sinéad's lifestream

I keep on coming across the same Pat Phelan reaction to the iPhone pricing and wondering…

Am I the only one who has ever noticed how expensive ALL of the mobile phone tariffs are (especially the data charges), on ALL of the networks in Ireland, in comparison to the U.K? The phone prices are also very different, and the range of phones.

It’s nothing to do with the iPhone itself, it’s the same old adage in this country it’s “what the market can bare” rather than “best value for money”. O2 keeps its prices high because they can, and people are still going to buy the iPhone despite the download cap and excessive pricing.

As far back as September 2007 I suggested that those desperate for an iPhone would be better off with an iPod Touch instead. The iPod Touch has everything the iPhone has except it’s not a phone (though the iPhone isn’t exactly brilliant at being an actual phone – no MMS messaging, difficult SMS input etc.,) oh and let’s not forget that the iPod Touch doesn’t have that god awful 2 megapixel camera, what a loss.

Buying the iPod Touch is even better advice today because of the Joikuspot Software. Or, you could take Pat Phelan’s advice and go to the North, buy the iPhone and get it unlocked to use on any network. But that means being stuck in an 18-month contract and paying a monthly fee for minutes you will never get (though I doubt this is possible as you need to be a resident of the U.K to sign up to a mobile contract IN the U.K).

Even if you DO have an unlocked iPhone and use it on another network – you will still have to pay the high prices for Edge mobile data, so what’s the point?

Today is another day I breathe a sign of relief that I BACKUP my work. My second USB memory key in the last 6 months has become corrupt. Half of my files either don’t function (if they are media based) or are completely goobildy-gook (if they are text). The first USB key - at least I suspected - had become corrupt due to the plastic housing on the key breaking. Damm you college computers for having USB ports at the exact same height as my KNEES!

The second USB key has become corrupt, but totally out of the blue! That’s what I get for buying cheap (bargain?) memory, from Hong Kong, on eBay. I wonder how long my 2-week-old 2GB of laptop memory is going to last? *cries*

Dad got me to listen to the Right Hook last night as there was a really interesting piece on the so-called “Atom Smasher” the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is scheduled to begin operation in May of this year and will be the largest (27km long) and highest-energy particle accelerator in the world (until completion of an even bigger accelerator proposed – the International Linear Collider (ILC) which will be 40km long). Building bigger and more powerful accelerators seems to be considered the next major step for physics and there are some interesting reasons why.

Particle accelerators literally smash subatomic particles together (hence the name “Atom Smasher”). They do this by taking a particle, such as an electron, speeding it up close to the speed of light and colliding it with an atom, thus allowing for the investigation of the atom’s internal parts. This produces an explosion, which itself mimics the conditions in the moments after the Big Bang, though in a much smaller scale. The more powerful the particle accelerator, the further back in time it can effectively peer (albiet simulated), and the higher the chances are of discovering something new.

Russian mathematical physicists (video, article) are claiming that the secrets of time travel will be revealed by the LHC. Their central hypothesis is that the massive energies created by the subatomic collisions within the LHC could be powerful enough to rip space-time itself, thus creating wormholes. It has been theorised that wormholes not only create shortcuts between two positions in space, but also between two positions in time. This leads us to the secondary hypothesis that the LHC could be the first ever time machine. It is being theorised that 2008 could be “Year Zero”, for time travelers. Einstein suggested that it would only be possible to travel back as far as the first doorway in time. Thus allowing travelers from the future to have access to the past.

Less of this science was actually explained during the Right Hook, but some interesting commentary was made throughout, which brought my Dad and I to a conclusion of our own:

The moment the LHC is turned on someone from the future will go back in time and destroy it.

Time Travel would allow wars to be fought across time, rather than space. It would be too much of a temptation to go back in time and eliminate your opponent. This would be, of course, too chaotic for any society to flourish in. Ultimately the decision would be made to prevent time travel becoming a possibility all together, thus the destruction of the LHC.
Personally, I will only be convinced that time travel is at all possible if the LHC (or the even bigger ILC) explode in a grandiose fashion.

Another possibility is that microscopic black holes will be created within the LHC. Which, unlike time travel, would be NO fun whatsoever.

