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'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

A recent review of mine has popped up at Australian Macworld.

HP iPaq 912c: HP's iPaq 912c promises plenty but doesn't quite hit the spot.

Enjoy!

 912c • HP • iPAQ

I've never really been an especially keen gamer. Sure, I was a little addicted to Wolfenstein (and it's follow-up Spear of Destiny) and wasted more than a few hours on classics like Duke Nukem (the platform and 3D versions), Commander Keen and Doom. However, i never really bought into the whole console gaming thing - until now.

While we were on holidays we stayed a friend's place and had occasion to play a few games on their Nintendo Wii [Affiliate link]. Now, i know that this was THE console for us as the whole family (me, my wife and the kids) all loved playing on it.

So, this weekend, we trundled down to a local home appliance reseller and laid down some hard-earned on a Nintendo Wii, a Wii Fit, Super Mario Carts with an extra steering wheel (there was a special bundle) and Wii Play with an extra controller and another Nunchuk [Affiliate Links].

So, thus far you're thinking that all's going well and that the whole family should be well satisfied. The problem was that our TV, a six year old Samsung CRT was running short on inputs. So, to top things off we also added a new Panasonic Viera HD LCD TV[Affiliate Link] to the lounge room. With the local TV stations due to start multicasting on HD soon with new content (in addition to the current transmission) it was only a matter of time before we'd need to bump up the TV so we took the opportunity to do that all now.

So, let the games begin!

 games • Nintendo Wii • Panasonic Viera • Wii

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!

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

Over the last couple of days, I've been at a conference called the Influence Forum. Run by the folks from MediaConnect, it's an opportunity for journalists, vendors and PR people to get together to share ideas and to network.

To coin a phrase, I'm calling Influence a three tier conference. Tier One is the one you have at every conference or trade show. It's the formal stuff that forms the backbone of the conference. It's the formal sessions that you use to justify to conference to whoever is footing the bill for the conference. For many, this is the bit they expect to be most valuable.

Tier Two is the social element. It starts during the coffee breaks, meal times but extends to ad hoc "meetings" such as when people bump into each other during their free time. For many, this is where the "real work" happens. It's where the contacts get made and some of the real business happens. For me, I managed to chat with a couple of editors and, potentially, will be working for a couple of new publications.

Tier Three is the new one. This is social networking tier of conversations happening beneath the official business. At Influence, there was an active Twitter channel where a number of folks were contributing to the conversation. However, this conversation was below the radar of many participants and the presenters. In many ways it represented what was really going on.

The channel can be viewed here.

The whole hashtag and channel system for Twitter is very easy and adds a new dimension to conference interaction. Interestingly, MediaConnect CEO Phil Sim is right into the whole Web 2.0 thing but hasn't really embraced these emerging technologies in the biannual forums his company runs. Maybe next time...

Note: I attended the Influence Forum as a guest of MediaConnect