• Remote - this app works perfectly with iTunes on either mac or windows. Just as the name suggests it is a remote for browsing your iTunes library and controlling playback. Quick and easy to set up.
• Twitterrific - An iPhone version of the popular mac client, this gives you your recent friend’s tweets and allows you to update your own with photos from the built-in camera.
• Last.fm - Official app for one of my favourite sites on the web. Your radio stations, charts and library radio in an easy to use interface.
• Facebook - While I’m not a huge Facebook user, I found the official app to be great for quickly checking friend updates and using Facebook chat. Nice interface and works fine for me!
• Palringo - While this app requires sign-up with the Palringo service, it works well for using IM on the go. When you close the app it keeps your connection alive on their servers for a little while, so you can still check messages if you switch apps. I could never seem to get the themes to work though…
• Movies - Want to know what is on at the cinemas near you, and book tickets? That’s what Movies does. Using GPS/postcode it located cinemas near by, sorts them by distance and allows you to bookmark favourites. Select one to check what is on and when, then either check the directions with the map integration or book tickets right then and there. Nice!
• Shazam - This near app listens to music being played around you and tells you the artist and song title, with options to buy on iTunes. Handy if you’re always hearing songs you like but don’t know the names.
• Pennies - I have yet to fully use this app for a month, but what I have seen of this handy expense logging app is good. Quickly set up your monthly earnings and start noting your expenses, then see reports of where your money is going. Yes, maybe you do spend a little too much on coffee…

Fun and Games

Of course, there many games and silly things in the store for brief entertainment sessions:

• Super Monkey Ball - Yes, I payed for this fun little game, but it is definately entertaining and addictive! Still trying to get the hang of tilting…
• Sudoku - The classic game comes the iPhone with the ability to adds notes to each square as if you are playing on paper. There seems to be a way to cheat though but I won’t spoil it for you.
• Bubbles - Swipe around to create bubbles then pop them with a poke!
• Koi Pond - Your own portable pond with sounds to create an atmosphere and nice water effects.
• Bubble Wrap - Pop as much bubble wrap as you can in the time limit. Not as addictive as you would think…
• Aurora Feint - A puzzle RPG, match 3 or more similar symbols to get resources and exp. Can get repetitive.
• Dactyl - Tap the bombs as they get ready to blow, see how long you can keep up with this reaction testing game.

Finally, this entire post was written with the Wordpress iPhone app, which really needs a Rich text editor or HTML auto-complete. Ouch, my poor fingers! The app needs online draft editing and landscape view. Still, it seems to work well for small posts. Better moblogging!

Share your app recommendations in the comments :)

It also includes a backstage pass to the events and an invite to the VIP speaker dinner of one of the events. To enter, all you have to do is post about the event on your blog, linking to the Carsonified post and get at least 25 comments (that are not spam/you, one comment per commenter) by October 1st. If you reach that, submit your post to them for the live draw on October 2nd.

These requirements are quite interesting. The comments rule makes it more likely that a developer/designer/etc of good quality will be eligible as they probably gain 25 comments easily on their posts. For example, they have a following of commenters when they write a post related to their industry, hence someone who is actively engaged in their industry.

Ok ok, so maybe I don’t get comments that easily and could post web dev related content more frequently, but it’s worth a shot. Leave a me comment on this post, it would be much appreciated :)

UPDATED: See the end of the post.

Not long after I bought my o2 Cocoon, I decided to get a new sim with a new number. The number I received was great, easy to remember due to 3 blocks of double digits, so I wanted to keep it. When I was told about getting a work 3G iPhone and that I could transfer my number, I was even more thrilled! I called up o2, got my PAC code (required for transfers) and passed it on to Matt Carey, so he could initiate the transfer when buying the phones.

And then there was constant failure.

After much hassle - I’m not kidding, the nonsense he has put up with is incredible - Matt was able to pick up two new iPhone’s (one for me and one for Jo Lankester) and attach them to the business account. Right then and there, at the o2 store, he ask for the transfer to be put through. The o2 staff were fine, and put through the transfer in front of him using the provided PAC code.

Or so it seemed. This all happened on Thursday, by Monday I was without any service on my iPhone. Being with a business account, Matt can call up and have someone dedicated to sorting any problems, with call backs at a specific time. So, Matt called up o2 and asked what was the status with the transfer. “What transfer?” is basically the response he got, there was no record of any transfer for my old number.

When Matt moved his number to o2, back during the 1st gen iPhone, and had issues he was able to get them fixed during a phone call. His number was transferred and working then and there, so he told them he wanted the same applied to now. The women told him that it was not possible, and that he didn’t understand how transfers work after he explained that he had this done before. Eventually, it was agreed that a temp number would be activated within an hour and my old number would be sorted by Thursday. Yesterday.

