iChoose 2.0

We asked iChoose if it wanted to update itself. It did. We asked iChoose if it wanted to go all 2.0, and, guess what? It did!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you iChoose 2.0. Coming to the iPhone App Store real soon.

iChoose will always remain free. We will not (as so many others have) suddenly start charging for our free apps in some vain, crass and stupid attempt to gain popularity. You will, however, be given the opportunity to make a donation towards the future development and evolution of iChoose, should you so desire.

"The Swiss Army Knife of choice"
(source: the UK App Store iChoose reviews)




What's new?

* iChoose Settings (in the iPhone Settings App)
+ Turn animations on/off when making decisions (the initial 'flip' from the '?' button is retained)
+ Individual settings for certain decision makers (choices)

* iChoose interface
+ New 'improved' look
+ Added a 'Hold' button to let you hold your choice until you've finished with it
+ 'Additional' button for some decision makers - e.g. 'Roll All Dice' for Dice ROLL (see below)

* Coin Toss
+ Added 'Real Coin' graphics option (A £2 GBP coin to be precise)

* Dice Roll
+ Choose to have 1-6 dice on screen
+ Roll each dice individually, or roll all dice at the same time
+ On-screen 'total' of dice values, e.g '= 7'
+ 'Hold' dice rolls

* New (More ...) decision makers (choices)
+ 'Let iChoose Choose' - iChoose will take you to a random decision maker/choice
+ Rock/Paper/Scissors
+ Loves Me/Loves Me Not
+ Red/Black
+ Boy/Girl
+ Quit/Stay
+ iPhone/iPod touch
+ Mac/PC
+ Weather (rain, sun, snow etc)
+ Random Number (range of numbers defined by you in the settings - defaults to between 1 and 100)

Record UK summer weather

I don't know what everyone was complaining about - the summer in the UK has reached record temperatures. The BBC said so, and they are never wrong...

Proof here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7585641.stm

It must be specially arranged for the queen.

One of my favourite blogs

I thought I would share one of my favourite blogs.

It's called The Big Picture on boston.com.

If you have the time then go through the months and you will be in awe at some of these wonderful photographs.

F1 Painting

Ok - so this has been posted elsewhere but I enjoyed it so much I could not help but link to this video myself.

We love F1, and we love clever stuff and clever people. This is clever!

Learn how to draw at 5min.com

.

A1 Customer Service

One of my iPhones developed a strange screen issue yesterday - the screen when WHITE with no ability to do anything. I tried resetting and updating the firmware but all to no avail....

I popped into the Apple Southampton store today and showed them. They simply apologised and instantly gave me a replacement. No fuss, no hassle, no sending off somewhere and being phone-less for a couple of weeks - simple.

That's what I like and wish many others would emulate.

Go GB

We're loving the Olympics this time round - we must whilst we are doing so well....

For those that love it too, then take a look at this! 

Olympics in Lego

Superb!

BPWEB

Bloody good people they are over at BPWEB. Very helpful.

Having thought that I'd managed to locally configure Rubygems and Rails 2 on a shared account with them, I discovered that it was in fact there support team that had done so.

Needing to do the same thing for another client this morning, I hopelessly spent the best part of 3 hours trying to do what I thought I'd done before before failing and submitting a support ticket. The result, a few minutes later: Sam has (as he did before) upgraded the server with Rubygems 1.2.0 and Rails 2.1.0.

Brilliant.

BPWEB hosting (recommended)

PS. Spoke a little too soon. Issues with other Rails apps on the same server have arisen, although BPWEB are working hard right now to fix them.

PPS. Pete, if you are reading... sorry, we were responsible (indirectly) for impatex.com being broken today. Not really our fault, but it was our request that broke things. Oops.

Be honest now...

... who had heard of Rebecca Adlington before? Come on, hands up. Not many I'll wager.

Two GOLD medals. One World Record. In Swimming? She's British, right? Wow. The first time in 100 years that a British swimmer has won two golds in an Olympics. The first time in nearly 50 years that a British woman has won a swimming gold at all.

