I was just browsing the iTunes Store and caught this little gem.

Apparently the name "Dick" is a rude word in the Appleverse.

 iTunes • Political Correctness

OK - so I've been a little slack with the blog and haven't posted in way too long. After studying and doing my recent exam on the early New Testament Church at Ridley, I had a massive backlog of stories to write for APC, Australian Macworld, PC Update and The Age. I;m nearly caught up so I have a moment or two for some blogging and social networking.

Over at Hydrapinion, I've just published a story on some free iPhone apps.

 freebies • iPhone apps

I picked up my iPhone 3G about a week after the Australian release and have, for the large part, been really happy with the phone. The one nagging software hassle has been with Safari that seems to be very unstable for me. I seem to be able to crash it at least a couple of times per day. In particular, it doesn't seem to like me trying to scroll and zoom a page until it's completely finished loading the page.

My main beef has been with my carrier. Optus is a wholly owned subsidiary of Singtel, which is owned by the government of Singapore. Optus' cellular network, it seems to me, is oversubscribed and there seems to be little likelihood that the network will be augmented to the required degree.

So, in order to test my theory I've contacted Optus and had my iPhone carrier unlocked. The support tech on the phone, john, was very helpful and after i'd supplied my phone number and IMEI he informed me that my phone would be unlocked within 10 working days and that i'd receive an SMS telling me when the process was complete. Given that I anticipate an overseas trip next year this will make life easier as I'll be able to use a local SIM card and save on international roaming costs.

It also means that I can do some testing with different Optus SIM cards to see if the iphone is being speed-limited to "protect" the Optus network.

 iPhone unlocking • Optus

I've picked up a semi regular gig writing for one of the most esteemed newspapers in the land - The Age. I've written a couple of roadtests recently that look at online storage services and RSS readers.

Compare: RSS readers: The near exponential growth of the internet has had a serious side-effect - information overload. How do you keep track of the ever-expanding list of websites you like to visit and find out when something new that's of interest appears?

Roadtest: online storage: The people most vigilant about backing up data are those who have lost data. Large corporate IT strategies can afford to store their backups away from the office so if the office is destroyed the data can be recovered. But most of us can't afford to have someone collect our daily or weekly backups from home and store them securely.

 Backup • RSS Readers

Yesterday, I penned a story for my weekly column on Hydrapinion on eBooks.

Why eBooks suddenly matter (to me): I've never really understood the whole eBook thing. I've tried - really, I have. I've also given audio books a go and quite like the idea of the convenience they offer. Studying requires that I read a wide variety of different references in addition to my lecture notes. This has lead me, for the first time, to establishing an electronic reference library so that I can carry my reference books with me.

By sheer coincidence, Drew Turney, who's standing in for Stephen Withers on the Mac column, also wrote a story on eBooks that's worth a look.

 eBooks

I've been a busy little bee preparing for exams and writing up a storm. Hence the lack of blogging action in recent weeks. I promise that I'll do better and be a little more disciplined after next week. I've not even been catching up with my RSS feeds as i just don't have the time at the moment.

in any case, a few more reviews of mine have popped up on APC Magazine's web site.

ASUS VW223B LCD display: dual screen without dual video cards: Although the "U" in USB stands for universal it's remained mainly focussed on storage and communications peripherals. However, ASUS turns that stereotype on its head with the VW223.

AOC Widescreen LCD Monitor 2219P2: an impressive display of wideness: AOC might be a new player in the local market, but they’re showing that they have plenty of talent when it comes to making great screens that don’t break the bank.

D-Link DNS-343 Four Bay NAS: ticks all the boxes: D-Link’s experience with network gear shows with the DNS-343.

Netgear RangeMax Wireless-N Gigabit Router (WNR3500): the router to paradise?: Netgear delivers a high-end router that gets close to networking nirvana.

Synology DS508 Disk Station: expand your storage beyond: If you’re running out of storage space with your present system, the DS508 is a ripping NAS for the home or office.

Netgear Wireless-N + Gigabit Router (WNR854T): not just a pretty face: While beauty is only skin deep, Netgear’s WNR854T ticks most of the boxes when it comes to specs and performance as well.

