Apple need to take a good look at themselves and how potential customers are viewing their actions. The constant whinging that Android are copying their patents smacks of a company that can’t or won’t deal with the actual issue: the iPhone won’t be a market leader if other smartphones can do the same stuff!

I’ve mentioned before that I used to own an iPhone and with all of this moaning I doubt whether I’ll ever go back. The Android system is a lot faster and does everything the iPhone does and more.

Of course, I understand the issue of intellectual rights and  blah, blah, blah … but the fact is that there are plenty of third-party apps available that do everything that Apple is moaning about.

From that point-of-view it won’t stop the Android having all of these facilities, so they’re going to fail if they’re hoping this is going to stop Android equipment being any sort of competitor to them.

Thankfully, it looks like the courts are coming down against Apple, the latest being the latest ruling in Germany that the Galaxy Tablet doesn’t infringe Apple’s copyright.

If Apple have to reduce themselves to this kind of thing to try to guarantee their phones sell then shame on them. It’s about time that they man-up and take on the competition in  a straight fight.

That’s about the only way I’ll have any respect for them ever again.

Related articles

• Apple seeks Samsung Galaxy Nexus ban (somobile.co.uk)
• Apple launching sidelong attacks against Google with new lawsuits in US (arstechnica.com)
• Samsung Galaxy Nexus Revealed To Be Root Of Latest Apple Patent Suit (The Droid Guy)
• Apple Is At It Again, Files New Lawsuit Against Samsung In Germany (an.droid-life.com)
• Apple Blitzkrieg Aims to Kill Android Ice Cream Sandwich (Daily Tech)

So I’ve decided to put them together into two posts. Today’s is all about the films coming out this year and the second will showcase the confirmed and rumoured films for the next few years.

This list is by no means exhaustive being, as it is, a list of films that I’m interested in seeing!

Ghostrider: Spirit of Vengeance – 17 Feb 2012 (UK)

Nic Cage returns as Johnny Blaze.  Johnny hides out to Eastern Europe and is called upon to stop the devil, who is trying to take human form.

Dir: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor

Safe House – 24 February 2012 (UK)

A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

Starring: Denzel Washington; Ryan Reynolds; Brendan Gleeson; Robert Patrick

Bullet To The Head – 13 April 2012 (UK)

After watching their respective partners die, a cop and a hitman form an alliance in order to bring down their common enemy.  Sylvester Stallone in the starring role.

Dir: Walter Hill

The Avengers – 27 April 2012 (UK)

Nick Fury and the international agency S.H.I.E.L.D. bring together a team of super humans to form The Avengers to help save the Earth from Loki & his various membered army.

Includes: Robert Downey Jr (Stark/Iron Man); Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow); Samuel L Jackson (Nick Fury); Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye); Gwyneth Paltrow (Pepper Potts); Chris Hemsworth (Thor)

Dir: Joss Whedon

Safe – 4 May 2012 (UK)

Jason Statham stars as a former elite agent who takes on a two-tier mission: rescue a Chinese girl who’s been abducted by the Triads, then use a safe combination to outwit the Russian Mafia, corrupt NYC officials, and the Triads themselves.

Dir: Boaz Yakin

Men in Black 3 – 25 May 2012 (UK)

Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return for the third instalment of Men In Black.

Agent J travels in time to MIB’s early years in the 1960s, to stop an alien from assassinating his friend Agent K and changing history.

Dir: Barry Sonnenfeld

Universal Soldier: A New Dimension – May 2012 (US)

Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren appeared in the first Universal Soldier way back in 1992; Van Damme return in 1999 in Universal Soldier: The Return; both of them starred in 2009’s offering Universal Soldier: Regeneration.  And now they’re both back for a “New dimension”!

No storyline details available.

Dir: John Hyams

Prometheus – 1 June 2012 (UK)

A team of explorers discover a clue to the origins of mankind on Earth, leading them on a journey to the darkest corners of the universe. There, they must fight a terrifying battle to save the future of the human race.

Starring: Michael Fassbender; Charlize Theron; Guy Pearce; Idris Elba

Dir: Ridley Scott

Ice Age 4: Continental Drift – 6 July 2012 (UK)

Included this one because the others were great fun.

This time Manny, Diego, and Sid embark upon another adventure after their continent is set adrift. Using an iceberg as a ship, they encounter sea creatures and battle pirates as they explore a new world.

