The xPeria X10i recently was provided a most welcome update to Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread). Having run for almost a year previously on Android 1.6 this was almost unexpected in its swiftness of delivery.
As with any updates there is a worry about losing data. I backed up most apps which I like to SD card using Astro and did a few additional syncs with the various programs which whack data onto the cloud on my behalf. I was a bit unsure about the way in which contacts were prioritised with gmail but a quick check using the laptop confirmed that recent additions had made it onto Google’s cloud system so all appeared happy.
Bookmarks are not so important so I left that. I ran the update using Sony Ericsson PC Suite and all went superbly. The new software gave the phone a hugely improved user experience, all appeared to run more smoothly and the homescreen was much better. Mediascape had gone and timescape was quickly removed from the display.
It was nice to have pinch and zoom multitouch as I had read a year ago that the xperia hardware would not support multitouch so I had not really seen anyway in which they could add such a feature, still it works.
I was pleased to add my most used programs into folders on the homescreen, in fact I was so efficient that I did not really need more than 2 (of the five).
I have stopped searching for home screen mods now it looks so nice, I did find beautiful widget which gives an HTC Sense type digital clock along with weather on the homescreen, very nice. All in all it was a success. The final test was installing copilot ( my favourite Sat Nav for Android) – this worked a treat. It is interesting that the latest Android update included Facebook as standard though I had to actively search and install Google Plus.
tribalwave
I’ve been paddle boarding (SUP) a lot recently. I had an intro lesson from TribalWave a month or two ago and was daunted by the prospect as I kept falling off.
Luckily the falling off phase in paddleboarding is shorted than in other watersports and I was soon getting to grips with it.
A kind of mad fervour gripped me over the past 14 days and I have been out on my SUP almost as many times.
Unlike surfing it is not tide dependent, nor swell. Strong winds can be a bummer but you learn to cope.
Ive sort of got the hang of paddling on both flat and choppy seas. I have ridden a few decent waves but am a long way from managing a turn on the SUP [I think you need to use the long stick thing.], will persevere though of course.
I feel happier to be able to get in the sea more often and can feel my overall fitness levels on the up.
I strongly recommend that anyone wanting to get into
Stand Up Paddleboarding Brighton to check out
http://www.tribalwave.org as they run a series of workshops, classes and lessons ( even mobile tuition ) in the Brighton and Sussex area and have the experience and patience to get you riding properly and safely and really digging it.
Surfing is great fun, anyone who has slipped into the sea with a board knows that. It is a spiritual experience, bringing you closer to nature.
But there is a darker side too, nature is savage and anyone who wants to ride the wild sea must pit themselves against brutal and harsh elements on a regular basis.
Now, I am writing this as a warning to those not in the know. You have all read about the precipitous drop in at the Mavericks, we all know about the vicious reef beneath the Pipeline’s azure hues and we have all seen recent footage from Jaws. But for some of us, in our own backyard, there is a break so dangerous, so hostile and so unpredictable that only the foolhardy would paddle out into its apparently benign break.
I am talking about the Hotpipes in Shoreham, UK.
Here nature’s forces are funnelled into a maelstrom which makes the slab at Teahupoo look like a longboarding grom’s wet dream. On the South Coast of sleepy Sussex gargantuan waves break over a reef of razor sharp coral and scrap metal. The prevailing onshore winds lash the surface into a frenzy or churning mush which means that the waves are not only unsurfable but any slight error is generally punished severely.
Moreover the break is patrolled ( I can not say surfed as these locals know the stupidity of entering the Shoreham waters ) by a gang of out of work welders with severe personality disorders. Not having the politeness of Sir Ken Bradshaw these types will bite a chunk from your board while it is still on the roof of your car. Needless to say car crime is rife in this area and it is a designated police ‘no go zone‘.
As if things could not conspire more to make this place a spot to bookmark under the heading : do not surf here; there is more. It has recently been discovered that Shoreham Port Authority has been laundering Russian Uranium at the Power Station and the Geiger Counters go off the scale down at ‘the Pipes’. This radiation in the water has led to severe mutations amongst the indigenous shark population.
So, please take it from me. Do not venture down to, perhaps, the nastiest break on the planet. This is really a place to avoid.
This article was originally submitted to Magic Seaweed, but they, strangely did not want to publish this denouément of such a break.
