Rolly time for Sony
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What the heck is this?! Cool tune and advert though - are Sony doing something new and innovative for once? And the big question, will they price it right?!
Friday visuals for you
Evening all, it’s Friday and that means the weekend! For those of you who have been slaving away at dead end desk jobs, that means some freedom. This is not meant to be offensive, it is the truth. Having been in the corporate world for 11 years, I am relishing the freedom, every single day! 
I had not realised how negative I had become. Working for
/ with people who crush your confidence and drain your creativity is not good for the mind, body or soul. It is like a breath of fresh air to be free and regain some of the energy and passion I have for web-marketing, branding and photography.
Anyway, enough of my freedom (YEAH BABY!), and onto a few images I have been saving up. First up is this excellent slightly doctored pic from MyMac - made me chuckle! (MyMac looks like a pretty cool site, so well worth checking it out).
My good friend Simon Kelly sent me the pic below and very interesting it is too - thanks old boy. (Simon has recently escaped the clutches of the Borg 
and is onto much better things where he is appreciated). It highlights the gulf between Apple and other brands when it comes to people’s perceptions. I know of no other brand which elicits so much devotion and fan-boy behaviour.
Say no more - seen on Fake Steve’s Blog. Awesome.
Lastly, browser wars - I stupidly forgot to note down where I found this, so many apologies if someone goes, oi, Mossman, stop nicking our content!
It looks like Firefox is doing a top job against the IE menace but not so good for Safari, even with it being used on the bland beige boxes now.
So, whatever you are doing, have a great Friday night!
PS Apologies for some posts that appeared and disappeared earlier - they may have shown up in your RSS reader and no content. Remember, it’s easy to subscribe to theappleofmyi, just choose whether you want it as a RSS feed or email delivered to your inbox! Just look up in the top right corner of the blog and click away!).
Technorati Tags: apple, browser, zune
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Hull flickr Photowalk 2
It was that time again, the Hull flickr meet! We met at the Bay Horse pub on Wincolmlee and went for a good walk around the urban sprawl… The light was fading fast though, but it was nice to see everyone and managed to get some ok snaps. I must admit that I do prefer more “action-orientated” photography, (motorsport, people etc), so I hope we could try something different next time.
Canon 1d mkIII firmware version 1.1.1
Thanks to inkiboo for this - a temporary Canon Service centre at the World Athletics Championships is putting this on people’s MkIII’s. There have been a lot of rumours about this over the past few days, and the general concensus is that it should be released publicly very soon.
Personally, I have had no issues with my camera so far (fingers crossed!).
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Piccadilly Circus - Microsoft affect Coca-Cola ads
Excellent - don’t you just love it when this happens?!
Thanks to Rosso on flickr for this, well captured that man!
Leopard icons hide secrets
Cult of Mac have just posted this up - that the new Leopard icons are resolution independent and can be scaled to a large size. This has turned up the first Easter Egg, where the Apple engineers have written the words of the first Apple Ad on the Text Edit icon.
I bet there are things that are never discovered, that the designers and engineers chuckle about every once in a while wondering if they ever will be found …
Technorati Tags: apple, leopard
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My hotel in NY and Tripadvisor
As some of you know, I had a great trip to NY a few weeks ago, stayed with a new friend, Richard and had three days in Manhattan. Previously, we had stayed at 70 Park Avenue, part of the Kimpton Hotel Group, which I am a BIG fan of (I’ve also used their Hotel Marlowe in Boston on two occasions). Unfortunately, this time, it was full so I had to find somewhere new….
Tripadvisor
If you are going ANYWHERE, please do use Tripadvisor - it is a shining example of user generated content, with people from all over the word, submitting reviews and and thoughts on hotels and destinations. I would now, never book any hotel without consulting it first. Yes, it is that good. I also try and fins time to submit my own reviews and this is the one I wrote for the Alex Hotel in New York:
“The “nightmare” of getting a good, and reasonable hotel in NY surfaced once again. After consulting Tripadvisor and looking at a number of hotels, I chose the Alex Hotel - good reviews, good location (5 minutes walk from Grand Central Station) in Midtown and not TOO expensive, but hey, we are in NY, right?
