Month: February 2011

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Connectivity

Today was one of those days when I needed some decent connectivity and I didn’t get it.

I was at lunch in Worcester discussing various iPhone, iPad and Android apps (as you do). However, maybe because of our location and the building we were in, my connectivity to O2 and T-Mobile were very poor. There was still a connection, but not quite what I would expect from 3G and in some cases dropped connections. This meant that the apps were not working as they should or failed to make a connection to their server.

It made me realise that many apps are very web dependent and do not work unless you have a decent connection. Sometimes with a good connection, they work great, but without it the apps are basically useless.

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How much?

Reading the Metro over lunch the other day I was surprised to see that O2 were offering the Samsung Galaxy Tab for £399 which was a lot less than the £599 launch price. The Galaxy Tab was only available from the 1st November and now less than four months later we see £200 off.

Well after posting the advert to Twitter, it would appear that £399 is quite expensive for the Tab now.

HMV have been selling in their stores (and not online) the Galaxy Tab for just £249. That is a considerable saving from the original list price. I was very tempted and nearly called into HMV on the way home. I stopped (well I didn’t actually stop, I kept driving) and thought about it and asked myself two questions.

Firstly, you have an iPad, why do you need another tablet device, especially one that only runs Android 2.2 Froyo and this is not optimised for tablets. Yes I know have an interest in these kinds of devices but though I do quite like the Tab when I played with it in a shop a month or so ago, I really did think when and where was I going to use this where I wouldn’t be using my iPad? In other words no use scenarios came to mind.

Secondly, why was the price dropped by so much in such a short time. I know some will say that the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the main reason.

The new Tab has a bigger iPad sized screen, is more powerful and will be running Android 3.0 Honeycomb which is optimised for tablet devices.

Yes that would certainly be one reason, but is it the right reason.

I have to wonder if the 7” form factor is not selling well? I have to ask is the Tab selling well, anyhow? Generally devices that don’t sell well do often end up with price cuts later. And it hasn’t been that much later has it, less than four months.

So though I was tempted, I don’t think I will be going to HMV and getting myself a Galaxy Tab. If I didn’t have an iPad, I might well have been more tempted and splashed out the cash. As it happens I am probably more likely to save up now and get that Tab 10.1 when it gets to the UK.

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Still no Gingerbread for the Nexus One

It was rumoured this week that the Google Nexus One would finally get the Gingerbread 2.3 Android update…

Alas no.

It was promised to appear in a few weeks, more than a few weeks ago, hence the impatience of many out there.

Still no update and still no firm idea when it is going to happen. Google have said it will happen, but I am starting to have my doubts.

I don’t really want to upgrade to the Nexus S, in the main as the Nexus One is still a really good phone and still does what I need it to do. The other main reason is that an unlocked Nexus S is £430 which is a lot more than the Nexus One was.

Ah well let’s get waiting again…

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iStream?

In the past I have used numerous streaming services such as Qik, Ustream and more recently Justin.tv

One of the (recent) downsides of these free services is that the advertising has enroached so much into the stream, including pre-roll advertising, that as a tool for the informal streaming of conferences and events, it is just not worth the bother.

So you can imagine my interest in the recent Cult of Mac report that in a rumoured possible revamp of MobileMe, Apple are working on a live streaming service along the lines of Ustream.

Now the question is, will this be an advertising supported feature (with iAds) or will it be free of adverts. Remember that Apple have that big server farm, so have the technical capability to deliver a smooth service. Facetime is already with us on the Mac, so in many ways we already have the technology in place. A streaming service would allow you to “Facetime” to lots of people, and not just one person.

Of course this is just a rumour and there are always lots of Apple rumours.

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Live BBC TV on the iPad

Okay so there is one feature of the iPlayer iPad App that “could” make it worth downloading (remember it is free anyhow) and that is it allows you to live stream the BBC channels to your iPad. Now if you do this, you will need a TV Licence. You can watch all the (SD) BBC Freeview channels.

It was also pointed out to me that as the BBC iPlayer App is an App it currently doesn’t support VGA-Out as many other video apps do. You can do VGA-Out with the web version.

Thanks to Carol Walker (@weedog) for these.

Neither the App or the web version of iPlayer support AirPlay which is what you would use to stream content to your Apple TV. Now that would be useful especially as BBC iPlayer is not native on the Apple TV (and in the UK it should be). Of course if we could put Apps on the Apple TV then we could put this BBC App on the Apple TV! Sometimes I wish life was a little easier and simpler.


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iPlayer on my iPad


The BBC have released an App for the iPad for BBC iPlayer. I have now used it a few times and to be honest, it’s just okay. I think it is better than the website version of iPlayer on the iPad and it seems to be a little more stable. A bit easier to go back to a video you have paused for example.

Navigation is slightly different to the website version you get on the iPad, but not much really too different.

This is the iPad App.

This is iPlayer on the iPad browser.

So my next question is why?

Why on earth did the BBC spend time and money on an app for the iPad if it adds virtually nothing to the experience that you get from using the website on the iPad?

So is the content different from what you get on the web on the iPad? As you know from my previous post what you see on the iPad is never the full iPlayer experience, and from what I can see on the App the availability is the same as you get via the web on the iPad, ie less than what you get in a full web browser on your computer.

So can you download content for offline viewing? Like when you are on a train? Something you can do on your computer. Well no, you have to have a decent internet connection to watch BBC iPlayer.

In the end I can’t see what the app adds that viewing on the iPlayer on Safari doesn’t have already, apart from “favourites”. What’s the point of that as most content disappears in under seven days anyway…

Hopefully this is version one.

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Nowhere near my limit

I wrote earlier about how I nearly reached my broadband limit in December. In January what with no snow, no school holidays and a bit of travelling here and there, I was nowhere near my limit. Well under, about 50% of my December traffic.

So back to normal.