Take a look at the quote(s) and video below. I believe they sum up quite nicely what Apple is all about.

“What we’ve done, and we’ve made a habit of doing this at Apple, is we decided just to start over. When you start working on your personal projects, it becomes so much more than just a collection of parts. Our very best idea’s, all of our innovation, we bring to the most popular Mac. If something doesn’t need to be there, it’s not there.” Jonathan Ive

Apple is more of a community than a company. While I was in San Francisco over the summer, I noticed several cars with an Apple logo sticker on their bumper or back window, yet I didn’t see a single Microsoft/Windows logo sticker, or the phrase “I’m a PC”. I also had the chance to visit the Apple Headquarters in Cupertino. Driving through the campus, it felt relaxed. Employee’s were walking around chatting, a Starbucks in one hand, their MacBook’s in the other. Even in the Mothership Store, there were many other visitors buying a huge range of accessories from key-rings and pens, to laptop cases and hoodies. I love wearing my Apple hoodie. Whether some people see me as an Apple fanboy that would buy anything with an Apple logo on, I don’t care much.

To me, the Apple logo, brand and company signifies design excellence, a care to detail, thought-out innovation and a somewhat unified community. Care to disagree? Leave your views below as a comment, and I’ll be happy to listen.

Post from: Ed Parry

So Much More: What Apple Means to Me

The Incipio Feather has been a great case so far. It’s incredibly thin and light weight, doesn’t block access to any controls (despite not being able to dock my iPhone with the case attached) and comes with two surface protectors.

The screen protectors are good at their job, but I hate them. They change the feel ever so slightly of the iPhone’s screen, and even without them on, the screen has never been scratched. Heck, it’s scratch resistant. That with the edges of the protector coming loose within a few days lead me to remove it all together.

Tim Cox over at Cult of Mac puts up a good argument as to why we shouldn’t use cases for our iPhone’s. While I somewhat agree, I still can’t help clipping the Feather over my iPhone before I leave the home, just to reassure me. Even though in the back of my mind, I know that if I drop my iPhone from a significant height onto solid ground, it’s likely that the iPhone will be damaged whether the case is on it or not.

Still, if you’re on the look out for a new case for your iPhone (I believe Incipio offer cases for iPod touches and the like also), then the Incipio Feather is a definite option that you should look out for. To the touch, the phone is only slightly bulkier, and from a distance it’s hardly there.

Post from: Ed Parry

Incipio Feather

Today saw the UK (at least) release of the brand new album from England-born rock trio, MUSE. The album, called The Resistance, holds 11 tracks of typical MUSE-styled music, but none of them are stereotypical of any genre. The final three tracks on the album form a symphony called Exogenesis (Overture, Cross-pollination & Redemption) which it itself creates a great musical experience.

I’m not here to sell you the album, I’m merely suggesting that you give it a listen. If you like previous MUSE albums, you’ll likely love this. If you’re on the look out for something new to listen to, but can’t quite but your cursor on it, then maybe The Resistance is what you’re looking for.

Seriously, take a listen.

Post from: Ed Parry

The Resistance

Despite the occaisional typing error, the experience is quite pleasant. I decided to install the Wordpress application to connect to my blog and to write this post. Thankfully I have the option of a landscape keyboard, but space is still limited on the screen. The features within Wordpress for iPhone are also quite limited – offering no options to embed links or bold/italic type.

I would hate to write lengthy articles on my iPhone, but for short posts, it does the job well – even allowing a preview of the post before publishing.

Have you ever been forced to write more than a short email on your iPhone? How did you find it?

Post from: Ed Parry

Mobile Blogging: iPhone

There are a lot more plugins available for Wordpress, and at least one other alternative for each that I mention below. After using these for several months however, I have to say that they’ve proven to be solid and convenient. All five have worked correctly since day one and all five have exceeded my expectations. With these running in the background, you’re free to concentrate on what your visitors will see – the part that I’m still, and will continue to work on.

Akismet

In the six or so months that I’ve been using a custom Wordpress install, Akismet has caught over 3,000 spam comments, with up to 70 coming through per day. If I had to sort through that amount manually, I would have even less free time than I already do. Thankfully, Akismet takes care of the spam and legitimate comments (known as ‘ham’) and makes me aware if it’s unsure of any particular comments. With Akismet installed, not a single spam comment has made it through onto my blog, it’s one of the most valuable plugins that I have installed, and it won’t be moving any time soon.

WP Security Scan

Is your username still ‘admin’, or your Wordpress version not sufficiently hidden? WP Security Scan checks through your entire Wordpress system to check for holes that hackers could use to gain access to your blog. Pretty much everything is covered to ensure a secure install, and you’re even provided with information about the system that’s hosting your blog and whether it’s up to date. Following a few quick instructions from this plugin will save you hours of work if something bad happens to your blog.

