Further to my post yesterday

Quick post as I'm about to go into a training course - really sorry to admit it but I snapped when i arrived in London this morning, found a Starbucks with wifi, logged on (using my Ipad of course!) and ordered an Iphone 4g from Orange and due for delivery next Tuesday.

What can I say ? I love Apple toys !!!

Will report back on course and the new Iphone when i get chance.

Ipad and Iphone 4G

My on-going love affair with my Ipad continues. As Mrs Localventure has said on more than one occasion - the Ipad now goes everywhere with me.

I downloaded Pages and Numbers and have a healthy supply of work doucments loaded onto the device so that in addition to all my music, video, podcast and browsing requirements I also can used it for work.

In fact I'm away in London on a course tomorrow and Friday and am planning to use it for notetaking etc. In short it really is a revolution and I can heartily recommend it to anyone.

What about the latest Apple innovation I hear you cry ! The new Iphone 4G which launches tomorrow. Well truth be told, I'm glad to not have one on pre-order. The stress and forward lookyness (sorry is that English?) of waiting two or three weeks from order to fulfillment for the Ipad was I thought exciting but really quite stressful. So although my current phone (Nokia E71) is due for an imminent change and yes, I will be going for a new Iphone 4G I decided to wait a few weeks until the furore has died down a little. So I'll be watching the reviews and features on the Iphone with interest but I'll be in wave two of early adopters on this occasion

The future focus of Localventure

One of the ideas I have moving forward is to focus Lv more on consultancy for SME's. In particular I'd be looking at two main propositions :

1) Initial set up and post set up/growth phase - an area where I now have some experience
2) New media support - blogging, Twitter and Linkedin to mention a few areas where we've had some marketing success and I think I can be of help to other business owners

This would be on a reasonable hourly or retainer rate and would include short and longer term briefs as required by my client base.

In addition I'm also working on launch for our sister business - The Life Coaching Consultancy (at www.lifeandexecutivecoach.blogspot.com).

If you'd like more info or to get in touch please contact me at venturelocal@gmail.com

UK Roads, you'll never object to driving over a pothole again

In the previous winter, untold chaos was caused by the ice and snow for extended periods and of course now we're paying the additional price in terms of potholes and other significant damage to the road infrastructure. Add this to the likely freeze/reduction in council spending that will arise in the next 18 to 24 months and we have a recipe for a pretty bumpy driving experience in 2011 and 2012.

However, when you're thinking about filling in pot holes in roads give a little thought to Guatemala City town council :

 This pothole (actually a sinkhole that opened up suddenly during recent storms) is several hundred feet deep and has a diameter the size of a small city block.

The joys of a temperate northern European climate suddenly don't seem so bad !

Ipad update

Still loving the ipad - received it on Thursday afternoon and used it pretty constantly Thursday evening through into Friday - needed to charge it up on Friday night (takes around 3 and a half to four hours for a full charge from the mains). Since that first full charge it seems to be holding its charge very well, because here we are on Wednesday morning and it's still has 26% power left !

I'm out on appointments tomorrow down South so we'll see how it performs in the real world - I discovered that you can use power point presentations loaded via the e-mail client and although you can't do anything fancy in terms of presenting without keynote, you can display and scroll through ppt without it. So I'm hoping to be able to use it with clients tomorrow.