I mentioned this IOS app a few posts ago (the iphone 4S update I think). I'ved used the music player on the iphone 4 since launch and before that on ipad and various Ipod Touch devices.
As a consumer of podcasts I get through three or four a day and subscribe to around 25 to 40 on a regular or semi regular basis. So I'm chewing through dozens of hours of chat a week. Naively I've stuck to the native music player partly through not being aware there were good alternatives out there.
Pocket Cast (£1.49 on the app store) had been a bit of a mini revelation.
The user interface is great and intuitive. The homepage shows a grid of your subscriptions (for some reason the app seems better a capturing podcast artwork than the native player) with graphical overview of downloaded/undownloaded 'casts along with a note of played versus unplayed items. Tapping into the grid items takes you into overshow notes and more information on the individual shows. All very clear and well laid out.
There are menu tabs along the bottom of the screen for the main page, currently playing, search and settings - pretty standard but the icons and layout are very intuitive.
The search function is also good - picking up most of what any seasoned listener could want. There seems a bit of a bias towards podcasting networks that could leave the independent casters at the bottom of a search but I suppose this is simply a function of popularity and with more specific searches as you learn the interface you can find pretty much whatever you want to listen to.
The two main things I now have that were previously lacking are :
1) No need to sync with Itunes to update - I now manage all 'casts off my main device (the 4S) and importantly new 'casts are pushed straight to me now. This was a major issue with podcast management previously as either a manual check on itunes on the phone was required to check for new shows or a sync with itunes.
2) I'm a big user of the double click on the home button to access camera and the music player. Not sure if others have noticed this but the UI for the player when using this shortcut is a bit fiddly - the play and forward/reverse triangles are placed quite close together at the top of the screen below the time on the iphone - when rushing to start or stop a 'cast I regularly hit the forward or reverse button instead of the 'play' triangle. In native player this can be a pain in the arse. Hitting rewind takes you back to the start of a podcast automatically - 37 minutes in to a 90 minute show this is really irking. It's hard to find your place again especially if the 'cast if three or four people talking about one subject. The good news is that hitting the reverse when using Pocket Cast just swipes you back 30 seconds - that I can put up with.
On the downside, there's lots of info in a small space on the 4S so until you're used to the interface it can be a little confusing (but that's the same with any new or replacement app) and occasionally when double clicking the home button to resume playing the device picks up the last item played on the music player rather than Pocket Cast - this is despite the player not having been used in anger for some time - a minor point but a bit annoying.
Great little app, totally fits my use case and I have now deleted podcasts from itunes and as a result am syncing the phone (an annoying experience at the best of times) about once a week rather than daily.
Friday, 8 June 2012
Health Surveillance and Private Medical Experiences
I'm planning to write a series of blog posts/articles on health surveillance and peoples experiences with health screening and any subsequent required treatment taken privately.
With this in mind I'd really like to hear peoples experiences of any of the above (either positive or negative) and here's the specifics of what I'm interested in :
- Health screening either paid for or offered for free by your company
- What the screen showed up (or didn't)
- If you had private medical insurance cover and if any subsequent treatment was required
- Your overall experience or rating - for example, if the screen found a problem are you happy knowing
- It would also be really useful to know your age, when you took out PMI (if you have) and if it's personal or company paid (I promise not to sell to you unless of course you want me to !)
I don't need a massive amount of detail, rather a quick paragraph of three or four lines would be really useful.
The essence of the articles I'm planning will be to help clients weigh up the relative values of health screening and also the age at which they take up private medical insurance cover - the younger you are the fewer conditions tend to be excluded and the wider the benefits available.
If I do use your contribution I will check with you first and of course all health info will be totally anonymous.
Feel free to DM me back on Twitter/Linkedin or e-mail : philknight@pch.uk.com
Thanks in anticipation.
TechFill Blog - Advent Amico
A little while ago I bought an Advent Amico - a budget tablet running Android 2.0 as a back up device to my first gen Ipad. Essentially the Ipad has become more of a family device as Mrs Localventure and the two LV children have begun to claim the device more and more leaving me bereft of evening browsing except for the tiny Iphone.
The Amico is one of two tablets launched by the highstreet retailer : Currys in late 2010 as a response to the Ipad - the Amico was the 7" budget version with 2GB on-board memory and a 300Mhz processor. It's Bigger brother was the Vega, a 10" tablet with 4GB and a 1.0 Ghz Tegra ARM processor which retailed for around the £200 mark. To be honest neither was an Ipad killer but there are plenty of them available on auction and second hand electronics sites now and I'd certainly say to have a play with one or the other.
