Z10 vs Galaxy S2 vs iPod 5th Gen

All set to auto settings, auto flash. Same room, as close together as possible. No lighting changes in the room between the pictures..

Which is which?

Can you tell without cheating?

Introducing the iPad NANO!

Nevermind the iPad or the iPad2, forget the 'new iPad' or iPadHD as its been called.. its all about the iPad Nano.

Yes, you read it here first, it slipped under the radar on launch day, but its here and its real.  

Watch the review here.

Thanks to SlurpyJ aka Chris Cohen for this amazing insight into Apple, iPad Nano, and the Applati

A new week, a new start..

But lets take a look back at last week shall we, highlights and outcomes.

First up, the most popular topic searched on my blog last week was..... The great RIM outage of 2011. Affecting millions, infuriating most of them, and getting LOTS of media publicity over the course of the 3 day outage, and a hell of a lot of bad press. It sure was a testing time, and showed a lot of users how dependent they are on their Blackberry devices. With the loss of BBM some felt like a limb had been removed, others felt relieved and thankful for the peace and quiet. I was somewhere in the middle there I think. I wont deny im glad to have it back, but I was shocked at how annoying the notifications of BBM, email, Facebook etc can get when you are doing something else. In reply to the outrage of the outage, RIM have today announced a $100 gift to each subscriber to purchase apps from Blackberry App World, including a lot of their premium apps. Not only this, they are including apps that are for the Blackberry Playbook too, which means my games collection is about to increase somewhat.
So at the end of the day, thank you RIM, thats good compensation, and great customer relations.

Then of course we cant forget the launch of the iPhone 4S. Not the long awaited iPhone 5, but a step towards it. Following the passing of Steve Jobs recently, I think there were great expectations on the company, but most were unlikely to admit disappointment, but rather keep their opinions guarded out of respect. iOS5 was also launched at almost the same time, and that too had its fair share of disappointments. Firstly with users struggling to get it to download, due to the huge demand on the servers, followed by a few having issues with the install itself. Either failing or losing their data during the restore process. Everything is bound to have a glitch along the line, and like Blackberry their time was now. So a bad week for technology no doubt.

At the tail end of the week some of the major cities saw mass protests, like the one I blogged on Sunday, with Occupy London taking over the steps of St Pauls Cathederal, quite clearly inplicated in the financial crisis of course!? From being there it was interesting to monitor Twitter at the same time, and observe the number of bullshit posts from the unwashed claiming they were being kettled, crushed, denied access to food and water or toilet facilities. All of which was un-true. Certainly for the 5 hours I observed it for. Always nice to see both sides of the fence. From my perspective the police were very tolorant of the protesters, treated them fairly and spoke to them with respect. Any advances into the containment were clearly communicated, and done fairly... But then you are never going to get the truth from the 'victims' now are you! it was a great photographic opportunity though.

So what else was there.....

Oh, the F1. Seeing Lewis Hamilton finally coming back to form after so much time below par during the past few races. Coming good during quali, and snatching pole position from the Redbulls sure put a smile on peoples faces. The race... well it didnt go as well as it could have I guess, but second is still respectable against the destructive force that has dominated F1 this season. Meanwhile Lewis remains on an all time low, not being able to put his finger on the cause. All we can do is wish him well, and hope that he returns to form for 2012. Wishing you all the best Lewis. And not forgetting of course the surprising Jenson Button. Underdog for so long, but springing to his full potential with Brawn, Jenson continues to go from strength to strength. With a win last race, and some consistancy, he is also going to be exciting to watch in the McLaren in 2012.

