I’ve never been a fan of public speaking/presentations, even if I’m only presenting to a small group of people. I generally don’t get nervous in the usual sense, it’s just that I have no concept of spontaneity. You see, a presentation is supposed to use a slideshow (be it computer based or OHP) as a basis for talking points only. If you’ve ever sat through a presentation where the speaker just reads off the slides then you’ll know why this is. Here is where I have a problem, I just don’t have the ability to talk about something without either learning a ’script’ off by heart or reading from other notes. So, to today’s story.

This morning I was part of an assessed ’workshop’ (nothing good has ever come of that word), in which I had to find a group (of people I don’t know, which always makes working as a team harder) of people to work with, research a topic and draw up a presentation all within the space of two hours. To make it worse we had to use OHP transparencies instead of Powerpoint. Because we only had two hours, I only managed to write a page or two of notes for the presentation - needless to say I froze in the middle of it. I was trying to read from my notes and from the ’slides’ at the same time and just totally confused myself. If the lecturer assessing us had an knowledge of what I was actually trying to say, I’d be very surprised. Like I said, it was an assessed piece of work, but luckily only counting 20% towards the final module mark, so hopefully I’ll do better in the exam come January.

If you follow me on twitter, you may have seen some of my tweets relating to a movie I have rented called Hard Candy. Starring Ellen Page and Patrick Wilson, I loved this movie so much I felt I had to write about it. You can sum this blog post up in just a few words,

“YOU MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!”

Seriously, I’m not just typing this, I want everyone and anyone who reads this post to go out and buy, rent, steal or use some other means to get your hands on a copy of this movie. 

I really want to write a lot about how this movie made me feel, but just in case you do go out and buy it, I’ll try and avoid spoilers. 

The basic premise of the movie is that Hayley (Ellen Page) meets up with a guy she has been chatting with on the internet called Jeff (Patrick Wilson). At first, you get the impression that they are both consensual in their meeting and with their ‘attraction’ towards each other. Let me say at this point that Hayley is 14 years old, whilst Jeff is much older. Now considering the plot revolves around issues of pedophilia, I found myself at some points of the movie, being annoyed with myself at how I felt about the characters. A review I read said that I would be ‘pissed-off with myself” for feeling the way I do during the movie and I can honestly say I do. 
Jeff gets the tables turned on him in the movie, with Hayley getting her ‘own-back’ as it was. If your male and watching this film, be prepared for about 40 minutes worth of grimacing and squinting at the screen as it contains the most gruesome ‘castration’ torture scene ever.

 This movie is so subtle and yet so powerful, it’s left me thinking about it an hour after I’ve finished watching it. I’m not the best at writing movie reviews, so I’ll leave the final remark to the Director of the movie;

Roughly 50% of our audience love this film, around 25% come out of the theatre wondering what they thought and the other 25% hate us for making it.

You MUST watch this movie. You MUST!

Andrew.

I was a bit annoyed at how different the prices were in the UK Apple store compared to the prices of the US store (obviously, factoring in the exchange rate). I’ve drawn up a quick table below just to put the prices side by side.

As you may have guessed, MB = MacBook, MBA= MacBook Air and MBP = MacBook Pro. The models listed increase in specifications with MB(3) being the ‘old style’ MacBook.

I have taken the price from the US store for each product, converted to GBP using the current (15th October 22.30, 2008) exchange rate. Then listed the price given in the UK store and in the final column, calculated the difference. This final column is the one I am concerned about. 

%Δ of each product is as listed (roughly);

• MB (1) = 25%
• MB (2) = 23%
• MB (3) = 23%
• MBA (1) = 24%
• MBA (2) = 23%
• MBP (1) = 20%
• MBP (2) = 20%

So, as you can see, the average Δ% is around 22.5%. The question now is, where did Apple get this figure from. Why did they decide that the UK’s prices should be, on average, 22.5% higher than those in the US? Well, being the economist I am, I’m embarrased to admit that I haven’t a clue.

