I still have £50 off Optical Express vouchers for anyone going ahead with Laser surgery at one of their surgeries.
It’s not a massive amount but if you’re getting it done anyway, it’s £50 - for dropping me a mail.
£50 off Optical Express treatment
April 6th, 2009Mr Whippy Ice Cream website
June 30th, 2009I’ve just done a refresh of the Mr Whippy Ice Cream website.
Mr Whippy 2009 site
Mr Whippy wanted a site that he could easily add his own pages/content to without having to contact a developer every time. So the site has a content management system built in so he can easily add content and images of events etc into photo galaries.
I used Wordpress as the basis for the content management system (CMS) and then heavily modified an existing Wordpress theme to get the look I was after.
Since the first version of the www.mrwhippyicecream.co.uk site, it has always been popular on Google thanks to relevant page naming, pages that validate and a sitemap for robots. I’ve done further work in this area so hope to see any searches for ‘Mr Whippy Ice Cream’ see www.mrwhippyicecream.co.uk near the top of the results!
Location/GPS feature for Computer Active magazine
June 30th, 2009If you want to know how to save the routes you travel on your TomTom, or how to add GPS information to your photos, these subjects and many other things GPS related are covered in a lengthy article I’ve just written for Computer Active magazine.
It’s the issue on sale today and the article is called ‘Location, Location, Location’. If you’ve missed it in the shops, keep an eye out over on the Computer Active site as they eventually upload all the features there.
Proof: The Americans won World War 2!
June 22nd, 2009It’s a deliberately inflammatory post title but I can’t be the only person getting a little fed up with the dominance of Americans in any modern media relating to World War II.
Take a look at this, a trailer for ‘The Pacific’, the latest HBO TV series from the Spielberg and Hanks stable (Saving Private Ryan & Band Of Brothers) :
It will be a quality mini-series. Have no doubt of that. However, I can’t help lamenting the lack of any reference to Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the commonwealth along with Poland etc (let alone the likes of Russia) whenever depictions of World War II are produced. It’s the same problem whether it’s TV, Film or increasingly, video games (Call Of Duty, Battlefield etc). I don’t know for sure they’ll be missing in ‘The Pacific’ but given the fact it’s set in the Pacific theatre, coupled with Mr Spielberg’s utter disregard for any non-American forces in their previous outings, it seems almost a given.
I wish some UK TV company would grow some testicles (that immediately removes the BBC from the equation) and made something from a wholly non-US perspective. If only so that in 50 years, when people glance back through all the literature and media they don’t come to the conclusion that World War II was a purely American war.
iPhone 3GS review
June 19th, 2009Worth it or not? That’s the question most people are pondering given the high upgrade cost if they already have a contract iPhone 3G here in the UK. Perhaps the most economical option is to sell the existing iPhone 3G and buy a 3GS on Pay As You Go, which is the option I plumped for…
Queues outside my local O2 store this morning were a fraction of those last July when the 3G was released. Within half an hour I was walking away with the white 16GB 3GS iPhone.
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- No queues at Carphone Warehouse for iPhone 3GS launch
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- 5 people ahead of me for iPhone 3GS at 9.02am
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- The long queue on iPhone 3G launch
Setup was ludicrously simple affair, insert old SIM, activate in iTunes and then restore from previous back up (I had no problems restoring from my 3G backup). Within about 5 minutes all my settings, email accounts, text messages etc were transferred. It was then just a matter of synch-ing my apps to get them all over onto the new phone. So, after a few hours, here are my initial impressions:
Speed
It’s faster, of that there is no doubt. Everything is snappier from contacts to launching email and apps. There’s none of those occasional pauses in text messages and the like whilst you wait for the screen to catch up with your inputs. Safari (web browsing) is infinitely faster, not loading the pages, (as obviously that is connection dependent) but navigating the page, zooming in and out etc is instant and effectively faultless now. For users who surf the net a lot on their iPhone, this is likely to be big selling point. You soon get used to this though so if it was just the speed increase in this new iteration, it would be hard to recommend upgrading to all but a select few. Thankfully it’s not.
Camera
The camera is a considerable improvement. The picture quality is far better than the 3G. The touch auto focus/exposure works great for quick snaps and the images don’t have the same graininess that all my 3G images seemed to suffer. A built in LED flash would have been nice (and I’m sure the engineers considered this but discounted it eventually for some reason).
Video recording
Brilliant. This was the one feature of the N95 I have missed since using an iPhone as my primary handset. What’s more, video recording on the 3GS is easier and better quality than on any other phone I have used. The sound quality deserves special mention. It really is superb. That said, iPhone 3GS video is only 640 x 480 resolution @ 30 frames per second (although early reports suggest the iPhone 3GS uses a Samsung branded system-on-a-chip (SoC) featuring a multi-format codec with untapped HD video playback and capture capabilities). However, even with a lower resolution than a Flip (or similar), coupled with the built in editing capability the iPhone 3GS arguably eliminates the need for any other portable video camera for impromptu recording.
Voice recognition
I’ve seen many initial reviews critisise this feature but I’ve found it quite brilliant. Even with my regional UK accent I’ve had no problems calling people from my phone book, even the Indian names amongst them (which I’d anticipated it may have struggled with). This feature alone is going to make it worthwhile for me. Being able to dial in the car this way is a major bonus. I just hope everyone finds the voice recognition as accurate. Here’s two tips I’ve picked up already:
- You can initiate voice commands even when the iPhone 3GS is locked. Just hold down the Home key and the Voice recognition screen appears. Nice.
- For any names it struggles with, edit the contact entry to the full name. For example, change ‘Simon’ to ‘Simon Frain’. Saying the full name provides far greater accuracy.
