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Archive for the ‘apple’ Category

Creativity Through Collaboration

24 Jul

I am not usually one to promote someone’s PR – however the thought of the promotion of Creativity Through Collaboration stopped me for a couple of minutes to even read the piece.


Aedas Architects

At Aedas, designers and architects work in an almost continuous stream of communication, snapping images of designs, models, and construction sites with the camera on iPhone and then sending those photos—along with emails, text messages, and documents—around the office. It’s a highly collaborative process, enabled by iPhone.

 
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Posted in apple, collaboration, creativity, design, enterprise, future.of.work, innovation, management, technology, thoughts.from.the.web

 

Apple v British Government

10 May

… customer focus … customer first … the customer is always right … been doing some thinking based on real experiences …

Apple

Yes – I am pro Apple – but here is the reason – customer centricity. And it isn’t taken lightly.

I have been a proud user of Apple since the IPOD was launched – back in the days it ONLY integrated with a Mac – so I bought one of those as well. The point of this post is not to wax lyrical on the beauty of all things Mac. No. I am going to talk about the problems I have had with the Mac – to date – 4 significant problems. And every single time – it was fixed in less than 24 hours.

I am prompted to write because today I have an alternative view. That is how others handle issues …

Detail available for anyone that wants it – but last Christmas, I made one of those photo books for a friend. When it arrived, on time, it was perfect – EXCEPT that HMRC / The British Post Office has taken it upon themselves to charge me VAT (that Apple had already collected from me) and – get this – a handling charge, which as far as I can see is a charge I pay to them for charging me the VAT that they shoudldn’t have charged me to begin with.

I called one of the two numbers I was given when I complained. Oh yes … when the other department lets us know that they will recompense you – they will contact us – and we will issue that payment to you.

The second call reveals that I need to send a letter to some address in Coventry. Do they have an email address – yes – and I quote ‘Craig’ … it is “so backlogged that it isn’t worth doing.” So I have to send a letter to Coventry – and eventually someone will examine my request, make a decsion and if it is found to be an error (which – by Craig’s admission – could well be the case – they will send me the £3.11 (no kidding … three pounds and eleven pence). In parralel they will then let the other department know that the eight pounds can also be refunded. This will I assume be through a check of some kind … who knows.

I flagged the issue to Apple – because I have other books that I want to buy and send as gifts – but do not want to have recipients garner a tax for receiving a gift ….

I emailed them – concept.

In less than 12 hours I knew that all the monies that the government want to charge me will be refunded by Apple AND the original delivery charges as well. SORTED ! And it was. Customer Centricty. And it hasn’t happened on subsequent orders either.

The government of course make it hard in the hope that I won’t go ahead and claim – multiply my 11 quid by all the people that get caught up in this – well – more steaks for Gordon and Mandy I assume. Life is too short – for most of us. But surely it has to end. Isn’t this another stealth tax ?

 
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Posted in apple, business, customers

 

Building a Web Site With iWeb

16 Mar

It was time to do it – my home domain had got into a real mess – so time to rebuild. I am not a programmer, and the site is nothing more than some fun – and a place to put stuff and amalgamate all of the various threads of my online world – so simplicity was the order of the day.

I am also a big fan of Apple – so I thought – why not ?

iWeb – here I come.

I am just about there – and for those that are interested – some 60 or so pages of WIP can be found here.

Here’s the thing though – I went into this knowing that it was never going to be as good as building a site with a real CMS – think Drupal or Joomia – and I didn’t want to do go up the learning curve for something like Dreamweaver – or even Contribute, that I have used in the past – so on the face of it iWeb is just right … no ?

Well – it depends.

Going through the process I documented a few really big annoyances that I think would make iWeb a lot better. If you have something to throw in the fray – please add your comments, including if you know any good workarounds. If this turns into anything substantial – I might just pop down to Cupertino to see if I can get an audience – any votes on my chances, or if they’ll listen ?

Ok – so here goes.

