Redacted

One of the advantages of paying Apple £59 a year to be an iOS developer is that when Apple announce a new version of iOS (like they did at WWDC a couple of weeks ago with version 5 of the OS), you get early access to the new version. Generally months before it is released to the general public. The main reason that Apple does this is so that developers can make sure their apps work correctly under the new version of the OS, and also take advantage of any new features in their apps, from day one of the general release.
But there are one or two drawbacks of being an early adopter.
The first is that some apps may become unstable or just not work. It's not the apps fault, it's mine for using the new version, and all I can do is wait for the developer to update their app. Which in the main will be when the new OS gets released to the public. But having said that I did see my first iOS 5 bug fix release for an app today.
The second drawback is not being able to talk about all the new goodness in the new version. Well I could but I would be breaking an NDA. You see Apple developers are not allowed to talk about new features because they have signed an NDA. To be fare I can't remember when I signed it, it was either when I signed up as an iOS developer, or it could be when I downloaded the new release.
I think I can talk about the features mentioned in the keynote at WWDC, but there have been one or two little touches I have come across I would love to mention but I can't.
All I can say is that I think when you get your hands on the new version of iOS you will love it as much as I do.


- Posted using BlogPress from my zx81

An iPhone/iPad Audio App Wish

I just got the iRig Recorder app for the iPhone, it's as the name suggests an app that records audio. iRig Recorder is aimed at the spoken word (IK Multimedia have other apps aimed at vocals and instruments). Like a lot of apps in the app store there is a free and a paid for version (£2.99).
But I don't want to turn this into a review of the app, I want to speak about the export options. iRig Recorder will allow me to export my recordings via email, iTunes File Sharing, Wi-fi, FTP upload and SoundCloud.
FiRe another iPhone recording app allows me to export using FTP, SoundCloud or Wi-fi. WavePad allows me to export via FTP and email. And finally GarageBand allows me to export via email or iTunes.
Have you noticed something missing from these apps export options? Yep why can't I export to DropBox?
Now I don't expect GarageBand to support DropBox, well it is Apple, and they have their own versions, sadly not available in GarageBand.
It would be nice if these sound recording app developers would offer DropBox. It's not as if adding support for it would cost them anything, the api is free after all.
What would be nice is if something like WavePad had DropBox support for importing files as well. How bloody useful would that be? Very, imagine recording with something like FiRe or iRig Recorder, process briefly in app, export to DropBox and then import into WavePad for editing. That would be a fantastic audio workflow.

For me this sort of integration and functionality would turn these apps from good apps into great apps, that would be indispensable when it comes to the classroom and recording podcasts with students.

- Posted using BlogPress from my Acorn Atom

Free Kindle book about the iPad

Thanks to @londonbackpackr for sharing this with me on Twitter.

Beginner's guide to using your iPad as a business productivity tool http://amzn.to/mDKbPG #free_kindle_book


- Posted using BlogPress from my Dragon32

RIP: The fall of the Best Camera app

One of my favourite photo editing apps was the Best Camera app. But it has been replaced in my affections by other apps like Camera+ and Camera Plus Pro.
It's sad really as Best Camera had some nice touches, like being able to apply multiple filters.
What makes it worse for me is that Best Camera could of been as big as Instagram. It had the sharing of your photos, you could vote on others pictures, but sadly could not subscribe to other photographers. So kind of half way there on the social side.
And while new competitors came out like the Lisa Bettany backed Camera+, and Instagram, Best Camera failed to update and stay ahead of the group.

Best Camera had it all, it had Chase Jarvis and his book behind it, it was a pretty good app, great filters etc, had a social and sharing side. And where is it now? Lagging behind. It almost seems as if the developer and Chase Jarvis got bored with the app and are letting it just die.

It's sad to see an app go this way. I feel pretty angry really. I liked the app, I spent good money on it, I recommended it to friends when they asked for an app to use.
Oh well I just have to remember not to be fooled by Chase Jarvis and the Best Camera app developers again.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

Mystery Footballer Takes On Twitter

I woke up this morning to Radio Five Live covering the news story of Twitter being taken to court by a mystery footballer.

Now before I go any further I will state I am not a lawyer, so none of what I am about to say is based in legal fact. It is just ramblings and thoughts on the subject and my understanding on how things are.

