Want an iPhone but not with O2?
August 11, 2008 at 9:34 pm
All the cool kids are on iPhones and you’re stuck with your beaker of a non-O2 mobile in the playground. Well now you can upgrade really easily. Pat Phelan, Telecoms Disrupter and Power to the People has displayed how he has unlocked his 3G iPhone to work on Vodafone.
You can do it too.
He used an app that cost 20 quid from Simable and it works!
Down with monopolistic pricing models! Power to the people to choose their own phone provider!
iPhone app for Irish Rail
July 2, 2008 at 9:00 am
Dave Barrett showed us all what he got up to last weekend…
…With a lovely little site that’s made to look like an iPhone app but is accessible normally through the web. The site simply serves the busy commuter or tourist who needs to plan a journey where the Irish Rail site fails. I’ve often been frustrated at the Irish Rail site and how pedantic it tends to be. For example, if you don’t put in your station exactly as it appears on the station picker list, then it pushes you away. I ask you - how many people know that Dublin (Connolly) should be like that? Normal humans would probably try with Connolly…
Anyway, Dave came up with this little site so he can access train times from his iphone whenever he’s on the move. I love it! Don’t like the site so make his own version!
You can use this nice little Irish Rail for iPhone app too. And if you have any great ideas on how to enhance it, like integrating it with GPS or something better, please tell Dave (and he’ll probably knock it out over the weekend!).
What I have in common with Eddie O’Sullivan
October 31, 2007 at 5:15 pm
A shared hatred of apple. A feeling that we’ve been ‘had’ by Mr Jobs. A bitter taste of loss - in fairness Eddie has that in spades, I’m only experiencing that in relation to my business and my music files.
Both Eddie O’Sullivan and I suffered from Mac Book Pro failure on the same day. I wonder if Mr O’S is getting a better customer service than I am?
Background to this tragic tale … ie. I am not a total thicko running a business with no back up system.
- Six weeks ago, I contacted Apple because I was unable to restore my backed up data files. I have a dot mac account for automatically backing up important business files. This updates important files daily, less important weekly, etc. Apple don’t do phone support on dot mac accounts, so I waited and waited for a reply and got nothing.
- Two weeks ago, I contacted Apple again to learn how to restore my backed up files. I know the importance of testing your back up system and I had diarised a note to myself to see whether I heard back from them. That was on the 17 October.
- On 19 October I left my Mac Book Pro in to be serviced. It’s just over a year old and as it’s my primary business tool, I like to make sure everything’s working as it should be. Imagine how I felt when I returned after the weekend to find out that the hard drive had failed. When the ‘apple doctors’ were running the utilities it gave up the ghost and went into the hard drive equivalent of a coma. It shut itself away from the world - which is what I felt like doing when I got the news last Tuesday.
That’s bad but guess what? The mac book pro was 37 days out of warranty. So Apple won’t stand over it. When I was on to one of the many customer service people dotted around the globe they told me that they treat all their customers the same - so whether you’ve bought a piece of tiny plastic (ipod shuffle) or a top of the range laptop they don’t care, they make no distinction and just read a script that’s designed to get you to go away.
Then I thought - huh - I bought an ipod shuffle and the piece of s**t died after about 18 months. It was only a cheap purchase so I let it go.
My Powerbook died after 3 years - it was a working piece of kit, so 3 years isn’t bad is it?
But now I just feel stupid and duped by clever marketing and nice design - this is my 3rd piece of Apple kit to fail in 2 years. You kind of got to think that Apple are churning out cruddy products now wouldn’t you?
The iPhone? Forget it. I’d rather hook myself up with a pair of old Bachelors beans cans and some string than use the iPhone.
And you know what? Everyone has their story - the ones who this has happened to really empathise and almost relish sharing. Other people nod sagely and say ‘yeah well everyone knows automated back-up is bad’. And still others remind me of the episode in Sex & The City where Carrie’s work get lossed because she didn’t know what back up was….
I am not that lady. I had a system in place and because Apple didn’t get back to me, I have lost everything.
[the list of condolences is now open....add your comment below]
