Did Skype just make a boo-boo, only supporting “hi-res” Android devices?

Instant Messaging, or IM, has been something mainly used between computer users; “computer” being a workstation, desktop, or laptop. Sure, there have been IM clients around for some mobile phones and other gadgets, but until recently, many users have opted out on the use-your-cell-to-chat for a number of reasons. One reason is that it’s been considered something “geeks” do. Another reason has been that most mobile phones sold until recently haven’t been so-called smartphones.

Slowly but surely, with the arrival of iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4, and too many Android-based phones to keep track of, the smartphone market is set to explode (brace for impact). With more smartphones being sold, so is also the number of data subscriptions; in other words a mobile phone carrier plan that allows for a certain amount of data to be transmitted through the mobile data network. Many people choose a flat-fee data plan that allows “unlimited” data.

Two manufactures of Android-based smartphones have also seen a different kind of light; SonyEricsson with their X10 Mini (and X10 Mini Pro) and HTC with their Tattoo and Wildfire products. These phones stand out in the way that they are aimed at users that don’t necessarily want to look like they’re conducting the Vienna Philharmonics, in other words, they’re small 🙂 The SonyEricsson X10 Mini and X10 Mini Pro are really small (too small some would say). But they have one thing in common, they are fairly affordable while sporting a lot of the smartphone functionality.

So what does this have to do with Skype? Quite a bit, if you ask me.

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Why Netbeans 6.9x+ is an awesome PHP development environment

I’ve been doing some form of coding since around the advent of the IBM PC and VIC-20 and have obviously come across many editors and IDE:s for a number of platforms. Things have come a long way since Edlin. I cannot recall every single editor and IDE I’ve been toying with, and I’m not sure it’s relevant to this post, but some of them include A/Edit, Emacs, TSE/Qedit, Brief, SlickEdit, vi, and many derivatives of these. Having been a DOS programmer for quite some time, I’ve also been working in the various Borland IDE:s.

In the past 10 years I’ve mostly been using Emacs, and every now and then I’ve been sneaking a peek at various other Linux based editors. For the past several years I’ve been giving both Eclipse and NetBeans a go. There are a number of IDE:s out there that are based on Eclipse (Zend/ZDE, Aptana Studio, Eclipse PDT to name a few), so in many cases they share their core behavior, look ‘n’ feel, pros and cons.

One thing I’ve learned, the hard way, is that there are just about as many “My editor is better than your editor”-battles being fought as there are “My language is better than your language”-battles; programmers and developers truly seem to enjoy trying to outdo each other when it comes to proving their arsenal of tools to be superior to that of others. I’ve never understood this part. If you can solve the given task, with all its parameters, with whatever tools you prefer, go and do it. If someone else can manage the same thing with some other tool, good for them. Listening to these arguments is like listening to two five-year-olds battling it out trying to convince the other that a given color is prettier than another. Of course, one could just turn a deaf ear and not listen 🙂

Now let’s talk a little bit about Eclipse and NetBeans.

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Osäkert parlamentariskt läge

Jag förstår inte riktigt det här. Oavsett vilket politiskt block man röstar på så känns tongångarna som att det är otänkbart för något parti från de RödGröna att samarbeta med Alliansen för att gå runt SD (“må Alliansen brinna i helvetet”), men tydligen så är …

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Happy Birthday Mom!

Today you would have been 63 years old; I hope you’re chillin’ wherever you are. Your two grandchildren are driving me nuts sometimes, but I guess this is payback 🙂

How MyPhoneExplorer helps Android / HTC / Droid / X10 owners

Last week I was faced with the not-so-simple task of moving a lot of stuff from my old SonyEricsson C905 mobile phone (Symbian) to my brand new, shining, and spiffy HTC Wildfire. As reported previously, this task isn’t as simple as it sounds. Parting with the C905 is hard. It is the one phone I’ve owned over the years that has never let me down, and its camera still beats most cell phone cameras, past and present. Parting with something you’ve gotten used to and come to like is always hard, and when the conversion process to another piece of equipment presents you with a massive mountain to climb, things don’t get any easier 🙂

Moving from a Symbian based cell phone to a “smart” Android phone is not a straight forward process.

MyPhoneExplorer to the rescue. Oh do read on .. 🙂

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The Book of Five Rings by Miyamoto Musashi

According to the chronicles of our past (i.e. “history”), Miyamoto Musashi was without a doubt a very successful Samurai warrior with a distinct style. Whether or not he considered himself successful in the sense that he didn’t die a warrior’s death is up for discussion, …

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