JoikuSpot is a free piece of software that allows you to share your Nokia Series 60 Internet connection with a wifi enabled device. It basically turns your phone into a wireless router and I think this software has huge potential for use with the iPhone, iTouch, Asus Eee PC and Nintendo DS, especially in Ireland.

For Irish consumers (and Apple Fanboys) hungry for mobile internet through Apple’s mobile version of Safari this could finally makes it a reality. JoikuSpot will, in essence, enable you to make any iPhone or iTouch 3G capable, and a 3G connection as we all know is far superior to Edge, which the iPhone currently supports. Infact, why buy an iPhone at all when an iTouch is cheaper, already available in Ireland and much slimmer in size? Pair your iTouch with a s60 nokia connected to either Vodafone or Three and you’ll have mobile internet at high speed with that wonderful Apple interface, and at a fairly reasonably price.

The only caution to heed is the fact that the wifi connection you create using JoikuSpot is actually an unsecure one, meaning anyone else nearby with an iTouch (or other wifi enabled device) could also connect to the internet. Connecting to 3G and wifi at the same time will also drain your battery down quite quickly, so I wouldn’t expect this to work for more than two hours or so (at least on your handset).

Currently the software is in beta and only supports the higher end N-series and E-series handsets, but I’m sure that will change as newer versions emerge.

Update: Rob wrote about this too – “Joikuspot – Euro iPhone Killer?“

Back in November I wrote that the next gadget that I was going to buy was the Creative Zen, and believe it or not, I did. That’s actually quite unusual for me, as more often than not a total information overload (damm Internet!) usually leaves me undecided for a very long time. At the last minute I almost listened to the little voice that said “What about that cheap iPod? It could double as an external hard drive” even though I don’t need one. I’m glad I didn’t listen because I’m totally in love with my Zen. It’s so perfect for me. Perfect size for watching a few videos now and again, perfect for popping into my pocket to walk down the road listening to some tunes. Perfect for flicking onto the radio to catch a news/traffic bulletin… oh, and the microphone is going to eventually come in handy during lectures (at least that’s the idea). It also has this one shortcut button that you can assign to open any application on the player – mine simply plays all my songs on shuffle, it’s seriously handy. You know what? I can’t imagine an iPod being so versatile… at all. Accessories wise, I bought a case for it but haven’t felt the need to actually use it, because it feels so sturdy in your palm. I also got a pair of Sony headphones (the standard creative ones in the box are seriously low end) and one of those sticky screen protectors so I don’t scratch it whilst it’s bouncing around with my keys and change.

There are some minor drawbacks, however. This IS of course the case with most technology these days (what, you expect it to work out of the box?!) Despite what the sales people drone, even an iPod won’t play your DVDs for you straight out of the box. A number of minor tweaks are required.

Guide to the Creative Zen

The first step with the Zen is to update the firmware for the device. Firmware is a computer program, it’s similar to an operating system (like Windows) and it can be updated in order to have new features added (just like Windows). You can find and download this on the Creative website, or directly from here (links to the European site). All you have to do is make sure your Zen is connected via USB before opening the downloaded file.

The second step is to download and install the newest version of Zen Media Explorer (this is a very handy utility for transferring files to the player), also on the Creative website, or here. Once this is done, your player and transferring files will run smoothly. If you don’t follow these two steps be prepared for the occasional need to reset the player and you might also encounter a few issues with transferring large numbers of files.

So, now you’ve got music… but what about a few videos? Personally, I don’t even bother ripping DVDs, I get all my video goodies online, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still have to convert them. Unfortunately, Zen Media Player doesn’t convert videos very well (just trust me on that one). Thankfully there are many free converters out there. I currently use iRiverter, which you can download here. This will convert videos you’ve downloaded from the Internet, like movie trailers etc., but it will also convert DVDs to play on your Zen.

The reason I’ve chosen to recommend this software is because it is the fastest I’ve tried, but in order to get iRiverter working for you (as the name suggests, it’s not exactly designed with the Zen in mind), you’ll need to download this file (links to anythingbutipod.com, registration is required). The folder where you have installed iRiverter has a subfolder called “profiles”, unzip the file and save it in this subfolder. When you’re using iRiverter make sure that you change the device that you want to convert the DVD for to “iAudio” and then “D2″, the reason we do this is because the settings for the iAudio D2 player are the same as the Creative Zen.

