Stuart Dredge

I bought a Toshiba NB200-123 netbook (but TNT won't deliver it)

This is (probably) the most self-indulgent post I'll ever write on this blog. But I'm so angry, and this seems the best place to let off steam. If you want to skip the long ranty version, essentially I bought a new netbook online, direct from Toshiba, but TNT won't deliver it to me.

The longer version: I ordered the netbook - the NB200-123 since you ask - on 19th December. I wasn't counting on getting it before Christmas, but on 21st I got the tracking number for the shipment with TNT, and their website said it was out for delivery.

Gmail just launched Facebook Connect features

I've just noticed that Gmail has started offering Facebook Connect within the site itself. While reading an email, a box appeared with that person's details, with an option to connect in Facebook.

And there's also a box at the top right of the Gmail screen letting me connect to view and update Facebook status messages from within Gmail itself.

Nice! Is it brand new, or has everyone else been using this for a while? EDIT - Oh, I think it may be to do with Xoopit, the image plug-in thing I installed and forgot about a while back, not Gmail itself.

Bebot - Robot Synth proves the power of word-of-mouth

If you've got an iPhone or iPod touch, go and download Bebot - Robot Synth now. Right away. It costs £1.19, and is the funnest (to borrow Apple's lingo) musical iPhone application yet. The demo video embedded below shows why, but basically it's a synthesizer music-making app, except the fully-tweakable synth sounds are personalised by a cute cartoon robot. It's fab.

I'm in the Music Ally office today, and it's just been brought to a standstill by the app, as people gathered round for a go. They're all off to buy it now. Well, those who have an iPhone anyway. And it just showed the word-of-mouth buzz that can build around a cool iPhone application - even (or perhaps especially) those without any real use.

Distant Shore is another example - an app where you wander up and down a virtual beach reading messages in bottles written by other real people, and sending your own messages off in return. It's another cheap, fun app that's building a big buzz - not just through in-person demos, but on Twitter as well (in fact, Twitter is how I found out about both of these).

It's been suggested that iPhone owners are natural show-offs - any opportunity they get to whip out their handset and demo something cool, they'll take. I'm fitting that pattern so far... But it's good news for independent developers coming up with interesting, innovative and unique apps that might not have found a mass audience before.

Is the Kindle 2 a gadget too far?

Amazon announced its Kindle 2 e-book reader yesterday, and it's been getting rave reactions from all the major tech sites. Slimmer, nicer screen, basic web browsing and MP3 capabilities, and more books and newspapers. Oh, and Stephen King.

The geek in me really wants one. And if it was being sold in the UK, I might have had an Apple moment last night and stumped up for one there and then. Thankfully, Amazon is keeping it US-only for the moment, so I've got a bit of time to check my bank balance and wrestle with my  inner spendaholic.

I love gadgets, and I read a lot of books, so it should be an obvious purchase when it does eventually cross to this side of the Atlantic, right? Yet I can't help wondering if its a gadget too far. I already walk around carrying an iPhone, a BlackBerry, an Eee PC and a PSP (hopefully muggers in my area aren't voracious blog-readers) - would the Kindle replace any of those?

No. Well, not unless it gets a decent port of Football Manager Handheld, anyway.

As tempting as the Kindle sounds, I can't help thinking that I'm happy reading stuff via my RSS feeds on iPhone and the Eee PC, and that dog-eared charity-shop paperbacks will continue to see me well for any physical book-reading needs.

And yet... That Apple-like spur-of-the-moment purchase may still happen, depending on the Kindle 2's price in the UK and whether I can convince myself that someone will pay me more money to write about it than it costs, thus making it a sound investment (this logic tends to apply to any gadget I'm dribbling over).

If this thing is really going to do for literature what the iPod has done for music, it would be nice to be in early - or at least as early as us Brits are able to. Better try to get some more work in before they announce the UK launch...

Solved my Google Chrome installation problems

Phew, for a minute I thought my PC was going to refuse to install the Google Chrome web browser, as it threw up this error message while trying to install it:

"Installation failed: Component ChromeGears failed to install"

However, I found a solution on the internetweb. Just do a search of your hard drive for 'chrome install' and you should find a file called chrome_installer. Double-click on that, and it installs fine. Whoop.