Orbyx FM Transmitter – review
Apologies for the radio silence: it’s review time! Strap yourselves in, because I’m reviewing the Orbyx FM Transmitter for iPod/iPhone.
I’ve used one of the first Griffin FM adaptors since about 2008, and it’s been flawless (and really small!), so this has a lot to live up to.
First impressions
This unit is well-packaged (in fact, slightly too well-packaged – it’s impossible to get into without some sharp scissors), and comes with a car cigarette lighter power adaptor.
The unit has a whole bunch of preset FM stations pre-programmed in, so it’s relatively easy to get a radio tuned into them. I’ve gotta say, though, that this is where the good stuff ends.
The transmitter is relatively heavy compared to an iPod, and it drops out of the connector easily. It’s a pain in the arse, frankly, because whilst you’re driving your music suddenly stops! Gah.
Unfortunately, the problems don’t stop there: the power and quality of the transmission from this unit isn’t great either – so it tends to fade in & out easily, and won’t stay tuned to the station particularly well. I’ve tried this in a couple of cars and both suffer the same issues, so I doubt it’s to do with the radio unit.
Conclusion
It’s a real pity that the practicalities of this thing aren’t up to muster, because it looks great and the build quality is very good. Perhaps it’s my cars that it doesn’t like…?
Sponsored review disclaimer This item was supplied by GearZap. GearZap specialise in cases and accessories for mobile devices, such as the iPad accessories.0
EU cookie regulation (PECR) – compliance options
Just a quick update: as you should know by now, the EU Cookie regulation is arriving this month. If you’re unsure what to do about it, or can’t quite make a decision, here’re some things to bear in mind:
- The ICO themselves are not clear what ‘compliance’ looks like.
“We don’t know what compliance will look like in a year’s time. There are lots of gaps here and we want people to fill them with good practice, then we can point to examples of this and everyone will have a greater understanding of what is required.” - Do a cookie audit: work out which cookies you’re serving, which category they fall into (and therefore whether you need to gain explicit consent or not). Try out ‘Ghostery‘ for Chrome if you want a nice visual way of seeing which cookies are served up
- If you realise you do need to gain consent, consider one of the following options:
The key thing to remember is you do have options.
- Comply: crack on, do the right thing and make steps towards compliance.
- You can do nothing: it’s highly unlikely every site will comply, so what’re the ICO gonna do? Go after everyone? This is risky, though – especially if you’re a high-profile business/brand
- Wait: there’re many that believe the law will go away as it’s impractical. There’re others that believe this should be implemented browser-side, not site-side
Let’s see how it pans out. Here’s the ICO document PDF (2mb)
1Vodafone’s new mobile site
After many months of hard work, we present … the brand new Vodafone mobile-optimised site! We’re proud of it, and I personally think it’s pretty damned awesome. I’d like to take you through a few choice pages and excerpts. This site is an improvement on the current site – and here’s why:
Cool stuff
- Compatibility: this site works on a much broader range of devices including Android (2.1 and above), iOS 4 and above, BlackBerry OS 6 & 7, and Windows Phone 7.5 (“Mango”)
- It’s quick: lots of the resources used are optimised – whether that’s using transparent PNGs or minified JS libraries…and when married to the Appcache manifest, it flies
- Graceful degradation: it’s been built in such a way that means older handsets will still render content in such a way that is usable (albeit not quite as whizzy)
The homepage
Being the main entry point for most users, this is what people will see first.We’ve styled it in such a way that all text is actual text (not in an image), and the IA puts the most used sections in easy reach/sight of the user. It’s also worth noting that the ‘Find a store’ function uses GPS to pinpoint the user’s location, and find the nearest store.
The ‘My Vodafone’ section contains some high-level device detection that will display a specific link to either the App Store for iPhone, Marketplace/Google Play for Android, and BlackBerry App World for BlackBerries.
The menu
In the top right, we have the Menu button which – when pressed – drops down an awesomely-animated … menu. From a maintenance perspective, it’s just a bunch of styled list items that are easy to manage and shuffle the order of, and that makes us more agile when we need to react to market conditions, or get new offers bubbled up to the surface. And, as you’d expect, the logo takes you back to the homepage too, since that’s a learned web convention.
Phones & plans
This is really where the site starts to wind up sales messages and push ‘Free from’ rates. The carousel is coded to allow both gestures (swipes) and presses to move through the banner frames. They’ve been styled to follow a template that allows consistent messaging and placement of button/link. What we also see is the manufacturer carousel: this too is swipable, and is the gateway to the manufacturer brand hubs (more detail in the next section). I personally feel this might work better if we remove it or break it out into a grid – which is what it does do on WinPho Mango, due to lack of swipe capability on IE9 Mobile.
