Friday 8 June 2012
Wednesday 14 March 2012
iPhone TomTom Orientation Lock Problem
After being thrilled to bits with using the TomTom app on my motorbike whilst it was in my pocket and listening to the instructions, I then looked to how it would be possible to mount the phone on the bike in a non-obstructive way. I have discovered how and will explain in a later post.
The interim solution, however, was to stick it in the map pocket of a tank bag so I could quickly look down and reference the map, or see where to go at a big roundabout. Doing this required that I set the orientation to landscape so I wouldn't have to look down too far. It made the difference between a quick glance and staring at my navel, which is very dangerous on a bike!
It makes sense to use the phone in Landscape- if you think about it all of TomTom's hardware products are Landscape.
Here is where it gets irritating: The orientation lock on the iPhone ONLY LOCKS IN PORTRAIT! Due to the vibrations and leaning of the bike, the phone seemed to prefer being in portrait.
Initially I thought this was a TomTom bug, but it is prevalent across iOS.
After a bit of fiddling I came up with a solution:
Settings > General > Accessibility >Triple-click Home (set to Assistive touch)
Now when you triple click the home button the assistive touch button appears, albeit slowly.
The interim solution, however, was to stick it in the map pocket of a tank bag so I could quickly look down and reference the map, or see where to go at a big roundabout. Doing this required that I set the orientation to landscape so I wouldn't have to look down too far. It made the difference between a quick glance and staring at my navel, which is very dangerous on a bike!
It makes sense to use the phone in Landscape- if you think about it all of TomTom's hardware products are Landscape.
Here is where it gets irritating: The orientation lock on the iPhone ONLY LOCKS IN PORTRAIT! Due to the vibrations and leaning of the bike, the phone seemed to prefer being in portrait.
Initially I thought this was a TomTom bug, but it is prevalent across iOS.
After a bit of fiddling I came up with a solution:
1) Enable 'Assistive Touch' (Settings > General > Accessibility > Assistive Touch)
2) Lock portrait orientation (double tap Home, swipe right, touch the lock orientation button)
3) Open the Tomtom app
4) Touch the little black square with a circle inside (open the assistive touch menu)
5) Touch 'Device' > 'Rotate Screen' > 'Left' or 'Right' (then click outside the black square to exit the menu)
Your phone is now locked in landscape orientation until you exit to the homescreen or any other app (if the new app supports landscape you can just go from step 4) as the orientation will still be locked as before.
To remove the assistive touch button quickly
Now when you triple click the home button the assistive touch button appears, albeit slowly.
Wednesday 30 November 2011
iPad Games
Here are my recommendations for iPad games:
I'm not mentioning the Angry Birds/Cut the Rope/World of Goo/Flight Control type games, because if you haven't come across them maybe you need to do a bit of googleing!
Reckless Racing HD
This is often my go-to game if I need a quick adrenaline fix. The controls can take some time to get used to, but it is well worth the wait. A great feature is you can play against friends on other iOS devices.
Osmos for iPad
The most beautiful app I have seen. Although you can get this app on the Mac App Store it rightly belongs on the iPad because of the interface and intimacy of the device. The music is very absorbing, with a string ambient theme that needs to be appreciated with headphones in a dimly lit room.
Bike Baron
A fun physics based motorbike game where you have to guide the Baron's bike over increasingly complicated courses. Comical, cheap and mildly addictive. You can even download levels or make them yourself.
Mirror's Edge
Originally a PC and console game, Mirror's Edge was re-coded for the iPad and shows that the platform can perform like a dedicated gaming platform. The controls can get irritating at times, but it is lovely to look at and fun to play if you get in the rhythm of it.
Friday 17 June 2011
SketchUP a GoGo
I have thought that I need to spread the SketchUP love for a long time, and the time has come.
Because it is such an fun and easy to use application I would encourage anyone to come along and have a go. It's not just for 'Architects'. It can be used to scribble an idea, make a map, draw a birthday card, invent a contraption, make a mini video and all sorts of other random nonsense.
Spurred on by the left brain thinking of the SketchUP developers I am going to hold a very informal beginners SketchUP session for those interested in the lovely free offering from the nice people at Google. When I say 'informal' I mean 'beers and chips' kinda informal, so bring a beverage and a snack to share!
This is happening on Thursday the 30th of June.
For those more studious you can download SketchUP here and have a go.
If you have a laptop (Mac or PC - we aren't racist here) bring it along and you can join in on the fun - One essential is a mouse; you can use a trackpad but SketchUP likes mice!
The Facebook page for the event is here: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=156241511112539
Monday 7 March 2011
The Big Skype Evil
I feel obliged to post about the way Skype is going:
A couple of months ago Skype released a new Beta version of their Mac application that allows you to access their platform.
'Great' I thought.
Being a software optimist I was envisaging a great refresh with some nice User Interface (UI) tweaks and maybe some updated functionality, so I downloaded the Beta and eagerly went to work on it.
Disappointed is probably the right emotion to use, but I kept at it for a good few days until it interrupted with workflow. I'm a very heavy Skype user because I work in a different country to my office so try to make it as easy as possible to get hold of me. Skype makes this fantastic; I have a London number that UK based people can ring which calls ether my computer here in Spain, my home landline, my British cell phone or redirects to my Spanish cell phone. This means I pay for any call that comes into anything but my computer.