However, having got the device and played for a few weeks I found it a little lacking - sure it's fine for browsing, e-mails and the like but having had the top end IOS devices I just found it a little laggy and limited.
Physically the device feels nice in the hand - the build quality is average (which you'd expect at the entry level price point). The Android interface takes a little getting used to following extensive IOS use but the home screen experience is good and everything is where it needs to be - one word of warning though, having entered my e-mail details I couldn't find a way of removing the account from the e-mail settings prior to selling the device short of bricking it totally. So I ended up changing my main gmail account password on-line (so deactivating access to my account on the Amico) then manually deleting the e-mails from the device whilst off-line.
It's also the devils own work to add any new apps to the device - a limitation of the memory and older OS I suspect - the only way I can see to do it to instal via the PK settings in the system menu using an SD card - again for a novice this is quite a complex work around and spending more to get a version of the OS with Google Play re-installed could be worth it.
In the end, although I wouldn't consider myself a 'power-user' by any stretch of the imagination but I was constantly demanding too much of the device. It's not for anyone who wants to poke around inside the OS settings and really aside from getting a feel for the Android OS on a tablet I've now given the Amico up as a very middling device and returned it to the electronic dealer in the sky (actually it's up for sale on Ebay at
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320921374453?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1158)
If you're interested in having a look check it out. I'd only recommend this to someone who needs a basic device or as a super cheaper emergency back up. I picked mine up for £ 25 on an auction site and they seem to re-sell for between £ 20 and £40 depending on condition (mine was manufacturer refurbed and worked perfectly).
The Amico is one of two tablets launched by the highstreet retailer : Currys in late 2010 as a response to the Ipad - the Amico was the 7" budget version with 2GB on-board memory and a 300Mhz processor. It's Bigger brother was the Vega, a 10" tablet with 4GB and a 1.0 Ghz Tegra ARM processor which retailed for around the £200 mark. To be honest neither was an Ipad killer but there are plenty of them available on auction and second hand electronics sites now and I'd certainly say to have a play with one or the other.
However, having got the device and played for a few weeks I found it a little lacking - sure it's fine for browsing, e-mails and the like but having had the top end IOS devices I just found it a little laggy and limited.
Physically the device feels nice in the hand - the build quality is average (which you'd expect at the entry level price point). The Android interface takes a little getting used to following extensive IOS use but the home screen experience is good and everything is where it needs to be - one word of warning though, having entered my e-mail details I couldn't find a way of removing the account from the e-mail settings prior to selling the device short of bricking it totally. So I ended up changing my main gmail account password on-line (so deactivating access to my account on the Amico) then manually deleting the e-mails from the device whilst off-line.
It's also the devils own work to add any new apps to the device - a limitation of the memory and older OS I suspect - the only way I can see to do it to instal via the PK settings in the system menu using an SD card - again for a novice this is quite a complex work around and spending more to get a version of the OS with Google Play re-installed could be worth it.
In the end, although I wouldn't consider myself a 'power-user' by any stretch of the imagination but I was constantly demanding too much of the device. It's not for anyone who wants to poke around inside the OS settings and really aside from getting a feel for the Android OS on a tablet I've now given the Amico up as a very middling device and returned it to the electronic dealer in the sky (actually it's up for sale on Ebay at
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/320921374453?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1158)
If you're interested in having a look check it out. I'd only recommend this to someone who needs a basic device or as a super cheaper emergency back up. I picked mine up for £ 25 on an auction site and they seem to re-sell for between £ 20 and £40 depending on condition (mine was manufacturer refurbed and worked perfectly).
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
Tech update
Wanted to cover off two things in this post.
First just switched from Iphone 4 to 4S - been running with the new handset for just over two weeks now (incidentally got the handset free from Orange as my 23 month contract was coming to an end - should still have been a charge of over £ 100 for the phone but they gave it me free to keep me as a client and also reduced my monthly bill from £ 37 to £ 35).
I got the original 4 at launch two years ago replacing a high end Nokia (very poor as smart phones went).
From a practical standpoint there really isn't anything between the two iphones - Siri is fun for a while and I've developed some very specific use cases for it around e-mailing and browsing whilst on the move or in the car - in the current Beta version though it's of limited use to non Californians !
The only other 'visible' change is the processors speed which really does amp up the usability of not only the web brower (Safari is literally twice as fast on a wifi connection) but also simple things like loading, playing and using the swipe back functions in the music player.
