Thursday, November 06, 2008
Die-phone
My iPhone arrived today - and the honeymoon lasted all of around 5 minutes. It's already on the way back, as T-Mobile and Apple sent me a faulty unit.
How very disappointing. I've only been waiting since July for the order ... because my airtime contract expires in mid-November and I wanted to transfer my cellphone number, I had to wait.
What was wrong? Well, something pretty fundamental since the touch-screen interface simply stops working around 5 seconds after it has been switched on. Turn on, swipe to unlock, and then the screen just doesn't respond. Cycling the power allows a few more taps each time before it freezes again.
The staff in my local T-Mo shop were perplexed - after at first finding it hard to believe. I just handed it over and wondered if their fingers would work better than mine. They didn't. But maybe that's it: My fingers need a software upgrade.
Anyway, the bloody thing doesn't work and has been sent back.
How very disappointing. I've only been waiting since July for the order ... because my airtime contract expires in mid-November and I wanted to transfer my cellphone number, I had to wait.
What was wrong? Well, something pretty fundamental since the touch-screen interface simply stops working around 5 seconds after it has been switched on. Turn on, swipe to unlock, and then the screen just doesn't respond. Cycling the power allows a few more taps each time before it freezes again.
The staff in my local T-Mo shop were perplexed - after at first finding it hard to believe. I just handed it over and wondered if their fingers would work better than mine. They didn't. But maybe that's it: My fingers need a software upgrade.
Anyway, the bloody thing doesn't work and has been sent back.
Labels: iphone
Sunday, January 20, 2008
DLD - a new impression of Martha Stewart
The now-unmissable DLD Conference has opened in Munich, with author Paulo Coehlo wowing the audience and explaining how his quasi-innocent promotion of pirate digital copies of his best-selling novels have helped increase sales - perhaps because people get a taste of his writing and want more ... the same as has happened to many bands thanks to MP3 sharing.
Unfortunately it wasn't the modest Portuguese author of The Alchemist and other stories who was the most hotly-debated speaker of the day but US style icon Martha Stewart. Sadly for Martha, it was because of the way she crashed and burned during her rambling presentation. Worse still is that she probably won't realize - because she has, how can I put this politely? An exaggerated sense of her own self-importance.
In only four years, DLD has grown into a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design: a chance to rub shoulders with an amazing array of inspirational people who have helped change the world in one way or another. The rest of the audience is made up of advertising agency people and venture capitalists. If you are looking for a place to get inspired, DLD is it. If you're looking to talk to VCs, just being at DLD is probably enough to score a follow-up meeting.
However, it looks as if Martha Stewart either was either badly advised, or too important to actually listen to her advisors. Because she began her 45-minute monologue (it was supposed to be an interview, but more of that later) by revealing the contents of her travelling "tech" suitcase.
So far I have yet to work out the reason why, in a room full of laptop- and iPhone-toting attendees, an all American style queen should choose to share such info. I, for one, would have been 100 times more interested to know the contents of her handbag, or to see the names of the last 10 incoming calls on her mobile: an iPhone, of course - but a non-functioning one because her secretary had forgotten to unlock roaming in Germany. Did we all hear that? Martha's no-doubt well-compensated secretary getting a public bollocking.
So out comes a less-than-stylish suitcase which Martha describes as being "overhead locker size" (which I actually doubt, but, Hey! Being! Martha! Stewart! (did you get that? MARTHA bloody STEWART I said!!!!)) probably travels first class everywhere (good for her) and the prospect of her vitriol on a short-flight, let alone a trans-Atlantic, would probably make most flight attendants cower and acquiesce.
And inside the suitcase are ... everyday business items that most people at the conference probably carry. A laptop. (Gasp from the audience). Except that it's tucked into an under-sized Ziploc bag. Very stylish. A honking great top-of-the-range CANON (or maybe Nikon) digital camera ... yeah, you guessed it - in its $0.25c carrying case, another plastic bag. Her iPhone in a shocking pink leather holster, and a BlackBerry, as one phone is never enough. Two phone chargers. A massive camera battery charger the size of a sub-notebook, and ... an Amazon Kindle - but one of the FIRST models (did you note? Early adopter alert!!!) before they even signed licensing deals with the NY Times and various other newspapers. In its exclusive Martha Stewart plastic bag, of course.
After the tiresome dig into her suitcase, Martha then tells the audience (which includes luminaries such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) that she personally uses the internet for many different things, she chats with all of her friends on Facebook (but is really, sincerely SORRY that she has not got time to reply to everyone), she checks her spelling on dictionary.com, and she even buys stuff online.
I really didn't want to knock Martha. But oh boy did she get up my nose with her facile pitch. She probably also annoyed "moderator" Tyler Brule, the editor of Monocle magazine, who was reduced to the role of bystander during the Martha monologue. Finally, after we'd all learned that Martha was very important, he got to ask a few questions - and managed to make those open jaws sag even further by asking Martha, a convicted felon and therefore ineligible for office, which position in the new administration she'd like in the US Presidential elections. This was either completely misjudged, or a deliberate poke at Ms Stewart. I can't even remember her answer but it was a fob-off.
Maybe DLD should be described as "a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design ... and Martha Stewart". Whatever she was smoking, I want a drag. Even Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist would have had trouble in changing Stewart into a credible speaker at DLD today.
Unfortunately it wasn't the modest Portuguese author of The Alchemist and other stories who was the most hotly-debated speaker of the day but US style icon Martha Stewart. Sadly for Martha, it was because of the way she crashed and burned during her rambling presentation. Worse still is that she probably won't realize - because she has, how can I put this politely? An exaggerated sense of her own self-importance.