Speaking of motor racing, last night saw a horrific crash at the Indycar in Vegas, with a 15 car collision, resulting in the death of Dan Wheldon, a well respected racer from the lower series in here in the UK, and very popular Indycar racer. Winning the Indy500 twice, he was by all accounts a stunning driver. Leaving behind and wife and children, and a lot of fan. Like the death of others, this was televised life, so a nation watched on as the events unfolded until it was determined he was deceased. Having done this when Senna died, I can say its a gutwrenching experience to know you have just watched a fatal accident.
That said, the the amount of flames and smashed cars, and the speeds of the collisions, it is amazing that so few were injured. The safety standards of Indy are nothing compared to F1, with concrete and mesh as guard rails, and different construction in the cars, the scope for serious injury is high. R.I.P Dan Wheldon

Oh, I guess I had better put something about me here as well, its meant to be about me isnt it!
So last week and this week. Well money matters are pissing me off a little, I really need to get on top of things before they spiral out of control again. Due to coming off benefits, all the 'you owe us' letters are arriving thick and fast now, so they need addressing. Then I also need to ensure I am on top of the other bills hitting the mat. on the other hand my 'mental state' seems pretty stable, and the reduction in Citlopram is working nicely, down from 40mg to 20mg and all is well. Cant wait for the next drop then the ending of the meds.
On the other side of things, I had my ultrasound today, finally after a month of waiting. It was quite a long winded process, far more in depth than I thought it would be. Nothing was said, but lots of screen captures were made and prepared to be sent to my GP, so I await hearing from him to see what the outcome is. I am still getting stabbing and cramping pains there after all this time, but not during yawning now, so I dont know what to think.

I have managed to get myself a cold too this weekend, so an coughing and spluttering everywhere at the moment, trying to focus on my work, and taking all the medication I can to try and keep it from going to my chest. If it gets there then I am pooped for the next month as it lingers for so long if it does. I just need a nice sunny holiday right now I think, that would hit the spot. However if any holiday is on the horizon it is a snow holiday. Speaking of snow I am buying winter clothes and jackets like their is no tomorrow. Maybe my spidey senses can feel an arctic winter coming!
Whilst on the subject of cold weather.... Wales. I am off there at the weekend hopefully to introduce my neice and nephew to my Aunty Joan. Its been way too long since I was last up there, and Joan has never really met either of them, not at speaking age anyway. I just think it is important for them to meet eachother. So there is some knowledge there. Joan can be proud of then next generation of her family, and the kids will get to meet their nanny's sister, and learn more about her up bringing. I want to spend at least a whole day up there so I can show them around a bit, and share some of my favourite places around the area, as well as showing them where mum grew up. At the same time I have borrowed a DSLR from Noel, so I can help Katie explore her interest in photography, and see if she is really interested in following up with it.

Personally I love photography, and it feels great to have a DSLR back in my hands, so its exciting on two levels for me. So we shall see if Katie can be bothered with the set up and experimentation of a DSLR, or prefers the ease of a point and shoot. It should be an exciting weekend for all, I hope at least. Chances are I will stop off in Derby on the way home, saving money on a hotel, seeing Cadell and Archie, and then possibly bringing them to London the next day. We shall see how it turns out. I have to speak to my Aunt's carer to see if Joan will be up for the visit, and everyone will actually be there. At this late stage I hope this is the case.

Right thats enough now I think, I will do another entry when the rest of the things come back to me. Thanks for reading, and feel free to follow me on Twitter @michaelsnasdell

Finally service resumes for Blackberry

As covered thoroughly by the worlds media over the past 24 hours, making the news summary, tech news, and even the on screen BREAKING NEWS ticker, the coverage of the Blackberry outage of the past 3 days has not gone un-noticed. Every opportunity possible has been ceased upon to expose, critique and cast doubt over RIM and its ability to run a stable network for its 70 million users. Of course, without knowing the in's and out's of the issue, or for that matter understanding what the hell a core switch is, it is impossible to judge fairly. The Playstation network was down for over a month when it underwent a cyber attack, so 3 days in some respects is not too bad. However as Lord Sugar pointed out, the Playstation network was for entertainment, RIM is for livelihood and communication.



