Iphone and data roaming

A great article on downloading apps on the iphone and how to avoid being hit for charges.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/dec/15/iphone-app-setting-use

5 Reasons Why E-Books Aren’t There Yet

http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~3/F1eJPxMnShM/

IPAD V KINDLE

As you may have noticed, I am a huge fan of the Kindle and have been meaning to comment on it in greater detail and then I get asked the following question (which I have edited partially):

“I have a high end B Berry and a laptop.

Between the two, my expectation on being 24X7 connected, on the net, emails and voice calling is met.

However, I know I must have an instrument which allows me to read a book with –the kindle comes to mind and now you are telling me there is a version around USD 100. I have seen the kindle but never used it. i dont think I have noticed the Ipad 1 or 2… though many of my friends are the first to buy whats latest in the market.

 Under the circumstances described above, should I buy an Ipad-2 or should I buy a Kindle? Will the Ipad allow me to download and read books? what then do i do with my BBerry?”

Right so here goes.

First the easy part. You keep the Blackberry and the laptop. These have specific purposes and achieve them well. Neither the Ipad nor the Kindle will be able to completely fulfill your needs as regarding a phone and a computer that you use to work on.

The IPAD – 2 is largely a consumption device. A great improvement on its’ earlier version but it has not yet fullfilled its potential. That, I think will come, like most Apple products in version 3. The Ipad is a great looking device and is a step up, albeit an expensive one, from netbooks. It is a constantly on device and is fantastic for checking your emails, watching video, editing video, taking pictures, skyping, browsing the web, Facebooking, Twitter and catching up on the news. It has a huge collection of apps available for it, most of which you have to pay for. It has a great screen and is wonderfully designed. However, this is not a device for work. One cannot create big reports or type on it easily and for long periods of time. It is difficult to take notes at meetings and to share these by bluetooth for example.

Once again it is a good book reader, just not an excellent one. The colour screen is exceptionally bright and causes the eyes to get tired quickly. I certainly could not read for any great length of time and most people who have one say the same thing. On the plus side it has  a colour screen. On the minus side you have no chance of reading this in bright sunlight. So if you are planning to read this on a sunny day in the park or on a beach, you are going to struggle. It has access to an adequate library of books. You can get all the freebooks from all the usual places such as Gutenberg, manybooks etc. The Apple bookstore the last time I checked was not that great. They just don’t have the range of books thatAmazon has. However, you can sign up with Amazon and therefore read books purchased from there through your Kindle App on the ipad.

The Kindle does only one thing and it does it brilliantly. It is an ebookreader and it does what it says on the tin, very well. It does have a browser and the ability to play music, but these are only experimental.  I have had the Kindle (v3) for over 3 months and it has never disappointed as yet when it comes to reading books. The screen is wonderful and it can be read in all kinds of lighting. The battery life on this is stunning. It goes for months. The Amazon store is excellent and  of course you have access to all the freebook sites mentioned earlier (see links on the left). There is a great little programme called Calibre http://calibre-ebook.com available. It is great for converting books from othe formats and for syncing and downloading magazines and newspapers (???). I use the Kindle to also store work documents and pdf’s that I occassionally need to have access to. I send these to my Kindle email account with the word “convert” in the subject line. The next time I sync my Kindle , voila it’s there!

I won’t go through the specific working of the Kindle here. That is for another post.

Well, I hope this has given you some food for thought.

If you have questions…as always…just ask.

Places to eat

I enjoy a good meal. So for all you foodies out there I can do no better than add a couple of links. If you have eaten at any of these places, let me know. Let me have your review.

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/1-50-winners

http://www.theworlds50best.com/awards/51-100-winners

Kindle

For a while now, I have been borrowing a friend’s Kindle off and on to read books. From the first time I saw the screen, it blew me away. For reading books, no screen comes close. I have tried the screen on the Ipad, Sony e-book reader, Samsung Galaxy Tab and numerous laptops for reading books. The Kindle is by and far away the best reader on the market today. Coupled with the size of the device and the ability to carry thousands of books, buying the Kindle was a “no brainer”. Which I did. I am loving it.