Tips - couple of iphone 4S tips - first, get that old 4 straight onto Amazon - I sold mine (in not quite perfect cosmetic condition) for over £ 280 - wiping off the initial cost of the handset in the first place.
Secondly, as an avid podcast listener I've just moved over to Pocket Cast - £ 1.49 on the itunes store - at the moment I'm running it in tandem with the iphone music player but initial indications are it runs as smoothly, looks better and offers push notifications when new 'casts are available - I'm subscribed to around 40 so this is an essential feature to keep me up to date. Probably do a full review in a couple of weeks when I've really settled in to it.
On balance the 4S is a great upgrade for me - love the OS and the phone literally goes everywhere with me - should you wait for the 5 ? Nope - I'm probably going to sell my 4S prior to the launch and pay the extra £ 100 or so to upgrade - so if you budget now the cost of entry to the new iphone shouldn't hit so hard.
Second issue I wanted to cover was tablets.
I've been running an Ipad (1) since launch and frankly have no complaints at all - great device, more useful than I ever expected and still going strong - that's my problem - Mrs Localventure now has more access to it than me for evening browsing and game playing and I'm looking to pick up a second tablet for again light computing duties - mainly browsing, media consumption and a decent e-mail client.
I can't see the cost benefit advantages of a second ipad and frankly don't need a 9.5 inch screen - 7 or 8 will do.
At the moment I'm leaning towards a neuropad2 but wondered what else was out there in the sub £ 100 market - my critieria are fairly simple - Android 4 would be nice, decent wifi connectivity and a UK power pack should be the minimum - I know for the money I'm not going to get Apple build quality or possibly longevity but like a second car I don't need to run a top level cruising machine - I'm looking at a coffee shop run around.
Any ideas ?
First just switched from Iphone 4 to 4S - been running with the new handset for just over two weeks now (incidentally got the handset free from Orange as my 23 month contract was coming to an end - should still have been a charge of over £ 100 for the phone but they gave it me free to keep me as a client and also reduced my monthly bill from £ 37 to £ 35).
I got the original 4 at launch two years ago replacing a high end Nokia (very poor as smart phones went).
From a practical standpoint there really isn't anything between the two iphones - Siri is fun for a while and I've developed some very specific use cases for it around e-mailing and browsing whilst on the move or in the car - in the current Beta version though it's of limited use to non Californians !
The only other 'visible' change is the processors speed which really does amp up the usability of not only the web brower (Safari is literally twice as fast on a wifi connection) but also simple things like loading, playing and using the swipe back functions in the music player.
Tips - couple of iphone 4S tips - first, get that old 4 straight onto Amazon - I sold mine (in not quite perfect cosmetic condition) for over £ 280 - wiping off the initial cost of the handset in the first place.
Secondly, as an avid podcast listener I've just moved over to Pocket Cast - £ 1.49 on the itunes store - at the moment I'm running it in tandem with the iphone music player but initial indications are it runs as smoothly, looks better and offers push notifications when new 'casts are available - I'm subscribed to around 40 so this is an essential feature to keep me up to date. Probably do a full review in a couple of weeks when I've really settled in to it.
On balance the 4S is a great upgrade for me - love the OS and the phone literally goes everywhere with me - should you wait for the 5 ? Nope - I'm probably going to sell my 4S prior to the launch and pay the extra £ 100 or so to upgrade - so if you budget now the cost of entry to the new iphone shouldn't hit so hard.
Second issue I wanted to cover was tablets.
I've been running an Ipad (1) since launch and frankly have no complaints at all - great device, more useful than I ever expected and still going strong - that's my problem - Mrs Localventure now has more access to it than me for evening browsing and game playing and I'm looking to pick up a second tablet for again light computing duties - mainly browsing, media consumption and a decent e-mail client.
I can't see the cost benefit advantages of a second ipad and frankly don't need a 9.5 inch screen - 7 or 8 will do.
At the moment I'm leaning towards a neuropad2 but wondered what else was out there in the sub £ 100 market - my critieria are fairly simple - Android 4 would be nice, decent wifi connectivity and a UK power pack should be the minimum - I know for the money I'm not going to get Apple build quality or possibly longevity but like a second car I don't need to run a top level cruising machine - I'm looking at a coffee shop run around.
Any ideas ?
Amazon Scam
Just had a Nigerian criminal attempt to scam me using an Amazon item I have for sale.
