Tag Archives: Mac Format

Apple/Mac, Computers/Technology, PocketPC, Psion, Symbian

Stephen Fry – Devices and Desires

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I blogged a couple of years ago about an article about Stephen Fry that appeared in Mac Format and about his addiction to the Mac platform stretching back twenty years.

Recently Stephen has started a blog and the topic of his first posting – Devices and Desires – which discusses another technological addiction, mobile devices and Smartphones. Not surprisingly he has an iPhone, but this looks at the competition, most of which he has tried.

Style wise this is a bit different from your usual technical article – very Stephen Fry (so it does have a couple of more adult comments) – but it is a great read, and pretty funny in places. Incidentally as an example of the quirkiness, the title of the article is taken from the General Confession in the Book of Common Prayer (“I have followed too much the devices and desires of my own heartâ€?)- not a common point of reference for a computer article, but somewhat appropriate!

Looking at his history, it seems he is a Psion 3 fan whereas I only came in when the Psion 5 was launched. He’s tried Palm devices, but is very frustrated with the way they seem to regularly try to commit corporate suicide. He is particularly damning about the Palm Foleo, a mobile device even he did not want.

As an aside he also mentioned Markspace Missing Sync as a good way to synchronise a PocketPC with a Mac – not surprisingly after my nightmare with the product I can’t agree. Despite it’s numerous updates over recent months, I’m still not sure I actually trust it not to scramble my diary!

According to the article, he has tried a number of Symbian smartphones, and has some harsh words for Sony Ericsson:

What a crushing, lowering, fury-inducing disappointment. Just how dumb are the software engineers, designers and marketeers at Sony E?

On the other hand, he seems to quite like the latest Nokia offerings.

Moving on to the iPhone, he has many of the same criticisms as other techies and industry commentators – but again like quite a few in the US he is using the phone anyway.

What is quite impressive is that for a blog with only one article, Stephen Fry has so far had 140 comments – hopefully that will persuade him to write more as I for one will certainly be reading.

Apple/Mac, Computers/Technology, Pictures

Published Pictures

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Apple Theatre

If you take a look at the news pages in the latest edition of Mac Format you’ll notice a two page article about the recent Mac Expo including four pictures. Aside from the main shot of the Mac Format stand, the other shots might be familiar if you’ve taken a look at our small gallery of our pictures from the event – indeed if you look at the photo credit on the page, it’s my name on there!

I got an e-mail from one of the editorial staff at Mac Format last month. I’m not quite sure of exactly what happened, but there was some issue with their photographer and the pictures he had taken of the event, so the editorial staff had taken a look through Flickr for anything suitable and had come up with the shots I’d snapped off on my mobile phone! Although looking at the magazine you can tell that my pictures aren’t quite to the same standard as the professional shot on the other page (the lighting and colour isn’t quite the same for a start), it certainly is a testament to the quality of the camera in the K750i that some of my quick snaps are able to be used in a professionally produce magazine, I assume without too much modification.

MobLog

Correspondance

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Back in February, I posted an item grumbling about the PC and Mac versions of Rise of Nations not playing multi-player. Last month, Mac Format published a review of the game, and gave it an all round glowing review, with no negative aspects at all, even saying how great the multi-player mode was to play. As a result I e-mailed them pointing out the problems with PC/Mac play, and how it wasn’t highlighted anywhere, and that I thought that as a leading Mac magazine, this should be the kind of thing they should be highlighting. I got a nice e-mail back from the editor thanking me for my e-mail and saying that in future they would double check. Anyway, my copy of the latest issue arrived this week, and turning to the letters page is a slightly edited version of my e-mail, and a similar response!

Just before Easter I wrote a long posting after recieving a notice of deemed supply from Scottish Power. In response I wrote to them giving them ten working days to sort out the problem by confirming that they do not have a contract with me. Yesterday, just at the point when I was going to raise the problem up with Energywatch, the ten working days having passed on Tuesday, I got a letter from Scottish Power Customer services. They confirm that my account with them was marked closed as from 9th August 2001 (which is the same day they opened it) as they had stated previously. They have also checked their application system, and there is no record of either a contract listed to my address, or with my MPAN number. They also say that my comments “have been noted” – I made no secret of what I thought of their company and general competence demonstrated by both this and the previous problems. Whilst they didn’t manage to get back to me within the limit I set, as they have come back confirming everything I said, and apologising, I’ll let them off, there was Easter in the middle after all!