Right back to this mystery footballer. In the UK our courts have what has been described in our press as a "super injunction". A "super injunction" is a way for the rich and famous to try and protect their privacy. Or as it is really used to stop the press from reporting the indiscretions of the rich and famous, such as having affairs.
How does a "super injunction" help them do this? Well basically it's a gagging order that stops the press in the UK from reporting those indiscretions to the public. And here is the super part it also stops the reporting that they are not allowed report on the story.
So once a "super injunction" has been granted nothing can be reported. Pretty cool hey? Now the reason I said that this was for the rich and famous is that it costs a lot of money to do this, so it is definitely out of reach of normal people to get.
Let's get back to this footballer. Now it got out that a footballer (who like Lord Voldemont in Harry Potter can't be named because of a "super injunction") got a "super injunction" to stop the reporting of an affair that he had.
Sadly for this footballer his name got out and was reported on Twitter by users there. Which brings us to the story hitting the UK press front pages of lawyers acting on behalf of this mystery footballer taking Twitter to court in the UK to get the details of those users naming the footballer.
Which is weird. Because Twitter is firstly a company based in San Francisco in the US of A. So isn't answerable to the UK courts. Which means that those lawyers should be going to the US courts to get the user details. Secondly because this is UK law, the US courts could rightly decide that this is a UK issue and deny the request and say Twitter doesn't have to hand the details over.
I think what we can take for granted is that Twitter will stand up and refuse to hand the details over (Twitter have a track record of defending their user details), and force the footballers lawyers to go to the US courts.
Now when the Digital Economy Bill was being passed I thought there was clauses that allowed the UK Government to block websites. What I can't remember if this was linked just to sites pirating stuff or it could be any site for any reason the UK minister decided. So it is possible for the courts to ask the UK minister that has the power to block sites to get Twitter blocked in the UK for breaking UK law.
Could you imagine that, UK Twitter users blocked from using Twitter. How big an out roar would there be? It would be a brave Government that did this.
But I hope this flight of fancy happens, because it would show Joe public in the UK just how bad the Digital Economy Bill is, and would put pressure on the Government to reform it.
However as I stated at the start these are just ramblings on a tech subject in the news today that I know nothing about. What I do know is that we have far more entertainment value to come from this story, and lots of inaccurate reporting in the UK press on the tech issues.


- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

The Incredible Multi Use iPad Camera Connection Kit

When I got my iPad I also got with it the camera connection kit. The camera connection kit comes as two docking connector adaptors, one a USB port and the other a SD card reader.

I had in the the previous year since the iPad had come out heard reports that people could plugin other devices such as keyboards and microphones into the camera connection kit. And those devices would happily work with the iPad.




So what have I had working with the camera connection kit?

Well I listen to iPad today and Leo Laporte is an early episode spent way to much time of the episode looking at ways of transferring photos from the iPhone 4 onto the iPad using apps like Bump or Dropbox. At the time I thought "why doesn't he just try plugging in the iPhone via the camera connection kit?" So guess what one of the first things I tried with the kit was? Yep connecting my iPhone 4 up to it to transfer photos.




And guess what? It worked. Plug your iPhone into your iPad using the camera connection kit and a docking cable, and all your photos on the iPhone appear in the photo import screen ready for importing.

Now you get the choice of importing everything in your camera roll onto your iPad. Or if you touch just the photos you want to take over (a blue tick appears on them) then press import you get the option to import all or just the ones you have just selected. Once the import has finished you can then either keep your photos on the iPhone or delete them.




The next thing I wanted to do was transfer images from a PC at work where I don't have a net connection for my wifi iPad to use in documents I was writing on my iPad in Keynote and Pages.

So using the SD card reader adaptor on a PC I transferred the images to a SD card. The images need to be placed in a folder on the card named "DCIM". You also need to make sure that the filenames of your images (excluding the file extension) are 8 characters in length. So valid filenames are "picture1.jpg" or "pictur01.jpg". The iPad will also recognise PNG files as well as JPG (I've not tried GIF yet).
Once you have your files on the SD card plug it into the camera connection kit SD card reader, plug in to iPad and away you go importing the pictures on to your iPad and it's photo albums ready for use.

I also have an old Targus USB keyboard lying around that I use with my consoles when I have to browse the web and send messages etc. So guess what this also works with my iPad when plugged in. It complains initially that the "device is not compatible". But guess what? Once you dismiss that dialog, and start typing with the external keyboard it actually does work with the iPad (I'm writing this paragraph with it).

In a previous post I have already mentioned that I have used the USB Rock Band microphone to record student podcasts. And that was enabled because it works via the camera connection kit.

So there you have it another essential purchase for your iPad. I'm sure that Apple didn't intend this to be so useful and flexible. But I like so many are grateful that it is.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

Amazon App Store Some Thoughts

One thing that has been bothering me, well not bothering more nagging away, is how easy a ride Amazon are getting over their new app store for Android.

How many times do we hear complaints, and attacks on Apple for their app store policies? All the time.

