Google goes Bing!

June 10, 2010 | Comment

When Bing launched the most striking think about it was its look with backdrops made of some stunning pictures. Google suddenly seemed very plain in comparison.

Now Google has struck back even allowing you to use your own pictures as the backdrop and the results can be similarly stunning – providing you have the picture to use. To add you own picture click the “Curious about today’s homepage? Add your own background image now” and select your own picture from your hard drive or Picasa. Couldn’t be simpler than that.

The picture left is of the Cape Otway Lighthouse on … Read the rest

Sainsbury’s Does Great Moleskine Copy

June 7, 2010 | 1 comment

If you have been a regular reader of this site you will know that I am a BIG fan of the Moleskine notebooks and always have one close at hand. However, their biggest and probably their only issue, is that they are expensive. When the exchange rate was more favourable I used to stock up on my trips to the US but that is no longer cost effective and so I am faced with a £10 bill each time I need a new book.

Enter Sainsburys who have started to stock what can only be described as a Moleskine clone. … Read the rest

An App Addiction

June 2, 2010 | Comment

I saw an interesting post on JKontherun today that I thought summed up how I feel about applications for the iPhone/iPad exactly. I had intended to post about it using the dedicated WordPress application which I thought would be fitting, however, I quickly discovered that it is pretty hopeless. Not only is there no way to apply any formatting you also cannot put any links in as the paste facility doesn’t work. Instead I have resorted to using the website via the browser on my iPad which does work.… Read the rest

Subsonic vs. Spotify

May 30, 2010 | Comment

I wrote in my previous post about the really rather wonderful Subsonic and how it was part of my armoury in the battle to rid myself of iTunes. Well I discovered today that it is rapidly becoming a complete replacement for Spotify too.

In my short(ish) life I have seen a number of changes in the music world as it transitioned from records to cassettes to CDs and lately to MP3s. Now there is a new revolution in town – streaming. Up to now you have always owned what you played, or perhaps to be more strictly accurate, you have … Read the rest

The Long Memory of Zumodrive

April 25, 2010 | Comment

I am a highly active and avid user of the cloud storage system Zumodrive. In fact I have written about it a number of times before and it was one of my favourite apps from 2009.

One of the things that it can do (unless you turn it off) is to give you little pop-up messages telling you what it is up to. On a Mac this is done via the Growl notification system which I then have pushed to my iPhone. Today I received a notification from Zumodrive that it had updated six files in the list … Read the rest

Hands on with the iPad

April 23, 2010 | 1 comment

So, yes, I know that the web has been full of this over the last few weeks (with only a minor diversion for the next iPhone) and I am late to the game but I only got my first opportunity to get my hands on an iPad today. To be fair there aren’t that many of them in the UK at present. So here it is – my thoughts and pictures of my next gadget.

On seeing it it really does look like an overgrown iPhone. The two are almost identical in design and anyone that has an iPhone … Read the rest

A Brilliant Idea

April 22, 2010 | Comment

I’m sure that not the only one to have experienced the issue where you have your cables hanging over the back of your desk, stretched to their maximum from some remote usb port, and one slight nudge and the cable rockets off the back of the desk requiring a torch to rescue it. Yes, you can tape them to the desk but then there is no freedom of movement and they are always in the way or in the wrong place.

It seems that there is a simple, elegant and cheap answer, as shown in the image and that solution … Read the rest

Upgrading a Three mifi

April 19, 2010 | Comment

Since getting my mifi device last October it has become an indispensible device going everywhere with me. It also recently kept my son connected on a three hour car journey, so is worth the small amount I paid for it for that alone.

But one of the things that has always puzzled me about it is the software that is supplied and the relative lack of options available with it. Actually, I guess I am not that puzzled. Three are taking the sensible approach that in order to keep down the number of support calls the device should be as … Read the rest

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

April 16, 2010 | Comment

Google has release a number of interesting and useful updates over the last few days and removed (or planned to) remove a big one.

Firstly the good stuff. Gmail now allows you to drag and drop files to be attached – a real time saver. You simply drag the file over the attachment area and drop – job done. It works well on both Windows and Mac with Chrome. The second change in Gmail is the ability to add a calendar invitation into an email. Again a great improvement.

The other major changes have come in Google Docs where a … Read the rest

Gadget Show Live 2010

April 8, 2010 | 1 comment

For the second year running I went to Gadget Show Live, the technology event based on the Channel 5 TV programme. While I enjoyed last years event it wasn’t very big and it looked like it had been put together at the last minute.

This year was completely different. Spread over three halls there were gadgets for everything you could possibly imagine and every price point.

Big this year was 3D with several major manufacturers showing off their 3D TVs. We took at look at the offering from Panasonic and I have to admit that it was pretty good being … Read the rest