As technology improved, computer components became smaller, lighter, faster and cheaper, the PC became affordable and transportable, with a recorded 150 million Personal Computers world-wide by 1993. Before long there was one in every home and they quickly became recreational for learning and gaming. The consequence of this however is that they left ‘connectivity’ behind, the PCs could run their own software with pretty interfaces at top performance, better than what the mainframe could pump through to the ‘dumb terminals’. Mainframes were costly and bulky, there was no chance of having one of these at home or even in a small business so PCs were the new answer to business computing. As well as personal computers, the software industry rocketed, every computer needed the latest software and consequently the demand for IT support went through the roof. These were exciting times, by the end of 80s businesses and consumers could buy PCs running window, portable Laptops and Apple Macs and by the late 90s the internet boomed, giving us dial-up access to email and yahoo. There was new technology for business and new business in technology, everybody had more choice, was more mobile and more productive, exciting times indeed, but they were also very expensive times and had we lost something along the way?…

As a business owner I liked the centralised server, knowing that all the processing was taking place on these powerful mainframes, that all the business information was safe and secure on those servers and not sitting on laptops and home computers all over the world. These centralised servers were expensive but the maintenance costs were predictable, the ‘dumb terminals’ were reliable, didn’t need any setup or maintenance and they lasted forever because all the processing happened on the server. As a business owner my IT was a utility that serviced my business, I could have experts looking after the server and the rest was simple administration…

Over the last decade we have seen immense advancements in internet technology, broadband is more prevalent, faster and more flexible than ever before. With cable, ADSL, Public Wireless and 3G we’re always connected, at speeds that are more than capable of delivering high performance connectivity to centralised servers half way across the world. So has this development had an impact on all these problems we’ve seen with the emergence of personal (de-centralised) computing?…

The answer is yes, in at least two ways. The emergence of broadband has had technology innovators clambering over themselves to take the onus away from software and information running on the PC. Probably the most obvious development is web based software, sometimes described as Software as a Service or Cloud Computing. The aim here is to drive the software from centralised web servers, delivering it securely over the internet to users via a simple web browser. This fantastic way of delivering applications is not without its drawbacks, not least because it is an entirely different way of working than what most people are used to. However I’m not going in to that here, I’m more interested in the other development which is the ‘Hosted Desktop’. Now this technology is not new as I mentioned in the opening paragraph, but where previously it was a nice to have alternative to VPN when you were out the office and a handy administrative tool for an IT professional, now it can be the basis of your entire IT Infrastructure – If you want a picture painted based on a real life scenario check out my other post: The business case for Hosted Desktop.

There are many reasons to opt for a hosted Desktop architecture which I’ll cover in more detail in my next post but for a taster here’s a preview:

1.) Save money because there is no need for
     a. Onsite servers
     b. IT Support contracts
     c. Redundant hardware
     d. Backup systems
     e. Anti-virus
2.) Monthly licensing for all your IT
3.) Scalable per/user pricing
4.) Predictable budgeting for your business IT and support
5.) Increased security on your data
6.) In-build Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

For more information on the Hosted Desktop services SpiderGroup provide take a look at our website on:

Hosted Desktop – Access your Office Anywhere

I’m a SharePoint advocate and as such I’ll start with the negative and finish on the positive, it’s how I work.

Firstly, have you ever tried using a web-based document management system? It can be painful, it can be slow, it can time-out (which, because time correlates with how much work you’ve done, is highly inconvenient), it relies on browsers (I’m not even going to expand on this) and as for version control, who has a file on the web that doesn’t also reside in either their ‘my documents’ folder or on their desktop?…

If this hasn’t already reminded you why you reverted back to the network file server, lets look at integration. Having supported hosted SharePoint for a number of years I have helped a number of businesses consisting of teams of independent consultants working remotely from homes and small offices. This scenario sounds ideal to any business owner, think of the savings on office space and equipment, the geography you could cover and the low administrative overhead.

