Web Warp Blog has been retired. For new posts please head to dmather.com.

Sunday 30 October 2011

Tips for iOS 5 Location Services

Lockergnome reports on the iOS 5 Location Services use and its effect on battery life. A very useful video with a great set of tips! Here is a link to the original story on Lockergnome's website: Click Here.

f.lux - Mac, Windows and Linux

f.lux is a small utility program that changes the colour temperature of your monitor to suit the lighting conditions in your room. You will notice less eye-strain when using your monitor at night as the screen is tinted a light orange. This helps your body keep it's natural rhythm by not exposing your eyes to bright white/blue light in the evening.


What is colour temperature?
Colour temperature is expressed in Kelvin and if something is orangey red looking than it has a lower value and if it's broad daylight, with a bright white light, it has a higher value (approx 6500K). 


So how does flux work?
Fluorescent lighting is around 4100K so it has a slight orangey look, this was often highlighted on early digital cameras. Your eye does a great job of compensating for colours and you barely notice it after a while. Until, that is, you put your computer on with it's bright screen. This is why people using a PC at night often have a blueish glow on them, because these colours are not provided by the surrounding lights. With f.lux installed you can compensate for these lighting environments and the program is customisable to your lighting colour temperature. And to make life easier, f.lux knows when sunrise and sunset occur and automatically adjust the screen colours for you.


This is a really small app and it does exactly what it says on the tin, check it out today!

Rating 4/5
Price - Free
Developer - http://stereopsis.com/flux








Tuesday 11 October 2011

App of the Day - Facebook Messenger - iOS, Android and Blackberry

Facebook Messenger is a new app for smartphones from Facebook. It's basically an exert from the main Facebook app which still includes messaging as a feature. The new app is purely for messaging and opens very quickly on iOS4 compared to the Facebook app.

Facebook messenger features more control over messaging alerts, it allows you to hide notifications for 1 hour or until 8am.

The new app looks to be aiming to compete with over online messaging service apps such as:
Skype
Microsoft Live Messenger
Google+
Twitter (to some extent)
BBM (on Blackberry)
What's App (which is a paid download)
iMessage (iOS 5 - due 12/10/11)

So with all these options, and many being cross platform, will operators loose out on revenue from SMS and MMS? More than likely.

Facebook - Facebook, Inc.

Rating 3/5
Price - Free
Developer - Facebook


Image: Facebook

Thursday 6 October 2011

Thoughts on Google+ embedded

Do you remember Google Wave (it was a bit like a social email collaboration tool, before buzz and Google+ came along)? Oh yeah and it was promoted and discussed right here on Web Warp Blog. Well Google said at the time that they were looking to introduce embedded waves. Unfortunately developers were the only people to try them out during the Google Wave beta period.

Basically the idea was that a collaborative wave could exist embedded within a website. This could have many applications but in particular it would of suited Web Warp Blog. A wave would be to used as a forum for comments. If a user comments on a blogpost or would like to keep up to date with other people's reaction they could of 'followed' the wave and add it to their wave inbox page.

My question to Google is: Will you build on this idea and create Google+ embedded? It would be ideal for website comment areas and even for Wave style collaboration. There are some webpages already using an embedded Facebook comment structure, so hopefully this is in the pipeline for Google+, probably after the creation on brand pages.

Remembering Steve Jobs

As you have probably heard the co-founder of Apple Inc, Steve Jobs, has passed away. He was only 56 and died from pancreatic cancer. He influence of the technology world is phenomenal.

Apple's Mac computers are extremely popular and have an almost cult status online. Apple's operating systems are renowned for be stable and secure. Apple is responsible some of the greatest innovations in digital age. It's impact on the music and mobile phone markets in unrivalled.

In 2001 Apple launched the iPod. A small portable device that could hold 5 GB's of mp3's when the world was used to listening to CD's. A couple of years later they opened the iTunes Music Store with 200,000 songs that could be downloaded. No need to go to the record shop anymore, and finally there was a legal download service which could rival the peer to peer music downloads. Today the iTunes Music Store is the #1 music store in the world.

In recent years they released the iPhone which changed the mobile phone industry completely. All mobile phone manufacturers have copied the touch screen concept and mobile operating system. The iPhone continues to be the industry standard with the iPhone 4S being announced on the 4/10/11. The iPhone paved the way for Apple's App Store, another innovation which has lead to numerous imitations. The App Stores success was built on it's simplicity, download and open apps right on the device. The devices which can access the App Store increased when Apple announced their tablet device, the iPad. This made tablets mainstream.

Many of these product announcements have been covered on Web Warp Blog and we can only be thankful for Steve Job's drive for innovation and quality computing products. Apple itself has a statement on their webpage: Remembering Steve Jobs.

Wednesday 5 October 2011

Samsung Google Teaser Video

Samsung's smartphone handsets have been using Google's Android system for a while now and are seen as a contender in the smartphone market. This teaser video builds tension for a forthcoming announcement: "Unpacked" on 11/10/11 in San Diego, USA.

 

Monday 3 October 2011

BT Broadband Service Problems

BT have suffered a power failure leading to a disrupted BT Broadband service today. BT are aware of the problem and are working to fix it to minimise disruption to their customers.
More info on BBC News.

Sunday 2 October 2011

Angry Birds Infographic

Angry Birds can cause addiction, and for Rovio, huge profits! This info graphic explores the Angry Birds stats!

  Angry Birds Addiction Infographic | AYTM
Infographic by: AYTM Market Research

You can now even play Angry Birds within Google+!