I just bought this necklace as a Twitter-birthday present to myself - click the image to go to the Etsy store!

Yesterday, I woke up to the following tweet:

Seriously, five years?

My first tweet was this:

I don’t even remember why I joined. I, like most people when they first join, didn’t really get it, but I really started using it when there were other people to talk to that I knew. (Weirdly, looking back at my Facebook Timeline, when I first joined FB, I used to write my status’ in the same way that most Tweets are written. Odd!)

When I joined Twitter, it looked like this:

and you rarely saw the fail whale back then. But, then more and more people started to join, and the whale was a familiar frustrating sight.

Twitter has been an immense help at all times. From the little things (“What should I wear today?”) to the big – and there have been many, from crazy workloads, to moving across the country on my own, to meeting so many new people, to awful jobs, and yes, you know the story already, but it is how I met my boyfriend. I’m not a very confident person in the “real” world, but on Twitter, I am incredibly chatty, and it has helped so much when I have met people outside of the Internet. Twitter has helped make my life better, and I don’t care if that sounds lame.

So, y’know, thanks Twitter. Thanks for that. Love youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu.

I’ve always been known for being a massive reader – my mum used to say that I’d look at the paper when I was 1 as if I was reading it, and taught myself to read when I was 3.

I currently have two large bookshelves groaning under the weight of my book collection. In my office, I have shelves full of business related books and downstairs is my fictional book collection (oh, and there’s a small stack in the kitchen of cookbooks of course).

I got an iPad back in September, and have enjoyed reading books on it, but I still love reading my “physical” books. However this week, two different things appeared which made me think about books. The boyfriend bought himself a Kindle (which should hopefully stop him buying so many heavy books at the airport!) and a hardback book that we have both been wanting to read. The book, GCHQ, is about the history of the Governments communications agency, going back to the origins in 1919 and the work done in the Second World War at Bletchly Park.

I’ve only gotten a few chapters in, for a few reasons
1) It’s a heavy topic. I do enjoy something more than the trashy chick-lit books I like to read to switch off, but there are only certain times that I can read this book
2) It’s a heavy book! I normally will carry around my book with me about the house (and then leave it in the fridge) but I can’t hold this book comfortably one handed (while I make a cup of tea with the other, of course)
3) There are some things that I don’t quite get, so have to look them up, which usually ends up to a Wikipedia spiral and I emerge, an hour later, reading about something so far from the original subject.

Two of these problems are solved by using my iPad. It’s a little awkward, but I can carry it with one hand, and by highlighting a word, I can look it up in the dictionary. Easy! I’ve not had much of a chance to use the Kindle, and have only looked at the dictionary so far. It looks like it would be quite good to read on this, because of the small size (it’s smaller than the iPad) but it doesn’t have a back lit screen, so the iPad would win out over this again.

I would have bought this book in iBooks, but for two reasons.
1) In the e-book (at least in the sample of this book I downloaded), there were no images. That probably doesn’t seem like such a problem, but at the start of the book, there are two maps, one of the UK and one of the world, with numbered points to show where certain places are. In iBooks, this is just a list of places.
2) Pricing. The physical copy of GCHQ costs £16.44 on Amazon at the moment. (Not including any delivery costs of course). The Kindle version and the iBooks versions are both £10.99. I believe (please correct me if I’m wrong!) that VAT is charged at 20% on e-books, but at 0% on physical books. This seems a bit off really, since the quality of ebooks, even those you purchase can be… crap. (Matt covered this a lot better than I can on his blog but I agree – if I’m paying a hardback price, I expect the quality to match!)
The other thing on pricing is that with things like my trashy one-night-read chick lit books, I can pick those up at Tesco or Asda while doing the weekly shop (“Oops, these books just fell into the trolley”) on offer – 2 for £7, Buy One Get One Free. On the iPad, you’ll never see that sort of offer. (As a comparison, Tesco’s grocery website is offering Stephen Fry’s “The Fry Chronicles” for £8. iBooks is charging £12.99.)

This post has sort of gone into a bit of a ramble about all my thoughts on eBooks. Let me try and close this properly.

