Will Francis

My Latest Posts For Brand Republic's Social Media Blog

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0100

In a bid to spread my blogging far and wide across the internet like a thick but rich pollutant I’ve become a contributor for Brand Republic’s ‘The Wall’ blog which covers the latest developments in social media, marketing and technology.

Here are my first posts. Please go and read them and more importantly share them. I will then love you for eternity :)

16th July 2010 - New Figures Suggest iPad Is Killing Netbook

19th July 2010 - Foursquare Eyes Search Engine Partnerships

New Xbox 360 S: [REVIEW]

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:40:00 +0100

So, after over five years the market leader (in serious gaming at least) gets it’s first major overhaul. New look and new good stuff under the hood.

I got my Xbox 360 S this week and immediately sat it next to my PS3 (original model). They go quite well together, and thank the Lord. The previous Xboxes have frankly been so ugly I’ve always tucked them away with other atrocities such as my Epson printer. But now, Microsoft have had the good sense to realise that people want to show this stuff off and that’s kind of hard if the device looks like something you bought off QVC to fritter pineapple rings or something.

Anyway, Lord Vader’s gaming station is now complete:

Tech Specs

OK, so it’s had a facelift but is it any better as a gaming machine? How does it compare to the Playstation 3 now?

Built In hard drive, Wi-Fi, full USB disc support… Check!

Well, there were a few things that really annoyed me about the Xbox 360 and with the arrival of a built-in, and swappable 250GB hard drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi and support for USB game save storage my main bugbears have evaporated (as you ask, the unwelcome survivors of the revamp in my opinion are: the massive power pack, a disc tray (disc trays? in 2010?) and the lack of Blu-Ray support).
The most important upgrade is by far the inclusion of 802.11n Wi-Fi (currently the fastest breed of Wi-Fi). I doubt many people previously went out and paid $60 for an additional wifi card, or happened to have their Xbox close to their wireless internet router at home so this addition will boost Xbox Live subscription and usage massively, which can only be good for the community. It’s five years late but at least it’s here. At last you can unbox your Xbox and start doing stuff with it right away (Xboxes have never come with demo discs as far as I know, which has no doubt led to many a frustrating Christmas Day).

Touch Sensitive Buttons

There are some other nice (PS3-esque) touches to this new piece of sleek black plastic. Like touch-sensitive power and disc tray buttons. Yes, the Xbox has arrived in the 21st Century and it’s loving it. Check out the videos below. I particularly like the sound the disc tray makes when it opens:

Whisper Quiet

They say it’s whisper quiet. You know how some people can’t whisper and just talk in a husky voice, still disturbing the people you’re desperately trying not to? Xbox 360 S is one of those. When you’re playing a game off a disc this thing churns loudly. Otherwise, it is pretty quiet. There’s less fan noise than previous models which could well be helped by the added ventilation grills in the casing.

USB Ports

As you can see in the photo below, there are three USB ports in the back. Along with the two out front that’s five places to stick your stick!

Compatibility

So there’s now no support for old Xbox 360 hard drives or memory cards, but we’re assured that it is in every other way backwards compatible. It’s also forwards compatible as it sports a Kinect port at the rear (see above next to the LAN port).

Conclusion

It feels like the Xbox 360 S is to Microsoft’s console line what the iPhone 3GS was to Apple’s mobile telephones. It’s the one that really works properly and is easy to set up and use. It’s the one that lives up to the hype. It’s the one you should get if you were in doubt. This major upgrade has made it very hard to choose between the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3 which had a major redesign in August 2009, the main benefit of which was a reduction in size and weight.

I’m just glad I have both, whilst it still feels like Playstation do the online services better and the PS3 is a more open platform with less hidden extra costs attached to it, the new Xbox 360 S makes for a very accessible and satisfying gaming, music and film experience. At $299 in the US and £199 in the UK it’s definitely worth owning.

iPhone 4: One Week Later [REVIEW]

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:12:00 +0100

After queuing last week at UK mobile phone carrier O2’s store on London’s Oxford Street for over 2 hours, I actually came away feeling a bit silly. As I weaved between the tourists, pigeons and ‘Golf Sale’ guys clutching my prize I thought to myself “I’ve just queued for 2 hours… for a mobile phone… have I gone crazy? Is my life so empty that I needed so badly to upgrade to the iPhone 4 today?”. Well yeah, it was. The internet was alight with debate around Apple’s new device so I couldn’t possibly miss out, the curve might get ahead of me!