Dir: Steve Martino & Mike Thurmeier

The Dark Knight Rises – 20 July 2012 (UK)

The one I’ve been waiting for.  I’m a big Batman fan, right from the first comics I read as a kid and Christian Bale epitomises the character for me.

Eight years after the events of The Dark Knight, the terrorist leader Bane arrives in Gotham City, pushing it and its police force to their limits, forcing its former hero Batman to resurface after taking the fall for Harvey Dent’s crimes.

Starring: Christian Bale (Bruce Wayne/Batman); Michael Caine (Alfred); Liam Neeson (Ra’s al Ghul); Anne Hathaway (Selina Kyle/Catwoman); Gary Oldman (Chief Gordon); Morgan Freeman (Lucias Fox)

Dir: Christopher Nolan

Expendables 2 – 17 Aug 2012 (US)

Back for another bout of silliness with lots of shooting! This time with added Van Damme and Norris!  Watch out for a cameo from Nocak Djokavic!

Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy paycheck, but when one of their men is murdered on the job, their quest for revenge puts them deep in enemy territory and up against an unexpected threat.

Starring: Jason Statham; Bruce Willis; Sylvester Stallone; Arnold Schwarzenegger; Jean-Claude Van Damme; Jet Li; Chuck Norris; Dolph Lundgren

Dir: Simon West

The Bourne Legacy – 17 Aug 2012 (UK)

Don’t expect to see Matt Damon in this one.

No storyline available.

Starring: Jeremy Renner; Rachel Weisz; Ed Norton; Albert Finney; Stacy Keach

Dir: Tony Gilroy

Total Recall – 22 Aug 2012 (UK)

Based on the Philip K Dick novel “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale”.

As the nation states Euromerica and New Shanghai vie for supremacy, a factory worker (Farrell) begins to suspect that he’s a spy, though he is unaware which side of the fight he’s on.

Starring: Colin Farrell; Kate Beckinsale

Dir: Len Wiseman

Resident Evil: Retribution – 14 Sept 2012 (UK)

The fifth in the series and the ideas are getting a little thin on the ground.

In this one Alice fights alongside a resistance movement in the continuing battle against the Umbrella Corporation and the undead.

Starring: Milla Jovovich; Michelle Rodriguez; Jason Isaacs

Dir: Paul W S Anderson

Dredd – 21 Sept 2012 (US)

Judge Dredd’s return to the big screen will hopefully be a bigger success than Sly’s 1995 version.  It also heralds a big year for the star, Karl Urban, who features in a few of the upcoming potential blockbusters.

In a violent, futuristic city where the police have the authority to act as judge, jury and executioner, a cop teams with a trainee to take down a gang that deals the reality-altering drug, SLO-MO.

Starring: Karl Urban (Dredd);

Dir: Pete Travis

Untitled Taken sequel – 5 Oct 2012 (UK)

In Istanbul, retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his wife are taken hostage by the father of a kidnapper Mills killed while rescuing his daughter.  Co-written by Luc Besson so this ‘should’ be pretty good.

Starring: Liam Neeson; Famke Janssen; Maggie Grace

Dir: Olivier Megaton

Parker – 12 Oct 2012 (US)

A crime/thriller centred on a thief who lives by a code of honour that includes never stealing money from people who need it.

Starring: Jason Statham; Nick Nolte; Jennifer Lopez

Dir: Taylor Hackford

Skyfall – 26 Oct 2012 (UK)

Bond is back!

Bond’s loyalty to M is tested as her past comes back to haunt her. As MI6 comes under attack, 007 must track down and destroy the threat, no matter how personal the cost.

Starring: Daniel Craig (007); Judi Dench (M); Ralph Feinnes; Javier Bardem

Dir: Sam Mendes

47 Ronin – 21 Nov 2012 (UK)

An 18th century set story centered on a band of samurai who set out to avenge the death of their master.

Starring: Keanu Reeves; Hiroyuki Sanada

Dir: Carl Rinsch

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – 14 Dec 2012 (UK)

Bilbo Baggins, a Hobbit, journeys to the Lonely Mountain accompanied by a group of dwarves to reclaim a treasure taken from them by the dragon Smaug.

This is the first of two parts, the second being released December 2013.

