Spending some time messing about with the Raspberry Pi yesterday led to another important discovery. After switching to a new media player, I found a pretty good XBMC remote control app for the iPhone. It’s so much quicker than using the keyboard/trackpad and easy to set up.

I may need to resort to the Lego method of keeping the Pi and its associated bits tidy though.

Since suitable power leads were already in use when I felt the need to mess about with the Raspberry Pi, I plugged-in a phone back-up battery. And, strangely, the Pi worked fine. It ran for the hour I was using it, with no signs of running out of power, so this may have been a useful discovery for future use.

Or, perhaps not, since the battery wouldn’t power a screen. Well, not a reasonable sized one. Further experimentation may be necessary.

After three days at Glastonbury, then yesterday and today in Peterborough, with the worst ever 3G reception, it’s rest to discover that this campsite has pretty good wifi. It’s just a shame it took me a day and a half to notice.

Tiring of the beast that is my new phone case, and passing time while on buses, I’ve been looking for alternatives. Obviously, I’d like a case which will actually protect the phone, but something multi-functional might be a good thing. As long as that didn’t result in a huge case, that is (current massive case, for example).

I may have found the ideal manphonecase; it looks tough enough and even has a penknife and bottle opener. The only question is whether to buy one right away or wait for one with a built-in screwdriver.

For just over half of its contract life, my old iPhone 4 was safely protected by an Incipio bombproof case. While it did somewhat resemble a hand grenade, the phone was kept in pristine condition. Of course, I did get bored with the case eventually and switched to a standard, thin cover. Shortly after which the phone did attract minor dents.

After realising that an iPhone 5 isn’t as durable as its predecessor, I decided to search for the same case to prevent further scrapes during the remaining months of my current contract. I wasn’t successful, but have now found what I thought might be a suitable replacement. Even better, I found a case with a lanyard attachment, ideal for the impending festival season.

Regrettably, my new case is quite horrible.

I’m over halfway through my second iPhone contract and really couldn’t imagine life without a smartphone. But iPhones are way too expensive. Although they’re great phones, there are much more capable devices out there. Android’s never really appealed to me, but I do want to try an alternative to Apple at some point in the future.

I’ve been watching the development of the Ubuntu phone for a while now, and it’s finally looking like one will be released later this year. It may not be the desktop replacement originally planned, but it looks gorgeous. And the release should fit in nicely with the end of my current contract.

Meanwhile though, there’s Firefox. Admittedly, it’s a far less capable phone, since it’s aimed at the lower end of the market, but it might be worth testing.

And they’re on eBay already.