• Ebook readers are great, and there is sure to be something that matches your needs and budget.
• I wish they had been around when I was at uni, and I would like to see a lot more lending ability (how great would it have been to borrow textbooks from the library and carry them around in your handbag?)
• Quality is generally meh for what you pay for
• Pricing is ridiculous, especially when I can buy physical books cheaper at the supermarkets*
• I have spindly weak arms, and get annoyed carrying books.

What do you prefer – physical or technology-based books? If you have an ebook reader, do you find you read certain types of books on those more than others?

* I know that some people might dislike the whole book selling at low low prices at the supermarkets, but how different is it to buying from Amazon?

As I may have mentioned once or twice (or pretty much every day – #ipadwanker) the boyfriend bought me an iPad for my birthday.

I stole….er, borrowed his Apple iPad case (well, he wasn’t using it!) He’d been tucking his iPad into his work notebook until I nicked his case, then he bought this hard shell case. It’s actually quite nice, but I want a case that will protect the screen as well.

It seems that a lot of designers have caught on to producing iPad cases, it certainly seems that there are a lot more out there than there are iPhone specific cases.

Here are a few cases that I wouldn’t mind having, you know, if someone were to buy me one.

First up is the iPad cover from Moleskine. I know. Moleskine. Don’t they make notebooks that you actually use a pen (or pencil) to write in? Well, yes. And you can still do that with this one. The case is made from the same materials as a normal Moleskine notebook, and has a “Volant” notebook on the inside as well, so you can still take notes with those pen things. They also do a iPhone case and a Kindle case (although neither of these are for the latest models)

Mulberry have also hopped onto the iPad case bandwagon by designing three different styles that are under the “Coming Soon” label on their website

“Deciding to develop the collection was a no-brainer,” says Emma Hill, the label’s creative director, who describes herself as “hopelessly devoted to and obsessed” with her iPad. “I think the Mulberry customer wants to retain the coveted exteriors of Mulberry icons, like the Bayswater for women and the Brynmore for men, but inside have enhanced features like padding, pockets and headphones access – combining style with function.”

(via ft.com)

Left to right, there are the adjustable iPad sleeves (£350) which look to do the same sort of job as the Apple case (£35), the Bayswater iPad sleeve (£250) which is cute, but its just a clutch bag really and the Simple iPad sleeve (£130) which is a more reasonable price, and a nice enough case to slip into another bag, but still a tad expensive for what it is.

Slightly more affordably, Ted Baker had produced a lilac iPad case for £39, which is also available in grey (my second choice, of course) and “Straw” which I’d politely refuse. (Its not that I’m ungrateful, but peach is not a colour I would choose)

Again, more affordably, Marc by Marc Jacobs has started a range of “tech-sessories” such as USB memory sticks, headphones and including this iPad case for £35.

If designer labels aren’t quite your thing (and there were so many more I could have chosen from) then good old Etsy to the rescue.

This case by helekstudio, called the Lady D, costs about £45, but I love cases that don’t look like cases (if that makes sense?). One for the Early Grannies perhaps?

Of course, the iPad would fit nicely in a Mulberry Bayswater (I have tested this and yes it does fit, but still needs a case)…

The new version was launched by Three last month, and had a few improvements based on feedback on the original model. Because of my previous blog post, Michelle at ThreeMobileBuzz offered me a trial of the new one so I could compare them.

I took my MiFi out quite a bit this time. It came to Boston Tea Party a few times (if you’ve never been to BTP, you MUST! They do such yummy cakes, and have a massive selection of tea. Also their Park Street branch (my favourite) has a gorgeous little “secret garden” which is lovely to sit in during the summer. You might even see the shabby robin!) where it was a lifesaver – BTP offers free wifi with The Cloud, but I’ve never been able to get it working, and none of the staff there seem to know how it works either!

It came on the bus with me (after moving house, I now have a 40 minute bus journey to and from work everyday. This is me trying to use the time efficiently!)

It even came to work with me everyday, where I spent my lunches reading Google Reader applying for jobs and updating the blog.

