This means one of two things. Either you’ll get to see as the site change before your very eyes (probably very slowly) until I’m happy with it, or it’ll stay like this for a few days and then revert to the old theme. Either way, it’ll look a mess for a few days but should get better after that. You’ll just have to live without proper access to the photos (and the other junk) for a while.

Let’s see where this goes…

Updates

• Post images now working.
• Site menu restored.
• About page complete.
• Archives are now live.

And it’s as simple as this, you’re never getting it off me. It’s incredibly thin yet both fits perfectly in my hand and doesn’t feel in any way fragile. The touchscreen also feels really intuitive to use and yes, it attracts fingerprints like moths to a light bulb. Yes, the web browser might be a little bit clumsy, especially while navigating but it’s a useful tool to have. Videos look excellent (as long as you’ve converted them correctly) and I really like having access to the artwork when listening to music. Even the typing seems to work well.

My only gripe is that it takes several moves to pause music or change the volume which can get annoying when someone walks into the office at work, the only option is to let the music continue to play. Scratch that, double click the home buttons brings up the volume and play controls without unlocking the device, problem sorted.

Is it worth it? Well I’ve just put my original 3G iPod into it’s box for the first time (other than moving to/from uni) in nearly 4 years, that answer your question?

First, this EU / Microsoft anti-trust case. Sure if they’ve fixed it so that their own servers run better with Windows than other manufacturers then sure, fine them, but to go after them because they bundle media player with Windows is stupid. Apple bundle iTunes and Quicktime with OSX and even linux distributions come with a set of media players. You can choose not to use them you know! For heavens sake, XP can’t even play dvd’s without a third party driver.

Second, “I’m queueing to get money out of ‘Troubled’ Northern Rock just because everyone else is” is not a reasoned argument. Does the man in front of you know more than the Boss of the bank? No, he’s just as clueless as to why he needs to be there as you are. It makes me wonder whether anyone in this country actually listens to anyone but the media who see it as their job to create as much of a panic out of every story as possible just to get viewers/readers/sales. Anyway, it’s your pensions that you should be worrying about!

Thirdly, PC Worlds latest advert that claims Norton Anti-virus will protect you from ‘identity theft’. True, but the time of keyloggers stealing your passwords finished when your bank starting insisting that you only type 3 characters or only use your mouse and that was a couple of years ago. You’re far more likely to fall for a phishing email or to have your card cloned at a cashpoint or garage than you are to need an identity theft preventing anti-virus system. Plus why pay £25 when you can get a perfectly decent setup for free? (It’s what I use) Do the math, and never give out your password and pin in full or you will get no sympathy from me.

But while there’s still a little warmth in the air and not a cloud in the sky, how better to spend an evening with a little food, a little improvised music and a view that stretches from the flashing buoys on the horizon to the houses on the other side of the bay to the nearly unspoilt view of the stars. If only I had the photo to put with this post, but I don’t want to risk my camera down the beach when we’re playing sport.

But why do I care? The world has had mobile digital music for a couple of years now and it’s getting a bit stagnant, horribly generic mp3 players are two a penny and while there have been a couple of attempts to create a portable video player there’s not been anything that has captured the imagination. The whole scene needed a bit of a prod and this is it. I firmly believe that this one device will change the world in the same way that the original couple of iPods did.

Firstly the addition of the wireless web browsing capability from the iPhone is exciting while not being all that useful at the moment. I can imagine lots of situations when I’d love to use the facility while also knowing that free wireless isn’t something you come across every day, not around here anyway. Secondly the wireless iTunes store and the linkup with Starbucks is again not without it’s holes and limitations but it’s a big step forwards. Many people expected the Microsoft Zune to be the fist device to put it’s wireless chip to a more productive use than sharing songs (should two Zune users ever meet) and I’m sure that it will, but until then (and I’m not ignoring mobile efforts from the likes of nokia) apple will be there, worldwide, first.

Sure it’s not got a proper widescreen display and sure and 16Gb is going to mean that some artists are going to have to be chopped from my iTunes library if I’m going to fit any episodes of Futurama on it to watch on the train, but I realise that it’s always going to be a compromise between storage space, screen size and battery life. I also know that it’s impossible to put a hard drive inside because it would take up far too much of that tiny battery, you should see what happens when you try to sync my 3g iPod when it’s not attached to the mains.

Which means my order is in (ok, I’ve ordered two but one is for Si) and the wait is on, lets just hope it’s not too long.

So I emailed the Casio support team with a quick description of the problem. A couple of days later I got a reply. There was a fault with my battery, simple as. They offered that if I let them have my address (which I had actually put into the original support request form but never mind) they’d send me a freepost envelope in which to send back the battery for a replacement (all under guarantee obviously). They’d also need a proof of purchase.

Now I assumed that any proof of purchase required something with a date on it. I had a look but couldn’t find the normal A4 invoice/receipt that usually comes with something from say, Play or Amazon. All I had was a simple delivery note containing name, address, order number. I’d kept a printout of the order confirmation screen but as that only had a date of printing and not an order date on it, I thought I’d give Dixons customer services a call and ask them to send a copy of the invoice/order so that I’d have some proof with a date on it. Big mistake…

During my call to Dixon’s customer service line, I was told that my order didn’t exist and that a washing machine was the only thing they’d ever delivered to my house. I was then told that there was another order, for exactly the same camera which had my address as the billing address but was apparently delivered to somewhere else with someone else’s name. Despite having given the correct billing address, I was told that I couldn’t get any details on that order because it wasn’t mine and ‘they don’t get things wrong’. In hindsight I should have asked for a refund, because if they hadn’t delivered me a camera, what had I paid them for?

Still, the battery went off and another one (a working one) has comeback. So that’s a big thumbs up for Casio who have been all very nice and helpful an a big thumbs down for Dixons who don’t appear to realise that part of the data protection act is to keep your data correct.

• Album selection using the right click menu.
• Once loaded, you can select a second display mode (seen above) which expands the cover of the currently playing album.
• You can now prompt project2 to produce a screenshot (without the info bar at the bottom).
• Finally, iTunes does not now need to be running and playing when you start the application.

Save yourself an extra click and download the new version here.