HughCowan.com » Everything

iWait

admin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:37:43 +0000

As there was no hardware release so far this year for a new iPhone, it seems likely there is still one to come before the end of the year. More precisely sometime between now and the end of October there is likely to be an announcement and a release of a new iPhone and probably an iPod touch. This announcement and release will coincide with the release of iOS 5 most likely.

Apple being the secretive company they are, are not giving too many clues as to when this announcement and realise will be (if ever). However this is not stopping most tech/Apple blogs and news sites to be forever posting new rumours about the mythical iPhone 5. Once it is announced expect a lot of Apple fanboys and other geek to be rejoicing!

iWait is a post from: HughCowan.com

Getting the Kindle Store back on the iPhone

admin — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 19:15:01 +0000

If, like me, you use the Kindle app on the iPhone it will be slightly annoying to see in the latest update that the link to the Kindle Store has been removed. This is due to Apple forcing apps to start using In-app purchases so they can take part of these payment.

Luckily it is relatively easy to access the optimised version of the Kindle store and to add an icon on the homescreen.

First go to www.amazon.co.uk in Safari on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. You should see a special optimised version showing instead of the normal desktop version.

Scroll down a little and select Kindle and then Kindle Store.

This is now the Kindle Store homepage where the button in the App used to take you to. Now tap the middle button at the bottom of Safari and tap Add to Home Screen.

Rename the link to what you want. I chose Kindle Store. Then tap Add at the top.

Just to make things look tidier I put the Kindle App and the link to the Kindle Store into a folder named Kindle.

That’s it! You now have a quick shortcut to purchase Kindle books on your iPhone.

The official post at Amazon says going to www.amazon.co.uk/kindlestore should work but this always took me to the desktop version hence this post. It appears the following link takes you straight to the optimised Amazon store (but not the Kindle homepage): http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/h.html

Getting the Kindle Store back on the iPhone is a post from: HughCowan.com

iPhone Website

admin — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 17:04:19 +0000

Did you know that you can view an optimised version of this website on your iPhone, iPod or iPad? Try it out. Just go to www.hughcowan.com on your device. I’d be interested to hear from people with Android devices or other smartphones to learn how my site looks on them. iPhone Website is a post [...]

iPhone Website is a post from: HughCowan.com

Comments Change

admin — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:07:56 +0000

I have changed the comments platform on this site to Disqus. I have seen this platform in use over many blogs that I read on a daily basis and it seems to becoming the standard comments platform.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Comments Change is a post from: HughCowan.com

Partial Tilt

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:31:06 +0000

Google always are game for a joke and even their mist basic feature; search is no exception. When you do a search on Safari, which is the default browser on the iPhone, the alignment of the entered Google page is tilted. This also probably happens on other mobile devices so give it a go!

Partial Tilt is a post from: HughCowan.com

New Skype

admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 08:32:55 +0000

Yesterday Skype finally released an updated version of Skype for Linux. It has been over a year since the previous release back in January 2010. In that time they have fixed a few bugs and added one feature that involves paying Skype to use certain Wifi networks. There is hope they will release more versions quicker now but I’ll believe it when I see it!

You can grab the latest version here.

New Skype is a post from: HughCowan.com

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta (Natty)

admin — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 07:21:43 +0000

At the end of the month the latest version of Ubuntu will be released. Ubuntu 11.04 or Natty Narwhal will the first Ubuntu to move away from the typical Gnome layout that previous version have. It will be using a new interface which is very similar to Mac OSX. A dock on the left hand side of the screen will show the icons of programs that are used regurlary. These icons can be added, deleted and moved around. The dock hides by default when a windows of a running program comes near it. This setting can be changed with the installation of the Compiz Settings Manager, this is not installed by default which is a little odd.

I’ve been running the beta on my laptop for a few days now and I’m really enjoying using the new interface. It feel like I have more room for running applications. There are however a couple of annoying things. The menu of running applications is integrated into the bar running along the top just like Mac OSX however the menu is hidden by the program name that is currently in use. This makes it less obvious where the menu is until you hover the mouse over the name of the currently running application.

It is not possible to add anything to the bar at the top and even some programs that need an icon in the top right are blocked from doing this. I only got Dropbox working by a quick hidden fix. Another annoying thing is that to get the dock up you have to move the mouse the top left only and hover over the Ubuntu icon. I would prefer the dock to appear by generally moving my mouse to anywhere on the left. It also took me longer than it should have to work out how to change the order of the icons on the dock. In the end I realised I must move them off and then back on to do this.

Hopefully most of these annoying things will be resolved with tweaks or by Ubuntu 11.10 which will be released in October 2011. Until then it is more than usable and I look forward to drinking to the new release at the end of the month at one of the Ubuntu meetups!

What do you think of the new layout?

Ubuntu 11.04 Beta (Natty) is a post from: HughCowan.com

Firefox 4 Released Tomorrow

admin — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:13:35 +0000

I’ve been a Chrome user for a while now but before I was a Firefox user. I noticed that the new Firefox is being released tomorrow so I took this oppotunity to check out the Release Candidate of Firefox 4. While it looks very Chromesque and is much snappier. There is nothing really that tempts me back. For now I think I will stick with Chrome.

Have you found a compelling reason to use Firefox over other browsers?

Firefox 4 Released Tomorrow is a post from: HughCowan.com

He’s Dead Jim

admin — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 16:01:19 +0000

Previous Next Close

This is the message you get in chrome if a page cannot load and you choose to kill it. The more geeky readers will realise that it is a quote from Star Trek the original series. In my experience tabs only crash because of a Flash failure. I’m also running the Beta version which also doesn’t help. Thankfully crashes are very rare.

He’s Dead Jim is a post from: HughCowan.com

Welcome to 2011

admin — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:21:53 +0000

Well it is March already and I’m a year older and I’ve just realised that I have not updated this blog for 10 months. Is the platform of blogs dead? Most of my friends are on Facebook these days and can keep up-to-date with me on there (although I’m also using it less and less) and the rest of the world can keep up-to-date with me in more byte-sized chunks via Twitter. So are blogs dead? Discuss. (Stop me if I start to sound like a Teacher!)

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Welcome to 2011 is a post from: HughCowan.com