Google before you tweet....

Rethink Scholarship

Thanks to Katie for showing me this snazzy video!

Four Tet - Love Cry (Joy Orbison remix)

I thoroughly recommend purchasing the new alum to hear the original of this song, as well as a collection of other SLAMMING tracks. Mr. Hebden is playing around the UK over the next few months. Check here for dates. I'm off to see him in Bristol!

The Rise of the Prosumer

The word 'prosumer' is a hybrid of the words produced and consumer which perfectly describes the role of the Web 2.0/3.0 citizen in the modern technological era.

iSlate the iPad

You would have to have been living under a rock (if Steve has his way, an iRock) for the past month to have escaped the media circus that has been following the faintest scrap of news regarding Apples new gadget. Although it was announced over a week ago, I have purposefully delayed writing about it on my blog. As a self-confessed Apple fan, I have been hoping that I would eventually be swayed by what is essentially an expensive paperweight.

Firstly, I am disappointed by the screen. Despite countless reviews claiming it to be 'stunning', it is essentially pretty standard. A 1024x768 display is nothing new. I was at least expecting it to be OLED or use electronic ink. There's no way that people are going to choose staring at a small, expensive, brightly lit screen over buying an inexpensive paperback. The publishing industry need a truly innovative display technology in order to convince people that the reading material that has been used since the EGYPTIANS should be surpassed. This. Is. Not. It.

I'm also disappointed at the funcitonality. Not being able to multi-task is a real flaw. OK, so maybe with a software update you'll be able to at a later date; that would explain the OTT processor. But even then, I really can't see why anyone would have any use for it. You can't really take it out and about because the curved back makes typing impossible, it only connects to wifi, a huge chunk of the web will be inaccessible because of their disagreements with Adobe and WHERE WOULD YOU PUT IT?! Aside from the fact that you could use your cheaper, 3G compatible iPhone instead, which handily also allows you to make telephone calls.

So maybe Apple want you to use it at home. But surely if you have enough cash floating around to buy an iPad (the name meant that within an hour of it's announcement, iTampon was trending on Twitter), you'd have a pretty banging computer. So I've concluded that the only place you'd end up using your iPad would be in the toilet. Where it belongs.

Alas, despite consistently looking for a reason to love the latest iGadget, I can find none. Instead, I become incensed by the audacity and arrogance of Apple to release an ultimately useless gadget which they believe will be bought in its millions because of the Apple brand...which is undoubtedly what will happen.

NB. If he used all these adjectives so many times, they can't be true.

Sharky Tea

I thought this snazzy tea infuser did a good job of bucking the trend! Whatever happened to drinking tea without the obligatory bag? I remember watching Beatrice Potter and being transfixed by her little tea sieve. Maybe I'll invest in one of these.

Via Toxel.

Naughty Telephone Masts

These images are a collection by photographer Robert Volt, which show the lengths that network providers go to in order to disguise the usually unsightly telephone masts which necessitate our mobile culture. Obviously their efforts aren't enough for some groups of society, with the Daily Mail (read Daily Doom & Gloom), describing them as 'eyesores', or to be more extreme 'masts of death'. I personally think they are a novel way of disguising what is ultimately necessary. If they weren't in place, the next Mail story would read SHOCKING LACK OF SIGNAL LEADS TO END OF THE WORLD.

Via The Guardian.

Lego Router

Although I am definitely impressed by someone who has gone to the trouble of taking apart their router in order to fit it in a custom made lego casing, you have to ask "Why on Earth pick black?!" Of all the lovely lego colours to choose from, he's managed to actually make the router more dull looking than it was before. I would much rather have seen an ADSL Elmer. Maybe I should stop complaining and make one myself!

Via Make.

Entelligence by Michael Gartenberg

I recently came across this new column on one of my favourite tech sites, Engadget. I thought I'd post this recent article about Google and their 'Don't Be Evil' philosophy. I think such a simplistic mantra is now looking tired. The Google philosophy that 'freeware is best' is only really sustainable if everyone uses Google products and advertises through their mediums. I think this article makes a valid point; that Google seems to be ignoring the business partnerships which got it where it is today.

After a weeks of speculation, leaks, confirmation and a sneak peek from my colleagues here at Engadget, Google finally told the story of the Nexus One. The Nexus One is the latest and greatest Android device, with a bit of a twist. The Nexus One is available without contract and unlocked directly from Google for $530, as well as subsidized from T-Mobile on a two-year contract for $179. Even with T-Mobile service, the device is only available from Google. Interesting, but hardly the groundbreaking business model that was expected as soon as the words "Google phone" began to make the rounds.

As nice as the Nexus One is -- and in my opinion it's the nicest Android device on the market -- it makes me wonder what Google's up to with Android and why it's even in the mobile OS business, let alone selling phones directly to consumers. I'd ask the same about Chrome and Chrome OS as well. Android is particularly puzzling, however: Google licenses it for free and it's turned up on some rather interesting devices, but none of those devices have helped build out an ecosystem. Many of them are proprietary and Android is rapidly becoming fragmented -- the Archos5 Internet Tablet, for example, can't make official use of the Android marketplace. But nothing is as strange as Google getting into the hardware business directly and selling devices, albeit unlocked and unsubsidized ones, directly to consumers.

Certainly that idea can't be going over too well with partners and licensees. Just imagine being Motorola and having the best Android device on the market for just a few months until the Droid was upstaged by the Nexus One. What about LG and Samsung, who were barely acknowledged at the Nexus One event?

In fact, why does Google need to be in the mobile OS space at all? Google products have been key standards for almost all mobile platforms as a defacto choice. Apple currently has Google as the default for search and location- based services in the iPhone, and there's built-in support for Gmail. Is getting into the OS business really a better move than partnering?

Chrome, the browser and the OS, beg the same question. Google search is the default choice for Firefox, and the Mozilla / Google relationship made a lot of sense -- and a lot of money. Chrome OS muddies the waters and will likely create confusion among vendors as they try to decide between Chrome and Android. What's more, the planned Google Chrome OS hardware will likely make more than one OEM re-think what platforms it will support.

For more than a decade, we've heard the Google mantra, "don't be evil." I'm not suggesting that Google's done anything wrong, but the company's actions of late just don't seem like the best way to make friends and influence others. Lately, when the topic of Google comes up, one word keeps getting repeated over and over. Hubris. It's time for Google to think less about "don't be evil" and time to think about how to be a good partner and friend -- just because it can enter a business doesn't mean it's good idea for Google or Google's partners. We need look no further than ancient Greek mythology to know where hubris leads.

Read more Entelligence here.

Vintage Ad Browser

Check out Vintage Ad Browser next time you're stuck in on a rainy day. There's a vast collection of old-school adverts, which are a refreshing alternative to the rather generic campaigns you see nowadays. Sometimes I wish I could jump into a time machine and wake-up in the 50s.

www.vintageadbrowser.com