I found the below Flash movie recently..and funny enough, I kind of enjoyed it.
Beware the language.
[FLASH]london_underground.swf,500,365[/FLASH]
London Underground: The Song (from the album Fitness to Practice), Amateur Transplants. Click here to buy the album.
The announcement of the $200 price drop on the 8Gig iPhone did not only cause positive reactions. A lot of the early adopters weren’t too happy to see such a huge drop in Price after only two months.
What made it worse, was a comment from Steve Jobs in an interview:
“Q: What do you say to customers who just bought a new iPhone for $599? Sorry?
A: That’s technology. If they bought it this morning, they should go back to where they bought it and talk to them. If they bought it a month ago, well, that’s what happens in technology.“
Well, looks like since he mad that statement, he changed his mind a little bit. in an open letter he announced that those early buyers will be able to get a $100 store credit (valid in the retail and online stores). Amazing reaction, which might cost Apple a small fortune, but then again, it shows why Apple has such a loyal customer base! Which other company would have reacted like this? I can’t name a single one.
Looks like all of the different rumours were true. And my prediction weren’t really wrong either, but then again, I guess a lot of the stuff was kind of predictable, although it was a surprise that really nearly all of the different rumours were correct this time.
– iPod shuffle “Product red, and other new colours.
– new iPod Nano. Yes, it is the “fatty”, that was seen on Engadget and other sites already. Cover flow, but not touch sensitive. Available with 4G ($149) and 8G ($199)
– new iPod Classic. Basically the same new UI as the new Nano, 80G ($249) and 160G($349).
– new iPod Touch. Basically an iPhone without the phone! Same UI, multi-touch, and WIFI! Pretty nice. Available with 8G ($299) and 16G ($399)
– iTunes wireless store! Kind of expected when it became clear that the new iPod will have Wifi. Available on the iPod Touch and soon also on the iPhone as part of a software update.
– Pricedrop for the iPhone! The 8G version will be $399 instead of $599. Nice! The 4G version is gone.
In the end, a very nice line-up of new devices!
Update: As usual, I am rather disapointed to see the price here in the UK for these devices. Let me take the 16G iPod Touch as example: 399US$ in the US Apple store. 269£ in the UK store, which corresponds to 543US$. You would have to add the Sales Tax to the 399US$, but even after that, around 100US$ more to pay if you buy it here in the UK.
I guess this week I will really enjoy even more the fact that I can walk to work and don’t have to rely on public transport. Since today, 18h00 Metronet, the company who maintains part of the London Underground network will be on strike for 72 hours.
As a consequence, only 3 of the 12 lines are still operating! During peak hours, with all 12 lines in service, the trains are already rather packed, now imaging that with only 3 lines in operation! I don’t even want to think about the situation in those areas which are not covered at all by the remaining lines. The cabbies will definitely have a few busy days in front of them.
As a lot of you know by now, Apple has scheduled a “special event” this Wednesday. I am not going to repeat all of the rumours of what will be announced, but, jut for the fun of it, here is my prediction:
It will be the long awaited new iPod. Using the OSX and having the same nice UI as the iPhone! Now, it might even have wireless build in, but if it does, it will only make sense if it will also finally allow wireless iTunes synchronisation, or direct access to the iTunes store.
As usual, there will be the “one more thing” at the end. And that one will be the announcement of the availability of the complete Beatles collection in the iTunes Store. Why? The phrase on the invite gives it away. “The beat goes on” were the last words of the final Beatles press release!
Maybe it is just me, but I kind of feel irritated to see that some of the department stores have already started putting up dedicated areas with Christmas decoration! Yes, I know, it is the same thing every year, but still, September 1st seems to be way too early! We are still trying to enjoy summer over here in London (or whatever you want to call it this year).
The above picture was taken today at Selfridges in London.
As some of you know, I recently bought an iPhone. Since it is not yet available here in Europe, I got it from the US. Activation was easy, which basically gave me a really nice wireless iPod. Well, since today, using a TurboSIM, I finally have a fully unlocked iPhone, working with t-mobile over here in the UK! Yes, there are a few thing that are missing on the current version of the iPhone (no 3G, no build-in GPS, no copy-paste,…) but otherwise, it is the best phone currently available! The multi-touch user interface is just amazing! In addition it is the best iPod available (if you can accept that it has only 8G of storage space).
Although, I guess that the last part might change next week..rumours are indicating that Apple might release a new iPod next week (including wireless and touch screen…but then again…rumours.
I am sure that regular listeners of TWiT already know Wil Harris. He is one of the regular panel members on TWiT, was until recently part of bit-tech.net and also wrote a number of articles for the The Enquirer and The Register. Anyway, as Wil announced on the latest TWiT podcast that he is in the final steps of launching a new UK based Video Podcast network. The launch is scheduled for mid September, and will include a number of different shows covering Games, Music, Technologie, Fashion, etc…
You can find some additional info on a blog post on Wired.com. You can also find updates from time to time on “Where’s Wil“. Stay tuned for more!
Since well over 24 hours, Skype is kind of broken. The official word on the Skype Website is indicating that it is is caused by a problem in the “networking software” used on the central Skype servers. The update from 07h00 GMT is indicating that they are getting closer to a solution, but I guess that was before all of the european users woke up and tried to connect to the Skype network again.
Over the past few hours, I have been collecting the number of users connected to the Skpye network, and although you can see a continued growth of the number of connected users over night, it is clearly going down again now, which certainly isn’t a very good sign.
Update: over the past hour or so, the number of connected users seems to be slowly growing again. Good sign I guess.
Update (17h25BST): As the updated graph below shows, we still seem to be on the right path. More and more users are connected. Approaching the 3.5 Million user mark again.
Update (19h30BST): The number of connected users continues to grow. Although, looking at the Skype client on my PC, it is still disconnecting all the time, so there are obviously still issues.
Update (20h45BST): It is looking better and better. Over 4 million users connected agin! And my Skype client also is behaving stable again. Connected since nearly an hour now.
Update (21h35BST): We have reached 4.5 million users. Nice. But…my Skype client has started disconnecting again, so I guess it is still work in progress.
Update (22h20BST): 5 Million Users! Looking better and better…
Update (00h20BST): Not sure what to think about the latest trend on the graph. After having reached 6 million users, it dropped down again dramatically, once even down to 600’000 at 23h00GMT. Looks like a “reboot”. Well, there are no updates at all on teh Skype status pages, so no idea really. The Skype client on my machine here seems to be working fine now over the past hours, as such the drop in users might just be due to the fact that all of Europe is back to sleep now.
Update (01h45BST): The numbers look nice and stable by now, and guess what, there is also finally again an update from the guys at Skype. They basically confirm that the login problems have been solved! Although some users might still notice that parts of the whole system are behaving a bit slower then normal, the actual issue seems to be finally under control!
Another nice weekend in London! The weather was wonderful and there is always something new to see in London. One of this weekends events was the Carnaval del Pueblo in Camberwell (next to Elephant and Castle in South London). It is the biggest latin Carneval event in the UK, over 100’000 visitors last year. I spend most of Sunday afternoon/evening there with some friends, and it was great fun! Although, I have to say that maybe some of us had too many cocktails/beers at the end, but hey, great fun! Great music, great fun fair, great environment, great people and all of this together with lot’s of sun made it a wonderful event!