I don't normally (re) post other blog entries, or link to hosted videos, but I'm making an exception for this one.

Its a short video exploring the extremes of fanboy-ism. Its not necessarily a dig at Apple or the iPhone, its just a good example of how hype can overrule consumers making informed decisions about their purchases.

Oh, and its hilarious. Its actually had me crying with laughter. (Features some bad language).

Credit goes to Phandroid.com for posting it first:
http://phandroid.com/2010/06/30/nsfw-iphone-4-vs-htc-evo-4g-i-dont-care/

After having a dig around I have also found that the guy who made it is a best buy employee, and they are attempting to fire him because of it!

Techcrunch have an article dealing with it:

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/01/best-buy-iphone-4-evo-4g/

It highlights pretty well how some of the large corporates are out of touch with the real world, and just how badly they can misinterpret how the interenet works, and what the public opinion will be.

I've been looking at a few RSS readers for the Android platform recently, and some of them have been a bit hit and miss. So I've decided to put together a quick rundown of the ones I've tried, with Pro's and Con's. So far they have all been uninstalled, but I'll keep updating this periodically as I find new ones. Update 1: Added Rss Store Update 2: Added Greed (Google news reader), newsRob

GReed

One of the more popular RSS reader applications if the reviews are anything to go by. I was initially a bit sceptical about using this, mainly because I did not have a Google Reader account (http://www.google.com/reader). I tentatively signed up for one, and installed the application. Much like a lot of other Android content this simply sync's with your online account settings. Add an RSS feed into your Google account, and it will be pushed to your Android phone. This means that you can basically add any feed at all. Its a really easy application to use, it has a clear menu system, it is very easy to see what you have read. You can view the 'latest' feed updates, or view individual feeds, and paging is done through a simple left-right icon system. Highly recommended.

NewsRob

Another application that uses the Google Reader account. Thid application is more basic than GReed. It goes off and gets the headline and the first line or two of an article in the background, so it is actually quicker to load an article. The problem lies in that it only gets the first line, so you have to click through to the related site to read the article. It also uses a lot more battery, I'm guessing due to running as a background service caching the intro to the RSS articles.

PureRss

This is a decent enough looking RSS reader, easily installed and up and running. The display area for articles is very small, and often the link through to a full article did not work. Also did not allow me to find an RSS feed on a site, I needed to manually copy and paste the URL.

AndRead RSS reader

A polished looking application, but most of the functions are in the menu button, which makes it a bit harder to get around. It pre populates a whole slew of categories, and fills them with recommended feeds, none of which I wanted. Also you have to have a 'category' to add a feed to it, which is a little annoying. The main problem with this application is that it didn't get my feeds! I tried three different sites, and it got the headlines, but no article data.

Rss Store

This sounded like one of the more promising RSS readers out there except when you fire it up it is half advertising space. This is a catalogue of pre determined RSS feeds, loosely catalogued under different headings, like business, leisure and sport. If the feed you are looking for is in there, then great, otherwise your a bit stuck. You can search, and add new feed sources, except that they are not actually added. The application logs a request for your feed to be added in a future iteration of the application. To me this is a huge backward step in software development, and is incredibly inflexible. This App came off quickly!

One 'feature' that I've recently found through getting hands on with the Android operating system is synchronising contacts.

After re arranging all my contacts in Gmail I couldn't figure out why some of them were not syncing. I hadn't noticed that Gmail creates three default Groups for you. 'Family', 'Friends' and 'Coworkers' are all default groups created and managed by Gmail. You cannot delete or rename them, and they will not Sync! In fact they do not even appear in the Android groups listing!

I cannot find any options to change this, so my only recommendation is to create a similarly named group, and move everyone into that. I've created 'Friends.', and that seems to have done the trick.

If anyone knows how to get around this, please share!

I was recently recommended Wikitude by a friend, so I downloaded it off the Android market place, and fired it up. It's a little slow to start, but it's something really special once it does.

It uses a combination of the inbuilt compass and GPS receiver to locate your position and facing, then it searches its content database for points of interest around you.

It's pretty cool seeing the technology convergence on a Google map type interface, but once you fire up the 'camera view' then it really comes alive. It overlays the same points of interest onto your camera viewer, giving you information about each as a pop up when clicked on.

Developers' site is here: http://www.mobilizy.com/en/wikitude-ein-reisefuhrer

It's a really impressive integration of technology into real life, which actually has a valid use. On the down side it takes a few seconds to load, and if your GPS setting is off then it's not that accurate, but that's not really a Wikitude issue.

I recently changed my mobile to the HTC Magic. Its Vodafone's first Android powered mobile, full touch screen etc... You can read a full spec here.

I do not usually use Gmail, but the phone was directing me towards them on initialisation, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Transferring the contacts from my N95 to the HTC Magic isn't possible through the Blu tooth connection, as the HTC's Blu tooth protocol does not support data transfer.

So first thing is to get the Nokia Software.

http://www.nokia.co.uk/get-support-and-software/product-support/nokia-n95/software

Install this and run the backup option. After you have backed up you can select an email client to interface with. I'm Windows through and through, so I sync'd my contacts with Microsoft Outlook.

Once in outlook select 'File' – 'Import and Export'. Depending on your version you may get different options here, but in 2007 its 'Export to a file'. Click next, then select 'Comma separated values (Windows). Next select your contacts (or more if you want) and press next. Your data will be exported as a CSV.

Once in outlook select 'File' – 'Import and Export'. Depending on your version you may get different options here, but in 2007 its 'Export to a file'. Click next, then select 'Comma separated values (Windows). Next select your contacts (or more if you want) and press next. Your data will be exported as a CSV.

So a bit long winded, but it works!

Everyone knew that Sony's big E3 announcement was going to be the new PSP Go. As per usual in these situations someone has leaked the specs online already.

• 3.8-inch display of unknown resolution
• 43 percent lighter than the current PSP-3000
• 16GB of flash memory
• Integrated Bluetooth with mobile phone tethering and BT headset support
• Memory Stick Micro slot
• New Gran Turismo, Little Big Planet and Metal Gear Solid games
• Full PlayStation Network support (TV and movie rentals/purchases) and integration with the PlayStation 3

I have an original psp (model 2000 I think) and it was a good little device. The only problem is that it has no USP. With the way that modern tech has converged it is basically a smartphone without the telephone capabilities. Sure it is good or movie playback, but the screen is almost identical to the iPhone or HTC Magic in terms of size, and now that they have remove the UMD drive its even less distanced from them.