I have had a lot of deliveries in the run up to Christmas and have been impressed with the ability of the on-line stores and couriers to make their deliveries. Even companies like Ocado have been ‘thinking out the box’ and fitting snow tires to their vehicles. This is a testament to on-line stores and delivery companies as I think they realise lots of people have been staying indoors so their service has been crucial to the smooth running of everyone’s Christmas. We all tend to complain about the lack of service in the U.K, but I would like to say we should appreciate what they do when things like the weather go against them….

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There are a lot of Orange HTC owners out there waiting to get the latest Android 2.1 update and not receiving it. Well click this link below and you will see that it might be because you have not updated it to the 2.73.61.66 firmware from the HTC U.K support page. This is a manual update which you need to use the HTC sync software installed on a windows PC to do. This will wipe the phone unfortunately of all settings, apps etc, but from then on you will get the ‘Over the Air’ updates that do keep your settings. Follow the instructions from the link below to get Android 2.1 on your Orange HTC Hero……

http://www.htc.com/uk/faqs.aspx?p_id=283&cat=86&id=136932

After doing a re-install of windows XP on a client’s machine I came across this strange behaviour by the browser choice option that Microsoft have been using to stay within the E.U decision over browser choice. This is a genuine screen-shot taken by me. It shows clearly Internet Explorer version 6 after clicking the browser choice option that APPARENTLY I am already running Internet Explorer 8. Very strange….I ended up having to manually download I.E 8 and install to sort this out.

Being playing around with FormAssembly recently with some sucess. This is a great tool for online forms and data collection. They have a Salesforce app, WordPress app and a Google sites tool. Not only that, but they offer a free trial and host the form for you. If you want to get technical you can even download the HTML for use on your own site.

This is a great way of creating many forms or questionnaires to capture info quickly and easily, as their form builder is simple to understand and has some great ways you can customise all parts of your form. No software to install just a web app that works. With a free trial account with some limitations its worth giving it a go if you need to capture any kind of information.

I think apple have missed a trick by not having a USB port on the iPad. Can you imagine be able to tether a wifi only iPad to your iPhone or other mobile like the HTC desire I blogged about previously. Nearly £100 saving by buying the Wifi only version. Maybe that’s exactly why they did not put a USB port on, so they can sell the 3G version for more. And what is with the crazy price difference in the U.K?

We always seem to be short changed here in the U.K as with Adobe products, Apple seem to be going the same way. I hope after the initial rush Apple might reduce the prices here in the U.K……we will have to wait and see.

iPhone OS 4 can’t come soon enough as the lack of multi-tasking on the iPad shows up more than on the iPhone. At least we can say one thing though….the iPad has redeemed Apple from the Newton Message Pad days in the 90′s.

I recently posted about the HTC Legend being a good choice for a new phone. Well it is a great phone, but I think the HTC desire is the new king of the smartphones. Don’t take my word for it, read the review in the link below…

PC Pro Review

Google Blog by Greg Bullock

Finally Google has managed to sort out the issues with the Gmail.com domain use in the U.K. As the above link shows you will now be able to convert your @googlemail.com email to the easier to type @gmail.com

Not many people knew that if you had an @googlemail.com address and someone sent you an email to @gmail.com you still received it. This was clever by Google to still route these emails to your inbox and obviously the Google ID (the bit before the @ sign) is unique to @googlemail and @gmail at the same time so as I see it anyone can convert their email to (theirID@gmail.com).

Looking for a new phone. This little beauty from HTC might just be what you are looking for. Click this link below to see a impartial review from Reghardware.

HTC Legend at Reghardware