A few weeks back we ran our first ever DigitalOutbox competition. As it was our first, we were a bit tardy with getting the prize shipped but after a couple of weeks we eventually employed good old Royal Mail who shipped the t-shirt to our winner.
Congratulations again to Brian (friend of the show but this wasn’t staged – honest!) who deserves a gold star for wearing the O2 t-shirt…while on site at O2. Hopefully we’ll run another competition soon when we, em, find a free prize.
I’m super excited to welcome you to a new look DigitalOutbox. We’d grown a little tired of the old theme that has served us well since the middle of 2009 so it was time for an update. It was also time to drop that FriendFeed link – damn you Facebook!
So late last year we started throwing around some options and came up with this brand new look which is a slightly modified version of the Ares WordPress theme. As our work and real life often limits our time there may be a few unfinished parts of the website but over the next few days we’ll even them out. Who said you can’t polish a turd? If you do spot something that doesn’t work feel free to mail or leave a comment on this post, especially if you’ve any good ideas for a new logo!
All our content is still available but we’ve made a few tweaks that should make the site easier to use. Firstly the shownotes are no longer a separate file but integrated into each podcast post so our content is now fully searchable, indexed and connected with other posts. As before we offer mp3’s and mp4’s of each podcast and as we update each of the old podcasts you’ll see a shownote listing and also the start time for each of the topics on the show. Hopefully that will make it easier to find and listen to an older show. Finally the site is more graphical while being slightly snappier than before. Hopefully.
The website update is the first of many planned for DigitalOutbox over the coming year. We hope to post more content on the site including occasional reviews and product comparisons and the podcast itself is being tweaked too. More regular and focussed (shorter!) is the first change you’ll notice. Other changes include…well, you’ll just have to wait and see.
OK, so since the beginning of the year, I’ve been harping on about how now is NOT the time to buy new phone. Well, I still say that is exceptionally prudent advice, with a lot of new Android devices on the very near horizon and also the new iPhone announcement coming along very soon.
But when has good advice ever taken precedence over impatience?
I cracked. Like Humpty Dumpty perched on top of a wall, it was inevitable really. It was a late night decision, but now on route to my humble abode is a shiny new Google/Samsung Nexux S. It should be here by tomorrow.
What I am convinced of, is that this is the right decision for a geeky mobile buyer right at this second, what I am yet to know, is whether the comfortable surroundings that Apple lays on with it’s iOS infrastructure is going to be missed, when it appears that you very much have to buy your own furniture with Android. Also, over the next couple of months we’ll hear all sorts of speculation on the new iPhone and then finally be marginally disappointed with it’s final offering. However, it will still be a mighty device no doubt, and it was what I was trying to tell myself to hold on just a few more weeks for.
But no. I’ve now plunged headlong into a 24 month contract with a new carrier and a brand new device and operating system. All my existing infrastructure that goes along with a smart phone these days (car holders, application purchases, computer setup, data syncing) will likely need tweaking or changing wholesale.
It’s going to be an interesting time. One that I am really looking forward to as it happens. And also one that I will document here on DigitalOutbox. There are many people out there in a similar position, perhaps looking to extract themselves from the all encompassing iPhone and I hope that this new series will highlight the plusses and minuses along the transition.
Ian has said on multiple occasions that there is a good reason we don’t record video… He’s right! Captured in all our splendor during episode 74.
Quick post to update you on a couple of points. Firstly, the App Store did hit 10 Billion downloads before we got the podcast published – oops.
What was great about the winner of the competition though was that she was from the UK…and the app she downloaded was from a small UK developer – double woo-hoo. Gail Davis downloaded the app Paper Glider from Neon Play. Just a shame that she can’t use the $10,000 to buy Apple hardware. I also wonder what conversion rate Apple will use when awarding the prize. Using todays exchange rate, $10,000 works out at just under £6,250. However Apple’s exchange rate used when calculating the price of an Apple TV ($99 in America against £101 in the UK) would mean the prize works out to be £10,202. I think I know which route Apple will be taking. And before any fanboys drop by, yes, I need to educate myself.
One last podcast update – this was the view for the last 20 minutes of the podcast. Henry’s chair proved just as insightful as the good man himself but not as funny. Henry’s mid podcasts escapes are proving legendary 🙂
We were recently invited to give a talk on podcasting at the Glasgow Mac user Group. Like fools we said yes and a couple of weeks back we gave the talk at the local Apple store. Despite a hiccup with my Macbook Pro, the evening seemed to go well.
It was certainly something new for me to do, having never used Keynote in anger before. A few people have since asked for the presentation as they are either interested in what we said or couldn’t make it along that evening so here it is. First up is a PDF of the slides which should mean anyone can open and view them.
I’ve also included a movie of the slides which are a bit more representative of the presentation. Right click and download the movie and watch within Quicktime. Click within the movie to progress through the slides.
We lost an hour of audio today while recording and it made some of us go a bit loopy.
New podcast out tomorrow…hopefully.
Just a quick post to say thanks for the comments, tweets and e-mails on our first podcast. Lot’s of great feedback and useful advice which we’ll try and incorporate on our next episode which should with a bit of luck will be out over the weekend. One thing we didn’t expect was this:
Caught this snap on Sunday (I think) so I’m not sure if we were higher than this at some point. Call us stat whores – we were delighted! Easily pleased even though we’ve no idea how iTunes calculates it’s charts. Hopefully we won’t become obsessive over this though as I fear a fall in the near future if we do.
One thing we will be trying to do is make the podcast a bit shorter, more punchy. One snag – new iPhone this week. Someone gag me now.
Hello and welcome to our brand new website and podcast – DigitalOutbox. Join Shakeel, Ian and friends as they discuss computing, gadgets and gaming from a distinctly UK perspective. Each week the podcast will be based around everything that impacts our daily digital life’s. Via some friendly banter we hope to educate and entertain while learn at the same time.
Podcasting is new to us both but we’re never really short of things to talk or whinge about. We’re aiming for a weekly release but we both have day jobs so the schedule may hop about from time to time. You can subscribe via the RSS link on the site or via iTunes. A normal and enhanced version of each podcast will be available as well as shownotes from the website. We really prefer the enhanced format though as you can skip through chapters easily on your iPod, iPhone or iTunes if we’re discussing something that isn’t to your taste…or we’re just being dull.
One thing we do really want is feedback. We have some plan’s to grow over the coming months to include some video features but we’d love to know what you like and dislike about our podcasts. But do go easy – we will learn from our mistakes of which, initially, there will be will probably be many. All that’s left to say is that we hope you enjoy the podcasts. (what have we done!)