Category: news

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I need some fibre

As you may know if you read this blog post, I recently moved house and in doing so lost my FTTC connection and had to go back to a rather slow ADSL connection, slow as in less than 1Mb. I usually had 37Mb down with FTTC so you can imagine my annoyance.

One of the reasons I am more annoyed is that I am still on the same (enabled) exchange and we only moved less than half a mile down the road.

I am in the process of asking BT when I can expect the cabinet I am connected to, will be upgraded to FTTC, or even if it is possible to upgrade it to FTTC.

It seems surprisingly difficult to find out which specific cabinet I am connected to. From a postcode search of 2011 data it would appear that there is an 85% chance I am connected to a cabinet that isn’t part of the FTTC upgrade plan and may not even be able to be upgraded.

FTTC Check

Using the BT checker (retail and wholesale) the answer is categorically that I can only have really slow ADSL.

BT Line Checker

Using SamKnows seems to indicate a yes to FTTC!

SamKnows Line Checker

However as we took our phone number with us when we removed, I have a suspicion that they may be using old data.

I have put a support request into BT and am hoping for an answer on Monday. You never know I might be on fibre faster than I could hope, or (more likely) find out that I can never have fibre.

ADSL isn’t cutting it, I need more bandwidth. So if I can’t get fibre what options do I have for fast broadband then?

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No more MobileMe

MobileMe is Closed

So today there is no more MobileMe.

Yesterday Apple shut down MobileMe and now your only choice is iCloud. There are big differences between iCloud and MobileMe and as a result many of the features that I found useful in MobileMe are now no longer available and won’t be replicated in iCloud.

It has to be said, MobileMe was not one of Apple’s best products and in many ways, compared to their hardware and OS, was plain awful.

When I compare what iDisk was to what Dropbox is, we can see why Apple needed to do a lot more to make MobileMe the service it was advertised to be. Dropbox, for those that use it, is a fantastic service that basically syncs a 2GB folder across your computers and integrates well with iOS apps and devices. Save a file to your Dropbox folder on your desktop Mac, it will then synchronise with the cloud and if your laptop is running, Dropbox will sync and the file will be available on your laptop. For me, with smaller files, I often found Dropbox faster and easier than trying to copy files across the network… that is saying something. On the other hand iDisk was a total waste of time. iDisk was launched in 2000 and was part of the free iTools, this evolved into .Mac and in 2008 became part of MobileMe. My own experience of iDisk was that it was slow, took ages to mount and if you tried to sync with the desktop it only resulted in lots of disk thrashing and unsynchronised files. I always thought it was just me and my slow ADSL connection. When I upgraded to fibre in 2010, with 40Mb down and 10Mb up I was gobsmacked on how slow iDisk was… These speed issues meant to me that iDisk was something I used now and again and wasn’t a service that could be relied on for a daily basis. I remember been initially sceptical of Dropbox, expecting to see similar performance issues to iDisk, so you can imagine my astonishment when using Dropbox, even with large files on how fast it was. More recently I’ve had similar speedy issues with Google Drive.

I did use homepage.mac.com from iDisk for a while as a web server as it was quite convenient for hosting images and videos, even with slow iDisk speeds. Alas with the end of MobileMe that means that server has been shut down!

This has actually caused me an issue with my eLearning Stuff podcast, as I used the rss.me.com server to host the podcast feed XML file. I did this as it gets hammered quite a bit by podcast clients and I wanted to avoid my own server getting this hammering and causing bandwith issues. I will now need to find a new place for the XML file. It’s not too bad in one respect as the main podcast feed actually fed into Feedburner. So that’s one thing I had forgotten about that I now need to fix.

One of the features of .Mac I really liked was that my bookmarks in Safari were not only synchronised across my Macs, but they were also available in the cloud, I could get them online. This was really useful when using a Windows PC. This “feature” was removed when .Mac became MobileMe and that annoyed me. However the synchronising of my bookmarks across my Macs did continue, which was better than nothing. Of course MobileMe as well as synchronising my bookmarks, also synchronised keychains and settings. Though iCloud does bookmarks, it has stopped doing keychains and some other things. I always found this useful when configuring a new Mac. Now I will need to do things differently.

I didn’t make a huge use of the MobileMe galleries, but feel less confident with the iCloud Photo Stream. My setting is “off” in the main as I do take photographs of family with my iPhone and iPad but don’t want them online straight off!