The new version was a lot nicer to use as well. You pressed one button to turn it on, and then waited a little bit. Instead of having to decode the icons and colours (what does a green M mean again?), the new screen would tell you what it was doing. It was nice as well to see how many devices were connected to it at one time – obviously would be more useful if more than one person was using it so you could work out what was using it! Appearance wise – I much preferred the matt black and silver combination to the previous white plastic look.

The control panel (if thats the right word?) was much more useful to me as well – I only use Macs outside of work, and the old versions Windows only application was pretty useless to me! The new MiFi now has a web based control panel which not only gave the same information at the actual screen (useful if you’ve put the MiFi over on the windowsill for example) but also information about data usage, any text messages that you’ve recieved (and could send them as well – useful I’m sure for some people) and even what websites you visited most (interesting!)

I liked the old MiFi, but this one is even better. Its so easy to use, I’d be quite happy to recommend this to anyone – even my dad! I’m seriously considering this for myself as well, although that would be dependant on the signal strength in Somerset.

The v2 MiFi is available on both pay as you go contracts and pay monthly ones. You can choose whether to pay for the… well, its not a dongle is it. Device?… or have it on an 18 month contract and pay a little extra each month.

The basic story (if you couldn’t get it from the above video) is that the pigs have stolen the birds eggs, so they’re angry, and you have to fling the birds out of a catapult to hit the pigs. Sounds easy? Bloody well isn’t sometimes.

Whenever someone asks me what apps they should get for their iPhone, Angry Birds is the only game that I recommend. Its one of the few games that frustrates me so much, I squeal if I don’t manage to hit all the pigs, and cheer when I complete a level! The iPad version is pretty good as well, the game benefits from a bigger screen, but is still pretty awesome on the little iPhone screen.

If you’ve not already downloaded this game already, do it now. Its the best 59p I’ve spent on the iPhone. Although that doesn’t include the cost of anger management of course – which I probably need after playing this game.

It links back, I guess, to the quick post I made recently about the Diet Coke can which was inexplicably covered in pink leopard print (I love the comments I recieved on that post – mostly comparing the print to a skin disease)

As a woman, I am supposed to see these items that have been repackaged in a pink casing, and want it instantly. Except – I’m a woman who likes technology that does what its supposed to whilst looking good, being fairly priced…in other words, I want exactly the same from my technology purchases as most men do.

Why is gender an issue in this market anyway? For someone who wants to make an expensive purchase, then the colour of the item shouldn’t really come into it. It seems odd that we are still using the stereotype that pink is for girls, but usually the other option is either black or silver. Apple, using the iPod Nano as an example, have the right idea, by selling the Nano in every colour possible. Looking at the rest of the product range, items are only available in white, black or silver – a colour scheme that would fit in with most peoples lives.

Perhaps the colour differentiation relates to the market segment it is aiming for – by that I mean the more expensive an item is, the less likely it is to be a “novelty” colour. When buying a camera, you wouldn’t expect to see a fuchsia SLR offering from Canon or Nikon, but the cheaper brands such as Fuji or the supermarket own brands will usually have a pinky offering. Going back to the example of Apple, their laptops cost a minimum of £800. When PC World can sell laptops for £300, this places Apple into the mid price range. The cheap laptops from Advent, Toshiba, Acer, etc, need to find a way to differentiate themselves in the low end market, and what better than the colour (because creating a better spec’ed item would be a crazy idea!)

I was wasting time in the Carphone Warehouse last weekend (why did it take so long for them to sign the boy up to a new contract with a HTC Desire? Annoying!) and noticed this phone, the Samsung Diva.

Even the name alone annoys me. It was advertised with the following features:

• “a catwalk-ready mobile that can easily pop into your favourite handbag and be taken anywhere.
• “3D quilted panel, shimmering, pearl essence finish and diamond-shaped home key ensures that it is show stopping.”
• Fake phone call feature – get out of awkward situations
• Shopping list tool which “creates wish lists of your favourite fashion fixes”
• Beauty effect on photos – for “glam finishing touches”

Honestly, I was reading this list of items, and felt embarrassed that this sort of marketing works on anyone. Sorry Samsung, and all the other “lets shove some ‘fashion’ type stuff to get women to buy this” – I’ll never buy anything thats just had some pink plastic stuck on it.