Now we have Amazon starting an Android app store where the terms of use for developers to me seem just as draconian as Apples, if not more so.

To me Amazon are controlling their store even more by taking the decision over how much a developer can charge for their app out of the developers hands. Amazon can give a paid for app away for free if they decide they want to, or decide they want to charge less than the price decided by the developer.

And granted that the initial years fee is being waved by Amazon (in order to try and attract developers), Amazon will be charging developers access to their app store. Just like Apple does, and gets heat for.

Of course we have yet to see what the approval process is like for apps to appear in the Amazon app store is like, and whether it is more open in it's workings and approvals than Apple.

Then we have have the cut taken by Amazon which is the same as Apples cut of 30%.

How could we forget the recent wave of abuse over Apples subscription policy for magazines. Especially that "unfair" policy of having an offer from a website also on the app store. Yet Amazon has similar for its apps, requiring offers and updates to also be made available on their app store if they are available on other app stores.

And yet with all this not a squeak really from the hypocritical Android fanboys. Yes they can argue "oh but you don't have to put it on the Amazon app store". But I would argue yes you do. The Amazon app store is going to be massive for Android. It will make it so easy for Android users to buy apps using their existing Amazon account. Plus Amazon is a name folks trust, and they have a massive user base. Things you can't ignore if you are a developer.

Well we will have to wait and see if any bitching happens.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

A Useful iPhone App

For a change I'm going to talk about an iPhone app that should be part of the teachers iOS toolkit. In fact I also think it should also be on any students iPhone as well.




So the app I want to talk about is Genius Scan+. I was first put on to this app (well the free version) by my friend Jamie (@raegar).

Genius Scan+ is described as turning your iPhone into a portable scanner. It boasts page detection, does correction and enhancement of images. And also turns multiple scans into single PDF documents.

It's very simple to use. To take a scan you can either use the camera in app or load in an image from your photo library.

So how would you use it? Well it does have a wide usage, basically any situation you need a scanner you could use this. However in the following example it proves how much more flexible it is.

For example last night at my evening class we did mini presentations using flip charts. So at the start of the break I went round the tables photographing the flip charts used with the iPhone camera. Then today using Genius Scan+ I cropped the photos, and combined them into a single document. I then exported the document into iBooks as a PDF. But I could have easily have put it into DropBox, Evernote, Google Docs or even email it (free version is just email and iBooks iirc).

In class often I use the wipe board to make lists, notes during a class discussion with the students. I allow the students to take photos with their phones of the finished board. This is the perfect scenario for this app. Which is not too dissimilar to my example above.

This is a great little app that makes a great addition to the classroom toolkit.

Genius Scan+ costs £1.79, and is a bargain at that price.

- Posted using BlogPress from my ZX81

My top 3 iPad apps

This morning on twitter I was asked what my 3 favourite iPad apps where. Phew I thought that's a hard one. But I did answer after a little thought.
So here for the rest of you, in no particular order my top 3 iPad apps at this point in time.




So first up is Flipboard. When this first came out everyone was singing the praise of this app. After having now used it I can see why. This app has made reading rss feeds, twitter feeds a joy. It takes them and turns them into what can only be described as a "magazine reading" experience. This is one of those apps that definitely lived up to the hype.




Next up is Air Video. I like this app a lot. Even with the sharing of media between iOS devices and iTunes on your Mac (or PC) that was introduced in iOS 4.3 Air Video is still relevant and useful. The main reason I say that is because don't want to convert all those movies/tv programs sitting on my hard disk into an iTunes friendly format to be streamed from iTunes to the iPad.
What Air Video can do with it's little server that sits running on your Mac (or PC) is convert the video on the fly. So I don't have to convert it before watching it. But it can also if I wanted it to convert it to an iTunes friendly format.



Finally but definitely not the least is Keynote from Apple. Preparing presentations on the iPad with this app is a joy. And the fact that I prefer to create them on the iPad with Keynote is a testament to how good I think this apps is. Ok it is not as feature rich as it's desktop equivalent and it does have one or two "niggles" (I've discussed them in previous posts), however the functionality here is more than I need for what I want to do. And who would of thought that preparing slides would work so well with a touch interface? It seems so naturally.