Essentially they use the buyers question function to ask a legitimate question about an item you have for sale. They ask you to reply to a generic (gmail, yahoo, hotmail) address of theirs which is set up as an English sounding persons (johnsmith1960@yahoo.co.uk for example) - in my case they queried some scratches on the back of an ipod I'm selling.
I replied with a picture of the item and then the magic begins.
They now have your e-mail address so send replicated Amazon 'sold' e-mails to your e-mail account. Along with this is a mail from the questioner asking you to send it to an address in Nigeria as a surprise gift for a friend with a birthday next week. So of course they want it posted urgently.
It's a fairly transparent ruse for a number of reasons : the e-mails don't look right and are mispelt, I don't post items outside the UK anymore so couldn't have a buyer in anywhere but mainland UK, the e-mail account I used to reply is not the one I use for Amazon and lastly of course there's no payment data on my Amazon seller account.
That final item is the rub though - a lot of people might not even bother to go in and check their seller account - when you're selling a high end item a lot of sellers might just be excited to have sold it and just want to get the item straight to the post office.
So beware - check everything - these scammers will only get better at doing this - mine was pretty amateurish but even so if they send out enough question I'm sure some sellers do get caught out.
Essentially they use the buyers question function to ask a legitimate question about an item you have for sale. They ask you to reply to a generic (gmail, yahoo, hotmail) address of theirs which is set up as an English sounding persons (johnsmith1960@yahoo.co.uk for example) - in my case they queried some scratches on the back of an ipod I'm selling.
I replied with a picture of the item and then the magic begins.
They now have your e-mail address so send replicated Amazon 'sold' e-mails to your e-mail account. Along with this is a mail from the questioner asking you to send it to an address in Nigeria as a surprise gift for a friend with a birthday next week. So of course they want it posted urgently.
It's a fairly transparent ruse for a number of reasons : the e-mails don't look right and are mispelt, I don't post items outside the UK anymore so couldn't have a buyer in anywhere but mainland UK, the e-mail account I used to reply is not the one I use for Amazon and lastly of course there's no payment data on my Amazon seller account.
That final item is the rub though - a lot of people might not even bother to go in and check their seller account - when you're selling a high end item a lot of sellers might just be excited to have sold it and just want to get the item straight to the post office.
So beware - check everything - these scammers will only get better at doing this - mine was pretty amateurish but even so if they send out enough question I'm sure some sellers do get caught out.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Just wanted to update the blog with current contact information.
If you want assistance with private medical insurance - I'm an FSA registered independent healthcare consultant working with individuals, families and corporates on new and existing cover.
E-Mail : philknight@pch.uk.com
Telephone : 07792 075748
I also own a marketing business working with senior doctors and enabling them to increase income stream from medico-legal work.
Website : www.medicolegalmarketing.co.uk
E. info@medicolegalmarketing.co.uk or pknight.mlm@gmail.com
T. 07792 075 748
Lastly, I'm consulting with a firm specializing in pensions auto-enrolment for pending new government pensions legislation. We're looking to work with SME's and accountants to put in place state of the art software and employee benefit flex systems.
W. www.meridianautoenrolmentsolutions.com
E. pknight.meridianae@gmail.com
T. 07792 075748
My main Twitter accounts are :
@localventure1 (this blog and my personal account)
@philknightpch (medical insurance account)
@mlm4docs (medico-legal marketing account)
Lastly, you can find me at Lindekin, here's the public profile :
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/philip-knight/1a/b47/58b
Looking forward to doing business !
If you want assistance with private medical insurance - I'm an FSA registered independent healthcare consultant working with individuals, families and corporates on new and existing cover.
E-Mail : philknight@pch.uk.com
Telephone : 07792 075748
I also own a marketing business working with senior doctors and enabling them to increase income stream from medico-legal work.
Website : www.medicolegalmarketing.co.uk
E. info@medicolegalmarketing.co.uk or pknight.mlm@gmail.com
T. 07792 075 748
Lastly, I'm consulting with a firm specializing in pensions auto-enrolment for pending new government pensions legislation. We're looking to work with SME's and accountants to put in place state of the art software and employee benefit flex systems.
W. www.meridianautoenrolmentsolutions.com
E. pknight.meridianae@gmail.com
T. 07792 075748
My main Twitter accounts are :
@localventure1 (this blog and my personal account)
@philknightpch (medical insurance account)
@mlm4docs (medico-legal marketing account)
Lastly, you can find me at Lindekin, here's the public profile :
http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/philip-knight/1a/b47/58b
Looking forward to doing business !
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