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Not long ago, I extolled the virtues of the BlackBerry over the iPhone. I realised this may have been a bit hasty when I started playing with my friend’s iPhone back in May of last year.

My phone contract was due up, so, although I found it difficult at first, I was drawn inexorably into the desirable, hopeless-to-resist, financial black hole that is Apple’s product line-up. Although my initial decision was probably based more on the “shiny factor”, rather than any serious investigation into its capabilities, I’m happy to report that after 9 months I know I made the right decision in going for the iPhone.

The fact is, notwithstanding it’s aesthetic appeal, the iPhone has won all manner of smartphone awards since its launch in June 07, and the latest incarnation which I have, the 3GS, merely adds to the misery of the competition.

Its appeal seems to affect ones’ thought processes, given that I went out and bought a MacBook Pro not long after, just to give it something to plug into: some company, maybe.

As I said to my Mac-stalwart friend, it seems that everything Apple produce just “works”, and I suppose that’s the best thing about their stuff. But they also seem to offer that something extra, which makes you wonder, when you fall under the spell, how you resisted it for so long.

In the next few months we will be on the move to our new office. I say “move”, but it’s more of a sideways shift: it’s about 50 yards from where we are now.

We saw an opportunity too good to pass up, so we’re upping sticks and should be in around May (ish).

We’ll keep you posted!

New day, new announcement about a new product development/cash-generator from those leviathans of Silicon Valley. This time, however, it is something they can slip under the door onto the mat without any effort on their or our part. As a way to launch a new product, they have it pretty easy, given that Buzz is an add-on for GMail, their web-based email service.

Apparently, in the coming days, users of GMail will see the link to Buzz appear under their Inbox link, and they are automatically connected to their contacts in a way similar to followers in Twitter, and Friends in Facebook. It all sounds good, but I haven’t seen my link yet in the Apps version, so it makes me wonder what I have to do.

Given that they search everything that comes in and out of my email account, maybe I should write a lovely email about them and see if that does the trick?

http://www.google.com/buzz

After much procrastinating, our new site is finally ready for launch.

As is always the case, getting in-house things done always seems to take a back seat, hence the delay. But we think the wait is worth it, as it gives us more room to shout about what we do, and all in a nice shiny interface!

We’d love to know what you think, so please feel free to drop us a line…

Apple have announced a new OS for their ubiquitous iPhone. Amongst the amazing new features is “copy and paste”, which apparently allows you to copy one piece of text from one place, and then move it all the way to somewhere else.

Who knows - it might just catch on.

http://bit.ly/123Q26

We love WordPress. We use it for our blog, and are also considering it as a CMS for clients to be able to update their sites.

If you are a blogger, and haven’t tried it out yet, then check out version 2.7 at www.wordpress.org

Google have released a new version of their mapping software package, Google Earth, and this time it makes inroads into tackling the 70% of the Earth’s surface that previous versions have neglected - the bits covered in water.

Granted, you can’t really blame them for leaving it out, given that the average punter isn’t going to be interested in looking at mile after mile of water (although some people have devoted significant time to spotting boats in the midst of all that nothing).

It is only really in the past 40 years that we have begun to map the undersea surface, through the use of satellite and thermal/sonar imaging, and this understanding has allowed us to solve the problem that vexed the Victorian geologists and evolutionists - why are some species spread across the continents, and others not? The answer, the undersea mapping told us, is that the Earth’s crust is constantly moving and being replaced, and the continents, far from being static, were once clumped together and are still moving around on the surface of the molten interior.

Only 5% of the Earth’s ocean floor has been explored (by humans at least), and so scientists and technologists alike have welcomed the development of this side to Google Earth. Instead of spotting sunbathers on ocean-going yachts, perhaps those with a few spare hours could put their minds and eyes to something a bit more important, and not even get wet in the process.

The start of a new year is always an exciting time, but it is also greeted with a touch of apprehension. You never know what is around the corner, and with the doom and gloom from the media in the past 6 months, you would be forgiven for thinking that every business under the sun is having problems.

Happily, we have found that the adage that you should spend on marketing yourself during difficult times has held true. We’ve had more enquiries from existing and new clients in the first few weeks of 2009 than in any previous year since we started in 1999. Ranging from brochures, to new websites, to starting to sell online - people are asking about all sorts of things, and recognise that we need to remember that if we aren’t out there telling people we’re ready for business, then someone else will be.

We wish you every success for 2009!

Funny to think that it’s been 40 years since someone (Doug Engelbart) came up with the idea for the first computer mouse.

Made of wood, and with one button, it shook up the traditional ideas of computing and redefined how people should interact and use computers - they should help us.

Many of the things we take for granted today, and perhaps thought had only been around since the 80s and the first usable PC-based word processors, were demonstrated at that show in California in 1968. Copying, pasting and clipping text files and hyperlinking  - all things previously unheard of, were unveiled by Engelbart and the team behind NLS, the name of the system to put the ideas into practice.

What is perhaps most significant about the event was that NLS was adopted by the Stanford Research Institute who, together with UCLA, formed one of the two ends of the first link in the Arpanet network - what we now call the Internet. 

I think we should all raise a glass to Mr Engelbart today.

Read more at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7768481.stm

We have started work on an Application Tracking System for the sister company of add3 - Virtual App Factory. Purely web-based, It will allow them to track the status of customers’ software packages as they go through the process of virtualisation.