The App's Splash Screen

The reason behind the pull was a cease & desist letter from the company which operate the DublinBikes scheme on behalf of Dublin City Council, JCDecaux.

Now, in case you didn’t know, JCDecaux aren’t some kind of bike company by trade. They sell outdoor advertising space – billboards, the information pillars at Luas stops, that kind of thing. In 2006, they entered into a contract with the Council whereby the council would allow JCDecaux to erect 170 of these ad panels all over the city and in return, they would provide the DublinBikes scheme (consisting of 450 bikes). The contract has since been revised down to 120 panels (of which only 72 have been erected). I haven’t studied the contract in any great detail, but I always feel like DCC got screwed over in this deal. Not least because the ad panels were built quickfast and the bikes only arrived last week.

The Main Screen of the App

But, back on topic, the iPhone App. Having sought and received permission to build the app from all the relevant stakeholders, JCDecaux have now done a u-turn and gone legal on Fusio. The only logical reason I can think of is that either -

• JCDecaux didn’t realise how popular the app was going to be – It had 3,000 odd downloads when it was pulled – and have now realised there’s money to be made from it. So I wouldn’t be surprised if we see an ‘official’ DublinBikes app in the next few weeks that will be (a) ad-supported (b) not-free (79c or so) or (c) both ads and a download charge.
• The other option is that JCDecaux are planning to build a similar app for every city they have bikes in, but weren’t sure of the demand, so used Fusio (without their knowledge) to test the waters and now that it’s been a success, they’re going to roll out their app worldwide.

Either way, it’s a major faux pas from a company that should really know better.

So, I’ve spent the week in Dublin until now, but may well leave the pale if this mythical heatwave I’ve heard about materialises. I’m not holding out hope, which is good, cause if it does happen, i’ll be doubly surprised and happy, if only because it will give my tomatoes the last burst of heat and sun they need. And once that happens, I’ll be pouring over the recipes on Italian Foodies with which to use them (you’d think almost 100 cookbooks would suffice, but no.)

Home Grown Tomatoes

The inclement weather has however given me a chance to catch a lot of the US Open. I don’t claim to live and die by the fall of a tennis ball, but it sure beats re-runs of Judge Judy. And my better half is quite the fan, so it keeps here from going loo-la. It’s closing quite funny watch the Murray games (he’s playing Cilic as I type) and hearing the Sky Sports commentators claiming him as the second coming.

I’ve also managed to get another run to IKEA under my belt (Verdana or otherwise), and have yet again gotten away without buying half the store, but I would have to admit that it had more to do with finances than it had to do with willpower. I did however pick up a new lamp which lead me down to the local hardware store to get a new bulb. I was surprised at the amount of non-CFL lights you could still pick up despite what I thought was a nationwide ban on their sale.

I’m also looking forward to seeing what tomorrow’s Apple event brings, but to be honest, I’m not expecting anything revolutionary. I reckon cameras on iPods will be the biggest announcement if it happens. It’s sure a long way from the humble Sony walkman, but it reeks of Apple thinking “iPods are getting stale, what can we smack on it next?” if you ask me.

Well, that’s it for me now I reckon. This post already reeks too much of braindump on a page, but hopefully the quality of my writing will improve once I transition back from thinking in 140 character chunks…

Engadget is plugging this as an actual product, but it doesn’t really explain the bizarre video.

As TUAW are saying “it goes from Love Actually to CSI”

It officially hits the shelves this weekend, but I was in Dundrum picking up my copy of Halo 3 yesterday and I stopped into the O2 store to see if they had gotten them in yet.

They had, but only the 16GB model. So I figured, if I’m forking out €299 for an iPod, why not future-proof myself size wise. A weak excuse I know, but it helps me sleep etc.

Clearly, I snapped like a dry twig. And it’s everything I expected. My singular criticism is the lack of an external speaker. I honestly think that would have made all the difference.  As for further, more detailed thoughts, I’ll report back when I’ve had a week to play with it..

Look at it -

No 3G

Might not be an issue for the average user, but I’m pretty data heavy. Having to rely on EDGE is just not an option.

2 Megapixel Camera

OK, this is slightly nitpicker, but for €399, you could get phones with a much better camera. The N95 is €250 odd and it has a 5MP camera with a Carl Zeiss lens.

No MMS

Picture messaging has been a standard of phones in Ireland for ages now. To simply drop it boggles the mind. I don’t understand why this insanely basic function has been left out.

The ringtones thing

Seriously. It’s a freaking iPod and you can’t just use any old song as the ringtone? Not only that, but in order to use one of the “special” songs on iTunes, you have to buy it (fair enough), but then you’ve to pay another 99c to use it as a ringtone. And even if you don’t want to use an iTunes ringtone, you can’t just record a noise (I dunno, a baby laughing or a dog barking) and use that. It’s a joke.

So, why?

Now, credit where credit is due. The UI is revolutionary. The touchscreen is genius. The handset itself is another gem of Apple design. But this leads me onto my main point. I can get the 3 best features and save myself €100 if I get an iPod Touch.

So, why wait for an iPhone? Answers on a postcard. Or in the comments box, whatever floats your boat.

On a side note, this guy has a lot of faith in Apple Design -

Wait and see folks, wait and see.

That’s right. Just two months after the release of the iPhone, Jobs realised that it was well overpriced and lacking in certain key areas. And cut the price.

So, if you were a Loyal Apple-head, you just got skanked for $200. Ha ha. But as the article above says, if it’s only store credit, why stop at $100?

Has the Master of Cupertino lost his Midas touch?

As I’ve mentioned before, I recently got a new mobile. With it came the possibility of access to said email service.

So, like a good little Vodafone bunny, I called them up and asked to be setup. No bother they said. Go here and register. And you’re done. Push email for you. 100Megs a month they said. €10 a month they said.

So, here’s what happened.

1. The website was down.
2. When I got registered, 24 hours & 3 calls later, the push email was only every 15 minutes (Pedantic I know, but time is money and all that jazz)
3. Then, much to my irritation (and screwing with my Blog by Email plan) the Vodafone server appended “Sent using Vodafone Business Email” to the bottom of all my messages. Come on, what good is pretending to be in the office if it rats you out?
4. It wasn’t 100MB with €10, it was 10MB for €10!

Anyway, having rung customer care (again) to clarify these points, I was told that the “Sent using” bit was added by the server and couldn’t be removed. This wouldn’t have annoyed me (as much) had the Vodafone guy not phrased it “Well Mr.Doyle, that bit is added by our email servers and can’t be removed, so you’re stuck with it“. Listen here mate, I may not be a 5 grand a month client, but when a customer complains about a flaw (cause that’s what it is), you don’t shrug your shoulders and tell them they’re stuck with it. My perfect reasoned response (Right Manuel?) was that I was stuck with nothing and he was going to go right ahead and cancel my business email subscription. This caught him a little by surprise I can tell you.

Anyway, since I still like the idea of email when I’m out and about, I’ve used the built in email client to fetch my email every 5 minutes. The best part is, if it sees a open WLAN or a previously registered one, it’ll use that, and only after that will it try use the Vodafone Data Network. Which is good given the frankly Don Corleone inspired data tariffs.

RFID tagged Credit cards? I thought the idea was to reduce credit card fraud, not make it easier?