The brand hub
For each brand hub, they follow a consistent template to aid the user’s journey, and we split the brand hubs into Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go handsets – again the list is managed in the CMS as styled list items. It’s very easy to manage handsets and promotional messages, and makes content management a doddle.
Product page
Clicking through from a handset list page will take you through to the deeper product page: the star-rating on both this page and the brand hubs above are managed in the CMS by simple drop-downs, and the gallery works by simply adding more specifically-sized images to the system. If you add just one, it’s a static hero banner: add more than one and it becomes a scrolling gallery (plus the little red ‘counter’ markers beneath).
The plans page
The price plans are powered by reading a single file that we upload/update whenever we make changes to any pricing in the main catalogue. It’s coded to show the right prices for the right handset by adding functionality into the CMS to lookup the handset’s internal ‘sku’ code.
Checkout
When the visitor clicks ‘Buy’, it prompts this drop-down which animates in the same way as the menu drop-down:
- The ‘Secure checkout’ link is dynamically populated with the correct shop basket URL
- The ‘Secure checkout later’ link will prompt the user to enter their email address to send themselves the basket URL, should they want to complete the journey at home/work/etc
- ‘Call to buy’ is a simple click-to-call link using the ‘tel:’ protocol
- Lastly, the store finder takes you to…the store finder.
The basket journey
The basket is actually the main desktop journey, just formatted/styled for mobile devices. I won’t screenshot each step of that for now – that’s another blog post!
Hope you enjoyed this: all comments & feedback – on both the new mobile site itself or this post – very welcome. 
Q-MusicInn headphones – review
Another rapid-fire review for you guys – this time, it’s a budget pair of headphones. “WTF, you may cry: that’s a bit random!” Well sort of…read on!
First impressions
No, I’ve not heard of them before either. Q-MusicInn? Why would you bother? What about Sony, or Sennheiser? Or even Apple’s own white earbuds? Well, I wanted to try something new:
Click to enlarge
On opening the packaging, you get the usual additional earbud sizes. But that’s not what you want to know right? You wanna know what they sound like!
What they sound like
Surprisingly good! I mean really actually very good. They’re a grand total of £6.95, and they’re a steal in my opinion. I generally don’t get on with these type of in-ear buds, but these are the most comfortable I’ve tried.
Conclusion
Brilliant for the money. Not perfect, but very good
MacBook Air cover – review
I’ve been sent a case for my MacBook Air – so here’s a quick review!
First impressions
Capdase have created this incredibly thin case the Air, which – on first glance – looks pretty good. It’s made of what appears to be rubber, and is slightly translucent:
Details
The case is pretty easy to fit, and as mentioned is somewhat opaque. It’s got all the right spaces in the case for the ports on the side and can easily be on-charge whilst in the case. However, once the Mac’s in use, sometimes the edges of the case don’t quite fit all the time.
However, the overriding comment I got from each & every work colleague who saw me with it was:
It looks like your Mac’s wearing a condom.
Yes, I suppose it does. But when the director of a department in a large corporation says as much, you end up feeling a bit…self-conscious about your beloved Mac + case!
Conclusion
In honesty, it’s a fine case: it does the job, and even has a little stand underneath that’ll tilt it up for easier typing. Just be prepared for the MacBook Contraceptive jokes.
2000 (X-reg) VW Golf v6 4-motion for sale – £2189
The time has come. I’m having to sell my baby (not my actual baby – my automotive baby).
It’s a 2000-reg (X plate) Volkswagen Golf – the v6 4-motion model. I’m after around £2189 for it, which – given the year, condition and mileage – I think is reasonable. I know you want pics, so here you go:
Spec & equipment
- 2.8-litre v6, producing 204 BHP, 201 Lbs/ft torque
- 0-60 in 7.1 secs
- 4 wheel drive
- Genuine VW R32 18″ alloys
- 4 new tyres with only a couple thousand miles on them
- Brushed aluminium R32 interior trim
- 6 CD changer
- Aircon
- Lowered 15mm
- Full service history
- 99k miles
- Taxed and MOT ’till July 2012
- Registered April 2001, so it’s just in the low tax bracket!
Interested? Get in touch!
1Google Chrome ‘users’
Managing multiple Google accounts
Ever wanted easier control over multiple accounts – Facebook, Google, Youtube and the like – without the need for multiple browsers? You can with Google Chrome’s ‘User’ accounts, a natively-supported function that (for whatever reason) I’ve neglected to investigate until recently.
It’s dreadfully simple, and in honesty I think I’m late to the party – but this is awesome, so I’m gonna blog about it anyway.
