Server hiccup
If you can see this, then (hopefully) things are getting back to normal.
A server move was in the offing, but part of it happened sooner than I thought, effectively taking the site offline, and I didn’t have time earlier to fix it. Long story.
Please leave a comment if you see any more weirdness.
By the way, may I recommend FreeDNS if you need to temporarily point a domain to somewhere other than where your usual hosting ISP is pointing it.
How to reject a call on an iPhone
iPhones are so easy to use.
A colleague’s iPhone rings on his desk when he’s elsewhere in a meeting, and the screen lights up to say you slide to answer. Great! But how does one reject the call?
I ask around to my office full of iPhone users.
Nobody knows. Hilarious.
I’m not just wording the question badly. Last week another colleague asked this specific question when he got a call he couldn’t take just at that moment.
On my new Android phone (which has its quirks, but overall I’m enjoying), you slide down to answer, or up to reject. And it makes this clear on the display.
What an office full of iPhone users don’t know, Google will answer:
Yes, there is a way. You press the sleep button. Which is the sleep button? It’s the one at the top of the phone. Press it once to silence the phone, or twice to reject the call.
Seriously Jobs, how hard could it be to actually tell people what they need to do?
(It turns out the owner of the phone in question knows how to do it.)
It reminds me of the beautiful, unscathed design of the PTUA Office iMac… the front is so stylish and unimpeded by buttons that a big PostIt note had to be stuck to it to tell people that the power button is at the back.
Tags: Android, iPhone, mobile phones
18 comments
Steve Jobs: I wish you’d all put your iPads and iPhones away for a minute and pay attention
Tags: Apple, iPad, iPhone, Steve Jobs
7 comments
New phone
Well, I finally got a new phone. In the end I decided to “think different” and not get an iPhone. Instead I’ve got the HTC Desire S, running Android 2.3.
As I figure out how it works, I’m blogging about it over on Geekrant:
http://www.geekrant.org/2011/06/04/new-phone-htc-desire-s/
Suffice to say, still getting used to it after the ol’ Nokia N95, but enjoying it a lot so far.
I need a new phone. Should I get iPhone or Android?
I’m genuinely undecided as to which I should get. What do you think?
Google Forms doesn’t stop you voting more than once. Please don’t. I’ll publish the results in a few days. See below.
Disclaimer: Have your say via a vote or a comment, but I won’t necessarily go with the majority view.
Update 6pm: Here’s what I’m thinking so far…
On the pro-Android side (for instance, the Samsung Galaxy S):
Can write my own apps without having to buy a Mac. (But would I ever get time?)
Good integration into Google/Gmail, which I use a lot.
Hardware is a bit cheaper.
Slightly lighter.
All other things being equal, I’d prefer an open platform to a closed one.
On the pro-iPhone side (thinking about the iPhone 4, prob 16Gb):
More apps?
Tram Tracker and Metlink apps.
Fits into iTunes, which I already have, so I can listen to music on the train easily without carrying another device.
Will kill my desire to want to buy a new iPod.
A bit smaller.
Results (as of 4:40pm, Tuesday 26/4/2011):
Tags: Android, iPhone, mobile phones
30 comments
Facebook, why must you do this?
I don’t understand why Facebook keeps changing my “most recent” news preference to “top news“.
I don’t trust “top news” because it keeps hiding stuff from me that I want to see, and showing me stuff I don’t.
Comments here indicate I’m not alone.
Firefox users can install this plugin to override Facebook’s preference… but really, should one have to resort to that?
Tags: Facebook
6 comments
Time to go shopping
Both my digital camera and my electric shaver are on their last legs, in need of replacement.
I don’t think either has done too badly.
The Canon A70 camera was bought in April 2003, and from memory cost me about $600 at the time. The technology has got better and cheaper, and I expect a replacement (hell yes I’ll get another Canon) will cost about a third of that amount, and certainly won’t require 4 AA batteries to run.
The Philishave 6867 shaver was, as I recall, bought in 2002. From memory it cost a bit under $200. It too has gone the distance, though a couple of years ago the battery started misbehaving, making it necessary to shave while plugged into the mains. Now however one of the heads has broken, so it’s at two-thirds capacity.
Sadly Choice magazine hasn’t reviewed men’s shavers since 2004, but I’d happily buy Philips again.
Also in the land of consumerism, I invested in two bananas yesterday. At $11.98/kg, the two of them cost $4.65. Ouch. Tasty though.
Oh yeah, I also have to buy new shoes. I hate buying shoes.
Tags: bananas, cameras, shavers
9 comments
Almost new phone time
I’m about due for a phone upgrade.
I haven’t made my mind up whether it’ll be iPhone or Android. Some will have very strong views on these. I’ll make up my mind closer to purchase time, but meanwhile there are some other factors I’m considering.
Radio waves
All phones emit radio waves. Some more than others.
The Nokia web site lets you look up different phone models and find out what the SAR (Specific absorption rate) value is. For my last few phones:
- Nokia N95 (Type RM-160) (2009-) 0.72 W/kg
- Nokia 6230i (Type RM-72) (2006-2009) 0.70 W/kg
- Nokia 6100 (Type NPL-2) (2004-2006) 0.60 W/kg
- Nokia 6210 (I think this would have been 2002-2004) — I’m not sure precisely which model variant. 0.75-0.91 W/kg
I’m not clear on why different model variants would vary so much in their output.
According to Wikipedia, the US standard dictates an SAR level of 1.6 or below; the EU standard is 2 or below.
Most other brands seem to have web sites, but CNet has a big list of lots of brands. If you were wondering, most of the recent iPhones have SARs of above 1.0 W/kg, as do many of the other Smartphones from the likes of HTC and Samsung, it appears.
I try not to get paranoid about such things, because it doesn’t seem like there has been a proven link to health problems. But equally, sometimes my ear is hot when I get off the phone, which just seems wrong. It’s probably a good idea to minimise your exposure.
Good reception
The other thing I’m on the lookout for with my next new phone appears trickier: which Android or iPhone earns Telstra’s blue tick for good reception in rural areas? My current Nokia N95 earned the tick, and gets a good signal even in far flung places like M’s parents’ farm, which lesser phones have trouble with.
At present it appears that none of the Android phones have the tick, and neither do the iPhones (though this Whirlpool thread suggests some older HTC models had it).
Tags: Android, iPhone, mobile phones
17 comments
