The Perfect Presentation

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If you think that the only thing worse than sitting through another presentation is reading about the technicalities of presenting then this book will make you think again.

First let me state what this book isn’t - it is not an introductory guide to Powerpoint. I for one am extremely thankful for that. Given the number and voluminous tomes out there seemingly dedicated to coaching the production of bullet laden slides this beautifully crafted book is a breath of fresh air.

As an IT instructor I have for several years advocated a move away from bullet point fatigue and have personally delivered several ‘Effective Presentation’ courses. Suggesting that presenters move away from what is perceived as the expected format for a presentation and their comfort zone has been met with a mixture of horror and disbelief.

It is against this background that I approached Nancy Duarte’s new book.

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Using a Netgear Router on BE

gt834pn_router_small.jpgAs listeners of MacBites will be aware I have been suffering greatly with streaming Flash video problems in the last few months.

The purpose of this post is provide details of the configuration settings I’ve used on a Netgear router to solve my problem, so if you’re affected read on and see if it might work for you.

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Well I’ll Be There, Will You?

Finally, the news I’ve been waiting for a long time - the Liverpool One Apple Store is opening it’s doors on Saturday 26 July 2008 at 9 am.

I’ll definitely be there covering the great event live for MacBites - hope to see you there.

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Quick URL Entry on an iPhone

I love the .com button on the iPhone keyboard but often wished it was configurable - what I hadn’t discovered is that it already is!!

Clicking once on the .com does indeed add .com to the current address but holding your finger or thumb on the .com button produces a fly out menu containing extra options.

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The precise options vary country by country and a full list is available from iPhone Central at Macworld.

The options shown here are those available in the UK.

How cool is that?

Finally!!

So how was iPhone launch day for you? I spent all day *and I do mean all day* enjoying myself in the Apple Store purchasing an iPhone … brace yourself for a long and funny story …

Mike and I spent the entire week tracking every Apple related site we could find to see if Apple would be selling the iPhone on Friday’s launch day and found nothing. The Apple Store couldn’t or wouldn’t confirm whether they would be selling it or not and referred all enquiries to the web site which was finally updated at 08:02 on Friday morning … you’ll see why that was no use later LOLOL

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Black or White??

So the great day is almost upon us and the most important question (well it is if you leave out which store to go to … but that’s a whole different post) is a black backed iPhone or a white one?

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Decisions, decisions, decisions ;-)

The Fox Gets More Fire

So after 8 million downloads in it’s first day and amidst claims of speed increases and enhanced stability am I about to make Firefox 3 my primary browser?

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Lose Your Dock … Recover Your Mind

At a recent Mac club meeting one of the talking points was the differences in how Windows and OS X handle application switching. So I thought I’d consolidate some of the ensuing discussion in a blog post.

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Should Apple users be worried?

Am I alone in having a deja-vu moment with the new .Mac replacement service MobileMe?

Be afraid … be very afraid ;-)

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Kudos to The Times

So the worst kept secret in technology is officially confirmed … there’s a new 3G enabled iPhone on the way in a mere matter of weeks.

Like the 5G video iPods the new iPhone comes in 2 colours - black or white.

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While the official announcement was not exactly a surprise the accuracy of some of the reporting in the lead up to WWDC has been.

A week ago The Times correctly predicted the new iPhone would be available in July at a price of £100. While the time frame seemed forseeable I was skeptical about the price prediction - it seemed too good to be true.

The original times article predicting the iPhone 3G

However, I stand corrected and kudos to the Times for their spot-on prediction. I’ll be keeping a close eye on their predicitions in the future ;-)