So after over a week in possession of the latest shiny object to drop out of Cupertino, here’s how I got on with iPhone 4:

Speed

I upgraded from a two-year-old, jailbroken iPhone 3G so I was always going to be blown away by the speed. Nevertheless, it is impressive wherever you’re coming from. The speed has changed the way I rely on it (ie. even more). For instance I can open ‘Maps’, search a street and pinpoint where it is within a few seconds. No delay in opening the app, typing or locating me. This could take a whole minute on the 3G, now I can do it in just a few paces.

With Apple’s A4 processor and 512MB of memory it’s no surprise that this thing never stutters. Multitasking seems smooth and I’m yet to crash or freeze an app.

Screen

Amazing. When they made a song and dance about the screen at WWDC 2010, where the launch of iPhone 4 was announced, it seemed like a fairly trivial point to drive home. Apple call it ‘retina display’, which basically means that the pixels are so small and numerous that the eye can’t detect that your text and images are in fact made up of little blocks of colour. In practice this is a really important feature. It removes another barrier to the phone, making it easier on the eye, more readable and just looks gorgeous. Apps are starting to update to make use of the higher resolution (old apps look really pixelly on iPhone 4). Notable updates so far include Facebook, Foursquare, LinkedIn and Twitter.

One big ‘problem’ this brilliant display poses is that if you’re an iPad owner, your ‘revolutionary and magical’ device will start to feel a bit old-fashioned. The display is of course bigger but I started to notice that it was made up of pixels. I found the same thing when opening my MacBook Pro. This really highlights what a step-change Apple have brought about with retina display and we the consumer will no doubt start to demand imperceptibly high resolution from all our devices very soon.

Gyroscope

The accelerometer has always been more than satisfactory for me in terms of detecting movement on the iPhone, largely for the purpose of games, but Apple have fitted iPhone 4 with ‘Gyroscope’, an enhancement in tilt detection. This means incredibly accurate pinpointing of exactly how the iPhone is oriented in relation to the earth. This can be seen in updated shooter game ‘Gun Range’ which isn’t the best game in the world but demonstrates just how accurate the gyroscope is by relying on it to aim your weapon (instead of the old method of tapping the screen where you wish to shoot). Check out the game here.

Camera

This isn’t good news for my compact digital camera (a Canon Ixus 870 IS since you ask, and it takes nice shots for a compact). The iPhone 4 not only has a 5 megapixel sensor but the lens itself is bigger, taking richer-looking shots and working much better in low light. Throw in 720p video, iMovie (which is £2.99 in the app store and offers basic but decent editing functionality) and I think you really can leave that proper camera at home… unless you’re going out on a photography field trip.
The iPhone has also grown a second, front-facing camera which whilst not the same quality as the back camera is perfect for Apple’s new video-calling service FaceTime. To maintain a high-quality experience, Apple has restricted use of FaceTime to wifi connections, and having made Skype video calls through a tethered iPhone 3G I’m down with that. Until our mobile data networks can handle higher up and down speeds video calling will always produce Monet-esque results.

The Antenna Issue

There are enough column inches… and pixels written about the iPhone 4’s antenna problems. Suffice it to say that I find in strong reception areas it doesn’t matter how I hold the phone, but in weaker signal areas covering the bottom-left corner with my hand does make two or three bars disappear from the signal indicator. I love Apple (can you tell?) but some things they do royally piss me off. Like releasing new products and constantly being out of stock. Like rejecting perfectly good apps from the App Store whilst allowing that same store to be flooded with a long tail of dross. And like charging £25 (around $37) for a rubber band to put round your iPhone 4, which apparently helps with what is ultimately quite a big product fault. I can’t actually believe people are really buying them.

iOS4

The new operating system is awesome, offering a long line of small but welcome tweaks such as a new iPod interface, better typing correction, smoother GUI animations and many more. Probably most significant is multi-tasking which allows you to access an app menu and open a new app whilst already having an app open and seems to work well, though with the speed of the new iPhone, opening and closing apps is pretty swift anyway.
The great letdown with iOS4 is simply that it’s not available for the iPad until ’fall 2010’. Like many people I’m using my iPad as a replacement for lugging my MacBook Pro around town (nothing could replace it at home of course). But using the iPad as a business machine could really do with multitasking. Along with the relatively low-res screen this is another reason my iPad feels a bit ‘09 now.

