Cellar - your own wine cellar app

I read about this app a few weeks ago. One of the things I've often thought I'd want to use smartphones/PDA's for and never got round to it was track things like my wine cellar (LOL - my cellar consists of about 12 bottles in a rack under the stairs - but the turnover is fairly impressive!)

At the time it had been submitted to the App Store, but not yet approved, so I signed up to the Twitter feed (@cellarapp), and I've followed closely the run up to it's release today.

It costs 59p currently.

It doesn't have a database of wines, you've got to put your own stuff in here.

Graphically it's impressive. To keep track of your wines, you first choose the bottle shape and colour, foil colour and can take a picture of the label which is superimposed over the bottle. Then you add details of the wine. If you're a wine snob, this is a bit crude. The fields available are:

• Brand
• region
• Vintage
• Grape
• Price
• Notes
• Rating

There are some default options - in grape for example start typing "Cha..." and it'll prompt "Chardonnay".

But that's it. One you click "Done" the bottle is added to your "cellar". You can show if you have multiple bottles of one wine.

The other thing you have is the "Garage" where you can put empty bottles you want to keep for reference.

It's not a bad little app for a first version, but there are some things that in my opinion need to be changed or added. These are:

• It only works in landscape. I can see why, but certain aspects don't quite work well. For example:
  
• The cellar view only provides for an info bar line at the bottom of the screen when you click a bottle for nfo. One line isn't enough in most cases to see all the info, so you have to click "Edit" which rather defeats the purpose of a quick info view.
• It's got sound. When you open the app it prompts you to switch to landscape mode, and then the (presumably) "cellar" doors open with a noise reminiscent of the docking bay on the Death Star in Star Wars. There are also a few things and whistles as you add wine details. Ok in the comfort of your own home (though might annoy the wife), but if you want to add details of a wine whilst out dining in a fine restaurant (chance would be a good thing), you might get some odd looks from other diners or the sommelier!
• There's no "summary" option. The iPhone just cries out to give database apps a quick summary or report screen. Nothing doing here yet. If you want to see all your wine you have to scroll in landscape mode and click each bottle for info. so no easy way to see how many reds or whites you have left.

Having said all that, it's clean and easy to use. I'm sure it'll get updates soon.

I don't do fashion (generally) but browsing around the 'net the other week I was rather taken by some iPhone cases, or rather half cases - the kind that clip onto the back.

These are "Metallico" series cases apparently, and come in a range of sometimes gaudy, and sometimes nice (in my opinion) colours.

On the spur of the moment I splashed out, not realising at the time the site I was ordering from (Deal Sniper) was in Hong Kong. To be fair I got very prompt emails telling me I'd paid (inevitably), but also that my order had been dispatched, and a tracking link. About 2 and a bit weeks later, my case arrived.

I've gone for this rather fetching "Ice Blue" colour.

Let's not beat about the bush - it's plastic despite the name "metallico", but somehow it does look nice with a bit of a sheen to it, and doesn't really increase the size of the phone more than about 1mm all round.

I guess any protection is better than none. It clips on and fits very snugly and certainly doesn't feel like it will drop off at any point. With so many iPhones around now, it does set it apart a bit.

I've never really been a case man, so whether I'll persevere with this or not I don't know. For the moment, I'm sticking with it and I like it.

Mine cost me £9 plus P+P from Asia, but you may well find them more locally.

O2 Data Roaming - short and curlies

With all the talk about reduced costs for using your phone abroad, the carriers still have you by the short and curlies.

As I've previously indicated, the hotel we'll be staying at on holiday has wifi, but it'll cost 3 euros an hour. Not overly extortionate, but no use if I need/want data when out and about.

In the end I bit the bullet and have taken out an O2 data bolt on. But there's a catch - the cost of the bolt on relates to your billing date.

Therefore, if I want to start it from my next billing date I'm already on holiday. If I start it now, I'm being charged for data I'm not using because I haven't gone away yet.

Had a long and complicated chat with the O2 people about this. I think I'm just going to have to avoid using data for the first few days of my holiday (or use the hotel wifi), after which I should be good to go.

Why is this such a pain? I also wonder, with so many smartphones in use these days, particularly iPhones, how many people will not think about this and come back to horrendous bills?