So there you have it that was my current top 3 iPad apps. What would make your list?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Additions To My iPad Productivity Folder

The little cropped screen shot from my iPad should tell you what the subject matter of this post is.
Before I start I know that the posts I write about the iPad and the apps I use on it are sometimes placed in an education context. The main reason for that is this is the area that I work in. However a lot of the points I make are generic and apply to iPads and the apps in any sector.
Ok back to Read It Later and SimpleMind+.
I use Evernote as a notebook when browsing for saving using info for lessons. And I'm really happy with the iPhone/iPad apps and also with the Mac app.
However some of the apps on the iPhone and iPad, particularly those that are glorified RSS readers allow you to save articles of interest for reading later. Sadly they don't let you save to Evernote but give you options to save the articles to read later in services like Instapaper or Read It Later (being the two most popular services of this type).
Now I don't have a problem with these services (I did try instapaper a couple of years ago on the iPhone). Last night on one of my visits to the app store I saw that Read It Later Pro for the iPad was on sale at 59p (iirc). What swung it for me apart from the 80% price reduction was the integration with Evernote. So any article I have saved in Read It Later I can pass on for keeping in Evernote if I find it that useful.
It is also very simple to add bookmarklets for Read It Later to mobile safari so that when surfing on the iPad you can send stuff to for reading later. I also have a bookmarklet for Evernote, so I have a choice that can be made on time. If I'm in a hurry send to Read It Later, if I have time and think the article will be useful I can save to Evernote. I like systems like this.

Simplemind+ is a mind map app for the iPhone and iPad, and I love creating mind maps on the iPhone. I've been using the free iPhone version for a couple of years and like it a lot. So the natural thing for me to do was look at the iPad version when I got the iPad. However the reviews haven't been very good recently, mainly because the developer has removed the ability to save your mind maps to the camera roll from the free version on the iPhone. At first I too was angry at this. But when I looked at the description on the latest update I saw that the app was now a universal app, the price at £1.79 wasn't bad really. And the final thing that got me parting with my money was the thought "well I like this app a lot, it's useful, and really I should upgrade to the paid app and support the developer." So that is how I made my peace with the developer and paid for the app I like.
And I have to say I really do like using Simplemind+ on the iPad. Having the extra real estate does make a big difference. Mind you I did find it usable on the iPhone. For me the touch interface of the iPhone/iPad is a natural for this type of app.

Having apps like Read It Later and Evernote has really made a big difference in the way I work (more Evernote at the moment as I have only just got Read It Later). These services are so much more powerful than just collecting bookmarks for later reference. Especially if you are just using the browsers bookmarks, and for me they are far better than such services as delicious.
I never used mind maps before the iPhone. Pen and paper ones never really worked for me. But I have found them a revelation on the iPhone, and very useful.
These are two great apps to add to your iPad productivity suite, and dare I say it also for the iPhone.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad iworks a couple of niggles

It's three weeks in or so now with the iPad and the Apple iworks apps for it.
As you all know I am using the iPad as my main device at work now. When I work on slides for class I use Keynote, worksheets I use Pages, and I haven't started using Numbers yet.
In previous posts I have mentioned that I now have the wifi hotspot feature (new in 4.3) enabled on my iphone4. This allows me to transfer any slides or worksheets via iworks.com for printing or displaying on the smart boards as PowerPoint presentations.
What I like about iworks.com is that I can get my keynote or pages documents as PDF, or PowerPoint/Word files.
I'm not sure which is generating these other versions of the documents, whether it's the iPad apps or iworks. But I suspect it's the iPad version of the apps. But which ever is generating them they need to do a little bug fix.
If I transfer the keynote file to my MacBook via iDisk and then use keynote there to generate my PDF, I can get my slides with notes printed out. Which means I have them to refer to while giving my lesson, and they can also go up on the virtual learning environment for the course for the students to download and refer to after the lesson.
However between the iPad version and iworks I don't get this option. I can get the PDF version of the slides but minus the presenter notes. For me and I think for others the PDF exporting needs improving to match the desktop version.
There is also a "bug" in the exporting to PowerPoint as well. It seems all the slides that look ok on the iPad, and if transferred to the MacBook and viewed there in keynote look fine. If they are exported to PowerPoint on the MacBook they are ok. But export on the iPad and via iworks and the text boxes on the slides shift to the right so they are out of place and off the edge of the slide in some cases.
Which means before I can use the slides in class I have to go into PowerPoint and re-edit the slides before I can use them. Hardly the best situation.
These are niggles that mean I have to be really well organised (not a bad thing) but as we know things happen. Which means last minute changes sometimes have to be made. It's this area for me that Apple need to do a little bit better. I love working in Keynote and Pages on the iPad. On a whole they are great, on tablet devices there is nothing to touch them, but as I have said in this post and the last there are something's Apple could improve.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad Week 1 and a bit