First steps
Firstly, open Chrome, and go to the Options icon, and choose ‘Sign in to Chrome‘.
Sign in with your credentials and you’ll be asked what to sync: apps, bookmarks, extensions, etc
Then, go to the Options icon again, choose ‘Options‘, and go to ‘Add new user‘. This’ll then pop a new Chrome window up:
Sign into this new window, and you’re done! You have two user accounts, each with their own bookmarks, saved passwords, the lot. You can switch easily between the two using the icon in the top left (top right on a Mac):
Things to remember:
- You can change the icon in Chrome Options.
- If, like me, you create ‘Home’ and a ‘Personal’ accounts – be careful: you’ll sync over all your ‘Personal’ bookmarks. All of them. Even the…y’know…naughty ones.
- Further to the above, when your accounts are synced, anything you delete is removed from the profile. So beware when hurriedly removing favourite perverted bookmarks from the bookmark bar.
- Further to THAT one, you can unsync your account – it’ll keep the bookmarks etc that arrived in the first place (it just won’t keep them updated).
Kindle sales top 1 million per week
Amazon recently announced that Kindle sales topped 1 million per week. With accessories and Kindle covers now available from a multitude of retailers, and with Amazon’s new Kindle 4 on the horizon, have devices like these sped up the so-called ‘death of print’?
I actually covered this subject in Uni: at the time, the commercial use(s) of the Internet were thriving, post dot-com boom. The industry was looking ahead and what could be possible, and e-paper theories were flying around.
I must admit that, in actual fact, I can’t remember the guts of the argument – something to do with the alcohol level in my blood – but the overall feeling was that yes, print would eventually decline. It’d become a vanity medium, the exclusive preserve of rich artists and other such wealthy types who’d be able to afford the material.
As it happens, it doesn’t seem to be declining at quite the rate that was initially expected back in those heady days before the Kindle and the iPad. It is declining, though. From The Guardian:
In the month of November, the 11 daily paid-for national titles sold an average of 8,897,221 copies a day. Just one year ago (before The Independent’s launch of i), the 10 titles together totalled 9,540,993…
…Meanwhile, users of virtually all the newspaper websites go on rising month by month. In front of our eyes, the press business is changing shape.
Whatever your opinion of the state of the print industry, though, it’s clear that these devices are here to stay.
0Useful Windows keyboard shortcuts
I thought I’d braindump the keyboard shortcuts I use on a near-daily basis. Turns out there’s quite a few! Feel free to add a comment with other useful ones!
If you have a mouse with 3 buttons:
- Click website links with the middle button to open them in a new tab
- Click on the tab with the middle button and it’ll close
- On a webpage, click somewhere ‘neutral’ (e.g not on an image or a link) with the middle button to scroll with your mouse
In modern web browsers:
- CTRL + T opens a new empty tab
- CTRL + W closes the current tab (clicking an open tab with the middle mouse button also closes it)
- CTRL + shift + T reopens a closed tab
- F6 highlights the address bar
- F11 views the webpage in full-screen mode
- CTRL + roll mouse wheel up zooms in/increases text size
- CTRL + mouse wheel down zooms out/decreases text size
- CTRL + 0 (zero) resets the zoom level back to 100%
- Backspace goes back a page in your browser history
- Shift + backspace goes forward a page in your browser history
- CTRL + tab switches between tabs
- Spacebar will skip down one page-length
- Shift + spacebar skips up one page-length
- Tab skips to the next box in online forms
- Shift + tab skips back to the last box in online forms
In Windows:
- The ‘Print Screen’ key copies everything on the screen onto the ‘clipboard’, which can be pasted into a document or image editing program
- Alt + Print Screen copies everything in the ‘active’ screen (i.e whatever you last clicked on) onto the clipboard
- Windows Key on its own displays the Start Menu
- Windows Key + E will open a new File Explorer window
- Windows Key + D minimises all windows and shows the desktop. Press it again to open them all again
- Windows Key + F starts the Find all files function
- Windows Key + L will lock your Windows XP/Windows 7 computer
- Windows Key + F starts the ‘Run’ command
- Windows Key + Pause/Break displays the Systems Properties dialog box
- Windows Key + Tab will cycle through the open programs on the Task Bar in a nice visual ‘Aero mode’ in Windows 7
- Alt + Tab will switch between open windows (Alt + Shift + Tab will cycle back the other way)
- Windows Key + U starts the Utility Manager with accessibility options
- Shift + Delete will delete an item immediately without placing it in the Recycle Bin
- In Windows 7, middle click on an open program in the taskbar to open a new window for that program
In many programs (Microsoft Office products, web browsers, etc):
- CTRL + N opens a new window/document
- F3 opens the search function
- F1 opens the Help function
- CTRL + S will save the document (or open the save box)
- CTRL + P will open the options to print that document
In Word/PowerPoint:
- CTRL + left/right arrow skips the cursor along by 1 word
- Home takes the cursor to the start of that line
- End takes the cursor to the end of that line
- Shift + left/right arrow starts to highlight from the cursor letter by letter
- Shift + Home highlights everything from the cursor to the start of the line
- Shift + End highlights everything from the cursor to the end of the line
- CTRL + Home takes the cursor back to the start of the document
- CTRL + End takes the cursor to the end of the document
- CTRL + C: Copy whatever’s selected
- CTRL + X: Cut whatever’s selected
- CTRL + V: Paste whatever’s selected
- CTRL + Z: Undo the last action
- CTRL + B: Bold whatever’s selected
- CTRL + U: Underline whatever’s selected
- CTRL + I: Italicise whatever’s selected
- Alt + F4 closes the current window
In Microsoft Outlook:
- CTRL + N starts a new email
- CTRL + Enter will send the current email (beware of sending too early!)
