Nokia N8

European and Northern American press seem convinced that Nokia has lost its way and is on the way out – Nokia’s new flagship phone the N8 received plaudits for its hardware but its software let the phone down badly. Yes Nokia hasn’t got it right in the Smartphone market but outside of wealthy Europeans and North American’s the Smartphone market isn’t that important. Where money is to be made is in the developing world where Nokia is king the Nokia 1100 which has sold 250,000,000 units worldwide – no self-respecting Western would be seen dead with one – but that’s not the point.

The future of Mobile phones is the Nokia C3 – It’s going to be the world’s next best selling phone.

Nokia C3

The Nokia’s C3 series has Wi-Fi, a 2.0MP camera, a full, metal-keyed QWERTY keyboard, microSD storage and an App Store. It comes with Facebook and Twitter access out of the box. Depending on tariffs, it sells for around $100 worldwide. It’s coming to America, soon making an appearance on Wal-Mart’s shelves. The price? $80. It’s the anti-N8: Fairly simple, very cheap, and so far, wildly popular.

This is what the next generation of the mega-selling phone will look like. They’ll be rough facsimiles of the high-end smartphones forged for well-heeled buyers, stripped of fat and excess—an embodiment of compromise. They’ll be 90% of the phone for 20% of the price, with FM radios instead of digital music stores, and flashlights instead of LED flashes. This is how the other half will smartphone, if you want to be so generous as to call the developing world’s users a half. We’re not even close. John Herrman, Gizmodo.

You know I it’s something I’d consider for a teenager – they manage to lose and destroy phones at an alarming rate – unless you’ve money to burn why would you consider anything else.

The Apple iPhone, HTC Desire and Samsung Galaxy might be getting the headlines – meanwhile Nokia is busy selling a staggering number of phones. Expect Nokia to regain its smartphone crown in the not too distant future.

Nanjiao dormitory, 2007

Photographer Yang Yi’s hometown Kaixian on the Yangtze River in China is being flooded by the Three Gorges Dam – Yi has been regularly returning to his hometown and this photo series Uprooted is the result– see more at the Galerie Paris-Beijing.

South River, 2007

Hat Tip: Chris Blattman.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revised down the amount borrowed by the government last year from £163.4bn to £156bn.

Borrowing was £5.5bn lower than previously thought in March, the statistics agency added.

Borrowing for April was £10bn – also lower than expected by many economists. BBC.

Labour policies were working even better than we thought – so why on earth did we vote the Tories in?

Made.com 's outdoor Chit-chat chairs and table

Fancy a piece of bespoke furniture or art? Then maybe made.com is for you. Made.com claims that by stripping out the middleman and connecting you with the furniture makers directly they can save you 50-80% of High Street prices.

So how does it work? Firstly the selection isn’t wide and you can only order a few selected items which are often time limited – however in the “Labs” section you can vote for what gets into made.com’s catalogue

Furniture is made around the world and shipped to the UK which altogether takes 8-10 weeks – orders can be tracked in real time – if for any reason you don’t like what you’ve ordered you’ve 14 days to return it free of charge. Seems like a fine idea – I’ve got my eye on the picture outdoor table and chairs for just £50.

Hat Tip: Springwise.

Since resigning as Manager of Manchester City in March 2005, Kevin Keegan has been running his Soccer Circus in Glasgow, which you can’t help thinking is perhaps the perfect preparation for the circus that is Newcastle United these days.

Still I question the appointment, in October last year Keegan said he was finished with football management and hadn’t been watching matches. Speaking of his 1996 Newcastle team Keegan prophetically said “That team was one of the major football successes of the last 20 years; nothing like it will ever happen again” – how right you are Kevin, how right.

This is an appointment of heart over logic, Keegan was one of the games greats, yet just last year Keegan had no appetite for management – I forecast near or even relegation to the championship, not this season perhaps, but next season, that’s if Keegan doesn’t resign first.

Last night on the way home from work in the car I was listening to the BBC radio 4 program Beyond Belief, a discussion about sharia law and could it have a beneficial impact if it were to be applied in the United Kingdom. I can only say the program left me beyond belief myself listening to the sexism this program so casually allowed.

One panel member said when bringing a prosecution for adultery four men or eight women would be needed, as you know women are more gossipy etc. Another said one mans word being worth two women only really applied to financial transactions, as if that made it all right.

All this without challenge from the presenter Ernie Rea, now if you substituted black for women there would rightly be an outcry over such racism – why is there not for sexism? When are we to going to stop being so nonchalantly sexist – religious belief is no excuse.

Whilst listening to yesterdays Radio 4 program, Thinking Allowed, presenter Laurie Taylor talked to philosopher Slavoj Žižek about his book Violence.

The premise of his book is that the subjective violence we see – violence with a clear identifiable agent – is only the tip of an iceberg made up of “systemic” violence, which is essentially the catastrophic consequence of the smooth functioning of our economic and political systems.

Speculators and CEO’s are completely abstract from the effects of their actions, which sweep through the world like an economic tsunami, forcing workers from their jobs into poverty.

Žižek’s most startling assertion is that the most violent thing we can do is doing nothing.

It’s time we considered how we live our lives and how we can improve not by charitable donation, which only assuages our consciences, now is the time for action against capitalisms senselessness.

Allardyce is a decent manager as his eight-year record at Bolton shows, taking that club from the old first division (now the Championship) to the verge of the Uefa cup. Newcastle will not find a better manager.

Sam Allardyce was given just 8 months to transform a moribund Newcastle into a trophy winning team. If Newcastle wanted success then owner Mike Ashley, needs to realise that rebuilding his team will take longer – Ashley should have given Allardyce his full backing by perhaps stating that he wouldn’t countenance a managerial change for two years. Instead, Ashley is left looking for Newcastle’s seventh manager in eleven years.

Source: The BBC.

You might ask why the name OutofRange (or of course you might not). OutofRange takes its name from the title of a 1994 album by Ani DiFranco. On that album, there’s a song called Out of Range and part of the songs lyric is.

Nothing ever changes and I was shocked to see the mistakes of each generation will just fade like a radio station if you drive out of range.

This seems so appropriate, when looking over the recent news headlines, I see Iraq bearing an increasing similarity to the Vietnam War and you can’t help thinking that ignominious retreat is all that’s left for the USA.

Then there’s such silliness as Toy weapons help boys to learn – absolute rubbish, how can playing with weapons improve educational performance. For well over fifty years educationalists have been pondering boys underperformance it’s about time we faced facts, girls are better than boys and looking around the world and seeing what a mess misogyny has made, how could you argue otherwise.

I could go on, but hey, you get the picture, otherwise why are you here.

BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson thought the furore over the government’s loss of the personal details of 25 million people as a storm in a teacup. In an effort to prove this Clarkson published his bank account details and information on how people could find out his address in a national newspaper.

Believing that “All you’ll be able to do with them is put money into my account. Not take it out. Honestly, I’ve never known such a palaver about nothing”.

However, Clarkson admitted he was wrong after he discovered a £500 direct debit had been set up in favour of the charity Diabetes UK.

Now why couldn’t someone have taken the sexist ignoramus for more?

Source: The BBC here & here