So how after a week is the iPad working out?
Well there has been a little bit of a learning curve with the iPad versions of Pages and Keynote (I've not used Numbers yet). The learning curve has been about learning the menus and how things transfer to a touch world.
There are limitations to these apps, which is to be expected. But considering that these are running on a tablet device with limited resources compared to a PC/laptop the functionality that they have and usability is amazing.
What I would like to see from Apple in future versions are the following
Allow the setting of the default font to use in a document. For work I use Verdana (readability etc reasons), and it would be nice to be able to set this as the default.
It would also be helpful if I was able to add my own templates to the list of templates available. There is a way round this by copying an existing document. But from a user experience point of view it makes more sense allowing users to add their own templates and using them when creating a new document.
It would also be nice go have folders in the apps so that I can organise my documents. Or if Apple don't want to add folders I need some way to organise my documents so could they add that.
The above wish list apply to both Pages and Keynote, however the following is Keynote specific.
During the week I bought the cheap official Apple Keynote remote app for the iPhone. Which acts as a wireless remote for Keynote running on a Mac. What would be great and allow me to do presentations from the iPad using Keynote is if the Keynote remote app would work with the iPad version of Keynote. As soon as that functionality is added and working, an order for the VGA adaptor cable will be placed.
For educational use this would be a killer app. At the moment I print out my slides with notes to use in class. The Keynote remote app allows you to control the presentation and also see your notes for the current slide. Having the iPad and this app working together will cut down on paper used, and mean I am not tied down to one spot controlling the slides.

However even with these minor criticisms, the apps are very capable and allow me to prepare notes, worksheets and presentations for class very easily.

I now have GarageBand and another app called WavePad for recording student podcasts. I haven't had chance to play with either yet, it's just been one of those busy weeks at work.
But as the following screen shot shows WavePad looks to offer some of the Audacity functionality that I was looking for.



I am also looking at getting a decent USB microphone to use at work for recording podcasts. The Rock Band one has been ok, but it will be nice to use something more professional and allow the students to get better quality recordings.

One thing I will be looking at getting in the next couple of weeks is a mind map app for the iPad. I use one on the iPhone (which I am going to drop because of the developer removing the ability to save mind maps to the camera roll on the free version I've been using for over 2 years!). I like mind map software on the iOS platform, the touch interface seems made for it.

I have a lot of books and information in PDF format, and this was one of the driving factors in me finally getting an iPad. Now currently I use iBooks to read my PDF's. Sadly there is a major drawback in using iBooks for PDF reading. That drawback is that I can't highlight or add notes. Which is critical for me, not only for my own studies, but also in lesson prep. Otherwise I really like iBooks as a reader, and the ability to organise documents into categories is really useful.

So it's been a week of learning and discovering limitations. As a tool for a teacher/lecturer in the classroom I'm still in the early days of discovering what or how it can be used. But it sure is going to be fun learning ^__^


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

renaissance of the bedroom programmer

When I woke up this morning I didn't think I would be writing a blog post so soon after yesterday's and on this subject. But then a conversation with my friend Jim Connolly (@jimconnolly on twitter) this morning almost wrote this post for me!
And yet that conversation started with a tweet I made last night about looking for a couple of old copies of Byte magazine.
From me telling Jim which issues I was trying to get a hold of, we quickly moved on to me making a statement about how the home computer scene of the 80's had a pioneering feel to them, a fun element, that until recently had been missing.
What had changed? Well back in the late 80's early 90's it was the death of the "bedroom programmer" and the standardisation on the PC. And although there have been "bedroom programmers" during this period. That feeling of pioneering, of fun and exploration went away as the industry grew up and went professional.
So what changed recently? Well by recently I am talking the last three or four years. The explosion of the smartphone for starters, and the courting of the "bedroom programmer".
The smartphone market reminds me of the early 80's home computer boom. Each month seems to bring a new phone, with new features.
The other thing I mention the courting of the "bedroom programmer" has also been a development of the recent years.
Once our home computers came with the ability for people to write their own software. But slowly with the move from MS-Dos to windows even on the PC we lost the ability to develop our own software when we lost even the ability to write programs in BASIC. If you wanted to write software you had to buy the expensive software tools to do it.
And then things changed, Microsoft started giving away a "student version" of their programming languages. Apple included the tools free with Mac OS, and so the " bedroom programmer" could once more start to flourish.
Now I can't remember the exact point in time but Microsoft then released xna, a framework that allowed the "bedroom programmer" to write programs for their games console. Then a year after the iPhone came out their was a development kit released for that to on the Mac which was also free. With both Microsoft and Apple for a nominal fee developers could get access to releasing their programs through the various app stores. It's a bit more detailed than that but I want to keep this at a level everyone can follow. And of course the development kit for Android is also free, allowing anyone to write software for the many Android phones.
And it is these reasons that I say that the fun is back in the industry. Once more the "bedroom programmer" is able to compete with the "big boys".
But for me it is the "bedroom programmer" or indie developers that are doing the interesting stuff, especially when it comes to video games.
They have the freedom to try new things and to explore the medium. Something that the "big boys" are less inclined to do as they have to make money and can't afford to take risks, so have to rely on "proven" formula to make games.
Some of my favourite games are Limbo for it's distinctive visual style and platform/puzzle game play. Braid with it's rewind game mechanic. Or such "games" as "today I die" based around a poem, and has a very non traditional game play, although very short. And that is just name the first three that come to mind.
It's also nice to see one of my heroes from the 80's gaming scene Jeff Minter still around and producing iOS games (he has two out at the moment).
So with all the above happening, it doesn't stop there. Things are getting more exciting as we see the explosion of tablet computing devices. We also have Microsoft in the spring releasing a new sdk this time for their Kinect, so that "bedroom programmers" can start to write their own stuff using it. Already have an openKinect project that is already showing what potential this device has.
It's nice to have the excitement back, and I'm glad I'm old enough to have lived through the early days and now to see the current one as well.

