Friday 28 May 2010

Ipad Review 28th May 2010

I received my shiny new Ipad yesterday afternoon, a little ahead of the release date this morning. So I've had a few extra hours to play before writing this review. With all the generally positive hype and the fact that I'm really a bit of an Apple fan already you can expect this review to be pretty positive - so I'm not going to disappoint !

I'm going to stick to my main few initial thoughts and perhaps revisit some of the more esoteric things about it later on. I'll try where possible to stick to business applications if I can too.

General Feel and user interface (UI)

As most people know this is a 9.7inch touch-screen device using the basic Iphone/ipod touch UI which is proven to work pretty well and enables software/application developers to use additional buttons that don't require the device to have lots of physical knobs and levers. The device then itself is a simple sleek metal and glass sheet with only an orientation lock, volume slider, power switch and home button as it's actual buttons. Every thing else is done by touch on screen.

The ipad weighs in at 1.5 pounds and is a little heavier than expected but sits well in the hands and quickly becomes quite immersive - more so than any laptop or net pad - this is possibly the Ipads first victory - in a few minutes, once you're used to the UI it's almost like you're holding the internet (if you're in safari) rather than looking at a device which is displaying the internet. To give an example that really happened last night - we needed a pizza takeaway menu and it really was quicker to go into safari and find their website and display the menu than to go and dig out the paper version I know we have somewhere. I was then able to put the tablet on a table and let the kids run through the options on the menu - easy, fun and quicker than paper.

The device has an inch thick black bezel running around the screen and a number of commentators have moaned about this. In fact this edging gives your thumbs somewhere to rest while holding it so you don't partially  obscure the screen.

It uses a 1Ghz A4 processor and as I'll discuss later it fairly whizzs along on the interwebs - I went for the 16GB wifi only model. There's a lot of discussion about memory size and wifi versus 3G on the interwebs and moy thoughts are that given this is a composite entertainment/productivity device I think 16GB is fine especially as each time you sync it with your pc or mac you can change the content to fit that days pleasure or work. It doesn't need 500GB of memory like my Mac or 150 gig like my laptop as it isn't designed to do the same things. On the question of 3g - I simply went for the cheaper option, rather than going for two data packages (i.e. phone and ipad) - I've managed on this basis with my ipod touch for over two years and think it won't be a problem with the ipad either. One option I'm considering for travel in bigger cities is a wifi deal with BT - they offer a pretty good wifi network in towns and cities for £ 5 a month.

Last thing, it quickly gets covered in fingerprints - really visible when switched off or looking at darker sites - I'd suggest investing in a good spectacle cleaning dry wipe as nothing comes in the pack to cover this issue.

Having read a lot about the device and viewing lots of You Tube reviews etc. I thought I knew what to expect but in real life the Ipad is more sturdy and user friendly than I expected - it feels real and built to last in a way that some net books really aren't.

Typing/practical use :

One of the main concerns I had was reference ability to type and I've quite quickly gotten used to typing in both portrait and landscape (the device has a similar accelerometer to the Iphone and Touch that enables you to rotate the device to see more or access different features in each of the orientations). As a pretty good touch typist I find it possible to touch type in both orientations - obviously this is easier in landscape but by no means impossible in portrait. A word of warning here though, between the machinations of orientation switch and a possibly uncomfortable typing position (resting on your knees on the sofa for example) it is possible to end up working in some silly positions. I invested in the Apple case for mine and it folds backwards on itself to provide a really comfy typing position in landscape mode - I used this to catch up with my e-mails yesterday evening and found no back aching type problems.

So in terms of tasking and fitting this into your working life I found the Ipad even better than expected.

E-mail

The email user interface is a variant of the current mac standard and offers a listing to the left with larger individual mail pane on the right which flips in portrait to show the whole email in isolation. I'm still getting to grips with the format but it seems to work well. Setting up accounts takes a couple of minutes, the main snag is that gmail isn't a push service but retrieval takes two or three seconds once you go into the app. Setting up MS outlook is also possible - at the moment however I'm leaving my OL account on my blackberry.

Productivity Apps

The main iworks apps are all available as £ 5.99 downloads and I haven't yet partaken although I do fancy a play with Pages which would then enable me to tie work in with my imac more easily.

In terms of productivity the notes app is perfectly acceptable, given the typing works so well as I outline above I've already converted my rather archaic paper To Do list onto notes on the Ipad given that I'll have it with me on all business occasions now.

Note taking in meetings

Notes (or Pages) I suspect may become the norm for the Ipad user rather than paper and I'm certainly planning to use the advent of my Ipad as a vehicle for using less paper in my office at home.

