Geoff's Random Thoughts

I use lots of Apple products, and I use lots of apps on those Apple products. Several of those apps require syncing or regular downloads to be useful, such as: Evernote Omnifocus Newsstand Textexpander Downcast Feeddler Pro Pocket 1Password Tweetbot I also use a Wi-Fi only IPad.   One of the largest annoyances I have is when I open an App, e.g. Evernote and I have to then wait whilst it syncs every change since the last time I opened it, in a lot of cases, I can't use the app until it's finished and I may have forgotten what I was going to do. Even worse, I'm offline and the note I want isn't available to me when I need it. Yes, I could set up a routine to open each app every morning on all three of my devices and allow them to sync, but why don't more apps include options to sync on geolocation. My ideal would be that Apple allowed developers to build hourly syncing into their apps, but with this background sync ha...

There have been various posts this week raising visibility of the fact that 12 months from now, Microsoft will no longer support Windows XP. This means no patches if something stops working, no security patches for any new vulnerabilities which are found and no support from Microsoft unless you pay them handsomely for the privilege. Let's state the facts to start with. Windows XP was released in 2001 as an evolution of Windows 2000 (which was only released itself in 1999.) Windows 2000 wasn't a bad version, but Windows XP brought some improvements to the User Interface (although not everyone agreed with this at the time, myself included) The Fact that Windows XP is still in use in the mainstream 12 years later is a measure of both it's longevity and the fact that none of the succeeding versions (Least of all Windows Vista, with Windows 8 not far behind) have given users a good enough reason to pay money to upgrade. Windows XP IS a good operating system and it won'...

Please find below my account of my interactions with Amazon's customer service desk, Unfortunately I don't have a photographic memory, so all 'Quotes' are paraphrased. ------------------------------------------------------------- I've not had the best of weeks, on Monday Morning I tweaked my back whilst putting something away in a drawer, then Tuesday was a day of re-immersing myself back into a project at work, which had been on hold for over a month. On Tuesday evening, in an effort to wash away a day of concentration and rest my back, I settled down with my Kindle to continue my Journey into 'The Rook' (which is a fun Sci Fi book by Daniel O'Malley) and I quickly saw that there was something wrong with the screen. The screen showed text on 2/3rds of the text, but the other 1/3 was lines and lines and lines... (Thanks Tubbs) After a little research on the web, it became clear that this was a common problem on e-Ink Kindles, so I logged onto ...

Like many people, I read of Google's plans to shutter their reader product with a mixture of sadness and disappointment. I've also read a few opinion pieces such as Marco Arment's 'delight' at Reader's demise http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2013/03/a-second-spring-of-cleaning.html (BTW, that's sarcasm. Marco has a great point) Others have sat wailing because their favourite (free) RSS reader is disappearing. My opinion is somewhere in between. I rarely use the web interface of Google Reader. Occasionally, I go to clean out abandoned RSS feeds through the use of the last updated attribute. For me, Google's reader was an invisible server which allowed me to choose any client which supported it on the Mac, Windows, iPad or iPhone, and that is what I'll miss. I have over 100 feeds I like to keep up to date with, and it's not easy to move from one client to another manually. People offering web based alternatives are, on the whole, missing my usage. I ...

Before I start, there are some things I want to make clear I've not played with Omnifocus 2 so this post is based on reviews of the launch event and blog posts from others. Most of the posts I've read are consistent in what they say so I've based my thoughts around confirmed changes I respect Omni as a company they are driven and focused. Omni engage with their customers (not users) and provide quality products at a fully justified premium price. This article is not a criticism of the decisions they've made. just my take on Omnifocus 2. I use Omnifocus all of the time Of that usage 95% is on the iPad, 4% on the iPhone and 1% is on the Mac. unfortunately I use a windows computer at work. I love Omnifocus it's a brilliant product which helps me out several times a day to ensure I get everything done that I need to. I've used it exclusively for the past two and a half years Omni have worked incredibly hard on Omnifocus 2, this article is not in any wa...