Apple Store + O2 + IE = FAIL!

It can't have escaped anyone's attention that today ushers in the new Apple iPhone 3G!

To insulate myself from indulging in an act of rampant consumerism (thereby reinforcing the status quo). I've kept clear of Apple Store Princesshay and the O2 Shop, Exeter! Not that there was any real cause for concern...

In a deliciously ironic twist (as noted by Twitter peeps @marceatsworld and @babblestorm), Apple Stores were unable to process activations due to O2's online shop only 'playing nice' with IE and, well, surprisingly the Apple Stores only use Macs and Safari! D'oh! How old school is that? We're living in a so-called platform-agnostic age people! Allegedly... Ask the developers behind Google Lively if you don't believe me (requires Windows XP or Vista)!

If you did succumb to the charms of a new iPhone, please post a comment and fuel the envy! I'm cutting this post short as MobileMe continues to FailMe!

Updated with added coolness!
Yesterday, in a most shocking development, my 'coolness' was cast into doubt! As a Mac-owning blogger that's unthinkable!

Danny Franks linked to this blog in his post Why I Refuse to Blog! Little did Danny know that my legion of peeps would alert me to this disturbance in the force!

I've always been a good sport and there's no such thing as bad publicity in my book! Therefore in the spirit of goodwill and Danny's subsequent genial e-mail. I'd like to sincerely wish Danny every success with his blogging (or not as the case may be)! I'll be keeping tabs. However, rest assured that blasters will be set to stun!

Special thanks to Google for ranking Generation Star Wars so highly in "Star Wars blog" searches!

The Ultimate View

I've been testing Windows Vista Ultimate OEM/OEI DSP edition, installed on an Intel-based Mac! Installation was a breeze, thanks to Boot Camp 1.2 and built-in Apple Software Update (available directly from the Start menu).

Overall I'm quite impressed with Windows Vista Ultimate's performance, which is, ironically, more responsive than Mac OS X 10.4, despite a lack of compatible drivers. Microsoft should be lauded for making improvements, especially with Windows Media Center, despite their controversial and confusing product (and pricing) strategy.

Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open) GUI applies an extra layer of lip gloss and renders certain text better than Aqua (Mac OS X) and vice versa. For the first time since the release of Windows 95 (although it's not a paradigm shift from Windows XP), Microsoft has completely revised its user interface guidelines, covering aesthetics, common controls such as buttons and radio buttons, task dialogs, wizards, common dialogs, control panels, icons, fonts, user notifications, and the "tone" of text used.

Avid video gamers, starved of Mac ports, are truly spoilt for choice. Roll on Halo 2.

One caveat I should mention, install Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit (x86) and not 64-bit (x64)! Support for the former is more robust in the short-to-mid term.