Is BlackBerry Giong To Be Here In 2 Years?

One of the most heated discussions I have with friends at the moment is whether or not BlackBerry – or more specifically the parent company RIM – is going to have to drop out of the mobile phone market over the next couple of years. A few years ago if you’d asked with BlackBerrys would be failing so badly you’d be laughed at, but today there seems to be a real concern that the company isn’t able to innovate in the same way that others are.

Take HTC for example. With the HTC Desire they developed a fantastic phone, but they didn’t stop there. They’ve manufactured a range of phones – using both Android and Windows Mobile – to cater for many different tastes and budgets.

The BlackBerry main selling point used to be the full QWERTY keyboard – and there will always be a market for this type of phone. The problem is that RIM focused on this for far too long. It wasn’t until they released the BlackBerry Torch 9810 last year, which has a touchscreen and is available on some great contracts, that the company really began to embrace touchscreen.

Since then they’ve gone on to manufacture a number of other phones with touchscreen, but the fact remains that they are lagging far behind Apple, HTC and Samsung. Fans of BlackBerry will be hoping that they can do something to reverse this trend soon.

If I were in charge of RIM I would think about developing a real flagship phone. Something that can compete with the iPhone and HTC Desire HD. Samsung have done it with the Galaxy S2, so it shows it can be done, and RIM should have the resources to do it soon. Otherwise they risk fading into the background in the same way that Nokia have done in recent times.

November 3, 2011 – 3:01 pm Categories: Tech | Comments Off

Android Rocks – On My New Galaxy Ace!

I thought I would write a quick post about my new phone.

I dont normally take much interest in these things, I am certainly not a gadget fiend, but I have been Sooo impressed with my new Galaxy S and the Android platform I could not help but rant on a little :) .

I guess the reason I am excited by this phone is simply that It is the first true smart phone I have owned, so it has come as something of a revolution. Prior to buying the galaxy I had stuck with BlackBerry for a couple of years, having had BlackBerry curves for a while. I have to say I loved BB at the time, they were great handsets, and as I use email a lot they were invaluable on the move. But, much as I love BB they are weak in one area… APPS!

And that is, in a nutshell why I love android so much. I know the i-phone maybe better in some respects… but it is three times the price of the Galaxy S, and much of it is paid. There are more freebies to be had on the Android platform, particularly if you want to download free music etc direct to your phone (for which there are several apps).

The other big one for me has been the Ebay app, this is worth its weight in gold… literally, or, it would be literal if the app actually weighed anything, but I digress! The Ebay App provided for Android (and probably the iphone) is GREAT, its a no brainer why its valuable… you can place last minute bids from anywhere you have a connection. You can also respond to buyers questions more promptly and so improve your own service as a seller, which of course feeds back into your overall feedback score, valuable for any seller.

There are some other really cool features on Android, google maps integration for one. I never tire of playing with maps, and have not since the release of Google Earth some time back, but to be able to call up street view on your phone… there is just something very cool about that. There is another great app called “Latitude” which allows you to share your location with friends, so you can all see each other as little markers on the map in real time. Very big borther, I have not used it, but for certain things I would. For example team games / outdoor persuits, large events like festivals where its easy to lose people. I can see a lot of people turning this on for their kids too, clandestine activation!

As for the handset itself, its Grreatt! Its very i-phone, in fact, I think Apple are suing Samsung over the design of it as its too close to the i-phone. I like it as its light weight, comfortable and easy to use….. but I am not going ot go into detail on this phone as you can find plenty of info on the site I bought through (mobilephonedeals.me.uk) who actually have a decent review of the Samsung Galaxy S.

You may also be interested in this video review which shows the phone in all its glory!


Fast Tube by Casper

September 30, 2011 – 10:52 am Categories: Tech | Comments Off

Top Three Pets – What Are Yours?

Pets seem to be a hot topic in the news at the moment so I thought I’d write an article about my top three animals. I’m only going to include pets that I’ve personally owned, because they’re the only ones I can really judge. Let me know what you think in the comments section below because it will be interesting to hear what thoughts people have about the various types of pets.

Rabbits

I think rabbits are one of the best home pets for families. Rabbit hutches are quite expensive, but once you have them (plus a run) it becomes very cheap to keep them. The only major expense is potential medical bills, but the same could be said about all kinds of pet.

The one thing to watch out for when buying a rabbit is whether or not they have been handled from birth. Rabbits that haven’t been handled from birth are likely to be much more difficult to train. They may even be more aggressive.

Dogs

Dogs are a relatively obvious choice as they can make great pets. The cost of having a dog is probably a lot higher than rabbits on a day to day basis, but you don’t have the initial cost of a cage. On the other hand, dogs have higher vets bills and eat a lot more food (depending on which type of breed you get). I’ve owned both golden retrievers and border collies, and they both make good pets as long as you’re willing to give them a lot of exercise.

Chinchillas

Not many people keep chinchillas which is probably a good thing! Despite what most pet shops will tell you they are quite difficult animals to keep. They also aren’t great if you want a “cuddly” type of pet as they always want to be moving. With that said, they made my list of the top three because they are very entertaining. They all have their own personalities and make great pets if you’re willing to put in the time and the effort to keep them properly.

August 5, 2011 – 3:28 pm Categories: Home | Comments Off

My House Is Too Hot!

There’s nothing worse than living in a house that’s too hot, so the fact that our house seems to be about twice as hot as outside during the summer months and freezing in the winter makes it an uncomfortable place to live at times! I don’t like the cold but I think the hot is worse – when it’s too cold you can just put on an extra layer, being too hot is unbearable at times.

