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.

1. 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.” 
2. 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
3. If you realise you do need to gain consent, consider one of the following options:
• http://cookiecuttr.com
• http://michaelwright.me/cPrompt
• https://github.com/ScottHamper/Cookies

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)

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.

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!

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).

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.

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!)

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:

1. Don’t say “press ‘RENT the Telly’ when the button doesn’t ACTUALLY SAY THAT (it says ‘Rent Telly + Films’)
2. Also, ‘Telly’ is fucking awful. Call it ‘TV’ or ‘Televison’. I appreciate this is my own preference, though.
3. Choose lead caps, or don’t. Don’t mix the two.
4. 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:

1. 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.
2. It’s completely unclear what to do. Clicking ‘TV/Telly’ seems like the right choice…
3. 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

You suck, Hospedia.

In typical fashion the case is, of course, made very well. The materials are great quality and the finish is good. This time, being the proper unit, the Acer A500 fits in it very snugly – no excess movement or slipping. All the controls are accessible, and all the ports & camera are usable whilst the tablet is in the case. These really were the main problems with the other (incorrect) case: the controls were obscured and the tablet moved too much.

There is just one minor niggle. When you open the case to put the tablet in, you have to put it in upside down. Of course, the screen orientation rotates – but it means the on/off switch is at the bottom (used to wake/sleep the tablet), along with the headphone jack slot and the camera. Just seems a bit strange to have gone to all the effort to create such a nice accessory, and then to forget this simple but obvious aspect.

That said, I’m particularly impressed by Tuff Luv’s interest & response to my initial review. Great social engagement like that means that, where before I’d have said “They’re alright…could do better”, I’m now firmly on the promoter side. Nice one!

My new conclusion? Great case. Buy it.

I’ve tried a couple of cases for the regular HTC Desire (one for 99p from eBay, and another much better quality Tuff Luv one) – but this one is designed specifically for the Desire Z’s flip-out keyboard layout.

How did it get on? To summarise in some neat bullet points!

Pros:

• As with all Tuff Luv goods, the build quality is excellent: the leather is soft but hard-wearing, and the stitching/finish is top notch
• The Desire Z fits really snugly into the case: there’s no movement or slippage
• The plastic interior cover actually helps with typing: the Z is held in via a piece of clear plastic that sits on top of the slideout keyboard – and this plastic cover actually helps with typing as it stops your fingers slipping across buttons
• Good for essential cards & money: this case can also double as a wallet, with space for a couple of cards and a pocket for notes

• Although it takes cards, there’s no room for coins.
• If the phone rings, it’s difficult to answer quickly: it’s quite a job to get into the case quickly if your phone’s ringing
• The case gets in the way of your face: if you do manage to get it open, you can then take the call…but you look like this:

Cowhide moustache, anyone?

So, overall, there’s a pattern emerging. Tuff Luv are great quality manufacturers…but they sometimes lack foresight in terms of practical usage. However, if you’re not bothered about having a temporary cowhide moustache each time your answer the phone – I can’t recommend it highly enough.

Sponsored review disclaimer

This item was supplied by GearZap. GearZap specialise in cases and accessories for mobile devices, such as the HTC Sensation case