News

Das beliebte Touchscreenhandy Apple iPhone 3GS ist wieder bei O₂ Germany verfügbar und kann dort ohne Abschluss eines Mobilfunkvertrags als 16 GB-Version für 779 Euro erworben werden. Das Unternehmen hat die Verfügbarkeit des Smartphones mittlerweile bestätigt. Jedoch kann das Handy nur von ausgewählten Kunden gekauft werden, wie Pressesprecher Harald Maass gegenüber dem Onlinemagazin Teltarif berichtete. Wer das Apple iPhone 3GS unbedingt haben möchte aber nicht zum ausgewählten Kundenkreis gehört, der sollte unbedingt die Hotline von O₂ anrufen und hat eventuell die Chance mit Hartnäckigkeit eines zu bekommen. Das Angebot richtet sich vorwiegend nur an Bestandskunden.

Die Nachfrage war bereits im November vergangenen Jahres sehr hoch und daher hat O₂ nun eine ausreichende Menge eingekauft. Das Apple iPhone 3GS verfügt über einen Touchscreen und konnte seit seiner Markteinführung weltweit bereits millionenfach verkauft werden. Wenn man Bestandskunde bei O₂ ist sollte die Möglichkeit genutzt werden sich das Handy zu kaufen, denn es hat keinen SIM-Lock und funktioniert daher mit jeder SIM-Karte. Das Telefonieren beherrscht das Smartphone ebenso wie den SMS/MMS-Versand, es können Videos und Musik abgespielt werden. Im Apple iTunes Store und App Store können Songs, Filme, Hörbücher, Spiele und Programme heruntergeladen werden.

Being based in Barcelona means I get to visit the Mobile World Congress without having to manage a logistics nightmare. Some visitors are staying at hotels over 100 miles away, and commuting every day to the event and back, it is really that busy. Everyone who means anything in the mobile world will be here, so if you’re in town and want to get together for a coffee or a beer (well, a beer and a diet coke, I don’t drink) and talk about wireless technology and how nice the weather is over here, drop me a line in the comments. Oh, and look for something weird around the entrance…there will be a little surprise from Whisher!

It was fun while it lasted. It seems that Ted Dziuba, the hand behind Uncov, the extremely harsh startup review site, has given up, curiously, at the same time he attended the Crunchies, and is launching his own Web two-dot-oh startup, Persai.

Always extremely critic of other startups in the new ’social internet’, he was often cited as the anti-Techcrunch, providing alternative not-so-shiny reviews of the same companies featured there. The professional blogosphere is very closed and competitive medium, and so, you can find yourself in a position where you get effectively blackballed from being mentioned in most top blogs, either for making fun of them (like Ted did) or by being strongly criticized in one. In the latter case, it will be the rest of bloggers who will not want to step on the first one’s toes, and write good reviews or posts, for fear that their friendship could suffer.

So, I guess Ted finally woke up and saw the reality, and realized that he has to play ball in order to get his own startup promoted around the blogs and forums. It would be interesting to know what kind of reception he got at the Crunchies, I bet it wasn’t warm, and this made him see what happens to those who stray from the politically correct path. In any case, good luck with Persai Ted, you made us laugh a few times.

The Los Angeles Times provides a great Google Maps mashup that tracks the huge fires currently raging in southern California in almost real time. What is impressive is the amount of resources committed, with one fire pulling in almost 1800 firefighters.

Browsing through some old photo albums, I came across a set of photos from my years with the Kinder Mountain Rescue Team, based in Hayfield, UK. After going through high school in Southend, near London, I moved to Whaley Bridge, a small town south of Manchester, to pursue my degree in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Salford. One day, while walking towards the popular Kinder reservoir area for a weekend walk, I noticed a small hut belonging to the KMRT, and basically crashed into one of their meetings. After talking to some people from the exec team, I was accepted as a probie, not without a strange look on some faces (”what’s this guy from Spain who we’ve never seen before doing here?” sort of look). Normal probie period is six months, but, normally probies are introduced by team members, who know them and their capabilities and can make the recommendation. I was coming out of the blue, so I spent about a year as a probie, before being admitted as a full member.

Why, would you ask? Well, a couple of years earlier, I broke an ankle while descending a winter route in the French Pyrenees, and was brought to safety by a mountain rescue team. Ever since, I felt there was something I had to pay back – and this was the chance. During my stay with the KMRT, we performed all sorts of operations, from rescues of people with broken limbs, to searches for lost walkers. We trained a lot, and participated in huge exercises involving many local teams, Police, RAF helicopters and aircraft, K-9 units, and the ambulance service. One of the exercises I keep pictures of is a paper helicopter crash on Kinder plateau (we used the word ‘paper’ to describe anything fictional in the contest of an exercise, for example, “call the paper RAF and request a paper helicopter and a paper ambulance”, just in case anyone listening on the radio thought it was the real thing)

A very realistic victim, with a very realistic amputated limb. The excellent members of the Casualties Union provide the most believable victims you can find, with makeup, real bone fragments (from sheep of course!), and other surprises. Everything you’d need to film a good zombie movie.

Finally, this picture was taken during a winter route in Scotland, the most remarkable fact being that we had perfect weather – which is something to put in your memoirs. As we descended, a single, tiny, white and fluffy cloud passed by, as if saying “yeah, you’re not going to get away -that- easily!”. For the record, Andy was just making fun with the ice pick, he didn’t actually hit anyone!