I’ve thought about installing some sort of air condition system, or at least getting a portable air conditioner for the upstairs (which always seems to be worse), but the cost of doing it makes it a bit unrealistic. Especially as here in the UK we only get very hot days a few times of the year, making it seem like a bit of a waste of money.

One thing that has really helped when I’m working is to use a USB fan. They aren’t that powerful, but provide enough of a breeze to cool you down. I find I work much better when I’m cool so it was worth the money to buy it. If you haven’t tried them yet you can pick up a USB fan for relatively cheap, or you could even try and make one.

I’m going to try buying a digital thermostat and see what the temperature actually gets too in the summer. I have no idea why it gets so hot, but I do know that I need to have several fans placed in strategic places to get the air flow going in order to make it liveable! I don’t really see what I can do to fix the problem, but at least if I get a thermostat I’ll be able to work out when the temperature is bearable and unbearable. Maybe I just need to get some more powerful fans….

June 7, 2011 – 11:53 am Categories: Home | Comments Off

Cash for Phones

The other day I was having a clear out and found no less than 7 old mobile phone handsets! Most had chargers, some had boxes, a rag tag collection of old technology I no longer wanted nor used. The kind of thing I kept “just in case” they ever came in handy.

Admittedly, once or twice having a backup phone was useful, but the longer you keep the things the less useful they become.

Still, I hate waste and did not want to simply throw these old phones away, so I figured I would see if I could sell them.

I could not be bothered selling them privately, so I just tried looking at some recycling companies.

The problem was the prices varied wildly, after a bit of Googling I found a neat website that compares cash for phones deals and offers across a wide range of different companies.

After checking out a few comparisons on that site I found the best price and offloaded all my old handsets.

I did not get much for them to be honest, most were obsolete, but at least I know they went to a good home, and, I now have a junk drawer to refil!

April 24, 2011 – 11:27 am Categories: Shopping, Tech | Comments Off

I Don’t Get Twitter

Does anyone else not really understand the attraction of Twitter? I’ve tried to use it a few times but I’ve never managed to get into it. I understand the attraction of gaining an insight into famous people’s lives, but I don’t see why people would actually tweet themselves (although obviously I’m missing something because a lot of people do).

The problem I have with Twitter is that the posts are much too short to say anything useful. I realise this is also the attraction of the service – you can share thoughts etc without having to write a long essay – but to me the restricted shortness of the posts mean that it isn’t a great way to communicate.

Another problem I have with Twitter is the number of spammers that are there. Twitter don’t seem to be very good at limiting spammers when it comes to making accounts and posting under trending hash tags. Sometimes spam tweets even seem to come up on the homepage. With a service that large it’s no surprise that this is the case, but it’s still something that puts me off.

There are good things about Twitter that even I can understand though. It’s a great tool for businesses to get in contact with the people who buy their products. It’s also a good way to research the kind of people who may be interested in your services. It can be entertaining to follow celebrities as they seem to slip up – especially sportsmen – more than they should.

Even so, I think I’ll be staying away for a while to come as there doesn’t seem to be much there to interest me.

April 3, 2011 – 9:48 am Categories: Social Networking | Comments Off

Should we give up on nuclear power?

The nuclear disaster in Japan has made everyone talk about the safety of nuclear power. This isn’t a bad thing – there are risks to using nuclear power that shouldn’t be ignored and should be factored into every decision that’s made about energy generation.

Even so, I don’t think there should be a knee jerk reaction to stopping all development of nuclear power. After all, the consequences of not looking for alternative energy sources would be far worse for the environment.

Nuclear power is actually relatively safe compared to man other fuel sources. I read a statistic in the news (although I haven’t verified it) that more people have died in the last five years working on wind farms than they have at nuclear power plants.

This isn’t a very fair statistic admittedly as the potential consequences of a nuclear disaster far outweigh the potential problems with wind power, but it’s something to think about anyway.

Part of the problem is probably the many people don’t understand radiation and how it works or what makes it dangerous. Because you can’t see radiation it seems scarier and more dangerous than other potential problems. That doesn’t mean that it’s not dangerous though, as it obviously is.

As long as the companies running nuclear power plants take note of the mistakes made in Japan, as well as what they can do to protect themselves against natural disasters, then I don’t think countries should stop consider nuclear power as a solution to the fossil fuel problems. Nuclear power plants should be safe as long as they are managed properly and proper processes are put into place in order to reduce the risk of human error causing a major disaster.

March 31, 2011 – 1:47 am Categories: Politics | Comments Off

World Cup: Better than expected

The Cricket World Cup 2011 has been surprisingly good. I think when most people saw that the competition was going to take over 6 weeks to finish they thought it was going to be boring, but it’s certainly had its moments. Even so, I’m glad they are reducing the number of associate nations in the next cup.

I think it’s important that associate nations get a chance to develop, and the best way to do so is to play against the best teams in the world. Even so, the world cup shouldn’t contain so many associate nations. Instead, there should be a qualifying tournament before hand so that only the best teams get through. Countries like Kenya were never going to beat any of the big teams, meaning that the games were virtually dead before they began. In Group A the vast majority of games could be predicted before they started which is not good if you want excitement.

Group B showed why it’s still important to have some smaller nations in the competition though. Ireland beating England was probably the highlight of the tournament for smaller nations and proved that they can compete. The Netherlands also did well in certain games. I think it’s almost certain that both these nations would be the ones to progress to the net tournament though, so limiting the associate nations to two entries wouldn’t deprive anyone of the David versus Goliath games that can throw up some interesting results.

As for who’s going to win the tournament, I think Sri Lanka have a good chance although they may struggle in the final when they don’t play at home. India and Pakistan are playing today and it’s probably going to be a great game, but I think India will probably win.

March 30, 2011 – 9:47 am Categories: Sport | Comments Off