Ripping DVDs is can seem like a daunting task, but all it requires is some patience and you’ll eventually get the hang of it. Depending on the length of your DVD, it can take quite some time to convert and this all depends on how much computer memory you have for the task. If you find it’s taking a long time, don’t sit and wait for it to finish, go be productive elsewhere for 30 minutes. Although, converting video files you already have on your computer takes very little time in comparison.

Thanks to Noel, today I’ve mostly been abusing my data package to access the Internet using installed applications such as Google Maps Mobile (go to this site on your mobile to directly download the app).

Recently Google Local Business Center became open to Irish businesses. There hasn’t been a big uptake so far (I suppose it’s early days) – if my experience of searching random keywords in Google Maps is anything to go by. The maps application on my mobile currently doesn’t seem to support searching for local businesses or “my location” or “highway traffic” (these might be network dependent, I’ll have to get someone to try it out on Vodafone), which is a pity but I’m still planning on making my absolutely-no-sense-of-direction other half install this app. onto her N70.

Even on a small screen Google Maps looks and feels great and is very easy to use. I was surprised that you could use “satellite view” (similar to Google Earth, where you see satellite images rather than a simple map). A really nifty little feature in “directions” is that you can use shortcut buttons to jump from point to point on the route. Overall I’m impressed and looking forward to being able to (hopefully soon) access the local business search, you never know when you’re going to need to know where the nearest pub is.

Congratulations to everyone. I hope you all put your Wii to good use over Christmas.

What was your favourite invention from your childhood? – Kevin Breathnach

What invention would you most like to see in the future – Brian

What is the next gadget you plan to buy? – Monscooch

What was the best invention of 2007? – Poetbloggs

What invention helps you most with your working life – Johnny Keyes

Special thanks go out to Martha Rotter from Microsoft for taking such an interest in my article on Hotmail.

As inspired by the Science Week posts over on Mulley.net

What changes would you make to an existing piece of technology?

I’d love it my Sony Ericsson w850i had a QWERTY keyboard and a slightly larger screen, so I could write longer e-mails and not get frustrated with text message input limitations. Besides, most of the smart phones out there at the moment that have QWERTY keyboards are the size of bloody toasters. (No thank you!)

So… what changes would you make to an existing piece of technology?

Today’s Science Week submission… because I enjoyed writing one yesterday and if I have a chance I’ll do tomorrow’s (Which invention has helped you most with your working life?) and Saturday’s (In your opinion what was the best invention in 2007?) too.

An mp3 player that isn’t an iPod…

Ask anyone about MP3 players and obviously the iPod is perceived as the ubiquitous model. This is the work of incredible marketing on the part of Apple and despite masses of criticism (quick battery death, difficult repairs etc.,) the iPod has managed to outsell its competitors, even when the likes of Creative and Archos seem steps ahead of Apple in terms of quality, durability and innovative thinking. These are some of the reasons that the next gadget I want to buy will be the new Creative Zen.

The Creative Zen is a flash based mp3 player, similar to the iPod Nano, both of which are very different to the iPod Classic model which is a hard drive based player. There are some major differences between flash based players and hard drive based players, it’s not only price and size, durability is the key.

Hard Drive based mp3 players

A hard disk drive (HDD) stores your data on rapidly rotating platters with magnetic surfaces. Picture the internal components of an iPod (or any other hard drive based player) as a small disk, spinning continuously as your songs load and play, quite similar to a CD spinning in a discman. You can even feel the slight vibrations of the disc when holding an iPod in your palm. These moving parts make the iPod quite fragile, especially if you drop the device while it is in use.

Flash Memory based mp3 players

Flash memory is a solid state storage drive (SSD), meaning that everything is electronic rather than mechanical like in a hard drive. This indicates that there are no actual moving parts, making flash based mp3 players more resilient to both dropping and everyday use. It is for this reason that flash based players are favoured by joggers and athletes.

