Will AI End Humanity?
15 January 2026
Blackberry/RIM have mishandled things at every stage – but I still don’t want an iphone
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Post
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18 October 2011
Despite doing all this blogging, tweeting, Facebooking malarkey, I remain something of a technophobe. Though I am regularly introduced when speaking as being 'at the cutting edge of communication' I am likely to be using scribbled notes, and have never used Power Point. 'Power corrupts, Power Point corrupts absolutely' usually raises a chuckle.
As Patrick Kielty discovered when he interviewed me about my phone at the Cheltenham Festival, it is an old Nokia held together by a rubber band. I use it for calls and texts. That's it. I also have a Blackberry. I use it for email, photos and twitter. That's it.
No doubt one day I will catch up with the App thing, but for now Research in Motion's offer of a hundred dollars' worth of Apps as recompense for last week's Blackberry 'outage' serves merely to confirm I am not as modern and up-to-date technologically as may sometimes appear to be the case.
An aside: did the word 'outage' exist before? Who coined it? In what context? It is a nice word. It makes me think of gays outing themselves, and being happy about it. Might Harvey Milk have been a leader of the 'outage movement'? ... It certainly sounds a lot less serious than the collapse of a system that prevented millions of people from doing their business.
I was in the Balkans doing a couple of seminars on strategic communications and crisis management when the 'outage' was at its height. On the one hand I was grateful to have a real live example of how not to do crisis management. On the other, I was sharing the frustration of a room full of Blackberry users not sure what messages and opportunities they were missing. I tweeted 'free advice' to Blackberry - 'explain while fixing, apologise when fixed, then think of recompense'.
The explanation hovered somewhere between non-existant and woeful (or woefuk as I typo'd on my ipad, from which I can also tweet). The apologies were late and lacking in impact. And now the recompense rather leaves me cold. Somehow the ability to play poker on my Blackberry doesn't win back my heart.
Coincidentally, I am hosting the Software Satisfaction Awards tonight. I may throw in an extra one for Hardware Dissatisfaction. My brutal side may come out.
And yet, and yet ... I will not be following the advice of all those tweeters who urged me to ditch the Blackberry for an iphone. I might, when the Nokia finally dies, and I need a new device for phone calls. But for email, I really don't like the iphone or ipad keypad. Woefuk may have raised a few laughs, but it was just one of many typos I make when i-keypadding.
Blackberry have tested my patience to the limit through the 'outage', the lack of explanation, the mishandling, and the irrelevant recompense. There is also a pretty devastating assessment of it in the FT today by the editor in chief of Technology Review.
But I prefer the keypad. Simple as ...
The bastards ... they've got me.
The question here is how can Olli ‘twist’ this technology query to involve the Rothschilds in some dastardly plot?
Might I suggest something like this http://www.clove.co.uk/htc-7-pro that has a nice slidey-out keyboard? It’s a dream compared to the teeny tiny BB keys. You don’t need to rely on RIM for your emails either.
Glad to hear that you trust Finnish technology.
I was the last person to buy my own Nokia mobile phone here in Finland. This happened in 2005.
I have used it only four times since – and only at my summer cottage.
Like you I am a man of books (and newspapers and magazines). I rarely watch the TV.
I got the internet connection only in 2005, but use it daily to read the British press and listen to BBC Radio4.
I learned about your blog from the Times, and have read almost every word of every blog.
I have enjoyed it enormously, and learned a lot. If it did not exist, it would had to be invented!
As a Labour supporter (I am some sort of social democrat) and a Burnley fan who is also interested in British media, there could not be a better place for me.
Without your blog my knowledge of the British politics would be 10% of which it is now.
I usually do not have any intention to write a comment in the morning, but when I see your blog I get so inspired by it that a comment usually evolves.
95% of my comments are not pre-written.
I still gives me the same pleasure to see my comment on the site as during the first time.
For a start I believed that no one read my comments, least of all yourself.
But then someone called Nicky gave me positive feedback, so I decided to put more effort to posts.
Your own encouragement has also been important.
I hope I can help Labour to fight the Tory lies also in the future.
I fully understand that many people have been puzzled by my comments about world government and global currency.
But I have checked all my facts behind the claims, and they are true.
After the coming default of Greece in which banks must take big losses people will understand why I have been writing about globalist elite which owns big banks, financial institutions and many big corporations.
Ps. I have been writing that Mr Osborne´s plan A will not work from the day one. It is now official! Expansionary Austerity: New International Evidence, IMF Working Paper 11/158, July 2011 has totally destroyed the credibililty of Osborne´s plan A (= expansionary fiscal contraction). IMF economists say that on average a fiscal consolidation of 1% of GDP has on average reduced real private consumption by 0.75% within two years and a fall in real GDP by 0.62%. According to FT plan A is a fairy tale (Wolfgang Munchau Oct 16, 2011). Net effect of austerity in Europe will be an increase in debt. So Mr Osborne is now having a macroeconomic policy that has been scientifically proved to be false. Next year Britain will grow at best 0.9%. 2.5% is needed for Osborne´s plan. But Mr Osborne will not, of course, change his plan. What this tells about the motives behind George Osborne´s austerity? He, by the way, supports closer fiscal union among eurozone countries.
