4G Finally

After waiting for what seems like an eternity 4G is available in the UK thanks for Everything Everywhere. This is merger of Orange and T-Mobile. Although I found this on the BBC, I though I'd share my thoughts.

Firstly I would personally thank the mobile company as for once it's on a network that I use, but would not be able to take advantage of for the moment. Secondly the phone companies (O2 and Vodafone) complain that they will lose out. I would say that Everything Everywhere and 3 (the network) have prepared, they should have too. Remember the saying "failing to plan is planning to fail".

Some would say why 4G? I would say why 4 years? That is how long the UK has been missing out. It's a shame that we missed the roll out of 4G during the Olympics. We could have been the first nation to bring Long Term Evolution to the Olympics.

With 4G on our phones many of us will get faster internet from our phones than from our home phone lines. Maybe that will spur the ISPs to speed up there home internet speeds for all of us.

A word for the ISPs: You need to speed up the process on providing up faster internet than making excuses on why it's taking you longer to get the lines updated. Stop milking our money and catch up with the rest of Europe, Japan and South Korea (the later 2 with 1Gb internet).

Patents are a Joke

The reasons for Patents are to stop others from stealing your idea and getting it to market. This is to protect the inventor/designer etc.

Now there are times when companies create patents that shouldn't have been granted:

-Swipping screen left to right - Patent
This idea was around in 2004 by Neonode and the phone N1m runs Windows CE. This phone has touch screen and swipping. A video is available on Youtube. With all this evidence, Apple managed to get a patent. Neonode should sue them for copying their idea.

-Tablet computer idea was thought by Alan Kay for the Dynabook in 1968 and later Roger Fidler who worked for a newspaper company called Knight Ridder came up with an idea that looks familiar to one ipad.
The tablet newspaper was thought of in 1994 and the idea of the company is available on Youtube.

For Apple to sue Google, HTC and Samsung is a joke as they have stolen these 2 ideas and have patents for both. Just because a frame around a screen is similar or doesn't have sharp edges means others are copying you. They are just making sure that there is less change of injury to the end user and they wouldn't want to get sued with all the Health and Safety laws of today.

HTC managed to beat Apple in court. Other should follow. On another note, if Apple didn't outsource to China, America's unemployment wouldn't suffer as much.

Schumacher is back

Michael Schumacher is coming back to Formula 1 (F1). A recent article from the BBC reveals this news. This is because of a traggic accident that sees my favourite driver Felipe Massa out for the rest of the season. The BBC have a clip of what happened available here.

Unfortunate for Massa when he was guaranteed Qually 3, but who would have known this would happen. I wish him the best and hopefully Michael can rack up some points for the team in Massa's absence.

The Top Gear Stig is Michael Schumacher or is it?

As I saw this today, it had to be shared. Is this totally true or just a way to introduce Schumacher onto the show. The show wanted to keep this private for quite some time, but it's going to keep people talking (great for its ratings).

If you watched Top Gear on Sunday 21st June 2009, then you would have seen that Schumacher lift the helmet making us believe he is the stig. You can see some pictures of this from the daily mail. Alternatively, you can see a clip of this on the BBC website. You could also view the full episode of the new series on the BBC iPlayer.

If Schumacher is the Stig then don't forget that he helped Top Gear beat the German Presenters (Sabine Schmitz, Carsten van Ryssen and Tim Schrick) in the England vs Germany challenge when the stig beat the rally driver in the final race (Jeremy was pretending that it was James May to help Top Gear win the challenge).

If you think this is not true, or have any opinions to share about this, please share your comments.