There are 2 versions – the wifi and the 3G version.  Here is a link to the specifications and prices. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002Y27P46 . I bought the cheaper wifi version. I am not someone who travels a lot and I just could not see that I needed an always on connection to download books.

Apart from Amazon’s own book store there are loads of places to get free books. I use Project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page and Manybooks http://manybooks.net/ . These have lots of out of copyright classics which you can download for free. However, since these sites are free and run by volunteers, do help them out by making a donation if you can. In addition, you can of course, buy books from the Amazon and other stores. You can also have pdf and word documents transferred to your Kindle either by emailing it to your Kindle account or by connecting the device to your computer and “drag and drop” the files. To use your Kindle properly, you should create an Amazon account and then register your Kindle to it.

I use a piece of software called Calibre  http://calibre-ebook.com/ to convert pdf files into the mobi format which can be read by the Kindle.

You may not know this but the Kindle has a browser (not great), which at a pinch you can use if you need to check emails or catch up on news. The kindle also plays mp3 files, so you can listen to music while you read.

I hope this little synopsis helps. If you have questions….ask.

Finally, I attach a video of me unboxing the Kindle….badly!

Lexus CT200h

It is now time for me to buy a new car. The key criteria for the car is that it must be london congestion charge exempt. Furthermore, it must be an automatic. Currently, there are only 2 cars that fit the bill –  Toyota Prius and Lexus CT200h. There is a third. It is the Fiat 500. However, the Fiat is not really a practical main car.

As you have probably guessed, after owning and driving a Prius for 3 and a half years, I am not a fan of this car. The Lexus CT200h is brand spanking new. It is only now open to order.

My local dealer let me loose in the base model CT200h for about half an hour. This review is based on a short drive. My general impression is that the car is a lot better than the Prius. Cutting to the chase, is it £10,000 better….I don’t think so.

Let us now talk specifics. The interior is better than the Prius. However, I don’t think the base model gives one the luxury feel of a Lexus. For that, I think one needs to go to the top of the range which makes the car a £31,000 car compared to the top of the range Prius which comes in at £23,000. The Lexus has a new satellite navigation screen and system which has a mouse. Navigating between the screens is done using this. I suspect, some idiot is going to be busy playing with the mouse and cause an accident.

The drive and handling is better than the Prius as well. However, I am comparing this to my Prius which has a 1.5l engine compared to the 1.8l engine in the Lexus. The engine and the technology is the same in both cars, I believe. Though, I don’t think Lexus will admit it. Interestingly, the Lexus (and I suspect the new Prius) has 3 driving modes – Eco, Normal and Sport. One can switch between these on “the Fly”. This is really useful. The “sport” mode made the car feel a bit more responsive. I think this might just let me be able to live with it for 3 years, by which time, I expect a lot more hybrid cars to be available.

The next question and the most important one – will i buy it? Yes, subject to the arranging of affordable financing. Not because I love it more than the Prius. I just hate the Prius more.

Wikileaks

This is about free speech vs secretive unaccountable government.  We now live in a world, where, as ordinary citizens we have access to and are entitled to, information which was previously hidden from us. Information is easily available and we have to get used to the fact that information about “us” is available if anyone should care to look for it. Nothing is secret anymore. We need to get used to that simple fact of life.  So if my bank statement were stolen and put on the web for all to see…so what? In the old days if my bank statement were stolen, the burglar, his mates in the pub and anyone who he chose to sell it to, had my details. The only difference is that now it’s on a website. The problem both before and after the birth of the internet is still the same, the criminal who wants to use the data.