In short and sweet conclusion, this is the iPhone you need to have. If you’re still clinging onto that Blackberry or Android, this is the mobile that I guarantee will make you forget all about your old brick. In my opinion this is the first iPhone that really lives up to the hype and now that we have a mature and thriving app store plus tons of websites optimised for it, the iPhone 4 really does stand clear above any other mobile phone, mp3 player or PDA. Just pack a fold-up chair and some lunch when you go to buy one :)

VIDEO: E3 Day 2 Round-Up

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 02:50:34 +0100

E3 Day 2 Photos

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 20:42:00 +0100

This morning saw me actually get out and play some games!! I combed the South Hall which is dominated by Xbox, Ubisoft, Konami and MTV/Harmonix making a total n0000000b of myself pretty much everywhere I went.

Nail’d on Xbox

I first played Nail’d, a Motorstorm-like dirt-racer only with even more mental landscapes. You weave through canyons, jump trains and dip through caves, kicking up mud, dust and stagnant water as you rip through an impressive landscape. At first the graphics engine seemed less polished than Motorstorm or Pure but as you play you really do become immersed in the unexpected twists and physics-defying jumps. Hit the nitro boost though and everything goes bleached-white and whizzes by, almost certainly ending in you getting, er, nail’d.

Next was a pretty awesome-looking sci-fi action first-person shooter called Vanquish, which you can see a gameplay trailer of here. Certainly as awesome was the life-size game character at the booth…

Vanquish Life-Size Character

Next was Pac-Man. Yes, the little pill-eating hedonist is still making waves hundreds of years after his first manifestation and is back with the must-have penthouse gadget. Throw the pool table away, this is Pac-Man Battle Royale!!!

Pac-Man Battle Royale Table-Top Arcade Awesomeness

More coming as I get it :)

Xbox Kinect Hands-On Event & Chat With Kudo Tsunoda

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:19:00 +0100

Last night (Monday 14th June) we went to a rooftop party courtesy of Xbox and their campaign around the release of Kinect, a peripheral for the console which allows you to control games with just your body. Cue flailing around and looking like a complete chump, albeit having a LOT of fun!

Playing Dance Central on Xbox 360 Kinect

Playing Joyride on Xbox 360 Kinect

KUDO TSUNODA CHAT

I also caught up with the man who led the development of Kinect, until Monday known as Project Natal, Kudo Tsunoda:

Will: How does Kinect compare with Wii

Kudo: I have nothing against the Wii, but you’re limited to controlling things with two hands. All those experiences you saw out there today like Kinetimals and Kinect Adventures you could never do on Wii. You can’t run down a track and physically jump hurdles with Wii. There’s a big difference between full body tracking and tracking two points in your hand. Besides that there’s the stuff that’s completely unique to Kinect not only in the video games industry but in any media right now such as the ability to control other entertainment like movies.

Also, one of our very new things is our human recognition system for Kinect which allows you to sign in just by standing in front of your Xbox. The way we use this aspect of the technology in games can be seen in Kinectimals where you adopt a pet and over time the pet gets to know you. If someone else comes in, the pet will react totally differently to them as it does to you so you’re able for the first time to build shared memories and shared experiences between you and an in-game character. Kinect is really different than anything you see out in the world right now.

Will: At E3 last year we saw quite a conceptual presentation of what was then known as Project Natal, with the little boy Milo being passed real-world objects which were then rendered in his world and a skateboarding game in which the player could scan their own skateboard in and skate it in-game. Will this bridging of the gap between real-world and in-game be seen in future Kinect releases?

Kudo: In Kinectimals you can get a plushy toy which Kinect recognises, allowing you to play Kinectimals with the toy right away. These are launch games that you see here and like any launch there will be much development along the way as developers figure out different ways of using it.

Will: Do you think indie game developers will be able to create more innovative and unusual applications for Kinect?

Kudo: For sure. Xbox has done a great job with XNA - http://creators.xna.com/en-GB/ - and Xbox Live Arcade games of allowing smaller developers to express themselves creatively on our platform. That’s something that’s very important to us and will be true of Kinect as well.

Will: Will there be games where you can use a controller and Kinect? For instance playing Call Of Duty with a controller and being able to lean round corners with your body.

