Rubénerd Blog :)

Some less than stellar news about Palm is being reported by Kevin Kelleher over at GigaOm.

The latest grim plot twist came last week when Palm reported its fiscal second-quarter earnings. Smartphones sold to consumers fell 4 percent from a year ago, before Palm even debuted the Pre. A costly ad campaign sank gross margins to 25.6 percent from 27.9 percent a quarter earlier.

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Hello Moto! While I love my iPhone to death ever since I got it in 2008 and think it’s the single greatest electronic device I’ve ever owned (I’m serious, it’s had that much of an impact on my life) I’ve been keeping a keen eye on the competition, and this Motorola Milestone is the first to come along that looks really tempting, and circumstances mean I could potentially get my hands on one as soon as month from now!

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No.

This is probably an Optus phone company problem and not an issue with the iTelephone, but on the off chance that I actually got a 3G signal here in Mawson Lakes over these last few days the data connection is so unreliable nothing finishes loading before I’m given an error. Case in point, my Twitter clients routinely return a secure connection failed error, and it took me over 45 minutes to download the latest Into Your Head episode over 2G. The irony was 45 minutes was still faster than 3G because the latter just kept timing out.

I’d call Optus using my iTelephone to complain, but the phone connection is so spotty I keep having dropped calls. I would hate to wait on hold with Optus for 6 hours only to have the call drop when a customer disservice representative finally answers.

So here’s my idea, why not spend the money Stephen Conroy wants earmarked for the Great Australian Firewall to fix Australia’s lousy phone networks? Because the other irony is crappy networks are doing a much better job than his proposed filter at blocking content and communications!

I sense a conspiracy brewing.

It turned out to be another epic saga involving Apple and the denial of an application on the iPhone App Store, then approval, then a hasty revoke. The problem is Apple doesn’t want programming languages and virtual machines for other programming languages running on the iPhone because they claim it would adversely affect the user experience by making the device less secure. Presumably I would think they’re more worried about sidestepping and potentially allowing another competing app store.

After disabling the BASIC interpreter, Apple finally approved a beautifully written and faithful reproduction of a Commodore 64 for sale which I hastily snatched up. I played a few rounds of Jack Attack and was instantly hooked! Today though, Apple has since revoked the app meaning people who didn’t download it yet can’t once again.

While the initial splash screen says BASIC has been disabled, it turns out you can sneakily get to it by enabling the full keyboard at all times, then loading a game and pressing Reset on the Extra keyboard. In Steve Jobs parlance, BOOM, you’re at a Commodore 64 BASIC interpreter!

Presumably the app won’t be allowed back in the store (if ever) until this backdoor way to get to the BASIC interpreter is removed, but it means people like me who were extraordinarily lucky enough to download it before Apple discovered the hidden feature just don’t upgrade if it ever does reappear.

The iPhone User News site has more information about the initial application approval and subsequent workaround and rejection.

One of my tricks when I get second hand computer for myself or when I’m refurbishing for a friend or whatnot is to go to use the Memory Upgrade screen on the Crucial website to check what sort of RAM the hardware can take, what the maximum capacity is and how much the chips would be.

So there I was consulting Crucial.com in Safari on my iTelephone for my new ThinkPad X40 when the screen went completely grey except for the time bar along the top, making it completely unusable. Rotating the screen 90 degrees into landscape mode rotated the time bar but the rest of the screen stayed grey. Returning to the iTelephone home screen then launching Safari made no difference. The only way I could use Safari again was to turn off the phone and start it again!

I might need to employ the help of the iPhoneUserNews iPhone guru to confirm whether or not using the Crucial Memory upgrade screen on their website automatically stuffs up all iPhone browsers, or just regular iPhone 3G browsers, or whether or not I just have a dodgy iPhone.

Rebooting the phone and launching Safari reproduced these results for me. I might contact the Crucial folks once I can confirm other iPhones have problems loading this page and not just mine.

After a gruelling 15 minutes of waiting, my one year old iTelephone 3G’s firmware has been updated to 3.0.1. Firmware sounds like a brand of steel toed work boots.

Neal reports over at iPhoneUserNews.com though that 3.0.1 might not in fact make our iTelephones super duper kryptonite bullet proof at all. Oh bummer.

I absolutely adore my iTelephone for personal and university use, it is such a pleasure to use in it’s own right and compared to every other handset I’ve ever had. I get the feeling though if I were to join the workforce full time tomorrow, I’d probably have to get a Crackberry or something similar for business use because I’d respect my clients enough not to put their contact information and other notes on such a provably insecure device. Here’s hoping Apple gets their act together.