There has been much debate and interest of late in new advances in Telephone technology such as the introductsion of RFID payment modules into smartphones such as the iphone, WiPho and Android handsets. There has been a proliferation of app stores from the major players whilst we have even seen court action over the very name ‘app store’.
Nokia’s recent agreement with Widows mobile have shaken up the industry whilst further litigation over patents and copywrights abound amongst the major players.
Telephones now are expected to do so much, to accomplish the amazing and to slip into the pocket.
But I fear that we are losing touch whilst trying so hard to keep in touch – Telephones are an amazing creation, the word itself derives from the Greek meaning distant voice or distant sound and that is just what, in essence we should remember them as being – a device for talking to someone from far away.
The very best function of the telephone does not need releasing by an app installation, nor does it require a sophisiticated operating system. It is founded upon the early research of many people, most noticeably Alexander Graham Bell, who realised that the Telegraph/ Semaphore/ Fire Beacon means of transferring information from one place to another just ahd to go.
The early Telephones were simple deviced which plugged into the PSTN ( public switched telephone network ) and allowed people to manipulate a number input mechanism and connect to someone else on the PSTN. They worked.
Of course, with improvements in technology and manufacturing processes these home telephones have become slightly more sophisticated but, still it is important to get one of these in your hands. Look at the great selection of telephones and you can see that these are no multipurpose smart mini computers, they just are telephones. Indeed BT once said that – “it is good to talk” and it is. I gain far more human contact from the people I actually talk to than the flacid relationships which come about through social media on my mobile phone.
So, if you are looking in wonder at the new iPad, or trying to choose between phones based upon the screen resolution then remember that talking is great, speech and oratory are the highest level of evolution that we as himan beings have attained and picking up a real telephone which transmits vocal inflections and stammers and coughs is the only way we can really make social interactions at a distance.
OK, its old news but it made me laugh.
Nokia has seen its market share slip in recent years and clearly needed something new to allow it to rub shoulders with the mobile glitterati once again.
So what do they do?
Well they must have thought long and hard about the Symbian Foundation – and they decided to drop that. So what next.
Well, had I been at their internal meetings I would have pointed out that Nokia needed sexing up big time, it needed to do real battle with the ubiquitous iDevices and the newcomer Android. Nokia clearly needed a full makeover of its brand to appeal to the new generation of consumers who actively seek out not only the best but the coolest.
I find the decision to throw the towel in with Windows Mobile a very intriguing and strange way of achieving this – Microsoft’s public image is exactly the same as that of Nokia – it is perceived as safe and boring.
I may well be wrong as it is highly possible that there are many people out there who are actually happier with the safe and boring choice. But I will be watching carefully
I have been peeved myself with FB since a friend was wiped off it for posting artistic imagery which some small minded person found offensive.
Found this interesting, though obvious really. best thing to do is hide everyone from your NEWS FEED apart from yourself then you’ll just hear good stuff.
Nowadays we are a generation increasingly aware of the affect that we have on the environment. We embraced the industrial revolution and the subsequent consumer frenzy of the late 20th Century with a fervour. Massive improvements in the manufacturing processes in the East coupled with ever increasing technological advances brough a myriad of home electronics to the masses. The rate at which products are improved upon leads to a higher rate of ‘obsoloscence’ in such high end devices.
This leads to waste
Waste has never been a desirable element in society, indeed the waste produced per capita has risen a thousandfold in the last hundred years, leading to increasing landfills.
For this reason the WEEE directive has been applied to electrical items, the legislation demanding that waste electrical equipment be disposed of in a way in which to lesses or even negate its detrimental effect on the environment.
Telephones Online, a Brighton based retailer of predominantly cordless phones, but also other consumer electricals are commited to reducing waste through their working practices.
For years they have been refurbishing DECT Telephone equipment and supplying trade partners in the developing world with useful and viable apparatus which enhances their lives whilst reducing waste in the UK.
They have also recently commited to the provisioning of spare parts for cordless phones. This way, rather than throw away a system that is merely missing one part, the Telephone Suppliers can replace this integral part and have the entire unit or system full functional again.
