The Technology Studio

As The Technology Studio launch into developing iphone and ipad applications I was recently given an iPad to play with. I made a point of trying to find good applications that are free. Here is a set of micro reviews complied for your pleasure.

Out of the 30 applications one is for the iPhone, but works on the iPad and two are web addresses that you have to add from the browser to your home screen, but then ‘look’ like applications.

[Disclaimer] any views are my own and are not be representative of the company. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Neither the company or I take any responsibility for damage or misuse arising from installing applications listed here. Some applications may not be available in territories outside the United Kingdom. Some applications may have changed price/functionality since the review was conducted.

Dragon Dictation: Voice based dictation for notes. Very basic but does do dictation without any training. Needs a training mode ! *FREE* 3 stars

Epicurious: Recipe book. In one word ‘lavish’, it is beautiful/responsive and has everything you need. Nice layout/options images, reviews and can store all the required ingredients in a shopping list. *FREE* 5 stars

Dictionary.com: Dictionary/Thesaurus. Just works, no obvious niggles. *FREE* 5 stars

IMDB: Internet Movie DataBase. Just works and looks brilliant. *FREE* 5 stars

AudioMemos: Record audio from the microphone. Although heavily ad supported it does do a good job. Just hit record, and rename your recording after. *FREE**AD Supported* 3 stars

The Guardian Eyewitness: Slide show of the best daily global photography. Stunning, must have. *FREE* 5 stars

Beatwave: Music creator: very fun, simple and has some useful configurations. *FREE* 4 stars

SkyGrid: News consolidation app. Bit quirky, nice way to waste five minutes catching up with news about things and stuff you might otherwise have missed. *FREE* 3 stars

Google Earth: Planet visualiser. Does exactly what you expect, fun and easy to use. Pinch zoom seems to rotate the image every time. *FREE* 5 stars

Toy Story: Interactive story book, with games and sing-a-longs. Kids adored it, great graphics easy to use, intermixes actual film and audio clips. *FREE* 5 stars

Saturation: Colour visualiser for the kuler Adobe community. Show the micro palettes either interactively or in a screen saver type experience. Fun but not very useful. *FREE* 3 stars

VAInfo: System information reference. Find your IP and MAC address, CPU type, OS, memory, battery, location, kernel etc etc. For geeks, it just works. *FREE* 5 stars

VTrace: Visual tracer. Enter an IP address or web server and get a route described by pins at the data centres the data travelled. For geeks, it just works. *FREE* 4 stars

Wink Target Clock: A full screen arty analogue clock. Imagine a shooting target composed of colourful concentric circles and then add hands and a second mechanism that changes the colours. *FREE* 3 stars

PCalc Lite: Calculator. Demo for more fully featured product. Very clear and easy to use, wish it had base 2 and base 16. *FREE**DEMO* 3 stars

Implode Nature!: Physics game. Demo, containing 10 levels where you place explosives and try and decimate chalk drawn structures. Completed the demo in less than 10 minutes. *FREE**DEMO* 3 stars

Bub Wider: Tilt game. Control a bubble by tilting the iPad collecting art and avoiding sugar babes. No indication it was only a demo. Basic premise, collect objects and avoid enemies,  but looks really nice. *FREE**DEMO* 3 stars

RJ Voyager: Audio mixer. Fun interactive audio toy for mixing up sounds. Comes with eight ’scenes’ that are a collection of samples each with their own parameters such as volume, echo, reality and filter to name but a few. For acid house, trance dance types. *FREE* 5 stars

Labyrinth 2 HD Lite: Tilt maze game. Demo containing 20 levels, some easy, some hard. Amazingly well presented and lots of fun, but I got neck ache looking down at the iPad as it had to be flat as neutral. At £4.99 I will consider purchasing the 300 level complete version. *FREE**DEMO* 5 stars

Pocket Pond HD: Interactive pond. Play with the fish in this relaxing interactive pond environment. Ambient sounds play, you can annoy the fish by touching the water or add lily pads, the only other thing is to drag through the water like all those water demos before it. Simple, beautiful, but a bit basic. Not really a demo but a new more advanced version called iPond with fishing, frogs and dragon flies is available. *FREE* 4 stars

Clinometer: Spirit level and bubble level. That’s it, a nicely presented bubble level (when the iPad is on its back) and spirit level when stood on end, very sensitive (a good thing). *FREE* 5 stars