Kudo: With the technology that’s possible for sure, you could lean round corners or throw grenades. But with our launch games we just wanted to maximise the full body tracking. With anything we’re doing on Xbox right now it’s about giving creative people the biggest palette of tools possible to make the best experiences, whether it’s a controller experience, a 100% controller-free one or mixing controller and Kinect technology [in the same game].

Will: How do you think Kinect will develop to please core gamers as well as families?

Kudo: Well, it’s funny because I’m a core gamer as well but what’s interesting is that somewhere along the way core gamers started getting defined by shooting things. But what core gamers really like is skill-based games and games with a lot of depth and Kinect is like bringing the arcade experience back to your home. The thing with arcades is because you’re putting your own money in, you need to be able to instantly learn how to play, ‘cos if it took you an hour to learn how to play it you would put one coin in and move onto the next machine. Core gamers loved arcades but not because they’re complicated, the controls were simple. They loved them because there’s a lot to learn and lots of depth. Really that’s what Kinect is doing. When we say we’re making approachable games it doesn’t mean we’re making games that lack skill and depth it just means you don’t have to spend an hour or two fighting the controller before you can enjoy the games. So I think Kinect will appeal to core gamers right away.

Sean Kingston MySpace Webchat: Watch Again

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:55:00 +0100

Why I Quit Foursquare and Gowalla (And You Will Too)

Sun, 30 May 2010 20:59:00 +0100

I recently had a look over my profiles on Foursquare and Gowalla (the latter always being my favourite on aesthetic grounds) and seeing my patterns of behaviour spelt out in check-ins made me feel a bit uneasy. Even though I was always careful to never check in at home, or any locations near home I could instantly see that every Saturday I go to the same organic deli. Once or twice a week I take a train from the same mainline train station. I’m the ‘mayor’ of the MySpace UK office and have made it clear which places in proximity to work I hang out at. Basically I’ve made it incredibly easy for people to find me. People who I do not know.

I get a lot of friend requests on Foursquare and Gowalla, all from people who are listed by their supposedly real names like Alex Hunt or Jenny Vergara, to take two random examples from my Gowalla friends. Despite the reality that they’re no less of a threat than if their handles were ‘s3ri4lki11er’ and ‘SocMedManiac666’ it feels fairly harmless to accept their requests because one imagines that they, like me, are just trying out this cool new thing and if they have iPhones and are into new social media fads they must be pretty harmless, right? Well, far be it from me to demonise the internet but we all know that the online revolution has been to paedos, murderers and stalkers what the advent of the chainsaw was to lumberjacks and whilst I can’t even say for sure what the real risks are to me of releasing this data, it just feels too much. And for what payoff?

People often ask me about social media, and the most common question, usually delivered in a fairly incredulous tone, is “why?”. When it comes to Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Tumblr etc the answers are easy because these services have such obvious benefits which when explained and demonstrated can fill even the most staunch Luddite with dumb wonder. My sister recently asked me why I use location-based services Foursquare and Gowalla. My honest reply was that location is a factor which is playing an increasingly significant role in social media so it is in my interest to know everything about it so that I may wield this new technology to further my own projects. Outside of this reason, I could not find any purpose for it whatsoever. This is not to say that I think LBS (location-based services) have no use or future, I think you can do amazing things with geodata such as The Museum of London’s ingenious ‘Street Museum’ app which, using the iPhone’s built in GPS and compass, can tell exactly where you are and which direction you’re facing and overlay old photographs from their archive over the physical scenery before you. You could expand that idea and have a location-based content-sharing network so people could leave media in places, or dump files. The possibilities in that area are endless and very exciting.

Now I do understand that the ‘check in, get points to beat your friends, get badges’ mechanic taps into what we call ‘game theory’ which dictates that if you give people things to do and rewards (even ones without any real value) they will have a natural compulsion to complete the tasks and collect the rewards. That’s great for Foursquare, the mechanic is getting people using their service in droves. But to what actual end? What use is any of this to its users? When I’m on my deathbed am I going to think to myself “what was this life all about? What did I do for the world? Oh, I got the ‘Douchebag’ badge and ten others on Foursquare! I wonder if I can check in at heaven’s gates… Byeeee!”. Probably not. You might of course be tempted to level this sort of trivialisation at tweets, blogs and shared photos or videos, but content and information sharing has some indubitably genuine value. It educates, informs, entertains and drives the effort to make the world a smaller, more accessible and hopefully democratic place. This, which was once referred to quite sincerely as ‘Web 2.0’, has truly driven a human revolution. Is checking in at McDonald’s this afternoon and earning the ‘Super Size Me’ badge supporting a crucial pillar of this step-change in human history?

