The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

We’ve all heard the Apple ad’s, I’m a Mac, and I’m a PC blah blah blah. In my opinion, Macs and PCs are all pretty much the same. They’re both computers, they can surf the web, write documents and organize photo collections. Why does there have to be such a big deal made out of  the difference?

I primarily use a HP Compaq Desktop PC, for day-to-day uses. It has an AMD 64 Dual Processor, 1gb of ram and an 120gb hard-drive. I also have a Acer Netbook, running Linux, and an old eMac, running OS X Tiger. While all three computers run and look differently, they all do the same things. 

On my Desktop, I use Windows Vista. In my opinion, it is a good OS, and I’ve never really had a problem, except once when I installed a bad driver. Lesson learnt. The whole world though seems to be against Vista and why? It’s really not that bad! 

I think perhaps if people actually gave it a go, without having preconceived ideas, built up by those dam Apple ads, then they may feel differently. I’m looking forward nevertheless to Windows 7. As I wrote in my review in January, Windows 7 is an excellent upgrade to Vista.

JK

I’ve written about Blyk a few times over the past year, since taking up the service. Basically, if you’re not familiar, Blyk is an ad-supported mobile network, which provides £15 free credit each month. See my other Blyk posts here.

Recently, Blyk changed to this £15 credit, from the previous offer of 217 texts and 43 minutes free each month. The new deal is actually a loss of around £10! Also, Blyk increased prices: 15p/min up to 24p/min! (They did reduce texts from 10p to 8p).

Next, Blyk started charging £10 for replacement sim cards if they are lost or stolen. Something that other UK networks don’t do. Also, they stopped the Text Balance enquiry service, and have also stopped issuing invites to the service!

It asks the question, is Blyk financially secure at all? Yes, we are in recession, but these steps are those of a company in dire straights. Hope Blyk will weather this storm that they seem to be in; Blyk is a good service, offering excellent value. I’ll be watching in the next few months.

JK

PayPal offers “a safe way to pay”, being owned by eBay, and offering millions of users Internet payment facilities. It is the most popular service of its type, and all eBay auctions accept PayPal: it’s compulsory!

I recently sold an unwanted Christmas Gift on eBay; it quickly sold for £30.00, which I was quite happy with. eBay charged me 50p for the listing, (I’m quite happy to pay for this). As per the eBay rule, I accepted PayPal on my listing, and promptly got paid. When I checked my account, I found out that actually, PayPal had charged me another £1.25 in “Charges”. What for?

I had already paid eBay, (the owner of PayPal), the required fees, and now they were effectively charging me again! I make hundreds of fund transfers form my bank account each year, and never get charged a penny. Why should PayPal do any different? It’s not like they even provide good customer service: they are useless!

PayPal should have the sense to stop charging its customers, who don’t have a choice on whether they use the service or not. eBay seem to have a powerful position here: and quite frankly I don’t like it. I will have to think whether I use eBay for sales again: it’s not even the cost so much, but the principle.

JK

Blu-Ray; the latest development in Video-Disc technology. Offering 50gb of storage; enough for full HD Video films and TV-Shows.

The technology is principally backed by Sony, being offered in the PS3. This multi-national company promises the next generation of Film Quality; you can actually feel like your there. The price difference? Well, for a good Blu-Ray player, the price is around £180-£250, and each Blu-Ray disk is around £5 more than their DVD counterpart. (Usually around £20)

But I don’t think it’s worth it. I recently visited Sharp Laboratories of Europe, who are often regarded as one of the best makers of LCD screens, (they make screens for iPods). They showed me two identical HD TVs, one plugged into a standard DVD player, and the other into a Blu-Ray player with a Blu-Ray disk. While the latter picture was slightly sharper, the difference was nominal! It was only something you would notice if you looked carefully, and I can get a sharp picture like that from my Up-scaling-DVD player anyway!

The thing is, not only would I need to spend extra on buying a player, but also the disks are much more expensive. And, I would need a Blu-Ray player connected to every TV in the house if I wanted to play them around the house; not to mention that 1 of the TVs isn’t HD, and 2 of the HD ones are only 17/19 inches, (the difference would be impossible to see on these). Now that I think about it, I also have my laptop and desktop PCs; these don’t have Blu-Ray drives in them.

To me, Blu-Ray does seem like just a way of Sony and it’s huge consortium getting people to replace all of their old DVD players, disks and old TVs, just to fill their greed for profit, Well, I’m not playing. Not until the price of these players and disks are at an affordable rate for this economic period.

JK

Internet Explorer, the world’s most popular browser, with a 68% market share has now been upgraded to version 8, with the Release Candidate now available. With the upcoming lunch of Windows 7 which will be bundled with IE8, the European Union is launching an antitrust case.

An article on the BBC news website says the following:

"Microsoft does have the advantage of its browser being shipped with its operating system so people that want to shift have to do a lot of work to shift," said Mr MacDonald, a vice-president of analyst firm Gartner.

The EU last week accused Microsoft of harming competition by bundling its IE browser with its Windows operating system.

I personally think this is ridiculous, and is fueling these antitrust claims. Switching to Firefox, Safari or Opera is easy! It’s just a matter of downloading the program, and taking a minute to install it. Plus, a lot of OEM Manufacturers bundle Firefox with their PCs anyway.

I don’t see the problem with using Internet Explorer anyway. IE8 RC1 is a fine browser, and for those who want to switch, they can. It’s not like the browsers make profit for Microsoft or Mozilla. The EU should spend their time doing something more worthwhile.

JK

Blyk, the free, ad-supported mobile network has been running for over a year now. The network offers 217 texts, and 43 minutes each month, in return for receiving up to 6 brand text messages each day. Read my review here.

