Giles Shaxted » Gadgets

Blackberry promoted applications?

Giles — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:12:04 +0000

So app stores show off featured apps in pretty much every app store I have seen. Blackberry too has featured apps and I have even downloaded apps from seeing them there. But last night something quite invasive happened. My inbox on my blackerry had a message pushed to it from Blackberry appworld. I have never downloaded this app or a related app. Why would blackberry want to push a battery boost app to my attention?
In fact I don’t care why it just annoys me. Don’t do it anymore RIM.

LIME Cayman getting 4G or is it?

Giles — Wed, 18 May 2011 15:25:36 +0000

Lime 4G

Ok it is all BUZZ WORDS .. on their website http://www.lime.com/4G/ They clearly state that it is HSPA+. This is a GSM technology giving us faster 3G speeds known as 3GPP

A change over to true 4G would mean a change from GSM to CDMA. That would be extremely expensive.

The good news is as it is GSM and 3G not CDMA 4G we can keep using our existing phones with SIM cards which is a huge bonus and all us Blackberry users won’t be shut out.

Now even though it isn’t 4G it is still going to be great mobile data speeds. What is needed to go along with this is well priced unlimited data AND if you really want to make us change to iphones or androids we need international and no caps on data. IE Skype video calls from phones etc. For anyone who already has and iphon or android device you may also have noticed that the App Store and App Market does not have everything available to us here that you do in the USA as some apps are sold based on your providers choices. Skype for example is not available.

So whilst this sounds like a great deal off the bat we have to wait and see what will really come out in the wash. For right now I am sticking with blackberry which can also use 3G and has an unlimited international plan as well.

One last issue for LIME to overcome here will be availability. This is a small island, if I don’t see the 3G sign on my phone almost everywhere then what was the point. Sure it will probably roll out to the George Town area first, but then, once they have the throttling under control so that there is enough bandwidth for everyone using it they can begin to roll it out everywhere. Hopefully getting it right as they know how many users they have. They should already have a good idea of data users so this shouldn’t take too long.

Will I be changing fro a Blackberry? Probably, but the data costs need to be right and I would like to see data roaming on the horizon. At the moment Blackberry is the only realistic plan if you need data while travelling and you travel regularly. I don’t mind the phone roaming charges but the data can be a killer. Whilst I love my Android devices I am happy with my tablet only using wifi right now.

Also lets not forget this isn’t the first tim or place we have heard of 4G on this island really.

4G back in January 2011

For those hardened businessmen

Giles — Wed, 04 May 2011 13:39:59 +0000

Yes that is a cat5 network connection outlet conveniently place next to the toilet.Â You know for when you just really have to work and shot at the same time!
This is why it’s better in the Bahamas. Love Nassau!

R.I.P Symbian – it was a good run

Giles — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:43:56 +0000

Like it or not Smart Phones are becoming ubiquitous. They are becoming more affordable and more common place because of that. Sure not everyone uses their smart phones in a very smart way. The majority are still just for phone calls and text messages. But it is cheaper to manufacture very similar devices than have a wide range of cheap and functional devices along with your smart and expensive range.

Nokia Symbian - RIP

Nokia have realised in the race to keep up with software they are loosing out on the hardware race as well, which lets face it is their bread and butter and has been for a long time. Good news is they seem to be acting early. They have announced plans to drop symbian as their smartphone OS of choice. Whilst they plan to use WinPhone7 which may not be everyones first choice, it is probably the best choice for them.

So in this once big business industry where everyone was fighting to even get close to Nokia it looks like Nokia is ducking for cover and digging in for a long battle. Having worked with Nokia on a few projects back in my Satellite Communications Manufacturing days I can say it is a bit of a shame as Nokia used to be innovators and game shakers. Like the project I worked on enabling cell phones to no longer need antennas … when was the last time you saw one of those!

Video of the Microsoft Windows Phone 7 and Nokia partnership announcement after the break.

New Phone Love – Blackberry Torch.

Giles — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 17:06:24 +0000

So I just had to get a new phone I had put up with my trackpad not working on my Blackberry Bold 9700 forfar too long, 4 months or so now. Using quick keys and so forth I got by ok, just was a pain. I ordered spare parts from cnn.cn they came, the keyboard was already broken and the trackpad issue I had did not get fixed with the new hardware, so some connection elsewhere had fried from the salt air etc.

Blackberry Torch

I chose the new Blackberry Torch 9800. I couldn’t be happier, mostly as it is nice to have a phone that works as it should. But it is also the perfect device for me. The Blackberry data plan is decently priced at $35 for unlimited and I can add on $20 a month for international Unlimited. I do enough travelling that that comes in handy and saves me a fortune. I do love the Samsung range of Galaxy devices, I have the Galaxy Tab myself, but their data plans are nonsense $55 a month and its only 2g! (I must also add that LIME does not even have the facility to allow you to roam on 3g when abroad you have to select 2g only, this is probably a charging or agreement issue.) So to ideally use data the way I do on a blackberry I would end up with a very slow Android device. As Eric Cheng points out Blackberry just does that better, and as Cayman residents we are stuck with 2g, unless phones start to utilise mifi ??

