Who cares? It looks nice though.
Full details here. Summary? Fast 3G, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, touch screen, 3 megapixel camera, GPS, integrated IM, SMS and MMS, accelerometer, Wi-Fi, 8GB on-board storage and Webkit-based web applications. It’s almost certainly going to cost a fair whack of cash, though.
It’s Friday, which means time for another Techradar opinion column. Today’s offering: why Apple and Microsoft’s keynotes sucked.
I love my job.
The nice people at Techradar.com have kindly given me a regular blab slot to talk about tech, and the first one is up: it’s about the powers that will enable the police to install keyloggers and other spyware on people’s PCs without a warrant.
Imagine if the Home Office decided that the best way to fight terrorism was to ban curtains.
“Hang on!” we’d say. “That means Creepy Dave across the road will be able to see me in my underpants!”
The Home Office would nod sagely. “That’s true, but you know who else has curtains? Terrorists! Terrorists and gangsters! So it’s curtains for curtains!”
The Home Office hasn’t banned curtains just yet, but it’s getting closer.
The fact of the matter here is that the best ever version of ‘Hallelujah’ was by Jeff Buckley and the worst ever version of ‘Hallelujah’ is Bono’s. Every other version of ‘Hallelujah’ between now and the end of time will sit somewhere between those two recordings.
As for whichever ‘crusades’ are currently running regarding the Buckley version – apparently there’s one in The Sun – we fail to grasp how any of this is a ‘real victory for real music over Simon Cowell’s plastic pop rubbishzzzzzz’ given that none of it would be happening without The X Factor. “Readers! Let’s really teach Simon Cowell a lesson and show him that he’s powerful enough to get Jeff Buckley in the Christmas Top 5 without lifting a single finger.” “Oh and let’s show that The X Factor is manipulative and not about music by making people buy a song not because they like it but as a token of their dislike for something else.” LOGIC FAIL.
As mentioned previously, Glasgow’s Evening Times is laying off a whole bunch of people because, apparently, they’re no longer needed in today’s multi-platform media world. Looks like they’ve already sacked the subs.
I’ve been playing with WordPress 2.7 for a wee while now, and my first impressions are up on Techradar:
Moving from 2.6 to 2.7 is no mere point upgrade: it’s more like moving from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. For beginners, it’s easier than before; for existing WordPress users it’s more flexible and considerably less annoying.
Mark Mulligan takes a look at HMV’s latest results:
music’s share of total sales is declining sharply and is strongly outweighed by DVD, which itself is now losing share to games and electronics.
… those responsible for in store CD sales are scared of accelerating cannibalization of their dwindling sales by driving people online. It’s too late for those kinds of concerns.
I don’t know anything about this so I thought I’d post the email I’ve just received:
Here at CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow) we are launching a new quarterly publication named 2HB for which we are seeking contributions from writers and artists. The focus will be on short pieces of fiction and also creative critical pieces on the themes of eroticism, sci-fi, philosophical fiction, art as writing and detective fiction.
We are looking for brave writers who are able to step outside the ordinary and command their readers to take note of a new perspective of reality.
If you have any such contacts, please could you direct them to the 2HB page on our website
www.cca-glasgow.com
There they will find directions for submissions as well as details of deadlines and publication dates.
Flickr has updated the excellent m.flickr.com, and you can now view video on your iPhone or iPod Touch. The quality’s superb – the clips play as stand-alone videos, presumably via Quicktime – but for now the changes only apply to videos uploaded in the last day or so. Previously uploaded videos will be “supported at a later date”, Flickr says.