I’ve created a Facebook page for my child, the idea of which is simple – it’s a way for us to share photos of their youth (including scan photos) with friends and family. In years to come (with luck), they’ll be able to look back at these early days and see the excitement and happiness of their birth and see what life was like before. But will Facebook survive long enough?

So far I’ve mostly just uploaded cat pictures, photos of me and my wife and a few scan photos. I also managed to make a video of their heartbeat and post that. I plan to write for them until are old enough to do it themselves.

Hope I’m not jinxing anything otherwise this could be awkward.

Wish me luck.

Now all we need is for Skynet to become self-aware.

http://xkcd.com/1046/

I’m a lazy sod and I need to write more often. This morning, while staring bleary-eyed out of the train window day dreaming, I had an idea to get me motivated. It’s partly stolen from another author who used Twitter to share the first chapter of his book in an effort to promote himself. Well, my idea is slightly different. In order to motivate myself, I thought I could use Twitter to post my entire (as yet unfinished) story (one of them). That way, it gives me the motivation to finish the story and edit it along the way.

If it gets some interest that’s fine (and good) though interest is not what I care about, simply motivating myself to get it finished.

I also thought it would be a nice experiment in the Twitterverse. Of course there is one problem. Unless you follow the account from the beginning, you won’t know what’s going on with the story without re-reading the entire thing from the beginning, which means going right to the end (or start) of the timeline – which is a pain. I thought I could counter this by collating all the tweets in one weekly edition. Perhaps I’ll post one tweet a day at 5pm, then release all of them in one blog post on a Sunday or something.

Maybe I’ll start a new Tumblr account or something just for it, so the posts don’t get lost in my ramblings here.

Anyway, if you’re interested, the Twitter account will be @TheLazyAuthor.

http://thelazyauthor.tumblr.com/

Android is pleased by the new release.

Feels like a lifetime ago when I first heard a DJ Format song on DJ Yoda’s ‘How to cut and paste’ CD. Then I discovered the magic of Format’s ‘Music for the mature B-boy’ followed by ‘If you can’t join ‘em…beat ‘em’ and was in awe of the dope mixture of beats which I continue to liken to DJ Shadow’s style. Yet Format isn’t Shadow and he does his own thing. He also takes his time about it. He’ll make you wait because he wants the music to be perfect – not to you, not to me, not even to record labels, but to himself.

When I interviewed him, he was keen to express the fact that his passion was music and the rappers, DJs and Hip-Hop producers out there weren’t making what he wanted to hear, so he had to do it himself. Which is why we have to wait so long for a new DJ Format album and why it’s such an epicly long task to finish a ‘perfect’ album. He has obsessive compulsive disorder when it comes to his music. Where other artists would release their album because it was ‘good enough’ and they wanted the money, Format would happily scrape by, living on bread and water, working day and night to finish his masterpiece.

But Format is no your typical Hip-Hop egomaniac. He’s a down-to-earth human being with a talent he’ll underplay and a heart of gold. He doesn’t want the fame and money. If anything he’d rather shy away from it like some sort of eccentric recluse, spending all his time in the studio making music day and night. Never, ever going out hob-nobbing with celebrities and dating supermodels. Nope, Format is just an average bloke who lives on an average housing estate in Brighton. You could live right next to him and not even know it – apart from the constant tunes wafting through the air.

Last year, something thoroughly unexpected happened. Through the magical medium of Twitter I managed to convince Format to agree to meet me for an interview, then somehow (probably because of my passion for helping others) I ended up expanding his social media presence (on Twitter, Facebook and Google +) and building him a new website. If you told me a few years ago that would happen I’d have called you mad.

I didn’t get paid, nor did I expect to. The pleasure of meeting him and being a small help was enough for me.

So when he sent me three copies of his new album and I saw my name in the thank you’s on the inlay card, I was thoroughly chuffed.

To all DJ Format fans. He’s back. Cop the new album and help support the most down-to-earth and awesome DJ the UK was ever fortunate enough to produce.

Statement of Intent is due for release on Feb 28th. You need it on your life.

http://www.kudosrecords.co.uk/release/PBBCD001/DJ_Format_Statement_Of_Intent.html

Follow @DJFormat4 on Twitter.

Like DJ Format on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/DJFormatUK

Check out his videos on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/djformatuk

And share the love!

Alas it’s not available in the UK, or so I thought. Turns out Android is open source, meaning you can do this http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1382728

Despite my new found love for Samsung, this phone is still a cracker and would be much loved by any new owner. It’s in really good condition, as I’ve literally had it for about 13 months and looked after it properly. It’s spent most of its time in a leather pouch, so the screen and case is in very good condition. There are no scratches or marks on the screen and it still looks awesome.

It’s a great phone and if I hadn’t won the new one, I’d happily have kept this for a couple more years. It’s quick, functional and brilliant. The big screen is ace for watching videos, navigating the web, playing games or using Google maps navigation to turn it into a sat nav.