I’ve tried restarting the phone, leaving it off for a while then switching it back on, no luck. Matt is out at dConstruct today, but I am fine using the temp until Monday.

Or I was. As I headed out to lunch, I had a look at the phone and noticed that it had no service. Restart, no service. Thinking it might just be a connectivity problem, I went for lunch but still had no service, and still don’t. Everyone else does.

To sum up:
- o2 failed to put through a transfer despite doing so in front of Matt.
- Their customer service is inconsistent
- They can set a new number to a phone in less than an hour but can’t transfer, INTERNALLY, in 5 days.
- They fail to check that the transfer has gone through and cut off the temp number.

o2 fucked up. This is the first time I have had any support issues with o2, the only other time I have had to contact them is for the PAC code, but this coupled with the stupidity of the majority of their staff is ridiculous. I could make this post twice as long with the problems Matt has had since getting the first two phones (for himself and Clare Carey) and attaching two more phones, but I’ll spare your eyes.

Feel free to rant about o2 cock-ups in the comments!

UPDATE: James (twitter) saw my ranting on Twitter and got in touch. He offered to look into the issue for me and see what he could do. Shortly after, a contact of his called Chris gave me a call and had my transferred number working while on the line. Thanks guys, great job! If only all of o2’s staff were as committed and helpful as you :)

Alan Bradburne and I set off by train, Matt Carey arriving before us and nabbing a table. As usual, Google provided free drinks and the evening started with the usual pre-keynote chatter.

To kick things off, Ben Walker performed a few of his songs which were hilariously awesome. If you haven’t heard them, I recommend you check out what he played on the night:

• You’re No One If You’re Not On Twitter
• The 12seconds Song
• Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall
• Dressing Up (See the Flash player on his site)

The first talk was by Rhodri Marsden, titled “Please Buy My Record: The Futility Of Flogging Music”. The talk was brilliant, interesting and funny. A text version of the talk is available on Music Think Tank. This was followed by a talk by the CEO of Songkick, Ian Hogarth. The talk was titled “Songkick: A Home for Live Music Online” and covered an alternative view to that of Rhodri, that musicians can make lots of money playing live music. This made a good opening for questions in the Q&A session, except I missed it by going to the toilet, so nothing to report.

After a short break we had the microslots, which seemed to fly by. I guess 5mins isn’t as long as I thought!

• Got Your Number! Taking credit card payments online - your options, security issues and regulations, by Rachel Andrew
• The open web, by Marcus Povey
• Django 1.0, by James Turnbull
• Server evaporation: replacing stagnant servers with the clouds, by Ze Stuart

Of all the talks my favourites were Rhodri Marsden’s and Rachel Andrew’s, James Turnbull’s use of LOLcats was also amusing. Highlight of the evening was definitely Ben Walker’s performance. Oh, and the book raffle seemed to show that Django isn’t that popular. First Adobe Air/Flex, now Django, I wonder who’s next? ;)

See you at OGN#9 (Upcoming)!

Oats

With white and black fur, Oats is probably the cutest of the three. She partly closes her eyes when she sniffs at or comes to see you, then scurries off to do whatever she was planning to do before you interrupted her! She also loves to climb all over the cage, often found scaling the walls then walking upside down on the ceiling, usually to climb on top of the wheel. Of course this means that if Pip or Pixel feel like a run, she ends up rolling round and falling off, but she’s quickly up and off she climbs again!

Pip

Pip is the friendliest and most curious. Her fur is brown and white, and I swear one of her eyes is red. If you were to reach into the mouse cage, perhaps to change the food dish, she will be the first at your hand. She’ll sniff, she’ll climb and she’ll occasionally nibble on you if your finger is outstretched, a trait that Oats seems to be picking up. It doesn’t hurt though, she soon stops and proceeds to climb your hand/arm. Once, I was distracted by Sash talking as I was taking out the wheel for the night (it doesn’t half squeak!), and curious Pip jumped into the wheel in a bid for adventure! While she didn’t get far, as Sash spotted her climb in, I’m sure she was absolutely thrilled.

Pixel

My baby, named by me quite appropriately. I have long wanted a mouse called Pixel, and it just so happens than Pixel has a (almost) square shaped marking on the top of her head. The shyest of the trio, Pixel takes great caution when approaching anything but isn’t afraid to try to climb out the cage when the top is off. In fact, she was the one to work out that they can use the corners to help push their little bodies up and up out!

