Here are a few interesting stats from the latest Eurostat survey on internet security.
Look how low our statitistics are for infected computers, compared to other European countries:
And here are the stats regarding kids' safety on the web ('u' stands for 'unreliable data')...
Full stats here.
Steve Jobs, the corporate world's most important chief executive, has taken medical leave from Apple for the second time in two years.
Today, he circulated this email:
Team,
At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for all of Apple’s day to day operations. I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011.
I love Apple so much and hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
Steve
So that's that, yes? Just leave the man alone and let him get on with whatever is ailing him, right?
Wrong. Apple is the second biggest company in the world. Expecting investors not to enquire as to the nature of Jobs' health concerns is like asking an audience to overlook David Letterman's absence from the David Letterman Show.
Is Jobs out for a month? For 3 months? For good?
Sure, Apple has Tim Cook and Jonathan Ive, but no-one is under any illusions: Apple is the success it is because of Steve Jobs. And him alone.
A counter-argument might be: "why should investors have a right to know? If they're so worried, just sell the stock."
But Jobs uses the press ruthlessly to suit Apple's purposes. So asking it not to enquire as to the cause of his absence of the world's most important chief executive is just nuts.
With the cold weather possibly on the way back, be warned: Apple won't fix your broken iPhone if you use it below zero degrees celsius.
Speaking of smartphones and data allowances, got a Windows 7 phone? If so, better check it's not sending out between 30-50MB per day without you knowing. That's 1GB in 20 days, possibly leading to data bill misery.
Facebook is making its "new" profile layout compulsory, starting today. Hey, if it helps the company's stock price...
Notice an increase in your spam? You're not alone. Spam has rocketed in January, according to experts. And it's mainly down to one Russian botnet, Rustock (responsible for up to 50% of all world spam at its peak).
Nintendo: upcoming 3DS "might be harmful" to kids' eyes but, apparently, "is not dangerous".
My SBP colleague, Dick O'Brien, interviewed Ciaran Crean, co-founder of Mick's Garage. That company is going a bomb.
The first cinema-release movie coming out shot entirely on iPhones. By Oldboy's acclaimed director, Park Chan-Wook, no less.
Know what turns most people off eco-friendly hybrid cars? Their boring looks and design. The new Toyota Prius range, for example.
The first wannabe porn game for Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect. Can't see this one getting released.
Even before any of us have gotten Gingerbread yet, Android has a new mobile OS on the make: 2.4 'Ice Cream'. (Like hurricanes, they name each updated OS alphabetically, it seems.)
Anyone else think Pat Rabbitte bears even a slight resemblance to Angry Birds?
Looking for a 3G wifi broadband plan? It's a byzantine task trying to compare Irish operators' pricing and data plans. So here's a chart comparing Irish operators' (i) prepay wifi dongle plans and (ii) billpay wifi dongle plans.
Mobile operators sell two kinds of mobile broadband devices. One is a stick that slots into your computer's USB port. The other is an oval dongle (see picture above) that generates its own wifi signal. Up to five devices (laptops, iPads, smartphones, desktops) can use it at the same time. This is the one I'm focusing on in this post.
Note: this is aimed mainly at novices and beginners. In other words, where there has been a choice between various 30-day access packages, I've chosen the cheapest one available, based on an assumption that novices are less likely to be power-users. I've added in the higher data options in the fine print section below each table.
