Monthly Archives: June 2009

Windows XP – the OS that refuses to die

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This one might have slipped by a few folks – I missed it originally – but it seems that XP is set to remain the OS that just wont die

Microsoft announced yesterday that it would contnue to offer the option to downgrade from Vista or Windows 7 (…. though I’m not really sure why anyone would want do that ) for either the first 18 months after Windows 7 is launched or until its first service pack is released

As reported in trustedreivews.com ….. “Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate customers will have the option to downgrade to Windows XP Professional from PCs that ship within 18 months following the general availability of Windows 7 or until the release of a Windows 7 service pack, whichever is sooner, and if a service pack is developed,” confirmed a Microsoft company spokesperson to ComputerWorld.

So, who’s gonna be the first netbook manufacture to ditch XP in favour of Windows 7 and start the funeral procession ? Anyone ?? No ???

The pink paper to fold …

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I wonder how many of my ex colleagues at the FT saw this headline and did a double take.

No its not the Financial Times that’s shutting down its print operations but the gay communities own national newspaper The Pink Paper. Despite the reportedly under exploited gay advertising market, the publication has become the latest victim of the economic downturn and decline in newspaper readership according to the “Old Pinkun”, the FT itself.

Tris Reid-Smith, Pink Paper editor, said the downturn – particularly in recruitment and housing advertising, as well as display adverts – had hit the paper. “We probably didn’t diversify our advertising base enough and we didn’t diversify our income streams away from advertising enough.

The Pink Paper title will remain in its online form

New iPhone – big disappointment

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Am I the only one who was disappointed by Apples iPhone announcement yesterday ??

Look – don’t get me wrong – I really want to love the iPhone. It’s cool, its sexy, its hip – it’s got an app store with some really good stuff but why does it have to be such a crap phone. For months now I’ve been wanting to ditch my old Windows Mobile device but every time I asked whether the iPhone did something the answer was always “no” to even some of the most basic stuff. No cut and paste!!  No sms forwarding !! No MMS!! No video!! No Voice-dial (kind of important for the Bluetooth brigade who want to stay legal when driving)  etc etc  …. Even the lowest cost HTC winmo devices could do that

So I waited with bated breath for the new iPhone announcement. Surely not only would all those deficiencies that Apple lovers happily overlook be rectified but we’d also see a new ground breaking device taking smart phones to the next level and throwing down the gauntlet to Google’s Android upstart.

Well actually no. What we got was the iPhone 3G S (…a sort of iPhone 3G with go faster stripes)

  • something that’s a bit faster than something that went so slowly Apple had to put disclaimers on their TV ads
  • something that has a bit more battery life than something that could barely last a day in average use
  • and loads of so called “new features” like Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS* and a landscape keyboard alongside a new camera (that’s still underpowered compared to market norms),  voice command (yep seen that before), a compass app (woohoo) etc

So no new form factor, no new call handling, no improved screen resolution (it stays at  320 x 480 pixels), no front mounted camera for video calls, no expansion slots or removable battery, no camera flash.

Saying all that, now that it’s the phone it should have been when it was launched, it’s actually quite an attractive proposition ….. until Google put android on some new hardware (the impending Samsung i7500 springs to mind) and slap down a new challenge.

Suddenly the mobile market is getting interesting again…. so what will I buy ?

No Kindle required – Google to sell eBooks

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According to the New York Times, ” Google signaled its intent to introduce a program by that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers…. through Google”.

This was the big news at this years BookExpo convention in New York and seems to have been warmly received by publishers who have been concerned by Amazons pricing and revenue share policies. Google have said that they will leave pricing to the publishers in as much as the publishers will be able to set a list price for a publication, however Google will set the price paid by consumers through the e-Book program.

Now to be fair, we’ve heard this stuff before from Google however Tom Turvey, director of strategic partnerships at Google, used the phrase: “This time we mean it.”

More importantly, this is apparently going to be a device agnostic initiative as Google’s program would allow consumers to read books on any device with Internet access, including mobile phones, rather than being limited to dedicated reading devices like the Amazon Kindle. “We don’t believe that having a silo or a proprietary system is the way that e-books will go,” continued Mr Turvey.

This could get intertesting – watch this space