To the support technician however, this scenario is rather different. Lets make the assumption that SharePoint will work exactly the same for two consultants if they are both running the same version of windows, the same version of Internet Explorer, the same version of office and are using the same anti-virus software. This is a very big assumption, now place yourself in this scenario where all 25 consultants use their own laptop and home desktop and throw in every combination of operating system, office version, browser and antivirus software, random installations of updates and patches and a generous helping of spyware and malware to boot. This scenario becomes a seething mass of performance and authentication issues, constantly changing due to automatic updates and system upgrades, the support overhead goes through the roof and, if you’re not careful, the support technician out the window.

But if SharePoint and other web-based document management systems are such a nightmare, why did I say  ‘Yes’ to the original question?

For a start the picture I just painted is only really a horror story for the support technician, indeed he takes his own life at the end, but to the consultant (i.e. The end user) the issues are for the most part a temporary annoyance. In my experience most of the 25 users will have some form of frustration with the SharePoint system, a few very frustrated, however; you cannot make an accurate assessment without taking into account the benefits the system does bring.

Check-in and Check-out to streamline collaboration, version control for auditing and recovery, alerting when documents change, views, filtering and search for document retrieval – access from anywhere?… Priceless.

To be fair, these features aren’t unique to SharePoint, they should be standard to any document management system, so what does SharePoint bring to the mix above and beyond the basics?

The two features I’d bring into the mix are this point are, custom fields and workflows. The reason for this is not to blind you with vague terminology but rather to step document management up a notch into something a bit more clever and a lot more valuable… Let me explain:

Up to this point, a document gets retrieved, it gets edited and it gets saved, whatever the bells and whistles, it essentially remains a simple two dimensional process. Now lets think of the document as more than a document, an entity that has lots of other useful information attached to it as well as the actual document. For example it may be a proposal entity which consists of the word document that is your proposal, the owner of the document, a notes field, the stages of the proposal process, the value of the proposal, the follow-up date etc. etc. These additional fields are what we call custom fields and can be automatically added to the form you use when uploading a document to the system. In itself this is quite valuable, especially if you want to use views to group documents or tally up values (in this case perhaps the total value of active proposals) but where do workflows fit in?

Now we have all the business information we need we can start the clever stuff and we call the clever stuff workflow. SharePoint uses the Windows Workflow Foundation but never mind the technical – I’m not going to start going techie on you now. What you can do with workflow is tell SharePoint to take automatic actions based on events that occur on the system – essentially you can automate business processes. Lets use the proposal system I mentioned earlier, you could create a workflow which would initiate when the sales person changes the status of the proposal to ‘accepted’ – the first step in the workflow might be to create a task for accounts to raise an invoice and at the same time create a new project entry in the project list. When the task completes the value may be entered into the sales figures, meanwhile the project manager has been emailed to notify him the project is a go.

See, this is where SharePoint starts to get sexy; think of a process you want to improve, work out the information, people and stages required, then knock up your new business management system with the built in features of SharePoint… Simples.

Now you may think I’ve veered off the question as to whether SharePoint is a good document management system, and you’d be right, I have but for a very good reason. Many people with document management problems are actually having problems with information management and that is because they are using documents to store active business information – usually Excel documents, when what they should be using is an integrated system or database. Now it is by no means black and white and I appreciate this is a sweeping statement which I will have to clarify in a later post, however my very broad guideline is whether the information is ‘active’ or not. If its not active it is a document and can be stored in a structured document store or, my preference, a big bin. Now I’ll just clarify that by ‘bin’ I don’t mean that ‘special’ filing cabinet that all those board memos and CVs get ‘filed’ in, I mean save everything in one place, no structure and let a search engine do the finding. I personally believe this is how SharePoint works best with documents anyway but in this scenario you’d be looking at MOSS (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server) and its enterprise search functionality, again another post.

