From The Front End - ZDNet Edition
My ZDNet version of my blog. Will feature news my mad opinions and relevant posts or partial quotes from my blog - http://www.fromthefrontend.co.uk
Topics: Wed Standards, Tools and Services for Designers, Photography and graphics, Accessibility and other Front-End Webdesign related info.
Thursday 17 July 2008, 3:11 PM
The App store spells death to Jailbreaking the iPhone
I'd love to say that the quality of Apps on the Apple App store is so superior to those made for jailbroken iPhones that no one would bother jailbreaking anymore. However, this is definitely not the case. While a few of the apps are quite polished a lot are on par with their jailbreak equivalents and many jailbreak apps will never make it to the Apps store as they will upset network providers or apple - e.g. the app that allows you to create multiple iTunes library's on the phone so you can sync with more than one computer, or VoIP apps that allow you to make calls without getting charged a penny by your mobile provider.
Add to this the fact that most of the apps on via AppTapp on a jailbroken phone are free and it makes jailbreaking your new iPhone 3G very tempting. Some have already managed it as seen in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldbyi_FXitE
So what are we waiting for - lets unlock our phones and get lots of free App goodness. BUT WAIT Jailbreaking was tollerated before and some of the jailbreak app developers have been welcomed on to the App store... however, before Apple had no competing service to rival the jailbreak apps and now they do. They will not want users to be able to choose between a free jailbreak app when they are trying to sell a similar App for $9.99 in the App Store.
So what will Apple do. Expect a lot tighter policing of iPhones. Regular updates closing loopholes that hackers have used to jailbreak, and even bricking of phones that it detects have been tampered with. While not illegal it will be a lot riskier jailbreaking your phone this time round.
Thursday 26 June 2008, 4:08 PM
Mobile Device convergence - is gaming on phone devices a step to far?
I am being terribly lazy and rather than write an article about Nokia, Apple and Sony's push for a mobile device that can effectively be used for communication and gaming, I have simply copied pasted the conversation that inspired it here:
==========
Karen Friar: hey--meant to ask you...what do you make of the rumours of a PlayStation Phone?
Dave: PlayStation phone - I imagine it will be similar to the PSP or simply an ad-on for the PSP
Karen Friar: I wonder if it's worth them doing it
Dave: the PSP already has viop features
Dave: so it's not such a big leap
Dave: With Nokia and Apple really pushing the level/quality of games on their mobile phones their clearly is a market for convergence of mobile gaming and mobile communication devices
Karen Friar: hmmm interesting
Dave: Nokia are spending a fortune on promoting their new N-Gage platform and compatible handsets
Dave: and Apple showed as many Games in their App store demos as they did other apps
Karen Friar: hmm
Karen Friar: good to know
Dave: I think they view it as the next "music convergance".
Karen Friar: thanks--that's an interesting point
Karen Friar: one box to do it all--in your hand
Dave: Apple got so worried about the iPod monoply when sony ericsoon and the like started adding music capabilities to their phones that they created the iPhone
Karen Friar: I didn't realise that was the case
Dave: imagine if your phone had all the iPod capabilities - who is going to spend an extra £100-200 for an iPod.
Dave: so now they see handhelds like the PSP adding VoIP and the Nintendo DS outselling iPod, iPhone combined (which according to Andrew Lim could become a mobile phone device too)
Dave: Nokia tried with the N-Gage about 5 years ago and it was a flop - the device was too big for a phone and the games were of too poor quality to be considered as good as the gameboy
Karen Friar: it all depends on the chip as much as anything
Dave: Now games like Spore are coming to Mobile handsets we can take it more seriously
Dave: well Apples iPhone 1 only has a 412mhz processor and 112mb or Ram and no 3D chip and yet it showed it could run a fairly decent game on it
Dave: Google Andriod will support 3D hardware acceleration so we should see some serious gaming potential on their platform
Karen Friar: depends whether they want to go for business or gaming markets...
Dave: but it all depends on whether the manufactures build the hardware to support it - the prototype Android devices have been very poor so far
Dave: Well Apple were hurt the first time round by their lack of business app support. this time round they've addressed a lot of those issues
Dave: They haven't really done anything for gaming like adding 3D acceleration but they have a solid SDK which will make producing game content for developers much easier
Karen Friar: yeah--the demo looked good
Dave: I think convergence is good and I love to be able to multiple things on a single device - but I think Gaming has such different requirements to a Mobile communication device that you are likely to end with something that does one thing well and the other poorly or some hybrid that does both things shoddily
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Thanks to Community manager Karen for letting me post this.
If anyone else wants to chat with me about any random IT subject send me a Private Message and I'll add you to my Messenger (I use Skype, Yahoo and GoogleMail I won't install any more than that).
Wednesday 23 April 2008, 10:23 AM
New Ubuntu out tomorrow
With the new Ubuntu coming out tomorrow and looking like it will be the best and most user-friendly free Linux release to date is it time to make the switch over?
I have dabbled only briefly with various Linux distros and can hardly say I've given it a fair chance. With my Desktop system on it's knees due to a corrupt partition table (my fault for trying to repartition a drive while it was running vista at the time) I am planning to format and give Ubuntu a try.
I have been a staunch Windows user due to bad experiences whenever I've tried other OS (the worst was using Mac OSX) and so I hope that this time I will not be disappointed.
Tuesday 8 April 2008, 5:14 PM
Tech for all ages?
With new budget/low power laptops targeting education sector and a younger and younger audience will tech gadgets soon replace the rattle and skipping rope for our next generation of children?
Seems that last generation it wasn't uncommon for parents to have to get their 5year old to programme their VCR for them. Will the same be true for this seemingly tech savvy generation? Will our grand children be configuring our servers for us by age of 10. "oh grandad you've got your raid set up all wrong" - lol
Here are some clips of my daughter making use of some of my gadgets at at ages 9-16months.
Using an iPhone (16months)
Using my old Laptop (9months)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ANYKMfClivk
This one although not using any gadget is checking the TV guide and letting us know what she wants to watch on TV this week
http://youtube.com/watch?v=OQ9iGlPGGhU
:)
Thursday 20 March 2008, 12:50 PM
Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) confusion
I'm seeing a lot of posts on various forums and blogs with people complaining that SP1 although released has not shown up on their windows update.
Many are pointing to driver compatibility issues preventing perhaps being the cause.
According to an article I read on the Microsoft site (sorry not got source) SP1 although final and ready to install must be initiated by clicking a link on the SP1 page. You have to be viewing the page with Internet Explorer 7.
Click here
The auto-update via windows update will start in April so the early adopters can beat the rush and get it now while the update server is relatively idle. Compared to the 2-3hr ordeal of the beta install the final SP1 took less than 30mins (once I had removed the beta edition).
I haven't tested extensively yet but I get the impression a some of the tweaks in the beta may have been left out of the final release to avoid compatibility issues so I am expecting a dip in performance compared to the beta edition I used. All I can confirm for now is that although I have 2 sets of drivers that supposedly have known issues - my sigmatel sound card and my finger print reader - SP1 works fine and I've had no sound or finger print reader issues since installing.
While it is always worth backing up and researching before installing any significant software or update I am fairly confident that the vast majority of users with mainstream hardware will have no problems. Self built systems with components form obscure manufacturers may fair not so well but they are like having issues with Vista in the first place.
See my previous blog posts and review for more info on what to expect from SP1
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