Shiny Things (Zealots Welcome)

This looks most useful! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/B000HWX1J8/ref=dp_otherviews_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&img=2

I hate to say it, but… the iPhone 3GS is a special bit of kit. I still remain to be convinced of Apple’s ability to make computers, but they’re damned good at making portable devices – at least, portable devices that ingenious developers want to make quite superb applications for.

However, I wouldn’t recommend doing what I’ve done and jumping in with O2 on a ?44 a month 2-year contract just before they lose their exclusivity and thus get drawn into an inevitable price war with Vodafone and Orange ;-) So I’d recommend seeing how that all shakes out, if it does so in the next couple of months. Although, even if they’re the cheapest option, DON’T go with Orange. O2 are fine, especially if they’re coerced into bringing their prices down. But if Vodafone make it in any way affordable, then an iPhone + their network will be an unbeatable combination.

> the iPhone 3GS is a special bit of kit

If by ‘special’ you mean ‘oh I’ve got this iPhone and I’m gonna spend 59 minutes of my lunch hour pissing about with various apps that I didn’t pay for on full volume annoying everyone else’ then yes, it is indeed ‘special’. Look! look! it’s a drum machine app!! No wait, you’re tilting it wr…you’re not tilting it enough that way…tap it now…NOW! oh give it here, you’re fucking useless!

I bet there isn’t an app where you can eat someone’s arsehole. There should be.

A far better phone is the HTC G1, better known as the Google Phone. It does everything the iPhone does and far far more, has its own App Store equivalent and is far cheaper. I got it for ?35 a month, that’s with 700 minutes, unlimited texts, unlimited internet and the phone chucked in for free.

And it’s on T-Mobile.

If the G1 had been on ANY other network (well, except Orange), I’d probably have gone for it.

Although I question the phrase “does everything the iPhone does and far far more”. Each do things that the other doesn’t. And while, yes, it does have its own app store equivalent, there are a LOT of brilliant apps on the iPhone that aren’t available for Android. The promise of a few apps in particular was another factor in swaying me towards it.

(Yes, I’m talking about PocketAlan and iTed).

But I’m not suddenly some Apple evangelist, and the thing certainly isn’t without its flaws (it’s got the worst battery life of any portable device I’ve ever owned). But unless Nokia really pull something out of the bag with the N97 (and I was tempted by that, too, but read some pretty poor reviews), then the iPhone and the G1 basically piss all over any other smartphone that’s out there.

Yeah, not as purty though.

Mine is – it’s got a picture of my cat as the wallpaper. And sliding the screen up to reveal the keyboard is a very nice action.

>This seems as good a place as any to mention this: Looking forward to Micro Men (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n5b92) on BBC4 tomorrow night. It stars Alexander Armstrong and Martin Freeman, and I?m sure I saw Peter Davison in the ad as well.

But does it have a very nice action?

Apparently, Apple have a big say when it comes to setting the price of thier devices. Look at the price of the iPod. It’s pretty much the same wherever you go. I think it’ll remain the same with the phones. They’ll all decide not to undercut eachother.

And there was me thinking that price fixing was illegal!!

The G1 has expandable memory – you can stick any size SD card into it.