Exciting times indeed, and I look forward to see how the "bedroom programmer" and indie developers push the envelope.

Twitter don't want competition for their revenue

This was posted yesterday but for some reason disappeared! So I'm reposting this morning.

Yesterday Twitter told developers not to write any more twitter clients. Twitter want people to have a consistent experience across platform, and to avoid confusion in terminology used. To support this they they threw stats at us saying that 90% of users use official twitter apps to use the service, and that they are constantly withdrawing api keys from developers that have apps that break their terms of service in some way, such as breaking the user privacy rules. Which sounds right on and yah twitter for standing up for the little guy in all this.
But then I remember the current fiasco this week of the dickbar on the official twitter iPhone app. Which let's face it was basically twitter trying to exploit their app to bring in revenue from sponsored tweets being disguised as current trends. Initially this un-asked for feature obscured tweets in your timeline, now twitter in a recent update have changed that but exposed new/existing bugs.
But the dickbar tells us why twitter don't want new twitter apps and if they could do it I feel they would get rid of existing competition. Twitter want to sell ads, that's their business plan. To make that pay they need your eyeballs looking at them. Now if you are using some-one else's app to access twitter then you can't be looking at the ads they are getting revenue from.
So it is in twitters interest to try and discourage developers from competing with them and taking away their revenue.
And this move does make me mad. At the moment there does not seem to be much of a fuss being made. Which makes me madder because if this had been Apple everyone would have been bitching. This stinks of double standards and makes me even angrier but hey ho that's a story for a another post someday.
Now I like having a choice of twitter apps. As a recent iPad owner I'm looking for an app that has an interface I like and the functionality I want.
On my iPhone I have found that app and I am happy. But even the iPad version of that app doesn't cut it.
Twitter have managed to take what was a pretty good twitter app and ruin it (and that was long before the dicker fiasco), and in my opinion the iPad version is even worse.
But if twitter had their way there wouldn't be any choice for me, I would be stuck with their vision and nothing else.
Oh well I've ranted enough about this and provided no evidence to back my conspiracy theories up. All I've done is call it as I see it. Maybe you agree with what I have said, maybe you think I am talking total bollocks. If you are thinking this is bollocks next time twitter or anyone else come to think of it make their "we are doing it for the users" argument to justify a shady practice just apply those same standards of scrutiny and scepticism that you apply to Apple.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

My first two days with an iPad

I've had my iPad now for a couple of days and I'm loving it.
It's starting to make an impact at work. Yesterday it hardly got used during it's first day with me. Main reason was I had an observation and I couldn't let the magical device distract me with it's shiny newness.
But today without that pressure I could start using the iPad more for work. And the first task that the iPad full filled was that of a podcast recording machine.
So how did I turn my iPad into a podcasting machine?
Well the first thing you need is an app. As we know the app store has rather a lot of those. On the iPhone there is the voice recorder app (not on the iPad), but my favourite is FiRe or its full name Field Recorder. Sadly there is not a iPad version of the app. So I ran this as an iPhone app on the iPad.
Next up I needed a microphone. Now using the camera kit for the iPad I had a USB port I could plug in the USB microphone from Rock Band (I also used the mic stand).
So using the above I was able to turn the iPad into a portable podcast recording machine.

Now I know any day now that Garage Band for the iPad will hit the app store. And when it does I will get it and see how well it allows me to do the ol' podcasting sessions. What I do need is a good sound editor on the iPad. I'm hoping that Garage Band will allow me to do some but still I will hunt for an iPad app along the lines of Audacity.