Obviously the Dollar is very weak at the moment (nigh on 2$ to £1) but this doesn’t really factor for the 22.5% difference in pricing. Again, it has always been the case that Britain’s are generally charged more for things because of our ‘once healthy’ economy. It’s like me (a Northerner) going to London and finding things much more expensive than I’m used to where I live, to use a better example look at the difference in property prices between northern cities and the capital - now, take this example and expand on it globally.

Like I said, I’m only suggesting some ideas but none can fully explain the extent to which Apple is charging it’s UK customers more. I encourage you to leave a comment should you know the answer to this, or even if you just have our own theories, because I’d really love to know.

Anyway. Rant Over. Signing Off

A couple of months ago, I bought two new Moleskine notebooks. They’re quite expensive compared to most notebooks, and I always feel a bit stupid buying them, but they just feel better to write in. I can’t explain it. I generally take one with me wherever I go, I’m no artist or poet or anything fancy like that, just for the mundane stuff like writing down dates, places etc. Whilst sat in a Research Methods lecture yesterday, I found a new use for my Moleskine, filling it with my random doodles. 

On an entirely different note, I’ve always been a fan of the movie - The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy (the one with Zooey Deschanel and Martin Freeman). Recently, I downloaded the original radio series’ of the same name, from the 1970s I think, and been listening to an episode each night before I go to bed. I love them, they’re so ridiculous and quirky and weird. This is just a small example of genius from the mind of Douglas Adams;

One of the things Ford Prefect had always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of continually stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It’s a nice day, or You’re very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a thirty-foot well, are you all right? At first Ford had formed a theory to account for this strange behavior. If human beings don’t keep exercising their lips, he thought, their mouths probably seize up. After a few months’ consideration and observation he abandoned this theory in favor of a new one. If they don’t keep on exercising their lips, he thought, their brains start working. After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn’t know about.

Andrew

What’s a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster?

The best drink in existence is the Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster The effect of drinking a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster is like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped around a large gold brick

Maybe.

I could leave my review at that to be honest. The beauty of Apple products to me is that I can rarely fault them, they work seamlessly and I feel that my money has been well spent. With MobileMe I CAN fault it, it DOESN’T work seamlessly and I DON’T feel that my money has been well spent (I’m on a trial, but I’ll talk about this in a bit).

First off, I’ll talk a bit about why I went for MobileMe. The main selling point for me was the ‘push’ features, and when they’re working, they’re great. I get an email, my iPhone ‘pongs’ delightfully within seconds and lets me keep up to date. I also thought the WebApps would be great for when I’m at uni, working on Uni PCs (which I do quite regularly).

I was so certain that MobileMe was the right service for me, and on that note I began transfering my whole Internet life over to my new @me.com email address from gmail (which I could never fault), it took forever! The first snag came when MobileMe was down for about two days after launch and getting my email became a very stressful process. Since then, the service has been working mainly fine until two days ago when I couldn’t reach my email for about 4 hours. This really bugged me because I was waiting on a very important email from someone who I had sold to on eBay the day before. I had ALWAYS been able to get my gMail, and for an email service to go down like this is just pure unacceptable. Even now, Apple says that 1% of users may be having problems getting their mail, it’s been almost a week since that message was posted - Apple, get yourself sorted out because you’re losing customers here!!!

I’ve found that Web Galleries and iDisk are features that I will rarely use and I’m now asking myself the question, Is it worth paying almost £50 per year for push email? I really like the push email, I REALLY do, but I find it totally unacceptable for my email to be unreachable. One thing is for certain, If I experience anymore email downtime for the remainder of my trial (which Apple have had no choice but to extend by two month because of the numerous problems), I won’t be paying for the service and I’ll have no other option that to sign up with another ‘push’ provider like Yahoo, or just wait until Google implement ‘push’ in gMail.

I really hate to say it, but MobileMe has disappointed me and I’m certain that the service isn’t worth £50 per year. It’s just a matter of whether Apple get their act together in time for the end of my trial as to whether I fork out some more money to ol’ Jobs for a ridiculously priced product.

