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utopia 365 iPhone Development Services

Saturday 31 May 2008

Firefox Download Day

Download Day 2008Mozilla (the Firefox team) have announced Download Day 2008. The aim is to get as many people as possible downloading (the soon to be released) Firefox 3 browser within the space of 24 hours. Attempting to set a Guinness World Record for the "most software downloaded in 24 hours" during the process.


Download Day will commence the day Firefox 3 is released, currently scheduled for sometime in June.  Keep tabs on the Download Day Headquarters site to pledge your support and learn more.


UPDATE: 17/06/2008 - today is download day! Get Firefox 3 here!

Friday 30 May 2008

It's good to give....

So now begins the start of what will be a few posts on my up-and-coming charity events. I like to do things every so often to raise money for worth-while charities. 

This year I am going to do 2 events:

  1. In July I am doing my first skydive. It's Tandem (I would love to go solo, but that's not sensible) and should be around 10,000 feet. I am not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of chutes not opening.
  2. The London to Paris cycle. This is the 'big' one. I will cycle just over 300 miles from London to Paris in September. Lot's of training needed for this - it's going to hurt. 

I can't say I am not excited about doing these - I am. But lots of time and effort will need to go in to make it happen, and that's just on my part - there is all the organisation that goes along with it to make these events happen. 

What's it about then? Is it just so some of us get to have a crazy time? No, this is really about making an awareness of a charity that needs help. There are LOADS of charities out there that need help.
"We can't help them all, but what is important is we do help". 

Even if it is only one, then making a donation does make a difference (time, money etc.). As lots of people do the same the funds come in to meet targets, improve facilities and make a difference to the lives that these charities support.

I'm doing this for The Rose Road Association. This is a fabulous charity that allows young children with disabilities to have some great life experiences. Have a look at their site and you may even find some way that you can get involved. 

What's great is you can help - you can sponsor me! I have set a target of £2000 but in reality I think we can all raise more than that! If you want, visit my justgiving site and make a donation. 

IT DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

I'll keep my progress updated every-so-often so you know what's going on. You can keep tabs on some of my training here.




Tuesday 27 May 2008

Why Register for utopia solitaire?

We like our utopia solitaire. Lots of people like our utopia solitaire (thanks!). It's a nice, easy and good looking game for the iPhone / iPod touch.

Have you ever looked at the score board though? Scoring makes it fun - because you can challenge people by playing a certain deck. This means you and them get to play the same order and layout of cards. It comes down to skill and judgement as to who appears at the top on the scoreboard.

Lets look at a bit of the scoreboard now:






So, you think "I can beat Lyndon & Rhea', but I bet he/she got a good deck. WRONG. You can have exactly the same deck....

Hows this possible? Well, when you play you get the option of either playing for 'FUN' or for 'SCORE'.


If you select for 'SCORE' then you might need to register (it only takes a couple of seconds). This means we can store your games against your name (for the scoring!!).




Next you get to select 'RANDOM' or 'CHOOSE'.
(So in the case of trying to beat 'Lyndon & Rhea' we would go for 'CHOOSE').




We would then enter the deck they played which was 102.





This now means we have the same deck they played and have the same chances etc. as they did. Now all we have to do is beat their score!!





tip: Currently the score does not differentiate if the game has been played on a Mac or on the iPhone. It's quicker on the Mac, so your score will be higher. Don't worry though - we know who's played on what and will sort it out!

When you WANT to pay....

Piracy is rife. Why? Generally software is clunky and expensive - especially when you are talking windows software. Getting an activation, code or serial is very easy with the internet. It's not right - but many people do it.

When I moved to Mac I suddenly started using software that was a 'pleasure' to use. It was slick and it worked. All of a sudden I wanted to pay for it, what's more - it was not expensive. However, there is something even better; lots of the software was free! Yes I know there is lots of 'free' software on windows but frankly its either rubbish or full of 'spyware'. The software I have been using on the Mac is of professional quality, and yet free.

One such example is TrailrunnerX. This is a fantastic piece of software for the Mac that allows someone to log all there workouts, plan training and export the data in one click to their Blog. The interface is gorgeous and the map integration amazing.

Surely something of this quality would be a trial and a £30+ charge? No, it's free. The creator wrote it because he wanted to - all he added was a donations option for those that might want to help. I wanted to - it comes to something when you are offered something for free but want to pay for it.


Is that the future for software as 'open-source' accelerates in popularity? I'm not sure - could you build a business model on such an idea?

What I do know though is there is great software out there that is free - but if you use it frequently, maybe you should consider donating...It would be interesting to see how many people do or would donate when software is free.....

Monday 26 May 2008

Social Success

Last night I went to watch Andy McKee.

If you have not heard of him then he is an absolutely fantastic acoustic guitarist who shot to fame through YouTube. Sitting there listening to him make musical panache, I wondered where he would be had YouTube not happened? He is someone worthy to be recognised.

I have no doubt he would have made it onto the international scene, but it probably would have taken several years, rather than near over-night success.

In most cases YouTube (and others) is full up with 'drivel', but allowing gems like Andy to be discovered make it all worth it.

You can check out his site here:

Andy McKee

And his work on YouTube here:

Andy on YouTube



Sunday 25 May 2008

Super Lewis, Prat Kimi

A great Monaco GP - changeable weather, collisions a plenty, safety cars, some brilliant drives and a superb win for Lewis.


