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: 10 Feb 2005 11:20 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Vodafone launch consumer 3G service

Writing about web page http://www.vodafone-i.co.uk/live3g/home.html

Vodafone have launched a consumer 3G service incorporating much of the unsuccesful stuff that 3 have tried (video calling/downloads etc). However they have launched with several handsets sporting greater than 1 megapixel cameras which must be what the use of 3G in the consumer market will actually be used for (swapping larger and better quality pics) as well as the faster data services for web browsing and email that have been available to business 3G users on Vodafone since April.

However 3G service is still patchy to say the least with no service yet in Cov although Leicester and Birmingham have coverage. Still the phones can work OK on 2.5G GPRS services all be it much slower but thats not the point!

: 10 Nov 2004 10:56 |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Fired for blogging!?

Writing about web page http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3974081.stm

BBC news report today of a member of Delta Airways cabin crew has been fired for "inappropriate" content in her blog. This apparently included posting some dodgy pictures. Now I certainly haven't posted any dodgy pictures of myself but like several bloggers I work for the University and it raises an interesting question! Should we be worried? I'm not unless you can be fired for boring blog entries :-)

: 03 Nov 2004 13:10 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Apple do the decent thing

Follow-up to Apple…lovely products but shame about the service from Computer says NO!

OK so Apple have done the decent thing and agreed to replace the iBook with a brand new shiny G4..yea :-) I almost want to take back everything I have said about them just it was such a struggle to get them to do it. Anyway my faith is partially restored in Apple…

: 07 Oct 2004 19:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Apple…lovely products but shame about the service

Some 18 months ago I bought an Apple iBook for my wife as an act of huge generosoity (lol) anyway she loved it and I was jealous of it!

However things started to go wrong within a few months and the beloved iBook started to shown lines down the screen when turned on and within a few weeks just a blank screen. Anwyay Apple agreed to pick it up and repair it which they did and within just over a week total it was back with us working…so far so good. Turned out that like thousands of other laptops it had a "logic board" failure…some sort of design fault.

Then within weeks the screen would only work if you opened the laptop to such an angle that you could barely read it…any further and it was blank again..so off it went back again

A few months later…well you can guess…logic board no 2. Unhappy wife and customer services a nightmare as they want me to perform tests on the laptop which has failed in and identical way to the first time to see whats wrong. Laptops at home, I'm at work so I end up in a three way conversation with customer services and my wife…grr…but they collect and repair it.

It comes back working but battered (having been taken apart 3 times) and getting alarmingly hot at times. We even buy the three year Apple Care policy at a further hundred odd quid because we KNOW it will go wrong again

And it does, dramatically this time. Overheating to such an extent that we can smell burning plastic, nasty. Should be simple really Apple collect and this time agree to repace? Not likely, a ONE HOUR phone call is needed to convince them even to collect it as I don't have the laptop with me to run diagnostic tests….what tests? Do they want to know what colour the smoke is when I turn it on!? The thing is smelling and won't turn on! Eventually another 3 way call, me in Coventry wife at meeting in Ipswich on mobile, customer services in Dublin they agree to take it back…..

Apparently Dell just swap out faulty laptops…they don't look so cute but I thought paying for the iBook was going to be the hard part! Such a shame lovely product but service to cry for…

: 07 Oct 2004 12:21 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Rise of the Machines!

Writing about web page http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/07/satanic_renault/

The day started with a tale of a colleague who had managed to loose the electronic key for his Renault hire car. This looks like a kind of overgrown bank card and certainly in the case of a car I recent test drove you just need the thing somewhere in the car for the vehicle to start (you press a button labelled like the Windows menu "Start")!

Anyway thats pretty uninteresting stuff I admit but it prompted me to click on a much more intersting story above of a man whos Renault car "stuck" at 125mph on a French motorway….police had to be alerted and the man perform crazy overtaking down the hard shoulder.

Basic issue here is the continued mis-use of technology to control rather than enable and faciliate humans! It will all end in tears!

: 07 Oct 2004 12:05 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Start of Term in IT!

Writing about web page http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/09/16/academia_battles/

This article about sums up the challenges and problems of trying to run IT services in a University! The article is written about a US University but I think all the issues seems relevant here, particularly what is said about the start of term…

: 04 Oct 2004 14:59 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem