Genius playlist not appearing

Since the 5.0.1 iOS release, the Genius playlist function has disappeared from some iPhone owners iPhones. It is suspected that is is related to iTunes Match, however iTunes Match has not been turned on, on the device that is experiencing difficulties. The Genius playlist was available before the 5.0.1 software upgrade.

One chap thinks he has found a work around...

1) Select a song to play in Music (must be a song downloaded to the iPhone, not streamed)
2) Once it starts, close Music (home button)
3) Kill Music (app launcher)
4) Restart Music (will open to the song you had playing before)
5) Atomic symbol re-appears...

Another fix someone found whilst navigating the Apple Support communities is to turn off Match on the iPhone...

Also note;

- Apple does officially state this in the iTunes Help: "Note: If you subscribe to iTunes Match, Genius is turned off"
- Another user said; "I'm seeing the same thing. When I disabled Match on my phone this morning, the Genius functionality came back. Re-enabled Match, Genius disappeared. What a bummer."

So the Apple engineers are on the bug, Genius does not work if using iTunes Match and there are some potential workarounds, I do hope that helps. I'd love to hear if you're experienced something similar or found a workaround.

Location:Southend

Upgrading from iPhone 4 to 4S

Upgrading from iPhone 4 to 4S? There's a few questions you may have that Google and the Apple support site don't seem to answer. Here is a break down of the steps you may follow in order to do the upgrade;

1) Upgrade to the latest iTunes on your Mac or PC, it's a good idea to have the latest iTunes software to work with.

2) Do a full backup of the iPhone in iTunes, by connecting the phone using the appropriate cable and right clicking the iPhone icon, and clicking "backup now". Alternatively do an iCloud backup (I have not tested that approach).

3) Swap over the SIM from your 4 to your 4S before setting up the new phone. It's important to do this step first as the new phone won't be setup-able unless you complete this step upfront.

4) Once you connect your new 4S to iTunes you will be given the choice to restore from the backup you just did, go ahead and proceed! This is the right way and is the next stage to the procedure. Here we have to remain calm and patient. The onscreen prompts on iTunes and the iPhone indicate the progress. I found the first stage took no more than about 20 minutes to 1/2 hour.

5) Once rebooted and complete it will appear in iTunes once more and now be without all your apps, media and music. To sort this out you will want to kick off a sync if one hasn't already begun.

6) It's the next phase now, and one which can be left alone for an hour and a half or so, in order for all your content to be copied over. There is no user interaction required so why not take the opportunity to spend some time with your love ones?

TIP) Whilst syncing these days, a little circular arrowy rotating icon appears in the status bar, as the sync progresses in the background. That's right you can use your phone whilst the sync proceeds! Avoid disappointment of missing content and waiting for this to finish is advisable in my opinion.

7) Once the sync is complete, all is awesome, you are ready to go... Almost. Wifi and Twitter passwords will need to be re-entered. So will other logins for other apps, so bare with this, once over this final hurdle you are all set, welldone! Have a celebratory cup if tea.

One more thing) Where is Siri? Don't worry, go into your settings and you can activate your handy assistant with a few touches of the screen. DONE!

Enjoy your 4S you lucky so and so!

Location:UK

What's going on with the X Factor

What a strange week, after sillily booting off 2 contestants last week, they had to chuck out Frankie, mid-week, for drug taking... Thus leaving them with only 6 contestants with 7 weeks to go.

Okay I have 2 issues; firstly on Saturday they tried to cover up the Frankie thing, and say he decided to leave the competition... My second issue is that on voting Amelia back in, she was then immediately up for the public vote. I thought this was unfair, she should have a free week. It would have been embarrassing if she'd been back for only 1 night... Anyway she's staying in thankfully.

And what was the power cut technical difficulties about last night, and why did they not put up a message saying that. And who new the BT Tower had so much control over itv's live TV output. Publicity stunt?

Views are my own

I have been trained by my company to inform you that I work for a large multinational automotive company and that I speak for myself and not that company.

All views I express on-line are my own and not the views of this company.

Post from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ simultaneously

Brilliant, I just got iStatus+ which allows you to post your status from Facebook, Twitter and Google+ simultaneously on your iOS device, and it works really well!


Download it now from the Appstore;
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/istatus-for-g-fb-and-twitter/id462309198?mt=8&ls=1

Enjoy!

All you can eat breakfast

This morning I had an all you can eat breakfast at Toby Carvery in Basildon's Festival Leisure Park. I'll give it 7 / 10. The restaurant is lovely and so are the staff - so there is good service. However the availability of the food, quality of the food and value for money weren't as good as I would have hoped.

When I went up they had nearly run out of plates. And a number of the things they had run out of or were running low on e.g. no fried eggs, tomatoes, running low on bacon and potato. But I guess I came at the wrong time, and they did quickly replenish most of the items.

The bacon was nice, but I would have preferred it to be less fatty and more crispy. The sausage was okay, fried egg was good, and so was the potato, hash brown, and beans and black pudding. However the scrambled egg was horrible. Overall the breakfast wasn't quite as nice as I would have liked it. For example the bacon and the fried eggs were very fatty. There doesn't appear to be a help yourself continental breakfast / cereal -  I would have loved some granola and yoghurt.

Then the value - I asked for both coffee and orange, thinking it would be inclusive in the price for the breakfast - well it wasn't. So above the basic price of the breakfast it ended up being quite expensive.

However the food is okay, some of it very nice. But with the really nice surroundings and service I think it would be a nice venue to take a group of mates for a cooked breakfast. I intend to eat there again. It isn't as good as the Grand Lux in the Venetian in Vegas though :-(

Tips on jetlag

Vegas is 7 hours behind us the UK during the summer... On getting to Vegas, we stayed awake until 18.00 when we went to bed. Which is 1.00am back home.

It seemed like a good idea, but I then woke up at 21.30 and every two hours afterwards until 3.30am when none of us could get back to sleep. So we had to wake up, and then stayed awake until 3.30am the next morning.

So mistake one was to go to bed at 18.00.... I think I should have stayed awake until 22.00 or later - 5.00am back home. Then I would have slept more appropriately....

Then for the next 4 days I stayed awake in the day and wasn't getting much sleep at night, then on Wednesday I crashed and ended up nappimg early evening, and then going to bed at 22.00 for 12 hours.

Tip 2 is to have an hours kip in the afternoon everday - which I did after Wednesday and I felt much better.

In coming back I changed my clock to UK time when I boarded the plane, so suddenly it was 1.00am, then I tried to sleep, and I slept on and off for the next 6-10 hours. So when I got to UK I stayed up for the rest of the day and got an early night.

Unfortunately I was at work the next day and had to be up at 7.00am. Tip 3 would be to have the day off after returning home, in order to get enough sleep for the rest of the week - as I couldn't wake up the rest of the week, after lying in the following weekend my sleeping patterns are back to normal, phew.


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Mayorships in Foursquare

After much persuasion from a friend I am back on Foursquare. 2 weeks ago I had no mayorships, now I've got 9. Awesome! I'm addicted.






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iOS 5 next steps

So I'm on GM for iOS 5, I need to work out how to get to the actual full release version, as the software update, over the air does not give me the possibility to upgrade. I also need to find out when betageddon will happen for the GM; I can't just stay on it.

So newsstand doesn't work on GM so I want to upgrade for that reason too.

As far as MobileMe and iCloud is concerned - I need to upgrade Mac OS X on my MacBook Pro, I need to upgrade to iOS5 on my iPad, and I need to migrate my mobile me account to iCloud. Fingers crossed this all goes smoothly. I only want to upgrade to iOS 5 on my iPad if all the multitask gestures are still there (that were removed from the last release, which I avoided upgrading to).

Also I have duplicates of all my contacts on the iPhone, due to trying to fix the contacts deletion that happened with one of the beta upgrades. I need to work out how to get rid of the duplicates, should I try and do it before or after? I think I should probably try and do it after, but will google for some advice.


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Anki for learning stuff

Anki is one of the best apps I've ever bought. I'm using it to learn German vocab, but it can be used to learn any kind of set of facts and any other languages.

What it gives you is flash cards, and once flipped you need to answer when you should be tested on that card again. Soon mrans you don't know it or got it wrong, then it will say in 1, 2, 3 days or more. As you learn the facts/words you can get them repeated further and further in the future.










It's also very easy to add new cards/facts.






Note there is a central repository of sets of cards that people have added on all different subjects, which you can easily download.

Over time you will be tested on cards as they are repeated after an appropriate duration, and you can customise how many new cards you get per day.

There is an app for iPad and iPhone and a website, all the cards and sets of cards are stored on the website and sync with your devices. The app is quite expensive - about £16 but it is absolutely brilliant, the website is free.

I'm using it for vocabulary building and it's really working. The important thing is that you do it little and often - so I have a recurring task every day to spend at least 10 minutes testing myself on those cards for the day.

Only problem is when I went on holiday I ended up with a backlog of 100-200+ cards to test for each set. To avoid this, before taking a break, you could turn down the number of new cards per day to zero.

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My cat's on Facebook!

In Vegas we had an idea, a Facebook page for my cat. So last night I set one up.


First I had to find an alternative email address to use. And then it blocked the name "Sassy"... So I had to use the name "Sassee" instead, which is close enough :-)

Now Sassy is going to be able post comments about her cushty life to Facebook :-)

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I didn't enjoy driving this evening

I didn't enjoy driving this evening. When I came onto the A127 london bound the traffic on the slip road suddenly dropped its speed from 50 to 30 as I was looking over my shoulder at the blind spot. I had to swerve and emergency break in order to avoid an accident.

Then as I was driving by a parking pay someone opened their door and I very nearly hit the door.

And then on the A127 southend bound, coming off at Basildon the traffic dramatically came to a stand still, I reacted okay and slowed in time, the van next to me didn't and hit the car in front. It was horrible watching it! Not a heavy collision, but both vehicles are going to need work :-(

Omg, and 3 lots of ambulances passed me at different times on different roads. Yep, problems on the roads tonight, I'm a bit nervous about driving tonight, but luckly no issues for me, touch wood.


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The Keevan (me) list - Vegas challenge

The brief, starting at 8.00pm at the main entrance of Paris casino carry out the below challenges within 2 hours, returning to the start point and providing the necessary evidence. As an incentive my mate Dave wagered if I did it he'd give me $100 to play on black.

1 - Botanical gardens at Bellagio
2 - Eiffel Tower (go to the top) at Paris
3 - drink at Duelling Pianos in Paris
4 - get a chip from Planet Hollywood
5 - Take a picture of the 777 burger on a menu near Paris
6 - watch the fountains at Bellagio from outside and tell us what song played
7 - find the massive bell with the crack in the Bellagio
8 - find the toilets in Paris that have the French chat up lines
9 - find a picture of you in front of jubilee poster in Ballys
10 - a tacky French sovenier from Paris

Solution / How I did it (1hour 55min) - spoiler alert!

Straight to the entrance to the Eiffel Tower restaurant to ask how to get to the top, they directed me to the escalator directly across, the lady at the escalator told me I needed a ticket from the gift shop, so enter I do and purchase a $15.50 standard ticket, she tells me there will be a 30min wait, eek.

So a big hint is to get this out of the way early on; so I queued. Whilst waiting I thought I'd ask others in the queue if they knew when the duelling pianos was going to be on, they didn't know. So I asked the lift attendant and she said open from 9pm in Napolean's and gave me the general directions from the balcony.

Eventually, after 1/2 hour I got the lift up, took some shots up there, looking really worried, and headed for the lift back down.


But holy crap, if there's a queue to go up, then there's going to be a queue to go down, argh!! So I had to wait 25 minutes in the queue, holding on to the railing for dear life, whilst not looking down, and the horizon starting to bob up and down, whilst chanting in my head "it's safer than a helicopter, it's safer than a helicopter" :-) I also passed the time asking other queuees about the Bellagio fountain, and they told me the music is always different. I didn't appreciate the guy behind me's detailed description of the Tower of Terror ride at Disney Land!!! Then I rode the lift down, so number 2 DONE.

On reaching the bottom I needed a loo break, so could I get lucky with number 8? No. Off to the Bellagio, I couldn't tell where I was in Paris, or where the Ballagio bridge was, so I bolted to the nearest exit, and had to wait for 5 minutes for the traffic lights to let me cross (I was now running everywhere Challenge Anneker style!) Right perfect timing for Bellagio fountain to start, wow it looked spectacular, but what the hell was the song? Asking two other fellow foutain watchers the conclusion was that it was "some symthony", probably from Fantasia. I got a video of it, but would my friends be happy with that evidence, I was going to have to catch the next performace.

So I needed to be quick in order to find the botancial gardens and the bell before the next fountain performance in about 15 minutes.

Before the foutain show ended I realised there was an awful lot of people in the small walkway between me and the Bellagio!!! So run I did again, and I made it there just before it finished, phew. Into the Bellagio, where on earth is the botancial gardens and the bell? Well I got lucky again, a head of me was a wonderful fairytale inside garden feature surrounded by shops, with spectacular lighting, called the conservatory. But was this the botanical gardens? I needed proof, I found a shop with a unbusy shopkeeper and asked, she kindly pointed out when I asked if it was the botanical gardens that "Darlin' you're here", and I double checked there was definitely nowhere else in the Bellagio that could be called "the botanical" gardens. A few pictures and number 1 DONE!


And where the hell is the bell? Off I went to find one of the concierge staff to find out. " Sir, we rotate the displays in the Bellagio, that is no longer displayed". Okay, Dave had already foresaw this happening and told me the giant vase was sufficient proof. We'd walked past that in the morning, so I knew where that was! A few snaps and number 7 DONE!



Out the Bellagio, there's a bridge to Bally's, whoop - perfect! And a view of the Fountain display, and it's just starting. This time it's playing "Hey Big Spenda", no mistakes this time, number 6 DONE! You can see the video here; Bellagio Foutain Video on YouTube

Across the bridge there is a can-can dancer poster, but it doesn't say "Jubilee". Damn. Right time for more Anneka running along the escalator walkway, and a lot of "excuse me"s to the people in front. At the end of the escalator is a Jubilee poster, brilliant. But the front facing camera exposes me wrongly and doesn't get enough of the poster in, I managed to convince a fellow tourist to stop and take my picture. This involved coaching the fella how to take a picture on the iPhone, but number 9 DONE!


Now back to Paris ASAP! Run, run, run. Into Paris I know the duelling pianos started at 9, so I must find them, I don't know how long I've got! I know the general direction from earlier, run, run, run - are you allowed to run in a casino? Entering an arcade of shops, quick shop break to ask where the piano bar / Napoleans is. She didn't speak good english! But I managed to get directions. Run, run, run. Found it! The pianos are playing! I order a Budweiser, not cheap, take a photo...damn exposure is wrong, you can't see the bottle. I look for a lighter part of the bar and employ some flash. Time for a well deserved 10 minute break for a beer and to enjoy the pianos.


Number 3 DONE!

Now to get the chip from Planet Hollywood, am I nearby? Better ask. No I'm not near by. Run, run, run. Back to the strip, and onto Planet hollywood, avoiding the street dancers, tick-tick guys, nightclub promoters and large amount of crowds. Right there's a big 6 wheel; perfect. $5 dollars please; five $1s. "ID please". ID?! But I've got no passport!! Only my drivers license, and they didn't accept that in one place. Hmm she wasn't liking it, I asked her to ask her boss, so he came over and he was fine with it. Phew!! 4 $1s on a few bets, but sadly no dice :-( Number 4 DONE!


Right, back to Paris. Two left; 777 burger and chat up lines toilet. I'm heading to the Eiffel Tower restaurant lift in order to get my barings, then I realise I've actually got 3 left! I'd forgot about the tacky present and I've only got 15 minutes left!!! Okay, get the souvenir job 1. I ask the nearest dealer where is the nearest casino - "off by the escalator over there" entering the gift shop there's a massive queue, back out and there's another gift shop with no queue, phew. Omg none of the souvenirs are tacky!! Panicing now, then by the till, a tacky pink vegas paris eiffel tower pen, perfect!!


Number 10 DONE! 2 left.

Over to the Eiffel tower entrance, I'm sure I saw an ad here, but no ad... I ask the greeter and he is brilliant, he know's about the burger, doesn't think he's seen an ad, and gives me directions to the Burger Brasserie restaurant selling it - but it's back at Bally's, argh!! He's so helpful I ask about the toilet with the chat up lines, he gives me directions and says it might not be turned on, and that I should check with the toilet assistant. I get there. There are no chat up lines, but it's the right toilet - they're not turned on.


Then I take a picture outside the toilet, and get some questions from a couple asking why the hell I'm photographing a toilet, after explaining the challenge they still look a bit confused. Number 8 DONE. Now off to Bally's to find that burber... Last challenge!

I find the Burger Brasserie restaurant. No burger ads. I ask the greeter, she confirms no ads and no pictures on the menu. I ask to photograph the menu text, but she says it's not written on the menu, even though you can order it. Right, how am I going to get evidence? I ask her to write it on a napkin; details of the 777 burger - she's somewhat apprehensive, lucky a colleague come's over and she is much more accommodating, I explain the challenge, and she encourages the greeter to write the details on a beer matt. I also use my persuasive powers to get her to write that it is not available on the menu.





So number 5 DONE! No more challenges left, so with 5 minutes to spare I made it to the meeting point, with all the evidence. Damn I did it Dave thought, and he handed over the $100 bill. I placed it on black and it came in ;-)



A crazy, fun and stressful way to kill 2 hours in Vegas, and get a load of sightseeing done!


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Location:Vegas

Virgin Premium lounge at Gatwick

I'm sitting in the premium lounge at Gatwick airport, the Virgin Clubhouse, in advance of my flight. And its really good, a much nicer way of waiting for the plane.

So I have had a club breakfast, which was a lovely cooked english breakfast - very nice. Drinks, lattes and even a bellini. Also I had a fruit salad.

They've got free wifi which is excellent, plus the staff are very good; extremely professional and friendly too.

I am flying with Virgin economy, but for £45 I got access, and everything is inclusive. Which is wonderful. You can even get your back massaged, and I got my shoes cleaned!

Yes, a very nice way to start the plane journey!


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Location:Queen's Gate Rd,Crawley,United Kingdom

X Factor

The new format is getting on my wick, for the auditions you can go 10-15 min with ONE audition, and then an ad break! I wish they'd cut down on the back stories and sob stories. I don't care. Its even worse when after the auditions they've obviously gone to their house and recorded some of their back story.

Can we have less fake crying from the judges as well please?; it's obvious that eye drops have been used as the tears are coming from the middle of the eye and not the corners.

Anyway despite the programme making me angry I can't stop watching it, its one of the shows I have to watch.

I'm so into it I've setup an X Factor sweepstake at work, the winner gets £16! I've got Sami, so I think I stand a chance. I'm a little concerned about the "big twist" this week... I hope they don't have a mass voting off in the first week. Other guesses are, Simon Cowell or Sheryl Cole coming back, or the categories are swapped so all the judges get one from each category. We'll see. If its a mass voting off I'll have some very unhappy colleagues in the sweepstake at work!

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iPhone prediction

So to one of my mates at work I made a prediction about the iphone 5... ahem... iPhone 4S. Look how close I was;

Gordon, Kevin (K.) [13:44]:
1. iOS 5; Already announced
2. Larger screen (same resolution); No
3. Intelligent bevel/home button; No
4. No redesign - looks the same as iPhone 4 (so its a 4S); Spot on!
5. 8 megapixel camera; Yes!
6. Assistent / text input that hasn't yet been part of ios beta; Siri, Yes!
7. Faster processor; Yes!
8. 64gig option; Yes!
9. No wires (doesn't need itunes); Already announced as part of iCloud.
10. iCloud; Already announced


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No iPhone 5; iPhone 4S opinion

It felt like an anti-climax that there was no iPhone 5, but the 4S is in fact quite awesome;

- Siri looks simply amazing - a voice controlled assistant that seems extremely powerful
- Much faster cpu
- Amazingly faster graphics performance
- Amazingly better camera - 8mega pixel, better lens and lighting, facial recognition, rapid snap speed, access to camera from locked screen, physical shutter button (volume +)
- Records 1080p video
- Better antenae and wireless to allow faster download speed and up to double theoretical upload speed
- No wires required to setup or sync
- iCloud - so cloud backup, wireless syncing of media, find my phone, image streaming, documents syncing
- Reminders - brill, it was the missing app and it can remind you based on arriving and leaving a location, not just time based
- Notifications centre and widgets and banners - This is simply superb, makes it a pleasure to use and when you've got multiple email, texts, tweets and Facebook messages it makes handling the incoming tide great fun!
- Notifications on the lock screen, very useful for seeing you're latest messages and such without unlocking the phone
- Twitter integration - very nice to allow easily tweeting links, photos and locations
- Reader in Safari - store webpages up for reading later, might be useful
- Cards - create and send cards to people around the world at a reasonable price. Interesting but a card shop usually works for me fine...
- Find My Friends -Keep track of friends locations (who share it with you) just like a very useful app by my friend David de Niese
- Enhanced game centre - I don't really use this much so I probably won't notice these enhancements too much.
- Newsstand - Download newspapers and magazines - I'm looking forward to this.

I was initially disappointed I didn't see an iPhone 5 with larger screen and NFC. But the combination of hardware and software improvements is an awesome proposition. If you're on anything earlier than an iPhone 4 I highly recommend buying this.


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Awesome media server setup

Above is the media server setup I have setup. I currently stream to the PS3 and the iPad. PS3 Media server handles the streaming to the PS3 over the home starter kit network connection over my house's electrics. Air Playit media server serves to the iPad, and its particularly brilliant as it remembers where you were in the video. Things I'd like to do next;

- Stream to other TVs in the house - use Apple TV?
- Stream to the iPhone - currently Air Playit is not working on the the iPhone.
- Setup a raided NAS rather than having two manually mirrored external harddrives.
- Sort out streaming to the HP Touchpad
- Sort out streaming to the MacBook Pro, and maybe to the Powerbook G4 also.
- Install Teamviewer so I can remotely logon to the media server PC.
- Find broadcast streaming solution to simultaneously stream the same thing to all devices

Note that I've installed PC monitor which allows me to monitor the performance of the media server PC from the iPad, and gives me control over the powering options, and hibernating the PC. Monitoring the performance is useful in the rare occasiins where the video jumps.

Note you can stteam different movies simultaneously to both the PS3 and iPad.

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Location:UK

Parallels for Mac

I was getting disallusioned with Parallels for Mac (run virtual machines with different OSs on your Mac) it had begun to run extremely slow and there seemed to be little help there out in the forums apart from others suffering the same problems.

I came to a cross roads where I was thinking of ditching Parallels in favour of VMware. But the confusion of versions of VMware on their website, and the limitation of certain versions running certain OSs, and the relative cost to upgrade, I decided to stick with Parallels and upgrade.

This helped, since then it's been running reasonably well.

On upgrading to Lion, I was forced to upgrade to Parallels 6, which was annoying. However a week or so ago, I get an email saying I can get a free upgrade to Parallels 7. I've just upgraded, much love to the Parallels team! Oh yeah and the download link didn't work, but they quickly got back to me on Twitter.

Overall things working really now, and a great customer care experience from Parallels.


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Anki for learning german

I installed Anki on my Mac (flashcards program, I'm using to learn German). When I created an account and chose sync, the decks weren't there online. Even changing my username and password to something that was incorrect didn't give an error on synchng.

So I opened a deck and chose advnced > check database. It found no problems but when I went to sync now it said my clock was over 300 seconds out. Once I fixed it, it synced with ankiweb.net.

Note that you have to open a deck to initially get it to sync with th server.

Once synced I downloadesp the decks to my iPad and iPhone.


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Marketing DE Prepositions

Before doing another Adwords campaign I am creating an advert landing page, and I'm going to put some effort into improving my keywords, with the intention that this will increase the time people spend on he site, and direct only traffic that is interested in my app. With the intention of completing more goals.

So I've spent the evening trying to edit images, and get the html to format right. I will finish it off tomorrow, and then create an Adwords campaign. I'm trying to decide whether to include the video preview or not. I have heard Google Analytics allows for a-b testing, so I might give that a try.


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IPhone 5

I'm looking forward to the iPhone 5, the plan is to keep my iPhone 4 in mint condition and then sell it on ebay and get a iPhone 5.

IOS 5 should be excellent. I hope that the iPhone 5 has the following;
- Longer battery life
- Larger screen
- Better camera
- New look / redesign
- 4G / LTE

You never know they might call it an iPhone 4G!


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What to do with this old stuff?

I'm clearing through old stuff and have come across a number of electronics;
- Scanner
- Nintendo NES
- Old VHS videos

The scanner works, but there is no driver support after windows ME. I was going to throw it away, then I had the idea of writing my own drivers. Now how on earth would I even start that? Sounds like a good project.

The Nintendo NES was donated to me, after a failed attempt at selling on ebay (it was never picked up by the buyer) I have been persuaded to keep it. So I have tried it out. It just presents a flashing red light on the front and doesn't output to the screen. A quick google gave little. I ebayed a game so I could try it out. Now I really want to get it working... The plug is rally dodgy, so could be the issue, that is my next step.

I've got a load of VHS videos, and it is time to convert them to digital, which has got a good guide on how to do this. Initial googling gave very little, but I shall be trying again soon.


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PS3 and iPad media server

If you'd like to stream videos and tv shows from a harddrive to your PS3 and iPad, and have different fims stream simultaneosly, follow the following instructions;

Install the PS3 Media Server which you can download here; http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/ . Plug your harddrive with your movies into this PC, run the media server and add the harddrive as a shared folder.

When you load the media server, make sure your PS3 is turned on, and on the same network. The media server will then detect the PS3 and give a suitable indication that it has recognised your PS3.

A common error occurs if the PS3 is on a separate network to the PS3. An initial error with the Apple Time Capsule meant the media server wouldn't see the PS3. Some pinging of IP addresses showed they cannot see each over, and some research showed that its because the PS3 was on the guest wifi network, and the airport extreme wired attached devices cannot see things attached to the guest wifi network. Swapping the PS3 to the primary wifi network resolved the issue.

You can do it wirelessly, but wifi might not be fast enough so You can use this; http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00297IPY0/ref=oss_product which gives a highspeed connection via the electric wiring of your house (sounds impossible but it works!). Once you use this to connect the router with your PS3, the media server will be able to see the PS3 and stream movies over a fast wired connection.

Two errors I had was first when I went into the movies it gave a subdirectory called transcoder, and then within that it said "no tracks", what was happening was I was going on the music/audio menu on the PS3, when I changed to the video menu item it then worked.

Another issue was that initially it recognised the PS3 but said media renderer not recognised. I resolved this by editing the ps3.conf file under /renderers, and changing the UserAgentSearch text to PLAY* with a wildcard - this will broad match any playstation 3 string with regexp http://code.google.com/p/ps3mediaserver/issues/detail?id=730 . After that it correctly recognised the PS3 media renderer.

Note you should also ensure you have the most up to date version of the media server, and you should have the latest version of Java installed.

Additionally if you install Air Playit media server http://www.airplayit.com on this PC and Air Playit (HD) app on your iPad or iPhone, you can stream all your videos to your iPad or iPhone whilst streaming to your PS3. This is a really convenient solution, rather than adding the videos to your iOS device via iTunes - plus it doesn't take up space on your iPhone or iPad, or iPod Touch.



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Mac OS X Lion

Initial thoughts about Mac OS X is that it is marvellous. After initially being concerned about spaces disappearing, I discovered the + button (top right) of mission control that allows you to add desktops (spaces).

Full screen apps are great, they feel like iPad apps of my MacBook (Safari is especiall good, everything opens as tabs on one screen). And you can quickly move between them with 3 finger swiping left and right. And 3 fingers swipe up gives mission control, which gives quick navigation to apps or desktops.

Launchpad is great, with a quick mouse movement to the appropriate hot corner I've got one click access to any of my apps, this bloody brilliant. It also allowed me to de-clutter my dock, which makes th dock more useful.

Just be prepared to spend 20 minutes reorganising the launchpad apps, eg removing duplicates.

Calendar and address book have new looks. Mail is totally new and just like the iPad Mail app. I stopped using it years a go. Now its one of my main apps that I use.

Other subtle changes are the login and lock screens, the management of multiple accounts has improved.

But I can't sing it's praises enough how good gestures, mission control, full screen apps and launchpad make using my mac. oh yeah and since the upgrade I'm getting into using the Appstore, like downloading Pages and Things.

Only strange thing was the "natural scrolling" which reverses the scroll direction. But I'm used to the new way now.


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Location:Hill Top Rise,Basildon,United Kingdom

Google+

Initial thoughts are that it's (Google+) very good. Video chat is great, huddles (group texting) via mobile is great, managing friends via circles is great.

What isn't so great is that I don't have enough friends posting to it yet, and people I have just followed are a bit spammy specially when there are multiple user comments.

I think if I could build up a group of users (not necessarily my Facebook fans, then it will become a complimentary social tool).

Oh yeah and Google needs to fix the iPhone app as the stream crashes, plus they need an iPad app.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hill Top Rise,Basildon,United Kingdom

Updated iOS Paid Applications Agreement, how to accept

To accept the updated version of the iOS Paid Applications Agreement - in iTunes Connect, first you should follow the link to the "Contracts, Tax & Banking" section.



Under this section there will be a header called amendments, and next to the contract details will be a Request button.

Click the request button, and accept the contact.

You are done.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Shoeburyness, Essex, UK

The Kev's Apps website is live

Please visit the new Kev's Apps website http://www.kevsapps.co.uk to view the apps I have developed for iPhone / iPod Touch (and iPad).


- You can follow kevsapps on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/kevsapps
- You can like kevsapps on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kevs-Apps/168565599873783
- You can view video demos of the apps on youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/kevsapps
- Or you can subscribe to the rss feed here http://www.kevsapps.co.uk/subscribe/kevs-apps.rss


Thanks

What will there be with the next iPhone?

So the likelihood is that it will be a 4S. So there will be all the iOS enhancements whic have been announced, and from a hardware point of view the likelihoods are;
- Faster processor (A5)
- Better camera and higher definition video recording
- Same design, with better antennae. Though glass on the back may be replaced.
- Larger screen, but same resolution? If they go for a larger screen will they need to increase the resolution to keep the retina display? i can't see them introducing a new resolution so soon.
- 64bit flash storage option

Things that I'd like, but looks like its not going to happen until the next iPhone next year
- NFC - near field communication to allow for contactless payments
- Larger screen and higher res display
- Redesign of the phone
- Full voice integration (was not announced as part of iOS5)
- LED to indicate text received or missed call
- New touch based home button, or touch based screen extension which allow additional gestures.

Things that will never come
- Physical keyboard
- Memory card reader / expandable memory
- Removable battery



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Shoeburyness,United Kingdom

iPhone 4 purchase

So to sort out the issue with my iPhone 3GS not making calls longer than 5 minutes, I've bought an iPhone 4, and it is great.

My rationale is that iOS 5 has just been announced and is not coming out until the Autumn (September?) so no iPhone 5 before then. Plus its expected to be a 4S rather than a 5.

I was due an upgrade so the phone didn't cost too much, and then in September I'll see it and get a 5/4S.

Plus I've put on iOS 5 beta 1 and it is really good.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Shoeburyness, United Kingdom

Apple WWDC 2011 predictions

WWDC 2011 predictions;

1) Mac OS Lion will be released. This will have everything we know to expect; launchpad, app store & facetime (already delivered), mission control, Mail application improvements, full screen apps, version control of files, autosave, keep state between closing and opening app. And likely some surprises - iOS apps running on MacOS?

2) iCloud is known to be announced, but probably won't be released yet. It's going to be initially free and the $25/year. It can only be for the US if that's only where Apple has signed deals, but it maybe a surprise if they are going to release in other territories. It won't be a music locker yet, it will make all the songs you've bought in iTunes available over the cloud from any device. Now I think that's a bit limited, so I think they're going to use their LaLa music service acquisition to offer a spotify type streaming service, this would cost more than the $25 a year, $10 a month?

Also all the talk is that iCloud will replace MobileMe, but hang on a minute, is this the case, I personally think iCloud will be an additional service on top of MobileMe.

3) iOS 5 will be previewed to be released at a later date. Normally Apple does an iOS preview a few months before WWDC and then release the new iPhone there. There's beem no preview this year, so just iOS 5 to be previewed and then it will be released along with the iPhone 5 in 2 months time (August, or maybe early September).

I think what we'll see is a new notifications application (complete overhaul), deeper integration with social media - including Twitter more highly integrated. I think they'll be some new types of UI and APIs for developers, this includes widgets and the voice control. Voice control will be improved and integrated across the phone, and 3rd party developers will be able to use these APIs (this is a dead cert after the acquisition of Siri, and partnership with Nuance). There's going to be over the air OS updates for the iOS devices. I like the idea of having widgets, and this will be and / or the same as what you get on the lock screen. I can't tell if the iPad new multitouch gestures are actually in the OS are a developer release thing only, either way they will be in the new iOS.

4) Steve Jobs to give the keynote

5) One more thing
The upgrade of Time Capsule and Airport extremes, will run iOS and they will integrate with iCloud to cache media, and software updates... But that won't be one more thing. Or maybe just maybe they will announce new phone hardware. If so the iPhone 5 will not be LTE 4G but will be HSPA+ 4G, it will work on both the AT&T network and Verizon network i.e. They'll be one phone not two. It will introduce NFC, near field communication, to enable mobile payments. It will have its antenna fixed, better rear and forward facing cameras, and a larger screen.


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Location:UK

App submission iPhone

I've submitted my second app to the Appstore, horah! It wasn't without a couple of hiccups though.

When I created the archive and clicked validate, it said no valid record for the app existed in iTunes Connect for the app. Even though I'd just created said record. Highlighting the bundle id in iTunes connect showed a following space on the bundle id! I thought I'd messed up. I tried adding a space to the bundle id in xcode, but the archive would no longer build. And you can't change the bundle id in iTunes Connect once you've set it, ahh!

But what I then realised is I could set the status in iTunes Connect to ready for upload. As soon as it went into this status it was able to validate the binary, and I was able to submit, phew!

Another thing is that the target iOS version is the minimum iOS version required. When I submitted I had this set to 4.3. Apple gave me a warning that this wouldn't be compatible with Verizon iPhones. So I rejected the binary, set the target OS to 4.0 and created a new archive, and uploaded it again.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

Cool iPad graffiti like covers

Gelaskins does the most fanstastic graffiti like covers for the iPad, and iPhone and other devices.

Here is the cover I put on my iPad 1:







Here are my favourite covers from the Gelaskins website:





















And here is the one I got for my iPad 2:



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The Meadowlark new Shoebury pub review

Overall I've give it a provisional 3 out of 5; its good but there's lots of room for improvement. The Meadowlark is the new pub just opened in Shoebury (Essex) by Asda.

Entry is a problem, there is a side entrance and an outside seating area, adjacent to the carpark, but you have to cross grass to get to this entrance; bad planning.

There is no distinction between tables for drinking at and tables for eating at, but there is table service, which leads to confusion as to whether you're allowed to just take a table, and whether a waiter/waitress will be over. Better would be to admit its a pub and not a restaurant, and let you order at the bar.

Inside and out the building is new, reasonably good decor - a bit generic though, and nice and big. Good atmosphere and friendly staff.

They are using a silly marketing trick on the food prices - they've doubled the price of all their food, and saying "two main meals for the price of one". This is annoying as they are charging an inflated £10 for everthing, when they should put the prices at £5, because that's what you end up paying. It leads to silliness when there is an odd number of guests.

So there were 3 of us, and we decided this offer means we will get 4 meals for the price of two - therefore one of our meals and the extra one were free - and we decided to share the 4th meal. This is fine, though it is a bit silly, and what happens if you're on your own would you get two meals for the price of one?

And the final negative is that some of the staff are currently very inexperienced, which led to incorrect drinks orders twice, and a mess up of the salad order. Initially a bacon sandwich was delivered, then the salad, then another salad! And then we had to stop then from giving us a 3rd! Thankfully they got the bill correct.

On the positive side the food was really yummy! Okay one more negative, I asked for ketchup and got a tiny little tub (aka McDonalds), ONE!, it just seems ridiculous that they are trying to save costs by restricting the amount of tomato sauce they give out.

Overall I liked it, but would like them to sort out the awkward table service issue, and get some more experienced staff.

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Location:Shoebury

Odeon website fail

So I went to buy tickets for the cinema on odeon.co.uk on my iPad and it told me I could not proceed because I didn't have Flash. Use of Odeon.co.uk on a mobile device FAIL!!



And the Odeon premium seats are not great, the premium seats in front are too tall, restricting the view of the whole screen, doh!

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Location:Odeon, Southend, UK

New Apple device?

A strange glitch on the app store http://pulsene.ws/1iGlX means that Apple is announcing a new product, or more likely I suspect these apps are going to be allowed to run under Mac OS X


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

Odd iPhone sync issue with transferring purchases

I am having trouble updating the OS on my iPhone. It says there are purchases I need to transfer. I right click and say transfer purchases in iTunes, and it looks like its doing something. But when I try to upgrade I get the same message.

The only thing I can think of is that I pre-ordered an album, that isn't out until the beginning of May, so I've got to wait until then?! We'll see.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

iPad crashing

Since the 4.3 upgrade I had been getting lots of app crashes, especially with Pulse and Twitter, and Safari. Since the upgrade to 4.3.1 I haven't experienced a single crash.

Plus on syncing I noticed there was only 0.5 gig of space left, I've now ensured there is 2.5 gig of free space. This could have been causing memory issues, and leading to app crashes.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

Trouble with photo syncing repeatedly on iPad

A strange problem happened, when I did a sync with iTunes, all the photos seemed to be re-optimised and copied again and again, repeatedly. 3000 initially, then once finished it did it again with 2100, then again and again, the number dropping each time, until finally it had 8 to do. Then it went up massively to 3000+.

I think they've tweaked the sync process and it tries to copy and optimise, and by optimising it finds it has more room for photos, and tries to do more, to fill the space.

I found a post that said turn on and off include video (on the photos tab) that plus selecting just a subset of events - leaving 2gig of space seemed to do the trick. It then synced the photos once and I was done.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

Parallels 4 performance issues

Running Parallels on my MacBook Pro has become unbareably slow, like these people on the parallels forum forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?s=be01229582a6a121cf2505e10038b3d7&t=32334&page=2 i did two things which has resolved the issue;

1) Turn off Smartmount kb.parallels.com/en/5778

2) Restart windows - there were 82 updates, so having only suspended and not restarted the vm for a long time, could have something to do with it.