Let's face it, nobody saw this coming, did they?. We knew we would do well in the Rowing, Sailing and the Cycling, but the Swimming?

I was going to try and write a nice article, but there's little point when this article from Claire Stocks at the BBC is so perfect.

These Games have been amazing. We've even got a medal in the Gymnastics (from a man)! Whatever next? Maybe the England football team can learn a thing or two about competing - no, forget that, forget the football, we won't be winning a World Cup anytime soon.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/2008/08/from_miss_nobody_to_greatest_b.html

Well done Becky, you should be getting enough recognition and money from now on to buy all the shoes you ever desire.

Bolt like a bat out of hell

9.69 seconds. That's, nine point six nine seconds! With no tailwind. That was awesome!

Usain Bolt - so damned good that he only has to run for 90 metres

This is the Olympics, competing against the best athletes in the world and 10 metres before the finish line, Bolt is slowing, looking around with his arms stretched wide in celebration. Now, that is what I call class!

"It’s been recorded that he takes only 41 steps to run 100m. Try it. Go outside and try running 41 steps flat out and see how far you get. Some of us won't make it past the letter box."

- Paul Lewis, The New Zealand Herald

Just think, maybe he'll decide to run for the full 100m next time. How quick can he go? A low 9.6, anyone? A high 9.5?

He'd just better be clean. The signs look good. As far as I am aware he has been tested several times before and during the Olympics, and I assume that a World Record beater is now tested after the event as a matter of fact? That may be no guarantee, but I hope he is just as he seems - a freak of nature and a man who is, quite simply, taking the piss out of the opposition.

I have read a couple of reports having a dig at Bolt for his actions, but they deserve no recognition. When you're that far in front, with that much in hand, you have every right to have some fun!

The 200 metres beckon and Michael Johnson's World Record of 19.32 has got to be under serious threat. Of course that assumes Bolt doesn't decide to slow down after 150m and start waving to the crowd.

Or, perhaps Bolt could take a quick break mid-race and pop-in to McDonalds for some of his favoured Chicken Nuggets? There has to be some big sponsorship coming his way from the Big Ron, surely it's too good an opportunity for the food-chain giant to miss... "Usain Bolt, fastest man in the world. Powered by McDonalds." Then again, maybe he could run in a Ronald McDonald clown suit?

I think he can do a mid/high 19.2. We'll find out on Wednesday.

PS. I lost my money on Asafa Powell because the odds on Bolt were so ridiculously short. Wonder why that was?

iChoose #17

iChoose is currently the 17th most popular free app in the iTunes App Store (UK).

An update will be released shortly that will add a few new features and settings, to allow you to control certain aspects of iChoose - such as whether you want animations or not, and and what speed they run. Look out for the iChoose version 1.2 update real soon.

How to Fix iPhone Application crashing issue

Some iPhone owners have had issues with 3rd party apps crashing on their iPhone. Generally speaking, this is not a developer problem and is more likely to be related to issues with Apple's own OS or issues with the DRM attached to each and every iPhone app downloaded.

It's a shame that what appears to be random crashing issues for some (far from all) users can cause negative reaction to a developers' app on the App Store. People should be a little bit more aware of the known problems and not get all negative on the iTunes reviews when the developer is not to blame.

If you're reading through the reviews for an app and most people are saying "it's great" etc, and one or two complain of crashing - it is quite obvious from the majority that the app itself is not faulty.

Here's a handy little article that may help you if you have trouble with any 3rd party iPhone app crashing:

http://www.iphonehacks.com/2008/07/app-crash-fix.html

Thanks for the reviews

We just want to say thanks to all for the great reviews we have been getting for iChoose (UK and USA).

We hope everyone will be keeping an eye open for updates and new apps that are on the horizon. Some will be free (but still quality apps) and others will have small charges.