WordPress Database Backup

The last thing you want is for your blog to go down during an update or for an error to occur with your hosting package. If something fails, you’d need a clean install of Wordpress. But what about your settings, posts, comments? If you’re using WordPress Database Backup, that shouldn’t be a worry. Almost everything can be included in the backup, so there’s no need to loose anything if something does go wrong. What’s more, you can change the settings so that you receive the backup in an email each day/week/month, so you’ll never be far behind when you restore.

AdSense Manager

If you’d like to earn a few pennies from your blog, you’re going to want a couple of advertisements around. Not too many that they’re distracting, but enough that they can be seen. One of the simplest options to get adverts around your blog is Google AdSense. But to integrate those ad’s, you’ll need, say, a manager. AdSense Manager is my favourite option to incorporate various adverts into my blog and to control their position and longevity.

All in One SEO Pack

Quite a lot of your traffic will be directed via various search engines. For this simple reason, it’s important that your blog is correctly labeled up so the search engine ‘bots can easily find and archive your site. With All in One SEO Pack, you have control over how the search engines see your blog, allowing you to include numerous keywords/tags and metadata for your posts and pages. When correctly done, your site will appear for results when people are looking around for particular information. For example, ‘iWork vs Office’ searches prove a hit for ed-parry.com.

Post from: Ed Parry

5 Important Wordpress Plugins

A world of free music

Spotify’s library is bigger than you could ever think to fit into your iTunes, let alone your iPod. Every genre is represented with new releases sometimes appearing before their official launches. That in particular is a great option for music producers, as it gets the word out, lets people hear the new music, but offer’s them limited options to download and copy. Using similar features to iTunes’ Genius, finding new music that you might like works great and on many occasions has introduced me to new artists I would have never otherwise found.

The adverts just work.

Would you work for free? Didn’t think so. Advertising between songs offers Spotify it’s main source of income. Usually, advertising within applications is something that is hardly done well. In spotify, the audible advertisements are for the most part intuitive. When you’re listening to an album or playlist, the odd advert makes the experience feel like radio. This might just be me, but listening to the radio is an enjoyable past time that I wish I did more often. Sure, it’s only the adverts that create this experience, but for me it works. By advertising more music through the audible adverts, I’ve also found yet more artists worth a listen to – a second bonus for myself. The visual adverts aren’t as cleanly done, but with little time spent navigating the application itself, they’re not too much of a worry. I would prefer either no visual adverts, or to include them in the audible loops, but hey – someone needs a pay check at the end of the week, and we still seem to be clicking on those adverts. You do also have the option to pay a subscription for Spotify, which eliminates all the advertising if you would prefer, but I personally cannot justify the need.

Nothing portable?

That’s my only issue with Spotify. When the WiFi is turned off, so is my access to the world of free music. Rumors of an iPhone application being close to approval by Apple are floating around, but I’m not holding my breath for the perfect mobile solution. On various occaisions I have closed Spotify, undocked my iPhone and left my desk. I’ve looked through my music files on my iPhone only to remember that I was listening through Spotify and so I don’t own the tracks. Of course, I could buy the music direct through 7digital.com via Spotify, but for what it’s worth, iTunes is a simpler option for myself. If iTunes became partnered with Spotify for that reason, it may soften the blow. But for now, I’ll have to get used to separate libraries that depend on an Internet connection.

Post from: Ed Parry

Why I Love Spotify

I’m sure you’ve come across articles on this very topic before, but as many people have said, it’s a weakness of Apple. There’s no denying that the iPhone is a superb device, and the amount of applications available is great. But having to wait for two weeks from submission of the applications to them appearing live in the App Store is a chore – for both the developer wanting the latest version of their application available, and for the consumer dying to get their hands on it.

Guilty until proven innocent

I picked this up from Joe Hewitt’s (Facebook for iPhone developer) blog, and it sums up Apple’s take on App Store approvals quite nicely. Each application has to be thoroughly by their own reviewers before it goes live on the App Store. Just incase, you know, there’s something that’s not nice on there. You can understand why Apple do it; to protect their own backs. But lets not forget we have full access to the internet on both the iPod touch and iPhone. Surely there’s no more an application could do that the internet doesn’t already provide, and I don’t remember sending my blog for approval.

It makes me feel like a child. Apple doesn’t trust me enough to let me decide what applications I want to run on my iPhone. It’s understandable that Apple wants applications to be a high standard in the App Store, but to limit its content just doesn’t seem right.

