A few predictions from earlier in the year

Ok, some of you may remember I put down my 10 predictions for the coming year. Well, a few of them have come true. Lets see…

2. Apple won’t wait till Christmas to release their new Iphone, which is what they said they will do. – Turns out I was right with this one. They have released the iPhone 3Gs already, halfway through the year
5. I will get my computer working again. – This one did happen, but I didn’t update you with it. I got my money back for my old motherboard, and bought a new one.
6.Google will release 2 more versions of their G range of phones, taking as long to release the source code as they did with the first version. – Turns out this one is right as well, with the release today of the HTC Hero
7. Canonical will make an increasingly stupid name for version 9.10 of Ubuntu. Kranky Kangaroo or something. – This one happened as well. As we all know, it is called Karmic Koala
10. Thunderbird 3.0 might get released…that would be nice…taking long enough. – This one might happen soon, as we currently have the Beta 2 of Thunderbird, and mozilla don’t do many betas (ha…)

So, looks like a very successful year for me so far in predictions. More to come people…

RANT: Palm Pre on O2 in UK

I’m sorry, I’ve ranted about this subject before, but what is the various phone companies’ obsessions with releasing a phone on 1 carrier? Lets have a look at various ones:

• HTC Dream (G1) – T-mobile
• HTC Magic – Vodafone
• Apple iPhone – O2
• Blackberry Storm – Vodafone

And now…the Palm Pre will be on O2

Seriously dudes? Why do you do that? It drives me insane. Obviously, I am not looking for a new phone just now, as I have my Nokia 5800, but it just drives me insane, a person who thinks we should have choice, that we don’t have choice to choose a phone, AND a carrier. You choose a phone OR a carrier nowadays.

10% Mobile OS share will cause virises!

Well…according to Albert-Laszlo Barabasi from Northeastern University in the US. If one mobile phone OS gains a 10% market share, then mobile phone viruses will become a lot more common.

From http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8014111.stm you can get 2 very important bits of information on how to deal with phones. First of all, if a mobile phone OS does get 10% market share, don’t use it. And second of all…for goodness sake don’t keep your bluetooth on all the time.

According to Albert-Laszlo’s research, the 600 viruses that exist just now could spiral out of control through bluetooth and multimedia messages (MMS) within a few hours.

Nokia 5800 Firmware Update

I am currently really annoyed with O2 and Nokia (not sure which is more to blame, each blames the other one). First of all, can I say I am ecstatic with my new Nokia 5800 that I got yesterday on contract with O2 (600 minutes, 2000 texts, unlimited 02-02 calls, unlimited data) for £20 a month. I think it is better than the iphone. The touchscreen works really well, the music quality is fantastic (even through the onboard speakers…it is really clear and loud), most of the default apps work really well, and there seems to be a reasonable range of 3rd party apps around the internet.

I will do a more detailed review of it in a few days, this is just a rant about the fact that my phone’s firmware is stuck at v11.0.009 (also…such a stupid numbering scheme) even though v20 was released on 9th April, and Nokia have started deploying v21.

I have done a bit of research and found that on O2 phones, you cannot update the firmware to v20 yet, even though you can on almost every other platform. However, when asked, O2 replies and says that they ok’d the firmware a while ago and it is Nokia’s fault that we cannot get it.

Now, yes, it is not a case of life and death that I can’t get the latest firmware, but I think it is pathetic that we can’t get the best out of our phones just because O2 decide we aren’t allowed to.

All in all, it is a great phone, but I’d love to be able to use the features I should be able to do.

Finally, if anyone has heard of any really cool 5800 apps, shoot them my way.