Here is another nice review:

http://www.iphonefootprint.com/2008/08/decisive-iphone-apps/

Thanks.

iChoose review

Another iChoose review, this time from iPhoneAppy (via YouTube).

iChoose well received

We have been getting a lot of great reviews in the American App Store.   We're really pleased people like it and appreciate the fact we released it as 'free'.

Found on YouTube...

... iChoose.

Thanks to z953buzz for this review of two of his favourite free iPhone apps.

You can skip past the first 50 seconds of the (rather nice) New York Times app (which I also have installed) and get straight to iChoose.

Nice news

Sometimes it's nice to have nice news - and this little story from the BBC is great.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7542404.stm

Looking good

I've just been given a taster of the up-and-coming utopia Solitaire.  All I can say is it truly is wonderfully put together.

It kind of makes all others out there 'suck' without being rude. I'm actually quite excited about this - a definite 'well done Andy' moment coming up....

Craig Jones

Craig Jones was a British motorcycle rider, perhaps, one of our greatest hopes for future stardom.

Motorsport is dangerous. Even as the punter buying his ticket, you are warned that you enter the venue at your own risk. Of course the competitors know of the risks far better than we do, that's got to be part of the reason for why they do it.

Do you know the trouble with living life on the edge? Sometimes, like Craig, you fall off that edge.

Craig was having a stunning ride in last Sunday's World Supersport race at Brands Hatch when the back-end of his Honda snapped, for whatever reason, forcing him to the ground. I will not describe any further.

Craig (23) died of his severe head injuries in the early hours of Monday morning.

I wish Craigs' family and friends well during this difficult time.

To Craig: I don't believe in the after-life, but, if there is something else (and you get the Internet), I'll tell you what... you had that one in the bag mate!

See ya Mr. Jones.

Annoying

I find eBay really frustrating.  It has so much potential, but the way its run is less than desirable.

I listed an item and tried to accurately describe it - several days after the auction had been running it was pulled for 'keyword spamming'. Rubbish - I was not trying to keyword spam or improve my ranking. However, there are no questions asked, no way to query their decision, they just pull it. Yet, there are thousands of spammers that they allow to use the site and ruin your auction by making incorrect bids etc. Shame.

Is there a better auction site out there? I wish another would come along and perhaps let eBay know that customer service is still an important aspect of a service.

Surely an oxymoron

A wonderful quote from Steven Moffat:

"We're not in the business of being nostalgic, we're making nostalgia for the future..."

I like that.

Is it obscene?

Consumer groups have expressed anger as British Gas owner Centrica revealed £5m-per-day profits, after announcing a record price hike on Wednesday.

Is it obscene that such profits are being made at the same time the company are hiking it's prices by 35%?

From the BBC: Anger over £1bn Centrica profits

iChoose downloads

"It could have animations, etc, but for a free app, I didn't expect any so I wasn't bothered. It is functional and looks good so I can't fault it.

Edit:
the makers of this app rule! They added animations in an update yesterday, which they didn't have to do. That makes them customer friendly: they are the Virgin Media of iPod apps :-D. Reccomended app and Reccomended developer."

- Dan_Da_Dude - updated comment on the iTunes App Store

Wow. We have access to transaction reports for iChoose from the App Store for Monday to Wednesday (inclusive) this week. iChoose was downloaded about 34,500 times during these 3 days.

Given that iChoose went live last Thursday / Friday (overnight UK time) we would estimate higher initial downloads for the 3 - 4 days over the weekend period (that we do not have reports for).

Our conservative estimation for total downloads of iChoose to date (including yesterday) are somewhere between 85,000 and 100,000. Based on the fact that iChoose is a tidy, handy, useful, but largely unexciting application - we're pretty happy with that.

Now, if we can duplicate that level of interest with future product releases and get just $1 for each download then we've made it! Of course the high volume of downloads is purely because iChoose is free, and rightly so. We hope you all enjoy it, and if you haven't downloaded it, then feel free to do so.

(Version 1.1.1 is still 'In Review' and will be with you from the App Store as soon as Apple approve it).