Author: Daniel Sung
Toshiba TG01 out on Orange in UK
The Toshiba TG01 1GHz Snapdragon handset has appeared on the Orange UK website ahead of next week’s 9th June press conference which is presumably to announce just these kinds of details.
One wonders quite why mobile operators do this? It’s too common, too hard a mistake to actually make to leak the carrier of a handset early and it certainly helps to cover Orange’s blushes over publicly losing the exclusive rights to the Palm Pre to O2.
With any luck, this is just the tonic for the quiet network to get back on par with the bigger players – provided the TG01 turns out to be all it’s cracked up to be. I’m sure it will, provided WinMob doesn’t ruin the show.
TG01 on Orange (via Engadget)
Michael Jackson sells 2.6 million downloads in a week
Michael Jackson has become the first artist to sell over 1 million downloads in a single week obliterating all other acts on the Billboard charts.
A total of 2.6 million tracks by the great man and the Jackson 5 were snapped up in the week ending 28th June and the sadly demised King of Pop cleaned up in the album charts too. The Billboard Comprehenisve Album Chart takes into account both new release and catalogue sales for the week. MJ’s albums occupy the top three slots with Thriller at three, Essential Michael Jackson at two and Number Ones, appropritately enough, at number one.
It’s the first time a catalogue album has beaten a new release to the top spot. Not bad for a dead guy.
(via the Next Web)
DJ Hero priced at a thumping £107.99 in the UK
Activision has set an RRP of a whopping and slightly arbitrary £107.99 for the upcoming release of DJ Hero. The tag for the turntable version of the famous guitar-based series includes the game plus the peripheral controller and sits a whole £38 higher on the shelf than it predecessors.
The move is a lovely bit of understanding given that we’re currently in a recession and, just to let us know that it is entirely personal, the games company is recommending the title be sold in the US for around £30 less. Thanks Activision.
Fortunately, not everyone is sticking to that RRP. HMV will be offering the game for £99 and several online retailers for a little less.
(via Eurogamer)
Is O2 the only place for smartphone users?
O2 has little need to worry about quality of service when they snap up the two hottest smartphones on the market. I’ve been using an iPhone 3GS for a few weeks – it’s review model I’m praying Apple will forget about – and, aside all the minor issues one might have with it, the one real problem is that it’s stuck on O2, unless you’re happy to spend £900.
I found myself asking the question of whether it was worth it; whether I could stomach this very expensive, exquisite handset when the network drops more of my calls than any other I’ve ever used, and that’s the middle of London?
So, I’ll try the Palm Pre before I make up my mind, I think, but yesterday I, and many others, have been stumped with the unofficial news that O2 has won/paid over the odds for exclusive rights to that smartphone too. And the Pre isn’t just any smartphone. For many, it’s the only serious competitor there’s been in the last two years to the iPhone.
It kills me because I’ve still never actually had my hands on one but I’m lead to believe that the screen is just as much a joy as the Jesus Phone and that all its wonderfully usable Palm OS and open sourcery goodness are enough to make any tech nerd weak at the knees.
It’s hard to tell whether the Pre is going to have the same mass market appeal as the iPhone – I suspect it won’t – but the point is that that’s not something O2 is going to have to worry about when throwing money at the problem, money that might better be spent invest in the quality of their network such that people in rural Scotland and Wales can actually get a signal.
Worse still for the consumer is that we’re all now going to get ripped off on the Pre. O2 can’t possibly sell it for any less than the iPhone without causing major waves from Apple HQ and I’m quite surprised that Palm is going to let that stand given that it’s the kind of move that could bury the Pre in the UK. But that’s their choice. Where does it leave us, the UK consumer? Are we still going to have to pick up sticks and trudge on over to O2 to get a serious smartphone?
Well, my first instinct is – no, of course not, but thinking about it, I’m not so sure. The serious smartphones out there, the super smartphones, the top notch devices are the iPhone, the Pre, the HTC Magic, HTC Hero and the Nokia N97. I haven’t included the TG01 or the G1 because the latter has a battery life too poor to be a real option and the former is, as yet, to be announced, let alone have anyone actually touch it.