OK, so I hear you thinking “what’s the alternative? How do we pull together groups or conversations around a geographic location?”. Call me old-fashioned but in my mind a tweet saying “having coffee at Frank’s café, a guy just walked in with a cat on a lead twitpic.com/xxxxx” is of more value than a check-in through Foursquare from that same place. Not only is Twitter a bigger, more established network and easier to access and use but you can now geotag tweets if you so wish. It’s first and foremost about the content, which is after all the important stuff, with location being one of several optional identifiers, or meta data, attached. Conversely the LBS is firstly about location and has barely begun to start implementing content-sharing. Furthermore, the hashtag is yet to be written off as a great way of stringing tweets together. Nothing beats it for conferences and events as it’s very easy to track, search for and generate RSS feeds from. So seriously, if anyone reading this can provide a solid explanation outlining why we need Foursquare and Gowalla I will literally check in at my own house with an attached photo of my stretched, Gowalla-branded scrotum.

Foals MySpace Webchat: Watch Again

Mon, 17 May 2010 18:19:00 +0100

The Oxford math-rockers dropped into the MySpace London office for a live webchat. Here are the highlights:

Apple Release iPad TV Ad

Thu, 13 May 2010 12:12:13 +0100

If this doesn’t make you want one I don’t know what will :P

Kids In Glass Houses MySpace Webchat: Watch Again

Mon, 10 May 2010 17:57:00 +0100

The Welsh rock phenomenons dropped into the MySpace London office for a live video webchat with yours truly :)

Watch Kids In Glass Houses Webchat on MySpace

Is Apple's UK iPad Pricing Taking The P***?

Mon, 10 May 2010 10:00:00 +0100

As Apple say on their site ‘an unbelievable price’. ‘Unbelievably frigging steep’ was my first thought on seeing what the much hyped iPads will be sold for in the UK from 28th May (pre-orders are now open)…

At first blush it looks like they’re massively taking the piss, and shooting themselves in the foot in a market where the price of the very cheapest iPad would get you a very decent netbook and the price of the highest-spec iPad would pretty much get you a MacBook or powerful PC laptop.

Let’s look at the UK prices alongside US ones (thanks to Trusted Reviews for this info):

16GB WiFi-only £429 (US: $499 = £339)
32GB WiFi-only £499 (US: $599 = £407)
64GB WiFi-only £599 (US: $699 = £475)

16GB WiFi+3G £529 (US: $629 = £428)
32GB WiFi+3G £599 (US: $729 = £496)
64GB WiFi+3G £699 (US: $829 = £564)

I personally think an iPad is far less valuable without 3G so will be plumping for the cheapest 3G model. The bummer is you can’t just import a 3G iPad from the US (e.g. using a service like BundleBox who allow you to buy stuff from America) like you can with a WiFi-only iPad because not only will you need the support of a local mobile phone carrier to provide data on the move but the iPad doesn’t take any old sim card. It takes microsim cards. Though there is one possible solution if you’re not willing to cough up £700 for being European. Fortunately one plucky chap has worked out that with a knife and a steady hand you can make your own microsim card for the iPad from any regular sim card, though I think I’ll stick to buying the 16GB WiFi+3G iPad when it launches.

Anyway, Steve Jobs has provided some explanation of the higher prices of the iPad in Europe. He says it is because of built-in taxes on products here as opposed to the sales taxes in the US which are added on top of the advertised price. He says:

Please educate yourself. UK prices must by law include VAT, which is around 18%. US prices do not include tax.

(thanks to MacRumours for the info)

That does even it up a bit. Though I still can’t help but feel that Apple have missed a trick here and should have taken a bit more of a hit on the price if they’re serious about the iPad becoming a ‘netbook killer’. For now the iPad will certainly remain a rich person’s toy.

Update: UK data prices are in and they are:

500MB per day = £2.00
1GB per month = £10.00
3GB per month = £15.00

200MB per day = £2.00
1GB per week = £7.50
3GB per month^{1 =}£15.00
10GB per month^{1 =}£25.00

250MB per month = £10.00
5GB per month = £25.00

My Week Offline

Sun, 09 May 2010 12:38:00 +0100

I’m back online after a whole week off work and without any tweets, blog posts, photo uploads or much action between me and the internet at all.