Starring: Elijah Wood; Orlando Bloom; Cate Blanchett; Hugo Weaving; Andy Serkis; Christopher Lee; Martin Freeman; Ian McKellen

Dir: Peter Jackson

Understandably many schools and / or local authorities are concerned about cyber-bullying, some have even taken the over-the-top option of banning social networking completely.

I say “over-the-top” because, whilst I accept that Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and whatever other sites are popular at the moment, have potential security issues for kids, there are some safe alternatives for them to get to used to how they work.

Sites such as Kidblog.org allow a ‘closed’ safe environment for kid’s to blog to each other.

There are a number of reasons that schools should embrace social media.  The obvious first reason is that most of them have age limits – Facebook and Google+ won’t let anyone join who isn’t at least 13.  iTunes has the same age limit.  Therefore any child that has one of these accounts HAS to have had parent’s over-seeing the set-up of those accounts.

I myself, have set up a blog for my niece but it’s private and not findable via a search engine. The only people that can view it are those that have been given access.  I’ve shown her how to post to it and she’s happy enough with it. All comments have to be approved by me before they appear on the site, just in case.

Will a ban stop cyber-bullying?

Short answer: No.

If anything it will move it from an environment where you  have at least some control and visibility, to one where you have none whatsoever.

Perhaps more importantly, children need to be taught how to use  social media safely and securely, and they can’t do this in a vacuum. In today’s modern age keeping your online identity secure and understanding the consequences that sharing information can have are both things that children need to be prepared for.

What constitutes a Social Networking Site nowadays?

Pretty much any site nowadays could be considered “Social Networking”.

Most “experts” would say that a social networking site is one whereby you have a profile, can make a social connection and communicate with people.

The internet has developed so quickly and with hardly any regulation that it’s not always clear.

Is there really that much difference between writing an abusive comment on a blog post and writing a similar thing on their Facebook wall?  I would say not.

Social Media helps creativity

Valuable lessons can be learned, not from the teacher, but from the students interacting between themselves. Social networking provides a solid platform to nurture pupil-to-pupil communication, whether it’s sharing a drawing or photo, providing feed back on someone else’s pictures.

Writing blog posts gets the kids into the habit of writing short pieces on a vast array of subjects, providing them with much-needed experience in being creative with their writing.

Removing that tool restricts their possibilities to develop these skills, that will be an integral part of their later lives.

A number of studies, have proved the positive benefits that use of social media can have as part of a teacher’s toolkit. If you had a powerful, free suite of tools that could raise engagement and and achievement that is surely something to be celebrated?

It seems to me that many education authorities are teaching their kids activities that will have little or no impact on their future lives.  How will this affect their potential success in the 21st century?  Certainly, ignoring some of the most important influences on peoples’ lives today, doesn’t seem like an ideal way of preparing them.

Related articles

• Schools use social media to communicate with students, parents (Tulsaworld.com)
• Social Networking goes to school (Edweek.org)
• Social Networking and Schools (ChildNet International)
• The case for online social networking in education (Jose Picardo)
• Alternative social networking: Over-protection or necessary control (The Guardian)
• Youngsters in India are losing interest in social networking sites, says study (buzzom.com)

Other sites

• Kent Trust Web.org
• Student Jotter.com
• NASUWT website
• UK PRWeb.com
• Classroom20.com
• Webkinz.com
• Club Penguin.com

The first one is the more in-depth and was carried out by marketing firm 11Mark who surveyed 1,000 Americans about their use of phones on toilet breaks.

Three-quarters of those who took the survey admitted to using their smartphones when in the bathroom; one-quarter of them went as far as to admit to never going into the bathroom without their phone!

Usage by phone

This was fairly consistent across all platforms with Android users amounting to 87%,  BlackBerry users 84% and iPhone users 77%.

However, BlackBerry users (75%) are more likely to answer a call than Android (67%) or iPhone (60%) users.

Men v Women

Like the phone stats, men and women were about equal in their bathroom smartphone usage.

74% of males and 76% of women acknowledging they use their phones there.

Perhaps surprisingly, the men appeared to be the more attached to their mobile devices, with 30% saying they never go to the bathroom without their phone, compared to 20% of women.
A small number of men (20%) and women (13%) even admitted to conducting work calls from the stalls!