Post from: Ed Parry

Trust Us, Apple

A recent poll conducted by SmokingApple’s suggests (from 420 votes) that only 16% of their readers primarily use Microsoft Office. Compared to the 34% that opt for iWork as their first choice. 182 of their readers however, mostly use iWork but still have Office installed. This is most probably due to compatibility issue’s with employment or schools and colleges, despite the conversion process being quite simple.

So why is there a clear line between iWork and Office? Is it because the majority of Mac users switched from the Windows PC but are so familiar with Office that they’d prefer to stick with it? Is it because their job requires them to use Microsoft Office? It’s always been a great suite of applications but after using iWork for a few weeks now, I doubt I’ll be relying on Microsoft for much longer.

There’s nothing wrong with Microsoft Office; it does everything most users to and being so popular, transferring files between computers and users is easy. Both iWork and Office do the same job, but its the way that they reach the end results that puts them apart.

Office. It’s a place of work and for many people, boredom. People complain about being stuck in their office all day. So Microsoft Office? It sounds professional, hard working and to the point. For a lot of the time, it’s what people are after. Something to finish the article, extend their spreadsheets. But it only does the tasks. There’s no alternative ways or nice designs to play with. You can spot an Office design template a mile away, so people generally avoid them. Up until Office ‘07, the design of the programs was very simple. Everything was there where you expected it. Nothing flashy, but it covered the job. Office ‘07 first brought slight confusion, with obvious tasks like ’save as…’ and ‘open’ hidden behind the Office logo. The new design that came with ‘07 gave a fresh look but was quite different to the previous layout, meaning users felt disorientated upon the first few uses.

iWork. Apple is known as the more playful between the two. Their highly popular TV adverts show the monotone life of the PC, compared to the vibrant world of Mac. Obviously there’s no avoiding the “office” scenario, but Apple’s take is a little easier to get by with. Their built in template designs are usable in most cases. They look professional and polished and can offer a good starting base for a document. The most needed tools such as fonts and formatting are all in front of you, with the most obscure features within the Inspector tab. While PC users may take a while to get this, the Inspector is used throughout Apple software housing most of the options relating to the current task, meaning everything that you might need is in one place. The new full screen option in iWork ‘09 offers distraction-free writing, allowing to you finish your work quicker and more efficiently. The option to upload work to iWork.com gives users a choice to connect easily and quickly between collaborated projects. While this service may be expensive and limited to iWork ‘09 users, the option is still present.

As I previously said, they both do the  job well. But iWork’s finish and polish towards the applications design, templates and small but useful features gives it the edge over Microsoft’s Office. Add into the mix that iWork ‘09 is considerably cheaper than the professional version of its counterpart, iWork seems the obvious choice for any Apple Mac user.

Have you had experience of using both platforms? Which has the edge for your own personal and work needs?

Post from: Ed Parry

iWork vs Office: A Comparison

The first thing you’ll notice, is the design change. Over the short months that I’ve been using Wordpress, I have changed the design numerous times, in the search for the perfect theme. Some time ago, Glenn Wolsey released a version of his theme, RedThree, and it immediately stood out to me. The theme itself is simple and elegant. The font you’re reading this article in looks great, and the colour scheme compliments it. I have made a few alterations to the theme to personalise it, but the majority of credit must go to Glenn Wolsey and Andreas Lengyel from macintalk.com for the design.

You will also notice re-written colophon and contact pages too, in an attempt to make reading them and finding out useful information that little bit easier. Throw in some regular content, and you have yourself a blog.

I’m very happy with the changes that have been made here, and I hope you like them too. I look forward to writing more often here, and hope you can stay around and follow. Why not subscribe to the RSS?

Post from: Ed Parry

A Fresh Start

With the MacBook taking a side seat, I needed something to type on. I already have a wireless mouse, but a keyboard was needed. This time, I couldn’t see a suitable alternative but the Apple product. While the wireless version was out of my grasp, the wired version is perfect. So there’s a single wire – big deal. I decided to choose the smaller version, without the keypad on the side. I figured I’ve been fine without one for the past year, why would I need one now?

It’s pretty much identical to the keyboard on my MacBook (White), so I’m used to the feel and scrabble keys. The advantage of having two accessible USB slots is great, especially to transfer files to and from a USB pen. The only disadvantage I can see from using this keyboard, is the inability to change the height. It’s fine for short sessions, but if you’re spending a few hours at a time typing away, you occasionally feel the need to stop for a minute.

Otherwise, it’s a brilliant keyboard. It works straight away, and the accessibility keys along the top row are very useful – dashboard, Exposé and iTunes controls are all there. It also, of course, looks great on my desk, and takes up hardly any space for when there’s no option but to use pen and paper.

Post from: Ed Parry

Apple Wired Keyboard