Dom Barnes’s Blog

Via Kung Fu Grippe

It was announced at Macworld in January, and since then, its been a never ending rollercoaster of rumours, gossip, pictures, and fake ads and info. But what do I think of the iPhone?

My opinion hasn’t changed much. I have some extra thoughts now (having heard about the N95) and some features I would like to see.

Personally, I think it will be an excellent product for already Apple fans (Me, and other recently met Apple fans). It will hopefully welcome a new way of looking at mobile phones, and hopefully prompt some clever thinking from other manufacturers.

1. Touch screen - I’m interested to try this out really. Being more of a texter, I am curious how it will feel typing with a few fingers. Often design and shape can make this easy or hard. Also, other so called “touch screens” seem more like buttonless buttons, where there is no physical separation, but still specific areas that work as buttons. They don’t seem dynamic. A true touch screen device will push this technology into other areas.

2. Full HTML browsing. A lot of people asked “what about flash or ajax?” I don’t care so much about this, although flash would be good for Revver, Jumpcut and other video players, not Youtube. I would just like to get away from horrible WAP browsing. Reduced eBay is awful, and most sites don’t render well so scrolling is a nightmare. I would like to read the Evil Genius Chronicles with ease please.

3. Google Maps - Now I can get these already on my Noka 6280 and N70, but the ease of viewing with pinching and dragging seems so much easier, and more how Google Maps works on a normal computer.

4. Visual Voicemail - Great idea. I would love that. If I can access my voicemail in random order, I can avoid all those messages left by phones ringing in pockets, or from someone I want to avoid. If I can see who its from, how long the message is, and playback at will, I’ll take that phone please. One handy thing here is local storage of voicemail. Lets say you’re travelling, and keep going out of cell service, if my phone downloads the voicemail while I have service, I can listen to later, and deal with, without the trouble of losing signal mid call. Woo-hoo!

5. SMS - I’ve seen the chat SMS feature on the Treo, and want a version for my N70. But the iPhone has it built in. I like this idea, would save me coming out of messages to look at what I’m replying to. And its pretty. insert emoticon.

I have concerns though, mainly about the UK model.

Now this will have to be different I think. UK phones are often branded to hell, and locked by SIM card to a network. Now Apple won’t allow branding, thats for sure. If they did, I would really reconsider purchasing one. They also have to choose networks carefully. There are 5 main providers. 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, and Vodafone. 3 deal with only 3G networks, which is good because it provides high speed data transfer services. They infact market themselves entirely on this, with MobileTV, and videocalling a big deal.
The other networks are slowly picking up 3G as a good service. Personally I wouldn’t buy a phone now (baring iPhone of course) without 3G included.
I heard rumblings of Vodafone getting the contact over here, as they have good coverage, and are present in Europe as well. Apple, if you’re reading, DON’T! Please don’t. Go with T-Mobile. And here’s why.
The iPhone includes Wi-fi and is the main source of use for web browsing and Google Maps, and the other features that will use it. T-Mobile has a huge Wifi presence in the UK. They’re Hotspots are in almost every Starbucks, many hotels, public places, service stations, all over the place. All you have to do is put out a special package, which includes unlimited Wifi or cell-based wireless data service (like EDGE). I’m there. If I can walk into Starbucks for lunch, get out my iPhone and check my emails, view some web pages, for free, at high speeds, I’m sold. No other network can provide this service.

So what features are missing from the so far annouced iPhone?
1. GPS. You’ve got maps, Google Maps application can chart directions. It would be a great addition (although possible putting TomTom and others up as rivals)
2. Front Camera. Thinking Wifi, thinking Skype, thinking video chat, or even just video calling. It should still be there.
3. Java support - I ned my java apps. Gmail mainly. And some games.. for fun
4. Bluetooth Modem - No Wifi? Use your phones data plan to get online at a slower speed.

Some final things to ponder
1. Removable Battery - Why? If its the same type as the iPod, I don’t need to change it. If I can take it to an Apple Store and replace it when its overused, for a small fee, I will.
2. Sim card - If there is no removable battery, where does a Sim card go? UK phones depend on these.
3. Bluetooth - Can I sync via bluetooth? I may not want to sync my music, but what about my contacts, calendar and mail?
4. Notes - Can I scribble notes with my finger? In stead of typing? Or draw a pretty picture? Perhaps even send that by bluetooth.
5. Output - I can listen to my songs, use the bluetooth headset (will it be an extra) but can I hook up my iPod AV cable and play movies and show photos back on my TV?
6. SMS - I really like the idea of showing threaded SMS messages. Lovely. But can I turn that off? In case I just wanna view them like a normal inbox? I hope so, I’d like the option.
7. Keypad - Can I switch between a QWERTY (why was that so hard to type?) keyboard and a normal phone one? Again, nice for the option.