If you’re curious to know what it’s like to live without Facebook, Twitter, iPlayer, Digg or whatever it is that keep you stuck to your laptop in bed, at the dinner table, on the sofa, on the train and at work I urge you to give it a go. It really made me realise that amongst other things…

Social media is a means, not an end. I’ve always maintained this when referring to people who make social media their life, going to wanky conferences and ‘tweetups’ to try and talk to people who know less than them because it makes them feel better about their insignificant lives. But really stepping away from it for a week and seeing that it had no negative impact on my life drove the point home for me.
Making stuff with your hands is what we humans are designed to love doing. To my shame I’ve not really created much in the physical world in recent years. In my week off I redecorated my house (well, half of it) and was reconnected with the primal joy of just making stuff with my bare hands.
Of course there was the odd “should that tile be 3 pixels to the left?” and “can I buy some #ffffff paint please mate? Actually make that #f7f4ea….er… I mean magnolia” moments but I didn’t miss the certainty and consistency of virtual objects and processes, run perfectly every time and rendered on a pixel-perfect LED screen. Now I see why men hit their thirties and start wanting to build their own house.
Email will never die. There are people who see email as a relic from phase one of the internet, soon to be usurped by messaging tools provided in social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. I see that messaging functionality within other services as a passing trend, particularly with the increasing security concerns that are being aroused by the likes of Facebook. When it comes down to it, you can’t beat email and phone (or Skype).

This doesn’t mean to say I’m ditching social media in any way. The week has merely served to recalibrate my use of it. I will be resuming service on my Twitter, Flickr, MySpace, willfrancis.com, Tumblr and the rest from the minute this blog post goes live :)

iPhone 4G Coming on 7th June

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 14:32:00 +0100

The press release below just came out of Apple HQ and judging from the annual cycle of product releases that has developed over recent years this is where we’ll see the new iPhone, a prototype of which was dropped in a bar in California recently by a hapless Apple employee and sold to tech blog Gizmodo. We might also see future versions of Apple software released along with updates on iPad development.

PRESS RELEASE

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Kicks Off June 7 in San Francisco

CUPERTINO, California-April 28, 2010-Apple® today announced that it will hold its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) June 7 through June 11 at San Francisco’s Moscone West. The five-day conference includes the first ever iPad™ development sessions and hands-on working labs for iPhone® OS 4, as well as Mac OS® X core technology labs.

“This year’s WWDC offers developers in-depth sessions and hands-on working labs to learn more about iPhone OS 4, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” said Scott Forstall, Apple’s senior vice president of iPhone Software. “WWDC provides a unique opportunity for developers to work side-by-side with Apple engineers and interface designers to make their iPhone and iPad apps even better.”

WWDC 2010 is focused on providing advanced content for skilled developers across five key technology tracks: Application Frameworks; Internet & Web; Graphics & Media; Developer Tools; and Core OS. Apple engineers will deliver over 100 solutions-oriented technical sessions and labs. WWDC 2010 gives an incredibly diverse community the opportunity to connect with thousands of fellow iPhone, iPad and Mac® developers from around the world.

Sessions offered in support of the five technology tracks include:

* Application Frameworks: Implementing Local and Push Notifications; Future Proofing Your App; Understanding Foundation; What’s New in Foundation for iPhone OS 4; Advanced Cocoa® Text Tips and Tricks; API Design for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch®; Advanced Gesture Recognition; Integrating Ads with iAd; Building a Server-driven Personalized User Experience; Using Core Location in iPhone OS 4; and Calendar Integration with Event Kit.

* Internet & Web: Delivering Audio and Video Using Web Standards; Getting the Most Out of Safari® Integrated Developer Tools; Using HTML5 Local Data Storage; Adding Touch and Gesture Detection to Webpages on iPhone OS; and Creating Info Graphics with Standard Web Technologies.

* Graphics & Media: OpenGL ES Tuning & Optimization; OpenGL ES Shading & Advanced Rendering; OpenGL ES Overview for iPhone OS; OpenGL for Mac OS X; Game Design and Development for iPhone OS; Introduction to Game Center; Setting Up Games on Game Center; Game Center Techniques; Core Animation in Practice; Discovering AV Foundation; Editing Media with AV Foundation; and Advances in HTTP Live Streaming.