With regards to Wikileaks there has been a lot of media disinformation spread by the USA. Let’s start with the charges against Julian Assange for raping the two Swedish women.  Let me state unequivocally, rape is not justifiable under any circumstances. In this particular instance, there is sufficient anecdotal evidence, that these two women, were known to have been boasting of their conquest. Some days later, they reported the rape (jointly and to me it appeared reluctantly) to the police in their home town. The police investigated and felt Assange had no case to answer and he was allowed to leave Sweden. A few months later, the prosecutor from another jurisdiction in Sweden, issues a warrant for his arrest on the grounds, that the women were raped. The media, whom are allowed access to “everything”, have as far as I am aware, not been allowed to interview these women. To my mind, there is no doubt that these are trumped up charges and have been brought as a result of serious US pressure on the Swedish government.  The Swedes have capitulated.

Next, let us look at the role of the Australian government. Their role in this has been completely abysmal. Australian citizens should be embarrassed by the behaviour of their government. The government has threatened its own citizen and almost banned him from returning to his own country. When Australian public sympathy moved towards Assange, Julia Gillard and her government rapidly backpedalled and blamed the USA. Politicians, on the whole really have no morality.

Speaking of morality, lets now consider the death threats, made by senior figures of the political establishment in the USA and Canada. Joe Lieberman, Sarah Palin and Tom Rogan (Canadian) amongst others have incited the public to “kill” Assange. A “fatwa” perchance? When the Iranians’ put one out on Rushdie, the world’s politicians quite rightly arose in a surge of moral indignation. Yet now that America has done the same thing, the world is strangely quiet.  This begs the question, is inciting someone to kill only wrong, if your skin is brown?

Now, consider hypocrisy. Here is a link to a speech made by Hilary Clinton. http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/21/internet_freedom?page=full

She accuses various regimes of undertaking authoritarian acts. Yet the USA is doing almost exactly what they are accusing other regimes of doing. All of the things they are doing now they have indignantly accused China, North Korea and Iran of doing.

Those of you who can remember as far back as the late 70’s may recall the famous “Watergate” saga. Woodward and Bernstein were hailed as the greatest journalists of their time. They published stolen material and brought down a president – Nixon. How is this any different from what Wikileaks is doing? Another evidence of hypocrisy perhaps?

Now let’s move on to the corporations. Let there be no mistake, Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and Paypal among others have succumbed to government pressure. They all use words like “illegal activities” and “not in accordance with Terms of Service”.  Paypal takes donations for an organisation that is a front for the Ku Klux Klan, but won’t take donations for Wikileaks, a news gathering organisation. I suppose an organisation, which has a stated purpose to prove the superiority of the white race and approves of killing Black people is legal, whereas being a journalist who happens to believe in freedom of information is illegal. We live in strange times. Also, for the record Julian Assange has only been accused of a crime. He is “innocent until proven guilty”. Wikileaks has not been accused of criminal activity, yet it would appear they are being treated like criminals.

All of this sets a dangerous precedence. Assange and Wikileaks are being strangled slowly. Tomorrow this could happen to you.

Here are a few links to some other writings on this situation.

http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2010/12/05/12412

http://mashable.com/2010/12/05/wikileaks-columbia-university-state-department/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=FaceBook

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/15/web-spying-machine-julian-assange

Finally, what this is really about, is that the “Superpower” ,has such lax security, that one guy with a USB stick, walked away with a tremendous amount of data.

Google Street View

More often than not, I hear people complaining about privacy or the lack thereof on the internet. I have dealt with this topic earlier and don’t want to go into this again, except to say, if you dont want information about you made public somehow or the other, then do not use computers or the internet. Go back to the dark ages ie 1970’s. See how long you last.

Lately, I have heard people say, “Google Street View is an invasion of my privacy.” For those of you who do not know what it is, Google Maps has a feature in some countries (currently, USA and parts of Europe) where you can actually see the street through beautifully put together features. This, to my mind is an awesome feature. It makes navigating to an unknown area so much easier as you actually have visual reference points.

