Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life
I failed to wake up for the #travellinggeeks do in Cambridge UK (Oh OK I didn’t even have a ticket for the sell out event 🙁 )
However, tonight Sally and I managed to take Robert Scoble out for an Indian at the Saffron Brassiere , it was great chatting to him again after our last time at Reboot all those years ago. Oh and congratulations to him and Maryam for another Scoble on the way….
Excuse the crap photo but they turned out the lights as we left!
My very good friend Michael, who has such a way with words, today emailed me “I’ve just requested a PAC from Orange so I am heading inexorably toward an iPhone. You will have to recommend 10 must have apps.”
So here are my favourite apps. (Skewed towards travelling) – In no particular order…
so:
Skype – Great when travelling to avoid the stupid O2 roaming fees and those £1 for 1 second calls because the folks you are calling aren’t at home.
WifiTrak – Essential when travelling to find those open networks and to move around to get highest signal strength – warning it eats the battery!
Brightkite – finds out where you are and Twitters it – note that the iPhone GPS only seems to work if there is a cellphone signal 🙁
SOStorch – converts the iphone to a torch, neat for those midnight soirees to the GOT (Great outside Toilet)
AroundMe – Great if you need to know the nearest Apple store is 3.500 miles away! or that the hospital is around the corner!
Bloomberg – so you can keep track of your stocks and see how much money you are losing or gaining.
Currency – great for checking out exactly how many Bolivars there are to the pound or if the local dealer is ripping you off.
Facebook – so you can see what your friends are up to and where you should be heading next.
BP Tracker – Not so handy when travelling but good for home so you can see how stressed and unhealthy you are.
Google – quick access to all your google stuff.
TwitterFon – My favourite twitter client – has neat way of displaying which Twitter folks are replying too..
Fatwatch – Another home based app. pretty cool at generating nice graphs like this.
DualLevel – Handy for checking out that the buildings actually are leaning by 5 degrees although I forgot to measure how steep the Inca staircases actually are.
DailyMug – take a picture of yourself every day – pretty neat – my series is here.
NewsUk Lite – Akin to walking past a newsagents stand and glimpsing at the headlines – all you really need to know about what is happening.
WordPress – ideal for posting blog entries, OK I never used it, whilst away 🙁
From http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/09/metropolitan_police_photo/
The Metropolitan Police has issued guidance to its officers to remind them that using a camera in public is not in itself a terrorist offence.
There has been increasing concern in recent months that police have been over-using terrorism laws and public order legislation to harass professional and amateur photographers. The issue was raised in Parliament and the Home Office agreed to look at the rules.
The guidance reminds officers that the public do not need a licence to take photographs in the street and the police have no power to stop people taking pictures of anything they like, including police officers.
The over-used Terrorism Act of 2000 does not ban photography either, although it does allow police to look at images on phones or cameras during a search to see if they could be useful to a terrorist.
Section 58 of the Act covers the offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about any member of the armed forces, spying agencies or the police. But officers must show a reasonable suspicion that the person is involved in terrorism – it is not a blanket ban on photographing working police officers.
The guidelines also remind coppers that they will often work with the media, which can impact on the Met’s reputation. Therefore: “it’s crucial to maintain good working relations with its members, even in difficult circumstances.”.
This could be helped by setting up “vantage points” when cordoning off an incident so that camera crews and photographers can do their work. Senior Investigating Officers are reminded to allow media access to crime scenes as soon as possible after evidence gathering is completed.
Sally seemed keen for me to upgrade my iPhone, checking out the My 02 website it seemed to indicate that my contract had expired on the 9th May:-
However, O2 knows better, after the usual lengthy frustrating call with them , I was told the contract, according to them, expires in December! and no they were clueless as to why My 02 is not the same as there O2 🙁
So it looks as if Sally will just have to wait – although I’m tempted to buy a SIM free one and remove 02 from my life with the bonus that I can also use it on my travels with those lovely Peruvian SIM cards at £3 each…..
