If you’re thinking of buying a Dell Pocket PC after reading excellent reviews, beware. You may find as I did that Dell slashes the price by 15% before you’ve received your new gadget but refuses to apply the new price to your purchase. Needless to say, Dell gave me shortshrift when I complained. I wasn’t surprised – but Dell won’t be on the list when I’m shopping for my next desktop or notepad.
Mobile phones companies are desperate to get us to do more than talk and text.
They bet the farm on 3G services in 2000 – expecting us to rush to sign up for video calling and music downloads. But we proved sceptical – we loved our mobiles but saw little reason to embrace vision and data on our handsets.
Things are starting to change. Mobile network 3 claimed to be a major influence behind Gnarls Barclay’s success as the first artist to get to number one on the strength of downloads alone.
But mobile firms need to get their act together. I’ve tried to use GPRS on my Vodafone mobile for months. Every time I’ve got the message: "GPRS connection not available". I’ve lost count of the number of Vodafone people I’ve spoken to in the hope of sorting the problem. Finally, today I was told I’m on a price plan that doesn’t offer GPRS. How could everyone else miss something that obvious?
No wonder Vodafone is in turmoil! Let’s hope new chairman Sir John Bond can bring some sanity to the company.
On Britain’s east coast main line, you can surf on rails. The GNER rail company has installed wi-fi internet access on most of its trains, which works well. Browsing the internet and picking up emails at 125mph is a breeze.
But it comes at a cost: £2.95 for 30 minutes, and an extra fiver for two hours.
GNER needs to make it a tad cheaper if it wants to encourage us all to use the service.
Britain’s rail companies are ripping off their customers. That was the damning verdict of the House of Commons Transport committee in a scathing report published yesterday. MPs condemned high fares and a bewildering choice of ticket types.
It’s hard to quarrel with that view. An open standard class return ticket from London to Leeds now costs a staggering £165. True, cheaper options are available – sometimes. But if you buy one and miss your chosen train, the original ticket is worthless – and you risk being treated as a criminal, as the Guardian reported recently. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,,1758560,00.html)
It cannot be right for Britain’s privatised railways – which receive a bigger subsidy than the nationalised British Rail – to copy the strong-arm tactics of low cost airlines like Ryanair. Let’s hope the Government takes action.
What great news that Barry Island’s Whitmore Bay has won a Blue Flag for cleanliness.
It’s one of Wales‘s most under-rated beaches. But anyone of a certain age will look back fondly on days on the sand at Barry Island, followed by a visit to the funfair.
Here’s my niece Siân and me at Barry in 1984. We both look a lot older today!
Cardiff’s last FA cup final was a classic.
West Ham deserved to win. Over 120 minutes, Liverpool failed to gain the lead. But when the game went to penalties, West Ham seemed destined to lose.
Liverpool were the favourites, starting brightly. But Carragher’s own goal and Ashton’s follow-up after Reina fumbled a save gave the Londoners a clear advantage. Reina’s blunder was reminiscent of Arsenal keeper Lewis’s disastrous mistake in the 1927 final against Cardiff City. But Gerrard was inspirational, proving yet again his ability to turn a game. And Reina heroically denied West Ham in the penalty shoot-out.
West Ham were superbly led by Reo-Koker, ably supported by defender Gabbidon – who joined the Hammers from Cardiff City – Benayoun and Ashton. Manager Alan Pardew can be proud of his team.
Liverpool have achieved miracles in winning the European and FA cups over the last 12 months. Now Rafael Benitez need only win the premiership to confirm his status as a great manager – and signal Liverpool’s return to glory.
Cardiff’s new Senedd – the home of the National Assembly for Wales – is the very model of a modern parliament house.
Forget any idea of an intimidating gothic pile or an exclusive club for (elected) members: this is inclusivity in action. You can actually pop into the new Assembly building for coffee – without asking your Assembly member for an entry ticket.
We were shown around the Senedd yesterday by Lorraine Barrett AM, who represents the Assembly’s own constituency of Cardiff South and Penarth. Lorraine expained how the new building has helped transform the impact of the National Assembly. This is inspirational architecture, in tune with the age in the same way that a century ago Cardiff’s Cathays Park civic centre reflected the confidence of the world’s coal metropolis in the imperial age. 
Let no-one say a word against British democracy. We’re always looking for fairer ways of electing people to represent us.
In yesterday’s council elections, a former mayor of St Albans lost his seat when the candidates were asked to pick the longest pencil after they won the same number of votes.
Who needs proportional representation when you can raid the stationery cupboard?
Today’s cabinet reshuffle marks the beginning of the end of the Blair era.
It was meant to show that Tony Blair was in control. Instead, it loudly signalled his impotence. Britain now has a lame duck premier, whose authority diminishes by the day.
To move half his cabinet within hours of his party’s worst election results for 24 years suggests desperation, not leadership. And firing his Home Secretary days after praising him as the right man for the job simply increases the public’s contempt for politicians playing fast and loose with the truth.
Why didn’t anyone tell Blair how badly the move would reflect on him?
The echoes of the past are deafening. In July 1962, Harold MacMillan fired six cabinet ministers in an attempt to revive his government. The so-called Night of the Long Knives helped destroy SuperMac’s reputation and he was out of office within 15 months. Margaret Thatcher’s botched 1989 reshuffle, in which she sacked Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, led directly to her overthrow 16 months later after Howe’s electrifying resignation speech. If the past is any guide, Blair will be gone by September 2007.
David Cameron’s honeymoon as Conservative leader is over.
His encounter with a couple of husky dogs in Norway was highly dubious as an attempt to establish his green credentials. But the bombshell that the cycling Tory is followed by a chauffeur carrying his briefcase was beyond satire.
The message to Cameron and other politicians is a simple one. Play it straight. Don’t create an image that reality will not support: you’ll get found out very quickly. Don’t try to create policy by photocall: you need substance as well as spin.
Ertblog 