What I would like to know from the naysayers is how is this an anvasion of your privacy? I just do not get it. Somebody please explain.

http://maps.google.co.uk/

iphone vs Android

Lately, quite a few people have asked me “iphone or Android”. So rather than reinvent the wheel each time, I thought I would put my thoughts up here for you to keep coming back to, if you needed to. In the interests of “full and fair disclosure”, I own shares in Apple & Microsoft (not a lot) and wish I could afford shares in Google. I also own an iphone 3GS (my wife’s) and an HTC Desire (mine) and have therefore played with these extensively. I am running a long term review of the Desire and you can read about this elsewhere on the website.

Before, you decide to buy one of these or any other (what the market calls) “Smartphone” you need to be aware that these are computers that fit in your pocket and happen to make telephone calls, and not too well at that. If you are coming to the Smartphone from your bog standard, candy bar phones then be prepared for a huge culture shock. The biggest difference, you will note is the battery life or lack thereof. No matter what the manufacturer says, you will need to charge your Smartphone at least once a day, more realistically twice a day. However, once you get used to this you will wonder how you ever managed without it! Welcome to the dark side. Lol!

Now for  the crux of the matter.  For those of you who don’t know, the iphone  is made by Apple. Currently the phone is in its 4^th Generation hence the iphone 4, not to be confused with the 4G network. This phone is unable to use the high speed 4G network, what little there is of it. In the USA the iphone is available only on the AT&T network. There are strong rumours that this exclusive arrangement will disappear in January 2011 when Apple will announce that the iphone will be available on the Verizon network. They have apparently ordered a large number of CDMA chips that will go into the iphone, enabling it to work on the Verizon network. I believe,  the AT&T network is not the greatest. In fact a lot of people have been put off from buying the iphone because the quality of the network coverage is below par on AT&T. In the UK and Europe the iphone is now available on many different carriers. I have not particularly heard many complaints about the network coverage in UK and Europe.

The iphone uses a new version of Apple’s proprietary software called IOS4. IOS4 is only available on Apple products. Having played with the phone in the Apple store, I feel it is a far more robust operating system than previous versions. It is certainly faster and more responsive. Some of the speed improvements are down to better hardware such as a faster processor. The “retina” display screen is excellent and the 5 mega pixel camera is certainly far better than the previous version.  There are some great photo and video editing software bundled free with the iphone. The user interface (UI) is very tactile and makes you want to use it. If it was food it would be called “moreish” and be very fattening for you. There are lots of social apps and very good ones at that. There are loads of other great apps available and you will have hours of fun trying them all out. Realistically though you will have about 20 apps and use  5 of them on a regular basis.

The email client has been improved and now has compatibility with Microsoft’s Exchange Server and Activesync. Therefore, for business users this phone has now  become a device that corporates can consider for their staff. You might not know this, Exchange server is the email client of choice for near enough 50% or more of business’. As like most other phones it works seamlessly with Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo etc. It can also be setup to use popmail/imap if you do not use the earlier mentioned services. The phone is relatively easy to use and setup.

The phone also easily syncs with itunes (in fact it needs itunes to work) and therefore getting your music, photos and podcasts onto the phone is dead easy. The music player is decent, though I would recommend, you buy a new non Apple branded headphone, if you really want to experience your music.

There are lots of other features that this phone has which will blow you away. However, its ability to make and not drop telephone calls is not one of them. The phone is adequate. Lets leave it at that. You may be aware that there is a design fault that makes it drop calls if you hold the phone in a certain way. This is a real problem and I do know plenty of people who have experienced this problem, more so in the USA than in the UK. I suspect part of the problem is the network. You will have to use a free Apple supplied bumper, to cover your phone which makes it look ugly but prevents the phone from dropping calls. Dropped calls happen on almost all Smartphone’s (some more than others).  Sometimes it can be due to the network and at other times it could be the siting of the antenna. This issue became a big deal only because of the way Apple dealt with the issue. They behaved and still behave like a small company punching above its weight. I think there is a bigger problem with the phone which has not been largely reported.  The proximity sensor seems faulty.

