‘You’ve got to be in it to win it.’ as a lovely chap named Stephen reminds me on a weekly basis. And how right he is. Which is why I was glad I was ‘in it’,  when I got an email announcing I had won. At first, I didn’t believe it. It looked like spam. Surely it was spam? A mistake? A phishing email? Just take a look for yourself:

A foreign name, ;-] as the subject line and an email with cut-and-paste fields. Alarm bells were ringing. But then logic kicked in. No, wait. I did enter that competition and how would a scammer get my email address? This has to be real. And there’s a link too! Ok. So I check the link and yep, my name is there. Plain to see. http://www.androidpolice.com/2012/01/02/nexus-new-years-worldwide-ultimate-giveaway-win-one-of-ten-yes-ten-galaxy-nexuses-from-avast-and-android-police/ I’m a winner!

Freaking brilliant.

Good start to the year!

Now, before I go any further, I’ll tell you a story. I am an Android fanboy. I have been for a year. I’ve been a Google lover for longer than that, but after moving from a Blackberry Curve to a HTC Desire HD, I fell in love. However, I made the mistake of taking up a 24 month contract and although there’s nothing wrong with the Desire HD as such, I’d seen the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and had been lusting after it. But with a year left to go on my contract, I couldn’t really justify £500 just to get a new phone. I was drawn in though by the adverts, the features and just the sheer awesomeness of it. The Galaxy Nexus is instantly appealing to any Android fan because it’s the standard Android phone. There are no manufacturer extras (like HTC Sense) which will stop you getting updates, no, the Galaxy Nexus gets the official Android updates straight from Google. Which is brilliant.

There are plenty of other features which are instantly appealing. The panoramic camera which automatically stitches together snaps to make one long picture, the gimmicky face unlock which makes getting into your phone fun, Android Beam, the sexy interface, the speed. There’s plenty to love. But I couldn’t have one.

So I entered the competition and forgot about it. I knew I’d never win, I never win anything. That’s life. But then I did win and what a day that was! Now I’ve had the Galaxy Nexus for a while, so I’m going to write a review from the perspective of an Android lover who won the awesome phone he was lusting after.

Now, I’m not going to go into massive detail, because there are plenty of other reviews out there from professionals who do it properly and in-depth. Instead, I’ll just tell you what I like.

If you’d rather watch than read, then I can recommend these two videos:

Anyway, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus arrived at work, and I was quite pleased.

Alas, my wife had just renewed her contract and got one that way, so it wasn’t the first time I’d seen one in the flesh (so to speak) but it was mine. My first impressions were much like everyone else’s and you’ll see this a lot on the web – it’s massive, it’s light and it feels cheap. I think I need to clarify that quite quickly, especially that last point. It feels cheap because it’s made mostly of plastic, but once you turn the screen on, you see the value. It has a truly magnificent screen that has an amazing resolution (1280 x 720p) which, when you think about it, is pretty impressive. That’s nearly a full HD screen on a 4.65″ screen. Imagine if it was blown up to the size of your TV while maintaining that ratio of pixels – you’d be looking at something that would make your current HD TV look like a black and white set from the 1950′s.

No, once you turn it on, the quality is instantly apparent. The Samsung Galaxy Nexus doesn’t care about looking flash or shiny. It’s not a fashion statement, it’s just an amazingly brilliant product. Sure, there are complaints – there’s only 16gb of internal storage (unless you’re lucky enough to be American in which case you can get 32gb) and there’s no SD card slot. The camera is a measly 5mp (but let’s be honest, if you want amazing pictures, you won’t be using your phone) and it’s brown, but otherwise, it’s a work of art.

Compared to the HTC Desire HD, the screen isn’t a great deal bigger. It is taller and thus won’t fit properly in the pouch I used to use for the Desire HD, but it isn’t offensively huge and it just works really well. It’s instantly obvious that there’s a clarity and quality to the screen that you won’t see elsewhere. It’s vibrant, impressive and beautiful – especially if you turn off automatic brightness and whack it up to maximum.

What’s so good?

What’s the difference between the Nexus and the Desire HD? Well, plenty. For a start, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus is running Ice Cream Sandwich which is version 4 of the Android operating system, while HTC’s lack of updates leaves the Desire HD stuck at 2.35 (for the moment). This in itself was a treat, but not the only benefit. As a test, we put my new phone next to my colleagues rooted Desire (with ICS running) and checked to see the difference.