So if I was going to sum up this quite extensive rant, yes SharePoint is a good document management system if you’re prepared to meet it half way and rethink how you manage your information. But it brings a hell of a lot more to the table than document management and that is what I plan to explore in the rest of this series.

A:  A network file server is fantastic if you’re in the office, manageable (but sometimes painful) if you’re out the office on a VPN and basically impossible if you’re in a different organisation. So to share documents externally we look to email, the easiest and laziest way to share documents, completely unstructured and horrific for version control. Combined, these technologies get the job done but they are completely separate systems, impossible to maintain with any form of process and extremely inefficient: Where’s that document? It’s in my email.

Can you send it to me? I’m not sure which is the latest version.

What about the one on the file server? I edited it before I sent it out…

Any of that sound familiar?..

The point is, a single web based system for storing and sharing files can be accessed the exact same way whether you’re an administrator in the office, a director in the far east or a customer in another organisation. The principle is simple: Controlled access to the right document, anywhere you are, by anyone who needs it.

This is the reason an online document management system appeals to businesses and in turn, this is the reason businesses may look to SharePoint to meet all their document management needs.

I believe that Project Management is the most underestimated and undervalued role in business today, overruns are estimated to cost the UK billions each year, not just in the public sector and that’s not to mention the projects that don’t even make the first hurdle because they simply don’t know where to start. However I’m not here to prattle on about the importance of project management, you’ve heard it before, you know it’s important, critical in fact… but why would anyone want to do it? And surely I’m exaggerating when I say I’m absolutely fascinated by it…?

Actually no I’m not, and here’s why;

The Challenge – When over 70% of projects run over budget* what a challenge to scope, plan and see a project through to so its successful delivery on time and within budget! Even more so when you learn that it’s impossible to achieve without building in allowances for variation in scope, implementing cost contingency and adopting a communication strategy throughout its lifecycle.

The Diversity – No two projects are ever the same, by its very definition a project is a one-off endeavour to deliver an end product and its success will depend heavily on the business, people and technologies involved. Liken it to cooking a meal for guests, you can use the same ingredients but their freshness may vary, timings and measure slightly off, helping hands chop to different shapes and sizes, you may just be in the mood for a bit more spice that day and most importantly of all you can almost always guarantee someone will turn up a vegetarian!

The People – You can read every book, know every methodology, use every tool but I have yet to see a successful project run by someone who doesn’t work well with people. There are no tips or tricks that I know of to guarantee that you’re going to get the best out of your team when things get tough and no magic formulas to placate the sponsor when compromises have to be made. If anything, keep calm, keep in control, take full responsibility and treat every stakeholder with utmost respect for the role they are playing. Something to note is that even the most mundane project will have an element of excitement, if you can nurture it and share it around a bit, it can be a powerful influence on the success of the project – a bit of internal project marketing if you will.

The Systems – Never use a system just for the sake of it but always look for better tools to help you manage your projects. Einstein once said, “everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” There are thousands of tools available for project planning, tracking, reporting, information management and communication, explore them and you’ll come across some gems which will make the entire project easier to manage but be careful not to take your eye, or anyone else’s off the ball. A favourite tool of mine is Microsoft SharePoint for coordinating and sharing information and tracking progress, meetings and decisions that are made throughout the project lifecycle. It’s simple to use and it presents a professional image right at the early stages when you as a project manager are yet unproven.

I realise that I haven’t delved into the depths of project methodology such as PRINCE2 or Theory of Constraints (TOC) but I knew an article on Project Management was going to be rather dry and the last thing I wanted to do was bore myself to death too. I do hope that I have at least expressed my enthusiasm for this topic and maybe even talked some sense along the way. There is a lot more behind project management than this humble introduction which I’d like to share in the future, things I’ve experienced and read and advice I’ve been given but much, much more I have yet still to learn. Thanks for reading.