Well thats all I can think about for now. I’d like to hear your thoughts.

[digg=http://digg.com/apple/My_thoughts_on_the_iPhone_A_UK_perspective]

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while now, and finally decided to.

On 6 April 2007 (mark this in your DF journal) we stepped into the recording (dance) studio and did our first ever recording. Wanna know how hi-tech it was? We used mini-discs.

The way Rich Bitch works, they have a professional recording studio, where you can pay about £400 for 10 hours of studio time to get proper recordings. Or, you can hire the Dance studio for the standard price (£12.50ph) and record for free to your own minidiscs. So thats what we did. We booked our normal 2 hour slot  and went in armed with a few discs. You can ask the technicians to come and set your levels right and then start the recording. So we got the man in, did a run through of Russia, and let him adjust the sliders and dial and switches that make us sound just like U2. There is even a Bono slider for the vocals. Weird.

Anyway, we pretty much just went through the set a few times over, took a few takes to get it right but we did each song about 10 times so we came out with a good few trials.  The session went quite well. It was cool to play on a stage, with a full rig, and monitors, and the room was really cool too. Very hip (or whatever is the cool word the kids are using)

Anyway, recording was the easy part. Since we recorded to minidisc, the trouble next we getting it from MD to my laptop (I took charge of this fun task). I did some searching and found the only way was to do it through a line -in port and a 3.5mm mini-jack. So that meant recording in realtime. So I set the thing to record, hit play on the MD player, and buggered off for a while.

A bit later, I had 3 .wav files recorded in Audicity, that I could play with. I brought them into Logic Express and just used the cut tool to snip around takes of songs, then dragged them to a track for each song. This meant I could easily export all versions of one song in one go.

After tediously listening to the whole thing (almost 2 hours) I had split the tracks. They were then exported to wav files, and i used a open source program called Max to convert them to MP3’s, and finally, imported into iTunes and set the ID3 tags. Phew!

The only problems with all this is, the recording level was low so the songs are all really quiet (at least the raw tracks), and its all as one track, in mono, so can’t do any adjustment of each instrument. To be honest, I thought the bass should’ve been louder, and I didn’t like the sound much, and the guitars were a bit loud. So some tweaking needed.

Anyway, some of those tracks are now up on Virb, and if you really want, you can have the raw wav files, and can do some editing of your own. A challenge for any amateur music producers. See what you can do. email us at douglasfurs at googlemail dot com for info.

So I recently decided I had to buy a new phone. I have a Nokia 6280 and its driving me crazy. It seemed great at first. 3G, bluetooth, 2MP camera, external memory card slot (which I upgraded to 512MB), slide design. Lovely. But the firmware let me down. It spent months restarting itself, and its been back to Three many times for reflashing.Well I reached the final tether. I shifted onto eBay and bought a Nokia N70. Funny thing of course is that the N70 was the phone I was going to get originally. But I changed it to a 6280 after using my girlfriends (which she got at the same time). Well it arrived the other day, locked to Orange, and it had this horrible “Homescreen” built into Orange’s branded firmware. It was obviously designed to make it more Smartphone-ish and look like a Windows Mobile device, which its not. It does better than that really. So I went searching around for info on this (how to remove it really). I read loads of posts saying everyone hated the Homescreen, and Orange just wouldn’t do away with it.While searching, I came across this post at Tech Enclave which solved my problem, and I’m passing it on to you.At first, I tried using Nokia Software Updater to replace the software, even tried reinstalling the current firmware (v3.0546.2.3). That did nothing. Then this post gave me an idea. I can use the method described, to make my phone think it is a Nokia N70 Music Edition, and then maybe reinstalling the firmware would clear the Orange screen. So I did the following (taken from Tech Enclave)1. Download and install Nokia Software Updater2. Download and install Nemesis Service Suite (select Virtual USB device in install process)3. Connect my phone (wait for Windoze to install drivers), open NSS and click Scan For New Device4. Click Phone Info, click Scan, in the box next to Product Code, type 0536418, tick the Enable box and click Write.5. Wait for confirmation on the screen that the changes have happened. Close NSS6. Open NSU, follow the instructions (please, please, please backup your data. This can be done with Nokia PC Suite. NSU reflashes the firmware and all data on the phone will be lost. Simcard and memory cards are fine but programs need to be reinstalled).7. You should be informed that there is a firmware update. Install that, and be sure not to let your computer switch off (vitally dangerous as it can brick you phone, not great if you are on an old laptop that has a battery that barely lasts 20 mins)8. Wait for your phone to restart, and when it gets back to the home screen, unplug.Congratulations. You have some pretty much generic firmware now. Some new themes, a better Music player, and generally a better phone, thanks to the lack of Orange Home screen.I did it and it worked fine. Be aware that this will void your warranty completely, as well as wipe your phone data.Well I hope that helps at least one person. It would’ve saved me hours of searching around. Enjoy your new, free N70!Technorati Tags: Nokia, N70, Orange,