The one that has really put me off iCloud though was going through the upgrade process to Lion on my iMac. In attempting to upgrade to Lion I actually managed to kill the hard drive on the iMac. What I actually think happened was that there was an issue with the hard drive and the Lion upgrade process caused the drive to fail. The end result was, luckily in having Applecare, a replaced hard drive and an iMac running Lion.

As for Back to my Mac, I have never got that to work… but I think it’s probably an issue with my work network. One day I might try again.

Overall I am still not sure about iCloud. I still have to work out how best to use the iWork aspects, I normally use Dropbox for iWork on the Mac, but I quite like Pages and Keynote on the iPad, and it’s here that iCloud may be useful in synchronising files. I have concerns over synchronising, it made a mess up of my bookmarks and I would worry about files in case it did it with that.

So are you using iCloud? Are you happy with it? What am I missing?

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Lost my fibre…

fiber optic light

Back in October 2010 I upgraded my broadband to FTTC and improved my internet speeds dramatically….

Finally had my broadband upgraded to FTTC and I am impressed. With 40Mb down and 10Mb up this is significantly faster than the 1.3 down and 0.6 up I had before.

It has already changed how I use the internet, whereas before I would probably not consider downloading a film from iTunes during the day, as it would soak up my bandwidth and would take hours to download; now it takes under five minutes to download! No problems with downloading large files and updates now.

This week I lost access to FTTC and dropped back down to those old slow ADSL speeds I thought I had left behind.

The reason was simple I moved house!

Though I only (really) moved down the road and even though I am still connected to the same enabled telephone exchange, it would appear that the cabinet I am connected to hasn’t been upgraded! So as a result no FTTC for me.

The first big issue was digging out an ADSL Modem to use, and alas the one I had, had probably been in the garage or a while, and didn’t work. You can’t use the modem that is provided with FTTC, hence the need for an ADSL Modem. Spent about an hour trying to work out why the old D-Link modem wasn’t working. Doing a hard reset didn’t work. So it was a quick trip to PC World to find a cheap ADSL Modem. In the end I got the Netgear N150 Wireless ADSL2+ Modem Router. I didn’t in fact need the wireless as I use Apple’s Airport Extreme for my wireless networking.

It was easy to configure via a web browser and it wasn’t long before I was connected and using the ADSL connection.

Back when I got fibre I wrote:

The other key advantage is streaming video, which was almost pointless before due to buffering, and like downloading, previous streaming would soak up my bandwidth, having 40Mb down means I can stream and do other stuff at the same time.

Now that I am back on ADSL (and slow ADSL at that) I am once again unable to stream video through my connection and do anything else. An experiment with BBC iPlayer resulted in a slow browsing experience and buffering video. Now that’s going to be annoying and frustrating. The first casualty looks like it will be my Netflix subscription… if I can’t stream video then what is the point? It will also become a hassle to download video files from iTunes too.

I also have concerns about webinars and Skype as I have a very poor upload speed.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love our new house, it’s great. I just hope that BT will get around to upgrading the cabinet soon so I can get FTTC. I also hope they can upgrade the cabinet…. would be doubly annoying if I could never get back on fibre.

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Podcast Choice #07 – This Week in Google

I have been asked a fair few times about the different podcasts I listen to. I not only have a lengthy commute to work, but also travel a fair bit for work, so it’s vital to me to have something to listen to. This series will discuss and review the different podcasts I listen to or have listened to. In a previous blog post I spoke about the why and how I listen to podcasts, now we look at the actual podcasts I listen to.

This week’s podcast is This Week in Google.

Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani, Jeff Jarvis and their guests talk about the latest Google and cloud computing news.

I have already mentioned in this series, This Week in Tech and MacBreak Weekly which come from the TWiT stable of podcasts. Whereas This Week in Tech covers the general tech news, MacBreak Weekly covers Apple, what you get with This Week in Google is, well you would think it would be Google, but it’s a lot more than just Google, it also covers the cloud, Facebook, Twitter and other social web services.

Though I listen to the audio version, it is also available as a video download too.

This Week in Google

Initially the episodes did just cover the Googleplex, but soon it covered cloud computing in general. It also covers some general tech news, but with a slightly different slant due to the regular panel members.

There are three regulars on the show, Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis. They are all very different individuals with unique personalities. Together they work well covering the different viewpoints of the week’s news. They certainly speak their opinions and are critical of both the US and European governments in their “treatment” of the internet. The podcast can be somewhat geeky in nature, but this is not a criticism, more one of the things I like about it.