*Standish Group (2004) on IT projects in the US

“Getting Things Done” by David Allen is apparently a “Action Management Method”, for real people this means a way of getting tasks done on time without forgetting anything. Information on this method can be found on his website or in wikipedia. The main theory behind the methodology is to record everything, from picking up milk to closing a sales deal or perhaps repainting the kitchen one day. If you do this then your mind can focus on the task at hand and not worry about remembering what you need to do. Of course there is a particular way to record this information and this can be found in the previously mentioned links.

Using the principles set out in GTD you can use anything from a paper system to a fully electronic one, Outlook comes to mind of an application that most businesses have. However over the past couple of years a host of specific GTD applications have started to emerge, being a mac user I am an avid fan of Things which is one of the best thought out applications I have used in a very long time. Of course there are plenty of applications for Windows and Linux as well.

I have to admit I don’t find myself following all the guidelines set out in the book but I have found the the ideas were very good in helping me develop my own system. I would definitely recommend adding “read GTD” to your list of new year’s resolutions, but unlike the others actually do this one!

Related Links

Today you can go online, find a nice template, pay pennies, plug in some content and by the end of the day you have a great new website that you can show off to your friends and colleagues. You can have flashy animations, interactive blogs and integrated email web forms, all without needing an ounce of knowledge about web design.

“So what’s the problem?” I hear you say….

Well, there is a world of difference between developing a website and developing a successful website, all depending on the measure of success. If you want to write a short story, show it to your family and friends and get a pat on the back then you’re probably going to succeed. If, however, you want to win the Booker Prize and sell a million copies, well then you’re going to need some help and the process is going to be a lot more involved.

There are five key elements to building a successful website:

1. Clearly plan and define your objectives – What constitutes success
2. Plan and produce your content – This will define what people do when they visit the site and help it get found in the first place
3. Design your site – everyone knows this bit!
4. Launch your site, measure and reiterate – learn from your visitors and adapt ths site accordingly
5. Market your site – Give it a bit of PR, also called off-page SEO (search engine optimisation)

In this first article I’m going to focus on developing the site content because in my experience this is the least understood and most important process in website development.

This is really a guide to create effective content for your website, maximising your website ranking in Google, improving accessibility and making the initial development of your site more efficient.

Page Title

This appears on the blue bar at the top of your browser window and should bear relevance to both the website and the page the visitor is on. When someone searches Google, this will be the link which takes the visitor to your webpage. The title of the BBC News page for example is: BBC NEWS | News Front Page

Page (META) Description

The page description is not visible on the webpage but it provides search engines such as Google with a brief description of the content on the page. This description will appear under the link in the Google search results and should only be 120 characters long. Search Google for ‘news’ and you will see the BBC News page with the following description:  Visit BBC News for up-to-the-minute news, breaking news, video, audio and feature stories. BBC News provides trusted World and UK news as …

Page (META) Keywords & Phrases

These are no longer used by Google but it is very important to put yourself in the mind of you customers or target audience and think about which words they might search for to find this page of your website. Note down these keywords as they will be key to optimising your website later.

Content Heading 1

Each page needs a big bold primary heading which instantly and accurately sets the expectation to the visitor about what they can expect to find on this page. This may be the page title or may be part of the page description but either way it should be relevant to the page content and may contain one of your primary keywords.

Content Heading 2

If you have multiple paragraphs of text on the page you may want sub headings (or secondary headings) to break up the content and help signpost the visitor to the right information. Google likes these almost as much as the primary heading and are very useful for visually impaired visitors who might be using screen-readers to surf the site.

Content Paragraph Intro

The introduction paragraph needs to be short, sweet and clearly visible to the visitor, this is arguably the first time you really engage with your audience so make the most of it.