Next up I produced a very simple worksheet using Pages. Now my iPad is a wifi one with no 3G, so I have the problem of transferring the document of my iPad to my PC. To get round this I had the new wifi hotspot functionality in iOS 4.3 activated on my account so I can use my iphone4 as a wifi hotspot.
So using my data connection of the iPhone I was able to share my worksheet onto iworks.com and send an invite to my work email address.
Then it is a simple matter of clicking not the emailed link and printing off the PDF version of the worksheet.

Then finally I started in Keynote writing a keynote presentation ready for a lesson next week.
I'm still learning the iPad versions of the full iworks apps. And there are some things I'd like to be able to do and I need to look up to see if they are possible, and if so how do I do them. Like using my own templates instead of the default ones that come with the apps.

And now I am using blogpress to write about my use of the iPad so far. The iPad is really starting to make a big impact already it really is impressing me so far. And I'm looking forward to seeing how else I can use it at work.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPad and Online Services In Education

I have a bargain first generation iPad on the way (I will discuss why so close to the iPad2 coming out that I did this in another post).
Now I work in the education sector these days and one of the things I have wanted to do since starting the job was have an iPad to use in my everyday work.
I can see how the iPad (or tablets in general) can be used by teachers/lecturers and students a like in the classroom. They cry out as the ultimate device teaching aid.
But before the iPad arrives there are one or two services/apps that we all could be using that are also dam useful for tablet devices and dam useful if you don't have one.

Evernote is a great service. It allows basically you to make notes and store them. Sounds simple and nothing revolutionary. But it is, with the plugin installed you are able to clip web pages, or snippets from the web page. You can save tweets, email in photos well you get the idea. The apps on the PC and Mac are excellent, and there are also great apps for smartphones. So this is a really great note keeping site.

in the past (in this job) I have had a USB stick fail on me, and I have lost work. But there is a solution or an alternative to the USB stick for transfer documents from home and work. That alternative is Dropbox. Dropbox offer for FREE! 2 GB of online storage that syncs files up between PC's,Macs, iPhones, iPads and Android devices, plus it can be accessed through a web browser as well. So now I use Dropbox as my main place to save work files. These get synced to all my computers that I have the Dropbox app installed on, and once I get to work I can log in via a browser and download copies of the work I need for the lesson. This a great service and a great alternative to using a USB stick.

I am an Apple Fanboy, and I use a 2 year old Macbook all the time, and my preference for writing my slides etc is to use iworks. iworks is the Apple equivalent to Microsoft Office, and in my opinion is better than office. Now the problem I have is that sometimes I produce slides in Keynote that don't translate to Powerpoint. So if I want to use a slideshow with the way I intended I have to be able to play the Keynote presentation somehow at work. iworks.com is the answer. From within Keynote or any of the iworks apps I can upload my document and share it, or more importantly in the case of my keynote slides display them through the web browser (safari or Chrome, despite iworks.com saying I require safari, it will work with Chrome). The only draw back is that the web browser based viewer does not work with the remote clicker that I have for moving slides on. So I have to remain near to the PC and a mouse to move the presentation on.

So with these services in place a tablet of any description just becomes another way to access and update the information you have and use everyday. And while I am talking about using these in an educational setting these services can be used anywhere.

Nearly Ready To Give Up Sky #givingupsky

I listen a lot to the TWiT network of podcasts.From time to time they discuss Netflix and how some of the guests don’t have cable subscriptions any more. That interweb based services like netflix and hulu allow them to watch the stuff they want to watch as and when they want to see it and for cheaper.

Now that got me thinking although our tv market is different to the US, we have Sky as our only version of the cable/satellite providers of the US (Sky bought out Virgin on the channels front). So not much competition really to drive down prices for us regular folks.

Which got me thinking could I go the same way as these tech commentators in the US?

Well I hardly watch the traditional channels (BBC,ITV and Channel4) and most of my viewing is on Sky,ScFy, Comedy Central and the likes following various tv series. I have movies but watch them less and less, sport I only watch the odd Liverpool match.

So could I replace my Sky viewing with the net?

Well let’s look at my above viewing habits and see if there are alternatives available for me. The main thing is I want to avoid connecting my computer to the tv.

Let’s start with the traditional UK stations. I have a PS3 and the BBC iPlayer, ITV player and 4OD player are all available on it. So IF I ever want to see something on those channels I can get that via the PS3.

Let’s look at movies next. At the moment I can stream movies from my PC or Macbook to either my PS3 or a Xbox 360 (if I get one again). In fact I stream to my iPhone as well when at home. So having moved my vast DVD collection to a digital format (yep I’m all for going digital) I can be lazy and not have to hunt disks down. So that is current stuff I own.