Well, duh, of course.

What I mean by that is, from movies to tv’s, games consoles to magazines, 3D is the technology du jour.

Magazines? That doesn’t seem right?

This weeks issue of Grazia is a first apparently, where AR (augmented reality) codes will be placed next to articles, ready to be snapped on a phone or computer with the relevant app which will then redirect the user to a video, webpage – whatever.

It’s an interesting use, particulary as this is a market that (in the UK at least) has only recently started to take advantage of the growing number of smart phones in our grasp.

However in reality, its quite disappointing. Despite Grazia promoting within the magazine that “ooh, you can do all this on your iPhone”, it doesn’t seem like anyone mentioned this to the app developers. Which, to be honest, is quite annoying. The magazine promotes how you can look at a 360 degree view of the products on certain pages, watch videos of how to do a smoky eye look, and look at various other fashion type things, but the app only seems to know how to play “You Got The Love” by the cover star, Florence Welch. Even the “bonus features” that are actually in the app, such as the gimmick of blowing into the mic to make Florence spin around didn’t work for me, and once again I ended up listening to “You Got The Love”, a song which quite honestly, I’m bored of now!

Its a good idea, and I’d love to see this as a regular feature in magazines, but the iPhone app needs a lot more work! If you want to have a go at this, this is the latest issue of Grazia and should be available till Monday 29th March

Once this was agreed and WordPress account set up, the problems begin: what to write about? Should it be my take on something on Ceriselle – shoes, maybe, or Bristol – or something common to my site instead?

How about a link to both. Me and Hayley are both Apple geeks. She has, as I am sure you know, an iPhone, and iMac, a Hackintosh or two. I’ve got a MacBook, two old G3 iMacs, a just-about-retro 2nd gen iPod Nano, and a hankering for the rather pointless big-iPhone-without-a-phone iPad.

So. iPods. And progress. Recently, Google introduced us to Google Wave, and Google Buzz (“Twitter but Shitter”). Neither of these have taken off brilliantly fast, especially in the case of Wave, and I point the finger of blame firmly at progressing too fast.

Think about it. Things need to come in stages so we get used to them. Look at Facebook. Every time it has changed to “the new Facebook” it has introduced a few changes that they could have done all at the same time, but didn’t. You may think this is because they hadn’t developed it that far, or hadn’t had this or that idea yet. But if they have, they still would have had to do it step by step, because too much progress in one go scares the fuck out of us.

Back to the iPod. Remember when iTunes store didn’t exist? And when it did they added each function one at a time and told us “soon you can do this, but not yet.” It’s because Apple know that if they had bombarded us with the full functionality straight away, we would have mostly been baffled by it and it would have failed.

If, when you got your first AOL account back in 1997, you could have had 20meg broadband you would have thought “I don’t need this”. If YouTube and Facebook and iChat and Twitter had all been launched on the same day, with all their current full functionalities, we would have balked at it – remember that at this time, AIM was “well futuristic”.

So they like you to think that each innovation is a natural progression. This is where we round off nicely with iPods again. I’ve noticed recently that my 4 year old Nano has developed an alarming propensity to know exactly what tune to play, when. On the way to my brothers it played Dragonforce; when I arrived at his Dragonforce was on in the house. I have a bit of lady-related grief and it plays all the songs we both love. I lit a fag just before exiting the Grafton Centre the other day and was treated to Eminem telling me he’s a criminal. I met my uncle so he could give me a birthday present and as he drove away, his iPod shuffled to the number one from the day I was born.

Where am I, and indeed Apple, going with this? It’s pacing and mirroring, basically. iPods are learning to react to us. And eventually they will start controlling us, little bit by little bit.

Then, Steve Jobs will be able to put an Apple logo on an actual brick and sell it to us for £349.99. And we’ll love it. It’s going to happen. Mark my words.

