Top tech of 2009

January 7, 2010 | 3 comments

For the last few years Michael Arrington has been producing a list of the top tech that he has regularly used in each year and I thought this year I would give it a go. So this is the technology that I used day-in, day-out in 2009 and could not do without.

Google Chrome

A lot of my life is spent in a browser and this year I changed over from Firefox to using Google’s Chrome. Why? Because it is fast. In fact it is the faster browser I have used and speed is important to me. I don’t … Read the rest

The Gadget Show Apps

October 15, 2009 | Comment

On the Gadget Show this week they had an interesting challenge. Suzy and Jason were pitted against each other to produce an application for a mobile device. The winner would be the one that got the most downloads.

After almost 30 seconds of deliberation they both chose to develop an application for the iPhone, simply because this was the most mature of all and was likely to give them the widest possible audience. And with a couple of billion downloads under its belt who can blame them for going this route?

Suzy elected to create a game while Jason wanted … Read the rest

WifiPhoto for iPhone

October 8, 2009 | Comment

Getting pictures off an iPhone can be a bind, particularly if you don’t have a sync cable to hand. The most reliable way is to email yourself the pictures but if you do this directly from the Photo app it reduces the size of your pictures. The only way round this is to cut and paste the image from Photos to the email which preserves the quality.

However, now there is another way with WifiPhoto which, as the name suggests, allows you to get access to your photos over a wifi connection.

The app is very simple to use. You … Read the rest

Unfuddle for iPhone

August 28, 2009 | 1 comment

I have been using Unfuddle for a while now with a number of my clients. To quote Unfuddle themselves it is a “secure, hosted project management solution for software development teams.”

Depending on your level of membership, which start at free, you get ticketing, time tracking, messages, subversion or git hosting, notebooks and milestone tracking. It is a slick, cost effective, solution that works well and is great for distributed teams, such as those I am working with.

However, there aren’t any mobile optimised screen, so I decided to try and put something together to enable me to get a … Read the rest

Simple Mind for the iPhone

July 21, 2009 | Comment

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

iPhone 3.1 Software

July 1, 2009 | Comment

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

Schmap – online destination guides

June 20, 2009 | Comment

Schmap is a great online destination guide that allows you to explore a city or area and find the best things to see and do. I have used the application on my iPhone in the past and intend to use it when I am on holiday in Australia later in the year.

I was surprised and pleased (in equal measures) when an email arrived from Schmap this morning letting me know that they had selected a picture of mine from Flickr to include in the guide. You can see the picture in the application on the left and the original … Read the rest

Apple iPhone Economics

June 12, 2009 | Comment

So the waiting is finally over the new iPhone has been announced and in a weeks time you could have one in your hands. Come the day of the announcement pretty much everything new about the device had leaked out and so there were little surprises: compass, tethering, video and MMS to name but a few. There were also price cuts for the existing 3 model which is to be an entry level device.

All good news. Well, no, not quite. For a start if you live in the UK then there is no discount on the entry level model. … Read the rest

Slingbox for iPhone

June 8, 2009 | Comment

I’ve had a Slingbox at home for a while now and it allows me to watch my home TV not matter where I am in the world. Having also got a Tivo it also allows me to catch-up on TV that I might have missed. To date this has all been from the client on my laptop but recently a version was released for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The launch of the iPhone player was not without some controversy as initially the company had said that the player wouldn’t work with older Slingbox Classics (like I have) and that it wouldn’t … Read the rest