Safari

To me speed of access is important. Having played around at it for a couple of years with my touch I wanted a device where I can get on line instantly in the commercial breaks of House or Flash Forward and the Ipad does not disappoint. The 1Ghz processor fairly whizzes along and accessing mobile sites like google reader, Amazon Kindle etc is almost instant. Even large standard pages load within four to five seconds so it's virtually as fast as my imac. The UI works well here with Google search perching in the top left and as I mentioned it very quickly becomes a case of feeling as if the internet is sat on top of your hands - there really is no barrier between you and the web here.

Replacing Newspapers

I've been a rabid consumer of on-line media for a couple of years now and basically get my daily news fix from the net. The ipad enables me to hit the web over breakfast (my main quiet time) in a really new and exciting way. I've configured my home page apps to give me access to Sky News, The Telegraph and (sadly) comic apps (to pick up the daily releases of free content) instantly in the morning over my cuppa and cereal - something I kind of did on the touch but the ipad gives more speed of access, dimension and physicality to the process somehow. The BBC are apparently about to release their iplayer as an app and this will also give me extra options in addition to my daily BBC News e-mail.

Portability

Yes it's another device to lug about. This is a clear drawback and now with the touch (let's face it the ipad isn't going in my back pocket for random ipod playing is it ?), my personal phone, business Blackberry and now the Ipad i'm walking about everywhere with over £ 1,000 of consumer electronics to be robbed of. But lets be realistic. On business the laptop bag goes everywhere anyway. With Key Note loaded onto the Ipad you don't need the lappy which weighs three times more than the ipad. Blackberry diverts onto the personal mobile (or vice versa) if you don't want to take both and when I invest in the Iphone the touch gets donated to Little Ms Localventure (aged 10) and I'm down to iphone and ipad in most cases.

Just taking the ipad out on it's own to the coffee shop or out in the car on appointments makes sense - even without wifi connection it's still possible to be productive and one of my biggest bug bears for years has been arriving at a meeting early and either not taking the laptop or not being able to bother booting it up for the sake of 10 minutes of work is again sorted by instant access to e-mail, notes, pages etc on the ipad.

Cost benefit ad fun-ness

Well I spent £ 459 on mine including the case. I've used it for around 8 hours solid since yesterday and it's running at 21% power now so clearly it's not going to charge me out of house and home. I've found practical uses for it already (including whilst running on my treadmill at home which I haven't had space to mention here) and I can see nothing but positives so far. I suppose an argument could be made that I, like other fans of Apple tech are shoehorning a digital entertainment device into my productivity/work life but I think the immediacy of the Ipad and it's flexibility make this process of blurring the line between work and fun an exciting and interesting one.

I've only had mine for 24 hours as I type this up and already it feels like I've had it forever. Do you need one, well no, but then again technically we don't need anything but food water and shelter as a species, but when you get one I think you'll instantly forget the 400 odd quid you've spent and begin planning the fun ways you can invent to get the most out of it.

I'd really welcome comments and feedback - take care

Phil

Thursday 27 May 2010

Ipad due to arrive today or tomorrow

My shiny new Ipad was due to arrive tomorrow. According to the Apple store it is now slated for delivery today. Just had a bit of a false alarm when a driver turned up at my house with an identically sized package which turned out to be something ordered by my wife - what are the chances ?

Still hope to get it today though before I burst with excitement !

I will report back later.

Wednesday 26 May 2010

Ipad

I pre-ordered my Ipad on the 12th of May and hopefully it should be arriving tomorrow some time.

When it comes I'm planning to do a full general review here and then hopefully pick up on business uses and do a more specific work focused review later as I use it more for business purposes.

The way forward ...

In business you do things and sometimes they are mistakes or more particularly they're not mistakes but maybe a course of action chosen isn't quite exactly right. As I mentioned in a previous post I had a meeting last week with a business mentor to discuss a number of issues around Localventure.

In the run up to the meeting and certainly during the discussion one thing came into focus quite clearly and a second thing developed during the session.

Firstly and I'd been brooding about this for a while - LV is doing too much and there's a lack of focus in terms of what we do and how it can be monetized. In basic terms I think that the blog is trying to do too many things and be all things to all men and probably not quite succeeding in any of them.

The further thing was that I felt that the LV idea as developed didn't quite work - perhaps there's a nugget of a working business idea there but still I didn't quite have it 'right'

So having come to the above conclusions I've decided to take some time away from marketing LV quite so hard and have a think about a product or proposition that is focused on a key business service that Localventure can excel at - I have a training course in London in June which may help with this focus and this also gives me a month or so to begin jotting down ideas and trying other ideas on for size.

