Yeah Yeah, I know, it’s not exactly *the best* image of WM6.5, but it’ll have to do – besides, you’re supposed to be here so you can read my spleen venting, not look at pictures I managed to find on Google.

So, without further ado… where to start…

Ok, first thing is the greatly improved start menu – it’s now a scrollable/flickable menu which does work rather well, although the edition I used doesn’t have those hexagons visible and also seems to lag horribly whenever I’m on a Skype call (which I suppose is understandable) though it’s a bit of a pain in the arse because I wrote a program that turns off the screen and sticks the device in low-power mode (wonderful for the battery) and it means you can talk for hours with the WiFi burning away.

Still, I should acknowledge that the ROM I’m playing on is a test one, so perhaps the final thing should be much better… and speaking of which, it should be out this month (in an earlier post I said WM7, I should really correct that to WM6.5)

Internet Explorer is vastly improved (though there’s some pretty gay GUI fuckups that need to get sorted) and the Javascript engine in it is very good, as is its rendering capabilities, definitely outdoing Opera in some respects. Although the one thing I think we should see is some sort of new game for it – the current ones are pretty old now, and I reckon something small and fun wouldn’t be a bad idea to chuck into the OS, for those times when you’re bored/travelling/using the toilet.

Manila definitely complements it quite well as the default Today screen is alright, but still a bit wanky and definitely not up to par with Manila at all – especially when you’re talking about the new Manila versions.

Right, that’s all I’ve got to say for now, Shove it.

But for now, available at htc-unlocks.com is our Touch Pro 2 Unlocker with the usual features of SIM, CID and the ubiqitous Security Unlocking capabilities – and of course Hard-SPL into the bargain, which is naturally just what you want if you also intend to debrand your device (because let’s be honest, most providers ROMs are utter shite)

Those of you who have the rather sexy “worldphone” edition of the Rhodium (this is the one that’s both CDMA and GSM) – unlocking this one is currently a W.I.P. but I have to say, the whole concept of a PDA worldphone is very sexy to me, but I have the “mere” GSM one, which is still great looking, probably just as well I don’t tend to travel to exotic places (or the middle east) that much.

Either way, this is much less of a brick than the HTC Touch Pro / Fuze was… instead, you get the compromise of a keyboard adding a bit of bulk, combined with the lovely screen size and res sported by the HTC Touch HD.

I have to admit that it’s very difficult choosing between the Raphael and the Kovsky in terms of picking a favourite – though incidentally, they are pretty much the same device, right down to the hardware initialisation, one could draw a parallel to the Cheetah (Treo 750) similarity to the Hermes – though they didn’t have the same screen.

Anyway, onto the real stuff: the Kovsky Unlocker is available at http://kovsky.htc-unlocks.com with all the usual trimmings of Security, CID and SIM unlocking available – so you can lob a Blackstone radio on it if you really want to, or just get a warm fuzzy feeling from the cool banner that shows during boot-up.

Finally, as a somewhat interesting bit of trivia – the Prototype Kovsky has an extra button on it (and half the RAM sadly) but additionally, when it boots up or you stick it in bootloader, the screen is upside down until WM starts booting, if anyone knows why, answers on a postcard

Admit it, you fucking want it… I fucking want it; I want to have its fucking bab… OK too far.

Either way, it’s a bloody nice device and one which I really hope I’ll be able to get hold of soon and have a good play with – gotta love that chrome eh?

Anyhoo, in other news… Blackstone unlocker is released finally, available at http://blackstone.htc-unlocks.com and what’s more, we’re gearing up for the Topaz which should be released today in fact – just as soon as you whiney bitches on IRC get your Hard-SPL… then we just need to get the Rhodium sorted out.

For some reason I do feel compelled to write enough content to extend past the image on the left, which I’ve probably already achieved if I bear in mind the column width on the front page – but I’m typing this in from the editor which is longer, so I suppose I should think of something interesting or important to say… ooh, I know – hopefully, we should be getting WM7 in September and it *should* be available for Topaz and Rhodium, though this on the assumption the release doesn’t get set back due to delay (or brought forward due to a leak)

I do also have this niggling feeling that the WM7 SPLs are going to be totally different from the WM6 line and quite possibly won’t be too happy if you try and flash a WM6 OS back on without downgrading the SPL as well, but we shall see.