Recently, it seems that Twitter has been picked up by more people, and has become more “mainstream” – we have celebrities tweeting about their day, and in a way, it makes them seem a little more human. In my previous entry about Twitter, I said that one of the things that made Twitter more appealing is that more of my “real life” friends were signing up. Back then, it was my more techy type friends, the ones who did Comp Sci and that sort of thing at uni, but now I have people like my best friend Helen signing up (@hellybellybutt), who isn’t the most tech minded sort of girl!

My following and followers lists have expanded since August – I follow about 100 people, and have about 350 people following me (which astounds me really, my tweets are about my day and random thoughts) Because of Twitter, I have met some really lovely people, and have started going to Stitch and Bitch, where I’ve met more people, and which has encouraged me to start crafting again. I can get the answer to most questions within minutes (and get responses that are more useful than a simple Google search would provide) I’ve found out about great events, such at the UKLB meetup thats planned for this summer

If you’ve not already signed up for Twitter, head over there now and do it!

It’s strange to think that even just a week before, I wouldn’t have been able to do that so easily. Two years ago, we just had rumours of this iPhone thing Apple were doing. Five years ago, I was still having to use dial up at home. Ten years ago – I was only just making my first steps onto t’Internets. (Ah, the days of Angelfire and Lycos)

Its the same with most pieces of technology. I first got my first mobile phone about ten years ago, and it was a Nokia NK402 from Orange – one of the first Pay as You Go phones. It had a black and white screen, a cover that only the front could be changed (I used to save up my babysitting money to buy cheap cheap ones from the bloke outside the Carphone Warehouse) and the old school version of Snake (Its never been the same since) I upgraded when I reached Sixth Form to a Nokia 3210, which had a lilac cover on with big daisies all over. That phone was thrown about so much, even dropped 10 feet onto a concrete floor of the Sports Hall. And it still worked perfectly fine. Now we have phones that can do everything for you – I can blog, tweet and even check my eBay results from my iPhone, but it barely lasts a day of full usage, it seems bigger than my old phones and I’m scared to lose it because it holds so much information on me and my friends.

I love how technology keeps us so updated on everything, and connected with people, but sometimes I wish I still had my brick sized Nokia with the front cover that you could change because it could probably survive a nuclear blast.

I’ve been using Twitter since 2007 – 24th January to be exact. At first, I didn’t really use it very much, but as I began to follow more people, and as more of my “real life” friends signed up, I tweet much more regularly. I think that being jobless and moving to a new city also helped – I reached 1000 tweets on 9th May, 2008 which was just before I moved down to Bristol, and reached 2000th tweets on 5th August 2008.

Twitter is a great way to just scribble things down, random little notes throughout the day that when you read over them (I use LoudTwitter to post a days worth of tweets to my Livejournal) remind you of funny little things. Its also quite a nice way to get an idea of what your friends are doing in their normal day. People are more likely to tweet seemingly small, insignificant things than actually phone you or send you a text/IM telling you the same thing.

Its also a great way to promote something – I find that quite a lot of visits to my blog are from the automated tweet that is sent out telling people when I have written a new blog. Unfortuntaly the spammers have quickly caught on to this, which is why I have been followed in the past week by porn_website20, porn_website21 and porn_website22. I’m not sure why the previous 19 porn_website twitters didn’t follow me. Should I really be that upset? Luckily, Twitter seems to be quite quick at deleting these spam accounts, but its not much of a problem anyway.

The things I think could be improved about Twitter is mainly to do with their stability and missing features. Inevitably, as more and more people are signing up and using it as much as I do, the system had some issues which was frustrating to Twitter addicts (ahem). To keep the site up, they have removed some functionality that I had gotten quite used to, such as the IM notifications which I preferred when I was at my desk.
I think it would be great if Twitter had a similar function for your following list as Livejournal does. By this I mean having custom groups to separate people – I have things like Cult of Mac (twitter/cultofmac), Dr Horrible (twitter/drhorrible) and Channel 4 News (twitter/channel4news) on my Twitter list, but I would prefer to be able to read these separately.

Anyway, here are some of my favourite Twitters (Tweeters?) [and yes, its taken from my Twitter friends bit on the sidebar! Much easier!]