On a final note, what the hell were Apple designers thinking……

Andrew Booth

After what can only be described as a disastrous  launch for the 3G iPhone, I would now suspect that every iPhone customer has Apple’s latest 2.0 software (as well as some of Apple’s iPod Touch customers – I say ‘some’ because it costs £5.99).
I updated via the ‘leaked’ version a couple of days ago and I’ve had plenty of time to get to grips with the new software. What follows is a quick opinionated review using screenshots from my iPhone (press down the ‘home’ and ‘power on/off button’ simultaneously when on the screen you want to capture.)
The App store is great, but the problem at the moment is that a lot (the vast majority, at least for me) of the apps are useless.

To begin with, I downloaded almost every free app in the store to check them all out. Now, I have only three things installed; Super Monkey Ball, NetNewsWire and Shazam. I hope more apps are released soon because there is a slight sense of anti-climax for me, I’ve been looking forward to the App Store for a long time.

The new features allowing MobileMe to work with iPhones/iPod Touches is great and is working mostly well (I think the problems I am having are due to MobileMe’s downtime and not the 2.0 software. My new MobileMe account is pushing email to my iPhone almost instantaneously, as well as synching calendar events, contacts and bookmarks (I’ve turned this off, I want different bookmarks on my iPhone than on my computers). Another update is to the email application itself, the long awaited multi-edit feature is now availiable, allowing me to move more than one email at a time to different folders etc.

Strangely, the most previewed and possibly anticipated feature of 2.0 was the new calculator app, don’t ask me why.  I probably wont ever use these new scientific functions, but I suppose they’re nice to have. Plus it’s pretty cool to watch the transformation as you turn your iPhone around, can you get any more geeky!?

Super Monkey Ball
I love it. It’s awesome. The controls are fantastic, perhaps a little tricky to get the hang of but once you do, you realise why SEGA spent so much time developing for the iPhone platform. It’s such a great device for these little games. Graphics are much better than those on the Nintendo DS and comparable to those on the PSP. I’ll be downloading Crash Bandicoot racing next I think.

Shazam
Remember that app I blogged about a couple of months ago that identified songs by analysing the track and then sending it to ‘magic’ servers? Well, that’s what Shazam is for the iPhone (I beieve, due to the iPod Touch not having a microphone, that it is an iPhone only app). Hold the iPhone up to a music source, and it’ll send you back the name/artist and even album art and links to buy the song on the iTunes store as well as a Youtube link for the video. I’ve had so much fun with testing this app and found it to be much more effective than the app I reviewed a while back.

NetNewsWire
I hate NetNewsWire for the desktop, I find it much easier to check each webpage individually for my news. On the iPhone, this is obviously not as easy, especially when I’m trying to load up TUAW or Engadget (heavy pages) over an EDGE connection. Even using MobileSafari’s built in RSS reader isn’t a good experience. NetNewsWire for iPhone allows me to get headlines all in one place, from all my favourite sites and synched with NewsGator (should I ever grow to like the desktop app. Well worth a download if you’re a blog addict like me.

Remote
Does what it says on the tin. Allows my iPhone to act as a remote for any iTunes library on my wifi network. The first time round, a code needs granting by the iPhone in the case of each library you want to connect to, this is then entered into iTunes on your computer. Brilliant and simple app, perfect for when you want to change the music playing whilst not at your computer. It also works with AppleTV, which I don’t have, but that would be awesome!

Overall, I think the 2.O software update is well worth the price that iPod Touch users’ have to pay to upgrade. The App Store has great potential and the apps availiable are fantastic uses of the technology that comes with the iPhone.
When it comes to the iPhone 3G, I’m really not sure whether I want it or not yet. I know I don’t need it for any practical use, but still, I NEED it!!! When i find yourself ringing all stockists in the area to see if any are availiable, I guess I want it.
Andrew.

I’ll be blogging about my early experience of MobileMe in a few days time.

The iPlayer is the best thing to come out of British television for a long long time, along with Dr Who!

I use the iPlayer almost every day, generally just catching up on TV that I don’t watch when it airs. I also used the radio iPlayer almost every day to listen to my favourite radio shows.