This does very much remind me of Special Constables (fancy speak for “unpaid Nazis Police”) – generally speaking; whilst there are of course lovely people who volunteer their time to be Special Constables, there are additionally little Nazi fuckers who apply for the job because they don’t cut it as a paid copper but they desperately want the powers of arrest and other such maniacal abilities that they were previously unable to obtain (and so ended up getting a job as a parking attendant or traffic warden – or both)

The Commons is an entirely different breed of course; the entire aim of the game is to maximise the degree to which they can take the utter piss out of the entire electorate – helped mainly by the fact they get to set the rules.

Now, I must admit that paying a shit wage to MPs is not something I’m in favour of – not at all; if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys… Yet, if one looks at the NHS then we see that people are expected to pay a flat fee for their medication, regardless of whether it’s cough syrup or a cocktail of AIDS pills and so similarly, the fuckers should get a flat yearly salary and a rail warrant booklet (which they can only use if they’re travelling to or from Parliament) – a yearly wage of £60-70k should do the job… to be perfectly frank, suitability as an MP is a balancing act, you should be doing it because you want to, not because you can make a mint… though you shouldn’t make minimum wage from it either, it’s certainly a fair balancing act to offer around £70k a year… it’s enough to attract people who will sign on for the right reasons rather than for the wrong reasons (i.e. if you liken this to the police nazis doing it for power, similarly we have MPs doing it for the cash)

Either way, Labour’s fucked, so it’s only a matter of waiting for the election.

The budget Darling came out with very effectively manages to achieve fuck all, the amusing 50% tax rate for earners over £150,000 will be particularly effective… in encouraging as much tax avoidance and evasion as possible, meanwhile the “cash for scrap” scheme will provide a minor and mainly pointless stimulus to the car industry – most of which is dominated by foreign manufacturers anyway, not that I’m protectionist, but nonetheless, it’s a good way to dissuade any trade for the time being as expectations will now align themselves towards waiting for the scrap money.

It could well be possible that they’re lubing us up for an IMF package, but I don’t think we’ll qualify for it being as we have an unstable financial sector and no real regulation, which are two things the IMF are of course insistent on.

Further to that of course, the greatest fear is of a run on sterling… one might say we were overvalued at $2 to £1 but in any case, the massive fall against the Euro and the Dollar both don’t bode well and a questioning of the creditworthiness of the sovereign… something which I have already said is very likely to occur… but not to the point of questioning it enough to start refusing to finance the sovereign.

Nonetheless, the costs of financing will inevitably rise as a result and create a feedback effect which will again shit on the value of sterling, and in hindsight, the insolvent banks should simply have been allowed to collapse in an orderly manner – namely to seal all the depositors and users of retail services in a vault (i.e. a brand new bank company) – prospects for sterling are dubious at best – primarily because the Sovereign is completely and utterly failing to instill any confidence whatsoever.

Hopes? The only possibly hope that’ll save us is the replacement of the government by a new party, beyond that… don’t hold your breath and meanwhile, keep a close eye on the Quantitative Easing programme which they’ve already announced they’ll be expanding; sorry lads, trickle down ec0nomics doesn’t work all that well.

As a Brit, I do very much love the designs of our banknotes, I think the title image along the top proves that point… the designs are very nice, and by and large, that’s all anyone else in Britain really gives a toss about, since we can safely say that the opportunity cost for the UK to join the euro right fucking now would essentially be negative (that’s means we should join)

As things are going, we’re edging ever closer to the possibility of a sovereign debt crisis, not that we’ll actually have one, but it would certainly raise financing costs to an uncomfortable level, which is generally bad for us all, especially when the economy of the UK is so finely in tune with the rest of the EU that we might as well be Frankfurt, so in this sense, Sterling is not helping us at all, and its painful devaluation is certainly putting the pressure on.

That said of course, the recent appreciation of the US Dollar will be shortlived; with the immense and expansive expansion programs planned by the Obama administration, financing for that debt will become increasingly difficult, and in a time when they’re on the offensive against China; one of the biggest purchasers of Treasury securities – Biting the hand that feeds you one might say.

In any case, the Keynesian expansion planned for the US is certain to make investors realise that US assets and economic growth are essentially crap, and capital outflows from USD to foreign assets should almost certainly resume, just as soon as they hurry up and realise this, that is if China don’t give them the push first and start a strategic shift from T-bills to European assets – as it is they’re already offloading their long-term Bonds into short-term ones which almost certainly signals China is positioning itself to be able to make a very hasty retreat from the Dollar as and when they want to, and naturally Asian banks will follow the money and join the bloodbath.