I would like to say that, at this time, Pixel is not well. Today, Sash found her to be very weak, too weak to even scurry off when you try to pick her up. She will be taken to the vet tomorrow to have her checked out, but we are very worried about her. I really want her to be ok, I am making a point of posting this post (which has been in my drafts for a little while now) because I don’t want to have any of them “left out”, should the worst happen. I’ll update her condition in the comments when I know what is going on.

All three mice are adorable. They don’t bite aggressively and are a much welcome addition to my life. As with the cat post, I invite you to post about your own pets. Let me know about it in the comments or with a trackback :)

Here’s my own avatar:

And here is a collection of some of the people I follow, in alphabetical order. Maybe you should follow them too:

Some of them are uncanny! There were more but the users seem to have switched back. If you made one, share it and your Twitter profile below.

In Olive you set up client profiles which can have users and jobs attached. When you add a new client you can set them up with an initial user, so they can view and interact with the jobs. Within jobs you can post updates and share files related to the job, then set it to “Completed” when the job comes to an end. Of course, you’re a business/professional, so what about making money? Credits.

Each job can be assigned a number of credits, of your choosing. Each credit relates to an amount in whichever currency you work with, the amount is set by you system-wide. For example, if you charge per hour you could set the credit value to the hourly fee and assign each job the number of hours it took/will take to complete. Clients can either have unlimited credits at their disposal or be limited to a subscription plan, though at this time I cannot work out how to set up the subscriptions.

You can also brand the app with your logo and colours. The page title is also the name of your company.

Pricing plans for the actual app come in a 4 flavors:

• Grande (£35/month) - Unlimited clients/users, SSL encryption and 10GB file storage
• Medio (£12/month) - 50 clients, unlimited users, SSL encryption and 5GB file storage
• Pequeno (£6/month) - 15 clients, 1 user and 1GB file storage
• Gratis (Free) - 2 clients, 1 user and 50MB file storage

This is a very handy web app if you have trouble keeping maintenance work in order and need a central location to store the job details, with the option of limiting clients who go a bit mad. Go sign up for Olive to increase your monthly income!

SPOILER ALERT: While I won’t go particularly deep into the story, I will refer to parts of the movie which may or may not take away some of the enjoyment. Bookmark this post, go see the movie, then come back and read this post. It will still be here when you get back! Of course, if you don’t care about spoilers, read on!

We (Sash’s family and I) went for a 10pm showing in the hope that there would be less people. We didn’t take any chances, arriving a the cinema and securing our seats just after 9pm. By 9:40pm the room was almost full, although it lacked kids which improved the experience. When watching Indiana Jones a bunch of kids in the row in front of us wouldn’t shut up until someone came over and threatened to throw them out. Fun times.

Anyway, The Dark Knight. Batman/Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) and The Joker (Heath Ledger) go head to head in this dark comic book movie. While being long I felt the pace of the movie was very comfortable for me. However, it has a few moments where I was left thinking “Ok, this must be the end of the movie…” when it really wasn’t! For example, I was expecting Two-Face/Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart) to be the villain of the next movie so I wasn’t expecting the final confrontation.

Gotham is headed to a point where it seems crime is a thing of the past, criminals in complete fear of Batman and the “White Knight” District Attorney Harvey Dent. The Joker decides to stir things up, convincing the mob to go along with him in his plan to bring corruption right to the heart of those who defend it.

Of course, the story is nothing without the characters, and this movie has some great ones. I loved the performances by all the actors, the characters were played very well and I can’t think of any particularly weak dialogue off the top of my head. Heath Ledger was excellent as the Joker, completely mad but also very reserved at the same time. It is a real shame that he has passed on, I would have loved to see him play the part again.

To conclude, I highly recommend this movie and I will definitely be buying it on DVD. What did you think of it?

Author note: As you can tell by my very brief conclusion, I wrote this post last week and today realized that I didn’t finish it. Oops!

I have been once before to this faith/justice/music/arts festival and really enjoyed it. While initially a Christian festival, Greenbelt welcomes any visitor and doesn’t force the religious side into your stay. I am not religious and found plenty to do! Sash and I won’t actually be camping but we’ll be meeting up with my family for the first time in a year. I’m looking forward to seeing them again!

I’m looking forward to checking out the music acts, sitting in the “Under and Over the Sea” Podules and the comedy acts in the evening. The Sigur Ros tour film will be an interesting watch and, if I can drag Sash away from the art events, I can’t wait to see what cool things there will be on the stalls. There is a huge lineup of things to do, so check out the website for full details. If you can even go for a day it will be worth it.

I’ll post photos and stories after the event. If anyone happens to be going this year be sure to let me know in the comments! You can see this trip on my Dopplr and Upcoming accounts and, as usual, I’ll be updating on Twitter.