The Worded Wonders of a Dancing Bear

Apple Insanity

jim — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 19:04:02 +0000

The new iPod Touches have been announced. Pricing is as follows:
8GB – £189
32GB – £249
64GB – £329

Let’s compare with the contract-less iPhone prices shall we?
3GS 8GB – £419
16GB – £499
32GB – £599

So when comparing like for like, at least as far as you can, you’re paying £230 extra for an iPhone 3GS or £350 for the 32GB iPhone. Isn’t that just stupid? Why would anyone do that? Yes, it’s nice to only carry one device with you but for £2-300‽ I blogged about this with the last generation of iPhone/iPod Touch but the price difference is even worse now.

The only other downside, besides the two devices issue, is that the iPod camera is pretty crap sounding compared to the 5MP iPhone camera.

iPad

jim — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 06:40:29 +0000

After a few weeks of use I find I’m barely using my laptop in favour of the iPad. This is somewhat expected but not quite to the current degree. Chloe is also an ardent iPad convert, helped in no small part by her MacBook having a dead battery. In fact I’ve even gone so far as to suggest replacing our current house IT setup (MacBook, MacBook Pro and iPad) with two iPads synced to a Mac Mini next to the TV which would also act as a home media server plugged in to the TV. Budget does not yet allow for this but a man can dream.

I have also jailbroken my iPad, ostensibly for multiasking but I’m also partial to the organisation opportunities afforded by Categories/Folders. Makes it much easier to get to applications without having to swipe across many screens to get there.

So, all that being said, here are my currently recommended iPad apps:

Dropbox – For file transfers and documents
Evernote – For note taking etc.
Reeder – RSS reader
Osfoora HD – Twitter!
Words with Friends HD – Scrabble
IMDB – Easier to navigate on the iPad than the website
Instapaper – For offline article reading
TV Guide
ComicZeal – For reading comics in cbr and cbz formats
BBC News – News!
Angry Birds – Eater of time
The Incident – Fun 8bit style game

New hair

jim — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:23:49 +0000

Posted via email from jaytay’s posterous

iPad

jim — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 11:17:31 +0000

I’m typing this on my shiny new iPad! I finally succumbed to temptation after seeing a good deal on a 32GB WiFi on the notice board at work. So far it’s very nice indeed and I’ve been spending far too much time playing on it. In fact this post has even been typed on it.

Why I’m not getting an iPhone 4

jim — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 19:09:37 +0000

A few people have asked on Twitter and in person why I’m still not interested in Apple’s latest iPhone.

In short:

My N95 8GB of 3 years ago had a 5MP camera with LED flash. The iPhone has only just got there.
You have to pay monthly for the ability to tether your iPhone to a computer and you can’t tether an iPhone to an iPad. If I get an iPad this would be a big deal for me.
The N8 is due out in a couple of months with a 12MP camera, Xenon flash and HDMI out. The iPhone has none of these things.
iOS4 has just introduced multitasking. My old SonyEricsson W810i could multitask. My old N95 could stream Last.fm, run Gravity (a Twitter application), check my email and browse the web all at the same time. The iPhone can’t do that or indeed a few other things.
Nokia provide free sat nav for life on their phones. You have to pay for it on the iPhone.
I don’t like the closed nature of the Apple app store.

There’s a few other reasons but those are the main ones. Unfortunately I feel like Apple are playing catch up in some areas. Yes, their OS is smart and attracts great numbers of developers and thus more applications but the hardware is still falling short for me.

The Lakes

jim — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 19:23:16 +0000

As my randomly posted images may have hinted towards we went to the Lake District last week and now we’re back.

Look, photos!

We did it!

jim — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 12:17:13 +0000

Posted via email from jaytay’s posterous

Olympic

jim — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 08:52:17 +0000

Posted via email from jaytay’s posterous

Why we need electoral reform

jim — Fri, 07 May 2010 16:53:25 +0000

Matter Of Proportion

Originally uploaded by mkandlez.

The fight for the South (of Norwich)

jim — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:59:35 +0000

A propaganda battle is being fought on the doormats of Norwich South. In the 2005 election Norwich South, who historically have always been Labour, voted for Charles Clarke. However things seem a bit closer this time with pushes from the Lib Dems and the Greens to try and oust Clarke (who has also been bombarding us with leaflets).

The Lib Dems say this:

The Greens say this:

So who is right? The Lib Dem figure is from the last result in 2005 and the Green figure is from all the June 2009 local elections. Five years a is a long time in politics and I think the race is much closer than the Lib Dems would have us think however it really could go either way between the two parties.

However, one thing that irks me is this on the Lib Dems leaflet:

Point one is indeed true although I would like to see the context of the quote, it could be said that the Lib Dems came a “rather poor third” too.
The second point is also factually correct although North and South Norwich are different beasts, you as well point to South Norfolk.
The third point is stupid, Norwich South isn’t the Lib Dems best bet either!

Personally I’m hoping for a hung parliament so my main fear for Norwich South is that the votes will be split between the Greens and the Lib Dems so Clarke will get back in again. I don’t think either party has a clear lead at the moment which the only poll available appears to back up:

The poll, commissioned by the Union of UEA Students and conducted by Ipsos MORI, had the other three parties neck-and-neck, with the Conservatives on 20pc and the Liberal Democrats and Greens both on 19pc.

As for the Tories, we’ve had exactly one piece of post from them so far. I don’t think they’re really trying…..