“Declan Burke is his own genre. The Lammisters dazzles, beguiles and transcends. Virtuoso from start to finish.” – Eoin McNamee “This bourbon-smooth riot of jazz-age excess, high satire and Wodehouse flamboyance is a pitch-perfect bullseye of comic brilliance.” – Irish Independent Books of the Year 2019 “This rapid-fire novel deserves a place on any bookshelf that grants asylum to PG Wodehouse, Flann O’Brien or Kyril Bonfiglioli.” – Eoin Colfer, Guardian Best Books of the Year 2019 “The funniest book of the year.” – Sunday Independent “Declan Burke is one funny bastard. The Lammisters ... conducts a forensic analysis on the anatomy of a story.” – Liz Nugent “Burke’s exuberant prose takes centre stage … He plays with language like a jazz soloist stretching the boundaries of musical theory.” – Totally Dublin “A mega-meta smorgasbord of inventive language ... linguistic verve not just on every page but every line.Irish Times “Above all, The Lammisters gives the impression of a writer enjoying himself. And so, dear reader, should you.” – Sunday Times “A triumph of absurdity, which burlesques the literary canon from Shakespeare, Pope and Austen to Flann O’Brien … The Lammisters is very clever indeed.” – The Guardian

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Don’t Leave Me Hanging On The Telephone ...

A little help required, folks. Your humble host is thinking of upgrading his mobile phone (that’s ‘cell phone’ to y’all on the North American landmass, y’all) to get a fairly comprehensive internet and email service on the move, and I’m stuck between Blackberry and iPhone. I’m not all that pushed about the device’s capacity to play music / predict the future / make brownies, although I wouldn’t mind a phone with a decent camera and / or video camera included. Also, it should be able to take a moderate amount of punishment, as my phone tends to live in my pocket, 24/7. Any suggestions and /or advice welcome via the comment box below, and thank’ee kindly …

5 comments:

Stuart Neville said...

I've had an O2 XDAII for a year now, and it's mostly very good. The email facilities are good, plus it gives me SatNav, and also runs a version MS Word which I often use for jotting down ideas. In fact, I wrote the first few paras of The Twelve on its predecessor, another XDA (they're re-badged HTC devices, btw).

However, the web browsing is pretty crap. Most websites can't deliver well-formatted HTML for PDA type devices, the BBC being one of a very few. Even Blogger can't manage it. For that reason, an iPhone can be better because it renders web pages as a normal browser would, so if web is important, I'd go for that. Plus it handles email very well.

I'm not a fan of Blackberries as the email service is an extra charge which most other phones will do as part of a normail package.

Anonymous said...

iPhone. Hands down.
Yours,
Apple's greatest fan.
Arlene

Anonymous said...

I have neither, and my purple mobile is older than the decrepit one in your photo.

But, my other half had a Blackberry for a while and it was c**p.

Was treated to a very enthusiastic demonstration of the iPhone by author Caroline Lawrence, and if I didn't like purple so much and had so little money, I'd get one.

Arlene can't be Apple's greatest fan, btw. I am.

So you know what to do now, don't you? Spending your birthday money?

adrian mckinty said...

You know you can read Kindle books now on Kindles iphone reader.

I dont know if thats a good thing or not.

Pat McArdle said...

Get the Blackberry 8900. Blackberrys are A MILLION MILES better than iPhones. After the first day or so, when you get over the iPhone's nifty looks and the "coolness" of the touchscreen interface, you realise it doesn't work all that well. Very difficult to type anything longer than an SMS, the browser is slow and all that resizing everything so you can see it is quite frankly a pain in the ass. I've used both and Blackberrys are miles better. Even the Blackberry Pearl I'm using at the moment is better than the iPhone. Will be getting the 8900 shortly. Reviews are stellar. From one of the few who's used both, Blackberrys mightn't look as cool but they work a whole lot better.