Naturally companies like Apple have rejoiced at this outage, with the launch of iOS5 rolling out last night, and the iPhone4S going on general release from tomorrow, what better time to be convinced to jump ship than smack bang in the middle of that. I'm sure there are a good few percent of people who have been considering the switch for a while now, so well done to RIM / Blackberry for giving that group of customers the push they needed. That's not to mention the number of large corporations who are currently trialling iPhone as an alternative to their long term favourite the Blackberry. Again, an outage for this period of time to a business is totally unacceptable, and will have caused chaos I am sure.



However, its OK now because the world is returning to normal, becoming a sane place once again, and the trains and buses ring out with the steady flow of BBM messages being received by commuters. For me this morning it was a wake up call, literally. As the service resumed I realised how annoying people BBM'ing you can be, and how often it bing, bing, bings.... Silent is the chosen profile today! Amazing how a few days away from something can change your perspective of things, and make you rethink your approach. I'm not going to BBM any less I'm sure, nor become less dependent on it for my email, and information flow, but i am aware of how much control it has over me at times.



The biggest thing I missed i think was email, and the ability to make entries to this blog. Sitting at the train station with things to say, but no platform to use (so to speak from, no pun intended). Maybe that is it, Blackberry has become my new voice. My chosen way to communicate with the world in all respects. if so, is that such a bad thing I wonder. A wider audience, I can speak at any time and people will 'hear' in their own time. I can be concise, direct, and open about my feelings without having to experience the reaction first hand. So looking at that aspect of things, i am quite happy with this new found voice. Needless to say, i am still very capable at the real spoken word, and am happy and able to vocalise my thoughts and feelings too.



So, how does the Blackberry crowd feel about all this. An outage for 3 days, that's coming on for 1% downtime, which by any hosting or server company is just completely unacceptable, especially for such a large global company with resources all around the world. 70 million+ customers to serve, BIS and BES, high profile customers like Lord Sugar, President Obama, David Cameron, and countless celebrities. This is the age of the Internet, lightening communication (if your device connects!) and word travels fast... But not as fast as rumours, they travel at warp speed, and carry far more clout than a short empty statement from the company itself. And what exactly did we get over those 3 days.... Day 1, a couple of 'oops' Tweets from Blackberry saying there were some issues they were working on. By the end of the day it was tweeted that it was OK now. Day 2, it was all broken again, and again a few words on Twitter saying they thought they had found the problem and service would soon resume. All this time it was only affecting EMEA..



Day 3, this is when it got serious.. North America was now affected, and the shit had hit the fan. High profile business and entertainment names became involved on Twitter. Suddenly The RIM and Blackberry Twitter accounts exploded into activity. The first BIG statement on Twitter from RIM was ironically about a hoax BBM circulating. ironic considering 90% of users had no BBM, yet their priority was suddenly quashing a rumour. Bad show. From that point on the information begun to flow properly, high ranking RIM exec's making statements apologising for the issues, the Blackberry website also sprouted a Service Status page. Today as the service starts to return to normal we are told on Twitter hourly that there is a video statement to be watched on the Blackberry website from the Co-CEO himself. Where was that when the service was down?



So like I say, BBM is now binging away again, and service seems to be going nicely, however I have one problem remaining that has been there for the past 3 days.... My email is not bloody working! Why I hear you ask. Well as the server outage begun I was switching from my 9700 to my new shiny 9900. It appears that for some reason the RIM servers are caught convinced that my 9700 is still in use on my account, so i cannot register my phone on the network. Everything else BIS works, BBM, PUSH apps etc, but it wont let me transfer my email accounts over. All i get is a message saying it is not registered on the wireless network, and if I try via the Blackberry I get a message saying it cannot communicate with the server. *sigh



Not really much more I can say on the matter really, other than its VERY frustrating not having my email right now, and while the outage was unwanted, it has been an eye opener, for many! So many people not realising how much they used the BBM side of things until they didn't have it. While Apple and other device users sneer, it is worth pointing out that NO other provider offers a service similar to BBM, so all the ner ner nerner ner comments about "my phone is working, look at your useless Blackberry" were a little inaccurate, but RIM deserved it all the same.