What people get up to

Reading texts (67%) and answering calls (63%) were the most common tasks performed in the bathroom, according to the survey, although more than half of the respondents (59%) sent a text while on the toilet and more than a third either read e-mail (42%) or confessed to initiating calls (41%) from the bathroom.

Although not as popular as talking and texting, apps are being used too. Men topped that category at 59%, with 43% of women using apps.

The survey suggests that the practice of shopping via smartphones is set to grow. Current figures are 16% of male and 10% of female users have made a purchase from the bathroom.

Use of smartphones for social networking accounted for 29% of the total usage.

Survey 2

Another survey (this time of just over 1,000 Canadians) concerning smartphones is, I think, supposed to be a little more light-hearted, although I found it slightly annoying.

It was carried out for online dating site Match.com and attempts to ‘compartmentalise’ us depending on which phones we use.

For example, the survey suggests that if you are an iPhone user you are more likely date someone in your workplace. This because a quarter of iPhone singles said they had an office romance in the last five years.

Android users such as myself are, according to the survey, most likely to have sex on a first date with 62% saying they’ve done the deed after date number one. Comparably, 57% iPhone users and 48% of BlackBerry users made the same confession.

And don’t think you can escape if you’re a BlackBerry user.  No no, you apparently are the most likely to drink alcohol on a first date with 72% reporting having a boozy beverage on a first night out. Plus 67% of BlackBerry users say they have experienced love at first sight.

Finally, another slight on Android fans:  the survey found that they’re the most likely to have a one-night stand.

Guess I’m a BIG exception to this … I’ve never had a one-night stand, nor have I “done the deed” on a first date.

Related articles

• Smartphone Owners Prone to Using their Devices in the Bathroom (pcworld.com)
• Survey: Android users most likely to engage in hanky-panky on first date (digitaltrends.com)
• Study: 74% Of Americans Use Their Phones On The Toilet (huffingtonpost.com)
• Match.com Survey Reveals Android Users Prefer One Night Stands While iPhone Users Are Most Likely To Get Busy With A Coworker (cultofmac.com)
• Survey: Android Users Most Likely to have One Night Stands – ITProPortal (itproportal.com)

I fired up the Kindle to pick up two new books that I’d bought earlier in the day, but was soon shouting at the thing! Like trying to hurt the feelings of an inanimate object is going to make a difference, right?  Well, at least it made me feel better for 2 seconds!

So, what was the problem?  It seemed my lovely Kindle had decided that it didn’t want to connect to the Wi-Fi network.  The first couple of times I thought this might have been a ‘glitch’ and wasn’t too concerned. I followed the Kindle’s instructions and re-entered the Wi-Fi password, but to no avail.  It just would not connect.

After throwing my little tantrum, I had a check online to see if any light could be shed on the situation.  That was when I found the myriad of Kindle users who had experienced similar problems.

Looking deeper I found that there appears to be no ‘real’ reason why this should be happening.

In my case I had been using the Wi-Fi for over a year without any problems. I replaced my router around October last year and the Kindle connected to it, again without issue.

There were many possibilities touted around the various internet forums and websites that have covered this topic.

Router Channels

The first one being that the Kindle, having been designed in the good old US of A, only uses Wi-Fi channels 1 to 11.  Some UK routers have been preset to use channels 12 or 13, in which case the Kindle won’t see the network, despite it being a Kindle with UK settings.

I discounted this as being in any way connected to my problem since I had previously connected the Kindle to the new router.

802.11?

The next possibility that came up was the version of Wi-Fi network the router is set up to use.

Some of the site threw out the little snippet that the Kindle doesn’t “do” the latest standard, 802.11n.  If the router has not been set up to allow the earlier, lower-speed ‘g’ or ‘b’, then the Kindle will  “see” the network, but won’t be able to use it.

So, the advice was to check that router hadn’t been set up to use ‘n’ only, and it had to change the set up something like 11g+11b

Again, this could be discounted because of the previous connection successes.

Battery level

To me this suggestion seemed to be bordering on the desperate.

The person in question suggested that when their Kindle’s battery starts showing about half way, it won’t connect to Wi-Fi.  Now, I know that I had previously had no problems connecting to the network with less-than-half-full battery level (down to about a quarter on the gauge).

However, I was at the point that I’d try anything so I charged the battery to full and tried again. Nothing doing. Same problem – re-enter the password.

