Will free BlackBerry apps make it better? You betcha | Hadley Freeman

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Had some email problems last week? Here, play some Texas Hold'em poker this week. Photograph: Roger Tooth for the Guardian

'It is the distant future, the year 2000/We are robots/The world is quite different ever since/The robotic uprising of the late 90s." Despite coming a mere decade plus VAT later than Bret and Jermaine of the Flight of the Conchords predicted, it has been hard to view certain events over the past few weeks as anything other than final confirmation that mankind has conceded all power to the robots. I can't quite bring myself to deal with the excitement some people seem to feel about Siri, which, as far as I can ascertain, is some kind of disease that makes people think it's OK to ask their iPhone the meaning of life and expect an answer.

Instead, I shall focus on the panic last week that apparently gripped the whole of Great Britain when, for a whole handful of days, one's BlackBerry didn't work and so one wasn't able to access one's spam at a moment's notice. Oh, the agonised wails of 140 characters or less that speckled Twitter! I was actually quite surprised when I arrived back in Britain this week not to find some apocalyptic wasteland peopled only by barely clothed skeletons crawling on the ground, clutching their pitifully useless black handsets, while Viggo Mortensen marched grimly onwards, determined to reach that BlackBerry HQ and have his vengeance.

In all honesty, the furore somewhat mystified me. Surely to complain about not being able to receive emails is tantamount to complaining about not being able to work that day. Um, boo hoo?

Anyway, BlackBerry has wisely adopted the prostrate apology pose this week and has announced that, to aid its customers' recovery from post- traumatic stress disorder, it will give them some free apps. Now, this is the kind of compensatory culture I can get down with. Ladies and gentlemen, could you not see that email offer of penile enlargement as soon as it arrived in your inbox last week? Here, play some Texas Hold'em poker this week! I believe this is what is called crap for old rope.

As compensations go, this one's easy to mock, which is clearly why I am doing so, but perhaps this is how one should view life in general. There are so many depressing developments in the world that, at best, maybe half of them are misguided apologies for something else. To whit: "So Britain, you're on the verge of an economic disaster? Never mind, Steps are number one!" "So America, your government is broken and you're in an inextricable decline? Don't worry, The Only Way is Essex is coming to your screens!"

"So Democrats, feeling a bit disillusioned with that whole hopeychangey thing? Well, now that it's the other side that looks likely to have the candidate with the 'difficult religion' issue with the Mormon Mitt Romney, you're the party that has the grass-roots movement in the form of Occupy Wall Street, and President Obama has already spent more than $87m in operating costs for his campaign, which is as much as all of the Republican candidates have raised so far, put together, it looks like you're the new Republicans. Congratulations! Would you like to play some Texas Hold'em poker?"

So long, New York Times, it was nice to know you while we did. Perhaps you have not heard but the eminence grise of newspapers is teetering on the verge of a spectacular collapse. Jill Abramson, the paper's sparkling new executive editor and its first female one in its 160 years of existence, has been profiled in possibly the only eminence griser than the newspaper, The New Yorker. Despite being published only on Monday, this interview has already attracted a huge amount of attention in New York. Not for its descriptions of sexism that existed at the paper only decades ago, nor for the odds Abramson has had to overcome, not least when she was nearly crushed under a truck just four years ago – but for her promise to treat the journalists in the same way that she treats her beloved dog, Scout: "'In one's relationship with dogs and with a newsroom, a generous amount of praise and encouragement goes much better than criticism,' she says," the New Yorker reports.

Abramson has never been a closeted dog lover. Not only is her forthcoming book entitled The Puppy Diaries but her portrait photograph alongside this interview is of her standing proudly alongside the aforementioned Scout, patting his head with a proud little smile.

Yet as a fellow crazy dog lady – a term some mystifyingly see as an insult – I cannot but view Abramson's editorial strategy as worrying. Treating one's underlings similarly to the way one treats one's dog is, undoubtedly well-meaning and compassionate. But I know – and, judging from Abramson's dog-o-philia, she knows, too – that although one might enter into this relationship with high dreams of you being a stern master, an establisher of boundaries and a commander of respect, the end result is actually the dog being the boss of you, you talking to it in complete sentences in public, every item in your wardrobe being matted with dog hair and a general air of chaos. So fare thee well, New York Times, we'll remember you with the dignity you once commanded. And if you must wee in the flat, please wee on yourself.

View the original article here

Android and iOS both fail; Android fail better

Android running on a Nexus one smartphone. Photo: Robert Galbraith/Reuters

My latest revision of Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 Android tablet awakened an unfortunate and inevitable round of OS advocacy and such, with the Apple and both Android lovers baying like wounded members of persecuted religious minorities, arguing about which OS is most worthy of our love and affection.

For me no love or affection caused by an operating system or a gadget.

I am enough of an old technology hand to know that any love we of harbour for our gadgets are unrequited and tragic in General – not least because you are not intended to have a long-term love affair with your gizmos, as they will be semi-obsolete in a year or two.

Don't get me wrong. I know that some devices, apps and systems can work well – they can make it easier to do something that was hard, or impossible to do something that was impossible. That is why we all use this stuff. But I think how well a system works is only half the picture: the other half is how badly it fails.

Because technology will fail all the time. Network-based, general-purpose computing units have so many different failure modes that can hardly be counted. Your phone or tablet may have problems performing something as abstract as poor maximum transfer unit sizes in its network connection or as concrete fell and trodden on by your toddler.

