Gadget or Gimmick?

Yesterday saw the announcement of the release of a new product line to the Apple family, the Apple watch. It is hailed as the most personal item that Apple has ever designed, by Apple themselves. The question is, is this device a gadget or gimmick that really going to go no where for the majority of us.

As always it forthcoming launch onto the market in 2015 was greeted in wonder and feverish delight by the almost religious audience of the Apple faithful. Features the new watch includes are:

• The ability to be actuate to within 50 milliseconds of world time standards and to automatically change time zones as you travel.
• Calender based notification system telling you important schedule information, appointments and life events.
• Personal messaging features that will allow you to send and receive messages from collogues, friends and family.
• In built fitness features that monitor you physical activity to encourage the wearer to become more active.
• A inbuilt workout application for dedicated cardiovascular sessions, which adapts to your own bodies needs.
• Seamless intergeneration with you iPhone and applications.  

In true with Apples style of marketing it is being sold to the public, as device that everyone needs and should own, and that there is a Apple watch for everyone.

The problem I see is it doesn't have anything about that makes you think I really want one of those. All the things the watch can do my phone can do already and a lot more. In fact all I could see it doing is adding to the stress levels of the constant would of communication we already live in. Even the fitness apps are already available on the most, if not all, smart phones. As for time keeping a lot of people have already ditched their watches and use their phones to tell the time and if they wanted a watch they could pick one up for a tenner at Argos rather than spend hundreds of pounds.

Having asked about 80 technophiles today if they were interested in a Apple watch only two of them said they would and then not until the technology had matured. Both as it happened were members of the Apple sect who already have Apple everything and hate anything non Apple. This leads me to believe that what we are looking at, at least in its current form something that has at best limited appeal to mass market that Apple is trying to capture. So to answer the question "Gadget or Gimmick?" at the moment it nothing more than a Gimmick and at best a boys toy.

O2 Netwrok Problems Strike Again

May be it is time that O2 considered changing the advertising slogan on the advert below to "It's our O2, See how little you can do", after at least ten percent of the customers faced hours without network coverage again today.

 

In a world where mobile communications is becoming ever more imprtant to people lives to have network problems over and over again is making the company look like the one to avoid, and because the same fault affected GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile they are in the same boat even although it wasn't their fault.

 

How long people will put up with this is anyones guess, but given the poor 3G coverage compared to the other mobile companies in the UK I would guess it won't be for long. Just like Blackberry who lost the trust of it's customers when it network failed the same thing is likely to happen to O2 if things carry on like this. People won't put up with the rubbish network which clearly has a number of short coming and suffers from lack of investment.

 

If I was in charger of the regualtors, or in government, I would be looking at pulling the companies rights to setting up 4G networks until the company got it's act together. I would insist they had 3G coverage that is of the same level as the other companies and set minimum reliablity standards for the company before letting them proceed with upgrading their network to 4G. This would force the company to put in the investment into the inferstructure that should have be put in place years ago, all lead to benefits to all of the customers rather than the select few with 4G handsets.

 

O2 need to get this right and they need to do it now. People won't stand for this for much longer and the regulator need to make sure that they sort out the network problems and network coverage issues. The regulator needs to act on this and show it's got some power to make the failing mobile companies like O2 work for the customers.

The Day that Wasn't

Today I was going to have a day with little Lucy on her own. I had been looking forward to it for a while, but it wasn't to be. Lucy has a cough and although she has been here with worse colds and bug she wantedi to look after her. That is fair enough but I want to do that too and can do it too. She would have been fine and could have come for a few hours. It wasn' t like she had a temprature or anything. After all I have seen Emily and Catherine through worse who have lived with me for over nine years. I hope Lucy is alright and I at least get included when it comes to things that affect her life. I never wanted this for any of my children.

Just a Quote

We all have some favourite quotes that we like in our lives, this is one I really like and I wish I could live up to it all the time. So it is:

“Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous, love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offense, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes. Love does not come to an end.”

All you can do is try to meet the sentiments and ideals in such quotes while knowing we are all human and we do wrong, but may be that is were the words "Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins", i.e knowing that other people aren't perfect either. I have always loved the end of the quote that "Love does not come to an end.". I believe that is true, but love can changeover time.

There is no thing such as perfect unchanging love that can endure a life time. The modern world doesn't allow us to do that with the pressures it presents to us or those we have had to endure. Times are often hard and we have to work through them and never give up. Compromises and understanding are the keys, while being entrenched will get us nowhere.

The key is loving yourself and not being dependent on others for validating your existence. You need to be able to do that for yourself. Sometimes we need help to be able to love ourselves because of our past experiences. That help is worth seeking if you feel so a shamed and guilty that you feel you have no place in the world. You have to find your place in the world within yourself and not from outside yourself. Being angry with those that truly love you will never help make you happy, nor will pretending to the world all is well when things are eating you up. Like it the quote say's love "delights in the truth" hiding behind a smoke screen won't help you love, for those closest to you that care will know the truth.

Now I didn't expect to write so much about a simple and old quote, but the values expressed in it are what we should aspire to and achieve if we can. True love never dies it just evolves to meet the circumstances of the moment If you love someone then you are always there for them no matter what, though the bad times and the good, it has no conditions.

Blogger for Android

After a week or so of playing around with the new Blogger application for Android, I thought it would be useful for other bloggers if I wrote how well the application stands up in real use.

Well, basically it is very easy to use. You just type away and publish, but with that comes it's downfall at the moment. It just lacks the options you need, like being able to change the default font and font size as well as being able to change the picture size and position. What this means in real terms is when you get back to a computer you you have to edit your posts and sort them out. This isn't so bad if your are just out for the day but if you were on holiday for a couple of weeks and wanted to blog it could ruin the layout of your blog until you get home. These are limitations that need to be addressed in future versions of the application.

On the whole though if you want a quick Facebook entry to your blog and you avoid posting pictures for the moment it is a really useful tool. Editing the fonts and size of the fonts later is pain but it is worth it for the instant reporting of events.

A Fine Day

What a lovely day it is turning out to be. The sun is out and you can feel that spring is around the corner. Even in the city where I'm working today you can hear the birds singing. I just love days like this. They are full of the promise of rebirth and renewal. They give you hope and warm your heart. I'm so loooking forward to what this year has to bring. I can't wait for the warm days to start and the lazy summer sunshine to be upon us with all its days out and laughter.

Perfect Day

What more could you ask for but blue skies and lovely sunshine on a day in mid Feburary. It is a super day almost perfect and the world seems right, which makes a change. It is days like this you feel good to be alive when the world is full of love. I hope everyone has a great day.

Waiting

It is times like this when I am sitting at the services waiting to pick up Emily and Catherine I know that things could be so different, but do I have any bad felling about the past, no. For in all our hearts is the power to forgive all those that might have hurt us as well as the ability to know the sorrow we feel for that we might have done wrong and when this is combined with the power to learn for the sake of the future, the future can only be bright.

Blogging on the Move

With the new application for Blogger on Android you can now blog where ever you are as long as you have a signal on your phone. Form this test post I can't see the posts being very long, the Android keyboard and my typing speed just isn't up to it. All the same it is handy for posting Facebook style updates to your blog and makes instant blogging of events a reality while you are out and about. Will I use it much, only time will tell. Sometimes I like the dust to settle before I post and I can instantly see both the upside and downside of such an application. All the same it is a fun idea. . .