I had a laptop order for an important client this week.  He needed something powerful, light weight, but with a decent screen. My answer was the ultra-slim Samsung X460.

It is a masterpiece of mobility and packed with a comprehensive spec list.  This machine is taking Samsungs proven ability to design portable netbooks and bringing it to the the people who need a “real laptop”.  It offers uncompromising portability, reliability and functionality, plus that all-important touch of elegance.

At a mere 1.84 kg, the X460 is one of the lightest notebooks in its 14.1″ class.  This does not however mean they have skimped on features, boasting the latest Intel® Centrino® 2 processor technology, 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive this machine has alot of power under its sleek hood.

With Windows Vista it was good, but when I rebuilt the laptop with XP Pro it went from good to awesome!  With the spec being more than XP needed to run smoothly it flew through program installs, upgrades and was more than cabable of running many applications at once without the processor or 3GB of onboard RAM even noticing.  It was slick in design, fast in its movements and it wasn’t even trying that hard.  I look forward to getting feedback from my client on the X460 over the next few weeks as he puts it through its paces and will definitley be recommending it to future clients looking for a fully featured portable laptop.

Highlights of the Samsung X460

Intel Centrino 2 P8400 processor

3GB Memory

250GB Hard drive

Windows Vista Business (Also includes Windows XP Pro in the box)

14.1″ widescreen display

Bluetooth 2.0/7 in 1 card reader/P-Dock support/1.3 Megapixel camera

Fingerprint reader

This is just a short video I made on Qik from my iPhone.  I was hoping to see how good the quality is as I am heading to the Cloudforce 2009 conference in London on the 7th of April and am hoping to do some video while I am there.

So with my iPhone dead and my sensitive data deleted I went about the difficult task of finding out about the repair process.

First a little history on my iPhone, it is less than a year old and was purchased in Verona Italy, as they offer a legally unlocked iPhone there.  So I anticipated some issues with Apple and I was right.

I won’t bore you with the details but the outcome of the conversation was basically that not only did I have to send the phone back to an Italian address to be collected by Fedex but I also had to talk to the Italian department of Apple.  Who by the way don’t speak english.

After much searching I eventually found a company in Dublin that repaired iPhones (www.phonevolts.ie) based in the city centre.

Their staff we’re polite and efficient and happily put up with my daily phone calls asking “is it ready yet” even though they told me it would take 14 days.
True to their word 14 days later I recieved my fully repaired iPhone with a new power connection fitted.  For an all in price of 85 euro!

I was impressed. Phone Volts have been repairing phones in Dublin for years and have evolved with the times moving with the technology they so effectivley repair.

I would recommend them to anyone needing a phone or PDA fixed.  They have a no fix no fee policy and will give you a set price before repair goes ahead.

I have been happily using my repaired iPhone for over a month now and all is well in the world.

So its 4am in the morning, my 4 day old is finally settling down  for some sleep…sigh.  I notice out of the corner of my eye that my iPhone has stopped charging.  At first I am not too alarmed, check the plug and connection all fine.  Hmmm…I go get another charger, still nothing.  I get another iPhone cable and this time connect it to my computer…still nothing!

Now I’m getting a little worried to say the least!  I eventually try everything I can possibly think of but it still won’t charge or even be recognised by a mac or PC.

So time is ticking, my precious iPhone won’t charge and I have valuable data on it.  A full format takes 2 hours…but I don’t have that long.  The race is on to delete the sensitive stuff just incase I have to send it away to be repaired!

I delete my emails, bank info, logmein etc…

Finally the last few bars disappear and she shut down.

Tomorrow I will tell of the fiasco that was the REPAIR and getting my data back onto the phone

I was always a BEBO man, no matter how many people signed up to facebook.  I held strong and told them it was crap.  That’s not to say I didn’t have an account for viewing friends photos etc.  I just never used it.  This was all before I purchased an iPhone.  With the iPhone came much excitement, twittering, blogging, posting photos instantaneously and so on.

Then one day I downloaded the Facebook App.  To say I became addicted was a little of an understatement.  I linked my twitters with my facebooks and my facebooks with my twitters.  I sent pictures from one to the other, I uploaded links to google maps showing my current  position.  The madness was endless.  Then one day I accessed Facebook on my laptop…disappointing!  It was crap!  The interface was slow and difficult, confusing even.
But on my iPhone…well the simplicity was just magic.  The ease of update and upload made the whole experience, well user friendly.

This is historical my friends.  The day when an application or website actually becomes better to access on your mobile device than on an actual computer is groundbreaking.  Now perhaps I am the only one (this is where your comments can help) but it is still a tipping point.

The point in time at which we change from one process to another. Mainly it is not noticeable at the time but looking back we can all see it.

Malcolm Gladwell describes Tipping points as “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.”

The mobile phone is a perfect example of this.  When was it that we all began to text so much.  The first commercial text message was sent in 1992 now the number of texts sent everyday exceeds 8 Billion!  So where was the tipping point and did anyone notice at the time.  There was a point in the history of the mobile phone that it would have been impossible for the telecommunications companies to remove the text feature.

Have Apple creating a tipping point in mobile devices and Internet access or the facebook with their addictive app!  With the advent of the new iPhone 3.0 software announced yesterday it appears there is even more scope for all those developers out there to create even more exciting applications (1000 new APIs).

It makes me wish I could develop, instead I wait with bated breath.  Go forth developers and make something awesome.  Make an application so good that I will become even more addicted to my iPhone.  My family won’t thankyou, but I will.