My son and DiL both have iPhones and each downloaded the new operating system last week without the trouble that caused so many complaints.
Such a sad irony about Steve Jobs dying on the day of 4S (instead of a ‘5’) being released. I wonder how many anticipatory designs of a 5 had been hatched in preparation for releasing on the counterfeit market.
Can’t get with the touch screen thing at all on the handset upgrade I got in January so am still using the thing which’s predictive text is in no language at all (or that one that has no vowels).
I use internet and email on a PC desktop, and a basic mobile phone (plus landline – how many phone boxes are there left these days on the streets?), full stop. Anything else, I will need thirty hours in a day. How do some of these people manage it?
I read all the comments if I can. I also have quoted some of yours in speeches on the economy, and have just quoted you in a piece I am writing about Happiness. Will let you know when it is published. I sense that these days, especially when I write about the economy/politics of economy, people come on here to read you every bit as much as me. So your contributions are always welcome. Here’s to a win at Barnsley tonight
You can’t exactly carry it around in your pocket, but have you tried the ipad keypad/dock? Makes typing a lot easier, though I still make lots of orrors!
Have you seen a builder trying to use a blackberry, with his large pigs nipples fingers? I have, and it is not a pretty sight. More typos than a typewriting class. Anytone remember typewriters? Or am I really now showing my age?
“Without your blog my knowledge of the British politics would be 10% of which it is now.”
You are very lucky Olli that you chose such a fair, even handed, unbiased and objective commentator to whom to hitch your wagon, and learn about British politics. The 90% of your knowledge thus derived will be internationally respected for what it is, your mentor having learned all he knows whilst in partnership with that pillar of world politics, Tony Bliar.
My local mast was down for a few days recently and using call boxes (when you can find them, as you said 🙁 ….. ) the connection charge is 60p and then it’s about the same again per minute!
We’ll eventually lose all our lovely kiosks.
Is that your admission of compulsive masochism then Richard?
dot dash dash ditsy dot
Perhaps you can help us all out. Can you name someone who is a fair, even-handed, unbiased and objective commentator on British politics? And can it preferably be someone who has some first-hand experience of political power rather than someone who comments from the sidelines – like a television or newspaper journalist – and has no responsibilty for the effects of misjudgement? Here’s your chance to make Olli and the rest of us even luckier. Go for it!
Malcolm Tucker, although he is far too easy going, laid back and objective to get such a job in reality.
Back from another sopping, soaking wet bike ride – as ever wind in my face everywhich way I went. My great Sony Ericsson ‘phone tucked up warm and dry in a lovely Ortlieb bag. Gorgeous thing of beauty, superb for internet in the tent and brings me hours and hours of Bach as I sit in the greenhouse of a starry evening. No I would not have an Apple. Recipe idea for tonight after the cullen skink. The so obvious with these bizarre outages and failures – Apple and Blackberry crumble.
No, if I suffered from such a complaint I would join a political party.
Local tip – I live 10 miles west of Barnsley further up the Pennines.
Put some stones in your pockets and dress for the icy blast.
Ever so windy and rainy here.
Enjoy your evening and I wish your side well.
All the best.
You must be somewhere near the Holme Moss television mast. Do you know ‘The Shepherd’s Rest’ in Holmfirth, or ‘The Fleece’ in Holme? I love those bleak Pennine areas, especially former non-access grouse moors like Snailsden, Thurlstone and Wessenden, opened up under the CROW(2000) Act in 2004. May they stay open! Yes, I imagine winter is well-installed up there.
‘Come the f… in or f… the f… off’ – yes that’s very easy going, laid back and objective, but I think a shorter and more accurate reply to my requests would have been, “No”.
I got soaked cycling at Snailsden just last week. Beautiful land – changes so fast as you drop to the valleys with sublime views. I am deeply appreciative of the privilege I enjoy in living here. I got a weather station for my birthday – rode up Woodhead pass that day – every kind of weather in abundance this lovely autumn.
I’m sure I saw a query about this somewhere ,,,,
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/comic-strip-presents/4od#3241162
I think it’s only for watching on the computer like iPlayer.
I saw a clip on Two recently and hated the way Robin Cook’s death was treated in that, so have been a bit prim about watching the entirety.
Hi Alastair,
I used to really dislike typing on my touchscreen. Then I got the Swype app, and now I enjoy it. Takes a little bit of time to acclimatise to, but definitely worth getting should you go down the smartphone route. It doesn’t just make texting faster, it makes it more enjoyable.
http://www.swype.com/category/about/
PS. I realise this sounds like a plug. It’s not. Swype’s just one of those things that makes you want to spread the word.