I’ve had my fingers on four out of that five and, if I’m hearing that the Pre is like the iPhone for UI, then I’m calling it five. The Magic, the Hero and the N97 just don’t compare for touchscreen interfaces. Take my word for it if you haven’t tried them. They just don’t and, for me, that’s the key to enjoying a smartphone. I don’t care how many profound functions it has or just how well it synchronises your Twitter, Facebook and phone book contacts. If it’s a pain in the arse to use, it’s impossible to learn to love it.
That said, the the Magic, Hero and N97 are a lot more responsive than any other touchscreen phone aside O2’s exclusives. They certainly outrank anything I’ve seen from the pseudo-smarts like the LG Viewty and Arena. The trouble is that if you’re really serious about your smartphones, if having a pocket computer is of paramount importance to you, if you want the best, then sadly, it seems like O2 is the only place to be.
I absolutely loathe the business model they’re employing to become the biggest provider in the UK. I have no particular love for their main rivals, Vodafone, but at least you can get a decent signal with them. At least they don’t drop calls by the dozen, at least they don’t charge a premium for their very best handsets and at least they haven’t ripped anyone off on issues like tethering.
There’s an excellent chance I’ll be defecting to O2 in the next few months. I don’t want a good smartphone. I want a great one and I’m prepared to put up with a lousy network for it. All I can hope is that the Digital Britain powers that be start putting some serious pressure on O2 to invest in their infrastructure or that their business model falls in on itself and the other networks get to pick up the pieces as well as the nest of the handsets. Neither are particularly likely but one can dream. Instead, I’ll take solus from jailbreaking whichever handset I opt for, tethering it at my convenience and bleeding O2 of as much free high speed data as I can.
Apple and NVIDIA to split?
Apple and NVIDIA may be parting company so soon after the two teamed up. There seems to have been an issue in the renegotiations of the partnership after overheating materials in MacBooks led to failures of the GeForce 8400M and 8600M GPUs. That meant that Jobs Inc had to extend the warranty of their units to three years and that’s not the kind of thing that makes any manufacturer happy.
Apple has apparently described NVIDIA’s attitude as arrogant and if the two can’t work it out then we could see the latter’s chips disappear from iMacs almost immediately and from the rest of the range within three to four years.
Seems a bit of a shame given the level of NVIDIA’s technology and the way that Apple has carved itself a niche at the graphics end of the market but the Cupertino crew has always prided itself on quality of product and, when the chips are down, there’s little choice in the matter.
(via Electronista)
Five reasons why the Pirate Bay was right to sell up
Two days after the Pirate Bay announced their to-hell-with-the-copyright video service the last thing we were all expecting was for Peter Sunde and Co. to cash in their legendary download service. But they have.
2) Seeders get paid
GGF has realised that they’re going to need something special to win the PB community’s trust and to keep them coming back for more. So they’re prepared to go one better than offering a free service and that’s by actually paying people to host content.
I’ve always slightly begrudged the quite reasonable no leeching policy so at least next time my internet connection drops through the floor and I can’t even search Google without it taking three days to load the page, at least then I’ll know that there’s cash in the bank for my pains.
3) ISP calming
GGF is looking into developing technology to make power-grids of P2P computers taking the load further off ISPs than they already will be doing by decentralising downloads in the first place. I can’t stand the whinging of the ISPs whether it’s about iPlayer or any other service. It’s not our business to look into the future of data usage and charge accordingly but it is theirs and if they’ve made some errors then that’s their problem.
So, if the ISPs problems are eased and their whinging silenced, then I’m a much happier man.
4) Artists get paid
The one slight pang of guilt from file sharing is that the artists don’t get paid. They’re the good guys in all this. We love what they do and they should be rewarded. The good thing now is that GGF will pay for having licensed music and movies on the network, so that’s exaclty what will happen.
We don’t know, as yet, whether that’ll be done on a per download basis or a flat fee but I don’t suppose that matters. Sadly, “artists” getting paid is very often a cloak for the fat cats getting their cream but at least this should shut the whisker lickers up along with the ISPs.
5) The Founders deserve some cash
They’ve created something incredible and fought the good fight balls out for as long as I can remember. You tell me they don’t deserve their pay day.
I appreciate that it’s not the most obvious of buys but, for one of the 100 most visited sites on the web, £4.7 million is not a lot of cash. Why? Well, one reason is because the Founders wanted to sell to the right people and, in my book, that’s enough to leave their reputation clean.
They could do with some revenue to help pay the £2.3m damages for the lost court case and can use the change to start proceedings against Sweden for the violation of human rights.