- ‘Play songs by’ is an incredibly powerful way of selecting songs in the iPod. It saves you selecting an album as it selects all songs by that band. E.g. “Play songs by the Prodigy” means just that, the first Prodigy track starts playing but only Prodigy songs are selected so when I skip forward or back, I still only get songs by The Prodigy. Amazing!
Digital Compass
This, when coupled with Google Maps, is a revelation. Tap the ‘locate’ cross hairs once in Maps to find your current location and then tap it again to add the digital compass. What looks like a torch beam appears and as you turn the map orientates with you. It’s very smooth and very accurate. I’m never going to get lost mountain biking again (fingers crossed). If you spend any amount of time visiting new cities etc you will find this a major help - as long as you don’t get mugged using it!
Screen coating
The 3GS enjoys a new screen coating, aimed to minimise finger prints on the touch screen. I found these prints diminished considerably on the iPhone 3G by adding an InvisibleSHIELD (it’s a transparent film that, with a little patience, sticks to the phone) but without it, there were always paw prints. The 3GS is a little better and keeping prints at bay but I’ve found it the least impressive of the new features. Whilst the prints certainly wipe off quicker it’s not a massive difference.
iPhone 3GS Headphones
The iPhone 3GS gets new headphones as standard. The headphones that shipped with the iPhone 3G had a button built in that let you click once for pause, twice to skip a track or three times to skip back a track. That functionality remains but the iPhone 3GS headphones also include a volume up and down button so you no longer have to reach in your pocket when you want to adjust the volume. A minor change but a welcome one.
Battery
Watch this space, not been using it long enough yet to establish the difference.
Worth it?
Yes, even at this early stage I believe so. The features that have been added, along with OS 3.0 mean that some of the last ‘but it hasn’t got…’ arguments are now redundant. For many it’s a big upgrade cost and that’s certainly a consideration. If you don’t use the camera or Google Maps much you could also argue for waiting till your contact runs out. However, if you’re looking for an all-in-one device that is that best mobile email, music player and video recorder available, stump up the cash and go for the iPhone 3GS.
Augmented reality - possible with the iPhone 3GS
June 17th, 2009Check out this video for ‘Layars’, an augmented reality application. This application isn’t available for the iPhone 3GS yet but expect something similar (or a port of this) within months. An ‘augmented reality’ application, in simplistic terms, takes what you view on your phone camera and overlays information as you pan about. Whilst much of the information is determined using your current GPS co-ordinates, without a digital compass the panning would be hard (arguably impossible) to pull off.
Anyway, it’s easier to watch the video than read my explanation. Whilst some scoffed at Apple’s inclusion of a digital compass in the iPhone 3GS, this preview alone pretty much convinces me it was a smart move…
Wordpress problem - CSS code in your Manage themes section?
June 14th, 2009If you’ve created a Wordpress theme and you are seeing a load of CSS code in the ‘Manage Themes’ section of the Dashboard you’ll be glad to know this is easily fixed.
Chances are you are editing the styles.css file on a Mac, probably using Dreamweaver or similar. The problem is that Mac uses Macintosh code endings and Wordpress likes Unix. All you need to do is go to the Dreamweaver preferences and choose Code Format and change the ‘line break type’ to ‘LF (Unix)’.
Now enter your custom Template info e.g.
/*
Theme Name: Valleystone
Theme URI: http://valleystone.co.uk
Description: Valley Stone 2009
Author: Ben Frain
Author URI: http://benfrain.com
Version: 1.0
.
Hi Mum.
.
*/
Re-upload the style.css file and you should be looking good.
Review of Final Draft 8
May 27th, 2009
Final Draft 8
I recently reviewed Final Draft 8, the screenwriting software, for MacUser UK magazine. Besides viewing the review in the magazine (available in all good newsagents) you can now also view it online at the MacUser site. Click here to read Ben Frain’s review of Final Draft 8 at MacUser UK.
No sound in Windows 7?
May 12th, 2009If you can’t hear any sound using Windows 7, the chances are, if everything driver wise is installed correctly, your audio playback device is configured to ‘headphones’ instead of ’speakers’. You can check this by right-clicking the sound icon (bottom right of the Taskbar) and choosing ‘Open Volume Mixer’. Now play some audio (just click a video on youtube.com). If the green bars jump up and down everything is configured correctly, you just need to change the default playback device. Right click the sound icon again and choose ‘Playback devices’ from the resultant menu. You’ll then see this window:
Playback devices in Windows 7
Now just click on the speakers and choose ‘Set Default’ and then OK.
Add quick launch to the Windows 7 taskbar
May 8th, 2009When I’m using Windows I like to use the Quick Launch. You know, the section next to the Start button where you can stack commonly used short cuts to launch your programs. Here is what it looks like on my Windows 7…
Windows 7 Quick Launch
Windows 7, by default doesn’t have it. Thankfully it can be added fairly easily with a little jiggery pockery. Here’s how:
1. Unlock the Taskbar by right clicking on it and untick the ‘Lock the taskbar’ option.
2. Right click and empty area of the toolbar and choose Toolbars > New Toolbar
3. In the address bar at the top of the resultant window copy and paste this text in: %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch You will need to highlight everything already in the box and then press enter. Now click the ‘Select Folder’ button at the bottom of the Window. The ‘Quick Launch’ text will now appear over on the right of the Taskbar
4. To get the Taskbar to the left (as it is in XP etc) drag the dotted line to the left of it e.g.
until it is right over on the left.
5. Now we just need it to show the icons, so right click in the Quick Launch area and unselect ‘Show Text’ and ‘Show Title’
6. If you want larger icons, right-click the Quick Launch and choose View > Large Icons.