After flying into Newark (would go to JFK next time as I have done previously - and if you can afford it, use US Helicopters to fly straight to Manhattan = awesome!), it was on the train and then a taxi to the Hotel Alex. Impressions were immediately excellent after being greeted with those wonderful words - “Mr Moss, we have a beautiful upgrade for you”. I am nobody special and did not ask nor expect this, but it was very welcome. The staff were friendly and efficient, and to be honest, this was my experience throughout my 4 day stay.
My room, a King suite was clean, huge and well appointed. No view but did I say it was big?! I had a kitchen area, lounge, bathroom and bedroom. Excellent beds and Frette linen, reasonably fast internet access (a must for me) but no wireless in the rooms themselves (there is in the lobby/lounge).
I had an American breakfast thrown in as part of my deal and I had this on two occasions - very nice, seemed very fresh and one day I rocked up with minutes to spare and they accommodated me with a smile.
Beyonce’s entourage was also staying whilst I was there, so if they were there, then hey, who am I to complain?!
Finally, I was granted a late check out with not too much hassle, and they booked a car for me to go to the airport. So, in review:
- a stylish, cool and well appointed hotel
- friendly staff who really were very helpful
- top location - Grand Central in 5 minutes and another subway about 10 minutes away.
Would I stay there again? Yes I would, I had a great time and will be back”.
So, talking of travel trips, can you name the best hotel you have ever stayed in, and also the worst? I look forward to reading about them!
Technorati Tags: alexhotel, NY, travel, tripadvisor
Gmail has some real fans (me included)
The Gmail team put out a challenge last month for user to to film themselves with a cut out Gmail envelope, the only criteria being it went from the left to the right side of the screen. The result is below - superb!
Slow + unavailable + overpriced = Karoo??
So, once again Karoo is having trouble with their service. Not only have I not been able to access my Mac email for three days, but when I spoke to their Customer Service team, they were not very helpful and could not say whether I would get any compensation.
So, onto their PR manager -a lady called Kay Stevenson (her number is 01482 602 400). I am glad to say that Kay was not only friendly, apologetic, but also genuinely interested in our dilemma. I spoke to her at length about a number of issues, namely
- The current problems customers are having with some websites and email
- The pricing of the service
- The total lack of choice of any other ISPs in the area
Kay explained that it is a hardware failure, which they hope to fix today and it has caused intermittent problems for people (my problem has been constant). She also said that she believes that they do offer a fair price and they do check prices within the UK. Finally she explained that other ISPs do not think that Hull is a viable attractive business and hence they are not willing to invest in the necessary hardware to provide a service. I really appreciate Kay taking the time to speak to me, and although I do not agree with the pricing, I understand why we are stuck in having only one ISP in the area. It may be time to lobby other ISPs and not just complain to Karoo.
However, at the very least, they should offer one month’s free access to all customers effected and I really hope they do this, it could just save them from another onslaught of criticism.
UPDATE
Looks like we are back up and running - my email has just come flooding in. Their tech support line says they anticipate having all problems resolved by 2am tomorrow morning. Is everyone else ok?
SECOND UPDATE
Well, surprise, surprise. It’s down again. When is this going to be resolved!?
THIRD UPDATE
All working now, thank goodness - fingers crossed!
Airtime!
Airtime!, originally uploaded by JonnyMoss.
Nick and I had a superb day at Cadwell Park, watching the British Superbikes Practice sessions. We had glorious weather (so a little red the evening!), great bikes and I had forgotten what a wonderful venue Cadwell is.
If you fancy taking some motorsport shots I highly recommend it and you don’t need a huge lens. There were a lot of amateur photogs like me, as well as the media boys. To be honest, I am quite pleased with the shots I got. The MkIII performed superbly - most shots taken in AI servo mode using shutter priority and high speed bursts (need to get some 4gb CF cards!).
Please do have a look here and let me know your thoughts on the photos.
Technorati Tags: cadwell, photography, britishsuperbikes
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BBC News- You may like to read this...
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