The Galaxy Nexus was visibly quicker and smoother between windows and applications. Impressively so. I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by the Galaxy Nexus after using the Desire HD as it was only a year old and had been a good spec when I bought it, but I wasn’t let down by the Galaxy Nexus either. The first thing I noticed was web pages seemed to render more quickly, even with only G signal, which I was both impressed and surprised by. It might less time waiting on the train for pages to load.

Multi-tasking seemed to work well too, though that was the case on the Desire as well. But the introduction of new features meant my old apps were no longer necessary. You don’t need advanced task killer on the Galaxy Nexus, pressing the application button (bottom right) brings up the current apps running and you can just swipe them off to close them. You don’t need an app to monitor your data – there’s data usage built into the operating system so you can set data limits, restrict background data and more. It’s just sleek and sexy.

One of my favourite new features isn’t phone specific, but belongs to the OS and that’s screenshots. Pressing and holding both the power button and the volume down button at the same time snaps a pic of what you’re looking at on screen which makes it handy to show off your apps or current setup.

After tweaking a bit, this is what my initial home screen looked like:

You have 5 home screens on which to arrange apps and (resizable) widgets, but a new addition to Android is the ability to be able to drop apps on top of each other and create folders. I’ve got one for email, one for Google apps, one for social and one for games. The default buttons across the bottom include phone, contacts, messaging, web and apps. But you can move and change these to your will. These buttons remain static which ever screen you’re on, so you can always easily access them.

For Android lovers, there’s plenty of interface updates and improvements which just make ICS the best operating system yet, but also work well with the new phone. The music player has been updated with a new look and a graphic equaliser and integrated to work with the lock screen.

The contacts page has been tweaked, so you can easily reach all the necessary info. It’s clever too, it took people/companies I was following on Google+ and stuck all their information right there for me to see – including all the phone numbers, email addresses and more, swipe sideways and you’ve got access to live updates of their social profile which is handy if you don’t want to trawl through all the messages out there to see what one person is saying.

Disturbingly, I found contact phone numbers for people I didn’t even know, taken straight off the web.

The browser seems faster and can import your Google Chrome bookmarks, which is another improvement. With the Labs settings, you can even ditch the traditional address bar when viewing pages and opt for the rather stylish menu system which is accessed by touching the very edge of the screen.

To give the phone a proper test, I bought a film from Google videos and I have to say, the picture was impressive, even if it was on a small phone screen (rather than tablet or PC). It wasn’t an HD video, but you’d have trouble telling with the quality of the screen and the sheer presence of the pixels. It’s delightfully delicious.

But still, one of the best features has to be the panoramic camera, which lets you take wide shots by just moving the camera side to side. If you aren’t careful and steady you can see stitching or blurring, but it’s a very cool toy.

click to view the full image

I think if I lost this phone or it was stolen, I’d have to buy it to have it again, it’s just that much better. The only complaints are easily dismissable. Especially the size of the storage – when you consider that Google Music is out there (and hopefully will make it to the UK) then you can store all your songs in the cloud. The battery life is short, but it is with any smart phone and if you turn the brightness down or limit background data and other things, then you can easily manage that – personally I just charge it when I’m at my desk – USB charging makes life easy. As for feeling cheap, that soon fades and you have a fantastic phone which is a joy to own.

I’d highly recommend the Galaxy Nexus to anyone.

I wanted to give her a gift that was both for our unborn child and for her. I thought about clothes – being able to buy the babies (first) clothes, before it was even born would be special. But perhaps it was a little optimistic and risked jinxing the whole thing, if you could believe in such things. So I dismissed that idea.

Instead, I opted for a record book. I thought a nice one would show I’d thought about it and be a present to treasure for years to come. But I didn’t have a clue where to start looking. I quietly asked my boss and she pointed me in the direction of Mamas and Papas, a store I quite frankly didn’t even know existed. We found a nice record book and I ordered it along with a few other bits. It arrived and I have to say I was impressed with the quality. Confident it would make a good present.

Christmas day came and she opened the badly wrapped gift (I’m awful at wrapping), then instantly burst into tears.

A worried look spread over my face.

‘Are those happy tears?’ I asked nervously, fearing I’d done the wrong thing.

‘Yes, of course,’ she replied, ‘don’t mind me, I’m just hormonal.’

Phew.

On an unrelated note, I had to make a trip to a brick and mortar Mamas and Papas store and I can see I’ll be wasting plenty of money there in the future…

Yes, we’re having a baby. I say ‘we’, obviously my wife is doing most of the leg-work, but it takes two you know.

