Microsoft Accelerator – Week One

September 16, 2013 | 1 comment

Three weeks ago the company that I am CTO for, SpeakInConfidence, was given the opportunity to join the pilot for Microsoft Ventures’s twelve week UK accelerator programme.

There was much discussion internally about the merits of accepting the offer as the business has reached a stage where we are beginning to see real fruits of our labours and there were question marks over whether this would be a distraction we could do without. On the other hand this was an exceptional opportunity with a chance to tap into resources and learning that we just wouldn’t get anywhere else. We … Read the rest

To Avoid Phishing Please Sing In

September 13, 2013 | Comment

I am occasionally asked by family and friends to give advice on whether an email is genuine.

These are not emails from Nigerian kings looking to transfer out money via your bank account but emails that appear to be from companies and government departments that you would recognise and may have account and dealings with.

Of course this recognition is exactly what phishers are aiming at. You are thrown that your bank has sent you an email requesting that you login and view an important message from them.

There is actually a pretty easy well to tell if the email … Read the rest

Designed by Jony from Chingford

September 6, 2013 | Comment

Opening up the latest Wired magazine yesterday I was struck by the double page ad Apple had placed on the inside cover. The ad was the print version of that shown above highlighting that their products are “designed in California”.

Apple are rightly proud of their Californian roots and I’m sure that plays well in the home market (although “Made in the USA” might be better) but I just don’t get the relevance to anyone outside of the US. Why would I care? Especially when the products are made in China and are actually designed by a team led by … Read the rest

Font from Your Own Handwriting

August 8, 2013 | Comment

Here’s a great one for all narcissists – a website that turns your handwriting into a font that you can use on your computer such as in Word documents.

Simply head over to myscriptfont.com, download and print the template. Then with a marker pen write out the alphabet in both upper and lower case where shown (see below). You’ll now need to scan this page in black and white at a resolution of 300dpi and upload it to myscriptfont.

Send the file and wait a few minutes and you are presented with a view of what your font will … Read the rest

One of the most amazing websites we have seen

August 3, 2013 | 1 comment

Producing realistic product shots running on a variety of devices can be challenging. Cropping and rotating images to get them to fit the screen without it being obviously done that way.

Enter PlaceIt which is one of the best use of web technology I have ever seen. For a start using it is simplicity itself.

Firstly you chose the device type that you want to create a product image onto – this can be any number of smartphones, tablets, desktop and laptops in a variety of settings. As you see from the one above they are beautifully done.

Next, if … Read the rest

Twitter on iOS

July 31, 2013 | Comment

This is what I see when I start-up Twitter on iOS. And it stays like this for a good six seconds. It feels like a lifetime.

… Read the rest

Why Pebble might not be a Best Buy

July 5, 2013 | Comment

Let’s get this out of the way right at the start. I love my Pebble watch – that’s mine on my hairy wrist to the left.

I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever about putting my money down and making the project happen through Kickstarter.

Also, as a small business owner, I know that you have to do everything that you can to make a success of your business and bring the cash in through the door.

That out the way I really worry about the recent news that from this weekend you will be able to walk into a US … Read the rest

Solving Bad Request Errors on Google’s Gmail

July 3, 2013 | 4 comments

If, like me, you have been seeing a lot of “Bad Request Error 400” messages or perhaps the yellow bad to the top of Gmail saying “Oops… the system encountered a problem (#400) – Retrying in” then, like me, you will be similarly frustrated.

This only seems to have been an issue in the last few months and I am not sure whether it is just an issue with Chrome but whatever it is a really time sapping problem.

The details that I outline below aren’t a permanent solution, I suspect that is only in the gift of Google but … Read the rest

Two Way Communication on the Pebble

June 28, 2013 | Comment

Regular readers will know that I am a big fan of my Pebble watch, warts and all.

While there are still some parts of the basic functionality that don’t work as advertised (notifications for example) some of the promise that attracted me to the project in the first place is now beginning to be realised.

The Runkeeper integration works well and I have managed to compile the authenticator app and get that working (in parts) too.

However, to date, all interactions have been one way from the phone to the Pebble but now with an update two way communications are … Read the rest

The Death of RSS

June 25, 2013 | Comment

The tech press has recently been full of the demise of Google Reader and if you are going to transition to something else you now have less than a week.

If I’m honest I stopped using Reader some time ago preferring Twitter and iPad based apps such as Pulse and Zite and one suspects that this could well be the principal reason for Reader’s demise. However, RSS, the technology on which Reader is based, is dying a slow death anyway and these two images of emails I received recently prove that.

Both are from the service If This Then That … Read the rest