Some people I know will probably listen to a recent episode and might not enjoy it. As with many podcasts you need to listen for a few weeks to get a feel for it, as a single episode may not be a true reflection of what the podcast is like. For me a podcast is more than a single episode as in a one off radio style show, it is the series of shows that really make a podcast. The growing relationship between the presenters and the listener over time is for what makes you want to subscribe to a podcast and listen on a regular basis.

Subscribe to This Week in Google in the iTunes Store.

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It was one of those days…

I have been meaning to upgrade my home iMac to Lion for a while now, with the end of MobileMe imminent (end of June) and wanting to use some features of iCloud on my iMac I knew that I would need to make the move.

What was key for me was to ensure that the process was as smooth as possible. The first thing I did was back up all my data files. Though I back up on a regular basis, this process was to ensure that all my photographs, video files and documents were transferred to a backup hard drive. Once this was done, the next stage was to run Disk Utility to repair permissions, that went fine.

So the next stage was to start the Lion install process, and at that point disaster struck!

The install routine failed!

Install failed. Mac OS X could not be installed on your computer. Mac OS X Lion couldn’t be installed, because the disk Macintosh HD is damaged and can’t be repaired. Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again.

Yes, tried again same message.

Ah well, I thought, so I then decided to restart back in OS X Snow Leopard… but the OS X Lion installer wouldn’t let me.

Tried Disk Utility to repair the hard drive with no success.

At this point I was glad I had taken a backup of my data.

After looking at Apple Discussions, I tried to use my Snow Leopard install DVD to fix the drive, however this didn’t work. After a couple of hours of trying to repair the drive using various solutions, I decided that I wasn’t going to be successful trying to do that. So made the plunge and decided to format the drive and reinstall.

However… that didn’t work! I kept getting errors with the OS X install routine failing to install on the drive. In the end I just gave up and using the iPad booked a slot at the Genuis Bar at my local Apple Store.

Taking the iMac to the store went very smoothly, they connected it up to their diagnostic software, confirmed that everything was working as it should, except the hard drive.

As I had taken out Applecare on the iMac, the cost of the replacement hard drive and fixing it would be covered, however it would take between 5-7 days!

Hopefully it will all be sorted by then.

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Instagram for Android

I’ve been a fan of Instagram (for iOS) for a long time. So I am pleased to see (finally) a version of Instagram for Android.

A beautiful way to share your world. It’s fast, free and fun!
Pick from one of several gorgeous filtered effects to breathe a new life into your mobile photos. Transform everyday moments into works of art you’ll want to share with friends and family.



Share your photos in a simple photo stream with friends to see – and follow your friends’ photos with the click of a single button. Every day you open up Instagram, you’ll see new photos from your closest friends, and creative people from around the world.



The app is not that easy to find in the Google Market Place so use this link which will take you direct to the app on your Android device.

The app as you might expect works in a similar vein to the iOS device. There are some subtle differences, but you’ll only notice them if you use both versions on a regular basis.

Instagram for Android #366photos

There are the same effects you find in the iOS app, and as my Google Nexus One has a pretty decent camera you get some good quality images.

If you have an Android device, well worth a look.

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So it’s not a Jelly Donut…

Well my prediction that the next version of Android, after Ice Cream Sandwich was to be called Jelly Donut was a little wide of the mark. It’s going to be called Jelly Bean.

Unlike earlier names, that were puddings, this name is a type of candy!

Makes it more difficult to guess the next name, the obvious choice is Key Lime Pie. However if Google are using candy names, then it could be anything…

Won’t be Krispy Kreme to Kit Kat though, as they are trademarks.

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Remove strangers from your photographs

This video is currently doing the rounds on the tech sites, so obviously I thought I would post it here.

No details on when it will be released, but I can imagine as you take the photograph it takes a few more and analyses what is moving and what isn’t and then combines the images into a single image with no strangers.

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Back of a lorry

As you start to look, you do start to find QR Codes in all manner of places. As well as junk mail, advertising, newspapers and chocolate bar wrappers, I recently found a QR Code on the back of a lorry!

Driving up the M5 I found myself behind a big lorry with a huge QR Code on the back. Taking the advice on the lorry to “scan with care” and using my iPhone in a windscreen mount, I was able to take a photograph and also use the Optiscan App to scan the code. When I later stopped at the services I checked the URL and found the QR Code belonged to a waste management company and the URL sent you to a mobile version of their website.

An interesting use of a QR Code, but was it any better than a URL or a short URL? To be honest yes, would be much easier for a passenger to scan in the code then trying to note down a complicated URL. This was in my opinion a pretty good use of a QR Code, but I did worry about people like me trying to scan them in, whilst driving.