Hospedia hospital TV – user journey fail
My little boy is needing a few nights in hospital and in order to make it marginally more bearable, I’ve been made to purchase some pay-per-view TV.
Saving the fact that we’re already on the back foot because a) we’re here against our will, and b) the very notion of paying to watch Strictly Come Dancing fills me with hatred, I kinda have to go through this experience or the hospital room is devoid of any kind of entertainment (other than listening to my son fart his way through an unfair regime of laxatives and antibiotics).
Actually, I think I’d prefer that to Strictly. Anyway.
Prelude
Not sure if you’ve ever seen these TV units in hospitals, but they are attached to large swing-arms that can fold away into a corner or expanded out, Rise-Of-The-Robots style, to loom over the head of whichever unsuspecting patient you choose. I’ve avoided them in the past because they look to be a massive rip-off. Are my instincts right? Read on!
p.s: sorry about the cameraphone pic quality.
Step 1: the main menu
Not a great start. It’s lurid, and the messages all kinda jostle for position. Some of them flash on & off. It’s all made worse by the crap screen quality.
Ok, I’m going to be constructive for a mo:
- Don’t say “press ‘RENT the Telly’ when the button doesn’t ACTUALLY SAY THAT (it says ‘Rent Telly + Films’)
- Also, ‘Telly’ is fucking awful. Call it ‘TV’ or ‘Televison’. I appreciate this is my own preference, though.
- Choose lead caps, or don’t. Don’t mix the two.
- Bloody awful hierarchy in terms of which button is the one to press. ‘Operator’ is the biggest one (and green, which is the ‘go’ signal)
Step 2: ‘RENT the Telly’
Here we are, then – RENTING the Telly:
So yeah, I’ll take that 2hr bundle right there! I know they do vending machines with prepay cards in them, but dammit: I’m in a hurry to see bloody Strictly (apparently).
Step 4: Not being allowed the bundle
Oh:
I didn’t even know I had to credit my account first…thought it was kinda ‘choose what you want, then pay’ kinda arrangement. Silly me. Off we go to ‘other services’
Step 5: other services
Um. Right. So…
Again with the key points:
- Still no hierarchy – in fact, it’s extra confused this time, with different colourschemes. 3x black menu options (so are they all kinda linked?), 2x blue ones, a couple of light green ones, a couple of dark green…BLEURGH.
- It’s completely unclear what to do. Clicking ‘TV/Telly’ seems like the right choice…
- Anyone else find the “We can’t get you out of here, but we can give you FREE CALLS” a bit…well, inappropriate? Just a bit?
Step 6: Confirm who you are
So, I did this screenshot after confirming that I wasn’t Mrs J Beneite (presumably the previous patient). I then went through the awkward motions of entering my name:
Step 7: Choose my overpriced bundle!
Right? So where’s my ’2hrs for £1′ bundle? Oh yes. It’s NOT THERE. But feel free to, y’know, go for one of the more hideously expensive options.
I went and got a £5 prepay card in the end. The last annoying thing? All the way through my delightful 2hr bundle, I was constantly bugged with ‘You have a message!” in the system’s twee little inbox thing.
Conclusions
This dodgy user experience will be affecting their conversion – there’s no doubt in my mind. These units need a lot of work to make them better, key points being:
- Annoyingly complex for someone who may well be recovering from some major medical emergency and just wants to chill out
- Zero thought for message and CTA hierarchy
- Zero thought r.e colour combinations, and how they might look on a terrible quality TV such as this
- Clearly designed by someone in an office who’s never been to hospital
- A massive ripoff