To my mind, the greatest change in the way the software and web world actually works has been the development of apps/gadgets/plugins etc, call them what you will.

The concept is simple – a developer creating a service, be it a web site, a mobile phone or whatever, will only create a certain number of features, and may then work to create new features one at a time.  Traditionally if you wanted to add lots of features you needed lots of people working for you to do it.   

In recent years, various facilities have been added to enable anybody (with the necessary skills) to create additional features for an existing service.   Probably the most famous and successful of these is the Apple App Store.  The iPhone is a pretty decent piece of kit on it’s own, but it would never have developed the success it has were it not for the many thousands of apps available on the App Store, which have been developed by individuals and businesses around the world.  It’s a win win situation – the user gets more choice, the app designer gets the opportunity to create work on an additional platform and potentially earn money, and the original developer has an enhance market for the product. 

One of the latest developments along these lines is the Google Apps Marketplace.  I think Google Apps is an awesome service, both for companies, but also for individuals.  I’ve used it for a couple of years now, and my use had developed over time, such that I now use it for email on my domain, my calendar, my contacts, online document storage, task manager amongst other things.  With most of these functions synced with my iPhone, it becomes an even more powerful product.  Therefore, I was quite excited to see the addition of a marketplace where the user can access a mass of additional features.

Many of the apps now available are previously existing additional services, but with integration into Google Apps.  For example, one service I’ve been trying out is Aviary, which is an online image editor, amongst other things.  With this linked into Google Apps, the documents I work on using Aviary are automatically saved into my Google Docs saved documents.  Various other services can now do the same, which is helpful for keeping things in one place – one of the difficulties in this day of cloud computing is it’s easy to end up with work saved all over the place, which can lead things getting hard to find!

If you are using Google Apps either personally or within your business, this is definitely something worth checking out.

March 10, 2010

March 11, 2010

March 10, 2010

March 10, 2010

February 26, 2010

March 5, 2010

March 4, 2010

March 3, 2010

February 26, 2010

March 2, 2010

February 27, 2010

March 2, 2010

February 24, 2010

February 23, 2010

February 23, 2010

February 24, 2010

February 19, 2010

February 20, 2010

February 20, 2010

February 3, 2010

February 13, 2010

February 13, 2010

February 15, 2010

February 15, 2010

February 16, 2010

February 16, 2010

January 26, 2010

February 17, 2010

February 17, 2010

February 11, 2010

February 12, 2010

February 10, 2010

February 11, 2010

February 10, 2010

February 6, 2010

February 9, 2010

February 8, 2010

February 8, 2010

February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010

February 4, 2010

February 2, 2010

February 3, 2010

February 2, 2010

February 1, 2010

January 29, 2010

January 29, 2010

January 27, 2010

January 26, 2010

January 21, 2010

January 20, 2010

January 21, 2010

January 18, 2010

January 16, 2010

Having been stuck in a contract for some time with a Nokia N95, I’ve been struggling to be patient awaiting my chance to move on!  So what conclusions have I reached after a week?

My iPhone is the 3GS 16Gb model which seemed a good compromise, as I wanted the better bits of the 3GS but the 32Gb required more upfront cost.  I don’t see me having a problem with 16Gb – there’s plenty of space at the moment!

My favourite features to date:

- The User Interface.  The UI has to be iPhone’s biggest selling point and it has impressed me even more as I live with it.  Very little need to check how to do things as it is very intuitive, and menus are very logical.  I found I adapted to the touchscreen very quickly, and even text entry has taken very little time to get used to.

- Integration with Google Apps using Google sync.  This was ridiculously easy to set up, and immediately synced my contacts, calendar items and emails.  It’s so nice to have a properly synced calendar available, rather than having to wait until I plugged my phone in at home with my previous phone, which of course I usually forgot to do!

- Apps!  Of course, the app store is another huge selling point for the iPhone.  I’ve been playing with the obvious apps, such as the excellent Facebook app, and the Google app – I especially love voice search, although it doesn’t always get what I said first time – I’ve found trying a bit of an american accent seems to help!  I’ve also downloaded lots of games, I enjoy little puzzle games and have spent far too much time on Minesweeper – it’s taken me back to my early Windows days!

So far, I’m less impressed with:

- Signal strength.  My Nokia was awesome at finding a signal.  I live mid-way up one side of a quite steep valley, and a lot of people struggle to get a signal at my home.  My Nokia always managed, but the iPhone never gets beyond half signal, and sometimes loses signal entirely.  I realised that I am using a three or four year old SIM card, so have ordered a new one – hopefully this might help as other users have reported benefitting from a new SIM.

- Battery power.  The downside of such a useful device is I do play with it a lot, and on one day I nearly exhausted the battery in one day.  It’s not the end of the world, but just need to make sure I charge it when I get the opportunity.  I’ve ordered a car charger and another USB cable to use at work, so this will help.

- Addiction.  I’ve spent far too much time recently playing with my phone.  I find myself in social situations ignoring the conversation to read an email.  Not good!  Hopefully the excitement will wear off enough to enable me to revert to being a bit more normal (I’ve never been all that normal!).

In conclusion, I’m definitely converted, the iPhone is everything I’d hoped, and I’m looking forward to playing with lots more apps – I’ll try and talk about the best ones here.