After grumbling that all the books you get (for ‘free’ (Bounty sneaky marketing)) are aimed at and written for women, my wife bought me a book entitled ‘Pregnancy for men, the whole 9 months’ for Christmas. I’ve read most of it and I have to admit to being utterly scared and intimidated.

Having a child is probably one of the most important things you could do with your life, yet it’s some thing your feel utterly unprepared for. Why is there no (mandatory) course, A-level or degree qualification for becoming a parent? There bloody well should be. I mean we’ve got sex education, how about some parent eduction? You know where babies come from, but no one tells you what to do once you’ve successfully produced one. They just sling a load of books at you and expect you to get on with it (and they wonder why there are so many hooligans). Seems like madness to me.

So yes, I’m excited, but I’m scared too. I’ve learnt all sorts of things, including stuff I wish I didn’t know and quite frankly it’s all a but much. There are the obvious things, things that everyone knows, like how you’ll have to change lots of nappies, survive on no sleep and pay out literally hundreds of thousands of pounds before they’re even a teenager, but it’s all the other stuff. Like ‘feet to foot’ – wtf is that?

Then there’s the stuff that’s so blatantly obvious that I didn’t even think of it. For example, the book says about packing a hospital bag, ready for the delivery and don’t forget the car seat. The baby seat! How did I not even think about that? How else will I get little nipper home. My mind is already worrying about so many other things I’ve forgotten the most obvious. Yet, I haven’t, because it’s not happened yet. But it could, it might. In my theoretical, panic-striken world, it already has. There I am, in the car park, baby in arms, wife glaring at me as I realise I have forgotten the baby seat. That one little thing. Of course, it’s just a little thing, but there are so many little things and they all add up.

Then there’s the big things, like how the hell can we afford it? Where will we fit another human being in the house? What the hell are we going to do when my wife needs to go back to work? You ask other parents this and they always respond the same way. ‘You’ll cope,’ they say in a wise voice. ‘How?’ I ask. ‘You just will.’ Oh, nice helpful answer there, thanks. Bastard.

Of course we’re only 12 weeks in and there’s plenty more to think about between now and the day I’m starting my child in the eyes. And between now and then there’s all sorts of shit that can go wrong and if it doesn’t go wrong it at least needs to be tested for. Downs syndrome, cleft palette, cleft lip, AIDS, hepatitis, defects and abnormalities, myxomatosis and God knows what else. Then there’s the problems with the mother and potentials for her. I won’t go into it, but I’ll say I’m glad she’s the one doing the donkey work…

Oddly though, the thing that scared me most only actually took up about 2 pages in the book. It was about how the birth of your child will effect your relationships. Mainly with your partner. How the person you know and love will utterly change. The baby will be their world, not you. Reading that, it clicked. I got it. That’s why I know so many people who have children with ex-partners. Perhaps that’s a paranoid generalisation and I’m certainly not saying the baby will pop out and I’ll want a divorce but I know it will put a strain on us.

It makes sense for the woman to bond with the baby and know what’s best, I just don’t want to get excluded because of that. Nor, have my opinions dismissed for that reason. I know what my wife is like too. She’s always right (or thinks she is) and quite often treats me like an idiot. So I know what it is going to be like before it’s even happened. We’ve already talked about when they (the baby) is older and we need to discipline. I know she’ll undermine me and disagree in front of the child. I can see it now. I’ll be the bad guy. I’ll be my Dad.

Is that it? Is that my destiny?

I sound negative, but actually my thoughts are of suddenly having found a purpose in life, a reason for living, 42.

If I can be half the father my Dad was, I’ll be a good one.

Dad and I have never really been chums. To be honest, when I was young he was often grumpy, tired and irritable. I, as the eldest son, would suffer the brunt. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t a bad Dad. He didn’t neglect or abuse me. We just didn’t get on. A lack of common interests, an age gap and stress of work caused us to be distant at best. He did spank me when I was naughty and at the time I hated him for it. I got the slipper, the hand across the arse and a good hard spanking when I deserved it. I remember he said ‘I’ll slap you so hard you won’t sit down for a week’ and he wasn’t lying either. I still remember the throbbing pain now. But I don’t hate him for it. If anything, I’m glad he did it. He made me who I am today – a God-fearing, law-abiding citizen and a good son (I hope).

And all those things I hated him for then are the things I love him for now. Of course, I can never tell him that. We don’t have that kind of relationship. He’s an old school man who won the bread, expected dinner on the table when he got home and believed that children should only speak when spoken to. Once, a few years ago, in a drunken stupor, he actually apologised for ‘being a bad father’ – I corrected him, but I’m not sure he believed me. Nonetheless, the sentiment moved me.