In only four years, DLD has grown into a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design: a chance to rub shoulders with an amazing array of inspirational people who have helped change the world in one way or another. The rest of the audience is made up of advertising agency people and venture capitalists. If you are looking for a place to get inspired, DLD is it. If you're looking to talk to VCs, just being at DLD is probably enough to score a follow-up meeting.
However, it looks as if Martha Stewart either was either badly advised, or too important to actually listen to her advisors. Because she began her 45-minute monologue (it was supposed to be an interview, but more of that later) by revealing the contents of her travelling "tech" suitcase.
So far I have yet to work out the reason why, in a room full of laptop- and iPhone-toting attendees, an all American style queen should choose to share such info. I, for one, would have been 100 times more interested to know the contents of her handbag, or to see the names of the last 10 incoming calls on her mobile: an iPhone, of course - but a non-functioning one because her secretary had forgotten to unlock roaming in Germany. Did we all hear that? Martha's no-doubt well-compensated secretary getting a public bollocking.
So out comes a less-than-stylish suitcase which Martha describes as being "overhead locker size" (which I actually doubt, but, Hey! Being! Martha! Stewart! (did you get that? MARTHA bloody STEWART I said!!!!)) probably travels first class everywhere (good for her) and the prospect of her vitriol on a short-flight, let alone a trans-Atlantic, would probably make most flight attendants cower and acquiesce.
And inside the suitcase are ... everyday business items that most people at the conference probably carry. A laptop. (Gasp from the audience). Except that it's tucked into an under-sized Ziploc bag. Very stylish. A honking great top-of-the-range CANON (or maybe Nikon) digital camera ... yeah, you guessed it - in its $0.25c carrying case, another plastic bag. Her iPhone in a shocking pink leather holster, and a BlackBerry, as one phone is never enough. Two phone chargers. A massive camera battery charger the size of a sub-notebook, and ... an Amazon Kindle - but one of the FIRST models (did you note? Early adopter alert!!!) before they even signed licensing deals with the NY Times and various other newspapers. In its exclusive Martha Stewart plastic bag, of course.
After the tiresome dig into her suitcase, Martha then tells the audience (which includes luminaries such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) that she personally uses the internet for many different things, she chats with all of her friends on Facebook (but is really, sincerely SORRY that she has not got time to reply to everyone), she checks her spelling on dictionary.com, and she even buys stuff online.
I really didn't want to knock Martha. But oh boy did she get up my nose with her facile pitch. She probably also annoyed "moderator" Tyler Brule, the editor of Monocle magazine, who was reduced to the role of bystander during the Martha monologue. Finally, after we'd all learned that Martha was very important, he got to ask a few questions - and managed to make those open jaws sag even further by asking Martha, a convicted felon and therefore ineligible for office, which position in the new administration she'd like in the US Presidential elections. This was either completely misjudged, or a deliberate poke at Ms Stewart. I can't even remember her answer but it was a fob-off.
Maybe DLD should be described as "a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design ... and Martha Stewart". Whatever she was smoking, I want a drag. Even Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist would have had trouble in changing Stewart into a credible speaker at DLD today.
Friday, November 09, 2007
iPhone Europa
The iPhone has arrived in Europe. As from today, T-Mobile Germany and O2 in the UK are selling iPhone models.
Here in Germany it's possible to pick up an 8GB iPhone on a 24-month contract for EUR 399 - a mere EUR 100 more than the 8GB iPod Touch.
T-Mo monthly contracts start at EUR 49 a month but they do include "unlimited" mobile data. "Unlimited" for the EUR 49/month model means 200MB before you're bumped down to dial-up modem speeds. At the top end 5GB a month is a lot for the mobile internet but so is EUR89 a month.
There are also a nice array of accessories, so you could easily blow through the EUR500 mark on picking up an iPhone today... the Bluetooth headphones look interesting, but they're EUR 119.
Here in Germany it's possible to pick up an 8GB iPhone on a 24-month contract for EUR 399 - a mere EUR 100 more than the 8GB iPod Touch.
T-Mo monthly contracts start at EUR 49 a month but they do include "unlimited" mobile data. "Unlimited" for the EUR 49/month model means 200MB before you're bumped down to dial-up modem speeds. At the top end 5GB a month is a lot for the mobile internet but so is EUR89 a month.
There are also a nice array of accessories, so you could easily blow through the EUR500 mark on picking up an iPhone today... the Bluetooth headphones look interesting, but they're EUR 119.
Monday, October 08, 2007
You know you want an iPhone when ...
So there I was in the theater, sitting towards the back, stage right, and the house lights were up during the interval - the ideal time to pull out my iPhone and send an SMS message to a friend about what we'd do next.
I pull out the phone and twist it round so that the screen's in landscape mode, and start tapping out my message, when the stranger in the seat next to me asks "Hey, is that an iPhone? They're pretty cool, aren't they!"
And then I woke up.
Actually the dream carried on but I'm not even going to try and explain why someone was driving a car up the aisle (and no, I don't remember the make, model or color).
This is perplexing. I didn't know I wanted an iPhone. I was in the US shortly after they launched, and had a little play. It's of course an instant icon although I didn't like the touch-screen too much. iPhone is launching here in major European markets within the next couple of months, so I'd better try and steer clear of the shops for a while...
I pull out the phone and twist it round so that the screen's in landscape mode, and start tapping out my message, when the stranger in the seat next to me asks "Hey, is that an iPhone? They're pretty cool, aren't they!"
And then I woke up.
Actually the dream carried on but I'm not even going to try and explain why someone was driving a car up the aisle (and no, I don't remember the make, model or color).
This is perplexing. I didn't know I wanted an iPhone. I was in the US shortly after they launched, and had a little play. It's of course an instant icon although I didn't like the touch-screen too much. iPhone is launching here in major European markets within the next couple of months, so I'd better try and steer clear of the shops for a while...
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