Headworx

They call me almost every week. I recognize them as they are the only callers not presenting their caller id. The sales people working for my mobile service provider. Yes I must have had agreed somewhere in my contract to let my MNO contact me over the phone. Silly me. But I really did not realize they can be so silly too... They call me when I am on vacation, interrupting my sea - side lazy afternoons. Or when I am on a business trip. Generally they call me when I am roaming, forcing me to pay for receiving the calls. Silly approach. Their HLRs know I am on a foreign network, and that generally means it is not the best time trying to sell me something on the phone. Is it such a big IT integration issue for a call center software working for a mobile network operator (MNO) to query a HLR before making a call? Or is it cheaper just to call a subscriber ignorantly pretending the operator's sales department has no idea of subscriber's whereabouts (while the billing department prec...

For years I have been absolutely happy with my Lenovo X200S laptop. It was light enough to follow me almost everywhere and powerful enough to be the only machine I had. Especially after the SSD upgrade. But I wanted more. I mean less :). I fell in love with the Nokia Booklet 3G and decided to swap the Lenovo for the Nokia. Looking from today's perspective I very often think this was not the best decision. The keyboard on the Nokia is far from what the Lenovo offered. And I miss the trackstick - yes the touchpads are far inferior. And most importantly the Nokia is slow. Even after the SSD upgrade . But on the other hand I love it when I have to carry it, feeling almost no weight in my bag. It fits nicely in my Kata 123-GO photo bag. And most importantly, with its tiny weight, it is able to work all day on a charge. So I never ever carry a power supply with me. I made some extra setup for the Nokia at home. 22-inch FullHD monitor - the iiyama ProLite E2210HDS (what a name!) connects ...

Apple bypassing Google and then becoming the biggest tech company in the World fuels a lot of talk and speculation. Apple is having a time of its life, with share price up 30% YTD in a shaky market. At the same time Google is down 30% YTD. Definitely investors have fallen in love with Steve Jobs at take whatever Google offers as granted. But paying a closer look may reveal quite a different picture. With all the credits due, Apple is chiefly a design company. Whatever they have done since the original iPhone 1 launch, can hardly be considered innovative or breakthrough. The iPhone was a breakthrough. Nobody expected anything close when they launched. But whatever happened after that has been just incremental, linear improvement. 3G. GPS. More memory and faster processor. Better screen and battery life. Yawn. The null-modem-cable iTunes connectivity remains the same. It is so hard to believe design sells so well. Or that good design is so hard to implement. I wrote about the new Mac Min...

I am a big fan of a life within a browser. I hate apps. Every time I have to install a program or application on my computer or smartphone, I don't like it. Applications are evil. They crash. They have way too broad access to various niches on my hard drive. I don't trust them, in general. Imagine Mark Zuckerberg writing an application for Windows. What would it be doing? It would spend all time and resources scanning your file system and memory for things it could post on Facebook. It would invite all your friends to become fans of your bank account statements and post your Web browsing history as a Facebook news feed. Trust, or lack of it, is the reason I strongly prefer things running inside my browser. It is a big deal. Remember Activex versus Java in the late 1990's? Microsoft just could not implement secure enough way of handling native - code Activex controls, to prevent potential damage. It is the same story again on the smartphone / teleputer platforms (the iOs and...

It is summer vacations time again and I am taking a short break from the sunbath at the pool overlooking endless orchards of lemon trees at the foot of the majestic Etna volcano. This trip to Sicily, which I enjoy a lot, has brought usual thoughts on the state of the gadgets I pack with me. Surprisingly, my carry on rucksack has been significantly smaller and lighter this year. A clear sign things are going the right direction for gadget maniacs. I no longer have to tug a set of trolleys filled with electronics. Speaking of the rucksack, I am very pleased with the Kata 123-GO-30. Kata is a brand that does not need explanation for photographers. They have probably the best equipment to carry the DSLR stuff. The 123-GO series bags are very light. I picked the 30, as it can accommodate my Nokia 3G booklet, along with the photo stuff ( FujiFilm FinePix S5 Pro , four lenses, a flashlight, and some accessories). The significant reduction of travel weight comes from well optimized set of pow...

I have been contemplating getting myself a Mac Mini. The trigger to the thinking in this direction has been my recent adventure with the Nokia Booklet 3G . The Nokia is a great portable machine. Very good balance between screen capacity (resolution/size) and overall bulk of the machine, with phenomenal battery life. And after the 256GB SSD upgrade it really holds everything I have. Unfortunately both the screen and keyboard are too small to be used on a regular basis in the office (or in the home office in my case). The good solution has been pretty straightforward - I purchased an external monitor. The Nokia has HDMI output and can deliver FullHD resolution (1920x1080), so a matching monitor seemed a good idea. The beauty of the HDMI port is it carries sound too, so essentially docking my Nokia Booklet is a matter of plugging two simple cables - HDMI and USB. HDMI for sound and display. USB to connect to various desktop devices - the Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner (btw the ScanSnap is the...

Yes, Apple will make TV sets. Not just an add-on set-top-box, but an entire TV. They will be persuading the market, people no longer need traditional TVs, surrounded with multiple boxes, and entangled in the single biggest mess of cables yo have in house. And a number of remotes, one to change volume, another one to switch channels and yet another one to play a movie from a disc. Even if we do not look too often at the interconnectivity mess behind the TV sets, we hate to operate them. Magnitude of inputs, hundreds of buttons on remote controllers (you know, every single function has to have a button in the TV world...). And it used to be so simple 50 years ago. Google, together with major partners like Sony, Logitech and DISH, announced the Google TV initiative. A clear sign, after personal computers, game consoles, mobile superphones, the next battle ground is the living room. This has to be true. When yo look at your TV now, it is the most disconnected device you have. While there w...