Now, as I grow old in years, and the prospect of starting my own family looms, I’ve come to realise I don’t love him enough.

We barely talk, we barely see each other and I know, when he dies, I will shed a tear. Yet, he drives me mad, and I him, no doubt. But he is still my Dad.

When I was recently contemplating life and it’s meaning, I pondered on the point of it all. Why bother having children if that’s what happens? They grow up, move away and barely speak to you. Of course it doesn’t have to be that way, but you can’t really control it. Can you?

Anyway, I’m rambling. I just want to say Dad, I love you and everything you ever did for me and one day I’ll have the courage to tell you.

Awwwwoooooga Awwwwoooooga this phone is stolen or lost….

That is the cry of an Android phone protected by Avast! Mobile Security. A new app I discovered just the other day completely by accident.

I’ve always been a fan of Avast! Anti-Virus since I ditched Norton back in 2005, so I was thoroughly disappointed when I bought my Android phone and found nothing but AVG to protect it. But, the wait was worth it. Sure, Avast! Mobile Security is still in (free) beta, but what a beta!

Much more than just virus protection

Avast! Mobile Security is much more than mere virus protection, it’s a whole wonderful package.

The most impressive feature is in the security features. With ‘smart’ phones one of the biggest fears is losing your phone or having it stolen. No longer is such an occurrence the mere headache it was in the old days. Now thieves have potential access to a wealth of information about you, not just contact details but emails, text messages, emails, website logons, Facebook access, etc, etc. But worry no more, Avast! Mobile Security is here to save the day! It is bloody clever too.

Set it up, with the addition of a pin and your phone is then protected and if it is ever stolen or lost you can access a wealth of features to protect or recover it.

Avast! Mobile Security requires you to set up one or two friends as ‘trusted’ numbers, then when the time comes you simply send a text from their phone to your stolen phone. Include the PIN and the relevant code and you can do all sorts of things, the most extreme of which includes a wipe of all the data.

There are plenty of options to choose from, lock the phone, track the phone via GPS, cc all calls and text messages to your friends phone and even set off a loud and annoying alarm which screams about the phone being stolen.

One of the best parts is the text is never actually displayed on the stolen phone, so the thief might not know what is happening. Even if they do, they might not be able to do anything about it. Avast! Mobile Security is built to be a phone admin, meaning without the pin it cannot be removed or uninstalled. A factory reset won’t work either (apparently), so your phone is thoroughly protected.

It was just lost, not stolen!

Lost your phone around the house? Not a problem! Avast! Mobile Security allows you to send ‘off’ or cancel messages to. Grab your friends phone and SMS your pin and ‘siren on’ once you’ve found your loud phone, SMS ‘siren off’ – job done.

Probably a good idea not to give the PIN to your friend or they could easily abuse you in the middle of an important work meeting.

All this, plus ongoing anti-virus protection, scheduled scans and a wealth of other features, for free? Avast!, I love you.

Check it out on Android market here – https://market.android.com/details?id=com.avast.android.mobilesecurity

I wrote to EA customer support because I want to buy a copy of B2K as a gift for a friend, but there is no obvious ‘gift’ button in the store. So after checking the FAQs I wrote a concise message to EA customer support. This was the reply….

Dear Adrian,

Thank you for contacting Electronic Arts.

I have manually entitle “Battlefield 3: Back to Karkand Expansion Pack” on your acccount. Now you should be able to access it.

I hope this helps.

Regards, Ravi kumar Electronic Arts – World Wide Customer Experience

Erm, what? That’s not quite what I meant. Wasn’t I clear enough? I said I wanted to buy it for a friend as a gift, but couldn’t see an option. I already have it myself, why would I want it again?

It is awfully stereotypically British of me to complain about an Indian person not understanding me. But it honestly isn’t meant that way, it’s just funny. I guess they’ve had a lot of complaints about Back to Karkand not working and it’s just a generic, token response that utterly failed to answer my question. Perhaps they don’t want my money?

Google has quite a history of being abused and ‘gamed’ in order to manipulate the search results – usually for financial gain. Black hat SEO techniques were historically used to get business websites to the top of the listings fast. But in modern times such techniques are likely to get your website permenantly banned from the search results and it’s not worth the risk for short term gains. Of course that doesn’t mean the system doesn’t still get abused.

‘Google bombing‘ is an amusing occurrence that happens every now and then when a group of people manipulate results with links and social media in order to tweak Googles results.

