The poster ads on London Underground’s many escalators are being replaced with electronic display systems. The installation process seems to leave some of the screens looking like this - Windows config dialogs. Looks like each screen has it’s own PC running Windows behind it.

Most of the other screens were running a complex screen saver with a magic number showing in the middle of the screen.

All together sounds like a maintenance nightmare.

Just watched two of the Google videos of Android. Looks nice, simple and uncluttered. Plenty of space for the OEMs to load it up with unwanted junk!

Like Sam (see comments), I really loved the touch-screen device. It looks great - any iPhone users want to compare how Android shows maps compared to the iPhone maps app? Jobs made a great play on how Apple knew much better how to present maps.

However I really liked the real-life Dilbert in the developer demo. Dan Morrill is awesome in his simple demo. Worth commenting that this is how UIQ builds apps (thanks Mikolaj), and will remind us old-timers of Motif and other even more venerable systems. This is goodness, as it’s separating layout functions out from the code.

No matter how cool this is, however, it does represent more fragmentation. Yet another platform. Yet more interaction options - even the demo shows a device with a full keyboard and one with none. One a small screen, the other an immense screen. Building apps that take all that into account will still require technology like ours.
And how are those security rules going to be enforced? Make calls without asking permission? Wow! I can see the network operators just loving that. I’ve not had a chance to download the SDK yet, so I’ve not looked into the security model, but I don’t believe it can ever safely be that simple.

It’s a shame that the all the hype, PR nonsense, and above all the religious fervour of the Apple fanboys point out defects in sacred emblem is immediately rubbished by a hundred Mac fundamentalists for whom Apple can still do no wrong.

This is a real shame as there are real merits in the device, but not to the point of it being even an invention, let alone invention of the year. I think there would be real value in an honest assessment of what works, what doesn’t about it, but the two sides have too much to prove. And the fundamentalists tend to drive those that aren’t trying to prove anything into the opposite camp. Oh well. Maybe in a month or two some real, honest analyses will have been written. Haven’t seen any so far.

Two minutes further along Princes Street in the huge O2 shop. It had been shut from 2pm to 6.02pm (yes, “02″), and at 6.20pm the security staff outnumbered the punters many times over.

Clearly the Steve Jobs irreality field doesn’t reach as far as Scotland, where there were no queues for iPhones. Canny Scots can spot an overpriced PDA when they see one.
6.18 - 16 minutes after the official launch of the iPhone in the UK. All set up for a party, but no guests! Carphone Warehouse, Princes Street, Edinburgh.

Well, the official “gPhone” announcement is out. I find it underwhelming for the moment, although detail has been scarce. Actually it’s only really the announcement of who is in the Open Handset Alliance. Technical stuff comes next week. It certainly makes interesting comparisons with iPhone.

The differences are dramatic, not least the fact that the gPhone isn’t a phone, it’s a bunch of software.

The similarities are, it seems to me, two fold: objectives and the media overhype. Can’t help the overhype, there are screen and paper inches to fill, blogs to write. You could say that they both run on a form of Unix, but frankly who cares, and in any case, people have been building pay phones with Unix kernels for decades.

The objectives are, it seems to me, to get more people using more advanced services on their mobiles, which currently translates to web, applications and related (ie widgets) tools. Take people beyond voice and text.

However the approaches taken to achieving that are totally different. iPhone started out totally fixed “Steve knows best,” platform where you can’t change or configure very much. It’s a single, controlled consumer device, more like a TV or a MP3 player than a computer. It’s supposed to be easier to find things, and heavens the other devices do their best to help there.

Now the gPhone is founded on the basis of the notion that people don’t use exotic services is because they don’t exist. And they don’t exist because the phones are not open. If that logic worked, nobody would be using Windows of Mac OS. Unlike the iPhone locked-down approach, they claim that it will be possible to replace all the bits with the parts you like. But who is you? Is it the end consumer? I can’t see Joe Sixpack wanting to select a different dialer or photo viewer, frankly. So I suspect that “you” is probably the network operator.

Given that many networks, especially in the US, already require applications to be signed approved and recycled in soft peat before they can be rolled out, how are they going to react to a completely open platform? Is it going to ask permission for every request as Java does, or is it going to be able to publish your address book on the web, just like the Sidekick?
Also, the iPhone will be one of series of probably fairly compatible devices, like the Macintoshes. However the OHA plan on launching 1000s of devices. Oh great. More fragmentation. Just what the industry needs.

Finally, after 20 years of almost constant travel, I had my stuff stolen. Loosing my camera and lenses was annoying, but nothing like as annoying as my passport,drivers license, cards and the like. Just trying to remember what cards there were was difficult enough. Thankfully my phone was in a pocket being exposed to sand, not safely tucked away with the rest of the stuff. Armed with phone you can stop the cards before they can be used.

But the phone wasn’t the only mobile technology that enabled a turn round of everything in remarkably little time. Having hotel WiFi and a computer helped enormously. I was able to look up the correct procedure for obtaining travel documents.

Back in the UK with travel looming, I was able to request a new drivers license from the DVLA on line. I had to fill in about 20 pages of questions to validate my identity, but at least they printed off a new driving license and sent it off.

Passport was much more difficult. Applications have to be made conventionally, and new photos provided “for security”. Now surely it would be more secure to reprint a passport with the existing picture? The phone line was singularly unhelpful on the issue of getting an urgent replacement, but suggested getting an appointment at the passport office and asking if they could do it. The official best is a ten-day turnround, which is not great if you have to travel every week!

However the passport office in Glasgow was brilliant, and new passport with biometrics and lovely engravings of birds was issued on time. Staff super helpful.

All the bank cards have been replaced, I just have to get things like RAC and PADI cards replaced. Sigh.

And fill in the travel insurance claim.