Cambridge Web Solutions Blog

1 June 2010

My first go on an iPad

Yesterday I ventured into Cambridge city centre with my wife and daughter.  We didn’t know where we were going when we set off we just knew we wanted to leave the house and go somewhere to take advantage of me being home for the bank holiday.  Cambridge was fairly quiet except when trying to park and in the one shop I wanted to go in, the Apple store.


I arrived at the Apple store to find lots of people gathered around one table, the iPad table. I spotted a place where the queue was less than three deep and there were two gentlemen with iPads who I thought would finish with them soon so I could have a look/play about with one.   I waited and waited, and waited.  Upon further inspection one was reading an entire copy of the Financial Times cover to cover, the other was on level 4 of a racing game and was using the iPad like a steering wheel.  After a further 10 minutes the gentlemen reading the FT decided he’d seen enough and put the iPad down on its attractive acrylic base.  I dived on it quickly as several other people who’d joined the queue well after me were eyeing it up.


The iPad was slightly smaller than I imagined, I thought it would be about the size of an A4 sheet of paper but it was more in between A4 and A5.  It was very lightweight and felt nice to hold.  I first tried the internet; I went straight to the Cambridge Web Solutions website to see how it looked on this lovely piece of new technology.  It looked just as I hoped and everything was where it was meant to be.  I also checked a few sites for clients just to make sure they were good too.  Surfing the internet was better than on the iPhone, there wasn’t as much pinching and zooming going on which made it quicker, I could read the text easily with the width of the website sized to the width of the iPad.


Next I tried the FT app, again it was easy to read with no zooming in and out and the navigation was intuitive.  Finally I had a quick go on the racing game the person to my left was still playing, I felt slightly silly using it as a steering wheel, especially as half the shop was staring at me.  I barely made it past the first corner when I remembered I still had 4 shirts to buy before my wife emerged from John Lewis with some wrapping paper.  I put down the iPad and hurried across the Grande Arcade to get some shirts.


Overall I like the iPad, it was easy to use, reading on it was clear and the text was a good size. I would like to buy one, however, I can’t think of any reasons to own one.  I have a MacBook for all of my work and an iPhone for apps, email, quickly browsing the internet and the occasional phone call.  The only thing the iPad would be better for is reading books which I don’t get a lot of time to do and when I do it’s usually whilst lying in bed.  £500 seems a bit excessive for something to read the occasional book whilst in bed.  If I still commuted to work on the train then I would perhaps have a use but at the moment I’m struggling to find one. 

Please email me with suggestions as to why I should buy one.

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15 May 2010

Facebook announces new security tool and new site launch

Has someone hacked your Facebook account?
Social networking website Facebook has announced a new tool that notifies you when your account is accessed from an unknown computer. It will either send you an SMS text message or an email.


If you receive a message telling you that your account has been accessed and it wasn’t you then you can act quickly by changing your password or contacting Facebook.


To enable the notifications you will be required to identify and register each computer you use to log into Facebook and tell whether it is a private or public computer.
The tool can be activated by going into your account settings.


iPhone  App of the week
The app I’ve been using most this week is actually a game.  Line Up2 is a similar game to Tetris but in my experience a lot more addictive.  The best thing about the app is that it is free and is fantastic for helping those long train journeys fly by.


Philippa Pearsons website has now been launched
Garden designer Philippa Pearson’s new website went live last week.  The site features a bespoke content management system which allows Philippa to update her own content.  The site also features several JQuery image galleries.  Philippa is currently working hard on her Victorian Aviary garden at this year’s RHS Chelsea flower show.

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23 April 2010

Google iPhone App, Ego iPhone App and a better way to make use of your car journeys.

Web news

Google confirms free turn-by-turn directions on the iPhone

Not long after I purchased a sat nav app for my phone as the pre-installed Google maps did not give turn-by-turn directions, Google is now going to release it for free.  We are not yet sure when Google will add this feature but knowing how quickly they usually work, it won’t be too long.

CWS News

This week I bought one of those devices that plays your phone/iPod music through your car speakers via the FM radio.  I also downloaded several business and web audiobooks and podcasts and have been listening to those in the car as I’m finding it harder to find time to sit down and read. It’s been very useful so far and for any other web people reading this I can highly recommend the Boagworld podcast.

Ego iPhone App

To continue this week’s iPhone themed blog, I have recently started to use an app called Ego.  Ego displays your visitor information from Google Analytics for all of your websites and can even give you information about your Twitter account quickly and easily.  It’s great for checking stats at a glance rather than logging into Analytics.

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