Device MAC address

One of the more sensible suggestion was to add the Kindle’s MAC address to the network settings on the router, which seemed to do the trick for a few people.

However, I wanted to leave this as a last resort, not least because of the fact that the Kindle had previously connected to the network without incident.

The solution

For me at least … a simple reset of the router!

Believe it or not, sometimes the simplest solutions are the correct ones!  After resetting the router and turning on the Wi-Fi on the Kindle it connected without hesitation.

Other issues

One of the more common connections appeared to be that Netgear routers have problems connecting to Kindles.  Not sure why this should be but they were mentioned in quite a few forums.

That being said, they weren’t the only ones, so the problem appears to be with the Kindle rather than any inherent issues with routers.

Another common problem was with the wording on the instructions. The Kindle asks you to re-enter your password when it fails to connect. I’m fairly savvy when it comes to these things so I knew that this meant the network key rather than the password, so I entered this.

Some users however, were entering the actual password and once they were put right and they entered the key they connected as expected.

Some routers, especially older ones, have a limit to the number of devices, and/or Wi-Fi devices than can be connected at a time.

Finally …

I had another trawl through the internet before writing this threw up something that I missed the first time:  some people had issues with using Android devices on the network at the same time as the Kindle.

It seems that the Kindle is thrown off the network for some reason but resetting the router and reconnecting  the Kindle, ‘almost’ always solves the problems and both can exist on the network without incident.

Last, but by no means least, I am also more than a little perturbed by the fact that my Kindle firmware seems to have been updated without any reference to me.

I’m wondering if it was this that threw the network out of sync(?).

Related articles

• Kindle Fire Users Report Wi-Fi Bug: 6 Possible Fixes (pcworld.com)
• Kindle Fire owners report problems with Wi-Fi connection (bizjournals.com)
• Amazon Kindle Fire owners reporting Wi-Fi bug (news.cnet.com)
• Android Causing WiFi Router Lockups (geeknewscentral.com)

I thought I’d take a look at what was going on in the world during that year.  Below you’ll see a few facts from various categories that give a taste of what 1965 was all about. It’s by no means a complete list – that would take up far too much space and I’m sure you’d be bored after 5 minutes!

GENERAL

• UK Inflation Rate: 5.0%
• Average UK House Price: £3,660
• Gallon of Petrol: 5 shillings (or 26 new pence)
• E-type Jaguar: £1,867

BIRTHS

• Sarah Jessica Parker (Mar 25)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Apr 4)
• J.K. Rowling (Jul 31)
• Shania Twain (Aug 28)
• Moby (Sep 11)
• Ty Pennington (Oct 19)
• Ben Stiller (Nov 30)

SPORT

• FA Cup winners: Liverpool
• The Derby: Sea Bird
• The Grand National: Jay Trump
• World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers
• NFL Championship: Green Bay Packers
• AFL Championship: Buffalo Bills
• Stanley Cup: Montreal Canadiens
• Wimbledon Ladies Champion: Margaret Smith
• Wimbledon Mens Champion: Roy Emerson
• The US Masters: Jack Nicklaus

NEWS

• Australia joined the Vietnam War
• Hindi became the official language of India
• The Maple leaf became Canada’s new national flag symbol
• Rhodesia declared Unilateral Independence from Great Britain and became Zimbabwe
• Gambia gained independence from Britain
• The Maldives gained independence from Britain
• Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison and fled to Brazil
• The first commercial satellite, Early Bird, is launched into space (Apr 6) by NASA to transmit telephone and television signals
• Sony introduces the Betamax home video recorder
• France withdraws its Atlantic fleet from NATO
• Malcolm X killed (Feb 21)
• Post Office Tower opens in London
• 70mph speed limit imposed on British roads
• Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, left his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes (Mar 18), becoming the first person to walk in space
• The Beatles were awarded the MBE
• The Mont Blanc Tunnel between Italy and France opened (Jul 16)
• The Beatles performed their last concert in Britain at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales (Dec 12)

OSCARS

• Best Picture: My Fair Lady
• Best Actor: Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady)
• Best Actress: Julie Andrews (Mary Poppins)
• Best Supporting Actor: Peter Ustinov (Topkapi)
• Best Supporting Actress: Lila Kedrova (Zorba The Greek)
• Best Director: George Cukor (My Fair Lady)
• Best Sound: Warner Bros Sound Dept (My Fair Lady)
• Best Song: Chim Chim Cher-ee (Mary Poppins)