Adrian Sutil, with a stunning drive,  running in a well deserved 4th position before the final safety car. Without that safety car, he would have finished 4th, ahead of Kimi

After the restart (and out of the tunnel) - Kimi acted like a prat! You didn't need to do that. It doesn't matter to you because you will still be challenging for the title. But, for Adrian? He probably won't get another chance like that again this season, or next season, or maybe even the season after that. The guy was in tears - go and say sorry to him.

Hopefully Adrian will get a decent car soon to challenge for wins, because he has the talent. Kimi, you're a great driver and a worthy champion, but that was stupid. 

Knievel still going strong


Robbie 'Kaptain' Knievel, the son of legendary stuntman, Evel Knievel has broken his father's record by jumping over 24 buses on a motorcycle at a theme park in Ohio.

Prescott backs Brown

With the knives being sharpened, and time rapidly running out for Gordon Brown, what a relief it must be for him to have the unreserved support of John Prescott. Not to worry Gordon, we'll all gonna love you now!

Is it Davros?


Well, Davros is supposed to be back...

Congratulations to the Tigers!

Well done Hull City! The biggest city in Europe never to have had top-flight football before.


The Premier League (and a nice £60M bonus) awaits. Shame they will probably be relegated again next season.

The sacking of Avram Grant

Whilst it has come as no surprise, Chelsea's sacking of Avram Grant is a terrible injustice. 


OK, Avram was never going to be a Mourinho, but let's remember that Chelsea finished 2nd in the Premier League and reached the Champions League final this season - loosing to Man Utd only because John Terry slipped and "Le Sulk" couldn't be arsed to kick the ball.

Regardless of what personal opinions you may have of Avram, is that really the record of a failure? Wouldn't it have been great if he'd just said "No" to Roman Abramovich? "I'm not taking the pay off, you sack me and I'll take you to a tribunal!"

Sven should be doing the same thing instead of grabbing the inevitable wad of cash upon his impending exit from Man City.

Motor Sport and Football combined, can it work?

A few years back, the concept of mixing motor racing and football failed to get off the ground in the form of Premier 1 Grand Prix. The concept was then re-born as Superleague Formula.


The idea is a good one. Fast single seaters sponsored by, and running in the liveries of, famous football clubs. Hopefully drawing the interest of motor racing fans and the fans of the football clubs.

The car (750bhp, 4.2-litre, V12) sounds fantastic and should prove to be pretty quick.


It would be good to see some Premier League clubs taking this on board. Let's hope it works out. The first race is scheduled to take place at Donington Park at the end of August.

Friday 23 May 2008

Better Browsing

If you're using Internet Explorer, and you visit our utopia 365 website, you'll see our "Better Browsing" initiative in action. Taking the form of two bouncy icons to try and encourage you to use a better web browser, such as Safari or Firefox.


Internet Explorer is quite possibly one of the worst pieces of software ever written (in our opinion - it's our Blog!). It's non-compliant nature makes it a pain to work with, it's page rendering isn't a patch on Safari (or Firefox), it's bulky, it's slow and we won't even begin to talk about security.

Many will argue that IE is great and is the most popular browser in the world. That may be somewhat true (the popularity statement is questionable at best because most people don't know that they have a choice) but Firefox (certainly) is making big in-roads into IE's 'popularity' and more and more people are buying Mac's now, so Safari usage is growing.

We want the whole world to use Safari or Firefox. A mission inspired by SaveTheDevelopers.org but taken one step further. They say "don't use IE 6 - upgrade to 7", we say: "don't use IE 7 either - download yourself Safari or Firefox".

Safari is available for Mac OS X and Windows, and Firefox is a truly open browser available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

We think that with either of these two browsers, you will enjoy the internet more and help keep web developers all over the world sane (well, almost sane!)

Our iPhone and iPod touch site, Talee Talee, is very refreshing in that 96%+ people who visit are using Safari, nearly all on their iPhone or iPod touch. That's very nice to see in the logs (OK, it doesn't work in IE but that's not the point - it's not meant to).

Visit our Better Browsing page for download links for Safari and Firefox.

utopia solitaire and the case of the missing SELECT buttons

A while back we introduced SELECT buttons to our ever popular iPhone and iPod touch utopia solitaire game. You may have seen them?




Consisting of a button above each column in the tableau, they work as an aid for automatically making card selections. To be fair, a mixed response has been received, so we've made them optional.

By default the SELECT buttons will not appear, if you want them back then head into the settings, turn them on, and save.







You can play utopia solitaire on your iPhone or iPod touch over at Talee Talee.

Silence in the Library - sssh, now, please!

Bloody Eurovision! The BBC put Doctor Who back a week for a program that surely nobody watches? Do they? And if they do, why? Apart from it being relatively funny to hear Terry Wogan taking the piss out of everyone.


So, it's the 31st May for the next episode - Silence in the Library. Here's the trailer...


Danica starts 5th



This sunday sees the running of the 92nd Indianapolis 500.

Danica Patrick qualified an impressive 5th, with Scot Dixon taking the pole and Britain's very own Dan Wheldon starting 2nd.

See the full grid over on the Indy 500 website.

Cause Driven Purchasing

"Sometimes an idea comes along that's so simple, you wonder why everyone isn't doing it... they are, so shouldn't you?"

That's CDP - Cause Driven Purchasing. We've been delighted to work with these guys and help them get their message across.

It's really quite simple, CDP provide companies with a method of purchasing their telecoms and utilities from an ethical source, that in turn not only saves money, but also benefits their chosen charity.

Brilliant.


Head over to the CDP website for more information.


 
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