So, best looking car in the world, or best looking car ever? Driving home yesterday, I was cruising past my local Jaguar garage, when I spied out of the corner of my eye, what looked like the new Jaguar F-Type parked up front. After performing a driving manoeuvre I once saw in a Fas and Furious film, I found myself parked on the garage forecourt and walking towards this beauty.
You may member (if you’ve been reading this blog as long as I’ve been writing it) that the Jaguar F-Type is based on the C-X16 concept car from last year.
Soon after that was announced, Jaguar confirmed they were putting it in to production (sans the electric boost) with a convertible coming first and a coupé to follow.
So, what’s this thing like? Well, in the metal, it’s even more beautiful than pictures can show. The balance of the care looks perfect. The shape, the styling, everything scream perfection. There have been people at Jaguar that have put their heart and soul in to this car. Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Sunday, June 9th, 2013
With a week before the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) kicks off, I was impressed with my self that I had managed to hold off from putting up an article about the speculation around new features in the forthcoming version of iOS.
I had engaged in some speculation, yes. I pulled a little prank on Twitter a few weeks back, claiming to have a ‘leaked’ image of iOS7′s flat design.
Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Monday, June 3rd, 2013
The Pebble Smartwatch. Launch on Kickstarter a year ago, this little watch started a race to be the best smartwatch in the land. Smashing past a funding goal of $100,000 to break records in the field of crowd funding and scoop up over $10 million and the best part of 85,000 pre orders.
After backing the project last May I have waited, rather impatiently, to get this device on my wrist. Now that it’s here and I’ve had time to live with it, I have come to some conclusions and some key information. Thus, the key points first and then detail after the break:
- After 3 weeks of regular use, the Pebble has lasted between 6 and 7 days (used with iPhone 5)
- The ability to perform actions to control your smartphone from your wrist becomes second nature very quickly
- It’s a lot lighter than I was expecting (I’m used to living with a mechanical watch on)
- The strap doesn’t feel like a cheap plastic at all and I don’t feel an overwhelming urge to change it yet
- It’s not perfect. The hardware is great, the software needs to mature ( I have some suggestions for extra / future features below.)
Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Sunday, May 12th, 2013
With the cinema release of Iron Man 3 this week (in the UK), I thought I’d take some time to talk about when I became Iron Man (or Iron Mark, if you will).
Back in February, a website launched ( www.becomeironman.com ) saying it would soon require testers to sign up. Over a month later, the registrations went live. Your were asked for some basic information about yourself and asked to pick a ‘testing’ location. At this location, you would be trying out the new Mark XLII (42) Iron Man amour.
As you can expect, a geek like my self could not pass up that opportunity! Luckily, the first test centre happened to be quite close and was only two weeks away from sign up.
When the day rolled round, my self and my friend and fellow tester headed to the MetroCentre, Gateshead. Here’s what we saw:
Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013
O2 UK have launched a new way to get the latest communicator without getting all of your money taken away. To put it simply, your (UK) contract is a combined price of both service and handset. With new devices costing more than PCs and Tablets without a contract, service providers effectively give you a form of finance on a device. You commit to two years at a price and you get the cost of your device spread across that time.
As time and technology have gone from a brisk walk to a full-out sprint, it’s easy to have yesterday’s flagship turn in to today’s paperweight in the space of 6 months. Thus, starting on the 16th of April (in store – online coming soon) O2 in the UK will be offering a ‘decoupled’ contract. Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Sunday, April 14th, 2013
Can you believe it has only been 3 years since Steve Jobs’s ‘magical and revolutionary’ iPad went on sale?
After getting my first one as an eager early adopter, I can honestly say that the first ‘Post-PC’ device has become an important part of my digital life and the lives of the people who have bought the other 100 million of them since launch. Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
A friend of mine sent me a message yesterday which happened to have the attached picture.
My old business card from my university days. The brief was to only use one colour and then tints.
That was about 7 years ago when single colour prints was a lot cheaper than full colour.
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Thursday, March 21st, 2013
Quick Point
HTC are experiencing shipping delays with the new HTC One as the Wall Street Journal are reporting. Could this be a blessing in disguise for HTC though?
With the delay in launch, the HTC One will be building an air of exclusivity, if HTC’s marketing department play it right. There’s an opportunity to upstage the Samsung Galaxy S4 in this regard. Launching so close together and the One being in limited supply will drive up some more interest. Customers want something more if they can’t have it easily.
(WSJ Link)
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Tuesday, March 19th, 2013
I love it when someone comes up with an innovative solution to a problem. That’s the best way to describe the Automatic Link available for pre-order right now ( Link ).
Car’s have become so complex over the last 20 years, that they barely resemble what they came from. The only thing that’s the same is the presence of wheels. A modern car is covered with as many sensors as an intensive care patent. All of these sensors are informing the car’s ECU (engine control unit) what is happening with every aspect of the car. From tyre pressures to exhaust emission and fuel use. Huge amounts of information, that ultimately get’s lost. Using that valuable data could make you a more economical driver (great when fuel costs are rocketing) and allow you to see what faults the car may have detected when the dreaded ‘check engine’ light comes on.
Enter Automatic and their Automatic Link and App. Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013
It’s starting to come together. The iWatch is a nice idea, but the there is so much more that Apple will be bringing to the world of wearable computing. Lets dive in to the distant future shall we?
Goodness knows I’m looking forward to getting my Pebble Smartwatch (seriously, ask them on twitter, I just wont leave them alone!) and how much that will improve my digital life and potentially heavily change my device usage habits. Displaying messages and notification as well as controlling some functions of my iPhone from my wrist is going to be a revelation. I’m not the only one to think so, just look at the reviews the Pebble has received.
With this in mind, the flurry of ‘rumours’ and ‘insider info’ that ‘leaked’ culminated with an interview with Bruce Tognazzini, the founder of Apple’s Human Interface Group adding his voice to the chatter. Bruce’s comments were the first to actually add something to what was being recycled by every, single, site. So simple was his insinuation that the sensors could be used to map altitude, that people glossed over what this alluded to. What do Apple do? Come up with solutions to problems you never know existed. They Think Different. So with this in mind, I was set off on a quest to see if a little guidance and observation could be added to the ‘iWatch’ chatter and show what happens when you Think Different. Read More »
This post was written by Mark Thomson
Wednesday, March 6th, 2013