Content Paragraph Normal

Most of the informational content on your page will be text based and will fall under this category – a normal paragraph of text. Google loves this and if you follow these tips you will almost certainly rank well in Google:

1. Keep it clear and concise
2. Remove unnecessary words while maintaining the ‘personality of your site’
3. Keep on topic – use your key words and keep the content relevant to the title and description
4. Break up the content – use sub headings to structure the paragraphs into appropriate segments
5. Keep it simple, reference diagrams for complicated concepts

Content Image

Well used images, photos, graphics or diagrams are great for visitors, they attract the eye and can be the difference between a visitor staying on the page or bouncing away as fast as possible. They must be used wisely however as search engines and screen-readers cannot see images – you must label them carefully to help Google understand what they show.

1. Keep file sizes to a minimum so they appear instantly and don’t keep the visitor waiting
2. Make the name of the image file relevant to the image itself
3. ALWAYS put a brief description of the image in the ALT tags
4. Use the same text you put into the ALT tags into the TITLE tags

Content Image (Alternative Text) Title

Alt tags are critical for Search engines and Screen readers, they are the text based interpretation of the image and the only reference Google will have to what the image portrays. Think of these as Image ‘Labels’ and make sure you label every image you acquire for your content.

Conclusion

If you adhere to these principals for every single page then Google will take great pleasure in indexing your site, your page rank will be better off and people will start finding your site. This is the first step and it’s now down to the appeal of the content and design to take your visitors on a journey that will meet those success factors you identified right at the start.

It may sound like a lot of work and I’m not going to lie to you, it is and unfortunately the only person who can put all this content together is you! Having said this, by following these guidelines from the outset, you can save days of your own time later, you will save money on design (IF YOU DO THIS FIRST), your site will already be optimised and you should have a steady flow of visitors, allowing you to test and measure how well your content is received.

Cloud computing is a recently coined but popular term for the delivery of information and services to one’s computer, over the internet (or ‘cloud’). Why ‘cloud’? Well, if you’ve ever had the pleasure of reviewing network diagrams you’d know that the internet is generally depicted by a cloud. My guess is that the Internet has become such a vast, unfathomable network of information and services that no one can really explain it – so we just call it ‘the cloud’ and take for granted all the really clever, interesting and weird stuff that happens in there.

Personally I’m not sure that l like the term, I run a business and the image of my information floating around in some vast cloud makes me a little uneasy, fortunately I know better and if it’s the term that’s going to stick then I need to join the party. Whether it will stick is another matter, the most recent fad was calling it web 2.0 and the slightly less catchy software as a service (or SaaS), not to mention on demand services and application service provision (ASP). But all these terms essentially refer to same thing; the delivery of services and information over the internet to billions of consumers and millions of businesses all over the world.

Give me an example…

To take a practical example of cloud computing, we’ll look at small business accounting software as this should apply to the broadest audience.

Standard Computing: Sage Line 50 is by far the most popular accounting solution for small businesses in the UK and those of you who have used this software will know that, like all standard software, it needs to be installed and maintained on a computer in your office. This can cause a number of headaches for business owners and financial controllers such as; accessing accounts information when you’re not in the office, working across multiple locations or from home, upgrading software and hardware and backing up your data.

Cloud Computing: QuickBooks Online is an American accountancy package that has been re-developed in a web-technology that allows it to be delivered as an online service. This means that it can be accessed via any web browser, all you have to do is go to the home page, enter your security information and start using it. You can print, export and report on information just as you would with standard software but you have the added convenience of paying for the service on a monthly subscription, with no up-front capital expenditure. I believe that QuickBooks Online is currently only available in the US but other online accounting packages such as KashFlow are available to the UK market, I should state that I am only highlighting the Cloud Computing concept and not the quality of the accountancy packages themselves!

And the benefits are?…

So with the example of your financial systems, lets look at some of the benefits Cloud Computing can deliver to your business:

Work from the office, home of on the road: With cloud computing you’re not limited to working from any one computer, you can access the software from any laptop or PC, anywhere you can get an internet connection, which is great for productivity when you’re on the road or for flexible working for your workforce.