If you want to know, about anything particular that you want to do with the iphone and I have not referred to it here, feel free to ask.

What is Android I hear you ask. Well it is an open source free operating system similar to IOS4. It is made by Google. It has been around for a few years but has only come to the public attention lately. In fact version 2.1 aka Eclair really took the software bang into the middle of iphone territory, when it came out on Google’s own phone the Nexus one ( a rebadged version of the HTC Desire). There is a new version 2.2, aka Froyo (Frozen Yoghurt) which is now being rolled out. The software is really nicre and tactile. Very responsive and smooth. It is not locked except by the network carrier. You can tweak it to your heart’s pleasure, though you have to know what you are doing.

Android is available on loads of phones made by different manufacturers. Some of these are Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola. The phones are all very good. However, how good they are compared to the iphone, depends a lot on the hardware specs. Apart from my HTC Desire I have also had some experience of the Nexus one and the Samsung Galaxy. The HTC Sense UI, is miles ahead of the others. In fact to my mind, it is far ahead of the iphone as well ,since it is entirely customisable,  allowing you to set it up exactly the way you want it. It’s your phone use it how you want to. The UI is very slick.

Android phones are available on loads of networks and tend to be cheaper than the iphone. So, whoever your carrier, you will find an Android phone in their product list.

You need to have a Gmail account to use an Android phone. Thats all! No credit card details are required and no need to connect up to any store or computer. Updates all come in “over the air” (ota). The phone syncs with your contacts, calendar and emails from Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and Exchange Server.  All without connecting to a computer if you don’t want to. It can also get your emails from your popmail/Imap account.

The phone comes with loads of apps. My favourite is Google maps with “Turn by Turn voice navigation”  for free. Yes you heard me right it’s FREE. TomTom, Copilot, Navigon and other paid for mapping services, better watch out. The app market is very robust and you should find pretty much all the standard apps easily.

Syncing music, podcasts and photo’s are easy. You can even get your itunes music onto the phone if you should wish to. Just ask me how. The music store Android is tied to is Amazon, but you are not tied into this and can download music from anywhere. To enjoy your music dump the headphones included in the box and buy yourself another decent pair.

My HTC Desire has a 5 mega pixel camera and takes great pictures for what is essentially a computer phone. The latest version of Android (Froyo) coming soon to a phone near you will have 720p (ie HD) video recording.

Android phones tend to have microsd cards (usually 4GB or 8GB) to increase storage space. This can be a pain, as you rapidly run out of space on your card and therefore need to buy a larger card. Currently, you can expand to 64GB I think. Apps for now can only be installed on the phone’s hard drive, which tends to be a maximum of 576mb. Froyo allows you to save and run an apps from the microsd card, however, the app developer needs to put in support for this into the app.

My HTC Desire as a phone is more than adequate. It drops calls but i think that is more a function of the network, depending on where I am.

Having given you a brief taster of the phones now you need to decide which one is right for you. I think you need to consider the following matters:

1. What is your technical ability when it comes to gadgets and phones in particular? If you are someone who wants something, that is easy to use and up and running quickly and you are not really comfortable, with messing around with software and figuring out workarounds, then the iphone is for you. The iphone has a great user experience. Having said that, don’t be afraid of buying an Android phone. There is a great community out there, most of whom will be only too ready to help you. For Free!
2. Are you someone who wants to customise every bit of your phone to exactly how you want it? Android phones are for you.
3. Is cost important to you?  Android phones and price plans tend to be cheaper.
4. What is the network like in the area where you plan to use the phone most of the time?
5. Running out of onboard storage space for apps is a problem on Android phones. However, this is being fixed in Froyo.
6. What do you really want to use your phone for? Social? Work? Mixture of both? Both iphone and Android are good.
7. Are apps important for you?  Apple has 200,000 apps (about 100k are tip calculators. JK). Android has 75,000 (rapidly growing) apps.  About 23% of apps in the Apple store are free as compared to approximately 55% of free apps in the Android marketplace.
8. Currently Android is activating 200,000 phones per day compared to 130,000 iphones per day. That could all change when Verizon announce the iphone in their product line.