Ashes (low) lights

Mini and I have spent a day (well two thirds of a day) at the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff watching Australia tighten their already strong hold on the first Ashes Test.

I got these tickets for a Father's Day present (lucky me), but the forecast for today was dreadful, so we turned up early armed with brolly, raincoats and glasses to read the very small print on the refund policy in the event of a curtailed day's play.

However, though the clouds threatened early on, the rain, forecast to arrive about 12pm didn't, and we were treated to the Aussie batters North and Haddin, showing England how it should be done. Both reached impressive centuries, and after lunch with brightening skies they took the England attack apart. Ricky "Punter" Ponting, the Oz slip, duly declared when they were zillions ahead, leaving England with a tricky seven or so overs to bat before tea. By now, the rain was threatening. TMS commentator Jonathan Agnew who I follow on Twitter (@aggerscricket) was tweeting first that rain ad reached Cork, then Swansea (by watching it's progress on the immensely useful raintoday.co.uk), by which time I'd had a call from my wife in Barry (about 6 miles as the crow flies) saying it was heaving down.

The lights came on just before tea to stave off the dreaded "bad light" scenario (why didn't anyone do this before?), but just as tea came round with England already 2 down - one plumb LBW (Cook) and one shocker of an LBW decision (Bopara) - Billy Doctrove that was a horrendous decision - the rain came, and it stayed.

That was it - a lot of wet cricket fans making their way home. Me & Mini have had a great day - first ever visit to a Test for either of us (thanks Anne), and we got 4 hours of play in when I expected no more than an hour. Now will watch on the box tomorrow and hope England can bat all day to save the game. I'm not optimistic.

Palm Pre Christmas?

As has been widely reported around the mobile and technical blog world today, it appears the Palm Pre is coming to the UK in time for Christmas. I got my details from the very fine PDA247, where Shaun as always is on the ball.

It seems the Pre will be offered on O2, which is good and bad.

For me it's good, because as an existing O2 customer, if I decide to "upgrade" to a Pre when the time comes to renew my contract (May 2010) it saves messing about porting numbers. Incidentally, don't start suggested the Pre is a downgrade compared to the iPhone!

The bad side is, that for many people having a device tied to a specific carrier puts them off - either because they don't want to use that carrier, or as is the case with some carriers - although I don't think O2 is one of them - having the carrier branding slapped on an otherwise aesthetically pleasing device.

I'm not as convinced about the problems of being tied to carriers as some. The more phones like this (i.e. smartphones) come into general use - rather than being the domain of the businessman or gadget lovers, the less of an issue it is. Do you get people worrying overly about whether a particualr feature phone is unlocked or tied to a carrier? Not so sure.

Wifi access/Data roaming (again)

I've previously posted about data roaming charges, but a couple of days ago emailed the hotel we'll be staying at in Kefalonia, to ask them how flexible their wifi access is. Often, with hotels, it's only via a locked down PC.

The hotel emailed me back today and confirmed that I would indeed be able to access the wifi via my iPhone (or laptop if I had one) for 3 euros an hour. Now I'm not going to be doing much browsing whilst over there, but this will be ample for me to collect my (personal) emails, post to the blog and maybe a daily Twitter update.
Even if I used an hour's worth every day for a fortnight (which I won't) it'll work out cheaper than an O2 Data 50 bolt on, which would set me back £50.

Hopefully that's sorted me out now on that front. Whilst I was at it I asked them to confirm we had a room with a balcony and sea view, which they've done. Oh, bliss - can't wait to watch the sun setting over the Ionian sea....might even post a pic on this blog!

City Legends match

John commented on my post below about the first match at the new Cardiff City Stadium, and I'm glad to say he's shamed me into going.

I'm blogging this from my new season ticket seat in the Grange Stand.

View is perfect, stadium is perfect and even the rin has stopped (temporarily)!

Mini Stats an Little Miss Stats are with me too.

Here's the view from out seats.

Thanks John!




-- Post From My iPhone

Astraware Solitaire 59p in App Store

If you're a fan of card games, and particularly solitaire, you could do worse than check out Astraware's Solitaire for the iPhone, newly released into the App Store at the bargain price of 59p.

