New toy time! - Samsung Galaxy S3

More of a forced upon me change this one, but I still do love a new toy as return readers and/or people who know me already are well aware of, but usually I seek them out rather than them being forced!

I've had some issues with the three network over the months, their poor signal, poor service, the disaster of a phone call trying to cancel my mobile broadband... it's all built up.

The mobile signal was the ongoing issue though, and finally, after my 5th time of referring it to the 100% outsourced call centre, they agreed the product wasn't for me and allowed me to return the phone and go elsewhere. Bye bye my lovely iPhone 4, I enjoyed using you, if not using you particularly quickly or at all in areas with poor signal quality.

But what now? I need a new phone and fairly quickly as my three stuff ends today.

Come sunny Sunday morning, after some online research and asking on facebook/twitter (@andrewdrisc!) to Carphone Warehouse we headed to have a moment of hands on with the shortlist:

iPhone 4s
Samsung Galaxy s3
HTC One x

It took me about 14 seconds to make the decision, it was a Galaxy all the way, not this galaxy

Or sadly this one:

but this one (in blue):

I've now had it for a couple of days and I'm impressed, some of the things that made me android wary aren't really issues at all, their app store is good, I'm not missing anything I use regularly and have found new stuff, it runs easy is simple to use and their version of iTunes, while it doesn't sell stuff, runs... just like iTunes. 

The phone itself is great, the screen is lovely, its responsive and while the battery isn't great still, in it's infancy it's easily adequate (and if needed you can take it out and replace it!!). There'll be some getting used to it, but as of now I'm very happy with my purchase.

The contract comes with unlimited data and tethering (which I'm using right now!) and the signal... well there is some, I have signal! This feels a bit weird after about a year of cutting out calls and no 3G. Bravo T-Mobile/Orange.

Now I've never been a tech snob, any brand has a shout with me, it's all about the quality of the product, but I did like my iPhone(s). The iPhone 5 is coming i know and I'm sure it'll be lovely and shiny and new a feature packed, but I had to choose now and by the looks of it I've made a cracking choice.

I will take this opportunity to have a last swing at three though, honestly people these are best avoided. The signal can be poor, obviously not everywhere, but everywhere I wanted and the service is worse. Avoid!

100th Blog Post!

So, according to my dashboard thingy, this piece of text constitutes my 100th blog post. I think it's quite safe to assume everyone guessed that from the title. It's pretty certain I've written a few more than that, including some I've discarded as being rubbish (oh yes, even worse than some of the tripe I've clicked publish on, imagine how bad they were!), I distinctly remember one I wrote in borderline anger and then deleted before I accidentally clicked said publish button, but this is number 100 that is publicly viewable and at least, and possibly at most, 4 people will read.

I'll be honest, I expected nobody on this planet to read the crap that I decided to type in, typically on dodgy public transport (bus has only hit 1 curb this morning and slammed on breaks once, good day, but then again we're only half way there) or when I couldn't sleep at some god forsaken hour in the morning. (Just hit 2nd curb, a roundabout approach too!). But it hasn't been the view free zone I expected, I'm not going to pretend I get thousands of hits, as obviously I don't, it's a personal blog and a shoddily written one at that. But I've had a couple of thousand and I'm quite happy with that! (No, that doesn't include me looking at my own, it doesn't count that).

I've used it to air a couple of short stories I've written, I have more but lack the nuts to make them public, I also have a longer one I haven't finished, but let's be real, chances are it's crap and I'm pretty damn sure it'll never see the light of day. Actually thinking about it I doubt I'll ever actually finish it, probably for the best! If anyone wants to see a story so far version... tough.

I've used it to vent opinions, I've used it to rant (usually fair enough I'm sure most people will agree, I do enjoy a good 'go-off-on-one' but someone has to wind me up first), I've used it to try n be funny. For the next 100 posts, if I get that far, chances are I'll do exactly the same.

I will publish the script, along with a link to the video of a recent presentation myself and a colleague wrote in the style of star trek, it was highly classy. It's on youtube now (Star Trek - Revenge of the Tribbles) but It'll be better all in one place I feel. I'll get a copy later.

I'll leave you with a proper blast from the past, here be a link to the first thing I ever posted. I steal from Red Dwarf, Anchorman and have a dig at facebook (setting the pattern early then). Not exactly inspiring and the 2nd post was better and I've been much funnier since... on a relative scale (3rd curb and a sharp brake). But it brought a cheesy grin back to me face for a second:

http://andrewdrisc.blogspot.com/2010/09/end.html

You stay classy Internet.

Nerd-gasm!

Back again!

Saw some very exciting news, if you like that kind of thing, which lets face it I do.

Scientists in clever land (Cern) have not only managed not do destroy the world running their big test tests, but they've managed to create antimatter! Now every physical belief says antimatter is out there, it should have been created along side matter on boom day, so where is it? Now we have (had for a bit of a second) it!!

Now this is great and will allow amazing study into the rules of physics, it will allow unbelievable experiments into this newly isolated antimatter, but I honestly I can't believe I'm not the only one who thought...

Warp core (there should have been a picture here, but between them blogger and vodaphone aren't playing)

Yes, it's still not achievable, yes it's fantasy TV (Not that kind of fantasy TV, put the sock away) but we have an element of it! Let me cling to something!!!

Please??