This Week in Lumps
#59 [05/08 - 11/08]
· I do need to own up something: I now own an iPhone 3G. Yes, surprised you may well be, considering that on two separate occasions I declared my total disinterest; in week 3 it went like this:
“The money shot is… It’s not hitting the wow factor for me. It looks good, but it’s not Earth shattering. I’m not blown away by the aesthetic values of it, but on the same page it seems to have missed that “does exactly what it says on the tin” look that I want from a mobile phone. To be honest, I’ve never been an Apple-obsessed loon, nor do I think I ever will be. I’m not against them at all, they are producing good quality goods, I cant deny it. My friends have Apple stuff, and they’re all perfectly sane people with hair and morals and myspaces and everything. Me, however, I’ve never been one to follow the iCrowd.”
whilst way back in week 17 it was shot down in flames again:
“I’m still not won over. It will win hearts, and it will be the number one Christmas present under the tree and in stockings this year, there’s little doubt in my mind about that, but it certainly won’t be appearing under mine.”
So, you may be ready to ask, why on Earth have I completely changed my mind, and got one?
Well, apart from being a sucker to advertising and promotion (as we all are every now and again, so no snickering at the back), my contract was well past its 18 month period with O2, allowing me free will to upgrade to any other phone on the market, and in all honesty, O2 aren’t a bad company, despite me once again going against previous comments, since I felt free to bad-mouth them 4 weeks ago. Despite having urges to go looking for one on release day, I held it back for a further 8 days, easily picking one up the following Saturday. So it only feels right, after a month or so of owning an iPhone, to give some feedback as to whether it was a good move, or bad move.
Okay the bad things out of the way first: the weight of the thing itself is stupendous, but the scary thing is I didn’t even notice the difference from a ‘normal’ phone until I picked up my previous ‘normal’ phone, to put it away in a drawer, to gather dust until 5 years pass by, you find it one idle Tuesday and you look at how basic the thing was. My old phone in comparison was like lifting Donny Osmond compared to the Brian iBlessed now carried around in my right hand side trouser pocket. The battery life as well isn’t something you’d shout about from the rooftops either. As this was also my first iPod per se (my last mp3 player was the ill-fated Sony Walkman which last around 10 months), I enjoyed being able to listen to music to and from work, until half way through the first Monday of owning it, fiddling around with it, and showing it off to work colleagues, I suddenly was made aware of just how much battery life I was using up. Showing off only works when you aren’t pointed out by eagle eye cubicle dwellers that something you’re paying a lot for is in fact, limited in usability, unless you change every setting to ‘minimal’, and follow Apples own guidelines. Also, the hardware is somewhat prone to crashing when you least want it to, starting an app, or checking your emails can be stopped somewhat short if your phone decides to reset back to the homepage – and that’s if you’re lucky.
However the good points aren’t in shortage, in fact the whole ability of having email, Internet, phone and texts all available on such a small device is such a fabulous fabulous advancement in technology. Okay, so if you’ve owned a Blackberry before you may not be as bowled over, but Apple have marketed this phone at a worldwide audience, not just busy businessmen. Add to this GPS mapping, an iPod, an iTunes store to receive music for said iPod, a camera, and all the other little extras are such a fantastic addition, and although you may think you wouldn’t use them as often as you’d like, you may find that secretly, you actually will.
The introduction of the application store is also a well received plus point. There are dozens of extremely useful apps available, including a Last.FM music app, a Shazam app, even a WordPress app for those intricate updates that are of utmost importance. The ones for fun, such as the Facebook and Myspace apps are easy to use, and as much fun as the ones you can access from a PC, and if it tickles your fancy, you can even choose from a handful of Twitter apps, including Twinkle, which not only has the ability to let you view your friends Tweets, but also those within a certain radius, so I get my friends updates, and also some rather friendly and interesting members of the Glasgow iPhone Twitter community. Even for those who enjoy the addictive games there’s enough great freebies to light your candle, and even a few classic titles for a small fee.
Yes, there are apps that are totally OTT, having ones for extortionate fees just to prove how rich you are, are both pointless, and deserved of their owners. But the future is bright.
Part 2 of this review will appear after month 2, where I can hopefully summarize this purchase as a good buy. I’m positive that will be the case.
~
· Here’s a website I don’t think I’ve written about on here before: last week eBay were accused of “betrayal” by its users; the popular auction site that revolutionized buying and selling over the Internet has angered their fans by allowing major retailers to list thousands of products at fixed prices.
