iPhone 3G
Apple just conquered the world yesterday (the world just doesn’t realise it yet). Garmin & TomTom have new reasons to be worried this morning. Also, Nintendo, should careful not to dismiss the iPhone as a potential to challenge their dominance in the mobile gaming market. Though I imagine the worst affected will be Research in Motion (Blackberry) and pretty much every other major mobile handset manufacturer.
Strangely though, I still won’t be buying one. Cost is no longer the governing issue, instead I find myself asking why would I need one?
I have full internet access at both work and home, and between those places I am usually at the wheel driving. My existing Nokia 1100 phone works great (and I have two in reserve for when it breaks). My iPod 80GB isn’t about to be superceded, my TomTom gets me from A to B just fine, and my camera certainly will never face stiff competition from iPhone.
So for me, it’s a toy. A hugely competent one, yes, but right now there are better things for me to be spending my hard earned money on.
[Update: 10th September 2008]
I caved, just 3 months later. What a hypocrite!
Media Hypocrisy
Madeleine McCann has been missing for over 5 months. The media obsession with this case has resulted in headlines and stories worldwide, and apparently they have raised over a million pounds in donations.
You know, I’m sorry that this happened, and it’s great that somehow this story touched the hearts of the general public enough to raise all that money and attention.
But if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s hypocrisy.
In West Africa, for example, 200,000 children are sold into slavery every year. This is just one example of many.
“An estimated 800,000 underage prostitutes in Thailand, 400,000 in India, 250,000 in Brazil and 60,000 in the Philippines. The newest international sites for child prostitution: Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, China and the Dominican Republic.”
Source: Time Magazine
When you think about these statistics for just a moment, the amount of media attention devoted to the Madeleine McCann case seems unjust, offensive and insulting to the hundreds of thousands of children & families in similar situations who aren’t lucky enough to have a media frenzy surrounding them. It smacks of sensationalism just to sell newspapers.
Just my $0.02.
Petrol Prices & Consumption
An interesting chart, from the Economist.