* Developer Tools: Developer Tools Overview; Designing Apps with Interface Builder; Working Effectively with Objective-C® on iPhone OS; Mastering Core Data; Advanced Objective-C and Garbage Collection Techniques; Advanced Performance Analysis with Instruments; Mastering Xcode for iPhone Development; and Adopting Multitasking on iPhone OS.

* Core OS: Network Apps for iPhone OS; Core OS Networking; Creating Secure Apps; Developing Apps that Work with iPhone OS Accessories; I/O Kit Device Drivers for Mac OS X; and Simplifying Networking Using Bonjour®.

Additionally, there will be five iPad and five iPhone Apple Design Award winners announced at WWDC 2010. There is no requirement to enter and winners will be selected from the App Store based on criteria that includes design, technical excellence, innovation, quality, technology adoption and performance.

Visit the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference 2010 website for registration and more details at developer.apple.com/wwdc.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution with the Apple II, then reinvented the personal computer with the Macintosh. Apple continues to lead the industry with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system, and iLife, iWork and professional applications. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store, has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and has recently introduced its magical iPad which is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices.

How To Add New Facebook 'Like' Button To Your Blog or Tumblr

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:12:00 +0100

So Facebook have announced their new web-wide ‘Like’ button. Expect to start seeing it appear in blog posts and next to products, photos, music tracks, eventually every piece of content on the internet! As a blogger they make it very easy for your readers to promote your blog to their friends so here’s how to add it.

There doesn’t seem to be a simple step-by-step guide on the web so I’m writing this, particularly for Tumblr users but it will apply to other platforms too…

STEP 1:

Copy this code:

Paste it into the head of your blog theme HTML (i.e. somewhere after and somewhere before ) and customise it. The first tag will dictate how the post title appears on Facebook. The second tag dictates how your site name appears on Facebook. The third tag is an image that represents your blog. It doesn’t seem like this is turning up anywhere at the moment but you may as well put it in.

STEP 2:

Copy the code below and paste it into your theme code so it appears in the footer of each post (i.e. somewhere after {/block:More} and somewhere before {block:Permalink} if you’re using Tumblr):

You can play with the width to make the text appear as one or more lines.

STEP 3:

Save your theme changes and check out your blog. You can see an example in the footer of this very post :)

For more info from Facebook go here and to see the first major app to use this ‘Like’ information visit http://likebutton.me/ which will show what stuff your friends have been liking lately.

Adam Lambert MySpace Webchat: Watch Again

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:00:00 +0100

The American Idol star overcame clouds of volcanic ash to visit our rainy little country. Fortunately he popped by the MySpace London office while he was here for a live video webchat with his fans :)

My Interview In Front Magazine

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 15:10:43 +0100

The guys at Front Magazine - myspace.com/frontmag - asked me a few questions and it’s in the mag which is out on news stands now!

Best Eyjafjallajokull Volcano Images and Videos

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 16:21:00 +0100

Fortunately I’ve not had to fly anywhere in the last few weeks so have been pretty much unaffected by the air travel chaos that stemmed from volcanic eruptions in Iceland (apart from rescheduling my MySpace Live Video Webchat with Adam Lambert which happened yesterday instead of Wednesday). So the best thing about the whole situation has been the torrent of amazing images showing the eruptions.

Here are my favourites:

PHOTOS:

The volcano in southern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull glacier sends ash into the air just prior to sunset on Friday, April 16, 2010. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)

Eyjafjallajokull volcano billowing smoke and ash on April 17, 2010. (HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP/Getty Images)

Lightning streaks across the sky as lava flows from a volcano in Eyjafjallajokul April 17, 2010. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

The Northern Lights are seen above the ash plume of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano on April 23rd (REUTERS/Ingolfur Juliusson)

Children play in a car as their parents clean up ash in Yrti Skogar (REUTERS/Ingolfur Juliusson)

The ash plume of southwestern Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano streams southwards over the Northern Atlantic Ocean in a satellite photograph made April 17, 2010. (REUTERS/NERC Satellite Receiving Station, Dundee University, Scotland)

VIDEOS:

Also, National Geographic have some pretty cool stuff here :)

Ricky Gervais / Stephen Merchant MySpace Webchat: Watch Again

Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:29:00 +0100

London to Bridgend: Our Journey to Bullet For My Valentine's House

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:33:00 +0100

This was our first live video webchat outside of the MySpace London office. And we didn’t just go to a studio down the road in Soho, we went out of the office with a trip to a remote hill lodge in rural South Wales. Read the full story below…

We set off at 10am from Oxford Street in London in a rented VW minibus, within less than 50 yards of the office we hit a solid steel bollard. The bollard was the square, ribbed kind, and the corners scored parallel lines deep into the steel of the vehicle as we crunched through, messing up the left rear door so it wouldn’t open.