Users of the site are weary of the new decision, saying that it could see the end of the traditional ‘auction’ theme of the site, as more and more companies forget about the bidding/waiting/bidding again option, turning eBay from its car-boot image into an online version of Bluewater. Chris Dawson, who writes a blog on the site, said:
“Auctions in some categories are already pretty much dead. Not many people bid for rechargeable batteries, Gillette razor blades, toothbrushes or even mobile phone handsets or DVDs – the kind of commodity items you pick up in a supermarket. eBay started out for the collectors’ market but it’s been overtaken by the business market. Buyers have become used to instant sales on the internet, and they expect eBay to be no different.”
Some of the sites that have started appearing on eBay under specialist user tags (similar to those found on YouTube) include Argos, Littlewoods, Orange and the online shoe shop Schuh; you’d be right in assuming that eBay haven’t just sat back at let them randomly appear, but have struck deals with each company, at a very comfortable price. In a quick browse of the items these companies had to offer, all were listed at a ‘fixed price’ with more than just 1 item available, completely removing the ‘auction’ aspect, and making it seem more like a charity shop.
As an occasional user of the ‘electronic pimp’ website eBay, I find this incredibly disappointing. I can just about tolerate the annoyance that comes with searching for hidden treasures such as rare vinyls and memorabilia, whilst trying to wade through the swamp of thousands of people selling the same item at the same price, once you add the factor of well-established companies selling items for the same price as you can buy on the High Street, it adds to the grim outlook of things. In its 13 year existence, I don’t think eBay has ever had to remould itself, or rely on heavy marketing campaigns; much like Amazon, brand exposure through word of mouth was good enough, and soon both websites became synonymous with quality service and usability. The reason for this change of direction is, sadly, to keep up with the market, especially the aforementioned retail giants Amazon.
The independent small sellers relying on 10 day auctions to get rid of the wardrobe or dining table don’t have much of a chance compared to just a few years ago, but as the market changes, so do opportunities- websites such as the eBay owned Gumtree could benefit from this downfall, similar to the success of Craigslist on the US west coast.
Analysts say that it is only a matter of time before auctions are in the minority. A terrible shame.
~
· Britain from Above aired on Sunday night, fronted by Andrew Marr. The series promotes itself as offering us viewers “a new perspective” on our country. The first in the series was titled ’24 Hour Britain’, detailing from the skies what happens from the moment we wake throughout the day, even whilst we sleep, till the next day.
For me, sadly, any interest in the show seemed to fizzle out within the opening introduction- I know that wasn’t giving it much of a chance, but before you write to Points of View and complain, let me explain.
Picture the scene – I’m sitting on my sofa after a nice relaxing Sunday, I’ve been watching the olympics and football, and after a large dinner I’m ready to wind down in front of the TV with a nice, informative programme about Britain and what we can see from the sky. What I got instead was gritty Spooks-like stringed backing music playing behind a helicopter shot of Marr standing on a large building shouting down the camera something about “Britain as we very rarely see her”. He’s about as composed and welcoming as a sledgehammer to the kneecaps. We also see lots of birds-eye views of a handful of cities, which isn’t that new to us since we see a much similar shot in the opening credits of The Apprentice. Whilst the rest of the programme picks up a tad, something wasn’t sitting right with me (and that’s not just the slightly biased view on the south half of the UK). The
‘The opening episode’, as the Beeb’s blurb on this programme begins, ‘shows how we live on the edge of utter chaos’, but take a step back from that thought; is that really the case, or is that just an over-hyped phrase for what is actually quite mundane? Everyday occurrences such as commuting, taking a lunchbreak or boiling a kettle after Eastenders will appear quite daunting when viewed on a national scale, but so can many other things, things that are much more important to us individually. Just because Andrew Marr is bellowing on my TV screen doesn’t mean its “utter chaos”.
Thank Goodness Andrew Billen from The Times agreed with me:
“…its only message is “Look, what a busy, clever island we are, we are.” Last night’s opener had height, but lacked depth.”
The fact that Sunday nights episode was beaten by an ITV repeat of Midsomer Murders speaks volumes.
~~~
That was the week in lumps, a week in which: I found out that The X-Factor will be sticking Cheryl Cole on the judges panel, which means the show has now officially jumped the shark, Simon Pegg reunites the Spaced team… for an interview, if you listen to too much Cher, you’ll get your stereo taken away, Even Hitler Tweeted, the 5th Indiana Jones film wont be made without Harrison Ford, A Goonies sequel could be in the pipeline…or not, IKEA are to start investing in solar panels, and I’m so addicted to the Olympic coverage on the BBC, and these 10 best moments were great to look back on, you may have to cross reference them to YouTube to get the real benefit of some of the recent ones.
and finally, a sad goodbye to Bernie Mac, a true funny man, who will be sorely missed.
ttfn
x
A.D. Winn
lynseyk
[...] So, as ever, I thought i could do better. I then realised that I had already listed a few apps in this post, briefly naming a few apps that stood out. So here’s a more defined [...]