Category: Blog

 

When Apple head honcho Steve Jobs stood in front of the crowd during his annual Macworld keynote address in 2007 and delivered the iPhone to an eager public, something changed in the world of mobile phones.

2010 will be the year where something is going to change again. With Google Android, Apple iPhone, Microsoft Windows 7, Symbian, Blackberry and more, the number of smart mobiles on the market will be higher than ever. But how will you choose the right platform? Will it be a particular app that you want, or range of apps? Will it be the handset? The operating system? How about the brand?

The hardest thing about setting up your mobile phone is configuring the settings and transferring your personal information. This is where the connectivity comes into play. For example, putting your information from your current iPhone onto your new iPhone is simple. Doing the same from your iPhone to a Nokia? Much harder.

We all want our smart phones to be personal information solutions, that is why we buy them. But as they grow into the broader audience, they will be used by customers who don’t care about configuring the device and just want it to work.

Here is why 2010 will be so important to the manufacturers. When you choose the right platform for you, you will also buy some apps, load in some content and spend a lot of time and energy doing it. Doing it all over again next year when you get a new phone – no way. And that’s why you will see even more noise created in the phone world this year when it comes to compatibility and why vendors will try even harder to get you as a customer. Because once you’re hooked, it’ll be harder to let go – not because you are so overwhelmed by the technology on offer, but due to the amount of hassle involved in changing to a new vendor.

 

Had an interesting interview on Nine News with Chris Urquhart, whereby the subject matter had some disturbing ramifications and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Recently three teenagers lost there lives in a horror crash in Melbourne. Aged just between 15 and 19, these three young people left a wake of grief behind them as family and friends struggled to deal with the loss of a small group of kids whose lives were just starting.

Being the 21^st century, the way people deal with grief is markedly different from when I was growing up, and as one would expect from the younger generation, friends set up a Facebook page as a memorial and place where people could leave their condolences.

What the people who set up the account didn’t expect, and shouldn’t have to put up with, was a group of thoughtless, mean-spirited people leaving horrible and upsetting messages on the site, for what appears to be their own petty amusement.

Unfortunately Facebook has refused to shut down the site, which they don’t have to, but doesn’t make the grieving friends feel any better.

At the end of the day, this type of thing says more about the people who put up this kind of disturbing material and shows just how hateful and selfish some people can be.

Spoke to Chris Allen on A Current Affair last night about 3D television and how this technology will have an ever-increasing presence on the retail landscape over the next 12 months when vendors roll out their latest stock in about June.

There is no doubt in my mind that this technology will be the norm within the next 3-5 years, so it was interesting to get the perspective of retail outlets.

What Chris also talked about was the great deals you can now get on LCD, plasma and LED televisions. Whether the prices are coming down due to too many players in the market, too much stock, or the looming debut of 3D television is open to debate. What I do know, is that the deals out there at the moment and you can now get a reasonably sized television for a good price.

It still pays to shop around though, and the ball is definitely in the consumer’s hands when it comes to getting your new home theatre kit set up.