A program that runs flawless one day can be derailed by another program, or an OS update or a mysterious configuration problem – hence the old "Rename folder preferences and restart" diagnostic procedure.

The General technology is split; There are not so different from other complex systems, as well as technology's users. You may have lost a pre-beach vacation service thanks to diet and exercise, only to get a spot on your cheek, bad traffic on the road to the airport, a number with your spouse, and a jammed limit from your suitcase handle. People who can soldier and remain happy and functional over adversity is said to be "robust", which means that they are not good.

It is not good, will be the world's happiest, best-adjusted, best person if you fall to pieces minutes you will get a paper clip. And this goes double Interpersonal systems: any pair can be satisfied when all goes right, but no marriage can survive unless both of its participants are capable of soldiering, when things go pear-shaped.

I use not Android tablets and phones because I hate Apple; I certainly do not use them because I love Google. And I do not prefer Android to iOS, because it works better than Apple — in some aspects, it allows, in some aspects, it is not.

I use Android because don't trust Google. Sure, I trust and like to individual Googlers and admire many of the things the company has managed – but I just don't believe that Google's management makes its decisions in order to make me happy, fulfilled and free.

I think there are good days when Google's management may think, to help me achieve these ends would make more money, but if it were to believe that make me miserable would enrich shareholders without alienating too many of its key personnel and partners, my happiness would cease to issue at least.

Why use so Android? Since it requires less confidence in Google than using iOS requires you to trust Apple. iOS has one official repository, and it is illegal in most places to buy and install apps except through this store. If you and Apple differs on what apps you need, you need to break the law to iPhone or your iPad to run the app, Apple, rejected.

Jailbroken iOS devices has sometimes been addressed by Apple security updates, to make them inoperable, and jailbreakers have a reputation for not keeping their devices updated.

On the other hand, allows you to run Android apps from any store you choose. Google still rejects lots of apps submitted to its inventory, but if you don't like Google's choice, you can decide to do some of your own.

There is no good.

Several of iOS internal work is secret than their corresponding work places in the Android world. Apple's operating system is running multiple DRM processes that are designed to allow code to run as treats you as opposed to unreliable and refuses to accept your commands. Apple has not least, to run all these processes, designed to stop you from choosing to use an app, Apple not blessed (and collected 30% Commission on).

I prefer Android because it's relative openness means more people can and inspect its places of work to ensure it does what Google claims it makes. I prefer Android, because when Google decides to omit a feature, users might want – such as tethering – people that make alternative operating systems to the platform stick this function in and shame Google in adding it in subsequent versions.

My mobile phone can track where I go. It can detect my voice and image, and the voices and images of those around me. It can trickle e-mail, voicemail, texts and passwords. In time, since I have received a mobile phone, has yearly passes meant that I rely on my phone for several things, and I don't expect it to change.

Android and iOS fails both of their users in the coming years. Not much, but often enough, or dramatic enough that it's worth ensuring that error, as minimal as possible.

I would like an official Android version without DRM, with complete source code, and generally greater transparency in the device and its ecosystem. I like to alternate Android OS, CyanogenMod, because it has many of these things. Functionally, a CyanogenMod Android phone and a stock Android Phone work much the same way, but the CyanogenMod phones fail better.

Our relationship with technology is this: we have trapped us in cockpits for supersonic aircraft which is being constantly redesigned as they continue around the planet, dangerously close to everyone else's supersonic jet. It is good to be aware of how fast our jets going, and how comfortable upholstery is, but what we really need to keep the eyes are what happens when the crack, when their navigation systems go wrong, and when they get a bad upgrade.

When you are moving is quick, with so much at stake, the lack of much more important than success.

View the original article here

Ofcom under requirements better service for disabled customers

Communication providers must give text Relay services for phone users hearing and/or speech impairment photograph: Graham Turner for the guardian

People with disabilities rely on communication services to make phone calls is set to take advantage of the new measures proposed by the communications regulatory authority Ofcom under.

By law, communication service providers (ISPs) give text Relay services for phone users consulting and/or speech impairment. The service allows users to write messages in a text telephone which is provided by a relay-Assistant to the recipient. The Assistant then converts your reply back to the text for the user.

Ofcom under research has shown that users are current communication services slow, with conversations sometimes lack flow naturally. Under the current service, users have to say "go ahead" after each part of a conversation.

The new features of the text Relay service will include permits users to interject during a conversation, rather than to wait until the end of a message. They will also give the service access to mainstream consumer electronics devices such as PCs and netbooks, as well as existing Relay equipment, such as textphones.

By Ofcom concerning consumer group Director, Claudio Pollack, said: "people with disabilities may face barriers when you use the communication services. Although the wide availability and use of broadband and mobile text services have given greater opportunities for people with disabilities to communicate, still people with hearing and/or speech impairment meet barriers when using voice telephony.

"The proposed measures aim to reduce these barriers by allowing conversations to flow naturally in real time."

Ofcom under also proposes the introduction of the video relay on a limited basis for registered users, British sign language. Under the Communications Act 2003, Ofcom under the obligation to meet the needs of the disabled and the elderly.

In May introduced regulatory authorities an emergency SMS system for 14,500 users with hearing and speech barriers to text details about events to emergency services, instead of calling 999.

View the original article here