Fantastic. I don't mind paying for a service.
Except when the company gets greedy and wants to slyly add some advertising revenue in there by making a new version of their closed, proprietary client.
Skype, that's not nice.
I posted this on their Blog, under a mountain of comments about the huge UI.
\/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/ \/
The whole massive UI debacle didn't make sense to me until I read this:
http://blogs.skype.com/en/2011/03/advertising.html
I am another 'tried 5.0 (really really hard) and went back to 2.8 within 2 days' person.
So I pay for a Skype number, I pay for skype-to-go, I pay a monthly subscription for landlines AND I pay to call cell phones.
Now I get this massive UI thrown at me and the prospect of advertising thrown down my throat.
After I press the 'Post Comment' button I'm looking for alternatives; it's likely I'll hang around because I believe that Skype, at it's core, is a good service but there is a strong wiff of greed in the air.
/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
There is also a fantastic note about them being likely to pull support for old versions of the app, so it could be the case where you have to have a massive app with ads flashing in your face, even if you did save the old version.
Add to the pile, please and let them know we're not happy.
Monday 7 February 2011
Photosynth - A great Architectural tool?
This is pretty amazing. I saw the Seadragon/Photosynth demo on a TED video a few years ago (2007) and Microsoft haven't really done anything big with it.
I really wish they would create a version that runs locally, because this would be amazing for architectural work. We are always looking at images in a really linear way, which sometimes takes up a lot of my working time. Having a 3D environment built from site photos would be the best thing since sliced bread.
In the mean time, you can create your own Photosynths on the site, but they are always public.
Below is a pretty good example.
Friday 28 January 2011
It's that nomad time again
It's that nomad time again. Time to move towns again, this time to another capital - Madrid
I will sorely miss Malaga and our beautiful apartment in the centre of town. It seems an idilic setting, but there are a lot of down sides to it; the first being day to day shopping. When a granny cart is needed to get your shopping to your house it becomes tiresome to do food shopping in any quantity. Since we have been in malaga the closest we have been able to get our car is about 3-400 meters, which kinda sucks. The lack of environmental control also takes the juice out of you; in the summer it is sweltering and the winter is bone chillingly cold due to the massive internal volume of the space. Even three 2Kw heaters make little difference. There is also the inconvenience of all the hubbub of living smack on the Google pin of Malaga, including air-conditioners, crane alarms, concerts, religious parades.
It didn't take that long to choose our new place, the hours of research paid off in the end. Spanish property websites seem to be in the dark ages, but a light at the end of the tunnel is Idealista, which also has an incredibly useful (and horribly flawed) iPad app. In deciding where to live we wanted to be close enough to the city to pop in, but with the conveniences of living in the suburbs and close to Vanessa's office. The area we settled on was Las Tablas which is the total opposite to where we are now, i.e. completely characterless. I call it Zombie Town.
In essence it is a collection of gated communities, with people appearing from their underground car parks and driving off to the mega-mall about a kilometre away.
What we swap for character is (in order of my importance)
• A dishwasher
• An outside space
• Two parking spaces
• Close cross country trails
• Swimming pool
• Separate spare bedroom
• Scullery
• Ground Floor Bike storage/workshop
Work wise this means Vanessa works in an actual office building, rather than a factory or train depot, and I get to try co-working with the supermegacool people at utopic_US. Which is nice.
We'll see in a few months how we get on.
I will sorely miss Malaga and our beautiful apartment in the centre of town. It seems an idilic setting, but there are a lot of down sides to it; the first being day to day shopping. When a granny cart is needed to get your shopping to your house it becomes tiresome to do food shopping in any quantity. Since we have been in malaga the closest we have been able to get our car is about 3-400 meters, which kinda sucks. The lack of environmental control also takes the juice out of you; in the summer it is sweltering and the winter is bone chillingly cold due to the massive internal volume of the space. Even three 2Kw heaters make little difference. There is also the inconvenience of all the hubbub of living smack on the Google pin of Malaga, including air-conditioners, crane alarms, concerts, religious parades.
It didn't take that long to choose our new place, the hours of research paid off in the end. Spanish property websites seem to be in the dark ages, but a light at the end of the tunnel is Idealista, which also has an incredibly useful (and horribly flawed) iPad app. In deciding where to live we wanted to be close enough to the city to pop in, but with the conveniences of living in the suburbs and close to Vanessa's office. The area we settled on was Las Tablas which is the total opposite to where we are now, i.e. completely characterless. I call it Zombie Town.
In essence it is a collection of gated communities, with people appearing from their underground car parks and driving off to the mega-mall about a kilometre away.
What we swap for character is (in order of my importance)
• A dishwasher
• An outside space
• Two parking spaces
• Close cross country trails
• Swimming pool
• Separate spare bedroom
• Scullery
• Ground Floor Bike storage/workshop
Work wise this means Vanessa works in an actual office building, rather than a factory or train depot, and I get to try co-working with the supermegacool people at utopic_US. Which is nice.
We'll see in a few months how we get on.
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