(i) PREPAY WIFI DONGLE BROADBAND PLANS
Operator 3 O2 Voda Meteor Emobile
Dongle price: €70 €60 €60 €70* €60
1 day access €5 €4 €3 €3 €3
1 week access €10 -- €10 -- --
1 month access €15 €20 €20 €20 --
Out-of-bundle MB €1 €0.02* €0.19 €0.02* €0.02
(ii) BILLPAY WIFI DONGLE BROADBAND PLANS
Operator 3 O2 Voda Meteor Emobile
Dongle price: €10 €30 €40* €40 €40
1GB €10 -- -- -- --
5GB -- -- -- €17 --
10GB -- -- €20 €20 €20
15GB €20 €20 €25* -- --
20GB -- -- -- €25 --
30GB €26* -- -- -- --
Out-of-bundle MB €0.05 €0.02 €0.02 €0.02 €0.02
* Now here's the fine print (including data caps) on PREPAY plans:
3 Ireland: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 week access up to 2GB. 1 month access up to 1GB. HIgher-priced 1 month packages are also available for up to 20GB (€35). 3 also has a current offer where pre-pay broadband dongle comes with 1GB of free data pre-authorised. However, wifi dongle is currently out of stock. O2: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 5GB. Out-of-bundle charge of 2 cents per megabyte applies until the session is over and then you must take out a new full-price top-up. O2 also offers a "free 24 hour pass" when you initially sign up. O2 also has a special dangle purchase price of €80 with €40 credit. Vodafone: 1 day access up to 500MB. I week access up to 2GB. 1 month access up to 5GB. Add-on data allowances of 500MB (€3), 2GB (€10) and 5GB (€20) are available on prepay plans. Meteor: dongle is €60 if purchased online. 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 7.5GB. Free access to Eircom public wifi hotpots with subscriptions. Meteor's high speed broadband access coverage is limited to large urban areas. Emobile: 1 day access up to 500MB. 1 month access up to 7.5GB.
* And here's the fine print on BILLPAY plans:
3: 30GB tariff of €26.24 is a promotional tariff, ends Feb 28th. O2: purchase price is based on 18 month contract. For 12 month contract, €50 purchase price applies. For 6 month contract, €60 purchase price applies. Vodafone: 15GB (€25) plan also gives higher speed, free modem ('up to' 14.4Mbs download) on 18-month plan. A reduced rate of €17 per month is available to Vodafone bill pay phone customers. Meteor: Prices based on 12-month contracts. For 18-month contact, 20GB product falls to €20 per month. Wifi dongle costs €20 extra if bought with 5GB or 10GB plans. Free access to Eircom public wifi hotpots with subscriptions. Emobile: 12-month contract applies
So which one do I use?
I've used wifi dongles from 3, O2 and Meteor, on and off. Of these, I've found 3's dongle probably to be the fastest and the widest in reach. Meteor gives a great perk in the form of free wifi at Eircom public hotspots, but its own high speed 3.5G coverage is far more limited than its rivals. I only recently started using O2's Hotspot wifi dongle and have found it to be a reasonably decent service.
OTHER ISSUES/QUESTIONS
1. How wifi broadband dongles work with your computer/tablet/smartphone: when you turn the dongle on, it emits a wifi signal (based on the sim card housed within it). You will see the dongle's wifi signature in your device's wifi detector. Simply choose it, enter the given password and you're connected. Up to five devices can access this wifi signal at the same time. The dongles are rechargeable: you will get between 3 and 5 hours use from a single charge, generally.
2. Where do they work? Anywhere that you find a 3G mobile phone signal (which is all urban areas and most towns or large villages). I have used dongles with little problem in remote West Cork (Beara peninsula) and rural Mayo (Erris and Belmullet).
3. Do they suffer form the same constrictions as mobile phone signals? Yes. So for example, they work less well in basements or deep inside a large building (unless there are extra transmitters in the building, such as a shopping centre). So if you normally have difficulty picking up a strong mobile phone signal in your home or your office, you will also have difficulty using one of these devices for your internet access.
4. What speed to they connect at? Generally 'up to' 7.2Mbs (download) and 'up to' 5Mbs (upload). (Some connect 'up to' 14.4Mbs.) In practice, it's about half that speed in urban areas and can be as little as a tenth of the advertised speed.
In general, I've been pretty happy with 3G broadband, mainly because I move about a lot. But it may or may not be the right service for you.
So you got an iPad for Christmas. Nice, isn't it? Now comes the fun bit: looking for apps to use on the tablet.
There are over 300,000 of them out there: everything from spycams (currently the top-selling app) to fertility advice clinics. The App Store's charts will give you a good idea of some quality apps. But here are 8 apps that I've found to be truly excellent at various stages over the last six months.
When you're finished reading through them, why not take a look at my review of 15 quality business apps for the iPad?
1. Google Earth
The iPad was made for Google Earth. And vice versa. No other device shows off the application in as stunning a way. For the novice, it is an amazing thing to see the program zoom in from space to the driveway outside the house you are standing in. The application now incorporates Street View too, a brilliant way of researching other cities.
