I’ve not written a WordPress plugin for some time now – but I’m really excited about this one. This new WordPress plugin will shorten a URL using one of many different shortening services.

Now, that may not sound exciting, but its true ability lies in its possibilities for other plugin developers – myself included. Expect to see my 3 existing social bookmarking plugins being updated soon to use this plugin. This means that this one plugin needs updating to add any new shortening services.

You can view more details and download it from the official WordPress site, or from it’s official page on this site.

No, not the name of a new publication related to robots Of course I’m referring to Google’s rather excellent mobile operating system.

My current phone contract expires soon and I’m seriously interested in getting an Android handset. But which to have. I was excited by the Samsung Galaxy but reviews have generally not been as glowing as I’d hope for – issues such as a hidden¹ marketplace icon and abysmal PC connection software have rather tainted it. On top of this, although it’s on O2 (my current provided), it’s only available from O2 themselves and not Carphone Warehouse (which is where my contract is with). Oh, and it’s expensive.

The viable alternative is the HTC Hero, with excellent reviews, but a poorer quality camera (yes, the camera is one of the selling points for me) and, gulp, only available in pink or brown from the Carphone Warehouse.

However, the Hero has just won the T3 award for best mobile phone and best gadget of 2009. I’m not sure I can argue with that.

Having said that, I’ve just noticed that 3 are bundling Spotify Premium with the HTC Hero…. Hmm. Between now and my contract renewal, it may get quite exciting!

If anybody has any thoughts, have tried either phones, then please let me know.

1. although I believe it is there! [↩]

The Samsung NC10 Netbook has received many positive reviews since it’s release and many believe it to the best Netbook on the market.

A colleague of mine has recently purchased one at, what he thought, was a bargain price from Comet¹. It turned out that the low price was due to it having a far inferior battery. Indeed, the reason why it often garners such good feedback is its 7.5 hour battery life. This one struggles to a couple.

Some users are pointing out that some retailers are referring to this as the “award winning” NC10. In fact, it’s the bigger battery life version that has been winning the awards. Naughty.

So, be careful out there..

1. I’d provide the link but the site was strangely “under maintenance” when I tried [↩]