We had no time to spare so battle-scarred we followed the car-rental-supplied Garmin SatNav’s directions which, it soon became apparent, were sending us in circles around the block next the the office. Tom, who had gallantly offered to be driver, took control from the SatNav and freestyled his way out of London onto the open motorway. We turned on the Garmin again and followed its suggested route down A-roads and through the pretty towns and villages of Southern England. About half-way through the journey it became apparent that HAL 9000’s little sister was messing with us. Having sent us on the decidedly scenic route thus far the terse voice in the little black box uttered her last directive and died. Sadface.

So with our iPhones we ‘Google Mapsed’ it for a little while on the more expedient M4 motorway until we hit a closure due to what turned out to be a really bad crash. The crash scene left us in gridlock followed by messy small-road driving for most of the remaining journey from Cardiff to Port Talbot and we were forced to push the time of the webchat half an hour later to 5:30pm. It never feels good to admit defeat and re-schedule something like that but despite our best efforts to get there with plenty of time we had lost our battle with time and space.

At 5pm we finally hit Port Talbot near Bridgend where the band originate from. Flanked by sea and hills it should in theory be an idyllic place but like many towns where the forests, mountains and hills loom in every view, it has a palpable undertone of darkness. Down in the town the house fronts have the complexion of ill people and they are overshadowed on one side by ominous dark pinewood hills and on the other side by a vast, sprawling steel plant which spews out flames and smoke all day and night (apparently air pollution levels regularly exceed legal limits). Driving up to the hills we arrived at Matt Tuck’s newly built lodge in an exclusive development. We knew which was his place because there were fancy cars outside, exactly the type that a rock star would buy. We parked up and met the mild-mannered Matt who was there with his wife and fortnight-old baby boy as well as the other three members of BFMV (from left to right in the video below they are Matt, J, Moose and Padge).

The two-hand production team set up in the half hour they were afforded, struggling with home broadband, a baby monitor that shared frequencies with our mics and the rush to go live. At a little after 5:30pm we pushed the button and were live to the world. That in itself felt like an achievement.

Having spent little more than an hour at his house we said our farewells to Matt, his family and his band, shackled ourselves back into the minibus and set off home.

Before crossing the border back into England we stopped at a motorway service station, having already skipped the previous three based on the food brands present. Every second service station on the M4 it seems is a ‘Welcome Break’ with a ‘Coffee Pronto’ cafe. We agreed that without the pressure of being part of a large well-known chain it was likely that their standards were biohazard-level. We settled for one based around a Travelodge with a Burger King and a Coffee Republic. On arrival in the car park we were faced with a group of around ten men all of a similar body type (short, stocky, big belly) stood chatting in front of a row of around ten identical Vauxhall cars (note for non-Brits: Vauxhalls are pretty much the most average, uninteresting cars you can buy in the UK). As we walked into the station we passed a second meetup but couldn’t discern what these men were meeting about. Is that normal at service stations?

Service stations have always fascinated me. They’re a bit like airports in that they aren’t really anywhere. They’re non-places bereft of soul or heritage. With their dated furniture and decor from a time of optimism around travel (before environmentalism or 9/11) they feel like a glimpse into another world. They always seem to comprise of motel, fast food joint, coffee outlet, idiosyncratically stocked convenience store and finally an amusement arcade with fruit machines and video games. The little arcade always seems to include a driving game. I can’t decide if that’s bad because the last thing people should be doing when taking a break from driving is driving or because the last thing you want your fellow motorway drivers to have just spent 15 minutes doing is driving like a maniac in a virtual, no-risk environment.

Anyway, we finished our lazily put together Burger King meals and made our way back into England and home. M4 all the way. I guess the lesson here is never trust SatNav alone and always take the motorway!