The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

A few weeks ago I wrote a lengthy post on Why I Would Never Buy an iPhone. I hated the phone’s small touch keyboard, expensive price tag and the prospect of having to move to o2.

But, as it turns out, I lied. Two weeks ago, I bought an iPhone. For the price of only £70 off eBay! Sure, it’s only the 1st Gen model, but still. I’m in love.

Why did I get it so cheap?? There was a small fault with the phone: it was stuck in silent with the switch on the side broken. But a quick Google and some help from iClarified allowed me to fix the problem, by changing a file over SSH.

I also managed to unlock and jailbreak very easily with Redsn0w. Although, getting the iPhone to work with Windows 7 RC is a nightmare. And Recovery mode doesn’t work. I also bought a Crumpler case to keep my iPhone nice and safe. I love these cases, and I have a Crumpler one for my iPod Classic too.  

So, over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been using the phone with Vodafone, and now I question myself: how could I live without an iPhone?? WiFi is great, and being able to check my emails quickly, and lookup places on Google Maps has been incredibly useful. It seems I have been converted!

JK

This is just a quick post in tribute to Michael Jackson. He was a great performer, singer and dancer, and his music is and will always be the stuff of legend.

JK

Today, I reserved my Facebook “Vanity URL”: at 7:30 in the morning. So, from now on I’m facebook.com/kilgour!

That’s right: I got my surname! Of cause, a lot of Kilgour’s in the world are related to me, I guess it’s really not a common surname. But still.

What the whole Vanity URL shows is that there are a lot of vain people in the world. Because really, there isn’t that much need for these urls.  Why can’t people just do what they always did; use each other’s emails to find each other?

Anyway, I’m happy to have my new URL. I’m not even a serial Facebook user; in fact I almost never use it, apart from once a month or so. I find it boring. (That’s probably the ultimate sin, right?) But i felt compelled to stop anyway else using my surname.

Which in itself is vain.

JK

The iPhone 3GS was the prized product of Apple’s WWDC conference yesterday. But what exactly is so different…

So it has faster speed, a better camera and a bunch of new features, it basically is the same phone.

And Apple are giving the old 3G version of the phone the updated firmware. So basically… what is the point? And why could they have built in the new hardware in the previous version??? I guess they wouldn’t be able to then market a new one and MAKE MORE MONEY. (The three M’s). Come on Apple! Give us something really new. And cheaper please.

JK

Check out this video, by iJustine. She’s a really cool video blogger from California, that I’ve only just discovered!

JK

While I feel sorry for Gordon, I think the time has been reached that the UK needs a new Prime Minister. This weekends Local Election results only go to show that the people of Britain have lost faith in Labour and Brown.

Labour have now lost 250 councilors across the UK, while Conservative have gained 217.

What this country needs, like Barrack Obama said, is “Change we can believe in”. The MPs Expenses issue has raised a lot of doubt in the current system of Government, as well as half the Cabinet resigning.

Come on Gordon. Call a general election, and let the people have a say. That’s the true spirit of Democracy that this country is renowned for.

JK

Big Brother is one of my favourite TV programs, and now it’s launching again tomorrow! Channel 4, 9pm!

Looking at the photos of the new house, I am really excited: the whole credit crunch idea I think is really good, and I like secret rooms and twists.

Many critics of the show are asking if we still care. I can say 100% that I do. You can see pictures and teasers of the new season here on the C4 website. 

JK

Bing: the new Microsoft search engine. Now available in Beta in the UK!

I was quite intrigued to test Bing, and find out what the fuss is about. Since Microsoft are rumored to be spending $100 million advertising Bing, there must be something special. Surely.

My first thought on loading the Bing Homepage was wow! It looks really nice, with some really great background pictures. On my 4mb Internet Connection, the picture did take a moment to load.

I then did a quick search: camera. It seemed like a good plan, and I was expecting some shopping listings, as shown in the Bing preview video.

I was disappointed with what I got. Just links, like Google. Wow. Obviously shopping and other cool new features are only going to be available in the US, at least for a while. This seems typical, as UK users always seem to get left out

However, there are some cool features working in the UK! Such as the live preview pain: this is quite a good idea on Microsoft’s part, and something that I think I will actually use. It would be easier and quicker though to have the orange dot on the other side of the listing. (You’ll see what I mean when you try).

Another good development is the ability to preview videos. Like the Preview Pain, this cuts down the amount of clicking needed for searching.

You can also watch the full video through Bing.

My first impressions of Bing is that it’s a great search engine, that I will continue to use. I would like to see the full features that are available in the US in the UK though. The questions everyone seems to be asking is Bing vs. Google. I think that Bing takes the prize: something I never expected to think.

JK

Here is the preview video for Bing: the new Microsoft search engine that is replacing the failure that is Live Search. It will be available tomorrow, and worldwide by June 3rd.

JK

With the recent news of the Church of Scientology being banned from editing Wikipedia, here are 4 parts of a Panorama Scientology investigation, that was broadcast a year ago. I think it’s an interesting perspective. Whether you agree with it or not, it’s worth a watch.

You can also watch the reply by the Church of Scientology here.

JK