Price: free
2. Flipboard
Flipboard is a beautiful app that turns website feeds into magazine-style pages. Instead of scrolling, you 'flip' the page. You can customise it to suit whatever content tastes you have (its optional tech feeds include All Things Digital, TechCrunch and Engadget, for example). It'll take a little while to get the hang of customising it and will mainly appeal to frequent iPad users. But it's one of the loveliest, most creative apps out there.
Price: free
3. Angry Birds HD
It is the most successful game on either the iPhone or the iPad in the last 12 months. It's easy to see why: there are no high-octane laser cannons or RPG quests. Just a a few pissed-off birds looking for revenge on some cheeky pigs that have stolen their eggs. They get it by hurling themselves against the pigs' flimsy structures, using a giant catapult. What could be more fun? Very little, it would seem. The iPad version costs more than the iPhone version, but is worth it.
Price: €4
4. Facepad / Friendly
Bizarrely, Facebook has not yet made an app for the iPad. That has left the job of keeping you updated on Facebook to a number of alternative apps. While we've already mentioned Flipboard, either Facepad or Friendly would be the two best options for a standalone Facebook app. The Facepad, which has just launched is the simplest, cleanest-looking app. However, it's not optimised for the iPad's specs, so the screen is a tad blurry. Friendly is very nice app, giving you its own user-interface on your Facebook news, photos and friends.
Price: both free
5. Twitterrific
If you have a Twitter account -- and it seems very many of you do -- you've got to have a Twitter client for your iPad. There are some very nice paid Twitter apps. Osfoora HD has outstanding functionality and used to be a firm favorite of mine. But it kept crashing. And freezing. And crashing again. So it's back to (perfectly usable, efficient) basics with Twitterrific. Whatever you do, don't rely on Twitter's iPad app. It stinks.
Price: free
6. Pages
The iPad comes with Notes, a basic note-taking applications. It's fine. If you're looking for something with a little more power and flexibility, Pages is my choice. Based on Apple's word-processing program of the same name, it lets you easily incorporate images and other rich features into documents. And you can easily upload or email the pages out.
Price: €8
7. Documents To Go Premium
This is one I featured in the business apps roundup, but it's worth mentioning here, also. While Pages is a great standalone word-processing app, it doesn't incorporate Microsoft Word documents into it to work on. You can with Docs2Go. Not only Word, but Excel and Powerpoint, too. Not only that, you can synchronize the whole thing with your desktop computer's Microsoft Office suite.
Price: €14
8. Google
Yes, Google has its own iPad app. Granted, there's a (small) Google search panel in the default Safari web-browser app. But the Google app allows you to stay signed in using your Gmail or Google Docs account and keeps you updated if new communication comes in.
Cold weather and touchscreen smartphones do not go together hand in glove.
Every time you need to take a call, you have to take a glove off. Why? Because wool just doesn't work on a touchscreen. Luckily, one canny manufacturer has stitched special conductive lining into the thumb, forefinger and middle finger of this pair of 'faux wool' (acrylic) gloves. The result is a fully functional phone and non-frozen fingers. They cost €15 including delivery from Firebox.com.
Alternatively, if you're still not getting a purchase on your touchscreen, you can try these forefinger-less gloves from Etre. They cost €35 (including delivery).
The iPad is really starting to get down to business. There are loads of genuinely handy day-to-day work apps available for it, now. Here are 15 really decent work and productivity apps that I have found useful. (I've listed them alphabetically.)
1. Airsharing HD
It's all very well having a Dropbox, Evernote or Gmail account. But wouldn't it be great to be able to simply access your home or work computer remotely on your iPad? Then you could open, edit or copy over any of the documents or files you have on your stationary computer. That's more or less what Airsharing HD does. It allows you to wirelessly ‘mount' your iPad as an external drive to your main machine.
Price: €8
2. Bloomberg
If you like to keep an eye on the markets, this is the best iPad app out there. It provides instant access to every major stock market around the globe, including the Irish Stock Exchange. You can look any stock up to see its current and historical performance, as well as check any news headlines relating to it. The app also offers podcasts, currency information and a general news feed.
Price: free
3. Box.net
Along with Dropbox and Evernote, this is among the best cloud storage apps available for the iPad. Because it's accepted as a mainstream service, many other apps and services now synchronise with Box.net files and accounts.
Price: free for 1GB of storage, premium subscriptions available
4. Desktop Connect
One of the biggest productivity applications for the iPad is remote desktop sharing.That means being able to switch on your iPad and view the contents of your home or office computer. There are dozens of such apps for this task in the App Store. It's quite easy to set up and can prove very useful.