In the meantime I very much plan to keep the blog going and open for business to keep issuing my thoughts on business and related subjects out to anyone who is interested. Current members and interested parties are very welcome to submit guest blogs as and when they wish - business as usual in other words.

Thursday 20 May 2010

Localventure - The on-line community that gives small business : free blogging, support, cool articles and useful business services.


Who Are We ?

Simple ! A blog devoted to supporting SME's and entrepreneurs across the UK. Any business employing less than 100 people can advertise on this blog and our aim is to create a resource/ information centre which acts as a community for business owners.

Can I add the details of my business to the blog ?

Course you can, just drop us through a couple of paragraphs about your business plus a logo or relevant image you'd like to include and we will do the rest.

What do I get for free ?

1)Free blog post covering details of your business + an image and your contact information
2) Update with news, offers or any business relevant content whenever you'd like
3) Send through guest blogs as and when you create them
4) We will offer special services, discounts and business focused deals - as a member you'll be able to access these unique member benefits

What other fantastic things can I expect in the future ?

In time we will upgrade the website - news on this in forthcoming newsletters and blog posts.

Member Benefits

We will continue to roll out details of our growing range of member features and benefits - some will be free, some discounts and others unique business related offers - in each case they will only be available to advertising members of Localventure and all designed to make your life as a business person a little easier, cheaper or better.

Here's a brief list of what is currently on offer :

LV Exclusive - Localventure EAP
Operating in partnership with member Life & Legal we offer access to the counselling, legal, debt & welfare helplines of a full EAP for only £19.95 per annum per person. Aunique benefit for LV that is usually not open to the business below 50 employees.
LV Exclusive - Utility Bill Consultation
MJ Consulting Services in Calderdale offer a free service and take no fee unless they save you money on your business utility and telecoms packages. A free service you just have to use.
LV Exclusive - Localventure Marketing
25% discount on e-mail marketing
Accounts & Book-keeping Discount - RS Book-Keeping
25% discount on annual fees from RS Book-Keeping
The Dizzy Llama Restaurant -  Central Cardiff
20% discount on total bill
Reductions on Rare & Exclusive Whisky - Prestige Whisky
5% discount on all orders from www.prestigewhisky.com
LV Exclusive - Life and Executive Coaching
One free personal or executive coaching session with The Life Coaching Consultancy and then a 15% discount on a booking of any coaching package (face to face or telephone). 
The Sewing Directory
25% discount on all advertising
Software Discounts
Innesoft is offering a voucher on all purchases using the following unique Localventure code - *BOCO0007M* which gives 20% off all in-house products,and is valid until 31st May 2010. Members can use this an unlimited amount of times before that date.www.innesoft.com

For more information on any of the above contact us on :

venturelocal@gmail.com
07883 882064
via Twitter (localventure1)
or via a message/comment here on the blog

Wednesday 19 May 2010

To EP or not to EP .... that is the question

When you first set up in business many people, rightly tell you to obtain as much free information from other business people and 'wise' contacts to basically learn from their mistakes. So you use the good stuff that they've gleaned via trial and error over their lives and therefore you don't need to repeat others mistakes - I suppose eventually you'll make a whole new load of them yourself regardless - but that's another story.

Since setting up in business I've tried to use as much information from others as possible and regularly learn new things when I thought I already knew best. I have a meeting tomorrow with someone whose opinion I respect and I think would qualify as a mentor. He's asked (suggested) me to work on my elevator pitch (EP) for Localventure and I thought it would be useful to discuss elevator pitches here and also share the current iteration of it with you.

To my mind the EP is not just the short hand for what your business 'does' but it also covers two other vitally important areas. Firstly, it should re-ignite the passion and fundamental 'idea' that sits behind the creation of the business in the first place for the owner. Secondly, it takes this passion and translates it into a sales message that tells everyone and in particular potential clients what you're about.

So if the elevator pitch doesn't excite the business owner (me) then it has no chance of passing on that excitement to the customer (you).