Share real-time information with colleagues and clients: Almost all web-based applications provide role-based access to information and reports which means you can collaborate with colleagues in different locations and provide better service to your customers.

No hassle with software and hardware: You don’t have any hardware in-house, so you don’t have the hassle or worry about servers failing or hardware upgrades, you don’t even technically have any software so no more painstaking installations or desktop troubleshooting.  

Lower cost of ownership and no up-front capital expenditure: I’ve been through the process many times, ask for a quote for a software package, get a quote for the software, software support, additional licensing, a server, backup equipment, hardware support, delivery and 3 or 4 day’s labour to put it all together. Before you know it you’ve spent over £10k up front and 1k per month for the rest of your business life for something you’re probably going to have to upgrade in 3 years time.

Securely backed up data: Most data on the web is backed up at least daily and i know for our database applications you’re looking at an hourly backup cycle so your business information is safe in separate geographical locations at all times. Software providers that host in the cloud can afford much more advanced firewall and security systems than most small or medium sized businesses and only the best technical teams to manage them, your systems are probably in better hands with them than in your own offices.

So is Cloud Computing the way to go?…

I would be so bold as to say that every business could benefit from a little bit of cloud computing but at the moment I see it suiting small businesses (1-50 staff) who are flexible and forward thinking multi-locational large businesses (100+ staff) who can afford to think outside the box. The in-between Medium size businesses tend to have invested heavily in skilled personnel and equipment and only have 1 or 2 locations – besides, what would all their expensive staff be doing if not managing VPN connections, monitoring hardware and applying software updates?…

But does this mean that UK businesses should button down the hatches and ride out the storm which, according to some predictions, could last well into 2010? Or is there some opportunity to be gained by owners of small businesses who are prepared to think on their feet and react quickly to minimise their expenditure and explore new market opportunities that may be hidden in this global economic slowdown?

I certainly don’t claim to have the answers but I find it encouraging to hear business leaders sharing thoughts and advice on ways to further their business during this time of general fear andspeculation. Because of this, I wanted to share some of my own thoughts and those of other proactive thinkers I come across over the next few months, and make a humble contribution to the ethos that even negative change creates opportunity.

As the first part of this series I wanted to look at marketing as this is a topic close to my heart as well as being critical to the success of any business in any economic climate.

I know from experience that one of the first things to go when money gets tight is the poor old marketing budget. Why? Well have you ever read a marketing proposal with a clearly stated return on investment? However difficult it is to quantify, cutting your marketing budget is not the answer, some of your competitors will see this as an opportunity and you should too! Those that don’t, well perhaps there’s your opportunity for a larger market share.

Instead look to invest more wisely, don’t be afraid of the Internet, look at search engine optimisation and e-marketing as cost-effective routes to market. Revisit your existing clients, treat them fairly and they’ll help you – remember that they got you where you are today. Rather than cut your budget, review where it’s going – take a hard look at existing campaigns – without constant revision they often go stale.

Here is a good set of tips from a global marketeer which I guarantee with re-invigorate you to rethink your day to day sales and marketing activity: Laurel Delaney on MarketingProfs: 5 Tips to Recession-Proof Global Marketing

I have been looking forward to owning an iPhone since it was first unveiled in January 2007 but refused to buy one until it supported 3G. Luckily a year later my wish came true and in general Iʼm very happy with it. I have always liked Apple for their simplicity of design and the attention to detail that goes into user interfaces, the iPhone is no exception, however Iʼm afraid to say that cracks are starting to appear in their reputation for quality.

If you donʼt know much about the iPhone then I would suggest going to http://www.apple.com/iphone, this will give you an overview of the features that are part of the device.