Price: €12
5. Documents To Go Premium
As good as Apple's iWork suite is, Microsoft Word and Excel are still the dominant currency in office productivity software. This fact makes Documents To Go a very useful app. It allows you to create, view and edit documents in Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint. It also allows you to synchronise these iPad files with your desktop's Microsoft Office suite and a range of popular online storage services, such as Google Docs, Dropbox and Box.net. This vies with Quick office Connect Mobile Suite for the accolade as the best Microsoft Office synchronisation app available for the iPad.
Price: €14
6. Evernote
The most popular online note-taking application works just as well on the iPad edition as it does on your computer or your smartphone. It also means you can access all of your notes, memos and documents (from years back, too).
Price: free
7. Financial Times
Europe's largest business publication has launched a special iPad edition of its newspaper. Access to the news content is based upon the same principle as its website. Those who register (supply a name and e-mail address) get access to most of the news sections. To read in-depth features, columnists and special reports, there are varying subscription rates, but the app itself is free.
Price: free
8. Instapaper
Getting on a plane? That means you won't be able to catch up on your online reading. What this app does is to record and save web pages you visit in a nice, readable format. You can open them up again offline later. It is very useful for getting access to your online newspaper subscription.
Price: €4
9. Keynote
Keynote completes the trio of iWork applications (alongside Pages and Numbers). It is the Mac version of PowerPoint. Its strength is in the templates it provides for multimedia presentations. These beautifully incorporate images and videos, as well as the usual bullet point slides.
Price: €8
10. LogMeIn Ignition
This is another, more straightforward, take on controlling a remote PC using your iPad. It basically allows you to take complete control of a PC somewhere else. You can create and edit documents, and even print from it. Instead of using a mouse, you can either point to where you want the mouse to click or leave it in the centre of the screen and move items onto it. This is probably the most user-friendly remote desktop apps you can get.
Price: €24
11. Numbers
Numbers is Apple's answer to Excel. As is the norm, it is a lot more user-friendly and pleasant to look at than Microsoft's popular spreadsheet application. It synchronises nicely with a host of web-sharing and print options.
Price: €8
12. Pages
Apple's answer to Microsoft Office is its iWork suite of applications. This is made up of Pages (Word),Keynote (Powerpoint, OneNote) and Numbers (Excel, Access).Apple is selling a modified version of each for €8. As a word processing program, Pages is a cinch to use and makes great use of images and online sharing.
Price: €8
13. PrintCentral For iPad
One of the iPad's acknowledged weaknesses has been its lack of external connectivity to peripherals such as printers (even though this has been improved a bit with 4.2's Airprint). If your printer is wi-fi connected, this is a brilliant way to get around the iPad's printing restriction. You can connect your iPad to any wi-fi printer, anywhere in the world. You can print virtually any type of document, including high resolution photos. A brilliant, indispensable app for those with a need to print off documents.
Price: €8
14. Side By Side
Another iPad weakness is the lack of real multi-tasking ability. For example, if you want to write documents or take notes while researching something online, you must exit the browser or app to open the word processing app. Side By Side is a very useful way around this issue. Aimed at multi-tasking when online, it divides the screen in two so you can browse on one side and open a productivity app (such as Google Docs or Evernote) on the other. Really handy.
Price: 80 cents
15. Webex
Cisco's online meeting tool is widely used among multinationals and corporates. It shows participants (via webcams) and allows them to talk, type and share documents live on air. The free iPad app allows you to be invited into a meeting that is scheduled or organised by someone else (who has forked out for a pricey Webex subscription). It will not put you into the picture of the meeting, however, as the iPad has no camera.
Price: free
Really can't wait until next month for the iPad? Some Dublin shops are selling the device on order: for a whopping mark-up.
This shot was taken 30 minutes ago in FM Mobiles on Camden Street. I was quoted a few different prices for the device. But the final quote was €850 for the 32GB wi-fi only version. That's quite a markup on the £499 (€601) that the same device costs in Newry or Belfast, should you take the trouble to drive up there.