Note about the Blackberry Torch, it is a great Blackberry Device and is a great step forward for Blackberry. It does however give you a very mediocre touchscreen experience and the mix of button, keypad and trackpad are not only still necessary but also a little confusing at times.

I feel the need to own a Pop Swatch again

Giles — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 22:40:55 +0000

Pop Swatch

But at $60 – $80 and more it’s not so much retro as it is rip off !

Digital Killed the Kodachrome Kid

Giles — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 02:03:07 +0000

Digital Killed the Kodachrome Kid

I can’t help but think I was a natural part of films death, I have embraced and pushed the benefits of digital even when those benefits were really quite pathetic compared to image quality. It is a crying shame that film had to die due to the world embracing digital. The benefits to the planet are huge, the benefits to the average holiday photographer are huge. I still can’t help but feel that somehow there are less true artists. I find myself in that category as well. I don’t agree it has made it easier for people to buy good equipment and pump out results the same as a professional. I do feel we have a more eyes on look into professionals work. What I mean to say is there are many professional photographers out there in many fields; there always has been. But now we all get to see there work a lot more often, and a lot of it is not good.

I noticed myself getting lazy with my photography, and settling for ok in camera results, and then attempting to improve post processing in photoshop. Whilst I will always endeavor to fix that I all the professionals now easily sharing their images will do. The great flip side to this coin is that there are great amateurs out there sharing their photos which I feel if you look hard enough far outweighs the bad professional images.

Then there is the merging of the two and where amateurs become professional and professionals come across as being amateurs. With all that being said it isn’t to offend anyone as I believe even the worst technical photograph is art and at the very least is a record of a moment, a blip in time for everyone to remember from or share. So while there is no such thing as a bad photo the artistry of photography has definitely changed and rather than each photo being worth a thousand words, maybe the majority are worth a few less now a days.

While writing this some ideas went through my head, originally I missed film and thought to myself I would like to have a film camera and the ability to wait for my images to get processed, or even better to process them myself. However I think the wait would be extremely long now and the chances of having my own dark room is close to non-existent. But oh how good was that smell of chemicals.
Here’s an idea for all you ‘app’ makers out there like instagr.am and hipstamatic for iphone or Vignette or Retro Camera for Android. How about creating a setting where you have to take 24 or 36 images in a row before you see any of them .. lets say .. a day later.

eBook reading

Giles — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 05:33:00 +0000

This morning I took a poll on facebook that lets you select out of 100 how many of a list of books you have read. I can only claim 3 of them. I know about another 40 either from audio books movie or TV, or perhaps not fully reading the book say at school.

Still not something to boast about I decided to prove i do read. My Aldiko shook reader allows me to share what I am reading, so intend to do that from now on. Just another part of my over generous in the sharing dept way of life. J have already finished Sh*t my dad says by Justin Halpern which was hilarious and next it inserted what I am reading now.

Holy blood, Holy Grail – Michael Baigent. You should check out this book. I’ve been reading it on my Android phone using Aldiko. http://www.aldiko.com

So there, you all realise I read, just not necessarily those books others deem important enough for lists. This is my second ebook on my android Samsung Galaxy Tab and couldn’t enjoy reading on it more.

A slice of time anyone ?

Giles — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 19:19:07 +0000

This Time-Slice stuff is just too cool, I could watch it all day long. Put my fave motorsport up as an example, but there are plent of others to check out like this making of a Rip-Curl advert video.

BBC Sport – Formula 1 Pit Stop Special – “Overall” from Time-SliceÂ® Films on Vimeo.

BBC Sport commissioned us to film the Formula 1 pit stop process as illustrated by the Force India F1 Team. The structure of the story to be told was conceived by Martin Brundle, who also provided the narration for each episode. In addition to being charged with the various camera techniques – TimeSliceÂ®, Hi-speed, Liveaction – we were responsible for designing & compositing all the graphical information to accompany them. This control from shoot to post & delivery allowed us to turn out eye catching sequences to a consistently high standard within a very tight schedule. BBC Sport received our work as a kit of parts with which they inter cut archive footage, explaining the various roles within a pit crew & what happens when things go wrong!

Kindle v iPad

Giles — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:14:13 +0000

I am sure there are more of these adverts to come out, very clever kindle, with good marketing and the recent price drop I am sure you will survive a while longer as more and more tablets start hitting the market.

There is plenty the iPad can do that the kindle can’t but there is still plenty to be said for bespoke devices such as ereaders. Lets face it after all .. electronic reading devices are still trying to take on books!