Today, the BBC launched a new iPlayer interface in beta, combining both television and radio. I was really looking forward to being able to listen to the radio catch-up on my iPhone in bed through the new iPlayer beta, and whilst this is no problem using my computer, I didn’t realise that the programmes are encoded in Real player format, obviously meaning my iPhone is a no-go. I have sent a feature request into the BBC for this, I really hope others do the same.

.

Otherwise, I really like the new interface. The ‘recently watched’ section is extremely useful, recording what shows have been accessed recently and updating those with new episodes as they become available. There are also RSS feeds available now for certain streams of programs.

I encourage you to try it out if you haven’t already done so. I realise this post sounds like a promotion, I don’t work for (or have anything to do with) the BBC

Chicken update!!! We have a couple of chickens in the garden that we keep as pets, just chuck them some food every day and out pops an egg - fantastic isn’t it!?

A few weeks ago, we made a visit to Penistone market and ended up coming home with 10 fertilised eggs. Anywhoo, to cut a long story short, they hatched today! Three this morning and another a couple of hours ago plus another chicken trying to make its way through the shell. 

It’s really fun to watch them stumble around for a couple of hours after hatching, trying to get their feet and then just randomly dropping to sleep whilst walking around. Anywhoo, above is a shot of the first chick hatched, quickly brought in front of the iSight to take a quick snap before being put back to sleep with the rest. Bless him, his first Mac experience!!

Bye for now.

I remember a couple of years ago a mobile-phone service that was being hyped at the time. The idea was that you held your phone up to a music source, and it texted you back the artist and song name, of course the disadvantage was that it cost quite a bit. I’m sure that service is still out there somewhere, but I found a free alternative today whilst trying to cheat (sshhh) on a radio competition.

Tunatic is a free piece of software for your Mac or PC that uses your computer’s built in microphone (or external one) to listen to a track and then give you the artist and song name.

I found it quite fun to play around with this morning, it picked up most tracks as I was randomly shuffling through radio stations. It did tend to get stuck on tracks that weren’t exactly mainstream however, for example it correctly analysed Duffy’s new single Warwick Avenue but couldn’t identify Bonnie Tyler’s I Need A Hero (it was playing on Magic).

Either way, it’s a fun app and will entertain you at least for a half hour, chucking as many tracks as you can at it to try and fool it. You can also help out with improving Tunatic’s database of songs, if you please, by downloading Tunalyzer (Mac only). An app that scans your music library and sends track info back to it’s servers, helping other Tunatic users with their song indentifying.

Best of all, it’s free.

Andrew.

I love my iMac, I really do. But, as many people agree, it’s speakers are pretty poor. They’re great for computer sounds, online videos and the odd music track but when it comes to volume and clarity I felt I needed something more. I’ve been putting off buying a pair of speakers for some time. I, like many other Mac users, like things to be minimalist and I cannot stand cluttered desks, therefore I wanted speakers which not only sounded great but looked great too. As of last week, I’d narrowed my options down to two. Based on the reviews of various sites (primarily iLounge), these were;

• JBL Creature II
• Harman/Kardon Soundsticks II

I opted for the Soundsticks based on reviews of it’s sound quality (I actually think the Creature looks a bit better) compared to it’s price. I’ve never really bought speakers before so I thought £100 was a bit on the high side, but….WOW!!! I don’t regret spending it one little bit. They’re awesome!

The set comes with two ’satellite’ speakers as well as a subwoofer. The sound they produce is fantastic, the base is fantastic and spoken word also sounds great (I listen to a lot of radio talk show podcasts). I do have a couple of gripes, there is no dedicated on/off switch either on the speakers or on the base, the only way to fully turn them off is to unplug them. This hasn’t really caused me any problems but we’ll see about that tonight when I try to get to sleep with the blue light of the sub glowing.

Also, reviews have complained that there is not treble dial, I don’t reckon this will be too much of a problem because I’ve already tested the sound with music/audio I regularly but again, we’ll see about that.

A really cool feature is the click-wheel like volume controls. Touch (or hold) on the +/- metal plates, and the volume changes accordingly. There’s a really quick video of that below.

I’m really glad I paid a bit more for these speakers, they sound great and look awesome too. I’ll leave the last word to iLounge,

“They look great, sound great, and won’t kill your wallet.”

Andrew