Gadgets Gizmos Gossip

Rumours about the technical specifications and release date of the iPhone 5 have been flying around the internet for months, but it appears we could now have the strongest indication of the imminent arrival of Apple’s new handset, according to an article by T3.
The article suggests that Apple have stopped all staff holidays for the first fortnight in October, leading many to believe that this will be the period that the iPhone 5 arrives in the United Kindom.

Whether or not this is true remains to be seen, but numerous sources have suggested that Apple will be adopting this ‘holiday blackout’ during October, even asking staff members with holiday already booked to change their plans.

Rumours also continue about the specifications of the new iPhone, with many expecting it to feature the dual-core processor currently utilised in the iPad2. I would also expect a new slimline design and improved levels of storage, RAM and probably a higher quality camera.

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Post by Simon from Swiss Time Machine – the leading online supplier of pre-owned luxury Swiss watches.

So, here’s a question for all the gadget fans: is Android unfashionable? At first it would seem like something of trick question. After all, the numbers most definitely tell us otherwise. Android is now the operating system installed on the majority of phones out there currently. But let’s backtrack on that a second: does ‘installed on the majority of phones’ mean the same thing as ‘fashionable’? After all, Android isn’t overtaking iPhone or Blackberry to take number one positon, it’s overtaking Symbian. Symbian is the operating system behind most phones from the last decade. Your mum probably has it on her phone. Your grandmother may even have it. That’s not especially ‘fashionable’, is it?

The Case of Blackberry

RIM’s mobile devices were most definitely fashionable, and you know what? I can’t explain for the life of me why this was the case. Ok, so the Blackberry messenger application kept many a financially unsound user from racking up bad credit over their text message bill, but the time of restrictive messaging allowances are now truely over. Everyone surely gets three thousand of the things. And when it comes to one important factor – the aesthetics – I simply cannot understand why people every found these ugly things attractive enough to swing them around like fashion accessories. Oh wait, the trend setters (reality show stars, pop-starlets) were probably paid to.

Regardless, Blackberries are kind of on the way out, but a much heftier opponent approaches.

Apple, the Undisputed Kings of the Smartphone?

Android has only one thing on iPhone. Fortunately for the members of the handset alliance, it’s the only thing that matters to most of us: Price. Want an Android, you get out your Credit Card. Want an iPhone, and you may as well ship in the gold bullion.

The problem is though, the iPhone does and always has looked like a million dollars. Its design philosophies are so radiant that they’ve seeped into every crack of the machine. Only Apple could sell you a device without an accessible battery and make you love it precisely because there’s no ugly seams to make your 2001-esque monolith of evolutionary thought look less striking.

Aesthetics

One of the most common criticisms (and arguably benefits) of android is the split nature of the platform. Most manufacturers have a high end version of their devices, and a low end version. You get whichever one your Vanquis card can stretch to. Some (like HTC) have high end, mid, low end devices and then just keep expanding upwards with variations on their most expensive models. By aesthetically? On the screen, the android UI ranges from pleasing (HTC sense) through ‘ok if you like blue’ (Sony Ericsson) through dull as dishwater (the default, as seen on the Nexus One). As for the cases of the phones themselves? There’s always some weakness or other. The HTC legend has a beautiful aluminium shell, but flimsy looking buttons. And the Galaxy S? Can you Say ‘Overgrown iPhone 3 Rip-Off’?

Conclusion

At the moment, I’d say that Android is at a crossroads. People who don’t care how their phones look have them, and people who love features AND aesthetics have them. But there’s no ‘wow! You have THAT phone’ factor. They’re not specifically fashionable, but they’re not yet unfashionable either.

An iPhone-controlled fridge which shoots cans of beer across a room from a cannon has been hailed as the ‘greatest ever bloke’s toy’.

Ryan Rusnak, 25, created the ‘Beer Bot’ when he decided to make his own beer vending machine – which means he doesn’t have to leave his seat again when he fancies a cold beverage.

The first version was a basic vending machine that dropped chilled beers from the fridge into a tray below. But Ryan, form Tyson’s Corner, Virginia, US wasn’t satisfied with a mere beer vendor.

After talking with co-creator Graham Phero, a compressed air cannon was added to the machine.

Ryan said: “My buddy Graham said, ‘how can we throw the beers to us?’

“What about an arm or a cannon?”

The friends settled on air-pressured cannon, but it wasn’t all plain sailing.

Ryan said: “It was kind of famous last words: ‘how much pressure should we use?’

“The first attempt smashed into the roof and blew it into a thousand pieces.”

Using a netbook computer the pair can log into the fridge via a dedicated web server, using an app developed by Ryan’s friend Josh Lilly.

They installed a webcam in the front of the Perspex panelled fridge to aim the cannon and send a cold can of beer hurtling across the room towards them.

The fridge also has its own Twitter profile, tweeting whenever a beer is fired and sending a notification email to its creators.

Ryan said: All the tinkering and everything took about three months to get it absolutely right.”

He added that making a ‘Beer Bot’ Mark II would be a quicker and cheaper affair.

He said: “The trial and error and creating the device cost £250. But knowing what I do now I could probably build one in a weekend for about £190.”

An iobridge micro-controller device allows the fridge to link to Ryan’s iPhone via the web.

Government tech consultant Ryan, A Virginia Tech University graduate, has received plenty of attention since posting videos of the Beer Bot online, so much that the CEO of the micro-controller company took him out to lunch.

He said:”It’s been crazy. I’ve had tons of people calling me asking to use the videos on new programmes and even to conjure an idea for other appliances like an old Bosch slimline dishwasher or a washing machines, it’s just bizarre.”

Ryan said he plans to celebrate the popularity of the fridge by throwing a party and allowing friends to log into the appliance.