Steve Jobs has openly criticised Adobe Flash in his highly critical and public post on the Apple.com site. This is a must read. You can read it here.

This application has huge potential. Wikipedia sourced information is associated with objects as you point the camera lens at real world objects; in real-time and on the fly.

The “Give a Laptop, Get a Laptop” scheme on European Amazon outlets has made the XO model available at a £268 cost. Buy one and receive one – the other will be donated to a school child in a developing nation.

When it was launched the XO originally cost $188, but 650,000 have now been sold, OLPC claims. Children in Peru, Mongolia, Rwanda, Haiti, Afghanistan,  Cambodia, Ethiopia and Iraq are already using them.

According to The Telegraph:

“OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte revealed the plan to extend the scheme, run in America last November and December, in a speech to the World of Health IT Conference in Copenhagen. The company will be hoping to sell more than the 190,000 units it sold then, because its deal with Amazon should make the units more visible to consumers who might already for shopping for similar ‘netbook’ style machines.”

The project has become mired in controversy and sold fewer machines than it initially anticipated. Unfortunately rival companies and changing technology trends have also made the company’s core XO model less unique than it was when first mooted. It is a brave and visionary idea. I really feel the European Goverments should be more proactive with initiatives like this – a much worthier cause than The Millennium Dome…

Having received an early, unmastered, listening CD of Graham Coxon’s utterly glorious new album [ released in Spring '09 ] I was kerfuffled by the copyright protection – which is obviously essential – but which prohibits playing the CD’s on any computer. I scoured the studio to see if anyone has a portable CD player at home…alas no. I realised they’re antique now. So in a wave of nostalgia here is the first Sony Walkman, which really makes me feel all warm ‘n fuzzy inside.

Where were you when JFK was shot? And where were you when you first used Google search? It is amazing to think how much Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have impacted the evolution and growth of the internet. Larry and Serge first met at Michigan Grad School (then both only 24 and 23 respectively). According to some accounts, they disagreed about almost everything. Google have created an interactive timeline celebrating the first .com Beta site launched in 1999 right up to the present. Yesterday saw the launch of the first mobile phone to utilise Google’s Android Operating System and Development platform.  Google search; earth; mail; Adwords; Chrome and so many other incredible projects. Their method of ‘launch early and iterate often’ certainly works for them as does their attitude towards Google employees allocating 10% of their time working on personal projects. Happy Birthday Google – lend’us a tenner?

Following the rules of Geek’dom can be expensive. I loved the Nokia 3310 so much I bought three. Two to use and this one to tuck away in my tech-goodie-toy-box. Its a design classic in both product and interface design and makes me feel all warm-n-tingly inside.

Can’t blog. Must examine. Mobile-geek-interactive-joy-ahoy.

Apple-O2 are testing my iPhone lust and want to its limit.  OK, so there isn’t really a teleportation tool [yet] but the iPhone application store is live in the UK today ahead of the device launch tomorrow. 

Due to the time zone difference It is now available in New Zealand and the application store can be accessed through iTunes.  I have of course been rummaging around and feeding my increasing geek obsession.  The 3G version is an important and ambitious launch for Apple. Yes it is 3G but more significantly the application store, powerful Software Development Kit [SDK] and Apples mobileMe service are three of the most vital updates to the iPhone offering.

The community has embraced and applauded the tools.  The partners invited to create Applications ahead of the launch (Sega & Ebay to name just two of 200) have been strategically selected to highlight the power and efficiency of the SDK and have certainly helped to champion both the handsets power and the applications.

Hopefully I can get my hands on a new handset tomorrow am and put it through its paces.  I have been playing with the SDK and have a few applications ready to unleash on the world.  Until the device debuts tomorrow here are a some links to quirky, sophisticated, playful and impressive applications.

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