Now, although this was the quote, I would wonder. The quote was from a youngish-looking clerk: he wasn't aware that there's also a 3G version (even though it's on the sign in the window). Therefore I think he might have been erroneously quoting too high. It's very possible that the model quoted was either (a) the wifi + 3G version (£599 or €722 in Belfast) or (b) the 64GB wifi version (£599 or €722 in Belfast).
In any case, if you really want one and can't be bothered waiting, you know where to go.
Chunky, 'comfortable' keyboards are most definitely out of fashion. In their place are slim, spare, minimalist keyboards with smaller shallower buttons. Microsoft has picked up on the trend with its latest range of ergonomic-ish Arc keyboards.
The good news is that there are no awkward set-up manoeuvres to be engaged in: you plug the small wireless receiver into your computer's USB port and start typing away. The receiver can then be stowed on the back of the keyboard (it attaches magnetically) if you want to transport the device around the place.
So I finally got my hands on an iPad. I had it most of last week.
As a replacement for a laptop, I would have serious reservations about the machine. It doesn't play movies and it's tricky to connect to a camera, a printer or an external hard drive. It has very little memory of its own and doesn't come with any of the typical software applications you'd expect to find on a laptop.
It also has very limited power compared to most laptops, reflected in the fact that it can't really handle running more than one application at any one time.
In effect, this is a big iPhone (without being able to make calls).
But as a digital toy, it's attractive and fun.
Here are the device's main pros and cons.
Design
The iPad is quite a small device. With its nine-inch screen, it is has roughly the radius of a small netbook or a very large hardback book. It's very slim, at no more than a centimetre thick. However, it's quite heavy [0.8 kg]. Not so you would need a strap, but heavy enough for it to become an issue holding ip up while you read or watch something for more than two minutes. That means that its pattern of use is a lot closer to a conventional laptop than you'd think at first. It needs to be placed or rested on something, such as a table-top or a lap.
The screen is quite robust and didn't succumb to scratching when items such as keys or mobile phones were placed on top of it.
On the rim of the device is a volume button, an on/off switch, a 3.5mm earphone jack and an Apple-only connection port.
The version I used was the entry-level, 16GB, wi-fi only device.
What the iPad doesn't have
The iPad has a couple of drawbacks. The main one is the lack of a USB port. This cuts out the ability to easily connect the iPad to accessories such as cameras, camcorders, printers, external hard drives and 3G broadband dongles. (There is an Apple 'docking port', but it's far, far more restrictive than a USB port.) All of these items are increasingly part of modern leisure computing.
At the moment, it cannot multi-task. However, it should soon be able to do this when the next operating system update goes live.
The iPad has no DVD or CD player, which means that watching movies properly is awkward to set up and can only be done (in Ireland) by violating copyright law.
Using the iPad
By now, we're all used to some form of touchscreen format on our mobile phones. The iPad's touchscreen is as effective and as flawless as the iPhone's. You simply swipe and tap your way around its operating system, with very little error.
Other than iTunes, the iPad does not have any of the iLife software features (iWeb, iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand) that even entry-level Apple Macs provide.
One of the most positive surprises about the device - both web-browsing and in writing documents - is the effectiveness of its typing. As someone who types for a living, a keyboard is crucial to me. While the touchscreen keyboard won't quite keep pace with a physical specimen, I found very few errors occurring in my typing. (This is just as well, as the lack of a USB port does not allow for the connection of an external keyboard.)
Apps
The iPad is capable of using all 170,000 iPhone apps. In general, though, this is a poor experience. While all of the apps we tried worked perfectly on the iPad, the resolution and pixellation of the services on the iPad is shabby. This is especially noticeable with games. Put simply, these apps were built for a 3.5 inch screen. Stretching them out three-fold makes them look very poor.
However, there are some apps that are already developed specifically for the ipad. Within about 30 minutes of switching the machine on for the first time, I had downloaded about 20 of these. By and large, these are very good. The BBC's iPad app is a joy to use.
Unfortunately, there's a bit of profiteering going on. I saw many iPad apps that I would have downloaded (and paid for) but for the steep price. For instance, Time magazine was selling a single edition of its iPad app for $5 (e3.20). The print edition costs $3. At that rate, it won't sell many copies, especially when rivals newspapers (such as USA Today and parts of the New York Times) are free. As is Time's own website, which is accessible with a few clicks through the iPad's web browser.
