Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category

My Andoid Phone Cost Me A Fortune

March 22nd, 2011
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A few months back I needed to get a new mobile phone. I really wanted the new iPhone 4 but upon looking into things further I found two things I really did not like about them:

  1. The Price!
  2. The Lock Down!

By lock down I mean the attitude that seems to preveail within Apple that “they own the phone in your pocket”. Whereas, with most products and companies, when you buy a device, its yours, to do with as you please. You own it, you control it.

It seems apple do not see it that way with some of their practices, particularly the way the switch out standard screws for “special” uncommon ones when you get your battery changed!

I could rant on about this, but, I will cut a long rant short and say that I found a really cheap HTC contract using this comparison site. I went for the HTC Desire HD, not that I need HD video, I dont, but that seemed to be the best deal at the time. So, armed with my new app ready phone I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, having got a great deal on it, and being very pleased with the Android OS (HTC have done a nice job of skinning this which is why HTC Android phones have become so popular), and had a really good play with it.

Its amazing how many apps there are for Android, though, recent issues with hacking via un checked apps may hinder that going forward, which would be a shame.

Anyway, I was in app heaven, and, off to parradise on a short holiday! Great, I can take my new phone and stay up to date with everything I need to I thought.

A few weeks after getting back I got an unpleasantly sized bill for all the data transfer I had used. At first I could not fathom it, I had only used apps once or twice. I checked my FaceBook profile a couple of times, and replied to a couple of mails and that was it. I just could not figure it at first.

When I looked a little deeper it turned out it was updates and apps running in the background, like, that helpful little app that tells me its raining back home… when I am 1000 miles away, ridiculous.

I then found I could have disabled this setting if I had looked into it a little deeper, but its not an easy setting to find, buried in the bowels of the android system!

It seems Im not ther first person to fall foul of this, a lesson learned I guess, all be it an expensive one. That said, it could have been a lot worse, we were only away for a few days. Heaven knows what would have happened if I had been away for an entire month!

Technology | Posted by admin

Should I? Shouldn’t I?

October 19th, 2010
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I’ve been thinking about it for a while, but I keep going round in circles. Should I do it? Is it worth the risk? Is it too much money?

What am I talking about? Buying an iPad of course. It seems everyone has one these days, even though I can’t quite work out what the real reason for having one is. Even so, I still want one, mainly because of how good they look, but also because I think they could be the next “big thing” if they aren’t already.

I don’t just mean that the iPad could sell lots of models – it’s done that already – but I mean that tablet computing is surely going to be the way to go in the future. They are much smaller, can do pretty much everything that a netbook can and look good. They can’t replace a full keyboard on a regular laptop, but they are a direct replacement for netbooks, which are meant to be as small as possible. I know that if I had the choice between an iPad and a netbook, I’d go for the iPad, especially for travelling.

There are problems though – mainly that I don’t like Apple. I don’t want to be told how to use my device or what I can use it for. I’ll probably end up going for a tablet by a different company – maybe HP – who don’t put artificial restrictions on their hardware. I also worry that Apple will “upgrade” the iPad in the near future, when all they really do is add features that should of been in the original.

Despite the high price, lack of freedom, competition and a variety of other reasons NOT to buy the iPad, I still want one. Is that a bad thing? Probably, but there’s no denying it’s a great gadget that can perform a number of functions – and then there’s the app store which is fantastic. The only thing stopping me from getting one right now is the potential competitors that will be released soon- I think it’s best to wait and see what happens.

Technology | Posted by admin

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