Thursday 7 January 2010

Rule One: Never post when angry

Rule Two:  Always read everything twice before posting.
Rule Three:  Always read the entire contract from end to end before purchasing.
Rule Four:  Re-read Rules One-Three before posting.


I bought a new geeky toy.  Love it.  Sleek, slender, light, powerful.  Fun.  Convenient, easy to use.  Nice customisable features.... (plus, I got the black one, waaay more sexy than underpants white, right?)


htc-magic-vodafone



Hmmm.  But wait... My new geeky toy appears to have a major design, ummmm, limitation.


Apparently the Vodafone Google bundled model was never designed to synch (i.e., talk to) a PC 'as a device', so any Apps (little programs that run on your phone) that depend on your synching your PC to your device, won't work.  For somebody like me who reads a lot of e-books, that is a seriously seriously poor piece of design.  Because this is 'new tech', there are only a couple of Apps on the market which will supply the required e-book reader, and the chosen App (which I might add is completely blameless in all this mess) just can't talk to 'temporary drive x:', it needs to talk to 'the device'.


And so, I have to say, I'm very cross.  Nobody from Vodafone bothered to tell me when I signed up for the damn plan that the phone couldn't synch with a PC 'as a device'.  They told me all about the good stuff, like Google Maps, Gmail, Synching your calender & contacts with Gmail, yes, indeedy, but did they mention it couldn't talk to a PC 'as a device'?  NosireeeBob.


Am I cross?  Very.  Did I mention that?  Oh yes.


So, I hear you say from the non-geek corner of the world, what's the big deal?  The PC will still see the device as a 'temporary drive x:, and you can load files to the drive for things like music.  Fine, but if the App requires the device to synch as 'a device', forget it, it just can't do it.


And the other thing that has really got me riled is that Google, whose big idea this all was, has about as much help as John Howard has heart - practically none.  Their website is as much use as a chocolate teapot, glass door in a toilet, screen door on a submarine*, [insert own 'useless' metaphor here].  It doesn't even mention that the HTC Magic is out on the market, branded Google, with all these Google apps 'bundled', as they say, and the help is non-existent.





C'mon, people, lift your game.  This is serious!







*Image & metaphor courtesy of here, thanks Baino.