After hearing for years about how blogging was going to revolutionise the way we read and publish information, it seems thesedays most blogs dealing with specific technologies have consolidated into "megasites" run by dozens of people. Nothing wrong with that per se, but it means if most folks want to read about news, reviews and opinions on iPhones for example they hit the same few sites that rehash the same material as each other and that’s it.

With this in mind I present to you my dear reader iPhoneUserNews which if you can’t figure out what it’s about from the title I find your comprehension skills both scary and fascinating at the same time. It’s run and managed by the same Neal behind the IntoYourHead show from the Emerald Isle. At least that’s where he claims to be, he could be posting messages from a base in Antarctica or one of Saturn’s moons for all I know. Apparently he likes frigidly cold climates.

If you’re fed up with reading the same stuff about everybody’s favourite phone from the same few sites (you know the ones of which I speak) you may want to check it out. I was paid off several billion Euros to promote this site, but that shouldn’t in any way put you off anything I wrote here about it. You can also follow along on The Twitters.

Thank you, and good morning. Or whatever time of day it happens to be for you and the internet device upon which you’re reading this. I say that because the time on your internet device may be incorrect and you may assume the time is different. I’m clever aren’t I? Don’t answer that.

Unfortunately one of the problems with essentially living in two different countries is things like bills from phone companies are easy to forget when you’re living in the other place. When I’m in Singapore I have a 3G and data plan with SingTel Mobile, in Australia I have a 3G and data plan with Optus.

Despite technically being an overseas subsidiary of SingTel, Optus couldn’t be more different. To their credit (puns are hilarious!), an Optus account is far easier to apply for than a SingTel account and has much less fine print, but you pay for this initial convenience by having far slower data speeds, spotty 3G reception and a tiny amount of data. Granted Singapore is microscopic compared to the metro area of Adelaide despite having five times as many people, but in Singapore I have full 3G reception everywhere except in lifts. I also have six times the data, for cheaper.

The other thing has to do with late payments of accounts. With SingTel if I’m late they send a series of warning letters and disconnect me, but they’ve always had me reconnected within an hour of my bill payment, even if it’s on a weekend (yes, even Sunday!). With Optus they claim a business day before reconnection takes place, but it’s taken 4 business days each time it’s happened.

I’m not denying for a second it’s entirely my own fault for not paying my bills, but the difference in support and service is huge. Optus needs to get their act together. I’m bullish that they’re capable of it, they just need a nudge. By a huge bull. I’d be scared into changing if a bull came charging at me. Charging… like charging a phone. I’m a genius!

Given I use my iTelephone with these plans, I wonder if Neal from iPhoneUserNews.com has anything to say about this? Wonder if you get a free Guinness and a potato when you sign up for an Irish telco?

Normally I don’t indulge in the writing of posts such as this one, but when I finally got around to reading Paul Thurrott’s initial review of the Zune HD I couldn’t help but notice something worthy of comment. Thurrott is of course the colourful chap who runs the Windows Supersite, co-hosts Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and who has made clear his dislike of that company with the bitten Apple for a logo. Fair enough, we all have our grudges.

In the review in question though, the following passage stood out:

Critics may note that 480 x 272 is a “lower” resolution than that offered by the iPod touch and iPhone (480 x 320), but the Zune HD display is of much higher quality and offers a true 16:9 aspect ratio.

Now don’t get me wrong Mr Thurrott, the HD video output capabilities are just as impressive as the move towards using OLED display technology, but I believe your use of inverted commas around the word “lower” with regard to resolution is misleading, and you made two mathematical errors.

1. The last time I checked, 480×272 is a lower resolution than 480×320. Despite your use of inverted commas suggesting doubt, there is no question about this. The claim that the screen is of a higher quality, even if it had merit, has no bearing on this specific detail whatsoever.

2. I also take to task your odd assertion that the Zune HD "offers a true 16:9 aspect ratio" compared to the iPod touch and iPhone screens. The latter two devices have more pixels than the Zune HD, not less. This means with letterboxing the iPhone and iPod touch offer the same "true 16:9 aspect ratio" with the same number of pixels as the Zune HD. You invited the comparison sir, not me.

As an addendum for my readers here to be interpreted as you wish, the phrase "iPod touch" is used six times in Mr Thurrott’s review.