Right that's me done. Only thing left to say is I hope those having update problems getting to iOS5 get sorted soon, and those who have lost all their data due to corrupt back-ups get sorted soon.



PS, I was shocked when I suggested to Apple fans that I was going to get an iPhone 3GS for a bit of fun, and as a back up, only to be told it was not worth it, was too slow, and no good..... A few weeks ago this was the next best thing to an iPhone4 and still a very worthy handset, now its rubbish.... Go figure.

Are Blackberry just talking rubbish now?

Kinda makes me wonder now. First there were no updates, and no info, now there is just a flow of confusing info.
Fixed, sorted, back log to clear, broken, no fixed, oops spread across the Atlantic. Suddenly it hits the USA and RIM release status updates. However for some of us there is still a VERY poor, if not non existent service.
Three days of no one saying what is up, just saying its a hardware issue, then it fails again, then its just a huge backlog of data the servers have to clear....

Quite frankly its become an international joke now, seeing it on Sky News for me says how bad its become. If its spreading the the USA its not fixed, is it!

The great Blackberry outage.... Day 3

And so it continues, or so it seems..
Late last night RIM / Blackberry issued a statement saying the issue had been found, and was a core switch which had failed, and that they were working on the matter. The failsafe had also failed.
Users should expect slow service until the data backlog was cleared.... However, most woke this morning to very little more than one or two BBM messages that had slipped through, but very little more.

People in the UK are having a range of issues now, from almost full service, to nothing at all. Even big names like Sir Alan Sugar are getting on the action, questioning the information flow from RIM, and the resolution time. It was pointed out by a friend last night that he was pretty sure RIM were not taking their time on purpose, and that they would no doubt have their best people on it. Not forgetting that when the Playstation network went down, it was down for over a month.

It is fair to say that times like this make us all look at our mobile phone usage and dependency, and question has it all gone too far. For me, I am more annoyed at the failure to let me know what was going on, but now I know, I am happier about the matter. Now I am left thinking what impact not having BIS really has on me. Sure I have no BBM, and no email, and browsing is crippled, but my life still works fine, im breathing, and I can still walk. So all is NOT lost. I am however paying for a service I cannot use. So I am left with a simple question.... Do I NEED this service, or while I have the opportunity, do I contact my carrier and arrange an alternative device, contract or even cancel.

I did consider last night ordering an iPhone 3GS, but was subsequently told by Apple fans that it was basically a piece of junk and that I should go for the newer shinier iPhone4 or even the 4S.... So last week it was still a great phone, and this week its crap.... That view alone has quashed the idea of entering the Apple folds, I just cant follow something that is binned so quickly after a new product comes out. To me the Blackberry 9700 is still a very good phone, and I would own another if I needed to, same with the 8520 too. But apparently this does not apply in Apple circles.

So another afternoon of WTF is going on begins, and Blackberry owners will wonder how long until 100% service is restored. Hopefully however we can all look back and remember the great RIM outage of 2011 and respect the technology we all take for granted just a little more.

EMEA wide RIM server outage affects Blackberry users

OK, I will be the first to admit that it has been amusing to see the over the top reactions that some have been posting on forums and Twitter etc. The hatred and anger experienced by some is laughable, but at the same time the BES side of things is somewhat more serious. Losing a whole infrastructure like that in one hit is not good for business on the best of days, and to be honest I would not be surprised if a few people/companies reconsider their loyalties to RIM/Blackberry. It is one thing to have a problem as a service provider for a short period of time, but its something completely different to have a 24 hour EUROPE wide outage, and to say nothing more that a couple of little tweets on Twitter.

