I’ve noticed over the last two days that my iPhone signal and 3G/GPRS data access has been poor. I have just started a new job located in a brand new building in the South East of England. The new building seems to have a major problem that was not noticed much until it was completed and populated with office workers. The building seems to act as a Faraday cage and therefore not mobile signals get in or out.

Once I’d escaped the new office building my signal did come back, but only a little.

On my way home from work yesterday I tried to make a couple of calls (on handsfree bluetooth) with no success. I thought it was maybe because the phone had been in a ‘Faraday Cage’ all day and decided to reset it. Afterwards I could make a couple of calls but they would keep cutting out.

When I left work today to attend a meeting on the other side of the M25 I used my iPhone’s built in Satellite Navigation (Maps) so that I could follow it to my destination. Normally I need a 3G signal to get the best data connection to download the route and map/s for the journey.

The trip took me about 1 hr and during that time I tried to get the iPhone to connect to the Internet to create my route for me…!!

Every now and again I would pick up a 3G signal and try again but no luck. – I gave up when I was nearly at the destination and used good old fashioned intuition to guide me.

I tried most of the rest of the evening to get a 3G signal as well as make some phone calls to no avail.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED?           WHAT CAUSED THE OUTAGE? –

I think I know why…

o2 initially confirmed that the outage was caused in the London area and was due to capacity issues (ie, it was being used by too many mobiles, like the o2 iPhone). They then corrected themselves and said that it seemed to be affecting the entire UK Network.

I believe that the popularity with the iPhone across the UK has reached a critical mass on the o2 Network and as such when loads of connections are being made to it from many users there is no more bandwidth to provide.

I know that some people have managed to run network data usage tools on the iPhone and that doing a few simple tasks where an Internet connection is required can eat up a lot of bandwidth and connections to the o2 network.

Simply enough o2 have a LOT of work to do to increase capacity on their network and will have to hope, in the meantime, that not as many users use the Internet during that time.

Also remember that o2 have also signed an exclusive contract to sell the next smart phone in the recent battle for supremacy, the Palm Pre. (By the way, I shall be doing a Palm Pre review and comparrison against the iPhone soon).

As at the time of writing this o2 have not yet said when the issues will be fixed or what caused it.

The Method and means for creating anti-gravity illusion patent number 5255452 was drawn up and designed by Michael, and his team when planning for the 1993/4 tour.

The special shoe allowed the wearer to lean forward beyond their centre of gravity therefore producing a fantastic ‘magic’ lean effect.

Here’s a video of his moves on that tour:

They have a specially designed heel slot that’s attached to the stage and while the dancer with the lighted dynamite distracts the audiance MJ and his dance team slot themselves in ready for the amazing lean move..

You can see that the dancer on the far right did not manage to disengage correctly and the shoe almost stays stuck to the stage..

Well there you go, if you already know this, do your friends know? Pass on the link to this site and for all Michael Jackson fans everywhere, remember him by playing his music. He was, afterall THE KING OF POP.

RIP Michael Jackson.

There are many Father’s Day recommendations on my main site but I’d thought I’d let you know about one of my favourite new ones:

Samsung LED TV

From under £1,000 (for a 32″)

Samsung LED TV

This latest HDReady TV from Samsung is amazing !

They have revolutionised the TV (again !) by using LED technology which improves the picture quality. It’s about 10 times better than conventional LCD TV’s and as they are made up of LED’s they deliver deeper blacks and whites.

It’s also 70% slimmer than a regular LCD TV at just under 3cm thick.. WOW!

It also has a lower power consumption saving upto 40% compared to the conventional LCD TV.

As mentioned in my previous Internet TV or TV Internet post this TV also has the DLNA which will enable wireless access to streaming movies, pictures and music.

If you want to read more take a look at my Samsung LED TV Review on the main site.

Regards

Internet TV

player, the XBox, the Sky+ HD box as well as a PC so that I could ’surf’ in the front room.

It’s great and all works very well (I even bought a Logitech wireless keyboard with a built in mouse pad so that I could sit on the sofa and use the pc).

It all takes up quite a lot of room though and I only really use the PC to get to the Internet.

Wouldn’t it be great if the TV had built in Internet access? Well now Sony (and other companies) are starting to manufacture their televisions with built-in Internet browsers.

Connections to your broadband internet router can either be made by direct connection to a network port located on the back OR by wirelss (for TV’s that have the feature).

DLNA Connectivity

Sony is part of the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) (a group of companies that have joined forces to create a common standard for device-to-device connectivity). The newer BRAVIA TVs will be DLNA Certified™ and when connected to your home network will give you access to the Internet, movies, music and photos directly on your TV.

I can’t yet find a company that’s selling them in the UK yet as Sony have only just announced the TV’s; such as the Bravia W5100 which should be on sale in the next few months.

You never know, by Christmas you may see these and more Internet TV’s with DLNA in the stores.

I’ll put updates to this article as soon as I find out more information.

Subscribe to us to keep up-to-date with all Gadget News, Reviews and more.

Yep, I decided to join the Wordpress bandwagon and set up a new blog – Overall I think the site’s much better already.

I’ll be posting some more gadget reviews and updating this blog as soon as I can (hopefully tonight).