Hockey on TV

How many people were able to watch the Hockey at the Commenwealth Games?

Out of those people how many are not hockey players?

Out of those few that are left, how many could follow the game?

Lets face it, hockey is not a very good television event, and this is coming from a hockey player. So why aren't the authorities doing anything about this? Possibly because doing anything to make it better on TV might ruin the game for the players who are playing at all levels.

I only managed to watch a couple of games for a few reasons. One being the fact I work normal office hours and it's not repeated very regularly. Another being that its just not treated well by main stream broadcasters.

Out of the games I did see, the 2 Mens quarter finals and the most of the first half of the England vs India game on the BBC iPlayer, (only because this was shown on the main BBC coverage for about 20 minutes) the games were good to watch. OK I still think you have to understand hockey to get the most enjoyment out of it, but at least you could follow what was happening, you could admire the skill and most importantly for me, and I believe someone who doesn't play the sport, was that you could see the ball.

So why were these games better? I'm no expert, but the only difference I could see was that it was played under floodlights. Could this be the simple answer to Hockey on TV?

We hear its a challange to get Hockey on TV so if Hockey England want to get more coverage they have to try more things. Maybe a simple thing to try is to play a national league game under good floodlights and see if it improves it as a television event.

I know this isn't going to make it an instant success on TV, but if people cannot watch the game and see the basics so they can start to understand it, they are not going to tune back in and we will never get to see it on mainstream TV.

Is a 500MB limit really a problem on O2?

When I was looking into my phone purchase, I questioned quite a lot with orange the fact they were taking me off the unlimited data plan I had, and was limiting me to 500MB. There reason was that as far as they could see very few users ever went over the 500MB limit.

I very much doubted this at the time but due to the lack of an alternative had to accept it.

Now 12 months into the contract and never once got any where near the 500 MB limit to get worried I now have to accept they were right.

Ok I admit, this limit isn't going to suit everyone, and at the end of the day an average is made up of people above and below the figure so some people are going to miss out. Probably those that listen to a lot of streamed radio or music.

Having never been an O2 customer I am only speaking theoretical, but could you not make up for the shortfall in minutes with Wifi? Even this option was available on Orange but I never used it and still didn,t run out of data.

It seems to me that O2 are either doing an honourable thing and protecting the majority of their users fomr something they dont need or have been stung quite badly and so have reduced there options to match Orange. Which also suggests that they probably feel there is enough of an additional market out there for people who go over the 500 MB limit.

During looking around for my phone I looked at all the main carriers and they all had their own selling point. Unfortuanlty, I think from what I read and hear, O2 have just lost theres.

My iPad thoughts

I work in IT so I think know something about the technology that we are faced with today. I also enjoy gadgets and people who know are never surprised when I turn up with a new bit of technology under my arm.

As far as gadgets go, I don't swap and change them often but I like to have a new phone first. I don't bother if the whole of the office already has one and so mainly for this reason I never wanted an iPhone. I know this is daft but that's just the way I am. It was however the interest in the iPhone that had me looking to replace my Nokia N95. A phone I was happy with, but did fancy a change.

Between looking and getting a new phone I was lucky enough to win an iPod Touch, and this was my first introduction to the Apple interface.

After looking around I decided to have a look at the HTC Hero (as no one had got one of these!) It did everything the iPhone did really, but to try and get back to the point quickly, each night, sitting at home I preferred the iPod Touch.

Then the iPad video was released and when it was shown I was critical about it. "Its just a big iPhone or Touch", "Why would anyone want to use it?". If you had an iPhone the iPad gave you nothing new.

Jumping forward a bit, I did end up falling for the Apple hype and on buying an iPad I found I was right. It is just an big iPod Touch, oh and a SIM card in it. It was still not a complete beast. No camera and some of the iPod standard apps were no longer included and nothing new.

But then the Apple marketing kicked in again. The reason why I used the Touch over the Hero was because the complete package worked very well. You plug your device in, it backs itself up. You go to the well organised App Store, and you choose an app. It syncs your music and your apps to your device and you unplug it and it works. The updates work seamlessly and everything takes care of itself. On the iPad the original apps work. OK they are small or can look funny but you have access to everything you had originally, and the new apps look great, exactly what you would expect if your an Apple user.

Compare this to the Hero and you find getting your device to sync first time is tricky. Marketplace is hopeless. Upgrading your device wipes everything and you have to start again. no useful backup process.

So the main difference between Apple and others, is purely the end to end solution. With Apple it works with others its tricky. No one else seems able to match this end to end process and experience.

Anyway, sticking just to Apple now, what is the new iPad supposed to be? Is it supposed to be a big iPhone or iPod Touch, or is it supposed to be a small laptop?

Now that I have used one albeit for a small amount of time, I don't think it is supposed to be either. it's the iPad! Apple have come up with a device that no one thought they needed and made it wanted.

The beauty of the iPhone and Touch is its size and capability. As well as the points I mentioned above, what it allows you to do while being mobile is perfect. You would not walk down the street and start tweeting, texting or updating facebook on your iPad. You couldn't be at home a secretly get out your iPad and check your mails without the wife noticing. You couldn't honestly replace your laptop with an iPad and carry on doing everything you want to do.

The iPad gives a great experience when you want an iPad. Apple lovers will buy one just because its Apple and they will not give up any other Apple device to have it. Others will buy it because they want the instant on and great browsing experience without having to wait for a laptop.

So all in all, am I happy with my purchase? Yes is the answer, because it gives me everything i wanted the iPad to give me.

Hope you enjoyed the read and any feedback would be great.