Blyk has now announced that it will be changing the top-up system to £15 free a month, instead of the old text and calls allowance. This system has caused considerable uproar from Blyk members, with several petitions and hundreds of forum posts complaining. Especially as Blyk is saying that “You asked, Blyk listened”, claiming that members asked for this change. In addition, calls have gone up to 2p per minute, (texts are cheaper at 8p though). 

What this change shows is perhaps Blyk isn’t very secure financially. In the tough recession times, they can’t be blamed. Will Blyk be available for users in the future, or will the MVNO disappear like so many before them? They have halved the free allowance, so problems must be there.

£15 free credit a moth is still a good deal, but for me personally, it is not enough enticement to switch to them full time, (I currently use it as a second phone). The difficulties I face as a Blyk member are too much for a measly free £15 a month. For example, right now I can’t login to the “Your Blyk” website, and I still haven’t be able to top-up with my debit card yet, despite trying every day for two weeks!

JK

Windows 7 is the next major update of the Windows Operating System; the most popular in the world.

I have now been running the beta version of the OS since Saturday, and I have used copies of previous builds in VMware.

The Installation ii the first noteworthy update; a clean install on my PC into a partition took under 10 minutes! First run of the new OS too was very quick; it started quicker that my copy of Vista Home Premium, and boasts a much nicer start up, with cool graphic effects.

The UI of Windows 7 is one of the most obvious differences. The new taskbar reminds me of the OS X Dock; something I’m not all that fond of. I find it a little bulky to use, with it becoming a clutter of icons and running apps. I hate the fact that it groups similar windows together, like Messenger and Internet Explorer ones. This is really annoying. It seems to take twice as long to open windows, and I just don’t see the advantage.

A lot of the new features in Windows 7 are very minor indeed! Aero Snap for example, and the detachment of the Sidebar. Jump Lists; hardly revolutionary! These are nice additions, but nothing that couldn’t just have been added to Vista in a service pack.

Some features of Windows 7 are quite new; for example the ribbon in Paint and WordPad. I personally find this an excellent choice, as I love Office 2007. For some though, this will be a nightmare. Perhaps Microsoft should give the user the choice on which system they use.

I do get the feeling Windows 7 is less temperamental than Vista. It runs faster, and it hasn’t crashed so far. Wireless networking seems improved as well, with the network selection menu being added to the taskbar. One thing I dislike though is icons being hidden in a new menu. It seems to do the same as the old hiding system, but seems to work worse, with it being harder to tell what icons represent which programs. Is this an improvement?

Aero Peek though is very cool! It looks great, and is something I’d show people. Do I need it functionality wise? Nope, it has no purpose but to look nice, and lets you see those desktop gadgets, which I never use.

Windows 7 worked flawlessly with my current Wireless Adapter and the Vista driver. One thing I can’t get to work is the new ‘Devices and Printers’ screen. It doesn’t seem to recognise the other network PCs or Printers in my household. By default, the only when I can see these is If I go through the Control Panel. In Vista, there is the useful ‘Network’ Menu. Why did they get rid of it by default? Why is ‘Default Programs’ there?

Many have said Windows 7 is just a service pack for Windows Vista. While Windows 7 adds a lot more core stability, speed and refinements, it is far from a brand new OS. This is what Vista should have been. Yes, Windows 7 provides more functionality upgrades than a standard service pack, but does it warrant a new OS? How can Microsoft justify a price tag over £30?

I think Vista users deserve Windows 7 as fast as possible, and as a free or heavily discounted upgrade. After using Windows Vista for the past two years, I know first hand that it hasn’t been a perfect experience. Not as bad as it has been said or appears in the infamous ‘Get a Mac’ ads, but still not quite perfect. Windows 7 fixes this, and returns Windows to it’s former “glory”. And this is only the beta!

JK

The PS3 is described as one of the most powerful consoles to be sold. With games packed with ultra-realistic graphics, a blu-ray HD drive and full net functionality, it’s strange to see that it’s flagging behind its competitors.

The Nintendo Wii is furthest ahead, followed by Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Why is there such a gap?

Is it because of the price perhaps? The Wii retails for around £179.99; the cheapest of the three. The Xbox is close behind, at a price of £229.99 for the elite version, (the basic Arcade version can be bought for as cheap as £129.99).  The PS3 however is a little more. £299.99 for the basic PS3 console, with 80gb. That doesn’t include a single game. (The Wii has Wii Sports for example).

In the current economic climate, are people really going to spend that much on a gaming console? Especially the ‘casual gaming’ market that these consoles want to tap into?

Plus, the games themselves are £40 each, and for the UK consumer, the consoles are a rip off! In the US, the same console sells for $399.99, which is today equivalent to £270.00, almost the price of a game cheaper. The same console!

If Sony wants to actually have a successful console, they shouldn’t make it so expensive. End of story. They can always make any loss back through the sale of games and accessories, which would increase if they lowered the price of the console in the first place!

Here is a funny little video I found anyway:

JK

ChaCha are a fairly new company, in the Question and Answer market. Basically, US users text in any questions they like, free, and ChaCha texts back the answer.

How they do this, is using “Guides”; knowledgeable individuals, who get paid to reply to the questions through the ChaCha web portal. For every answer, they get paid $0.10; the top guides getting twice as much.

Out of curiosity, I tried to become a guide earlier today. Unfortunately, they rejected me at the first questioning stage; the ChaCha Fitness Stage. The topic? ChaCha.

Of course, I had no idea. To be honest, the founder of the company, the place that it was announced and the company’s ethos do not really interest me in the foggiest.

I can imagine how important to an American when their out-and-about to find out that “Cha” means dance in Chinese, and Scott Jones invented the concept. Wow.

I also fail to see how ChaCha actually makes any money. Users don’t have to pay anything to the company to text in, and the texts don’t have ads. Great business model.

JK