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“Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating?” – George Orwell – 1984

We began this week with a tale of woe. About the hard drive I purchased only the week before. Should have done my homework first, I’m finding lots of complaints about it online now. Damn Seagate! On a more positive note Gareth was positively gushing about his new Google Voice service. Sounds like a well thought out utility, and its free, you can’t beat free. But, no he can’t get you an invite, if he could I’d have the first….

Then unto the breach…

Stephen Fry slams copyright holders – The English writer, actor and all round good egg, launched a blistering attack on copyright holders, at the London iTunes festival. Especially the ones that take consumers to court, you know how you are. You’ll never win now record companies. Or if you do Stephen will hit you with a devastating put down.

Toshiba launching Blu-ray player – After losing the war, Toshiba plan to recoup some of the billions it invested in HD-DVD. By launching their own Blu-ray player. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Palm confirms iTunes update kills Pre syncing – Apple threatened to do it, and with iTunes update 8.2.1, they have. Pre users will have to find some other way to get there media on to their phones. The feature rich smartphone, is now one advertised feature down.

MS exec, ‘We got Apple scared’ – Apparently ’someone in Apple legal’ called the MS executive in charge of the ‘Laptop hunter’ ads. And requested one be altered or removed for inaccuracies. The exec, COO Kevin Turner, now wants to keep ‘running and running them’. You do that Kev, You keep spending millions advertising products you don’t even sell. To customers who are computer illiterate, cheapskates and, according to the ads, uncool.

Amazon remotely delete Orwell novels. Kindle ‘ungood’ – This is so ironic its either a publicity stunt, or a once in a lifetime, to good to be true and ‘finally story’ for a tech podcast like ours. But to do this to George Orwell’s 1984, that’s just brilliant. I mean, remotely deleting any purchase from someone’s Kindle is bad enough. Amazon it seems just refund the purchase price, and put it down to a ‘malreport’. I wonder if the Kindle’s EULA is in doublespeak.

And that was it for this week, There would have been six stories But both Gareth and I picked the Pre story. Still we managed waffle on for quite a while.

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“For the wise man looks into space and he knows there is no limited dimensions.” – Lao Tzu Chinese Philosopher 600-531 BC

I had to invest in some much needed external storage this week. My magnum opus was sucking up all my available disk space. That and lots of accumulated kipple that I’ve downloaded from the darkest reaches of the internet. And no, not all of it is porn. Gareth, on the other hand, was particularly stoked by the Google search app for his iPhone. Every week its iPhone this, iPhone that, I’m sure he only does it to make me jealous.

Its working okay, you can stop now….

Then it was on to these….

Google to launch Chrome OS – Open source and free. How will the established players adapt. Will it decimate the various Linux distros. Will it edge out Mac OS X. Or will it bite a big chunk out of MS’ ass. Personally, I’m hoping for the later.

Macbook Pro’s hard drive ‘a touch too noisy’ – Is the hard drive on your new MB pro clicking or squeaking. It’s possible, if you’ve upgraded to a 7200 rpm drive. What you’ve got a new upgraded MB pro, and I’m supposed to feel sorry for you?

European publishers want to control online news access – Are you stuck with an out-moded and old fashioned business model. Unable to move on like the music and movie industries. You too can carry on milking consumers. All you need, is new and improved, draconian legislation. ‘Nuff said!

Palm Pre ‘jailbroken’ and running on Verizon – Calls only so far, no data yet. But its inevitable. But, by the time its working properly, you’ll be able to buy one at a Verizon store.

Farewell CompuServe! – You connected us in baud. You opened up the information superhighway, when it was just a leafy footpath. And to be honest, I thought you had died years ago.

The last phone booths in New York – Its a show for memories this week. The last few phone booths in Manhatten. They’re disappearing at a pace over here, as well. Ah, the smell of urine, the vandalism, and the fruitless hunting for the right change. We’ll miss you phone booths.

Finally Happy Birthday app store. Forever changing the mobile market one app at a time!

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“Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you’ll be a mile away, and you’ll have their shoes.” – Jack Handy

This week Gareth and I discussed my upcoming directorial debut. A school project gone to extremes, first it was could I help to film it, then get it all onto computer. Now its could I edit it together and get it on a DVD, oh and by the end of term, would be nice. I have manfully risen to the challenge, I just hope the budget will cover the £4 million of CGI monsters I’ve just commissioned.

Anyway, on to the stories…

Apple backs a common charger for mobiles – Apple has signed a ‘memorandum of understanding’, alongside nine other manufactures. To create a standard charger for all cellphone, based on the micro-USB cable. No more drawer full of redundant chargers, equals more drawer space for other useless crap.

Stealth Macbook Pro, it’s really black – Colorware have released a gorgeous looking, maxed out 15″ Macbook Pro. And it’s black. really really black. A zero gloss soft-touch coated black special edition. Only ten of these black units will be made, at a cost of $5,999 a piece. Did we mention they were black?

Pirate Bay sold, it’s going legit – Through some miraculous ‘business model’ the new owners, want to turn the torrent site into a legal, money making business. If they succeed, the Mafia might be in touch to see how they did it.

CE teardowns – Does the cost of consumer electronics, bear any resemblance to the price you pay in the stores? If you compare the costs of the components to the retail price, you get some interesting answers. Some lose money to get the device into your hands, and make money on services and software. Others make huge margins on their machines. Are you listening Apple, we know you do it. Stop, please for the sake of my bank balance. Stop!

Palm Pre to be exclusive to O2 – The exclusive network partner for the iPhone in the UK. Has just announced, I mean as I’m typing this, it’s to be the exclusive carrier of the Palm Pre. Damn, that means hardly any competition in the smartphone market to bring down the cost of the plans. How am I going to get my iPhone now? In France this wouldn’t be allowed to happen. And what’s good enough for ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’, is good enough for me.

Apple on overheating iPhones, ‘it’s the weather, stupid’ – In a knowledge base article on its support pages, Apple have intimated that people are being horrible to their iPhones, leaving them in cars in this nasty hot weather. I mean come on, if this is genuine then the proof will be if we don’t have a case in Wales. It might get water damaged , but it sure as hell ain’t getting too hot.

All this plus Gareth’s simple philosophy on life.