So I have to start of by saying the phone looks damn good The iPhone has sparked much discussion but I donʼt think you can say much against itʼs looks, in typical Apple style itʼs got an amazing form factor and itʼs no wonder that Jonathan Ive keeps winning awards. One of the reasons the iPhone looks so good is its screen. The widescreen is 3.5” in size and makes photos, films etc. look great but it also allows for very good control of the device via its touch interface. I find this was of controlling the phone very easy to use and the interface standards for the applications ensure that buttons are large enough so that you click the right button. I am also a great fan of the keyboard a function which has caused much argument in online forums. My suggestion to people who shy away from such things and demand a keyboard with some form of tactile response is this: try it. You could be right and it may not be for you but I would get hold of a iPhone and play with it for a couple of hours, as a tip donʼt worry if you see that you have typed an incorrect letter 9 times out of 10 the software will work it out for you. Once you are used to it (and it does take some getting used to) youʼll be typing those emails two handed in no time.

Along with the keyboard two major talking points are the phoneʼs 3G reception and the battery life. This is where things start to fall down slightly, it is very true that if you have 3G turned on and WIFI turned on and you start doing a lot of web browsing then the battery does die down quickly. This certainly isnʼt a problem specific to Apple, most smart phones drain their batteries very quickly, just because of the sheer amount of work they have to do and these donʼt have a 3.5” colour display! Never the less this doesnʼt change the fact itʼs going to be a pain if you run out of battery half way through the day, so my (and everyone elseʼs) tip is to turn both WIFI and 3G off and just use it when you need it. EDGE or GPRS (the standard signal the iPhone uses) is fine for receiving email and light web pages and if I know I need to do any heavy browsing then I can just switch on which ever service I need. Actually itʼs ironic that I waited over a year to get the 3G version and I hardly ever use it, I always seem to be able to get by on EDGE or I’m in an area with 3G. So for arguments sake letʼs say I have 3G switched on, do I get reception? Well generally, yes. In most places around Bristol I get 3 out of the 5 bars, however for the people that are affected Apple is supposedly bringing out software updates that help reduce this problem. It seems to me that the phone is fine in areas of strong signal yet when it gets to a weaker signal strength it tends to revert back to EDGe to early whereas other phones would stay connected to 3G.

The last general comment I would like to make before going into specific functionality of the iPhone is that of stability. When I first got my phone it was not stable, at all. The applications often crashed and even reset itself a few times. I can live with the former but not the later, restarts are unacceptable. Luckily (deservedly may be more appropriate) Apple have released two updates (2.01 and 2.02) which seem to have calmed the phone down and with 2.1 currently in beta testing I have high hopes that I will have the stable phone that I should have received to start off with. So those are my generally views of the phone, as you can see itʼs not all good but there is still a lot to the phone to discuss. I wonʼt be reviewing all the functionality the iPhone has to offer because to be honest I donʼt use all the functions. I will however talk about what I have used on a day to day basis and Iʼm going to group those into the following sections:

• Phone
• Web
• Productivity
• 3rd party applications

You might be surprised to find that I havenʼt included the iPod functions in the list, well itʼs only because I donʼt really use them. I have watched the occasional video and I do have a couple of albums included in case of music emergencies. I donʼt really have much to say about it really, it works as you would expect it and watching videos is a lot better than previous iPods because of the enlarged screen.

The Phone

With regards contacts on your phone and the ability to ring them I donʼt really have much to say, other than contacts used to be very slow to open but has now speeded up. What requires more discussion is that of MMS and SMS. Well MMS is easy, you donʼt have it. If you want to send picture messages then you had better send an email. If you receive one you can still retrieve it albeit in a rather contrived way. If someone sends you an MMS you receive a standard text message which contains a link to a website, from here you need to
enter your phone number and a PIN that is also included in the text. From here you can see the picture realise that it wasnʼt really worth the effort and curse your friend for wasting your time. Personally I donʼt really using picture messages but if you do, youʼre going to find this annoying.