Sub Menus

There is just no easy way to do add a sub menu – so once you get beyond 6 or 7 pages – either your menu starts to wrap around the top – or you have to add in manual links to the extra pages.

Create Once – Use Many

No way to create a piece of content and reuse it many times. Say on a hidden page you could create some copy that through some kind of include – or pointer allows that copy to appear in many different places on the site … kind of like this in a ‘real’ site :

Header and Footers

Footers and Headers should be able to be set and appear same way on every page as default – with option to change page by page – section by section.

SEO

SEO – there really is no allowance for it at all. Now I am not going to get all fussed and fluffed around this – but how hard would it be to include routines to – there is simply no way to readily accommodate good SEO practice – is there ?

Page Naming

Any page has a single name – so what i call it in the iweb navigation is what it is called in the visible navigation – is what it reads in the browser when the site is visited – why not allow the builder to create page names for easier navigation in iweb – have a user friendly name for inclusion in navigation – and a fuller more descriptive name that appears in the browser ?
All of this could be done with page properties

Page Properties

And while we are on that topic – why not also – for each page have the ability to add meta tags for description, keywords and robots ? These could be set up as a default site entry – and then overwritten by the site builder as needed – or not at all.

iWeb Navigation

wouldn’t it be good to have the possibility to folder pages in the iweb nav – much as the photos pages work – but all pages – and while we are at it – did you know that if you wanted to publish (say) ../me/index.htm into two different sub directories on your main site – you can’t. Why ? Because you can’t have two sites in iweb both called me !

Finally – if anyone out there says I am wrong – and I just don’t know what I am doing – please let me know – and point me at the resource that gets around these challenges.

 
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Posted in annoying, apple, code, software

 

Mac OS Evolution

08 Mar

So – when did you become a ‘mac-o-phile’ ?

Check out the history of Mac Screens throught the ages …

The Evolution of the Mac OS

… with thanks to : Russell Davies, for the headsup.

 
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Posted in apple, design, software

 

Now Here Is An Interesting Utility For Mac Fiends …

11 Jan

Compare Folders with this utility … until you have tried it – you won’t know you needed it !

 
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Posted in apple, technology

 

Karl Lagerfeld and the iPod

22 Nov

Karl Lagerfeld’s Bespoke Vuitton iPod Trunk – curetesy of ‘Luxist’

 
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Posted in apple

 

Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk)

15 Nov

Try doing this in Windows !!

Stanford Laptop Orchestra (SLOrk), an ensemble of student computer scientists and musicians that uses 20 MacBooks to compose and perform new music. It’s an experimental fusion of portable computing and live performance that harnesses the notebook’s plug-and-play compatibility, state-of-the-art sensors, and raw processing power.

 
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Posted in apple

 

Mecca – More Like Macca

14 Nov

 
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Posted in apple

 

Path Finder 5

10 Nov

Path Finder from Cocoatech is in its 5th version – and I have only just found out about it ….. Have to say, not a big user of the finder – but I wonder whether this would make me so – not sure – and particularly not sure if I want to spend forty bucks to find out – HOWEVER …. it is – at says on the tin – a superb extension to Finder.

Then again – what will Snow Leopard bring ? …. given that it is about improvement and efficiency – not new wizard stuff.

 
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Posted in apple, technology

 

I Have Issues With Time …

31 Oct

Time … what do they know ….

Just read this article – and was struck by this comment :

“Market-research firm NPD Group dug into the numbers and determined that, on average, you’ll spend up to $800 more on an Apple than you would on a comparable PC laptop.”

On what basis are they comparing?

Built into Apple you find iLife – so no cost for a video editing suite, photo manager or web publising – built in microphone and video camera –

mail/calendar and address book cancels the need for outlook / entourage

oh and for the full office replscement – try iwork – at a fraction of the cost of office

… and i am sure that there are a tonne more comparisions …. anyone have a clue as to how such verdicts are arrived at ?

 
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Posted in apple, business, software, technology

 
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