I have this on the Palm platform and it was great. Astraware have ported this to the iPhone where the increased screen size have enabled rich graphics to complement 12 really playable solitaire games.

I don't play games a lot on my iPhone, and those I do are relatively simple, but the key is they're eminently playable. This looks like one of those, and well worth 59 of my hard earned pence.

Thanks to Astraware's Alison Barclay for giving the heads up on this on Twitter (follow Alison - @AlsiB).

Live shipping map

One of my sad chums sent me this, as he thought I'd be interested. I am!

How cool is this? A live world shipping map. You get a Google map style interface littered with graphics denoting ships in real time. Hovering your mouse over one of the ship icons tells you the name of the vessel, speed and direction. Clicking one brings up an archive photo of the vessel, displays the flag it's registered under, and details such as breadth, length, speed, direction, status (underway etc), destination, ETA, draught, and links to open further details.

There are different graphics for ferries, cargo vessels, tugs, high speed vessels, yachts etc. It also shows navigational points of interest such as oil platforms, and VTS (vessel traffic services) stations (I just Googled that, I didn't know it!)

Absolutely fascinating. I spent a good hour or so last night clicking around the worls to look at stuff, especially close to home around the Welsh coast (not much apart from a few ferries and tankers!).

If you like stamp collecting (I don't), you'll love this!

New City Stadium opener

Cardiff City play the first match at the new stadium tomorrow when a "Legends" match sees some old City heroes wheeled out to play.

I'm sure it will be an emotional moment for many, but I won't be there. I just can't get fired up about these sort of things generally, and anyway I should be supporting the cricket club's 2nd XI who are playing at home (chairmanly duties and all that).

The real business doesn't kick off until 8th August as far as I'm concerned, and even that's still in the middle of the cricket season!


Anyway, as I'm on the subject of the beautiful game (football), City have made a few signings this week. In come Mark Hudson (Charlton) and Liverpudlian Gerrard, though sadly it's not Stevie G, but cousing Anthony from the mighty Walsall (I jest of course). Also looking likely is Motherwell's Paul Quinn. Well hopefully they'll stop the goals being scored. Ross McCormack our prolific striker has penned another contract (thank Gawd for that), sol hopefully he & Chops will bag hatfuls of goals, though it would be nice to have a striker above 3ft 4in in the team. All we need now is some midfielders, because the one's we've got (possibly Ledley and Rae apart) aren't up to much.






Anthony Gerrard & Paul Quinn

Worst ever football kits

This story over at Sky News, not a site I normally frequent, took my eye.

It's a trawl through some of the worst football kits in recent history. There's not a lot, I'm sure more could have been found, but of those featured (and there are some pretty dire ones, I think my vote goes to the one David Seaman was wearing.

iPhone Apps

I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of every app on my iPhone (those that are currently installed as opposed to those I've ever downloaded, and rate them. Fairly subjective and relatively lengthy post of course, but here goes. It's in screen order rather than importance or effectiveness order:

• Messages (default app): 9/10. Great now OS3.0 provides forward capability. Just wish it had a character count in it. Used a lot.
• Calendar (default app): 6/10. Used a lot. No real alternative. Fails for me on having no week view, no ability to create private appointments or not being able to categorise appointments or letting any other 3rd part app integration. Disappointing after using a Palm.
• Twittelator Pro: 8/10. Great Twitter client. Used a fair bit. Better than Twitterific and Twitterfon which I used before.
• Notebook by Appigo: 9/10 See previous post. Good notes client.
• Clock (default app): 9/10. Does what it says on the tin. Alarm and countdown occasionally useful.
• Evernote: 5/10. See previous post. Potentially good, some issues
• eWallet by Ilium: 8/10. Good electronic wallet. I used versions on Palm and WM devices.
  