When it comes to standard texts however I find the iPhoneʼs way of storing texts per contact very useful. All texts you receive are stored by contact in a thread. Meaning that if I look at a text message from James Cook I can see all the texts that I have received since I last cleared the conversation. Since can be very useful in making sense of replies you get a few hours after you sent the original.

The Web

Browsing the web is where the iPhone comes into its own, I have tried a variety of smart phones and nothing comes close. Mobile safari comes pre-installed on the phone and allows you to view most websites on the internet as if you were using your desktop. Rendering is very fast and good support for javascript is provided. Just double tap on an area of text and it will fit o the screen, rotate the screen into the horizontal position and you can fit even more on the screen. Unfortunately flash isnʼt support but I have yet to miss it,
most sites that Iʼm going to visit while on the move just donʼt have it.

Itʼs worth mentioning that when I talk about viewing websites Iʼm talking about the full version that you would get on your desktop or laptop. The iPhone browser represents itself as a client browser rather than a mobile one. Obviously if you find yourself running on edge you can still view the mobile versions. There is also a host of website that are specifically designed for the iPhone, or at least have an iPhone version. Google for instance has a great interface for a lot of its services that are scaled to fit the iPhoneʼs screen and eliminates the need for scrolling. The buttons are of a good size and in general is much nicer to use than their standard mobile version. In short the web browsing on the phone is a huge selling point and in my opinion makes up for a lot of other mistakes that Apple are still trying to correct.

Productivity

When it comes to productivity people immediately think of email and calendar and Iʼm no different I have used both Exchange and MobileMe (which definitely needs its own article) and Iʼm quite happy with the applications. Along with all the other apps that are included with the iPhone they are simple to use and are well layed out, they donʼt have tons of functionality but they do what they have well. Reading files and keeping notes and tasks on the phone is where you get into trouble. Yes there is a notes application but it doesnʼt sync with anything, personally I find this a huge problem. I was also surprised to learn that you canʼt just transfer a file over to it either. I didnʼt even research this I just assumed it would! Now there is a reasonable work around just email the document to yourself, you can read iWork, Office and PDF files that are attached to an email. Still, not ideal and neither is the complete lack of a todo list from iCal, Exchange or even a standalone application!

Luckily you can get 3rd party applications that fill the void and keep the iPhone as the hub of my productivity. Iʼm going to talk more about these later but I currently use: Evernote (a notes application), Things (a GTD task list) and Files (letʼs you transfer files directly to your phone from a machine running Windows or Mac OSX.

Now Iʼm already working on a more in-depth article on productivity so I wonʼt say much more. It is worth keeping in mind that if you keep a lot of notes and todos that you will probably need 3rd party applications.

3rd Party Applications

Now the application store is just great, basically its a shop in iTunes where you can buy 3rd party applications for your phone. It should definitely be a consideration when you are deciding which smart phone to buy. There are some amazing applications out there which are up to the quality you would expect from a desktop application and they really add something to the phone.

Now when I was talking about productivity I was mentioned that you really need 3rd party applications if you want files, todos and notes and your first impression may have been of disappointment. I really donʼt see it as a bad thing (although Apple should really sync notes and todos anyway). All the applications are downloaded through iTunes so you know where you need to look, they are of a high standard, reasonably prices if not free and in a lot of cases provide functionality that you know Apple or any other phone manufacturer are simply not going to include with the standard phone software.

Final Thoughts

There are definitely flaws with the phone and depending on how you are going to use will play a large part in which smart you end up buying. From my personal experience even with the problems that I have to put up with I really donʼt regret buying it. It has an amazing interface, the web browsing is excellent and it is all topped of with some amazing applications. I am confident that future updates will resolve the problems Iʼve been experiencing but only time will tell if Iʼm being optimistic.

Dan,

If you have any questions about Apple related products or if you just want to disagree with what I have said then feel free to email me on dan.rowlands@spidergroup.co.uk Ideas for future articles are also welcome