Why was it down, how long will it take to restore, what is affected, what action can users take, when it does come back on will there be lag... And so on. A multitude of questions people had, and bombarded their network carriers with, who were sadly as in the dark as the rest of the RIM users. Its somewhat ironic that a company who prides themselves in revolutionising the world of wireless communication failed so badly to in any way communicate what the hell was, and still is going on.

An outage apparently starting at 11am Monday, but my carrier Orange UK was already having issues communicating with the RIM servers on Sunday afternoon, hence why my device swap has been in limbo now for over 36 hours. At this point there were already lag issues, maybe this would have been the right time to contact users to notify them of service issues. I'm sure RIM can do this somehow.

OK so I guess I should show my hand at this point, and say, as pissed off as I am, I still remain 'loyal' to Blackberry at this point, as the device and services are what I am used to using, and as a whole until yesterday was more than happy with. But it raises questions in my head. How the HELL did something like this happen, and why in god's name has it taken so long to get anywhere near to resolving the issue.

Dear RIM, Its a bloody joke! I don't get it. Twitter was working fine yesterday, so fine in fact that 'blackberry', 'rim' and 'BB' have become trend topics. The outage is all over the news, forums are full of anger and upset at this poorly managed outage, yet the official websites say NOTHING about it, not so much as a link to some info if you don't want to splatter your front pages with it. Poor show I say.

The worst part for RIM at this point, is how much of a laughing stock they have become. And speaking of stocks, I wonder if they have been affected by this total failure of service and customer service. Apple will be laughing their socks off at this gift thrown towards them. While the two are not comparable, it has certainly spiced up Apple's argument for which is the superior device. BBM failure just in time for iMessenger to be launched. Free advertising if I ever saw it.

So what now? When will the service be up to 100% again, when will I finally be able to finish my device switch, when will I be able to reply to people who BBM me, that RIM has decided I currently cant contact.

I really hope serious lessons are learned here, and that a repeat of this is impossible, but lets wait and see eh. Will we ever know the real reason for the outage, and reason it could not be restored using back-up servers quickly? All I want is a rough explanation of what happened, how and why..... But I'm not gonna hold my breath for that.

RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011

I thought it only fair to say my peace on the passing of such a motivational and inspirational person.
Set in his ways, but determined for things to change, he had a vision for the future and followed it by any means necessary to achieve his goals and dreams. Often controversial, and always in the media for both good and bad, Steve Jobs is on the short list of the few people in the world who have set themselves a goal early on, and never deviated from their path. Occasionally adding more to his ideas, and raising the bar, Steve Jobs proved determination, and a whole bunch of money earned by previous success could make things happen.

Sadly as all families of cancer victims know, money cannot solve everything, and whilst being one of the wealthiest self made men around, none of his rich gains could cure the cancer which would finally take his life.

He has truly created a legacy that will live on for a long long time, and that's just his reputation. Then there is Apple, the company that has taken the world by storm, and motivated others to up their game, and move in the direction of the demands of the consumer market. Causing frenzy each time they launch a new product (ok maybe not the last one so much), and having the true definition of a loyal fan base. Almost a fanatical fan base in fact, but I guess in business that's not such a bad thing. Moving product is the name of the game here after all.

There is a huge gap in opinion between Apple users and users of other products, a void filled with arguments, and point proving, ego battles and some weird people who are FAR too involved in the companies and products for a mere consumer. But the sane ones in those groups will all agree that Steve Jobs was a key part in Apple, and Apple has at some point been a key part in moving the mobile phone market forwards in directions no one saw coming for a while yet.
That's not to say that others have not taken the ball and moved on with it, but there was definitely a line in the sand drawn by Apple at some point, there is no denying that.

So without taking sides, and without casting a shadow over an already dark day, I will end with R.I.P Steve Jobs.... Millions will miss you for a long time to come.

POTD.... iPad overspend?

Is it even worth buying one... Let alone two... You decide.
Regards
Michael

Sent using BlackBerry®