02 and their Stupid iPhone Deal

I bought an iPhone 3GS shortly after it was released as it seemed like the perfect phone and in all aspects it was. I bought into the whole deal. A modern phone that had the network to back up it’s abilities. Granted I was annoyed that the BBC iPlayer would only work over wifi. Nokias on other networks can do it, so why couldn’t the iPhone on O2? But all wasn’t lost I could download albums, podcasts etc from iTunes.

Now with the new iPhone4 being released O2 have an offer for existing customers to upgrade. They basically let you pay off your old contract and get a new iPhone4 for £20 per month left on your contract. Great deal right! I thought so but then noticed that you need to start a new contract deal if you do this. With it on most plans you have a restriction on the data.

This fails miserably on so many levels. We will have the most powerful stunning phone on the market but it will be shackled down by stupid restrictions. The iPhone4 will need MORE data than previous models. Reasons are:

• iAds (still looks like AIDS to me) – These will be part of the new iOS4 on the new iPhone4 and will be pulling in huge amounts of data over time.
• HD Video Recorder – We will be doing more recording of video on the new phone since it is one of the main features. Along with this it will be in High Definition so it will be more memory. So uploading these videos to sites such as Youtube will take some data on the bandwidth.
• Face-time – Stupid name I know but this is as far as I know WiFi only at the moment but since other phone have ha video call for about 7 years (without WiFi) I’m pretty sure this will become standard network soon enough.
• MultiTasking – A great new feature of iOS4. So if we want our powerful phones to run Twitter, Facebook, IM+ whilst browsing online and checking emails. This will be constant data use
• Mobile Safari – This browser on a mobile is amazing, none of this cut down crap for websites, it pulls in all the details and webpages. This stuff will take from your data pretty quickly.

There are many many other reasons why data is a big issue. Basically restricting a phone like the iPhone is stupid. If you can’t handle data O2 then don’t stock the phones, instead let companies like Three do it, since they don’t seem to have any problems and they even run Skype.

The Concept of God

When I was young, very young I was a horrible obnoxious kid that apart from the occasional hymn at school didn’t and would not believe in God. Later in my teens I started feeling guilt and remorse for many of my bad choices and actions through my young life and started to wonder what repercussions they would have. Along with this I started to question my existence and reason for being. This was quite a deep time for me and about as deep as I get. I started thinking ‘What if God DOES exist?’

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Going to the gym? …No thanks

I was going to put this as a tweet but it was too long and didn’t make much sense so I thought I would do it as a nano post instead.

Yesterday coming home from work on the tube I was chatting to two dudes from work and one mentioned that he feels bad because he didn’t go to the gym the day before. I then asked how often he went to which he replied that he went around four times a week. I just said afterwards that I have only been to a gym twice in my life. Now it’s their reactions that prompted me to write. They looked completely dumbfounded like i said I eat lard fried in batter for breakfast, lunch and dinner with a fat blob of mayonaise for good measure on those ‘special’ occasions. One Diderot however say that in a gym you can see you stats and progress. Well I can feel my progress by how much better I feel and how much more I can do. I also use RunKeeper Pro on my iPhone to keep track of running data so that’s all sorted and I plan to get a heart rate monitor too.
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Run Fat Boy, RUN!

At thirty three years old, I am a man at ‘that’ age. You know ‘that’ age. The one where I still think I can run around, beat the youngsters at football, climb trees and jump out straight into a ninja roll without feeling any aches or pains. Hey, what are aches and pains? Well, I’m there. That horrible crossroads where I have one of two choices. I can either sit on my (soon to be fat) arse insisting I can beat any young whippersnapper at Street Fighter or grab the bull by the horns and put my over cocky words into action.

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The reason for that Mac owner ‘smugness’

I remember back in the day when I used Windows *shudder* (lol sorry) but there was some really crappy times, good one too though. But this post isn’t about that, I’m going to post about the amazing deals that I started getting once I purchased a Mac. I never realised how different the user base is. It just feels like the software developers actually care. The smaller developers that make applications for the Mac are without a doubt amazing. Yes, ok there is some crap, quite a bit in fact but there is a huge amount of quality also.

