Archive for the ‘Geekery’ Category

Is this the most pointless gadget since … well, Apple TV?

I don’t understand what it is. I realise it’s a jack of all some trades but it’s a master of none from what i can tell. It just looks like a watered down keyboardless (and usb portless!) netbook. As a gadget freak i was really looking forward to the iPad coming out but i was left totally underwhelmed:

Music player? It’s nowhere near portable enough.

eBook reader? Not unless you want to burn your eyeballs out – Kindle replacement it aint.

Video player? Why not just use your cheaper netbook or your current iPod or Smartphone…?

Web surfer? Well it’s much better to have a physical keyboard which Apple must realise because they have created a physical keyboard you can dock with … which makes it more cumbersome than a netbook!?

No multitasking, no camera, only install apps from iTunes, no USB port without purchasing an add-on, not upgradable…..

Ten things netbooks do better than iPad

So again, what’s the point? What gap is it trying to fill?

itunes Fuckery

I’m going to add this little bit of info to my blog in case anyone searching for this problem is struggling to find a solution, hopefully Google will find this.

A few months ago, for no apparent reason my iPod touch would no longer be recognised on my computer and windows kept throwing up the messsage ‘apple mobile device has stopped working‘. I had to disable it in services to stop the message but this left me still unable to update my iPod. Then the same thing happened on my partners laptop a couple of months later. We have the exact same laptop, both are Dell.

So i looked what what was common between both laptops in the programs list and we both had ‘Dell Support Center’. I uninstalled that and what do you know, the problem was fixed. I don’t know why there is a conflict between Dell Support Center and iTunes but if you’re having the same problem and you own a dell then get shut of that program.

Or if you have a different make of PC perhaps you have a similar support program? The point is, this is not a vista or itunes problem (as such), there is a program on the pc conflicting. It’s just a case of uninstalling and reinstalling stuff until you find the culprit. I’m sure it’ll be a support program of some kind. Good luck!

For google:
apple mobile device has stopped working Dell Support Center

I’m a big fan of steampunk and i keep promising myself i’ll start gathering a little collection of steampunk items. What i’d love though is a steampunk home but unless i win the lottery i don’t think it will be happening any time soon.  But if it did ever happen then i hope it would look as amazing as this guys home! Click here to visit a Steampunked Home

Well i bought a subscription to Vimeo because i always thought that the video quality there was slightly better than youtube … if you squint … kinda. Both sites allowed Half def 720p HD video. Until now that is. I read this post [ 1080p HD is coming to Youtube ] last week on the Youtube Blog and i’ve been dying to try it out. So i shot a little test clip in 1080 HD and have uploaded it to youtube. Now the weather conditions here are miserable and grey, hardly ideal! So i’m not sure how good this is gonna look.
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I thought technology was meant to make life easier for us? Clever computers and devices and so on to make life better? Well i switched my laptop on the other day and for no apparent reason it decided to tell me that the ‘apple mobile device service has stopped working‘. This is a service that runs in the background to check for when you plug in your iPod touch or iPhone. It’s stopped working and now i can no longer synch my iPod with iTunes. Marvellous. I have uninstalled iTunes and everything associated with it, reinstalled it, googled the problem, checked the drivers and nada.
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What is spotify?
You install a little program on your pc that looks a little bit like iTunes. But unlike iTunes the songs aren’t on your hard drive, they are online. You create playlists of albums or fave tunes and you can access them on your PC, iPod/iPhone/Android Mobile Device. For example, i have several playlists set up and i can either listen on my pc, or grab my ipod and listen on that or if i’m out and i only have my phone on me, i can listen on there too. Any changes you make on one device will affect the others. Very clever!

Oh and although this massive library is online, you can actually download the tunes to your pc/ipod/phone in case you’re out of range of wifi or don’t want to eat up your mobile data plan. What you can’t do is have mp3 files that you can burn to a CD, not unless you buy the song. You can listen to radio and share friends playlists too.

Read more after the jump…
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