The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

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

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

The iPhone is such a cool piece of kit, with thousands of cool little apps. After seeing the massive campaign of ads for this iPod come phone, you would be forgiven in thinking that you couldn’t live without one.  I’ll tell you, very easily actually.

Like many other people, I wanted one! The thing that put me off though was signing up to a long 18 month o2 contract, (In the UK, Apple has an exclusivity deal with o2).

Also, the fact that the contract really isn’t that good a deal, and you have to pay for the phone! In the UK, this is like the ultimate mobile sin.

But my opinion on the iPhone changed dramatically when I actually tried using one. Of course, the interface was sleek, and the apps in particular are much better than that of a Blackberry. I’ve always been a fan of iTunes too, so that was a plus. However, the camera is terrible, only 2mp with no flash or autofocus, and the worst part is texting. I absolutely hate the virtual keyboard.

It’s not like I’m new to touch screen phones: my current phone is the Prada Phone by LG (Model 1). I can text on it just as fast as on a physical keyboard. It’s because it uses a standard phone key set on the virtual keyboard. As a result, it’s very easy to use, as the buttons are large.

On the iPhone however, I find each QWERTY key too small. I end up never getting the right letter, and I actually have fairy dextrose hands.

I’ve heard a landscape keyboard will be introduced in the next firmware update, (v3.0). This is by far something that should have been released in the beginning. I’m still skeptical of how easy the keyboard will be to use, even in landscape. Before I even consider buying an iPhone, I will definitely have to try it first. 

JK

The Pirate Bay founders have now be sentenced to one year in prison, and a huge £3 Million fine. There site is the webs biggest illegal file sharing website, and home to free downloads of Music, Videos and Software. But will this be the end of the site?

I don’t believe so. The site has already survived a raid, and if it did go down, there’s always another site to instantly take its place. But I don’t believe this is the real question. The question we shoudl be asking is one of morality: Is file sharing right?

Of course, the content creators need to make a living; their job is making Music/Movies/Software or whatever. But are any of these people empoverished? Madonna/Britney Spears/Take That? The music industry is worth several billion dollars. 

The Internet has arrived, and its popularity is reflected by the huge number of users of Facebook and Myspace. The Music and Movie industry need to embrace this. Record Artists make a huge proportion of their money through Touring and Merchandise. If the music is out their, then maybe more people will start listening to it. I believe that the time has passed from where Music was paid for, and delivered in physical form. Piracy will never be defeated, beacause so many people are not willing to pay for their music anymore. The Industry should stop being in denial of this, and accept it, and develop.

JK

Everyone! Everyone is on Twitter now: it’s the new facebook of the net. (And I find facebook boring). Everyone from Oprah to Ashton Kutcher, to CNN is using Twitter now, and so am I. You can follow my updates by adding jmkuk, or by visiting this page on my blog. Enjoy!
JK

(I’ll review Twitter soon)

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

The Nintendo DS has been a worldwide success, selling millions of units. Now, Nintendo are about to release the DS’s replacement: the DSi.

Boasting two cameras, a media player, internet browsing a 12% thinner body than the ds lite, and bigger screens, the DSI certainly has the power to overshadow the standard DS.

Nintendo DSI Pre Order is now available in the UK. GameStock allows you to see all available deals and choose the cheapest; for example, currently HMV is at £146.80 and free delivery. That is a great deal to pre-order dsi.

GameStock also show new deals for pre-ordering other games and systems; such as Wii Music, and for seeing stock levels of certain titles, such as Wii Fit, which is in stock at Argos for £68.49!

Also, because GameStock uses live feeds to get it’s prices and stock updates, the information is very accurate. For me, this is a great site for checking and comparing prices of the latest games. This ensures the best price for me.

This kind of comparison service is readily available for financial matters, including car insurance and travel. However, this is the first I’ve seen of a gaming focused comparison service. Undeniably, it is very useful. I would recommend this to anyone into gaming, and wants to get the best possible price.

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