Looking at the tech specs, it’s lighter, thinner and shorter than my present Nokia N97 but wider. So a guarded thumbs up there. It’s heavier, taller and wider but thinner than my current choice for upgrade, BlackBerry’s Pearl 3G/9105, so the scales tip away again. And of course it’s a touchscreen with all that goes with that in terms of minor irritations.

The first couple of minutes of the promo video focus on the video calling capability of the iPhone 4, but then this does depend upon both the caller and the recipient having iPhone 4s and being set up and using WiFi. The guy in the hotel room is clearly luckier or wealthier than me, because I almost always find hotel WiFi hit and miss and hideously expensive. And of course this is nothing that an average laptop user can’t accomplish with a cellular, wired or wireless connection and Windows Live Messenger, Skype or whathaveyou. So the main feature is nice, but expensive.

Multi-tasking makes it to the iPhone 4, something that both the Nokia and the BlackBerry have been doing for yonks.

So it looks like the choice is probably still going to be the BlackBerry, but we’ll see.

• the touchscreen is slow and unresponsive sometimes, which means that it takes twice as long to enter a text message or input data due to errors
• the touchscreen is usually greasy from my fingers and/or face
• Nokia’s Bluetooth implementation sucks: it doesn’t work properly in my Mazda RX-8 R3, unlike both my BlackBerry and Sony Ericsson phones
• reception is rubbish, though this could be down to Vodafone who, let’s not forget, are now selling a gadget to boost your signal (actually a box which appears to change your calls to VOIP)
• the camera lens is scratched, ironically enough by the lens cover that’s supposed to protect it, so that most shots are compromised and flash shots are truly horrendous

So I’ve decided to replace it with something else. Now, the iPhone is no good as it’s too large and restricted by network (unless you pay top dollar from Expansys) and I’m now no fan of touchscreens anyway. Sony Ericsson have a Google Android device that looks good but is again a touchscreen and Android’s implementation of Bluetooth is again full of fail in terms of voice dialling. No, if only I could have a GPS-equipped version of my favourite current phone, my SE W595.

Well that would appear to be the Sony Ericsson W995 then? Yes … and no. Can someone explain to me what on earth possessed SE to shove a metal stand on it? SRSLY, WTF? I mean, do they reckon that you’re going to get together with friends and family to sit around a tiny mobile phone perched on a coffee table to watch a movie? No, that’s what TVs are for! And in the meantime, that stand is going to be flapping around all over the place – take a look at any demo unit in a phone shop and see what I mean. So it’ll get caught when you put it in or out of your pocket. Being metal, it’ll scratch any other gadgets in the same pocket. Of course, I could just break it off or superglue it down, but that’s not a good way to treat a new phone, surely?

Another attempt at adding a number to the contacts list on my BlackBerry Curve 8900 ends in an uncaught exception, a useless phone and a reboot that takes longer even than a PC!

This is despite my having gone through the troubleshooting of deleting the contacts database and recreating it from scratch – itself requiring me to install the BlackBerry Desktop Software that I don’t want or need and which itself failed to install properly on my laptop.

BlackBerry = FAIL

Oh and a tip: rather than having to remove the battery to get it to reboot after an uncaught exception, use alt-rightshift-del to do the ctrl-alt-del PC equivalent.

It soon became apparent that my bundled call minutes would be insufficient for calling home regularly of an evening, so I decided to arrange for a landline through BT. This was set up and working on Wednesday this week – well done BT – and gives me free evening and weekend calls as I signed up for a year.

Now I started to have ‘issues’ with the Vodafone mobile broadband: my account gets billed mid-month, so to track usage, I have to use the full version of their software. Vodafone also compress images whether you want to or not but the full version allows you to modify the extent of this, whilst still having them compressed. I also cannot FTP files to webservers without them being cocked-up by Vodafone en route. In addition to this, one important aspect of my use would be to keep in touch with my kids over Windows Live Messenger but this does not work with the full version of the software.

The alternative is to use Vodafone’s “Lite” software. The downside with this is that the compression is worse and not adjustable by the user and the software only tracks usage on a month by month basis and not on my billing basis.

So I decided that I would sign up to broadband. BT are overpriced compared with other providers, so I decided on O2. According to their website, broadband is already activated on that line through Be Broadband … who are now part of O2, but because I’m not the customer of record, I would need to contact BT to have the tag removed: O2 blamed BT re-using that number for the cock-up.

After an hour and two dropped calls by BT – same old, same old – I was told there definitely isn’t a tag on that line, but according to their broadband checker:

“For Postcode [telephone number, not Postcode, removed] on Exchange BERMONDSEY

We’ve just tested your line and can confirm your line supports the UK’s most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband. We estimate your maximum download speed to be 0.5 Mbps (Megabits per second).

