« February 2006 | Main | April 2006 »
Welcome to the future of Bluetooth headsets. Or at least Motorola thinks so. Had a chance to check out its soon-to-be-launched Miniblue in-ear device earlier this week. It fits right in -- CIA style -- and connects via Bluetooth to a mobile. It picks up your speech partially through the air and partially through the movement of your jaw (have no idea how that works). No price yet, but expect around €100.
Seems the boys in blue are looking for new mobiles. According to a notice posted today on Etenders.gov.ie, they're looking for 2,000 new models plus Sim cards. Wonder which model they'll go for?
It's amazing alright -- for its tardiness. Three weeks ago, I logged two customer service queries -- one call and one e-mail -- with the company about speed problems I was having on my 2MB connection. Today, i received a call from the company, but not about my query. A man told me that he was checking my billing details (address, phone number and the like). When I asked him about my customer service query, he said that "that's another department entirely" and that he "couldn't deal with it". The last time I raised a problem with Irish Broadband, it took them five weeks to respond. I wonder whether this is a common problem.
So I finally got to review Burton’s Motorola MP3 snowboarding jacket. Okay, so it was just for the evening. Well, actually just for a walk around the Mansion House during a Motorola expo, followed by goons with earpieces and revolvers. Okay, so there weren’t any goons or guns, but there was a very cross 5 foot 3 PR lady. Plus a guy from Carphone Warehouse wanting a go. Point is, I finally got to try it out. For those unacquainted with the garment, it’s a fully waterproof, ultra-warm snowboarding jacket with a battery pack, iPod connector, mobile connector, control panel and hood speakers built in. I was using an iPod Nano and the sound was pretty good, though obviously not as good as a proper set of headphones. The control panel, situated on the sleeve, has a waterproof Velcro cover and can be operated through this. Some people may think this is geek overkill but I loved it -- the jacket is actually pretty nice. Matt from Motorola, whose jacket it is, couldn’t say for sure how much it would be. I suggested €500 to €600 (fearing the worst) but he said it will be cheaper than that. I’m betting around the €350 mark. In the US, it sells for between $320 and $500 (there's more than one model, apparently).
It is amazing how many people still use the old Nokia 6310i. It is so popular that shops are scrambling to get refurbished kit. “We can’t get enough of them,” said Eoin Rea of Rea Communications in Bagenalstown, Co Carlow. “There are hundreds of people in our vicinity who still want them as replacement phones.” So much so that Rea ships in refurbished models from Britain and sells them on for between €220 and €250 each. €250 for an ancient, five year old phone? “I have no problem selling them,” said Rea. “There are loads of companies with trucks or cars on the road that invested in those car kits. And the phone itself has a fantastic battery life and can take all sorts of knocks.” It’s a dead cert that Rea’s 6310i loving clientele are male and over 40. And they couldn’t give a hoot about 3G, ringtones or downloads. So could Nokia consider a limited run of the 6310i to fill this obvious lucrative customer demand? Don’t hold your breath -- the operators wouldn’t be best pleased.
There's an interesting follow-up to last week's chat-room libel case in the Media supplement of today's Guardian (you have to register to get in so I'm not bothering to post a web-link). Basically, it asserts (in British law, which we eventually follow) that ISPs don't have to worry about being sued for hosting defamatory material. That is unless the complainant has brought it specifically to the ISP's attention and the ISP hasn't bothered to do anything about it. So it's the person posting the comment that had better watch out. For those unsure about the precise boundaries between fair criticism and defamatory comment, a quick rule of thumb is to apply the comment in a similar context to yourself and, maybe, your own employment.
Art lover and a gun enthusiast? Then the 'Hide A Gun Picture Frame' may be for you. Made to order based on the size of your pistol, it comes in four choices of colours and is "made by disabled veterans". According to the website, "pistols are not included" in the price. €68 not including delivery.
Nokia has an unusual problem these days -- it's too far ahead of the market. Take its latest batch of N-Series phones. They're fairly remarkable in terms of their technology. The most basic one, the N70, has almost as many productivity features as a laptop. Its N91 music phone (illustrated left) holds up to 3,000 songs without a memory card. And its N92 model has is primed for new TV and video services. But how many people want a small laptop phone? And who wants telly on a three inch screen? Up to now, hardly anyone. So when Nokia last year introduced its remarkable N90 camera-phone, with its high-end Carl Zeiss lens, it was effectively binned by the mobile operators. While agreeing it was a breakthrough in cameraphone technology, the big networks decided that punters wouldn't appreciate the difference between it and a cheaper 1 or 2 megapixel phone from Korea. So they didn't subsidise it. Bye bye N90. And the same could well happen to its N91 music phone. Technically, this is the best MP3 phone to come on the market. It holds up to 3,000 songs and is easy to use. But it has a couple of significant problems. First, it's a little big for a mobile. This automatically rules its out for most women. Second, it doesn't work easily with iTunes, frustrating three quarters of music downloaders. Lastly, you can't download songs over the air unless it's through one of the operators' portals. Guess how much that costs? Up to €4 per song. Bye bye N91. Besides, why should operators subsidise this when they have existing smaller and cheaper models from Sony Ericsson and Motorola (which take memory cards)? Cheaper phones that already allow them to claim to be hip with the MP3 generation? This is an unfortunate problem that Nokia faces. Over the last two years, it alone has been attempting to push major new mobile technologies (with the exception of push-to-talk). Other manufacturers concentrate largely on design, fashion and, largely, doing what operators tell them (Nokia is having to do this more and more, too). But such is life.
It's to be launched in May in Ireland. The cost will be €450 for the new (required) set-top box plus an extra €15 per month in subscription fees.(Current Sky digital prices are €21.50 to €64.50 per month, depending on the package.) So the basic HD package will be €36.50 per month. Free installation applies.
According to Sky's press release: "Sky One HD, Artsworld HD, National Geographic HD, Discovery HD and Sky Box Office HD (pay-per-view charges apply) will be available to all Sky HD subscribers. To get Sky Sports HD you will need Sky Sports 1 & 2 in your Sky digital package. To get Sky Movies 9 HD you will also need Sky Movies 1 in your package and for Sky Movies 10 HD you will need Sky Movies 2."
Pearl Jam is giving away a DRM-free digital version of its new album to anyone who pre-orders the physical album from its website. The idea is to get people to order from its own site, apparently.
