The Shock of the Decent Song

Just as I heard the new Coldplay single before the album release, thus assuring me that their new album wasn’t going to be that bad – I’ve just done the same with Oasis.

I buy Oasis albums come what may. There hasn’t been an absolute must-have from them since Be Here Now, though Standing On The Shoulders… came quite close. But hearing ‘The Shock of The Lightning’ just now on some music channel has convinced me that all is not lost with Oasis, and it actually sounds pretty good!

GB’s Heebee Geebee’s

It’s good to see Team GB do so well at the Olympics. It gives you a feelgood factor that I’ve yet to experience with the english football team.

I watched the closing ceremony, and after the oddness of London’s 10 minutes, which involved a flag waving Boris Johnson, there was a great televisual moment – Jackie Chan SINGING. That surely beats anything that’s gone before, Olympics or otherwise!

Forest managed their first win in the Championship, against a determined Watford. Thankfully, the two fellas we brought in to provide the goals – Rob Earnshaw and Lee Martin – did just that. We also had the rare sight of a Nathan Tyson appearance, and he tapped one in for his two. It’s also good to note the return of Andy Cole to the first team. Suddenly things seem so much more rosier at the City Ground.

Moosic

Since I got the iPhone, i’ve been keen to fill up my admittedly piss poor music collection. It never used to be this way, I used to have about 6GB of music on my old iPod. But a lot of it I never listened to, so I decided to dump it all and leave myself with the bare minimum, which is about 700 songs.

Keen on getting some music back on the iPhone but not so keen on p2p sites, I came across the the Simplify App for the iPhone. All it does is wirelessly let you listen to other peoples tunes via iTunes. Fellow iPhone addict Alan also downloaded this app, so I was given access to his whole music library. A library that tops more than 16GB of music…!

Of course, you are only able to listen to the music. No way (at all) of downloading and keeping the music all to yourself, but as long as the internet connection you’re receiving on your iPhone is decent, then there is no problem just streaming the music and enjoying someone else’s (rather large) music collection.

Just this morning, I’ve stumbled across a website called Cr3ation b3ta. Whisper it quietly, but it seems that this website lets you download individual mp3’s without the need for you to install any software. I’ve already said too much!

iLove the iPhone

I’ve had the iPhone since Wednesday now, so a few first impressions.

I knew I’d like it. I’d played with an original iPhone, seen various things the new phone could do from different blogs, and generally worked myself up into a frenzy until I had one in my hands! The setting up of the phone couldn’t have been any easier. After I walked into the O2 shop and bought it, the assistant told me that it’ll be 24 hours before it ‘goes live’. It took barely two.

After letting iTunes do its stuff, I spent the rest of Wednesday fiddling. I’m on a £30 a month contract, one that gives me next to no minutes or texts, but plenty of the stuff that matters to me – the internet! I’d really been swayed by the unlimited internet and wifi that O2 were offering. The Safari web browser is great, much more central to the phone than the N95 web browser was. I actually use Safari as my main browser on my PC, so upon loading iTunes it synced all my bookmarks too! 

The iPod quality seems better than my old iPod ‘classic’. Maybe it’s having official iPod earphones again, but I can notice a definite improvement. One minor annoyance here though is the fact that the iPod doesn’t seem to remember where you were when you stop using the music player, do something else on the phone then come back. I only seem to get so far through a ’shuffle’ of songs before I have to start again.

The camera is what I expected of it. Not great, but considering it’s limitations the pictures are acceptable. I managed to take good shots with my 2 megapixel K750i, and with a little practice I shouldn’t have many problems doing the same here. One of the things that I’d noticed Alan using, Clowdy, was an ‘app’ I’d been keen to put on my iPhone once I’d brought it. Basically, you take a picture through the application and it maps whereabouts you were when you took it. Clicking onto Clowdy you can also see who’s taking pictures nearby, though either there aren’t many people using it, or the GPS isn’t that great unless you define nearby as London St Pancras! Aside from that, another great feature.

Which brings me onto the App Store. A genius invention by Apple. They’ve given over the iPhone App development tools, so anyone can make an App. At the moment, there’s one or two apps that i’ve added to my phone. The Facebook app was a no-brainer, then the WordPress app – with what I wrote my last post – and Clowdy too. I’m searching through them all to find other good free ones, but might venture into the paid category as the iPint isn’t really doing it for me!

The Maps feature is a rather nifty GPS tool. It has Sat Nav capabilities, but not fully featured and definitely not as good as the N95’s. The time it takes on locating you is a definite improvement on the N95 though, it’d take up to five minutes or more with the Nokia, takes seconds with the iPhone. I’m not sure it likes metal buildings though, as whenever I put the Maps on at work, it has me down as being in the middle of University Boulevard!

I could really blab on about every single feature, but you get the point – i’m very happy with the iPhone. I’d never have believed that I’d get one, not since I laughed at how rubbish the original iPhone looked. But a combination of Apple’s way with design and functions that suit my needs, and here I am!

The iPhone!

Well, here I am posting from my new iphone! As is always the case with me, the time between deciding I want something to actually going out and buying it was very short.

It was also the last in the shop, or so the assistant led me to believe. Personally, I bet they were stocked to the rafters, but no matter – they didn’t have to convince to buy it!

I’ll probably now spend the rest of the evening getting to grips with it.