This week we saw the release of Apple’s New toy, the iPad.  While most industry pundits are telling us it’s the newest thing to have, I have to question the purpose of it.  Apple has a long history since Jobs’ return to the company of producing new and exciting tech which has revolutionised a particular sector.

The iPod is a case in point on that one; it helped develop a revolution of digital downloads and in conjunction with iTunes it’s become the program of choice for millions of users.  Same goes for the iPhone, but do we really need a whole new market, based around Apple’s device.

I would argue that we don’t.

I like Apple products; they are swish in design and inherently easy to use, but and there is always a but with Apple they always lack a vital function – most evident with the iPhone and glaringly evident with the iPad.  The lack of Multiple, background processing is a huge oversight on Apple’s part.

Personally, I know that the iPad will be huge, despite it’s shortcomings – people just love Apple stuff, and they will love it no matter what it does, even if it is just an oversized iPod touch.

Hello again dear reader,

I have once again endeavoured to write a Christmas message not filled with hate and aggression but with joy and frivolity, but looking at my notes this certainly isn’t the case.  For me this has been an interesting year, both for this website and in my life.  I’ve started new ventures, met some great people through twitter, became even more obsessed with it and started to write more articles that are less angry, but still the purpose of this site remains the same.

For 2010, the plan is to expand the site more and also make sure that I continue with the pod-casting, I appreciate that they aren’t all that regular at the moment and I’m sorry that there won’t be a Christmas edition, I just simply don’t have the free time at the moment.  I’ve barely found time to post in the past few months. I will be making a change in this area.  I have plenty of ideas of what to write about in the next few months, so you can expect a post every week from now onwards!

Well this year has been a funny one, not much has happened per-say, I mean the world is still revolving and the sun still shines but nothing of merit has occurred, except maybe Rage Against the Machine getting to number one in the U.K for Christmas something which I am incredibly pleased about.  I dislike over produced pop-crap so much it make my blood boil.  I don’t think I could stand to listen to Joe McElderry for any longer than thirty seconds without wanting to extract my eyes with a blunt penguin (yes I imagine that would hurt a fair bit). I truly believe that RATM getting to number one is a triumph for music and proof that the Public are not as stupid as we think they are.  Of course, if you do like X-Factor you probably are a bit ‘Special’.

We shall see what 2010 brings, it’s going to be an interesting year.  So sit back, relax, have a drink on me and enjoy/endure the season of goodwill with just that.

Merry Christmas

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but fear of no entries has prevented it, but now I’m gonna give it a bash seeing as it’s Christmas!

All you need to do is answer the following question and you could win a fantabulous Rantastic T-Shirt!!!

On which date is Christmas celebrated?

Send you answer and your name to: mr.rant@therantastic.com and we’ll pick a winner on 21st december 2009!

Please put competition in the subject line.

For a copy of the terms and conditions please send me an email asking for them.

It’s that time of year again! December is upon and in just 24 days it will be Christmas and the year will be over again.  As you can see the Christmas theme for this year has been launched and minus a few tweaks it will be around until new years day.  I’m at that point now that I hate, I have lots of shopping to do and you, dear reader know how much I despise that past time.

I’ve already had a run-in with a shopper last week at Birmingham’s Glorious German Market, of course I was as ever minding my own business when some oath pushed in-front of me and stole my place in the bratwusrt queue, of course being the fattie that I am, my stomach took an instant disliking to this chap.  I could feel the churning starting, the vitriol beginning to rise in my throat, threatening act as a rudimentary weapon of mass destruction.  I took a step back out of pity for this man who was about to feel the force of my guts.

Thank god for him he didn’t feel it.  All was well.

A new podcast is online at: http://www.therantasticpodcast.com have a look a listen!

Orange today have announced that they will launch the iPhone 3G and 3Gs on their network on 11th November 2009, while this might be great news for some I would be very wary of what they have to offer.  This morning along with when they would launch they put a link to the tariffs they will offer to new and upgrading customers; and for the most part they are strikingly similar to what O2 have – Frankly I really doubt that any one will be spurred on the get the iphone on Orange over O2.

After doing some more investigative work (I’m excellent at this, probably because I’m anal about reading the fine print in contracts, I enjoy it.) it seems that Orange will cap their ‘Unlimited’ internet access for iPhone users to just 720mb, something which O2 don’t do.  Of course there is a fair usage policy (FUP) on O2 but it’s set ridiculously high, I regularly download around a GB of data a month and that’s perfectly easy on the iPhone and O2 allow it.

Orange seem to have decided one of two things:

1. iPhone users will use their data and pay for it.

2. Our shareholders need more money, so we’ll charge the same as O2 and make more money, as a pose to cutting the cost to attract more users from O2.

A smart move?

Never, in business, yes you want to make money but an easy way of doing that is being competitive.  O2 are the UK’s largest mobile phone provider and they have a huge share of the market, Orange don’t, what I would do is competitively price the tariffs to attract as many customers as I could.  Orange have seemingly missed a trick.  Capping the data usage on the iPhone is laughable what with all those streaming apps and Facebook checks to made during the day you can easily go over your data allowance in a week let alone four.  750mb is just not enough.

But wait…

Vodafone haven’t announced what they will do about their tariffs when the iPhone launches on their network in the new year, it remains to be seen if they will undercut both companies, but alas, I fear that we may see the same tariffs with tiny differences when they launch.