MUSIC

• You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling – Righteous Brothers
• Stop In The Name Of Love – The Supremes
• My Girl – The Tempations
• Eight Days A Week – The Beatles
• Ticket To Ride – The Beatles
• Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones
• Get Off Of My Cloud – The Rolling Stones
• Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
• Help! (Movie and Album) – The Beatles
• Rubber Soul (Album) – The Beatles

FILMS

• The Sound of Music, starring Julie Andrews, is the top grossing film
• Thunderball
• My Fair Lady
• Mary Poppins
• Cat Ballou
• Dr Zhivago
• The Ipcress File
• The Spy Who Came In From The Cold

BOOKS

• Dune (Frank Herbert)
• The Man With The Golden Gun (Ian Fleming)
• At Bertram’s Hotel (Agatha Christie)
• Desolation Angels (Jack Kerouac)
• Dr Bloodmoney (Philip K Dick)
• The Long Walk To Freedom (Nelson Mandela)
• The Tomb and Other Tales (H P Lovecraft)

DEATHS

• T.S. Eliot (Jan 4).
• Winston Churchill (Jan 24)
• Nat King Cole (Feb 15)
• Stan Laurel (Feb 23)

There has been a lot said across the internet about the subject, some of it good but a lot of it bad. From a quick peruse I think it’s fair to say that most comments on the bad side come from people who don’t like the upheaval. Unfortunately, though, they seem to have a strong voice and there have been a high number of people leaving Facebook as a result of this feature.

That seems to me to a little harsh. One has to wonder if they actually took the time to check it out properly first. I’ll admit that I was slightly unnerved by some of the rumours about it but I did the decent thing and checked it out for myself.

Sure, it takes a little while to set your timeline up properly. I set aside the weekend to sort mine out and now it all looks lovely.

I particularly like the fact that you can add posts to past dates, a premise that I find quite interesting and I’m working on some updates on various things from my history that will read as though they were posted on the day!

The only thing that I still have concerns about is exactly how the data will be exploited by advertisers. I’m already fed up with the ads on the News Feed page so I may still leave Facebook for Google+ if it turns into half a page of ads! I’m currently running a G+ profile in tandem with FB … just in case.

Of course, there will be those who are sufficiently wary of FB, particularly after their track record when it comes to security. This can only have one result: a split between those who refuse to share anything and those who are happy to share stuff. A small minority may come somewhere in between.

In future, some commentators say, potential employers could check out your FB page as background information – just to check out if your timeline tallies with what you’ve put on your CV. It has even been suggested that the Work information could be used by employers to match people with specific jobs. This could be interesting but in order for this to happen everyone would have to have that information public, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing.

As always with FB a new update comes with its own privacy concerns.

While past status updates have always accessible if you had the time and the inclination to find them, Timeline makes it a lot easier and now those same updates can be found in just a few clicks. Anyone activating their Timeline is given 7 days in which to modify past events before they’re available to view. It is possible to make your entire Timeline available to “friends only”, hiding any older updates that might otherwise be available to the world.

The problem for FB is those people who really will not like the new Timeline feature and are prepared to leave altogether, rather than use it.

FB don’t really help themselves when they don’t give people all the pertinent information concerning updates. This has been shown up on a massive scale with certain unsavoury elements offering to give away the secrets to reverting back to the old-style profile. There have been numerous pages, videos and files made available for download all claiming to be able to do this, but the truth is they can’t. Timeline is here to stay, like it or not.

Users of IE7 (are there still any out there?) will find problems with the new Timeline. In fact, it seems that some users of IE7 even have issues with the current profile page. I’m not a programmer, but from reading up on the subject, it would appear that the browser may have issues with the style-sheet language (whatever that may be!).

The best bits about Timeline

There’s a new place to put a banner image that stretches across the top of your profile. You can be creative in what you use here – it doesn’t have to be a picture of you. You could use a photo of your cat or dog, or something a bit more artistic.

Instead of the old wall you now have a nice, vertical, timeline with branches coming off either side that can be any number of things: a photo gallery, a post from a friend, a note about what you’ve recently liked, or a small widget showing what friends you added in the most recent month.

