Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Following the mishap of my Nokia N81 (broken screen) I needed to obtain a new phone. As I had another phone that was out of contract I was able to get the new HTC Touch Diamond. This is an awesome touch screen phone. The apple iPhone is basically a poor copy of the HTC touch phones only running substandard software including the Music crippling DRM iTunes software. In reality there is no comparison. The iPhone is an iPod with a phone application attached. It does the internet badly (no java or flash support) has no Bluetooth (OK it has bluetooth but you cannot use it to transfer files or data – isn’t that he point of bluetooth?), cannot MMS pictures, has a very bad battery life and you have to install and run iTunes before you can even use the phone application. The HTC Touch Diamond by contrast is first and foremost a Smartphone. That is, it is a PDA phone  running the Windows Mobile 6.1 software. Not only does it have the full phone functionality that every mobile phone should have, it combines this with the PDA capability of Mobile Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, integration with Outlook and Exchange, SMS and MMS, photos and video (using a 3.2Mega Pixel camera) has a touch screen interface including some cool scrolling applications just like the iPhone has. Data connectivity includes Bluetooth, Wifi, multi-band Phone (3G, GSM and HSDPA). GPS can be integrated easily (using an external device which is good because it doesn’t then rely on cell coverage). Possibly the only poor comparison to the iPhone is the internal storage is fixed at 4GB. The battery life is also poor, but it can be replaced unlike the iPhone!

After scouring Brisbane by phone I finally located a possible Wii Fit. One store had one that had been set aside for a customer – they were going to ring and see if they still wanted it. It was my lucky day. As I arrived to pick up the Nintendo Wii, the chap said he had manage to secure the Wii Fit for me as well.

I rang 10 or 15 outlets yesterday to discover none had any in stock, yet all were advertising them like mad. Responses ranged from “we can put you on a list but its first in first served” to “we will guarantee you one by Christmas!”

Day before yesterday we got $750 of free christmas presents. Could have been over $1000 but I chose not too. How do you ask?

For the aussie readers only, I went to a Strathfield Mobile phone shop and contracted my wife's existing phone account for 24 months to the same price plan she was already on - with better options-got her a new handset, the Nokia 6300 for free, and then spent the $300 of free store credit on various Christmas presents. Not describing them here due to some of the readers of this blog going to be receiving them!

I also upgraded my phone to a Nokia N81, but as this was a more expensive handset I didn't qualify for the free $300 of store credit. The phone was free and just meant resigning my existing account on the same plan for another 24 months. Not like I was going to change it anyway!

Following Scott Hanselman's, Steve Richards and Bill Gates lead, I have decided to share my office and workspace setup.

This isn't meant to be a gloat about the technology I use rather an explanation of the tools that I use in my job. Plumbers and electricians have cool vans full of all their gear and they probably spend more on that than I have on this.

My office is around 4 metres square, though one corner is chamfered off. In order to maximise the space available and still create enough room for my staff to work I have a real mixture of furniture. My desk is a curved reception desk I picked up second hand from the gym when they remodelled. It has nice deep drawers on both sides and the 90 degree curving space is an excellent fit for the 4 monitors I work on - 2 x 22" and 2 x 19" wide screens. It also holds current files and data, pens, blank cds, odds and ends and all the cables to connect my mobile phone, camera, video camera and creative zen. On top at each end I store things that I don't need to look at but need to access. In the middle I have a photo frame of my 4 kids and a Lego Bionicle I was given when leaving a client.

Read More