Alex Kidman

I’m doing an Alison-Moyet-Listening day today, as you might be able to tell. But hey, on the on the subject of words, I have plenty published today. First of all, at APCMag.com:

Mobile Firefox coming to Nokia: “Ambitious plans will see Firefox mobile ported to Symbian Smartphones, possibly by as early as April next year.”

Internode offers ADSL2+ across “entire Telstra ADSL footprint” “Internode now has the same ADSL2+ coverage as Telstra, but will “stop customers hurting themselves” by signing on to a Telstra-based service if there is any other option.”

Now, if you’re more of the listening type, there’s also my final podcast contribution to Australian Macworld, in which I pontificate on ISP trials, iPod Touch Battery life and gaming, and the world’s biggest Mac fan. Surprisingly, it isn’t Steve Jobs.

Episode 45 — The downfall of Capitalist Democracy “MJCP, Danny Gorog, Tony Williams and Alex Kidman discuss broadband plans, internet filtering, legal action against ISPs, HandBrake 0.9.3, Bloom for iPhone, and why capitalism and democracy don’t work.

Alex Kidman, bringing you the news stories* that the other journalists are afraid to touch. Via APCMag.com in this case:

Nokia declares massive change in corporate strategy: “Nokia is cutting out middlemen (“users”) and will sell mobiles directly to other mobiles.”

You find out all sorts of interesting things researching stories (even “stories” like the above). According to the it-couldn’t-possibly-be-wrong-could-it-Wikipedia, Nokia’s revenue in 2006 was larger than Finland’s national budget. That’s big, big money in anyone’s books.

*I’m using “story” here in the technically correct sense ” An account or recital of an event or a series of events, either true or fictitious”. Guess which of the two options the above is, and win a prize!*

*No prizes will be awarded.

I’m in serious wordage mode right now, with another news/product piece at PC Authority:

Nokia’s new Fold and Slide Phones: “The flip-phone was once our weapon of choice, but the slide is looking better by the day. Check out Nokia’s new handsets for both camps.”

A quick news story today, for PC Authority:

WiMAX Notebooks this year? “Nokia and Everex jump on the WiMAX bandwagon with a tablet and notebook designed to take advantage of high speed wireless Internet.”

That Simon Le Bon. A true lyrical genius, on a level with Vanilla Ice.

Still have plenty of tales of the road to write up. If only I wasn’t so darned busy just writing. A conundrum, no?

Still, it pays the bills, or so they tell me. One of the perils of being a freelancer is never quite knowing when payment will come in. Oh well, there’s always the fame I suppose. Come with me, and bear witness to my fame (or lack thereof)  with these these reviews, live right now at Gadgetguy.com.au:

Navman S80: “Navman’s S80 is a stylish GPS unit with a great display. It’s easy to use, will synchronise nicely with your Bluetooth mobile phone and is a snap to install. It’s a pity that it only runs a crippled version of the company’s excellent Navpix navigation, however…”

Hitachi MMP501B: “The MMP-501B is a huge GPS with quite a lot going for it. Its text-to-speech could be better, and we’re still not sold on in-car AV through your GPS…”

TomTom ONE XL:  “On the one hand, the ONE XL is a competent and effective GPS system that does what it says on the box; it routes you efficiently to where you need to go. On the other hand…”

Binatone Carrera X350: “Our only complaint here was that it consistently gave us contrary instructions, some of which could have been quite fatal. Perhaps it just didn’t like us, but we’re still trying to work out why it wanted us to continue straight into a gorge and fifty metre drop…”

Nokia 330 Auto Navigation: “Nokia’s 330 Auto Navigation system (or GPS to you and me) is, in many ways, a terribly conventional unit…”