#“Interesting way to order \“impossible\” things from abroad”
I spotted this on one of the Android forums earlier. It’s a way of ordering things from abroad from vendors who won’t ship outside of their own country. I’ve heard of similar in the US for years but I didn’t know it was here in Europe too.
The service is called Borderlinx and appears to be facilitated by DHL. So you order something from the UK and give the Borderlinx UK address for delivery. Once Borderlinx gets it, you tell them where you really want it shipped to and when. The example I read was ordering a mobile phone in one country from Orange in the UK. Normally impossible but supposedly it works with Borderlinx.
Anyone use them? Thoughts? Good value?
One potential problem I see is that many sites will only deliver to the address associated with your credit card.
My feelings about the iPad remain little-changed since launch despite having played with one several times. Having said that, if I had lots of disposable income and bought XBox360s, PS3s or the latest laptop on a whim, I’m sure I’d have dipped my toe in. But as a must-have device, it ticks no boxes for me.
The one area where tablets make complete sense for me is with kids. When I saw them play Angry Birds or watch videos on an iPad and then when I read people’s comments about tablets replacing the horrendous stack of books they have to drag to school, I finally got the tablet niche. But it’ll never be the iPad for us. I want something with crazy features like USB ports and memory card slots and the ability to install whatever goddammed apps I choose and the ability to sync everything to the cloud without needing to wire it to a real computer.
So imagine my excitement when Paul O’Brien over on Modaco posted the details of the new DSG Group (Dixon’s, Curry’s, PC World) Advent tablet. The specs are awesome:
Nvidia Tegra 250 1GHz SMP dual Cortex-A9 40nm Enhanced 3D
RAM: 512MB and ROM: 512MB
Screen resolution: 1024 x 600
WiFi
Bluetooth
microSD card reader
1.3 MP Webcam
Capacitive Multi-touch screen
Android 2.2 Froyo
HDMI out
1080P Video Encode/Decode ULP Audio Decode Streaming HD Video ~4x vs APX 2600
USB x 1
SIM card slot
USB interface
G-sensor
And then there is the price……………….£250. Holy cow.
The video isn’t a mind blower but if you have used an Android phone you can imagine the possibilities on a bigger screen.
But I had forgotten the kids again. I showed the video to my 11 y/o son. He immediately dismissed the iPad and said he wanted one of these. He realised that this plus a keyboard could replace the horror of a laptop he uses now (6 years old, big chunks of screen dead, keys missing etc etc). And the fact that Android does Flash means that all those silly online games are still playable. He was imagining taking it to his friends house to play games and watch movies either on-screen or connected to their TV. He was thinking about reading books on Kindle. He suddenly forgot all about a Nintendo 3DS.
He is now trying to figure out how to raise the cash to get one for christmas. I have to say it even has me tempted now.
#“Last night’s Apprentice UK reminded me of these”
I had the Dilbert "Utilize Synergy" strip pinned to my cubicle from the mid 90s to 2001.
That strip sat alongside the classic Wally "I leveraged synergy across all technology platforms" and the all-time-great "Let's form proactive synergy restructuring teams".
Here we are 10 years later and the type of people who apply to be on The Apprentice in the UK and Ireland still think words like "Fusion" "Synergy" and "Apollo" are something other than laughable.
I wait in hope for an ex-Philips employee to go on The Apprentice and insist on calling themselves Tiger Team.
To be fair to the UK Apprentice, they are pulling the same smart trick as the current US one by having someone on the show with a severe personality disorder (no not Donald). It keeps it edgy!
#“About….Bloody……Time…: Android - More Countries, More sellers, More buyers”
Since we launched Android and Android Market, we have seen the population of Android users and devices expand into many countries. This widespread adoption has brought with it growing interest in Android Markets support for the buying and selling of paid applications in these additional countries.
Paul O'Brien from http://www.modaco.com has a useful unboxing video of the Orange San Francisco (aka ZTE Blade).
But the incredible thing is what you are getting for 99 on Pay As You Go with Orange UK.
* Capacitive Touch Screen
* Android 2.1 (Soon 2.2 Froyo)
* 512MB RAM
* HSDPA 3G
* MicroSD Slot
* FM Radio
* 3.2MP Camera
* 600 MHz CPU
* GPS
* Wifi
* Accelerometer/Compass
* Trivial to Root
I predicted at the start of the year that we would see a flood of cheap good Chinese Android phones on the market this year. But I honestly wasn't expecting this good this soon.
Who in their right mind in the UK would buy a candy-bar feature phone now? As for all those people desperately trying to save up for an iPhone.......
I'm in London in two weeks time. I think I'l be coming back with at least one of these. Would make for some very unexpected Christmas presents. Or maybe a birthday present for a young man who is dying to get his first phone.
Just spotted from @Popple3 via @jkeyes that he can see paid apps on his Irish Android phone (Meteor). I also just got a mail from Google telling me that lots more countries will be rolled out in the coming weeks. Someone finally banged the appropriate heads together.
But it looks like the Irish thing may be network specific for the moment. I ain't got diddly on my Vodafone SIM despite a few reboots so I'm stuck using my 3UK SIM trick to install Paid Apps.
In any case, great news for Android owners in Ireland and one less reason to hold off on buying an Android phone. Now if only Vodafone would launch the HTC Desire Z in Ireland so I can get it for my Dad.
Welcome to the 2010 Calling All Innovators North America developer contest, presented by Nokia and AT&T. Were challenging developers to create new applications and games for the new Nokia N8 and future Nokia devices for consumers in the U.S. and Canada. With $10 million in cash, devices, and marketing prizes up for grabs, now is the time for you to take advantage of Ovi Stores global reach which gives you access to the worlds largest community of app-purchasing mobile consumers.
The N8 is the likely to be the last high-end Symbian phone. Nokia wants you to build an app for it and then enter a competition to win prizes.
They want you to build an app in the hope you'll have an upside.
They want you to risk your time and effort to help grow their business.
This is exactly the same crap we saw with Palm and WebOS. If someone in Palm had had the sense to take $15m from their marketing budget and give $10,000 each to 1500 developers to build kick-ass apps, they might have succeeded.
Nokia, if you want me to build an app for your dying platform, pay me in advance.