Download speeds are dependent on a number of factors, such as the distance between your telephone exchange to your house and how many people are using broadband at the same time so whilst your broadband speed can vary, BT Total Broadband will always give you the maximum download speed available based on these factors.”

…which is frankly pathetic! Entering the postcode instead, I get this:

“For Postcode [removed] on Exchange CANARY WHARF

We’ve just tested your line and can confirm your line supports the UK’s most complete broadband package, BT Total Broadband. We estimate your maximum download speed to be 3.0 Mbps (Megabits per second).

Download speeds are dependent on a number of factors, such as the distance between your telephone exchange to your house and how many people are using broadband at the same time so whilst your broadband speed can vary, BT Total Broadband will always give you the maximum download speed available based on these factors.”

So it seems something is wrong somewhere!

Anyway, when I went through to O2 to place an order, entering the telephone number tells me this:

“Be broadband is currently activated on this BT landline number. Because Be is part of O2, you can move to O2 Broadband without any penalty and without giving Be your usual three month notice of cancellation. You’ll need to get a MAC key from Be before we can take your order though. So please raise a ticket through Be’s member centre (http://www.bethere.co.uk/memberhome.do), or give them a call on 0808 234 8566.”

It clearly isn’t, and that number seems constantly engaged. Ringing O2, they told me it definitely was so there must be a tag still on that number and that due to Data Protection Act issues, I would have to contact BT to get it removed.

So here I am: there isn’t or there is a tag on the line, which is either in Bermondsey or Canary Wharf neither of which will support anything much by way of line speed and which may or may not be in O2′s “Broadband” area – which is actually ADSL2+ – and may or may not be in O2′s “Home Broadband” area which is slower and more expensive.

{sigh} Wouldn’t it be good to get the right answer to the question first time?

For the first one…

When it then comes to topping up a second mobile with the same card, it gets refused every time. Great system, eh?

Back at the office using a wireless connection, I was able to connect “remotely” with no problems, so it’s not a problem with either my PC or my laptop.

I am going away for a few days soon, so I have just tried again and failed again. So a telephone call to the support number from Vodafone’s Mobile Connect software help files was made. They can’t find the datacard’s number in their records but then when I tell them it’s a Vodafone Business account, they redirect the call to Vodafone’s business centre at Newark. After 40 minutes on hold - I kid you not – I finally get put through. They are apparently experiencing high call volumes – never a good sign…

Once past the people who DHAFC (Don’t Have a F*****g Clue), I finally got through to a techie called Kevin who went through all sorts of troubleshooting before deciding that we needed to set up two configurations in the software: one for regular web browsing and webmail, etc. and one for establishing a remote desktop connection. Unfortunately, the version I had downloaded very recently from Vodafone didn’t have the ability to set up multiple configurations, so he set up an FTP account for me to grab version 9.2 which when installed and set up now seems to work fine, if a tad clunky as I need to switch configurations depending upon what I need working.

Of course, the fact that earlier versions of the software and/or the settings at Vodafone worked just fine before the “upgrade” with none of the profile switching is neither here nor there. I wonder if Vodafone hired Microsoft’s Windows Vista team to write it…

Oh and when Vodafone refers to adult content, this includes sites like Photobucket…

And when a potential customer rings the main enquiries number to ask for the numbers for local stores to check if they have stock in store, why not:

• have a computer system to check store stock availability to save your customer from making another call; and
• tell them that the stores won’t be open today…

See the full story here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/01/t_mobile_spam/

There are one or two belters that I’m quoting here from that article:

“So, just to recap, T-Mobile hired Quantum Media who hired Mailtrack Media who hired E-Mail Movers who bought a list from Century Communications who bought it from a bloke on eBay.”

and

“All the companies involved are British-based and signed up to the Direct Marketing Association, as well as being responsible to the Information Commissioner’s Office. In light of our complaint, E-Mail Movers has lodged a complaint with the Information Commissioner who will investigate the procedures used by Century Communications.”

Now, we all know that the Direct Marketing Association are, by definition, the sort of people you wouldn’t piss on if they were on fire, but I love the way that Emailmovers have lodged a complaint! It was their fault in the first place (and Mailtrack Media before that and Quantum Media before that and, of course, not forgetting T-Mobile themselves who decided to breach a Statutory Instrument).

Well done T-Mobile!

“…You’re quite right Mr Morris, we do choose these companies to send out our marketing material. We take all the necessary steps to make sure that these companies are reputable and without feedback from people like yourself, we’d be unaware that there was any problems.

“Please be assured that your complaint will be kept on file and we’ll use this information to improve our service…”

Have they learned anything? We’ll see…