iPad?
iFake more likely.
TomTom Car Kit for the iPhone
Oh I don’t know sometimes you wonder if companies realise that you might actually want to buy something… you know pay out money for goods!
Having got an iPhone 3GS and purchased the TomTom Application from the iTunes Store I was looking at ways in which I could mount the iPhone in the car.
The obvious choice appeared to be the TomTom Car Kit for the iPhone.
The TomTom app on your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 3G puts award-winning technology at your fingertips, like IQ Routes which gives you the smartest, most efficient route any time of day. That’s just the beginning. Combine it with the TomTom Car Kit to experience enhanced GPS performance for the ultimate in-car navigation.
- TomTom Car Kit features
- Secure docking
- Enhanced GPS performance
- Clear voice instructions
- Easy charging
- Hands-free calling
- Your music on the move
Now I know that I could buy a £15 generic phone holder from Tesco, however the extra features did seem to make the £99 seem like quite good value for money. Enhanced GPS performance is always welcome, I remember having lots of problems with GPS reception with an Acer PDA running Co-Pilot. Hands-free calling would be useful and the FM transmitter was something I had been considering buying for sometime. As it says
The Car Kit dock is compatible with all iPhone models…
This meant that I could use my main iPod in the car when I wasn’t using the iPhone, and listen to podcasts and music through the radio.
Seemed like a good idea, so where could I buy it from.
I initially checked the Apple Store and was disappointed to see that though it was going to be released on the 5th November, it was going to take 4-6 weeks for shipping, which in Apple speak means seven or eight weeks! So I checked Amazon and was pleased to see that they could ship within 24 hours of release.
Yay!
I placed my order on the 26th October
I waited.
Amazon sent me an e-mail on the 6th November, which said that they now couldn’t deliver on time and also couldn’t give me a revised shipping date.
On the 9th November I got another e-mail from Amazon, cancelling my order…
Hmmm.
Well that didn’t work out did it.
So with a little reluctance I went back to the Apple Store and though it was still saying 4-6 weeks shipping, I placed my order with them on the 13th November. The confirmation e-mail gave me a delivery date of the 28th December! Just over six weeks.
You can imagine my surprise (and a little delight) when on the 20th November, just one week later, I got an e-mail from Apple saying that my order had shipped.
So not 4-6 weeks, under two!
Once I have it, I will let you know how I get on.
Tech Stuff goes mobile
Having upgraded the blog back end you can now view the blog on your iPhone with a built-in mobile theme.
It’s a great theme which works for individual entries too.
Simply go to tech.jamesclay.net on your iPhone or any other mobile device.
So how was this done?
Well with the WPtouch plugin that if you host your own WordPress server can be easily installed.
WPtouch is an entire theme package for your WordPress website. Modeled after Apple’s app store design specs, WPtouch makes your WordPress website load lightning fast on touch mobile devices, show your content beautifully, all while not interfering with your regular theme.
If you have a WordPress.com site this is now built in.
Ordered new iMac
Well after much waiting I have ordered my new iMac.
In the end after much thinking I went for the 27″ model with the…
2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache; Turbo Boost dynamic performance up to 3.46GHz; Hyper-Threading for up to eight virtual cores
I also upped the RAM to 8GB.
I did consider getting the 2TB drive as I do use a lot of storage, however the upgrade was £187 and I know I can get two external drives for that. I current have 4 1TB drives so not too worried (and two of those are empty).
All of which means it should be a lot faster than my current iMac which is a Core 2 Duo and only has 2GB of RAM.
I had considered ordering a Mac mini to use with the iMac, but not sure how the display thingy is going to work, so going to test it with a MacBook Pro first. There is no hurry as Apple won’t deliver it until November… that I am guessing will be the end of November and not the beginning.
I did consider getting a slower one which I could get in three days, but in the end decided that going for the top model means I will feel it will last longer!
At last, new iMacs
Apple today announced a revision to their iMac range.
Coming with 21.5″ and 27″ widescreen LED screens in a 16:9 aspect ration, which is great for HD films, though it’s a pity that there is no Blu Ray drive. If you want HD you are going to need to download HD.
The new iMacs come with a new improved wireless keyboard and the new Wireless Magic Mouse which yay has no scroll ball!
I think my old iMac is about to be replaced…
Vodafone enters UK iPhone market
So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…
Again…
Vodafone has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.
More from BBC News.
Orange gets the iPhone
So O2’s exclusive contract with Apple and the iPhone has come to an end…
BBC News reports:
Orange has reached an agreement to sell Apple’s popular iPhone in the UK.
The deal ends an exclusive arrangement between UK network operator O2 and the Californian phone maker, which has been in place since 2007.
I am not sure that there was much consumer benefit to the exclusive arrangement that O2 had (well has at the moment) however I am equally sure that bringing Orange into the market won’t actually make too much difference to consumers; more likely it will benefit those who can’t get an O2 signal but can get Orange.
Part of the issue has to be the fact that iPhone is in a league of its own when it comes to smartphones, not many other devices match the iPhone in terms of usability, applications and features.
Incredible
Awesome!
Apple Event 090909
Apple will (as is usual at this time of year now) be making an announcement on the 9th September 2009, which is 090909 not that I think that is significant, but it is the date in question!
Anyhow the event is called It’s only rock and roll, but we like it.
Generally at this time of year Apple announce new iPods, for example back in 2007 they announced the iPod touch.
So what can we expect to see? Well the rumours indicate that we will see new iPods with cameras including not just the touch, but all the nano and the classic.
Will we see a Tablet, hmm, I hope so, but I am not expecting too.
Installed Snow Leopard
I have now installed my copy of Snow Leopard. I have installed it onto an external LaCie Poulton 1TB Firewire drive for my iMac.
My current OS is Leopard 10.5 and that is also installed on a (different) LaCie Poulton 1TB Firewire drive. I am using external drives as the internal drive on the iMac was a little too small for me at 250GB – when did 250GB become too small?
So far everything seems okay and Snow Leopard appears a little snappier than 10.5.
My main concern is that EyeTV 2 is not compatible and so I will need to go out and buy EyeTV 3 which means that is not such a cheap upgrade as I would hope.
Adobe CS4 should work fine, and I already have iLife 09 and iWork 09, so no worries there.
Over the next week or so I will be installing various apps to check they work before moving over my data.
The advantage of not upgrading is that I can always fall back on my previous installation if it really doesn’t work out.