Can't we all just get along?

Well well. I'm now coming to the end of my second week as the owner of a Samsung Galaxy S2. I'm generally pleased with it and the deal I got from Tesco mobile made a lot of financial sense. It's not my iPhone though. It never will be.

I should explain that my defection from all things Apple was based purely on financial considerations. I had (still have) an iPhone 3G and can talk at length about it's stylish design, it's functionality and it's elegantly simple user interface. Let there be no doubt that I count myself as a devotee of the Apple brand; I'm typing this on my MacBook whilst watching Doctor Who on my iPad; my daughter's in the next room with her iMac and my wife is reading the Guardian on her own iPhone. My wife is a neo-Luddite if ever there was one yet she loves her iPhone - that's how good Apple tech is.

So why am I talking about my shiny new Samsung and not my shiny new iPhone? Quite simply because I have to live on planet Earth and not planet Infinite Loop. I first considered defecting when the iPhone 4 software update was released in a cut down format for the 3G. I looked forward to all the new things my iPhone would do, only to be disappointed that it wouldn't really do much more than before; in addition I became by turns frustrated, angry and then disaffected as the functionality of my phone dwindled away. At first I thought there would be a fix for the problem but it quickly became apparent that was not to be.

I then decided to get an iPhone 4 when my contract ended. When the day arrived I was dismayed by the ridiculous prices expected for the handset on the tariff I could afford. I could have bought a laptop for the same money! Before I knew where I was I was skipping home with an Android phone from Apple's mortal South Korean enemy.

The chaps in Tesco couldn't advise me on how functional the phone would be with my Mac as it was outside their experience and they hadn't been asked the question before. The reason for this is that the Mac / Android experience doesn't even share the same time-zone as functionality; I'm told that Android phones work well on PCs but as I don't own one that's not helpful. Samsung's own proprietary interface is a waste of the time it took some poor programmer to write, and an even bigger waste of my time trying to get it to work. The third party stuff I've had to use works after a fashion, in that same way that a hammer is perfectly capable of cracking an egg; it does the job but there ought to be an easier way to do it. In the case of the egg there is, but in the case of the Samsung there isn't.

I realise that's an awful analogy but it's late and I'm tired, so write your own if it offends excessively.

Now finally, my point. Apple and Samsung are fighting each other in four or five different countries over patents and copyright infringements and all manner of other issues. They're like a divorcing couple fighting over the children, and in this creaking analogy I'm one of the kids. All I want is for Mummy and Daddy to get themselves to a place where they can be in the same room as each other; the upshot should be some element of cross functionality for all of the kids (that's us in case you haven't followed).

I don't expect them to be chums, in fact the competition makes for more and more innovation and development. What I would like is for them to recognise that the we're stuck in the middle having to pick sides. There is understandable amusement and / or bemusement at the excessively partisan attitude of diehard Mac and PC and iOS and Android users, but the companies themselves are hardly any better.

Here's hoping they stop using lawsuits as a marketing tool and start thinking of the children.

Okay! I've picked a smartarse title. Now what?

The BBC ran a story today concerning the predictions made by a super computer fed millions of news articles. Apparently it retrospectively predicted the revolutions in Libya and Egypt. The same story goes on to explain that the process could be used to predict future events by analysing massive amounts of data from the news media.

BBC News: Super Computer Predicts Revolution

In his Foundation series of novels Isaac Asimov described a new science called Psychohistory; this allowed those in the know to predict the likely course of evens by looking at the history, sociology and mathematical statistics of very large groups of people. If you haven't read it go and buy a copy immediately; trust me you'll be glad you did, and may even feel the need to thank me.

Of course this isn't the same thing at all, although I do believe it's yet another example of the prescience of good science fiction. When you've read Foundation just remind yourself how long ago Asimov wrote it, and feel your admiration and appreciation grow for a master storyteller and his singular imagination.