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Location:UK

Outsourcing fail

We are currently feeling the pain of offshoring policy where I work, its good to know we're not alone. Here are some articles that make interesting reading on this topic

http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/painful-lessons-it-outsourcing-gone-bad-032?page=0,1

"The desire to save big bucks so blinded the executives that they didn't realize they were replacing a group of people experienced with using a product to a group of people who were looking at it for the first time. "We underestimated the loss of knowledge that would take place during the transition,""

This one is a short article with some very true points;
http://www.colosseumbuilders.com/wharton2004.htm

"But keep in mind lower paid programmers do not mean cheaper software development"

"Third, you have to specify down to the smallest detail. What you put down on paper is what you get. If companies created project specifications with enough detail to offshore to begin with, they wouldn't be having the problem of runaway project costs."

This article is more focused on dba's, but has many relevant points;
http://www.dba-oracle.com/n_2010_offshoring_oracle_disaster.htm

"Offshoring is re-shored back to America: A qualified coder can create system 20 times faster than a under-trained offshore developer, and many IT managers misunderstand that offshoring does not necessarily mean that the work is done in a low-cost country."

And someone asks can you do agile with an offshoring policy.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/agile-development-offshore-jobs-recipe-disaster-307
Answer is; don't do agile and offshoring


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Location:UK

Dreamweaver bug

A dreamweaver bug when you set up an FTP site gives an error that it cannot connect. Even though checking on an external FTP client it works. Well I found all you need to do is put in the ip address of the server instead of the hostname. I needn't add port numbers, I turned off "use FTP performance" under "server compatibility" which may help if the above item didn't help.

There was no need to enter the host directory; just leave that blank.

Using a dataflame account, when creating an FTP account, remember to take off the username at the end to leave public_html as the folder you are granting access.


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Location:UK

I've written my first app - iPhone development

So I've embarked on the endeavour to write an iPhone app. Well just over a week of effort and I'm done! I feel very excited, though its not really finished until it gets released in the App Store.

So steps to go are;
1. Sign up for the Apple Development Programme.
2. Get the app running on my iPhone
3. Fix the memory management - I bet I've got memory leaks
4. Upgrade dev tools to latest OS and upgrade the code for the latest OS
5. Fully test on iPhone
6. Go through Apple Approval process - hope this goes well!
7. Update webpage with details of app

Oh yeah and I'll probably get some friends to give some feedback on it. And I'll probably optimise for the retina display too.

Tonight was awesome, I implemented a splash screen, did all the artwork, created an information page, setup an email address and webpage, and got the info page to open a new mail or open the webpage.

Yeah looking at that list above, I'm not finished yet :-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK

Windows 7 upgrade went well

I upgraded an aging Windows Vista running Samsung laptop to Windows 7 and it went well.

Don't waste your time sorting out any Windows Vista issues, like trying to fix the antivirus (Norton 360) or increase the size of the disk partition. It all kind of went wrong and required a system restore, undoing hours of work :-(

Compatiblity check told me perhaps not enough harddrive space and not enough Ram (only 1GB). However deleting some old files, and a google for performance with this size of Ram gave me confidence to go for it.

So I took the plunge and went for it. Choose the custom install; this does a full clean install moving the old windows and programs folders into a Windows old folder.

It went in almost painlessly. Only issue was Wifi was not working afterwards, but then I noticed it had stopped working for all other wifi devices in the house, so I suspect maybe an ip conflict had caused problems perhaps? Anyway a router reboot fixed that issue.

I remembered that I needed to do a system restore (Control Panel Instructions to create a Windows Restore point) and expanded the size of the partition by using the built in partitioning software (Contol Panel, search for partition). To expand my C partiton I had to delete the next partiton, expand C and then create the 2nd partiton a new.

Having upgraded, none of the previous software was installed, so this needed doing, the advantage here is that all the Samsung crapware is now gone. Unfortunately Norton 360 wasn't installed anymore. First step was to download the free trial from the Norton site. Annoyingly mynortonaccount wouldn't let me download it so I had to put my bank details in again...

However after installing, it seemed to activate it against my existing Norton subscription(s), so that was relatively painless.

The laptop is largely used for viewing the internet and iPlayer, and that it does amazingly well compared to Windows Vista, and that's with just 1GB of RAM. Overall the upgrade went really well and I'm most pleased.


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Location:UK

Time machine interface was slow

I had an issue where Time Machine on Mac OS Snow Leopard, on a MacBook Pro connected to TimeCapsule was going very slow. I.e to change dates was taking 30 sec plus.

Googling found others with the issue, but no solutions, apart from one piece of advice suggesting turning off TimeMachine. Which made me realise it was probably trying to back up whilst I was using it.

Now I just make sure its not backing up whilst trying to use the interface, and the interface works at the correct speed, phew!


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Location:UK

Old computer works again

I'm so happy I've managed to get my old Windows XP computer to work again. I gave up a long time ago, maybe 2-3 years, but I still have personal files, and music on there that I wanted.

Specifically it was no longer able to connect to the internet, which caused all sorts of issues. I can transfer the files on to a hard drive, but I'd rather do it over a network connection. That bit I'm struggling with.

But getting it to connect to the Internet is fantastic, and I've updated the firewall and antivirus software, and I'm now running a full computer scan.

It didn't prove to be too difficult to fix, fixing it has made me very happy.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:UK, Basildon