Below are several versions that that I have used in recent weeks to begin to crystalize my ideas from a fairly wordy set of jargon to hopefully something that works in the way I describe above :



Version 1, written to send to my mentor a couple of weeks ago :
Localventure is an on-line small business focused community offering free advertising/guest blogging for members; business interviews & general small business resource/comment to monetized via provision of business related services to members/SME database where service providers pay to participate."
Very catchy isn't it ? Kind of does what is says on the tin but it is neither elegant, memorable or anything more than pedestrian.
Version 2, total change from the above :
Localventure - local business, national support
At least this one was mercifully short. I'd tried to think about tying in the Localventure name into the EP in some way - I like this one but it doesn't describe the business except at a very high level and a reader would be left wondering ... what ?
Version 3, starting to get down to basics, quite elegantly simple and I've even been using this one in marketing literature a little bit :
Free blogging, support, resource and member services for UK small business
Version 3 - this is the current 'final' one :
The on-line community that gives small business : free blogging, support, cool articles and useful business services.
What this one does I think is to combine the ideas from versions 1 & 3 giving a bit more detail in a more fun way. This is the one I'm going to take to my contact tomorrow and see what he thinks - this will almost certainly change then and I'll let you know how it goes.

Client Negotiations

I'm in the process of beginning to tender/negotiate for a corporate coaching contract with a client. The deal could be very small or if things go well end up being worth several thousand pounds a year to me.

Having entered into dozens of complex price and propositional discussions over the years I still find this an exciting but bewildering process. As a business person I build everything I offer to clients around my personal integrity and work very much on the thesis that if something goes wrong it will be me that carries the can ultimately.

However, when you're discussing pricing for example with a new client you have to partially put that integrity to one side to obtain a piece of business at a level that you know you can make a decent profit. This can be even harder when the service you offer is a time resource (i.e. mine) and the temptation is often to undervalue the time and effort involved.

So you put on the table a price where you know you could do the work for a bit less but feel you have to both make a decent margin but also leave some wiggle room for 'negotiation'. The client in turn - if they're serious about moving forward - asks for a rate which is below that which they've budgeted to spend in the first place and so the merry dance begins.

When I'm talking to clients or business acquaintances about business negotiations I often point out two things, firstly that whilst it's important to be flexible (that is to do and say things you think the client WANTS to hear) it is also equally important to cover your costs and say things the client NEEDS to hear.

In the final analysis, business is about making a profit and if in the process of client acquisition you price so low that you cannot really justify doing the work (or worst case scenario, give less than your best because you're cutting corners) then that client really isn't worth picking it up. So the message has to be to keep flexible but charge what you're worth and remember that any business relationship is a two way street.

Phil

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Localventure - Free blogging, support, resource and member services for UK small business


Who Are We ?

Simple ! A blog devoted to supporting SME's and entrepreneurs across the UK. Any business employing less than 100 people can advertise on this blog and our aim is to create a resource/ information centre which acts as a community for business owners.

Can I add the details of my business to the blog ?

Course you can, just drop us through a couple of paragraphs about your business plus a logo or relevant image you'd like to include and we will do the rest.

What do I get for free ?

1)Free blog post covering details of your business + an image and your contact information
2) Update with news, offers or any business relevant content whenever you'd like
3) Send through guest blogs as and when you create them
4) We will offer special services, discounts and business focused deals - as a member you'll be able to access these unique member benefits

What other fantastic things can I expect in the future ?

In time we will upgrade the website - news on this in forthcoming newsletters and blog posts.

Member Benefits

We will continue to roll out details of our growing range of member features and benefits - some will be free, some discounts and others unique business related offers - in each case they will only be available to advertising members of Localventure and all designed to make your life as a business person a little easier, cheaper or better.

Here's a brief list of what is currently on offer :

LV Exclusive - Localventure EAP
Operating in partnership with member Life & Legal we offer access to the counselling, legal, debt & welfare helplines of a full EAP for only £19.95 per annum per person. Aunique benefit for LV that is usually not open to the business below 50 employees.
LV Exclusive - Utility Bill Consultation
MJ Consulting Services in Calderdale offer a free service and take no fee unless they save you money on your business utility and telecoms packages. A free service you just have to use.
LV Exclusive - Localventure Marketing
25% discount on e-mail marketing
Accounts & Book-keeping Discount - RS Book-Keeping
25% discount on annual fees from RS Book-Keeping
The Dizzy Llama Restaurant -  Central Cardiff
20% discount on total bill
Reductions on Rare & Exclusive Whisky - Prestige Whisky
5% discount on all orders from www.prestigewhisky.com
LV Exclusive - Life and Executive Coaching
One free personal or executive coaching session with The Life Coaching Consultancy and then a 15% discount on a booking of any coaching package (face to face or telephone). 
The Sewing Directory
25% discount on all advertising
Software Discounts
Innesoft is offering a voucher on all purchases using the following unique Localventure code - *BOCO0007M* which gives 20% off all in-house products,and is valid until 31st May 2010. Members can use this an unlimited amount of times before that date.www.innesoft.com

For more information on any of the above contact us on :

venturelocal@gmail.com
07883 882064
via Twitter (localventure1)
or via a message/comment here on the blog