4th March 2010, 07:00 pm
Scott Berkun is one of a rare breed, a public speaker who is also a very engaging writer. He writes in an easy to read and entertaining, style. In this work he mines a rich vein of personal experiences in public speaking and beyond.
In a brutally honest and jocular work his copious personal insights bring a distinctly individual touch to proceedings.
While much of the content is common sense it’s common sense that tends to be sacrificed on the pyre of the intense anxiety that pervades the world of anyone who has public speaking duties looming large in their life. Scott addresses all the things that get forgotten in the panic and pressure of an imminent public speaking engagement and does so in such a captivating way you’ll soon be wondering why you were so concerned in the first place.
Continue reading ‘Cheering Read for Speaking Fears’ »
2nd March 2010, 07:00 pm
Oh yes a new tech toy to play with!!
I started podcasting in 2006 not long after getting my first Mac computer. While GarageBand and other applications installed on every new Mac facilitate the podcast creation process nicely it didn’t take long to realize that you need a good microphone if you want to get the best out of the applications.
Continue reading ‘True Blue’ »
26th February 2010, 05:00 am
Picture the scene it’s the Christmas gathering for all the local groups I’m involved in. All the guests either work in technology related areas or are keen technologists in their spare time. So imagine my surprise … no imagine my horror … when one of these folks came out with a declaration to the effect that; a phone’s a phone and a computer’s a computer, completely separate devices with separate functions and never should the twain meet!
His sentiments rendered me almost speechless.
Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse another guest supported the sentiments of the first and added to it. He explained that he’d bought a “hand held” device that proved to be an expensive waste of time as he’d never really used it.
So did they have a point? Have I been deluding myself for the last 18 months about the imperative that I believe my iPhone to be?
Continue reading ‘Tech Toy or Geek Gold Dust?’ »
16th February 2010, 02:00 pm
Aperture 3 was announced and released on 9 February 2010. The release coincided with the start of Macworld but Apple’s absence meant that the launch was without the fanfare reserved for Steve-notes.
I was eager enough to order online via the Apple Store immediately. Yes without even installing the trial. Of course installing the trial would have been much easier had Apple had the courtesy to send me the promised download link and serial number after I had duly completed the request form on their web site but let’s assume they were inundated and it’s non-appearance wasn’t anything personal!
The “over 200 new features” looked promising too. While some of these features were playing catch up to Lightroom others went beyond what is already in Lightroom 2 or promised for Lightroom 3. I also have clients using Aperture so not purchasing wasn’t really an option.
Continue reading ‘Aperture Adventures’ »
3rd February 2010, 01:00 pm
Since the announcement of the iPad I’ve been amazed by the strength of feeling demonstrated by both sides of what has become the great Flash debate of 2010.
The iPhone has never supported Flash and while mention was made of that fact when v.1 was released it’s continued omission has not engendered any great depth of feeling. Since the iPad runs on essential the same operating system I didn’t expect Flash to be supported and therefore wasn’t surprised when it wasn’t.
What has happened since has astounded me: the vitriolic claims and counterclaims have flowed thick and fast.
Continue reading ‘Flash Mob’ »
29th January 2010, 06:00 pm
When my 24 inch iMac was dying it’s long and painful death amongst the many issues I encountered was an annoying drive related problem. Since, the entire machine was becoming more unstable by the day I had more to worry about than the niceties of drive names. Sadly I’ve encountered the same issue several times recently and knew the time had come to undertake some research and hopefully formulate a fix for it.
Continue reading ‘Multiplying Hard Drives’ »
19th January 2010, 08:35 pm
So the magic day has arrived … I’m out of contract on my iPhone 3G *deep joy*
Time to change to a better value tariff so off I headed to O2 in Bolton. I knew what I wanted was a tariff called Simplicity 20 for iPhone … if only acquiring it had been simple. Sadly, it was a complete disaster, for the full horror of the day take a listen to MacBites episode 40.
The store staff had clearly had no training in what was available to cater for the specific needs of iPhone customers. A glaring omission given that all the customers who purchased an iPhone 3G on the day of release are out of contract this month. The staff were all most helpful and cordial but this didn’t translate into a smooth transaction when they were unaware of the difference between a Simplicity tariff and a Simplicity for iPhone tariff.