Not that I’d like to suggest that the UK is without its inherent risks either, though the comparisions between us and Iceland are rather over the top… assuming the rules on the Maastricht criteria can be bent a little (and in the current climate, it would be in the interests of both the UK and all in the Eurozone for us to become a member) then the UK should certainly pile in and shore up some of its financing risk this way, not to mention provide currency stability to its citizens.

So, if you’re British, please, write to your MP, tell them you want the issue of the Euro back at the forefront of politics and for reasoned, open debate to be held on weighing up the benefits of a hasty membership.

A few years ago, I was against the Euro in light of the expanding economy of the UK and lack of massive bank insolvency, but that was then.

In the words of Keynes; When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?

Well, I suppose I should call it the Shift as that’s what most people call it, but it’s not the codename, so get stuffed.

Anyway, here’s the good news: Voice calling is working on the device.

Now the unfortunate news however is that whilst you can hear the other party speak to you just fine, sadly for some reason the mic doesn’t work, so if you’re a mute user of the Shift, I’m sure this’ll be just fine for you as-is, though since I’m pretty sure most people actually aren’t mute, it’ll be necessary to figure out how to make the microphone work on the WM side of things.

Since WM does have the option to make voice recordings and plop them in e-mails, I’d appreciate if anyone is out there who knows for a fact they’re able to make recordings (and recordings that work, not recordings of silence) from Windows Mobile to please contact me or dump a message on this comment or *something*.

I don’t know for a fact yet, but I’m hoping that the microphone isn’t something that exists solely on the PC board and does in fact interact with WM much like the speakers do… considering it’s a single sound card hybrid “thingy”, you’d have hoped so.

Something that has occured to me though… if you connect a bluetooth device to it, you should be able to make calls just fine, because frankly, you WILL look twatty sat at the device talking at it, with or without headphones.

Currently we’re sat here going over the last modifications before packaging it up, so it’ll be here soon folks!

It’s Done, it’s out, etc etc, now go Download it

Also, if anyone’s looking to sell a Touch Pro, please let me know – the one I’ve been borrowing from a friend is going back, and I’m hooked now

So, where exactly do we start, the UK is in recession, as is the Eurozone and US for that matter. Sterling has fallen to some of the lowest levels going against the dollar and Euro and to top it all off, we’ve also got some of the lowest bank rates going as well.

So, what’s the Labour strategy to help the ailing economy? SPEND SPEND SPEND!

Sadly this mantra is backed up by heavy borrowing, so they’re essentially injecting borrowed cash now to fund a spending spree that will have to be paid back later, the current example is the VAT cut to 15%… whoop de fucking doo, as if a cut of 2.5% is going to encourage me to rush out to the shops suddenly (well, the shops actually bothering to pass the cut on anyway). Personally I think labour have given up and decided to just fuck the country over as much as possible to give Conservatives a hard time when they win the next election, note that I say “when” rather than “if”.

The fact that our currency has been essentially scuppered is a large piss-off too, I do realise this is great for exporters, but if you pause to examine how much crap we import, and how much crap we export, logic would dictate that we’re pretty import oriented, so now we’re getting it up the arse even more than previous, so it’s simply a matter of time waiting for the damned rates to hit equilibrium.

German ministers have taken the opportunity to give Brown a proper slagging off, much like I’m doing here to be perfectly frank, sadly that’s unlikely to move their policy plans, short of booting them out of governement, so I await the next election with baited breath at the opportunity to get rid of them.

One thing that has been getting on my tits though is this drivel media outlets produce that ask such questions “how are you coping with the credit crunch” and other ridiculous bollocks, unless all their readers are the heads of retail enterprises, I sincerely doubt they’re affected at all, or if most of the country just got laid off because of their employer needing to downsize to cope with reduced revenue, so by and large, it’s just daft bullshit, especially when we’re experiencing deflating prices on oil and even food, so assuming you haven’t had a pay cut or been laid off, it’s irrelevant.

Not to mention the whole thing is a state of mind anyway, once the wider economy believes the recession is over, it becomes true, the whole economy is based on individual psychologies added together to produce a majority attitude.