The most recent bombing incident occurs when you type ‘Define an English Person’ into Google. Of course, it’s been all over the internet now and news sites have knocked the original 1st spot off the top, but it originally came up with a wikipedia page about the term ‘C*nt’. Classic shennanigans. Of course, the issue has been raised with Google and they are said to be ‘looking into it’.

It’s always interesting to see the search results getting manipulated like this. How many businesses are abusing the same techniques. Wikipedia is unlikely to suffer and would hardly be upset for losing first place listing for that search term, but it is still interesting.

As a lifelong gamer I have fond memories of certain games that I know I’m viewing through rose-tinted goggles and if I went to play them now, they’d be bloody awful. Grand Theft Auto 3 is a perfect example. I loved that game. But when I tried to play it on my PS3, it looked awful, the draw distances were terrible and it was clumsy. Yet, in its day it was fantastic, beautiful and ground-breaking.

Then there was Dizzy. Ah, Dizzy. Small little egg and prince of the Yolk Folk. I have wonderful memories of Dizzy. I used to play Dizzy games way back on the Commodore 64, when we used cassette tapes to load games. Cassette tapes? My children won’t even know what such thing is. I have hazy memories of an awesome platform/rpg adventure where I controlled Dizzy and explored a magic land full of Lions, Trolls, Princesses and, of course, Dilan.

Later in life, I found a wonderful woman who later became my wife. She too had experienced Dizzy, but on PC. Yes, the little egg had had an upgrade and was bouncing about on PC monitors. Fantastic. I relived those classic hazy days with gusto.

Now, it’s 2011 and Codemasters (yes, they are still around!) have redesigned Dizzy Prince of the Yolk Folk for Android and iPhone. Fantastic. It’s the classic Dizzy, with a brand new skin. Ok, so it’s  short game and only takes around an hour to complete – especially if you still remember how to complete the puzzles and what counts as red herrings (rather than taking every item and rubbing it against everything in sight until something works) but it is still fantastic and didn’t ruin my hazy gaming delusions. Dizzy is still awesome and now a steal at £1.49…

For more info, check out the official website. www.dizzygame.com

Age: What’s your favourite word?

Format: Lolloping. I love the word lolloping, it’s stupid, it’s great. When you see someone lolloping around it makes me laugh!

Otherwise, the word ‘Word’ is good. It’s one of those silly hip hop slang things where people use it and it has multiple vague meanings. It’s one of those words that we as English gentlemen wouldn’t use, apart from ironically. But then it gets to the point that you use it so often ironically that it’s just become part of your vocabulary. I got a birthday card from my mate the other day and it said in there ‘word’. *laughs*

Age: What’s your least favourite word?

Format: Bling. I really hate that word. It actually makes me angry. And ‘celebrity’ – that’s the worst word because people just attach it to something to try and justify shit TV show or a shit anything. Anything that’s shit, put the word ‘celebrity’ in front of it and it’s great – celebrity X-factor, celebrity Big Brother, Celebrity Come Dine With Me. It’s the worst word.

Age: What turns you on?

Format: Just good music and good comedy. I was going to say usually British comedy, but that’s not true because there is so much American nonsense that I like, like Family Guy, American Dad, I love that stuff. Plus The Simpsons is probably my all time favourite TV show.

Age: What turns you off?

Format: Modern celebrity culture and people obsessed with money.

Age: What sound do you love?

Format: Loads

Age: Just pick one.

Format: Yeah but sometimes you can hear a record and you’ll hear a harmonica and you’ll just feel like ‘I love the harmonica’ or an electric guitar will come in and I’ll love that. That’s the thing. It depends what it is and in what context. What I love more than anything. What absolutely just does it for me above anything else is the sound of a raw drum break. There’s nothing more exciting than that.

Age: What sound do you hate?

Format: The warbling bass you get in dubstep – fucking horrible.

Age: What is your favourite curse word?

Format: Shyte. Because it’s almost so silly that it’s not offensive. You could say ‘shit’ and someone might get offended, but if you said ‘shyte’ it’s almost forgivable.

Age: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

Format: I’d be quite happy doing something like carpentry again. I wasn’t very good at it because of the OCD, I’m too slow and careful. But I just like creative stuff, the idea of making things is quite nice. So it would have to be something creative in some way.

Age: What professional would you absolutely not like to try?

Format: It’s funny, I spend so much time, here on my own, in my miserable studio and I love it. But I wouldn’t want to be stuck in an office. I worked in an office occasionally as part of a job i once had where I was mostly on the road, but I couldn’t do that all the time.

Age: If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

Format: All vinyl is half-price today.