For the record this is the difference:
Simplicity (During January promotion) – £20
- 700 Free voice minutes (100 minutes more than usual)
- 700 Free text messages (100 texts more than usual)
- 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
- No visual voice mail
- No free wifi
Simplicity (After January promotion ends) – £20
- 600 Free voice minutes
- 600 Free text messages
- 1 free bolt-on (they recommend unlimited internet)
- No visual voice mail
- No free wifi
Simplicity 20 for iPhone – £20
- 600 Free voice minutes
- 1200 Free text messages
- 2 free bolt-ons (they recommend unlimited internet and unlimited wifi)
- Includes visual voice mail
The Best Way to proceed?
From my experiences I’d by-pass the stores, they don’t seem to have a clue what is the best option for iPhone customers coming out of contract, and call O2 directly. If given a choice, which you should be if ringing via your iPhone, select the option to speak to the cancellations department. The option actually connects you to a department called Retentions who seem to be the only people at O2 who have any knowledge of the existence of the iPhone version of the Simplicity tariff.
Tell the Retentions department you want to switch to Simplicity 20 for iPhone with 600 free minutes, 1200 free texts, 2 bolt-ons and visual voice mail. If they deny all knowledge of its existence ask to speak to a supervisor and/or show them this screen capture of my O2 account … it really exists!!
You might have to wait 24 hours for everything to be activated and you might have to manually reconfigure your settings. One of the side effects of changing tariffs was that the phone reset itself and failed to connect to the 3G network. This was easily rectified by entering the following settings into the General > Network > Cellular Data Network of the phone:
The only other gotcha I encountered was having to set Visual Voice Mail up again from scratch but this shouldn’t be necessary if O2 transfer you to the correct tariff in the first place. Being without my visual voice mail made me realize that it was a feature of the iPhone that I had greatly under-appreciated … a mistake I won’t make again 
Good luck with your tariff transfers and I’d love to hear how you get on so be sure to leave me a comment below!
1st January 2010, 11:30 pm
So it’s that time of the year when resolutions are made, plans are crafted and successes are plotted.
Judging by my lack of progress in blogging last year I think rather than picking one or more of the Top 10 New Years Resolutions I should resolve to dedicate more time to blogging.
In my defence I did notice in 2009 that the number of episodes of MacBites we released increased in direct proportion to the lack of blog posts though!
So with an interesting 2010 to look forward to I shall endeavour to blog my geeky thoughts much more than in 2009.
Why interesting you ask? Well it looks as if the as yet mythical Apple tablet might just see the light of day and I’m lusting after one (or two!!) of those new shiny 27 inch iMacs too. In business terms I have plenty of speaking engagements booked and more in the planning stage so be sure to keep an eye on my Speaking Engagements page for details of both upcoming events and recordings of previous presentations.
Since I spent the whole of New Years Day dismantling and reassembling hard drive enclosures I guess my love/hate relationship with my storage devices would be a good place to start. Be warned though as threatened on Twitter it could well become a mini series! Watch this space for the first installment of drives from hell, coming as soon as I’ve written it.
Let me take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and prosperous 2010.
So there it is the first post of the year, day 1 and I’m ahead of myself. As I say on MacBites … See you next time 
31st July 2009, 09:33 pm
Within days of getting my iPhone 3G in the summer of 2008 I’d found a real time saving feature on the keyboard for entering URL extensions and blogged about it too at Quick URL Entry on an iPhone.
Well after the v.3 update not only is the feature still there but the range of extensions has been expanded.
Ireland will forever thank you
Nice attention to detail there Apple!
Version 2
Version 3
22nd June 2009, 11:30 pm
I thought I beyond being surprised by the depths to which Microsoft will stoop to gain a user. Sadly this week has proved that I am not and I viewed the latest attempts from Redmond to woo users to the newly minted Internet Explorer 8.
The strategy this time is to offer the chance to win $10,000 to those prepared to use Internet Explorer 8 to pinpoint clues which reveal the location of the cash.
Continue reading ‘Ain’t Advertising (Ten) Grand?’ »
