Quick iOS 5 helper post
Anyone upgraded to iOS5 on their iPhone? Anyone bricked their phone?
I upgraded two phones last night, one worked perfectly, the other was bricked! The device would switch on, show an apple logo, then a spinner, then after 5 minutes go back to the Apple logo and repeat in a horrible loop – presumably until the battery gave in!
The reason for this is the firmware upgrade failed to authorise with Apple servers correctly due to demand and trashed the device. Even the two button reset did nothing! But, no fear, there is no need to pop down to your nearest Apple Store or ring them up and wait in a long overwhelmed customer service queue. Just follow these instructions…
1. Hold down your home button and the on off button at the same time until the device switches off. (a hard reset)
2. Plug the device into iTunes and then hold down the home button (dont let go). The device will switch on, keep holding the home button. After a few seconds the device will reset and you will be shown the plug into iTunes graphic, which will then disappear, as you are plugged into iTunes. (I had to try this twice, but it did work)
3. Click on Restore and have another go at doing the upgrade.
If the Apple servers are still suffering from demand you may have to try it all again! However this morning (UK) everything seems to be working fine. I have just watched a iPad upgrade.
Hope this helps.
I have just about caught up after my trip to Silicon Valley, so normal regular blogging will kick off again!
Android apps on your telly
Back in May 2011 Google announced that Android apps would reach the TV via the not so popular Google TV. Well here in the UK it feels like summer is over, so where are the apps Google?
This week Google released a preview plugin to the Android SDK which enables apps to target Google TV.
I have always been uncertain of how successful Google will be with this product, the well engineered design principles implemented on their search engine is not the entertaining 10 foot experience I expect on my telly. The user experience of Android has improved a great deal since release, but many experts still put the UX second to iPhone.
I do hope the Android developers listen to Google and read their UI guidelines and actually test their apps on actual hardware.
Personally, I would like to see Android apps supported on PS3, I already use mine to watch BBC iPlayer, and it’s a great DVD / Blu Ray, so why not throw in apps to!
5 days away from Chromebooks, bring on WebGL
According to the Google Chromebook website those of us in the UK have to wait just 5 days more before we can get our hands on a Chromebook officially. The choice is a Samsung or an Acer from Amazon or PC World. Currently no prices are being published. I do hope that the deal is similar to the US where the purchase price includes an amount of 3G connectivity for two years.
The Chomebook is Google next step in being the Internet. The concept is simple enough, instead of having lots of storage and computing power in a desktop or laptop, have cheaper hardware and run more from the cloud. It should probably be called cloudbook instead.
The selling features includes booting up in 8 seconds, that is pretty close the 1 second it takes to switch on a mobile phone from standby. Chrome offers some great web apps some of which offer really wonderful user experience. The notion of mobile apps is moving into the web space. If you have Google Chrome Browser installed on your PC or Mac today you can get a feel for it by opening up a new tab and clicking on the webstore link. Already Angry Birds is available, so my 8 year old is a fan immediately of Google Chrome.
Buts the user experience is not limited to 2D graphics, check out whats going on at http://www.chromeexperiments.com/webgl where there are great webGL (web graphics language) examples. My favourite is the model of a forumula one car – it really shows off the power of webGL, take a look http://www.chromeexperiments.com/detail/helloracer-webgl/?f=webgl. It shows off HD resolution 60 fps animation of a complex 3d F1 car. These examples using Chrome and WebGL show off what is a potential gaming platform, using hardware acceleration all running inside a browser – now that is really cool.
WebGL mixed with Chrome stands a good chance of changing how we compute and bringing the cloud to reality. It is not just Google that are “demoting” the PC, Apple’s keynote at the recent WWDC spoke about treating the desktop and laptop in a similar way to a mobile device – although not a radical yet!
Is this the way of the future, our desktop in the cloud available anywhere depending on what hardware we login on?
I am really looking forwards to Chromebooks and I really hope it get the attention and acquisition it deserves. Although I am disappointed that these is little mainstream hype in the UK, there is the odd TV advert, but people don’t seem to understand what it is advertising. It is pretty interesting that the “App” paradigm from the mobile has finally made it on to the laptop, I have been looking forward to rich internet applications since I first saw the the beta of MS Silverlight back in 2005 and the developments of Adobe Air.
Good luck Google.
Perverse Media is a better fitting name!
I HATE the term Social Media. It stinks.
For a kick off, the majority of people on social media sites listen instead of talking. If a pub were full of these people it would be the opposite of social.
All social media conferences sell the same message to attending companies – it does not matter if you sell dresses, run a hotel or are trying to hire staff – the message is “Engage”. The conference circuit then illustrates an array of examples of how an individual can engage on behalf of their company on social media.
So good social = engage!
Got it. Now lets look at individuals who use social media, I mean normal folk who are not in the industry of the web or selling social media solutions. What engaging do they do?
They tweet or poke, the people they know in person. The people they go to the pub with, the people they have over for dinner. Or they use it to talk to family who are too far away to visit, or to talk to family who live too close to avoid visiting. Or they show off pictures of their last holiday or their kids snotty noses because no-one would ever be willing to sit through a slide show in their living rooms.
The engagement that happens beyond their existing “real” network is voyeurism. They watch what celebs are doing. Why celebs and not Bob from Hackney, because if Bob from Hackney is tweeting his every move, it is boring. Bob’s breakfast choice is of no interest, but for our celeb crazed society the breakfast of Lady Gaga is.
So with this in mind, who wants to rush out and buy some glasses that have hidden cameras, so you can share your every move on social media from your perspective - literally. You do, it’s just what you have been waiting for? Then here you are http://www.zioneyez.com/ has what you want!
If this is at all a sign for the future of social media, then we MUST rename it to Perverse Media, it’s a much better name! It fits really well now!
BTW – the technology from ZionEyez is great, these super spy glasses are cool! 3 hours HD recording from what look like a pair of Ray Bans!
I think ALL surgeons and dentists should wear them during operation, that would solve any malpractice discussions pretty quickly.
Perhaps the police should too, this would help in many brutality cases.
And teachers could always wear them with live streaming, then parents could watch exactly what goes on.
In fact, why not use them in important meetings, it would save ever taking a note again – assuming we are all happy being constantly recorded. The result would be like televising UK Parliament, all meetings would have very well dressed attendees. Fowl language would not be used, and gossip would be eradicated. Off the wall ideas would never be raised! Wow – how boring life could be by being “social”!
I fear positioning this technology at the social media of the future, may be short lived!
