I had the opportunity to see an actual iPhone in action today. I must say that, even though I’ve seen plenty of pictures and read a bunch of reviews on the product, I was surprised as how nice it looked. They’re quite small and the touch interface is pretty slick. Browsing the web with Safari was pretty simple for such a small device and a couple other apps I saw looked good as well. I didn’t get long to gawk at it though so I don’t have anything in-depth to report.

It does make me wonder when exactly Apple will release them down under. I sincerely hope that the few annoyances they have are sorted out by then: things like phone company lock-in and charging 99 cents US (which should be $1.69 here, same as iTunes songs) is all kinds of ridiculous. Allowing for 3rd party applications would be good too. As a web developer I think that because of the iPhone, combined with the new iPod Touch, Mobile Safari is going to become more and more popular so I’d better start looking into how to make my sites compatible with it.

The new computer is up and running with everything working well. I thought I’d go through some of the things I’ve noticed and learned.

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In my last post on Deluge I commented that one of the things the BitTorrent client was lacking was a web interface. That situation has been rectified by a recent plugin that provides WebUI capabilities. After taking a look at what is offered I can say that it looks very promising but isn’t quite at a stage where you’d want to use it for anything but the most basic administration of your torrents.

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A new piece of software has come to my attention today, a Mozilla project called WebRunner that aims to provide an easy way to create site-specific browsers (SSBs). The project is basically an extension on the XULRunner software, which itself is standalone version of the XUL engine that underpins the big Mozilla projects (Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird, Seamonkey).

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If you’ve never heard of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya then what you firstly need to know is that it’s one of the most popular anime/novel series to hit the scene in a good while, to the extent of sparking a level pseudo-religious zeal, dubbed Haruhism, that comes as a sort of homage to one of the central premises of the show: that the eponymous heroine is, for all intents and purposes, God. The show itself is a superb blend of action, comedy and drama which includes plenty of deliberate fan service and a cast of strange characters, all seen from the point of view of the most incredibly normal and average person in world. Fans of anime in general will probably find something to like here.

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Stardust is a new movie based on the Neil Gaiman story of the same name. The plot is a typical fantasy/adventure romp and the movie successfully pulls off an enjoyable story that should be suitable for the whole family.

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