Chris Anderson, the Editor of Wired US, is currently pushing his book Free
Of course it is difficult to argue that free is the new price point when you are trying to sell a book with a cover price of £18.99. To get around this difficulty Anderson has managed to persuade his publisher that they should give away a limited number of copies of the book in various formats. So right now the … Read the rest
I attended an event today, hosted by the Thames Valley Innovation and Growth team, on developing iPhone applications. A couple of Apple employees were on hand to walk us through the process and answer any questions.
When I have attended these sort of events in the past I have tended to take notes in my notebook in the form of a mind map. I thought that this time I would try doing the same on my iPhone using the SimpleMind application.
SimpleMind is a mind mapping application that comes in two versions, free and paid. The only difference between the … Read the rest
If you are called “Ernest Bumblebee” you will never suffer from the problem I have – namely that there are simply lots of me. This was highlighted just recently when Neil Thompson was appointed by the UK government to oversee cyber crime. Another prominent Neil Thompson is Microsoft’s “Senior Regional Director, Northern Europe, Entertainment & Devices Division”. So, basically, he gets to play with XBoxes all day.
I have written about the other me a couple of times before (here and here) and for Thompsons it is a real issue as there are so many of us. … Read the rest
In a previous post I talked about the freemium model and how it has affected my attitude to software purchases. I wanted to go through the services that I use regularly and pay for and highlight them.
This is obviously just a personal selection. Over the years I have tried out numerous applications that rival the one that finally made this list. In the end it is just personal preference as much as anything else. You may prefer something else but these are the ones that made me put my hand in my pocket and purchase a subscription
So in … Read the rest
Last night I had the privilege to attend the opening of the Museum of Computing based in Swindon. Or should I say re-opening as the museum has actually been closed for a year while looking for new premises. Swindon Council have provided a place right next to the theatre and walking distance from the town centre. On display last night was just a small selection of museums collection and it plans to change the exhibits on display every six months.
I was able to re-acquaint myself with my first ever computing experience – the good old Teletype. The school I … Read the rest
Well that was quick. The iPhone 3.0 OS has been out less than a month and already the next version is released to beta testers. There is a slew of changes that have been identified so far and to be honest pretty much all of them are of only passing interest. With the exception of being able to access Voice Control via Bluetooth.
Voice Control was introduced in the latest version of the software and was a nice little addition that not only let you make calls by barking instructions to your phone but also to control the music player. … Read the rest
Over the years I have tended to avoid paying for applications because the up-front cost was prohibitive. So I either went without, used an older version that may have been given away with a magazine, or found an open source equivalent. However, I am now finding myself committing to a number of applications because of the small up-front cost and, quite often, after a period of using the service for free – the so call freemium model. The question is whether that is good value for money.
The applications below are all ones that I use on a regular basis, … Read the rest
So I am in the market for a new Netbook (some would ask when am I not in the market for a new gadget). This would be my third, therefore I think that you can safely say that I am a convert to the form factor.
There have already been two iterations of Netbooks. Version 1 was the original Asus Eee PC 701 device that introduced the Netbook to the world. This had a 7" screen and ran a specially customised Linux OS. I had one of these and loved it but found Linux to be hard work.
The … Read the rest
Those people that live in the UK or have ever travelled here will know that we can proudly boast one thing that is bigger than anything offered by the USA and that is our plug – it is huge! If you have travelled with any electrical equipment that requires the UK adaptor then you will know how much space it takes up. That’s why I have invested in so many local cables that I can swap out for the UK equivalent when I travel.
Now, however, someone (it is not clear who) has come up with a neat design for … Read the rest
Is it just me or is Twitter spam on the increase? I have had a stream of notifications of today telling me that someone is now following me. You can tell that these are spam accounts as they have only one update and multiple followers. Oh, and the scantily clad woman in the picture is also a bit of a give away! You can block these individually but what would be really good would be if I could reject anyone who has, say, less than 10 updates.
There is a Twitter feed with advice and guidance on spam (@spam… Read the rest