Doodle Buddy: Drawing. Lots here for the kids, from multiple backgrounds to stamps with sound effects. As well as having the normal draw a colour pens, it has a smudge and also allows finished art to be saved as the iPad background. *FREE* 5 stars

PreSchoolMM: Memory match game. Another on for the kids. Match the pairs with colourful illustrations and when they match get a sound and/or voice over. At the end of each level you get three wacky sound toys to play with. Lots of variation on the cards, from animals to instruments to vehicles. *FREE* 5 stars

IdeaSketch: Mind mapping. Very simple, not very many options, but allows you to create simple lists with associations in either list or graph view. *FREE* 3 stars

WorldClockPro: Clock. Show multiple clocks from different time zones. Very few customisations and the LED view is not very readable. However the analogue clocks look very nice. *FREE* 3 stars

Hexius: Hexagon matching game. High speed touch matching with funky explosions sounds, graphics and fun power-ups. *FREE* 3 stars

Trundle HD: Rolling physics game. Tip the iPad left and right to get your ball rolling, tap the screen to jump. One of the better and more devious physics games. *FREE* 4 stars

Rafter HD: Drawing physics game. Draw blocks and balls at the top of the screen and let them fall down and activate the mine. Bit limited and hard in places. *FREE* 4 stars

BBC iPlayer: BBC catch-up service. Not an app but a URL that you can add to your home screen. Select programs from BBC channels from the previous week (or so) and watch streaming. *FREE* 4 stars (UK only)

[http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/bigscreen]

TVCatchup: Live streaming TV. Not an app but a URL that you can add to your home screen. Select one of 37 channels and watch streaming live. So not really any kind of catch-up service. You do have to register but its free to use. *FREE* 4 stars (UK only)

[http://ipad.tvcatchup.com]

I hope you enjoyed the list. Let us know your thoughts on these or recommend any others you have found.

Rob

We love sharing the success stories of our clients who partner with us to create fantastic solutions that are recognized throughout their industry. In the case of travel website GoLearnTo.com, the accolades just keep on coming with no less than four awards and nominations in the past month which include…

Now you’re talking…

The International Association of Language Centres (IALC) have voted GoLearnTo.com agency of the month recognising them as a leading language travel agency with a range of courses where you can learn Spanish in Spain or learn French in France and over 14 more languages worldwide.

 
The public have spoken…

For the 2^nd year running, GoLearnTo.com has been nominated for a British Travel award in the category ‘Best Holiday Experience Provider’ proving that the trend for learning holidays continues to get the public’s vote.

School’s have their say…

Language Travel Magazine readers which include language schools from over 30 countries worldwide have nominated GoLearnTo.com for ‘Best New Agency’. GoLearnTo.com have found a niche with language travel and are inspiring more of us to learn a language by combining languages with a unique range of fun activities such as cookery holidays in Italy, yoga holidays or even surfing and much more.

Guiding the way…

Last but not least, GoLearnTo.com has received a nomination for The Good Web Guide’s Website of the Year Award recognising websites that not only function well but inspire.

This proves once again how an aesthetically pleasing, functionally rich and easy to use website designed and developed by The Technology Studio with maps by Earthware can do for you.

The Technology Studio’s sister brand Earthware is an entrepreneurial company specialising in developing online mapping solutions and websites using the latest technologies. Silverlight is proving to be the future direction of the company which is why they are looking for a developer with experience in this technology but with a hunger to learn more both here and in other technologies and to apply this throughout the planning, designing and development process. Other required skills include strong full life cycle Asp.net, C# and WCF, whilst experience with Ajax frameworks, XSLT / XML and unit testing is desirable.

If you fit this description and are interested in applying for the position please email your CV explaining how you meet our requirements and giving example projects/URLs to recruitment@earthware.co.uk.

All applicants must be eligible to work in the UK. No contact from agencies please.

We are a small, but fast growing technology company with two brands: ‘The Technology Studio’ develops and manages websites (usually with both challenging back end and front end requirements) for clients across a number of industries including property, travel, media. ‘Earthware’ is a globally recognised interactive mapping specialist helping clients to bring their products and services to life using mapping.

We are looking for an experienced (3-7) years ASP.net developer to join our creative and professional team to develop client facing websites for a variety of clients. Day to day activities would include planning, designing and developing websites (both back end and front end) from client pitch to final delivery and testing.