Navigating through time couldn’t be simpler with the time-bar on the right. You simply click the month (if you’re looking for something in the last year) or the year to go further back in time.

Probably my favourite thing about the new timeline is that you can make those more mundane things a little more interesting. For instance, I’ve added a photo of each office building to each of the “Started new job” elements. Any status that you want to stand out, or “feature” you can click on the star in the top right corner to extend it across the whole page. Likewise, if you don’t want something featured, click the star to reduce it in size. I also like the neat way that it lays out pictures from photo albums, giving one large picture on top and 4 smaller ones below it.

I’ve mentioned the privacy concerns but, truthfully, the new timeline doesn’t make any more of your content available, it just makes it easier to find. To help with this, FB have brought back a feature that had been buried in previous versions: the ability to view your timeline as another user.

Click on the “settings” cog (see pic), and select “View As…” you can then select enter a friend’s name, or click the ‘public’ link in the blurb.

This can be useful when checking that you have set everything to the privacy level you want. Combining lists with this feature, it is now a doddle to ensure that people who are mere acquaintances do not get all of the updates that close friends do.

To get started with Timeline click this link: Introducing Timeline  You should be taken to an intro screen explaining all the new bits and bobs. At the bottom you should see a green “Get Timeline” button – click it.

Further reading:

• How to Use Facebook’s New Timeline Feature – Lifehacker
• Your complete guide to Facebook’s Timeline – CNet
• Facebook Timeline: The Complete Guide – Mashable
• Use Your Facebook Timeline Profile for Your Career – Forbes
• Facebook Timeline Is Basically Your Digital Resume – Mashable
• Everything You Want To Know About Facebook Timeline – Ditigal Trends

I’m not really one for collecting apps ‘just for the sake of it’ like some people – I only tend to download apps that I know I’m going to use, so there are no games listed (that’s what the PS3 is for!).

I haven’t listed apps like Facebook or Tweetdeck because they’re pretty much established in their fields.  Instead I’ve gone for some less well-known apps that I’ve found quite useful.

So, in no particular order, here are my top six:

Mobli (free)

Mobli is currently still in Beta.

I think it could well become THE place for sharing your photos.  It has a companion website where you can view all the uploaded photos at your leisure.  I joined up shortly before Christmas and as of writing this my 28 photos have been viewed 4046 times and I have 55 likes.

Compare that to my experience of Instagram when I had an iPhone I don’t think the views went past 20 for around 60 pics  and I may have got 2 or 3 likes!  I think you can see the clear winner there!

Whether online or in the app you can view, consume and share any moment captured through photos or videos with everyone around the globe in real-time.

Any.Do (free)

I think this is one of the best apps available at the moment.  The fact that it’s free is a double-bonus.

There is no dedicated web component to this reminder service yet, although you can sync the tasks with your Google calendar, so Any.Do is still a tremendously useful and smart way to manage your to-do list.

If you really want web synchronisation you could try Wunderlist, which is also free.

Any.Do includes an auto-fill feature to save keystrokes, and tasks can easily be rescheduled by dragging entries from one day to the next. Reminders are reliable and when a task is complete, you can cross it out with a swipe of your finger.

The latest update includes a reminder for your missed calls which looks a lot classier than the normal HTC version.

Everything about Any.Do feels elegant and efficient, as a personal assistant should be.

imo instant messenger (free)

With imo instant messenger, it’s easy to stay in touch with friends on your existing IM accounts. You plug in your sign-in information for all the top IM services and away you go.

Services covered are: Facebook Chat, Google Talk, Skype, MSN, ICQ/AIM, Yahoo, Jabber, Myspace, Vkontakte.ru, and Hyves.

It looks sleek and is simple to use.  Now there’s no need for separate apps for each service.

aCar (free)

This is so far the only app that I’ve paid for.  You can use the free version perfectly well with unlimited records, but some limitations on exporting and graphing.  I used it for a couple of weeks before paying for the full app, just because I thought the developer deserved it.

aCar allows you to track the maintenance, fuel mileage, business/personal trips as well as other expenses related to your vehicle.  Because everything is customisable it can take some time to set everything up, especially if you do as I did and amended a lot of the servicing options.

You can set up notifications for every type of service so you’ll never miss another MOT or forget to have the air con. checked.

My only niggle with this app is that it insists that you insert an odometer reading at the start of a trip where it could insert it automatically from the previous one. But that’s really just a minor annoyance.

