conormulligan.com / blog

The iPhone is a good thing.

In a stagnant and decadent market, it has injected a much needed revival in innovation; something the mobile telecommunications industry desperately needed. The problem is, despite all it’s goodness, it is still lacking so very much.

I have never owned a smart-phone, for a few simple reasons; the high cost has never justified the feature-set, especially when the said feature-sets are so doggedly inconsistent. Windows Mobile handsets have Mobile Office, which I really want, but they don’t have the hard-drive the iPhone sports (not to mention the style, have you seen Windows Mobile handsets?). The iPhone has Wi-Fi, but no 3G. And no tactile keyboard (stupid, stupid, stupid). The Nokia E65 has Wi-Fi and document viewing, but a micro-sized screen. The recently announced Nokia N810 has everything I want, but no goddamn phone!

I’m going to single out the N810 in this article, rather than bash the iPhone (it’s been done).

Nokia make good machines. I’ve always liked their handset build quality and the Symbian Operating System. They pack in good features with an attractive price. Unfortunately they seem doomed to remain hopeless at tackling the high-end smart-phone arena (for the life of me I still don’t know why they don’t release a Windows Mobile handset, Symbian is great and all, but it’s not suitable for the high-end market). The Nokia N810 is the closest I’ve seen to an appealing smart-phone from the Nokia.

The problem is it’s not a smart-phone. It’s an ‘Internet Tablet’, whatever the hell that is. Why can’t they release a model with an antena? The ‘Internet Tablet Phone Edition’? Why can’t they release a phone with Linux, Wi-Fi, 3G and the super web browser they’ve developed (no, I’m not talking about the Communicator)? They can keep the ‘Internet Tablet’ as a separate product line, but give me the smart-phone I want! Doing so would strongly challenge the iPhone, something the mobile handset makers seem to be struggling at. Please, Nokia, please; do the right thing.

This week the Swedish Government banned the teaching of Creationism and “Intelligent Design” is all schools, including private religious institutions. The Local writes:

Some Christian schools teach biology students that the world and the organisms on it were created by a supreme being. This is often presented as another valid scientific theory alongside evolution - something most scientists reject.

Religious Education will remain on the curriculum and it will still be allowed to start the school day with prayers. But in classes teachers will be expected to stick to the curriculum.

There’s definitely something special about the way Scandinavian countries operate, why is it that they are so more clued-in than the rest of the Western World?

Ian Sample from The Gaurdian writes:

Scientists have discovered a warm and rocky “second Earth” circling a star, a find they believe dramatically boosts the prospects that we are not alone.

The planet is the most Earth-like ever spotted and is thought to have perfect conditions for water, an essential ingredient for life. Researchers detected the planet orbiting one of Earth’s nearest stars, a cool red dwarf called Gliese 581, 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra.

“We wouldn’t be surprised if there is life on this planet,” said Stephane Udry, an astronomer on the project at the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland.

An interesting development, although I wouldn’t be surprised if their conclusions are debunked by further evidence. Check out the full article here.