Mobile Phone Blog:

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

I’ve whinged about Apple a lot, while I’ve been working on this blog; it’s sort of a running theme, in any post I do about the Cupertino giant, that I really, really can’t stand them. From their draconian App Store policies, to their sheer, unfettered arrogance, to their belief that they invented everything, even if other phones were doing those exact same things for years… basically, pretty much everything Apple does annoys me.

I keep trying to tell myself it’s some psychological problem in my head, and that I should let it go, but they keep doing things that just boggle my mind. Case in point: this latest story, as reported on by The Verge), which has absolutely, completely staggered me… (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Hmm, y’know what, I think I’d better label this blog post as a rant, right now, before I even get into the meat of writing it. Y’know, ‘cos it’s about WebOS, and thus it’s about HP, and my opinion of HP is… well, let’s be polite, and say that my opinion of HP is not particularly favourable. It’d be churlish (although not inaccurate) to say that I think HP couldn’t find their posteriors with both hands and a very big atlas, so I won’t. So, what’s fuelled my ire today, then?

Simple. According to French newspaper Le Figaro (Google-translated link, have fun), HP will be making a decision about the fate of WebOS within the next fortnight. Alas, given the complete lack of faith I have in HP, I fear that decision will inevitably end up as being “screw it up royally“… (more…)

Whenever I watch a DVD, one of the things I love seeing is how they made the film; you know the thing I mean, where they stick those ‘Making Of’ documentaries on the disc. One thing I’ve never seen before, though, is a Making Of documentary for a phone. So, without further ado, here’s the first one I’ve ever seen, for the Nokia Lumia 800…

Well, that made my blood boil a lot more than I expected it to! This post wasn’t going to be a rant, but after hearing what Nokia had to say (in an unbearably smug tone) in the video, I was annoyed enough to make it into a rant. So, here goes… (more…)

Ooooh, go on, then, since it’s Friday, let’s have a blog post that’s all about pointing at someone and laughing. I’ve heard stories of similar things happening before, but they were very possibly apocryphal, and this is the first time I can remember seeing one with verifiable evidence of the person in question’s utter ineptitude and/or mindless drunkenness.

Yes, it’s the story that’s doing the rounds at the minute, the one I read on TheSmokingGun, about the bloke who, upon finding that his iPhone had gone kaputski, decided that the absolute best way to get it sorted was to ring the police. Five times.

You steaming great pillock… (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

You know what I’m like when a manufacturer gets on my nerves. Consider my reaction to Nokia, when they dumped Symbian and MeeGo; as you’ve seen many times before, I tend to get (hmm, how to phrase this tactfully) a little bit ranty. So, imagine my reaction when I read a story in The Guardian, who are reporting that that there’s a huge rumour going about, concerning HP; specifically, the rumour states that HP are looking at closing their WebOS division, which’d effectively kill off the platform, as well as put everyone working on it out of a job.

It’s at this point that I’d possibly say something along the lines of HP’s management types not being able to find their posteriors with both hands and a detailed map… (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

I’ve said on many occasions that, in my honest, and sincere, and not at all humble opinion, patent law is one of the biggest farces known to man. On my more cynical days, I’m convinced the whole system exists just to keep lawyers in business, and you know where I stand on that principle. Y’know, as in, I think humanity would be a lot better off if lawyers didn’t exist (except the one who’s sorting out my mum with something, he’s alright). I hesitate to use the word “parasites”, but I just did.

So. Yes. Patent law. It’s a farce. Case in point: this story from IntoMobile, about how ten manufacturers are now paying licensing fees to use Android. Only, erm, they’re paying those fees to Microsoft. Which is insane, right? (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Say what you like about Steve Ballmer, the big, baldy buffoon of a man certainly knows how to get tongues wagging. Case in point is this bit of news from IntoMobile, where Ballmer announced that Nokia will be unveiling a bunch of Windows Phone 7 devices, next week. That’s not the bit that’s getting tongues wagging, though. No, that would be the part where he went on to slag off Android, saying, “You don’t need to be a computer scientist to use a Windows Phone, but I think you do to use Android.”

Riiiiiiiiiiiight. By logical extension, then, you don’t need to be a complete dullard to use Android, but you do to use Windows Phone 7? That’s how logic works, isn’t it? (more…)

If you were Nokia, right, and you’d announced that you were scrapping Symbian, what would be the most pointless way you could give the old OS a send off? You’d stick it in a Vertu phone and charge some oil baron eleventy billion quid for it! Simples! Yep, it’s time for me to do another mini-rant about luxury phones, but this time, brilliantly, I can combine with a rant about Nokia and Symbian.

You have to take joy in the small things in life, right? Anyway, what we have here, is a phone called the Vertu Constellation T, and according to IntoMobile, it’s the Nokia N8, with the camera from the Nokia E7, stuck inside a really stupidly ostentatious, , stupidly overpriced, over the top body. Yeah, great send off, really, innit? (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Yes, you may have noticed that I’ve gone a bit controversial in the title for this blog post, but the truth is, it’s a reaction to Apple’s marketing tactics, the most scumbag marketing tactics I’ve ever seen. Any company who, when they announce a new product, do so by specifically naming a rival and slagging them off, goes beyond the classification of “a bit underhanded”, firmly into “git” territory.

So, I feel that it’s my right, nay, my civic duty, to point out that the brand new, just announced iPhone 4S is, in fact, nowhere near as powerful as the best Android phones out there. Yeah, you heard me right; the brand new phone that Apple says everyone tries to copy? It’s not as good as its rivals, no matter what Apple says… (more…)

[The opinions expressed in the blog post are entirely those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mobileshop.com.]

Yay! Time for another rant about Nokia! I’ve had plenty of them since they announced they were relieving themselves all over the memory of Symbian er, dropping Symbian for Windows Phone 7. They said, after that, that they’d still be punting out updates to Symbian, to keep current customers happy, until 2016.

It turns out, though, that it won’t be Nokia directly who are doing that, because according to their own press release, they’ve sold out er, passed across the reins for the future provision of Symbian to IT outsourcing company Accenture. So, it’ll be Accenture punting out the updates, and that worries me. Why does it worry me? Well, have a seat, folks, and I’ll tell ya… (more…)