iPhone Project

Well it’s been a while since I posted on here. Readers of my other blog (whitepsider1066.com) will know that I have completed my second TGO Challenge ( a west coast to east coast crossing of Scotland). Which has taken up a lot of my time in getting ready for that and then actually doing it.

Now that it is over I am now looking for work in the I.T. sector again. But with the current “economic downturn” that may be harder than I think.

But while walking the dogs round the local nature reserve on Thursday I did have an idea for an iPhone app. Well there were a couple of ideas. The first idea was for an iPhone tv guide app, that would have alerts (set up by the user). These alerts would pop up when programs you are following or maybe actors or whatever appeared in the schedule letting you know that you may want to watch or record the program.

The other iPhone app I thought of I’m not going to mention on here. At the moment I’m trying to get some backing to develop it into a commercial product. So you will understand why I’m not giving out specifics. I do have one possible interested party in the idea but it is early days still at the moment.

What I will do though is talk iPhone apps and their development in the coming weeks. You have been warned.

Audio Books

Over on my other blog I from time to time sing the praises of audio books. Particularly the ones from Audible.co.uk.

On my drive back from the South I was listening to some episodes of TWiT. One of the sponsors/advertisers on TWiT is Audible. Each episode the TWiT crew make suggestions for books you might like to listen to from the Audible catelog.

These weekly picks are a great way of finding a way to spend your monthly credit that you get with the subscription. Sadly sometimes the recommendation is only available in the US version of the site. I think this is down to licensing issues.

As I listened to the discussion I thought about what was it that made me like listening to audio books.

I thought back to my formative years, and the great program that the BBC used to have on for children called Jackanory. This was a book broken up in to several parts and read by a presenter. In some ways audio books remind me of this program but with out the visual element.

But I thought it can’t be just that. Does it at some level take me back to those times when a parent would read to me in bed at bedtime? I think to some extent yes it does invoke those memories. I do remember my dad reading to me as a kid at bedtime, particularly Robin Hood.

There is another benefit about audio books, you can have rather a lot of them on your ipod and they don’t take up any extra space or add any extra weight to the ipod.

But whatever your reason for listening to them, you can’t escape the fact that the Audible.co.uk is a good deal.