Eagle-eyed readers will notice that there is a lack of adverts on the right column of the site.  The reason for this is simple - improving the experience of anyone who visits The Gadget Monkey, while maintaining the site’s income.

In order to do this, we’ve opened The Gadget Monkey Store, available via the link above.  The idea is simple - buy your electronics hardware via our store, and it pays for the hosting.  Anything extra will be ploughed back into the site in order to hire new writers, that kind of thing.

We’re also considering contextual text links within the articles, however a trial run on one of our sister sites will give us the final answer on that.

As always, your feedback - either in the form of comments or an email to me (editor@thegadgetmonkey.co.uk) - is welcome and vital to the continued success of the site.

Let us know what you think, and above all, support The Gadget Monkey!

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As the release of Google Android - the search engine company’s own mobile phone operating system - marches ever nearer, it has been announced that owners of the HTC Dream and any subsequent Android devices will have access to a Google Android App store, similar to the Apple iPhone apps.

Developers will have the facility add applications to the market by registering as merchants, and the content will be uploaded and published; Google expects features to be added after the initial launch, including a developers dashboard to display analytics information about their content.

Before the birth of the iPhone, applications only became widely used when developers managed to convince the cellphone operator to preload it onto a phone.  A challenge in itself, the iPhone apps model builds upon the proliferation of Java apps and Windows Mobile applications by organising everything in one place and taking a share of the price.

Android is set to make the concept of mobile phone apps to the masses. We wish it the best of luck.

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Monday November 17th and Tuesday 18th sees Kensington Town Hall play host to the second FOM – Future of Mobile conference event.

With representatives of Google, SonyEricsson and Symbian among the speakers on the Monday and a series of workshops on the Tuesday, FOM is a must-visit to anyone interested in the mobile industry and its possibilities.

One workshop of particular interest takes place on the Tuesday morning, 9-12.30:

Delivering rich media to mobile with Flash Lite

Adobe are on a mission to reduce fragmentation in mobile with Flash Lite. This is becoming virtually omnipresent on new mobile devices. The Open Screen Project is the icing on this cake, the collaboration to remove barriers to content delivery. This will herald rapid growth in the consumption of video on mobile devices.

What you’ll learn
* How to optimise content for Flash Lite.
* Integration techniques for the user interface.
* Optimal use of action script and the rendering engine.
* How to use device profiles and optimise performance.

Tickets can be booked online, with a nice concession for students

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Thanks to the success of the original iPhone, various HTC devices and the wizzier Nokia pieces, the mobile web has burgeoned over the past year.

40 million US mobile/cell phone users access the web while on the move, with the UK and Italy close behind.

Analysts Nielsen Mobile attribute the success to improved mobile network speeds and better handsets.

“The mobile internet is often included as part of a larger mobile media package,” the report said.

“Users may be either unaware or disinterested in the internet access that is provided.”

And despite the success of the iPhone, it is the Motorola RAZR in the USA and the Nokia N95 in Europe that are the most popular.

The impact of mobile browsing should not be underestimated - the benefits in the technology pioneered in order to make it a success (remember WAP?) are slowly being adopted into the main internet, which will eventually bring us the regulated Internet 2.0

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If you thought previous launches of Microsoft’s XBox 360 or the Playstation 3 had been badly managed and the potential buyers let down badly, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

A trip to one of the UK’s handful of Apple stores will get you an iPhone 3G as long as you don’t have an original.

But if you want to buy from O2 - and given their status as the only network provider why wouldn’t you? - you’re in for a lot of pointless stress and disrespect.

Whether this is an intentional lack of planning in order to claim headlines and perpetuate the old “sold out” myth (which will always be a lie - one branch of O2 had ordered just 2 devices. Apple shops have hundreds - and in white, too) or is just down to good honest British incompetence is hard to say - but remember that its not just in the UK that buyers are unhappy…

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Blogging genius Darren Rowse has vented spleen on his ProBlogger website about the “affordability” of the iPhone 3G in Australia.

It’s a massive shame that the carriers over there didn’t take a leaf out of O2’s book here in the UK, whose tariff plan for the initial device was ridiculously priced and failed to be anywhere near as competitive enough.

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Thanks to the Postie plugin for Wordpress, and built in functionality on Google’s Blogger, it is possible to utilise your mobile phone or smartphone to post blog entries.

This is done via the email client - however be prepared for some problems.

Once an email address is configured in your Blogging platform, you can email posts to this address.
However - certainly when using WM6, the Outlook client utilises various mark-up formatting which is then displayed on your Wordpress blog; Blogger meanwhile edits these out.

This post is written using the Windows Mobile Live
/hotmail account via my mobile browser.

Formatting isn’t 100% perfect and certainly careful text entry is needed to avoid crazy accent characters and the like working their way into your post, and upsetting the parse engine on your Blogging platform.

Although not hugely flexible, email Blogging is pretty reliable, and for mobile users is by far the best choice.

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Demand for the new Apple iPhone seems to be surpassing O2’s
expectations, following a crash on their website yesterday, the first
day of pre-ordering.

I’ve had my name down for weeks as an existing O2 customer, and haven’t
heard a jot so far.

I’d hate to give bad publicity, but we live in a consumer society; as
such why shouldn’t I chart my attempts to acquire an Apple iPhone 3G?

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Apparently this little beauty has been custom built for an unknown buyer, but given the moral arguments about CCTV, isn’t installing a spy-cam inside a Dalek just pushing a little bit too far?

At the very least, it leads kids to think that spy cams and surveillance are OK.



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Researchers from the University of Bath have identified the Northern Lights - or Aurora Borealis - as the likely cause for a series of Satnav cockups and GPS upsets.

Apparently Satellite Navigation systems are prone to malfunction as satellite signals, on which SatNav systems rely, are interrupted when passing through the Aurora Borealis.  SatNav devices then in turn display incorrect readings.

The lights of the Aurora Borealis are caused by highly charged particles of up to 10 million megawatts hitting the Earth’s atmosphere.

“Anywhere that the aurora is visible, it will cause disruption [to the GPS system],” Professor Cathryn Mitchell, who headed the research process, told The Daily Telegraph.

“Although most people in the UK can’t see the aurora when it is happening, because of cloud or ambient light, it can still affect the GPS signal. We have just passed a minimum in activity but we are due to hit a maximum in 2012, which is when we would expect to see most disruption.” 

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