An iPhone with a keyboard?

An iPhone with a keyboard? -

“Specifically, we believe Apple could introduce a lower-end model that is slightly thicker due to the inclusion of a slider keyboard for students (texting) and business use (email) between $99 and $149.”

Why would Apple ever do this? By doing so they would be acknowledging that their touch technology isn’t as good as they promoted and be and their keyboard with they touted as better than a tactile keyboard floored. Apple can’t turn back now they’ve gone down the touch road.

Piper Jaffray gets the dumbass of the week award from me.

Web Ratings?

MP, Andy Burnham wants to give websites film like ratings –

“There is content that should just not be available to be viewed. That is my view. Absolutely categorical. This is not a campaign against free speech, far from it; it is simply there is a wider public interest at stake when it involves harm to other people. We have got to get better at defining where the public interest lies and being clear about it.”

How can someone say that you should not be able to view some content on the internet and then say that he’s not working against free speech? The whole idea of giving websites ratings is ridiculous.

If some action has to be taken, I believe that a better, and indirect course of action would be to educate parents about the possible problems that children can run into on the net.

Eye On Springfield

Eye On Springfield –

Eye On Springfield is a retrospective of Simpsons hilarity spanning from seasons 1 to 9, when it was still funny.

Great for a laugh.

What Did I Miss?

I’m finally back from my trip to the British Virgin Islands, it’s kind of bitter sweet in many ways. I loved it there and would have easily stayed for longer if the opportunity was there. On the other hand, however, it’s good to be home. After all, the internet connections I managed to pick up were less than reliable. :-)

One thing that I noticed when traveling around the islands is just how cut off one can be. There were islands that people seemed to have spent their entire lives on never venturing off, for instance, one island we came across had several abandoned houses and a shocking amount of graves on the island – a lot of them child size. These inhabitants most likely lived with no knowledge of what is going on outside their little world. A war could have been on and I bet they’d never have known.

Anyways, on a slightly lighter note:

Even though I managed to get some access to the internet, I managed to miss a lot. Here are a few things that caught my eye in the interim period.

MacWorld 2009 is Apple’s Last -
Now that they’ve done it, it makes a lot of sense to me. As Andy Inhatko said; “There’s absolutely nothing in it for Apple”. It seemed like a bit of a hard out though. I would presume that as time went on they would slowly decrease the amount they had to do with the show. Apple don’t like not being in control. From what I’ve heard there was a lot of times were Apple and IDG just didn’t see eye to eye.

As for Steve, don’t look into it any further than Apple’s efforts to separate him from the company a bit more.

Wordpress 2.7 was released -
OK, maybe it happened slightly before I left, but still; I’ve had a little time to play around with it and so far it seems to be doing the job. The interface changes are welcome, and building in automatic upgrade and plug-in installation was a smart move. For the next version however, I think that if themes became installable from within Wordpress, it would make a lot of people, including myself, happy.

iPlayer is now available for the Mac -
It’s been a long time coming. It should have been there from the start.

Google Chrome 1.0 -
I’m disappointed, of course, that the Mac version seems to have taken the back seat. That said, it shows how keen Google are to get Chrome a strong user base. I would expect that in the long run however, a lot more of the Chrome users will be on the Mac rather than the PC – they just need to get it out there.

MacHeist starts giving tree promotion –
I’ve only ever bought Mac promotions from MacHeist. Why? Because nearly all of the apps they ever release in a package are worth the money, unlike some which have a couple that stand out. This year for the festive season they’re giving away some applications, check out the site on the 25th for all of the apps.

Is there anything else I should have included in the list? Leave a comment, other than that, Merry Christmas.

On Holiday – Christmas 08 Edition

Early tomorrow morning I’ll be off to the airport for my Christmas holiday to the British Virgin Islands. I’ll be away for ten days – which means I will return on Christmas Eve, just in time for all those presents.

Hopefully, I’ll be able to take some photos of the places we visit and people we meet, it’s also an opportune time to whittle down the pile of books I’ve been meaning to read. And finally, to get some school work done; after all – I’ve got my GCSE trial exams as soon as I return to school.

Best wishes in the holiday season, stay safe and enjoy yourself. I know I certainly will.