Applicants need to demonstrate the following essential skills:

• Strong, full life cycle, Asp.net C#
• Excellent CSS / HTML / Javascript
• SQL Server / TSQL

The following skills / experience would also be advantageous:

• Ajax frameworks
• XSLT / XML
• Any web mapping experience
• Silverlight
• Unit testing
• ASP.net MVC

In return we can offer on target earning of up to £35,000. We also offer the opportunity to be part of a growing company with a unique culture built around integrity, enthusiasm, initiative, playing as a team and having fun. We actively encourage your personal and skills development but also look for people that are a bit different and embrace being part of an entrepreneurial, ‘we are in this together’ culture. This is not the place for ‘also rans’!

If you think you meet these requirements and are interested in applying for the position please email your CV to recruitment@earthware.co.uk.

All applicants must be registered to work in the UK.

NO CONTACT FROM AGENCIES

If you think you would be a great member of the team, we look forward to hearing from you.

Only a few weeks after Golearnto.com Wins Daily Mail Website of the Week it has now been awarded yet another honour.

The Independent, one of the UK’s most respected newspapers, has compiled a list of what it considers the 50 best travel websites and included in this prestigious list is www.golearnto.com.

The flexibility of the site is one thing mentioned in the short review, where you can search for “holiday courses according to destination, length, budget and type of trip: choose from sport, language, cooking, creative or well-being breaks.”

A second award for this site is something that The Technology Studio take great pride in. It also proves that when it comes to professional, functional travel websites we are experts in this field.

The head does what the head is designed to do whilst a leg does what a leg is designed to do, but they both work together (with other parts!) to form a whole body that functions.

This maybe a slightly random analogy to use to explain the launch of the Technology Studio, but let me explain.

Earthware (the head) was launched back in January 2007 with the aim of using the latest web based mapping technology to bring their clients products and services to life. Seeing the success the mapping had in achieving this we came to see the additional benefits of using the latest web development technologies to create a complete website that would further ensure that the clients services are brought to life and attractive to customers (the arm). The two parts have been happily working independently, and together, for some time and have both shown great successes under the overall branding of Earthware.

However, we believe that now is the time for the ‘head’ and the ‘arm’ to be recognised under their own names. Earthware will continue to be the brand name for the interactive mapping and will be the registered company name under which the web site development will operate, however, the web development will be known under its own branding name of The Technology Studio.

What makes The Technology Studio unique?

The Technology Studio’s web developers have many years of experience in designing, planning and building websites. Therefore, we have a comprehensive understanding of how a website should be designed and built to make it perform well, as well as of the processes we, and you, need to go through.

With all this then put into practice you will sign off the final site with a satisfied smile on your face knowing that you have a site that you, and we, are proud of; one which attracts and converts customers and one which hasn’t caused you, or us, any sleepless nights during the development process.

In order that we can make this happen for you:

1. We refuse to quote you for a website straight off - We will only put a quote together for once we, or another developer, have created a schematic or wireframe of the proposed site. We believe that it is only then that we are able to accurately estimate the time and cost involved in building your site.
2. You get what you pay for - Our schematics mean that the website spec is so detailed from the beginning of the build that you and we understand exactly what the requirements, costs, timings and expectations are, meaning that there will be no nasty surprises for either party along the way.
3. We don’t spend your money unless it makes you money - If we do cannot see how you will generate a financial return after spending money on us we will persuade you not to spend money on us.
4. We are in it for the long term - Sorry, once you’ve got us, you can’t get rid of us! We aim to get intimately involved in our client’s business and always challenge ourselves on how we can help them make money. If we see something that will benefit you, we will let you know.
5. You can call any of our clients - We could tell you what we want working with us to be like but only our clients can say what it is actually like. Therefore, we will send you our clients contact details (they have agreed to this!) so you can have a chat with them about their experiences of working with us.

What Does The Technology Studio Actually Do?

For a complete idea of what we do and to see some examples please visit The Technology Studio website, but in the mean time here’s a taster:

• Web design and development – create an effective website

   

• Online marketing – drive traffic to your website

   

• Software development – improve your businesses efficiency

   

• Technology consultancy – review your existing systems and processes

For more information about any of these services or The Technology Studio, please contact us and to find out about Earthware’s mapping solutions contact them here.