But what about Netflix? Well Netflix are not in the UK at the moment, but we do have LoveFilm. Which have been using the same business model as Netflix here in the UK. LoveFilm are now 100% owned by Amazon, and the smart money this is in preparation of Amazon kicking off a revival service to Netflix. Now I have a problem with the LoveFilm subscriptions. They include an element I don’t want, the DVD hire. I want a cheaper streaming only subscription rate. Netflix in the US offer a streaming only deal. There are some pretty recent releases available on the streaming side, more recent than the Sky movie offerings each week. Plus I can watch them when it is convenient for me.  LoveFilm need to increase the offerings available on their streaming service, but I think this will increase if we get some competition for them (if Netflix come over here).

Let’s not forget I can also buy and rent movies from iTunes. But Apple need to increase their offerings and prices. I’d also like it if Apple introduced a subscription service a bit like LoveFilm and Netflix. However it does bring me on to another box that can be added to under the tv that ties in all the Apple devices and handles the streaming side of things. That box is the second generation Apple tv, which would be paid for easily if I cancelled my Sky subscription. Then all of a sudden my iPhone and any future iPad I get can send programs from them to the tv, I can stream from iTunes on my PC or Macbook etc. I’m also pretty sure that LoveFilm will be doing everything they can to get on the Apple tv before a UK version of Netflix does.

Also I have the PS3 store and Xbox Live stores to purchase movies through as well.

So not only does that adequately cover the Sky movie offerings, I think it cuts out the trips to Blockbusters.

Ok now let’s look at the tv series side of things. Well I can be patient and wait until they come out on DVD as a box set and hope they are also available to see streamed via LoveFilm or the iTunes store. Or I could torrent them and then stream them to the tv via the PS3. What we really need for this to be a realistic alternative is a UK hulu service bit I can’t see that happening in the near future (hulu tried but failed in getting deals with the content providers).

Then we have sports. Or more specifically Liverpool football matches. Well at the moment I would have to see if any of the “unofficial” channels will play on the PS3. But if Sky updated their iOS Mobile tv app with airplay (which they could do once airplay is opened up to third party apps) then for £6 a month (iirc) I could get just the sport channels. Which means I have not cut Sky out completely from the picture, but pretty close.

So considering all of the above, I think where we currently are in the UK, we are nearly there in being able to give up the likes of Sky. It helps if you have the boxes already like a PS3 or Xbox 360. An awful lot of homes do already, and as Sony and Microsoft have been trying to make them they are becoming more of an entertainment hub under the tv than just a game console. Plus it also assumes that you have access to a good broadband connection, and no data cap.

Maybe I will try not using Sky for a month to see how I get on. I’ll start on 1st March. I’ll keep this blog updated with how I get on.

So what are your thoughts on all this?

Lack of decent blogging software on Mac OS X

It’s no secret I’m an Apple fanboy, and my main computer is a two year old 13” Macbook. I have Office on it plus iWorks. Ok I have to admit that I prefer iWorks over Office on the Mac (whether that will still hold true once I upgrade Office to Office ‘11 I don’t know).

The iLife suite is better than the Microsoft offerings on Windows. And that’s the point really moving to the Mac has been great and I don’t miss the wider selection of apps available on Windows. Usually I can find an equivalent on the Mac to the Windows version. Take for example Paint.net on Windows, a great piece of free software. Well sadly it’s not available on the Mac, but recently I found an equivalent called Pixelmator. Which has the same functionality but is not free, it’s about £17. Not that expensive really for a great app.

But there is one area (apart from games) I think that the Windows platform still has no competition and that is stand alone blogging software. The king in this area for me is the amazing Windows Live Writer (WLW) from Microsoft, which is also free. In fact I like WLW so much it is the only reason I run a virtual machine on my Mac.

Now some Mac users may say oh we have MarsEdit or Bloggo. But in reality these are just not in the same league as WLW. For instance let’s take how MarsEdit and Bloggo handle images. Where in WLW I can drag and drop in images, resize the thumbnail, have more than one image on a line, the whole experience in the Mac apps is completely sub standard. Both Mac apps allow me to drag and drop in images. But Bloggo won’t let me have more than one on a line (ie next to each other), while MarsEdit will but I can’t resize the thumbnail!! I even tried editing the HTML in the apps but as soon as it switches back to the visual mode it undoes the edits!!

For me the Mac standalone blogging apps are not more advanced than the iOS blogging apps like Blogpress. Which frankly give me as much control on image positioning in a post as the Mac equivalent.

So until these “mature” stand alone blogging apps on the Mac actually pull their finger out and try and come up with apps that can compare to WLW it looks like I am stuck with using XP in a virtual machine just so I can blog using WLW.