Using the web
Without question, using the internet is the single biggest use for the iPad. Its web browser is fast and easy to use. Web pages -- both text and images -- render very clearly. The touch system of navigation works flawlessly, too.
The main snag is that it will not display pages or graphics rendered using Adobe Flash, which is a significant (though not fatal) downside to browsing on the iPad. You'll have to be satisfied with Safari for the moment: Apple is reluctant to allow rivals onto their machine just yet, although Opera is close to gaining acceptance as an alternative browser.
iBooks
The software and execution of iBooks is flawless. The store, from which you must source your digital books, is an extension of the iTunes store. As such it is clean and familiar. I found most of the current best-sellers available, although all of them were priced at the same level as the print editions, which was enough to put me off making a single purchase. Handily, the store also offers a list of free classics, taken from the Gutenberg project. They're the usuals from the likes of Jane Austen, Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Lewis Carroll.
Reading an iBook is a different matter. While the software beautifully presents and guides you through books - the swishing through pages is very nicely performed - it all takes place on a computer screen. The problem with that is the flicker, however minute. After about 30 minutes reading The Art Of War, my eyes began to get tired in a way that they do not with a paper edition. Perhaps that is just my eyes and, perhaps, there is a multitude of people that are used to looking at screens a lot. For them, there may be no such problem.
Video
Getting video onto the iPad is largely a matter of using its iTunes Store. Sadly, there is still very little for Irish iTunes customers to download as of today. Because of the iPad's lack of peripheral ports as yet there is very little way to transfer your own movies cleanly onto the device. What you have to do is to save a film or video into an MP4 file format and drop it into iTunes. Then the video can be accessed through iTunes. It is possible to crack the iPad (as it is the iPhone and iPod) to import movies, but I didn't try that.
YouTube
The lack of video content available leaves you with video services such as YouTube, Megavideo and DailyMotion. The quality reproduced on the iPad isn't great. On YouTube, it's distinctly poor.
Photos
Macs are reknowned for their compatibility with cameras. Unfortunately, the iPad shirks the topic. It does not come with any decent photo software and there is no way of connecting your camera to it (unless you are attempting to connect a cameraphone via Bluetooth).
Battery life
The iPad's battery life is good. I got over six hours heavy use of the device. That's not quite the 10 hours that's advertised, but it's enough not to have to worry about charging.
Conclusion
Based on a week's use, my initial conclusion is that the iPad is a toy, rather than a tool. It is an internet tablet with a few extra uses pegged onto it. It is good for web-browsing or tweeting in the living room, kitchen or bedroom. But the model I had is sub-par for watching videos, playing with photos or connecting online when on the road. It is an 'arsing around' device for the home. When it is launched in Ireland, it would be recommended to consider the 3G version rather than the wi-fi only version, give the high cost and low availability of wi-fi in Ireland.
Availability: The iPad will not be launched in Ireland until the end of May. It is currently priced from $500 in the US (wi-fi only version).
Today, Apple began accepting pre-orders for its iPad (to be released in late April).
Leave aside the hype over the device itself, or the chattering from the fanboys. The iPad's true significance is in the way it might change the commercial model of the internet itself.
Instead of browsing the web, which it will do fairly well (although without Flash), it will emphasise the use of downloadable apps. And, unlike websites, we pay for apps. So Apple is clearly staking out a model that seeks to make money from an internet-type experience.
It has already made a good fist of this with the App Store, which stocks over 150,000 apps and is hurtling towards three billion downloads, an astonishing achievement. Other companies have quickly seen the potential of this model and have moved to create their own apps or app platforms. It is now very likely that there is more development and innovation of apps than general websites.
This is a trend that must be taken seriously, not least by newspapers. Up to now, newspapers have invested lots of money in free websites that have not delivered any significant business for them. Worse, they have sucked readers away from buying the physical product. But an app could be a different proposition.
The most interesting device on display was not a phone, though. The Blackberry Presenter is a very knacky little device that wireless connects (via Bluetooth) to your phone, which should have Powerpoint (or a similar presentation application) on it.
The gadget itself connects via cable to a projector or an external display screen. Presto: your presentation on a big screen controlled from your mobile in your hand at the back of the room. It even has a switch to toggle between PAL and NTSC, in case you're travelling to the US or Canada. We're waiting on an RRP price for Ireland, but are told that it will be €180. (It costs $200 from Blackberry's online shop in the US.)