 AOC • DLink • Monitors • Netgear • Routers

I'm back from a couple of weeks off and some reviews have popped up at APC Magazine's website.

AOC Widescreen LCD Monitor 2219P2: an impressive display of wideness: AOC might be a new player in the local market, but they’re showing that they have plenty of talent when it comes to making great screens that don’t break the bank.

D-Link DNS-343 Four Bay NAS: ticks all the boxes: D-Link’s experience with network gear shows with the DNS-343

HP DreamColor LP2480zx Professional Display: perfect for pros: HP delivers a real heavyweight, in every sense of the word, with the HP DreamColor LP2480zx Professional Display.

Enjoy!

I've held back on posting this for a few weeks as I always thought that Apple would resolve the iPhone's software problems. One of the most compelling iPhone features, for me, is Safari. Being able to read web sites while I'm out and about is a key element of the iPhone experience for me. However, Safari is broken.

Firstly, I'm still suffering some serious stability issues. As an example (and this is not a one-off scenario) I was reading a story at www.theage.com.au. Safari crashed three times. This happens to me several times per day. The sooner an alternate browser is developed and released the better although there's little chance of Apple allowing that.

Secondly, I think that Safari's design is seriously borked. Why doesn't it cache pages so that hitting the back button a few seconds after clicking a link doesn't require that the entire page is completely reloaded? Surely, it would have been easy (after all, we're told that the iPhone is running good ol' OS X) to have retained Safari's caching functions. This design flaw means that the amount of data being transferred to the iPhone via your carrier is being increased unnecessarily. The lack of caching also means that oft used images, like banner images that appear on every page in a single site, are re-downloaded every single time you move to a new page within a site. It's almost like Apple is programmatically increasing the amount of data we use for the benefit of the carriers.

I guess that I could do a factory reset of my iPhone to see if that resolves the Safari stability problems I'm seeing but a troll through various user forums suggests that I'm not Robinson Crusoe so there's no guarantee that a reset would fix things. Besides, I'm a busy person and the iPhone is meant to "just work". Isn't that the "Apple Way"?

So, Mr Apple - please fix Safari. Get it stable and sort out this dumb caching behaviour. Having to reload a page I was at just a few seconds ago over a slower connection is driving me bananas.

One more thing: Please let me access the iTunes Store over 3G. Limiting me to WiFi while I'm travelling is just cruel.

 iPhone • iPhone instability • iPhone Safari

Being a Melbournite I wasn't able to shoot over to Silicon Valley for the Google/ T-Mobile G1 smartphone announcement. I've had a quick scan of the coverage at ZDNet and note the following:

Firstly - I know these live blogs are written in a hurry but, frankly, this makes no sense to me.

I have to say it [Android phone] does look nice, but as people have said recently it is really a new feature phone (like the iPhone) and not a high powered mobile device like Windows Mobile and S60 devices.

When did "feature phone" become a category? Whatever he's smoking - I want some.

There's a laundry list of features including

• accelerometer
• MP3 player
• Google with Streetview
• Drag and drop in the OS
• No tethering
• No out-of-box Exchange
• No desktop application
• No central sync page (use with you data in the cloud only)
• No A2DP

I've not yet had a play but the spec sheet doesn't seem to be anything particularly special. I find it interesting that the carriers have so much power in the United States. Tethering (the ability to use a 3G phone as a modem with a computer) is missing. No other market so abuses customer choice and options.

In any case, I'm really looking forward to the G1. It seems to be the only potential competitor to the iPhone's innovative edge as Symbian and Windows Mobile have really been left in the dust.

It's interesting that the release of Chrome came such a short time before the G1 announcement. Sounds a lot like Safari for Windows and the iPhone to me.

 Android • Google • iPhone • Symbian • Windows Mobile

Last week, I subbed in for Stephen Withers and wrote a Mac column for Hydrapinion. Here's the story.

I cover

• The opening of the new Apple store in Melbourne
• iPhone 2.1 takes the iPhone out of public beta testing
• The latest Leopard update

 Apple • Apple Store Melbourne • iPhone