Banks Want To Open Debate on Free Banking

In recent years the banks have managed to make themselves hugely unpopular with the public at large. Now in a move which is going to go down as well as a ham sandwich at a Barmitzvah, leading bankers are calling for an end to free banking.

 

Seriously?

 

These guys are amazing. First of all banking is far from free, with charges for overdrafts, loans and mortgages. The credit balance that we keep in our current and savings accounts is all that keeps a bank financially viable. In return we get no, or little interest on our funds. That same money gets loaned out at huge margin and even then the banks came running to the tax payer for a bailout when they screwed up their commercial investments through greed.

 

No, its not free banking that needs to end, but the corrupt way that banks are allowed to get away with contemptible treatment of their customers.

Poor iPhone Signal

I've recently come to realise that my experience of O2's dreadful network performance didn't mirror that of some of my friends. Last week I drove the 140 miles from Coventry to Ormskirk and for only 22 miles of that journey did my iPhone manage to grab a 3G signal.

Given that we're talking about travelling along the M1 and M6 motorways it just didn't seem very likely that the problem was O2 related.

I decided to get myself a SIM card adapter and see where the problem really lies. Having fitted the new franken-SIM into my Galaxy Nexus I have already discovered that areas where the iPhone can only find a 2G network are actually 3G or better areas of coverage when the SIM card is in the Samsung phone.

I'm now convinced that my iPhone has a faulty antenna or some other service impacting problem.

I'll soon be rerunning the trip to Coventry and I'm looking forward to seeing the result of using the I phone's SIM in a phone which isn't suffering from antenna issues...

iPhone Is Still King In The Hand

Over the last few years all of the advantages that made the iPhone the best smartphone money can buy have been gradually worn away as competitors using Android or Windows Phone platforms have innovated past Apple's offering.

There's one are where no one has yet managed to approach the iPhone 4/4S yet thought - its tactile brilliance.

There's no questioning that Apple got the 4 just right in terms of materials, weight and balance. It is a beautiful device to hold and use.

Yes the screen and camera have been surpassed and large chunks of usability are lacking, but to pick up and hold in the hand the iPhone has no equal. It's a shame that so many people wrap their iPhones up in nasty cases and never experience that wonderfulness.

With the iPhone 5 mooted for an appearance later this year I wonder what Apple can deliver to best this lovely tactile experience?

iPad Walled Garden Not Working For Publishers

Or at least one publisher anyway. Tech Review will be killing its iPad edition after spending $124,000 developing that version of its magazine, to gain a scant 353 subscriptions. That's a cost of over $351 per subscription - not good business.

Tech Review will be moving to a HTML5 reactive web design model, which will allow the same content to work on just about any device.

As an indication of how well Apple's walled garden approach to publishing is going its not very positive...

F1: Salut Gilles

30 years ago today Gilles Villeneuve crashed to his death at the Zolder circuit in Belgium, after launching his Ferrari into a series of cartwheels off the back of a March driven by Jochen Mass.

Those of us who have been around Grand Prix racing for that length of time will often wax lyrical about Gilles supreme car control and some of his astounding drives. He had talent to take the breath away. It was married to an absolute desire to win every lap and it is this that probably led to his untimely death.

At the time of his accident Villeneuve was chasing the qualifying time of his team mate Didier Pironi, who he had accused of stealing victory at the previous race in San Marino. A chilling prediction to never speak to his team mate again and a promise to let his driving do the talking demonstrate the state of mind of the Canadian driver.

The lap on which he was killed was a slowing down lap, Villeneuve had failed to beat his team mate and in, what now appears to have been a black rage, kept his foot in on his slowing down lap. Coming around a corner to find Mass going slowly on the racing line Villeneuve attempted to pass without slowing. Contact was inevitable and Gilles was thrown to his death from the cartwheeling car.

It was a terrible loss of a wonderful man out of the car and a driver who could be sublime, ridiculous, crazy and dangerous in one lap, never mind a whole race.

Gilles will probably never feature on many top ten drivers lists. Yet on his day, in the right circumstances he was untouchable. His day just never came around often enough.

Salut Gilles.

New Galaxy S3 Ad - Designed For Humans

I'm assuming the tagline is a continuation of Samsung's targeting of Apple... however the ad is quite good at focusing on capabilities rather than numbers, a proposition that has worked well for Apple in the past.

As for the phone, well at first glance its a big step up from the S2 and Galaxy Nexus... but some of the new features bear some investigating in terms of performance before we get too excited about them.

F1: Senna, Eighteen Years Gone, Not Forgotten

RIP

F1: Ralf Puts Stop To Comeback Rumours. What Comeback Rumours?

That just about sums it up, baby Schumi has said that he is happy with his new life in DTM and won't consider following Michael back into F1.

So all you team managers with your fingers on the redial button best give it up now... he won't be answering.

Deluded much?