The iPod Touch, Nano and Shuffle are all flash based players and in comparison to their more popular counterpart the price to storage space ratio is far higher. For example the 16gb Nano is €199 and the Classic 80gb is €249. Flash players might be more expensive than hard drive players, but they’ll certainly outlive any hard disk players on the market (this is especially true for iPods, having been criticised heavily for their seemingly built-in obsolesce).

This is where the Creative Zen comes back into consideration. It has an SD memory card slot which gives you unlimited media storage possibilities. The idea being that when your Zen becomes full you simply buy a memory card(s) for it. The latest SD memory cards are available in up to 32GB in size and although these are expensive at the moment, flash memory is following Moore’s law which indicates that the price should continue to drop at an exponential rate as the maximum capacity increases. What I really like about the Zen having an SD card slot is the fact that I already have SD cards from mobile phones and cameras, which I can re-use in the Zen.

The other huge selling point of the Zen is the 2.5inch screen – the same size screen as the iPod Classic but the Zen is a fraction of the size. Its size is comparable to a credit card and is a very slim 0.44-inch thick. Surprisingly though it actually feels very sturdy in the hand. The Zen also plays a wider variety of file types, so no need to convert your entire music collection or to use iTunes, you can even use Windows Media Player or Winamp to manage your music and video files. The Zen can also be used as a dictaphone as it has a built-in microphone and also has an FM Radio (a must for a PhantomFM fan like myself) – these are two features that you must purchase additional accessories for in order to have them on an iPod, accessories that cost over €50 each.

Overall the Zen represents, to me, a better investment than any other kind of mp3 player would, especially an iPod. I’m going to be a very happy music/video lover once I get my paws on one of these.

You can view other entries to today’s question over on Damien Mulley’s blog.

It was an easy prediction for me to make (even back in January) that the iPhone would (eventually) launch in Ireland on the O2 Network. Seeing as the iPhone is launching in the U.K in November exclusively on O2, it’s an even easier prediction to make now. But O2′s data packages are very expensive – ask anyone who ever attempted to use their ill-fated iMode to do anything productive. For instance 25MB of data is currently €19.99! To put this into perspective, 1MB is approximately 20 webpages. Not websites, pages. So much for that “mobile internet device” we’ve been promised.

Speaking of which – I’ve finally hit the 1GB download allowance (a.k.a fair usage policy) on the Three Network. Considering its taken me 6 months to do so, and at only €20 for the privilege, I’m very impressed. 1GB went a very long way – from checking my email every available second using the fantastic Gmail Java Application, to looking up cinema times, browsing Bebo and even the occasional “attempt” at cheating in quizzes. If I was on O2, this would have cost me over €800.

I’m uncertain as to whether my next Internet bundle purchase will last as long, as they are supposed to expire after the allowed 1 month but if my previous experience is anything to go by it should be fine. This is just another fuel to my disappointed over the iPhone being released without 3G capabilities. Not only would have it been cheaper to run (on the Three Network at least), it would have made my mobile browsing a much more enjoyable experience.

Using EDGE technology is slow and O2 are quoted as having only 30% coverage in Europe. In the UK, O2 have attempted to overlook this issue by offering free access to over 7,000 wifi hotspots. I can’t imagine them being able to pull off a similar deal in Ireland – especially when the major wifi hotspot provider is Eircom.

All usability studies show that fast response times are essential for web usability. The lesson from this? If you want Internet on the move that is actually usable rather than frustrating, don’t even bother with an iPhone – it’s a glorified widescreen iPod, overpriced and over-hyped. I’m not slating the device itself, as it does boast a very user centred design. The user interface is beautiful and intuitive. A list of its strengths and weaknesses can be found here. (It does fail to mention the lack of multimedia messaging (MMS) capabilities though). Also check out “Living with the iPhone” over on Infosync.

My advice to you, prospective Irish iPhone buyer – try to get an unlocked one online, choose whatever network you want for voice and txt, then forget about connecting to the Internet unless you’re at home in your own personal wifi network, otherwise this thing will cost you a fortune in monthly voice, text and data from O2. And no, there won’t be any pay-as-you-go iPhone out there.

Or, you could just buy an iPod Touch. It’ll definitely work out cheaper.