ALT-C 2008

I have received the following e-mail in my inbox.

I am pleased to inform you that your proposal Hood 2.0 – it’s a Web 2.0 World out there, has been accepted for presentation at ALT-C 2008.

Yay.

LG Viewty growing on me…

My T-Mobile LG Viewty is growing on me.

Okay this is no replacement for Apple’s iPhone, but the more I use it and the more I get use to the touch interface, the more I quite like it.

Where I think it is starting to win me over, especially over Nokia phones such as the N73 and the N95 is on text entry input, especially when in landscape mode.

In landscape mode when browsing I have a full QWERTY keyboard which makes typing entries into Twitter or Jaiku so much easier than trying to use T9 on a numerical keyboard.

There are still a few downsides, it still crashes on me for example. I don’t like how to scroll down in webpages – on menus you use the dial on the camera lens, but on the browser the dial on the lens works as a zoom function! The touch interface is nowhere near as good as the iPhone (or the iPod touch) but is still quite nice once you get use to it.

I even managed to upload a photograph to Flickr today, not using Shozu, but the mobile Flickr interface – thought this won’t work if you use Vodafone.

Overall I am growing to like this phone.

iMac revision, will we see Blu-Ray?

This week should see Apple release new versions of the iMac if the rumour sites are to be believed.

I wonder as well as new chips, etc… we will see the first Macs to have Blu-Ray drives?

It was back in 2005 that Apple joined the Blu-Ray consortium. MacWorld at that time said:

Apple did more than just affiliate with a trade group looking to develop and promote a new technology when it announced plans last week to join the Blu-Ray Disc Association’s board of directors. The company also inserted itself right into the middle of a battle over high-definition DVD.

Since joining the association we have not seen a single Mac with a integrated Blu-Ray drive. Third party developers (such as Roxio) have been providing Blu-Ray support for external Blu-Ray drives, however no such Apple drive has been seen.

Of course back in 2005 was the start of the HD format war, which saw HD-DVD lose this war back in February. Blu-Ray had won the format war.

So could now be the time we see Blu-Ray for the first time on the Mac platform?

Of course though Blu-Ray won the war, both Microsoft and Apple seem to be ignoring the physical HD formats and concentrating on the HD download market, with xBox Live and Apple TV.

Slow Flash video on G4 PowerBook

Though it is nice to have fast computers, sometimes now and again you need to use an older model.

However I am finding more and more that my old G4 PowerBook just can’t cope with the new modern internet.

I already know that it isn’ capable of playing HD video like the Apple trailers, but I am also having issues with Flash video as in the BBC iPlayer and video clips on Amazon.

Now I and you both know that video is not the only reason to use the web (though I guess there are a few YouTube addicts out there who may think differently) I do find it frustrating when I am browsing the web and there is a video clip and I can’t watch it as my computer is too old.

Blog back up and running…

The blog is back up and running after my hosting service moved their servers from the UK to Germany!

Apologies for those who were trying to access the blog.

We’re back…

ITV chasing BBC on iTunes Store

Following the BBC, ITV are now putting TV shows on Apple’s iTunes Store.

Finally!

BBC reports

ITV is to make more than 260 hours of archive programmes available for sale on Apple’s iTunes store.

Brideshead Revisited, Cold Feet and puppet show Captain Scarlet are already available for download. Inspector Morse and The Saint are due later this year.

The Saint

I am pleased that both the BBC and ITV are finally selling TV shows in the iTunes Store.

Now all I need them to do, is sell HD versions.

Also would be nice if American shows were also made more widely available.

Use WPA to protect your wireless network.

This video from the BBC’s Real Hustle gives you an idea why you should be using WPA to protect your wireless network.

A gang using easily available software break into a WEP protected wireless network and find out what a surfer has been up to as well as having access to his computer and his internet connection.

Though they have used a fair amount of dramatic licence, what they do (rather than how) is possible.