• Newsstand: 8/10. Good RSS reader (best I've found on iPhone)
• Photos (deafult app): 7/10 Does what it's supposed to.
• Camera (default app): 7/10 Does what it's supposed to. Bit fiddly I find
• Settings - not going there. Use it to fiddle settings. Works
• Contacts (default app): 8/10 Works for me. Some improvements with OS3.0
• Deluxe Weather: 7/10. Very nice interface, forecast and current weather a bit out sometimes
• Calculator (default app): 8/10 Works
• Documents to Go: 7/10. Be better when Excel editing support arrives
• Maps (default app) 8/10. Handy
• Mail (default app): 8/10. Be better if you could access multiple accounts from one screen
• Ipod (default app): 9/10 What more is there to say?
• Safari (default app): 9/10 After Blazer on the Palm, anything's better! Actually it's quite good.
• Phone (default app): 8/10 works for me. Not sure it's the app's fault but I occasionally miss calls
  
• ToDo by Appigo: 5/10. One of those things you think you need, but I rarely use in practice.
• App Store (default app). Works for me. Neat
• BlogPress: 7/10. Decent enough blogging app. Some minor niggles
• Facebook: 9/10. Not a huge Facebook fan, but this works well.
• eReader: 8/10 Only just got this. Struggled with ebooks before, but thought I'd give it another go
• Voice memo (default app): 6/10 New in OS3.0. Another one of those apps you think will be useful but never use.
• eBay: 9/10. very handy for tracking sales I've done. Neat.
• Converter: 9/10. Converts everything I've needed to!
• YouNote Lite: 7/10. Handy note tool. Allows photos, freehand text, text.
• iTunes (default app): Never used it so can't rate it
• YouTube: 8/10. Great but not used a lot
• Trunk (notes): 5/10. A wikipedia style note app where you create links. Never got the hang of it.
• Countdown: 8/10 How many days to Christmas/holiday etc. Does what it says on the tin.
• Mobile Linked Me: 7/10. Instant messneger app. Don't use it a lot, but when I do it works OK
• Google Earth: 7/10 Better on the desktop
• Twitterific: 6/10 Prefer Twitterlator
• WeatherPro: 8/10 Forecasts ok but not fussed on interface
• Moby: 8/10 Used for my Tweet picture posts
• Tipulator: 5/10. A bit twee but invaluable when there's 17 of you tring to split a bill and give a tip!
• Tap Expense: 6/10 Can't find a decent expense app. This is as close as I've got
• Shazam: 10/10 Just for the "wow" factor, being able to identify just about any piece of music gives it maximum
• Around me: 6/10 Find out what services, pubs, garages etc are close - providing they've got an internet presence or have subscribed to the directory!
• Lastminute.com Greek phrases: 7/10 For my hols! Volume is very quiet, but handy.
• Photogene: 10/10 Great for touching up you photos
• Kai pond:9/10 Pointless, but graphically great
• Google: 6/10 Installed because I though I should. Never use it
• Sol Free: 6/10 Fairly basic solitaire. Very small graphics
• Bejeweled 2: 8/10 If you like that sort of thing. My daughter does.
• Cro Mag Rally: 6/10. Greatgraphics. Occasionally crashes iPhone
• Notes (deafult app): 4/10 Basic. Never used it really
• Arcade Bowl: 9/10 Very addictive game
• WordPop: 10/10 Possibly the best mobile game ever?
• Stocks (deafult app). Never used it so can't rate it
• Weather: (default app). 2/10 Basic

So there you have it. That's what's on my phone.

Notes and the iPhone

I'm still not sure about Evernote for the iPhone. The principle is sound - make text notes, take photo notes or voice notes, sync them and have it all available on your iPhone.

Trouble is, to sync you need wifi access, which you might not have when out and about. I don't know if it's just me, but I have a problem when trying to view notes on my iPhone when there's no wifi access, where I can see the thumbnail of the note but when I open it, I just get a blank page. Bizarre. Thers a thread on the Evernot support page that suggests deleting the app and re-installing, but that's not overly convenient. I hope a bug fix omes soon.

Meantime, the best other note app by far that I've found is Appigo's Notes which I've mentioned before.

It doesn't do photo notes, but it's got a great, clean and simple interface, and syncs (without wifi) to Toodledo. You can format your notes with bold, italics, bullets, headings, and change alignment. You can also email your notes, and if you have Appigo's ToDo also, you can create new to do tasks from notes. Think of it as a souped up Palm "Memo" app and you won't go far wrong. It's the best and easiest solution I've found so far. The integration with Toodledo, especially when using a desktop, and the ability to export notes (and to dos) into a variety of formats including CSV, XML, text and allegedly Palm Tasks makes it a very valuable app and one that should ensure you'll never lose any valuable notes.