Smartphone users should travel overground and avoid the subways and tubes

If you are one of the many millions of new smartphone owners, it will not have missed your attention that as soon as you go into mole mode and descend into the dark, sweaty, hell that is the subway and tube lines of the western world, than you realise that most of your smartphone functionality disappears. If your commute is a long one, then it can get very annoying.

Well, today while I was sat on the top floor of a double-decker London bus, cruising to work very slowly in the early morning congestion, I realised the value of that service over the tubes. You have full access with your 3G connection and can happily check your email, surf the web and chat on Gtalk without hindrance. Now, I know you can download music with spotify and grab the latest news with the many paid for magazine and news paper apps, but you have to remember to do that before you go under ground. There is the underlying problem, if you have other things on your mind , or a hangover from a previous nights fun, thinking about syncing your smartphone is not top of your pre-journey planning.

So , if you own a smartphone, jump on a bus or grab a cab, and stay well clear of the WIFI/3G retarded tubes. I would however recommend you don't try this on your bicycle ;-)

Experiences with my new Sony Xperia Google Android smartphone

I have been looking to upgrade from my old trusty Blackberry to one of the new Google Android phones for a while, so that I can completely integrate all of my information systems onto one platform. This includes email, instant messaging and e-books. The new Sony Xperia X10, comes very close to ticking all those boxes.

I have had a mobile contract with O2 since I started using mobile phones, and the first one I had resembled a small laptop rather than the tiny devices we use today, so I had to wait until they started offering some devices I felt would work. I'm glad I waited, as this unit is very easy to use and setup.

Within minutes of having it, I had sync'd my email and contacts from Gmail and had an IM chat with work, and I felt right at home. This really can't be over played, it really does just work and you are up and running in seconds. It's really not much of a surprise, as Google provide the operating system and the cloud applications, but it is very good.

The screen is clear and crisp, and offers a very good display to work with, which leads me onto the one minor problem I have with the unit. I was hoping to be able to use it for e-books, but the screen is just that little bit too small, which is as much my eyes fault as the smartphone, but I suspect others of a similar vintage will find the same.

The app store/marketplace is just overflowing with great free applications to do pretty much any task, and I have downloaded and installed everything from pdf readers to London Tube train updates.

The battery life, if you use the device smartly and don't run the 3G/Edge services all the time is very good, and very usable, and because of it's small size, makes the device light and easy to carry.

If you are looking for a good Smartphone then I would certainly put this unit on the list to have a good look at before you decide.

Excellent straight forward guide to sqlite

While doing some work on the Firefox sqlite files, I wanted a good guide on how to manipulate the data.

As a O'Reilly on-line Safari library user , I did a search on books that contained any sections on this, and the best one I have found so far is the Appendix contained in the "Android wireless application development" book. This might seem like a strange place, but as Android uses a lot of sqlite, it is not that surprising.

One of the great things about Safari is that you can just download the chapter you are after as a pdf, which is just what I have done.

So, if you need a great , easy to follow guide on the subject, I can certainly recommend this one.

Google Android to exploit exploding netbook market

I'm looking forward to what Google offer in the netbook area. I currently use Linux on every machine I use and it works perfectly, but I'm also open to see what others do with Open Source, and that is the real answer here. I have noticed a lot of hostile posts by people who fear this, I can't fathom why. I use Eeebuntu on my netbook, and it works perfectly, as you will know I work on the team, but maybe in the future we could change our base distro, so that is why I find it so interesting.

It is not just Linux , it is it's Open Source underpinnings that will eventually change the current monopoly situation, not just one distro or one implementation. Microsofts biggest problem is there uni hardware architecture approach, Open Source embraces all architectures, and that is what will change the Status Quo. In large part this is one of the great benefits we are derive from Debians efforts.

I have looked at getting a new Google phone as I like the interface, but I'm waiting to see what other handsets it's going to launched on first, choice is a good thing.