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iTWire: Q: When is a WiFi router not a router? A: When it’s a hard disk.

My first Windows Phone 8 app is in the app store: Speedo++

Actually, I cannot take full credit (even most credit). The app is a brand new Windows 8 Phone release of an existing Windows Phone 7 app by Long Zheng titled “Speedo Plus“. So, Speedo++ is Speedo Plus, plus a bit more

Long developed Speedo Plus to provide an aesthetic speedometer app for driving, bicycling, even walking I guess … anything that involves motion over distance. The app provides info on current speed, plus average and maximum speed (in this trip), along with a graph of speed over time.

Now, the trouble with Speedo Plus is it didn’t cater for new high-res Windows Phone 8 handsets and displays, but Long’s developer account had lapsed. He made the app available to the public for someone else to take on the app, which I gladly did.

This first build of Speedo++ is fundamentally Speedo Plus with little modification apart from support for higher-def 720p displays. However, I have future plans which include modernising it to use newer GPS/navigation APIs and the addition of new features.

iTWire: Every geek and technology lover will undoubtedly have stumbled across online adverts for tiny headless Linux-powered devices that are barely larger than the power point they plug into. What can you actually do with them? Plenty, it seems!

SlashDotted! Yeah!

Over the last 6 years or so I’ve quite literally – according to server statistics – based out tens of thousands of e-mails on my various BlackBerry handhelds.

The BlackBerry has given me “BlackBerry thumb” in the past on the earlier thumbwheel versions. Looks like I’m hitting it back with my relatively new BlackBerry Bold 9700 giving up the ghost on its enter key.

No doubt this will be a warranty repair but I don’t know if I can be without it long enough to send it back to Telstra !

iTWire: The Apple iPad is official. Yet it just missed one ingredient that could have been its killer app.

iTWire: Hype and rumour abound as to the nature, price and design of the highly-expected Apple tablet – or iPad or iSlate. I won’t add to the false predictions but I’ll certainly tell you what I hope it isn’t.

iTWire: I wanted to know how well Windows 7 (release candidate) would perform on an Acer Aspire One. Here’s how it went.

(This article was SlashDotted! Yeah!)

Here’s what I’ve written for iTWire this month …

Linux
Active Directory for Linux draws closer
Jolly new Cloud Computing OS seeks to bring netbook market back to Linux
Move over PC and Mac, it’s time for “I’m Linux”
Ubuntu 9.04′s blazing boot times
It’s 2009 and SCO are maintaining the Linux rage – what the ?
How does Ubuntu Linux differ from Debian?
How on earth does anyone make a dime out of Linux and open source?

Industry news and general tech
ASUS fighting at the top may spawn new brand
NSW Government job website hacked
Telstra release BlackBerry Bold software update
Xbox Live whets appetite with The Maw
Telstra mobile memo service suffers as Teletech offshores operations

Linux Australia elections
Congratulations Mr President – Linux Australia goes to the vote
Linux Australia elections results are in but is there a mandate?
Why didn’t people vote in the Linux Australia elections?

iTWire: I got an iPhone! Telstra relented on their original viewpoint that new contracts had to be taken out and they wouldn’t cater for the business and government market. Mind you, Telstra’s support line could stand to take training …. !

Hoorah! It’s iPhone-eve! The world will be watching as the clock draws towards midnight … except one segment of phone buyers who have been totally excluded. In a mess of mixed messages the telcos seem to have hired the famous Seinfeld soup Nazi as their director of enterprise and government pricing. That’s right, “No iPhone for you” despite the claims it’s a better business device than BlackBerry.

Here’s my story about trying to buy an iPhone to sign up to my company’s corporate pricing plan. I was continually told it wasn’t possible. I tried to dig further to find out just why out of every mobile phone my telco offers this one is so different. The reason, in my view, is due to Apple’s demand for a grab at the ongoing cash — which at the same time makes a mockery of their claims to now offer enterprise level features like push e-mail.