 years. For your most precious moments, Samsung SD cards are for you. Even if you forget, Samsung will keep them in the most reliable way, forever."

Shipped and sold: A brief introduction

Shipped and sold: A brief introduction is now an article for everyone, but some nuggets of useful information are included.

"Let’s say that you sell a phone to another party. What constitutes a sale? The sales agreement? That you shipped it? That he wanted it? That you were paid for it?

What if he changes his mind and returns it? Is it still a sale? What if a manager’s bonus depends on these sales? What if the company’s share price depends on these sales? Is there a way to rig the accounting?

As it turns you, yes there are; many ways. Unethical and fraudulent practices happen surprisingly often. A classic instance would be: A customer is shipped ten phones, though he only wants one, and he gets paid to ship the other nine back, after the close of the year."

Rice

The idea that rice has heal a water damaged phone has been around for some time and Raveesh over at Phandroid has added some more evidence to the theory. Always have rice around if you are clumsy with your phone.

“I soon came across the old rice tip, which I had read before but just brushed it aside thinking it to be on par with some of the ridiculous alternative therapies we read about. However, since the phone was nothing more than a paper weight, I decided I pretty much had nothing better to do with it. Taking out the battery, I buried it in a rice bowl and kept it away for a few days. The initial plan was to not touch it for 3-4 days, but I could resist after 36 hours.”

80% off WriteRoom

There are many distraction-free Mac writing apps, but few can match the simplistic brilliance of WriteRoom. And today it is discounted to only $1.99. A huge bargain...

Write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you're used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing.

TomTom turns on open source maps

A new post has been added to the official TomTom blog in which the company says "Despite the positives, recent studies have highlighted some major drawbacks of open source mapping, specifically with regard to safety, accuracy and reliability. In one particular instance, a leading open source map was compared against a professional TomTom map, and shown to have a third less residential road coverage and 16% less basic map attributes such as street names. Worse still, it blended pedestrian and car map geometry, and included ‘a high number of fields and forest trails’ classified as roads.

Indeed the major benefit – the community aspect – has itself presented problems, leaving maps wide open to attack. A highly-publicised case saw a leading provider suffer over 100,000 individual attacks, including reversals of the recorded directions on one-way streets."

I guess we could expect such talk from TomTom, but I for one only use TomTom these days because of its accuracy and reliability.