Some of the Android phones, you should check out are, the HTC Desire, HTC Legend, HTC Incredible, HTC Evo, HTC Wildfire, Motorola Milestone, Droid and Droid X, Samsung Galaxy and LG.

I hope this helps you make a decision on which phone to get.If there is something I have not covered and you have a specific query feel free to ask.

Before I go let me tell you Windows Phone 7 OS  loaded phones will start hitting the shops from late August onwards. That is really going to set the cat amongst the pigeons.

Mary Mcleod (Conservative MP)

I recently wrote to the above mentioned whom is my local MP. I expressed my concern that the independence of the BBC was not being properly protected by the government. Shortly thereafter I received the following reply:

“Dear Romit

Thank you for your correspondence regarding the BBC.

I am a strong believer in public service broadcasting and believe that the BBC is both a national asset and a strong cultural export. The Government fully supports the BBC and wants it to remain the cornerstone of UK public service broadcasting. I know that my colleague Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, has described the BBC as a ”huge national crown jewel” and is committed to sustaining the BBC’s position as the nation’s standard-setting public service broadcaster.

However, I strongly believe that the BBC can and should be doing more to ensure value for money for the taxpayer. Consequently , the Government will give the National Audit Office (NAO) full access to the BBC’s accounts to ensure transparency. You may be aware that I sit on the Public Accounts Committee which scrutinises the reports prepared by the NAO and as a result, I will certainlty monitor this issue closley.

As Jeremy Hunt has also made clear, the Government will be discussing the furture of the BBC funding with the Corporation in detail during the licence fee settlement and BBC Charter Renewal. One of the issue that needs to be addressed is the lack of transparency surrounding pay for top executives and higly paid stars.

I think that in the long term the BBC’s governance structures need reforming. The Government is not convinced that, in the long term, the current BBC Trust represents the best model. I believe it would be better for there to be a genuinely independent regulator of the BBC that ensures value for money for the licence fee payers.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.

With kind regards,

Mary Mcleod”

Well imagine my surprise when I found that a substantial number of conservative MP’s had provided the exact same response to their constituents. See link attached.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/content/BBC-under-threat/

Well now here is my response.

Dear Mary Macleod,
I wrote recently to you expressing my concern for the independence of the BBC. I received your written reply shortly thereafter for which I thank you. However, I am dismayed to see that your response is almost word for word the same as the response provided by other conservative MPs leading me to believe that this is a “canned response” provided to you by the government or party.
May i respectfully point out that the purpose of me writing to you as a constituent was to hear your views. If I wanted the views of the government i would have contacted them myself. Unless of course the role of MP’s has changed in the recent past, as far as I am aware you were elected to parliament to represent  the views of  your constituents (of whom I am one).
Please do not insult my intelligence by sending me a “standard”  response that you could not even be bothered to compose yourself. If you feel that you do not have the time to communicate your own thoughts to your constituents then perhaps you may wish to reconsider your ability to do the job. You always have the option to resign.
Please could you let me know if I should expect to receive a “standard” reply from you, if I feel strongly about other matters.
Yours sincerely,
Romit Basu

What do you think of my response? Too strong?

Check out this website as well :

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/

well and now here is here response. I cannot be bothered to get into a slanging match.

Dear Romit,

Thank you for your follow up email. Just as you sent a standard email which expresses your feelings and which you agree with, when my views on a matter are the same as my Party I am happy to express them in a similar format.

I answer all emails from my constituents on a daily basis on any subject matter and I also meet with people personally to discuss their queries.

Kind regards

Mary

Mary Macleod MP