They have a vast back catalogue of cordless phone parts :
Main Power Supply Unit for Cordless Phone Base Stations, Additional Handset Power Supplies, DECT Handsets, Telephone Base Units, Cordless Phone Batteries, Curly Line Cords and even Handset battery Covers. Many other telephone parts are also available on request.
The best thing about such commerce is that everyone wins: apparently redundant products can be rejuvenated and their life increased, redundant spares can be resold to avoid further waste and the resultant savings are at consumer level.
We like any business process that saves on so many levels whilst giving a real boost to the environment.
I have been working on a new site of late built on the Magento platform. The site was developed over many months with Lighthouse Care sourcing the best deals they could for their clients as their ethos is :
Your independence is our success
The site has been filled with the best content and optimised so that it is extremely easy for anyone to find just what they want – that is the essence of a site – clarity.
Google of course, aided in a few ways, analytics was integrated to every page of the site to allow us to track visits and visitor behaviour. Magento also comes with an automated export to Google Base / Froogle. Google Merchant so that you are able to have your products listed on Google within a few days of launch and not have to pay per click for this useful and targeted traffic.
The checkout was set up using Realex Online Payments which provide a secure online checkout facility which easily integrated with Magento and gives full security for credit card purchases.
Lighthouse are continually adding new products and services to their portfolio of mobility aids and disbility products and aim to become a leading provider in the UK and Internationally.
The site can be found at Lighthouse Mobility
We are pleased to see the new surf shop opened up by Sharkbait at Sharkbait Shop
Sharkbait has been providing surf reports for the Brighton area since the last century ( Millenium even?) and is the first point of reference for all surfers on the “South Shore”.
Sharkbait forms the focal point for a deidicated ( you have to be in Brighton ) group of surfers who either use the English Channel’s windblown mush to keep up their skills or to learn upon. As we all know, it is the taking part that counts and whether offshore and 6 foot and clean or onshore 2 foot and mushy it is always – always worth it.
The new surf store has an array of surfing goods sure to please the local contingent and, who knows, attract orders from fashion conscious Hawaiians even.
Any parent, the first time one especially, knows that the prime missing resource is sleep. You throw your energy into keeping your child warm, clean, fed and safe and you subjugate your own needs – it is only natural after all to so do – for those of the child.
Of course this brings great joy to the parent, it is, we all know, a very happy time. Ask any new parent how they feel and you will receive responses like “great, superb, I feel so refreshed and vitalised”…. or will you? Are you more likely to see mew parents wandering around like extras on a George A Romero film set? Do you see jaded expressions on their faces as if they have just emerged from a World War 1 trench somewhere in Northern France after a week’s German shelling and rain…….. Well in my experience it is somewhere in between, though nearer the latter examples than the former.
So what is the solution for these ‘walking dead’??
Well there are multiple resources for new parents in print and online and the greatest mistake made commonly by these disenfranchised souls is that the minute it appears that baby is going to leave them alone they go, phew and open a bottle of wine and try to have a bit of time to themselves before the next demand is uttered by the supernaturally sleepless child. What they need to do is sleep when the baby is sleeping – it is the only way to catch up, to conserve energy and to be able to muster ones forces to fight the fight that comes with every waking moment.
The worst thing, perhaps is that once you have had something like toothache or Chinese water torture for a while and it stops, your inner psyche tells you that it is continuing, like tinitus almost, a subconscious assumption that the source of distress is still ongoing – this is what babies do to you. The more you try to relax, the more you slip into a warm, happy place just for a moment you can be sure that you will either hear, or imagine some calamitous scream from your baby’s room.
This is what baby monitors are for. They are undoubtedly the 20th Century’s greatest invention. They come in a variety of functions and settlings, which I shall skirt over later, but the essence is that they can be placed in the baby’s presence and the parents are able to ‘rest’ assured that the child sleeps.
DECT cordless telephone technology has been utilised so as to form a link between the child’s transmitter and the parents’ receiver. You can generally adjust the sensitivity of the monitor so that it only transmits when a certain volume is reached. Hence the parents do not need to sit in the living room listening to every burp and fart from the sleeping child, but rather will only be notified when the child is in distress. Sensitivity settings are down to each parent’s choice. Unfortunately I have yet to find a baby monitor with a do not disturb setting.
The baby monitors I have personally inspected this week are made by either BT ( the telephone people ) or Philips ( the Dutch people ).