Conclusions
For all my reasons, all five of them, I’m still slightly gutted they’ve sold up. The Pirate Bay was one of the last outposts of the first age of the web – the age of the user. As much as GGF may have much of its heart in the right place, the idea of a piracy service being 100% legal just doesn’t sit right.
We’ll no longer be able to raise that skull and crossbones high but, more to the point, if it’s not legal, we won’t be able to get all the wonderful hacked, cracked and stacked software before it’s even on official relase. And that was half the fun of it in the first place.
My last thought though, the last chink if light, is about the Video Bay. Is that part of the deal or is it a strategically placed new arena for the founders to take the fight?
SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: Nokia N86 8MP
If you need a need to have more megapixels than anyone else, then I wouldn’t advise buying a Nokia N86 8MP. For a short while, it’s going to be the top cameraphone, along with the Viewty Smart but give it a few months and the Samsung Pixon12 will blow them both out the water.
That said, I doubt the Pixon12 will have as good a lens on it as either of the other two. So, if you’ve got your head firmly fixed on your shoulders, then I suggest you lend an ear as I dole out my verdict on the very best in camera phones form the House of Nokia…
The N86 isn’t going to be for everyone. In fact, it’s probably for a quite a small section of people but those who don’t want or need a touchscreen, who like a good camera on their phone and who want things the Nokia way will be pleased, if slightly underwhelmed with the handset.
If it weren’t for the laggy processor and slight lack of sex appeal, I’d herald it for all. But I can’t. So I won’t. Those on a free upgrade will certainly not be upset.
There’s some deals if you’re happy to go on an 18-month contract with the phone free for around £40 per month. It’s a lot of cash but at least the price plans are generous.
Updated: How much would you pay for an iPhone 3GS?
The iPhone 3GS is a great phone. Even the most hardened of anti-Applers would have to admit it. The latest upgrade may not have been the most dramatic of changes but it’s filled all the gaps that prevented previous incarnations from being a perfect phone.
Now, we all know they’re expensive. Personally, I baulk at the idea of paying for any handset if I’m signing up for an 18-month contract but shelling out for an iPhone seems to be a fact of life. So, if a PAYG 8GB iPhone 3G costs you £342.50, a 16GB 3GS is £440.40 and the 32GB version works out as £538.30; how much do you think it would cost to purchase an official un-hacked, unlocked 32GB iPhone 3GS that’s good to go on any network?
Get a figure in your head. Got it? Ok, now hit the “continue reading” button.
Well, if you said £899.99 then give yourself a big pat on the back. Then think about just how excessive that extra £360 is. That’s £360 for a slight software tweak. On the plus side, it does include delivery.
Thanks to Leon for that spot.
China still surfs free as Green Dam is halted
There were parties in the street late last night in Beijing as Chinese students celebrated the last-minute halt of the Green Dam plan.
The meet up was originally planned to discuss censorship, debate other studenty matters and generally fill in time while the web went down for 24 hours to apply the Chinese government’s much criticised content filter.
The students, in the green protest t-shirts, arrived at the event instead to find an unlikey partial victory over their leaders with the news that the roll out of the project has been pushed back – at least for now. It’s unclear how long it will be before Green Dam does come into action, or if indeed it will be moth balled perminantly, but, at least for now, the students of China have the result they were looking for.
SHINY VIDEO REVIEW: LG Viewty Smart
I’ll make this easy for you. If the camera is the most important feature of a mobile phone for you, then you should probably buy the LG Viewty Smart. Here’s why:
A lot of phones tout their picture taking abilities but the Viewty Smart is one of perhaps three I’ve ever used that’s got anything like the hardware to back that claim up. With its top notch lens, an excellent interface, proper chipset and very impressive sensor, it really does the job. Hours of fun.
Like with all compacts, sometimes it requires a little patience with the auto-focus and there is an inevitable shutter delay but it’s as good as you can get right now. The only two slight complaints I have about the phone are that there’s no lens cover – poxy as they are, this is a piece of glass worth protecting – and that the phone feels a bit too light, almost like it’s going to squirt water at you when you try to make a call.
But, if you like cameraphones, or if you like LG, then look nor further for your next handset. The interface is a little on the meh side and no one’s going to be impressed when you pull it out your pocket but, then, that’s because no one’s going to know what a good piece of kit it is.
Pick it up here for free from £20 per month.