It has 1.5gb internal storage and I’m throwing in an 8gb SD card to go with it. So plenty of lovely space!

I still have the original box and accessories and the best news is it’s going to get an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade at some point this year according to HTC. Of course, in the meantime you could just root it yourself.

Anyway, this model is going for about £180 – £200 on Ebay, but since you are special, I’ll take offers around £160. Drop me an email agesbrain at gmail(dot) com or message me another way. 

Here is the spec (taken straight from HTC’s website):

Size: 123mm x 68mm x 11.8mm 4.84″ x 2.68″ x 0.46″
Weight: 164 grams (5.78 ounces) with battery
Display: 4.3-inch touch screen with pinch-to-zoom capability
Screen: 109 mm (4.3″)

CPU Processing Speed
1 GHz

Storage1
Internal phone storage:
1.5 GB
RAM:
768 MB
Expansion slot:
microSD™ memory card (SD 2.0 compatible)

Connectors
3.5 mm stereo audio jack
Standard micro-USB (5-pin micro-USB 2.0)

Sensors
G-Sensor
Digital compass
Proximity sensor
Ambient light sensor

HTC Widgets
Bookmarks, Calculator, Calendar, Clock, FM Radio, Friend Stream, HTC Likes, Mail, Messages, Music, My shelf, Navigate, News, People, Search Anywhere, Settings, Stocks, Twitter™, Weather, and more
Downloadable widgets

Multimedia
Gallery, Music, and FM Radio
Dolby® Mobile and SRS virtual surround sound
Share videos, photos, or music from your phone to your TV via DLNA®
Audio supported formats:
Playback:.aac, .amr, .ogg, .m4a, .mid, .mp3, .wav, .wma (Windows Media Audio 9)
Recording:.amr
Video supported formats:
Playback:.3gp, .3g2, .mp4, .wmv (Windows Media Video 9), .avi (MP4 ASP and MP3), .xvid (MP4 ASP and MP3)
Recording:.3gp

Power & Battery2
Battery type:
Rechargeable Lithium-ion battery
Capacity:
1230 mAh
Talk time:
WCDMA: Up to 320 mins
GSM: Up to 550 mins
Standby time3:
WCDMA: Up to 490 hours
GSM: Up to 420 hours

Network4
Europe:
HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
Asia Pacific:
HSPA/WCDMA: 900/2100 MHz
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Platform
Android™ 2.2 (Froyo) with HTC Sense™

Camera
8 megapixel color camera
Auto focus and dual LED flash
720p HD video recording
Face detection capability
Built-in effects include depth of field, vignette, and more
Geotagging

Internet5
3G:
Up to 14.4 Mbps download speed
Up to 5.76 Mbps upload speed
GPRS:
Up to 114 kbps downloading
EDGE:
Up to 560 kbps downloading
Wi-Fi®:
IEEE 802.11 b/g/n

Bluetooth®
Bluetooth® 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate
A2DP for wireless stereo headsets
FTP and OPP (object push) for file transfer
Other supported profiles: AVRCP, GAP, GOEP, HFP, HSP, PBAP, SPP, Service Discovery Application Profile

Social Networking
Facebook® and Twitter™ for HTC Sense
Friend Stream
Share photos/videos on Facebook®, Flickr®, Twitter™, or YouTube™
HTC Peep for tweeting

Location
Internal GPS antenna
With Locations, explore maps with zero wait, zero dead spots, and zero data roaming fees

Tethering
USB and Wi-Fi® tethering

Special Features
Register at HTCSense.com to manage your phone remotely and protect your phone in case of loss
Read eBooks on your phone
Watch Adobe® Flash® on websites
Easily transfer contacts, calendar events, and text messages from popular brand phones via Bluetooth
Check email from all your email accounts in one unified inbox

Recommended Windows System Requirements
Windows® 7, Windows Vista®, or Windows® XP
HTC Sync

I thought I’d write a list of my favourite Android apps since I’ve got my Galaxy Nexus. I won’t write about them. Just try them, they’re great:

• Space Cat
• Air Attack
• Angry Birds
• Angry Birds Rio
• Angry Birds Seasons
• Dizzy Prince of the Yolk Folk
• Flashlight
• GN Checker
• Galaxy Nexus LED
• Glow Hockey
• Chrome to Phone
• Google Goggles
• Google Music
• Google Sky Map
• Marble Blaster
• Minimalistic Text
• Photobucket mobile
• PewPew
• Shake them all
• Sky+
• SoundHound
• StumbleUpon
• Stupid Zombies
• Ventriloid
• Winamp
• Avast
• ZombieBooth
• Fancy Widgets

• Google Currents (not available in UK)
• Swype (doesn’t currently work on the GN)
• Google Music proper (not yet in the UK)
• Sky Go (coming soon)

‘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…