Cover Art Grabber (free)

This music Cover Art Grabber app does pretty much what you’d expect it to, given its name.

Basically, it helps you to manage album covers for your music.  It will download the album cover according to the album information and, should you have any incorrect covers they will be deleted.

The album covers I’ve downloaded so far have all been high resolution as promised, and they look pretty good.

The covers are saved onto the SD card and the app will update the built-in music database. It’s easy to use and it’s a must have app for the music enthusiast.

Speaktoit Assistant (free)

The closest thing on Android to Siri, the personal assistant for iPhone 4S owners, Speaktoit isn’t quite as sharp as Siri, but is useful in many situations.

You cannot get an answer for a query as you would with Siri, but if you ask Speaktoit to find a nearby restaurant, it obliges. Like Siri, if the app cannot find an answer, it opens a Google search with a few key words from your request, which is often faster than typing.

Speaktoit’s humanesque voice is also roughly similar to that of its Apple counterpart, and you can choose different voices if a perky woman isn’t exactly your type.

I may add to this list in the future because I have installed a few apps to help productivity and time-management in my work, which I’ll hopefully get to actually use in the next month or so!

Related articles

• Speaktoit: The Perfect Siri Alternative for Android (callingallgeeks.org)
• Another Great Siri Alternative – Introducing Speaktoit Assistant for Android (goandroid.co.in)
• Speaktoit Assistant : iPhone 4S Siri Alternative for Android (madrasgeek.com)

But thinking about it a bit deeper, there were some positives to come out of it. Like I’m still breathing and I still have all my teeth … oh, wait … yeah … I lost one tooth, so … well, anyway …

Seriously, though, I discovered that it’s no picnic being unemployed. Sure the first month or so was great but as soon as the redundancy money ran out things got a little repetitive, with days filled with daytime telly, re-watching DVDs or playing on the PS3.  That was really why I started this blog – to give myself a purpose, something to concentrate my efforts on.

I had a bit of a blip around the middle of August – strangely, just after coming back from holiday in Dorset.  I haven’t thought about it – I never do – but I suppose that holiday brought home to me just how much I’d been affected by being cooped up in the house.   I wallowed in self-pity until November when I decided I was being silly and all I had to do was get out.  My legs still worked, after all, so I now go walking regularly again and the fresh air is a great addition to my day!  Funnily enough, though, I seem to be suffering with insomnia!  Life’s fun isn’t it?

To make things just that little bit “funner” the Jobseekers people threw a curve ball at me by stopping my money – I swear they did it just to freak me out!  Turns out I had to apply for reassessment.  It would have been nice if they’d actually mentioned that in the letter, instead of leaving me to find out for myself – BTW it also would have been nice if they’d included the form … that would have saved me wasting some of what little money they pay me having to go down to the job centre to get one!

I will give them their due, though, because they sorted it out and paid me within 4 days.

So … now that 2012 is here, what exactly is it going to bring? Well, without wanting to put the kybosh on things it looks like work is on the immediate horizon and that will help sort out the monetary issues. It will, no doubt, also go a long way to fixing the self-esteem issues which in turn could do wonders for the content of this blog – I don’t like ranting so it would be nice to not be doing that with every post!

Of course, I won’t be stopping the rants entirely – I have to vent my frustrations somehow, don’t I?

There we are then … we shall have to see what life throws at us in the coming year.

Happy new year to all

Well almost!  A few hours to go yet, but I think we’re safe!

I was hoping to get to the hundredth post before new year, but I fell one short! No biggie – I’ll get to start 2012 with that milestone, so it’s not all bad.

I can’t say that this year has been one of the best for me personally, what with the employment situation, but 2012 looks like getting off to a fine start with a new work contract.  I’ve had a few ups and downs; some of the downs created a bit of a void in my posts on this blog but there have been a few ups as well.  All-in-all I  can’t really complain because I’m alive and (relatively) healthy.

My hope for the new year – apart from world peace, of course, but there’s fat chance of that happening – is that this blog isn’t affected by work; it’s been a while since I had to juggle things around a job so it’ll be interesting to see how  it develops.  There’ll probably be teething problems but I’m positive I’ll get there in the end.

All  that remains is to wish you all a bodacious new year.

Catch you on the flip-side!