On Friday I went with Katie to see the Barenaked Ladies at the Birmingham Academy and it was an amazing show. The doors opened really early when the support, Boothby Graffoe (Musician/Comic) came on at about 8, and the doors opened at 6pm. Eitherway, it was a long wait, but Boothby was good. He did a mix of jokes, and music, but it was all musically joined. There are a few videos on Youtube so worth watching them. Ed, Kevin, and Jim from BNL came on too and played (with Ed on drums) for a song or two.

So he left, then BNL came on stage and opened with One Week, probably the most well known song in the UK after its single release a good few years ago. Without recounting the whole set list, they played a good mix of songs from all their albums, the 2 Barenaked Ladies Are Me/Men albums, Stunt, Maroon, Gordon, Everything to Everyone, Born on a Pirate Ship, and Maybe You Should Drive. We also got a few special songs, namely Feliz Good Friday (it being Good Friday) sung by Tyler. It was a lovely seasonal song, and its probably on the internet somewhere by now. We also got, what could only be a song written that day, a track by Ed and Steve about Birmingham (where the post title came from). It was funky, makes you wanna dance, and laugh, as Ed exclaimed at the price of Agent Provocateur, and Steve complains about the litter in Birmingham, and declares he carries a shiv made from a spoon.

They saw fit to do two encores, and finished off with Alternative Girlfriend. One of the great things they do is personalise the show to the fans and the city. The song certainly did that. They’re all really friendly, and there was a great atmosphere in the room, together with an immense amount of heat. One of the things which I’ve never heard anyone else do, is offer the whole gig for sale in audio on a USB drive. They’ve already sold their most recent double album via USB on their website, which gets you all the tracks in MP3, without DRM, and some great bonus features (live tracks, and some extra songs). So we got one (to go with my T-Shirt and Katie’s mug), so we can listen to the show anytime (which is so great), and also the support from Boothby.

If they’re ever in your city, its worth going to see them. Also check out the Bathroom Sessions on Revver, and their website.

Technorati Tags: bnl, barenaked ladies, boothby graffoe,

Summer has hit the UK and the ice cream vans are out. Here’s a few pre-rehersal shots of the treats we enjoyed.

You may ask why there are less pics of me. Well I tend to take them, and can avoid them.

Practice update coming soon…

Don’t worry. This isn’t a tribute to our favorite(!) Durst-assisted band, Stain’d (why the apostrophe? is an e that difficult to find in the keyboard?) Its just an explaination of where I’ve been. Here’s a run down.

1. Been moving house. This means packing boxes, buying furniture, moving boxes, putting together ikea flat packs, contacting many companies about my new address, emptying boxes, cleaning the new place, cleaning the old place, buying food, and some other bits and pieces.
2. Trying to get someone to look at our (new) broken fridge that is about 10 degrees too warm (15C at the mo)
3. Trying to do some studying for my A+
4. Working - gotta make a living
5. Actually sitting down once in a while.

I’m gonna try and do part 3 of the Great Mac Apps. Hopefully the list and indepth reports are useful. Its always worth hearing a bit about apps, rather than a list. On that note, check out osx.iusethis.com for more great app ideas and some reviews too.
Have a look at my shared Google reader feed. I throw a lot of Mac stuff in there, including some great articles on Quicksilver. It is the best app I can’t live without (apart from iTunes).

Please leave comments on the blog. If you find something useful, let me know, let me know what else you wanna know about. I might be able to help, after all I wanna get a job working with Mac’s in the future.

Should also be some band news soon, once we have a practice (last one was a few weeks back and was dreadful. seriously bad). Check us out at www.virb.com/douglasfurs and add us as friends. More tracks will appear as soon as we can record some.