To put it simply. I work as a designer, mainly creating web sites. Now on Windows some of my favourite applications were Notepad++ Tortoise SVN, Tudumo and the obligatory Adobe products. Whilst apps like Notepad++ and Tortoise SVN are free and superb they don’t exactly look that great. But then again all windows application tend to look like they came straight out of a boardroom meeting filled with boring business men. Not sure why this is the case.

The applications that I mainly use now are Espresso, The Hit List, Versions, Pixelmator, Drawit and the (still) obligatory Adobe products. The first things many will notice is that these would come to a great deal more than the Windows applications. I wouldn’t argue that, they do. But, and this is why I am making this post. The offers and deals out there are AMAZING. Seriously, there are various sites that have a deal every day! Sites such as Maczot and Mac Update Promo as well as other part time ones. Then after that we have the bundles. Where companies like Macheist never fail to blow me away with the sheer wonderment of what’s on offer. Over a couple of years I have managed to get an almost professional software setup with minimal cost. This is something that I would never have been able to do on the Windows platform. So with this you get the feeling of well being, like you have the best tools for the job, oh and it’s quite fun building up to these deals. Just pop along to the Macheist forums and ask what people like most about the ‘heists’. Most times it’s the puzzles, community and challenges more than the freebies that they get and I would have to agree.

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Treat your ideas with Respect

Over the years I have had what I would call a ‘decent amount’ of ideas. Ideas for web sites, some for revenue, some for other reasons. But I have had quite a few and some I would consider to be pretty darn good. So, where are these sites, ideas, magical moments, etc? This is the problem, they are all in text form, notes and sketches all half arsed and filed in whatever and where ever.

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Touch an iPad $1

You know it would work too! lol
Ref: JoyofTech

Follow the Leader

Online especially in you are a web designer (as it is the home of the content after all) there are so many people to learn from and admire. So many in fact that you spend most of your time either trying to learn from every random nugget of writing they make or you just think that you are inferior to their amazing CSS3, HTML, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc etc etc skills.

Whilst learning from these folks can be extremely rewarding, remember the aren’t always the best, or even always right for that matter. The greatest people in their field will love it if you challenge their skills and knowledge. These are people I admire in their field not those that will use their influence and ‘power’ to disprove you and everything you have to say.

I also am starting to notice a sheep and follow the leader type of culture online. This has come about from ‘following’ social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed, Google Buzz. There are too many to even mention. Just the word ‘follow’ is degrading. Why would you follow someone. Also who are the leaders ‘leading’ them???

With all these influences and voices sometimes it’s those up at the top that get heard the most. This type of attitude sadly beats down the less known of folks even if their skills are legendary. Granted with determination that legendary person will be at the top also. This is how it usually works.

It sounds like I am bitter or something, but I’m more just concerned that people are so busy chasing what @Malarkey, @Snookca, @yaili and the like are saying that they aren’t pushing the boundaries themselves. It’s starting to become a sit back and listen environment of people chasing RSS feeds, online lists and Twitter posts instead of turning all that off and DOING something instead. Challenge what these people you admire are doing. Beat them at their own (and your own) game!

~ This is just my current opinion, I could be wrong. Please reply and let your views known thanks

I’m starting to come around to the iPad

At first I was disappointed when I watched the Apple Keynote 2010. Mainly because I wasted an hour and a half to see an inflated iPod Touch. I honestly thought at one point that Steve Jobs had lost the plot. Afterwards though I just got angry. I was expecting more news, news about the iPhone 4.0 release. So, I wasted nearly two hours on the mutterings of a mad man and his loyal cronies going on about something that was ‘magical’ yet stupidly big.

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Amazing Free WordPress Theme

Toronto based freelance designer Nick La of N Design Studios has just recently released anew free WordPress theme based loosely on the iPhones Notepad application.

Demo

Download and Article