Bird Stream

This is a really well executed app from the Met Office. An absolutely must for commuting cyclists.

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I've been using the Nexus One for a couple of weeks now and I really like it.
The first thing you notice is how reassuringly solid it feels in your hand. It reeks of a build quality not seen in previous Android devices.

Next is the speed, it is very quick and responsive.Lag is the enemy of a a great touch screen experience, without physical feedback frustration soon overtakes not knowing whether the button has actually been pressed.

Gmail integration is excellent, my work Exchange email sync'ed without a problem. Bit of an issue with syncing my OSX address book to Google ending up with multiple versions of some contacts. Not sure where the fault lies for this one though.

Multi-tasking is ace. I love the fact Seesmic can pop a notification on the bar when someone @'s me. Being able to flick between apps and return back to where you were is a refreshing change.

As a phone it seems to be far more reliable with better call quality than the iPhone, though I am comparing an iPhone on O2 and the Nexus on Vodafone.
This is definitely an excellent device.

However, the browsing experience is where it starts to the fall down. The browser just isn't as polished Safari. Tapping on areas to zoom is clunky and not as accurate. The font rendering seems amateur.
There is little pleasure in browsing which is a criminal shame with such a beautiful screen and Google's browser aspirations.

Browsing is also where the lack of multi-touch is suddenly a real problem. Who on earth thought that the little zoom-in and zoom-out buttons were acceptable in the modern age.

The iPhone has shown us the power of multi-touch for consuming and interacting with web content. Like sitting forward in a plane, there 'aint no going back.

The real abomination though is the maps app. Pinch-zoom was made for mapping. In 2010 any mapping application that doesn't support it is frankly useless to me.

These gripes are all solvable through software updates, Google having just announce multi-touch support in the first software update for the device.

What isn't resolvable are two other key reasons I'm holding out for the next iPhone.

The accuracy of the multi-touch screen is good but not as good as the iPhone. It makes typing just that bit more awkward. True, the word prompting when typing is far better than the single guess of the iPhone OS so you generally have to type less but I make mistakes which makes me less inclined to type.
I'm not a power text user, if so I'd probably still be using a BlackBerry, but when I use it I want it to work.

The real killer, and for me what Apple have got so right, are the apps. I just can't get the apps on Android that I can get on the iPhone. Apps that my life now depends on (not literally, though sometimes it feels like it).
In the Nexus One and the iPhone are comparing not phones but mobile computing appliances. Appliances need applications and Apple has got this so right compared to Google.

These appliances no longer exist on their own. Their power comes from the ecosystem that surrounds and supports them.

Google need to up their game if they're serious about mobile computing.

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Very nicely done

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Like much of the tech community on twitter I was left a little non-plussed by the launch of the iPad but having slept on it I think this could be another killer segment for Apple.
A while ago I bought a netbook (Dell Mini 10v) and installed OSX with the help of the community on http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/.

It solved many problems, giving me a lightweight email and internet device I could take anywhere and was synced with my main machine without fuss. At £200 I was also less precious about it than my MacBook Pro.

In use though it's been too much of a compromise. It just felt small and claustrophobic using it. There was no joy and the trackpad was a real pain to use. Couple that with the enormous battery I had to use to get close to a days use out of it and it really wasn't the portable lovely befitting OSX.

The iPad looks like the answer to my original requirement, lightweight, fast, excellent battery life and automatically synced. Perfect.

Well almost.
I'm really surprised that they didn't include at least an SD card reader in the device let alone a single USB port for exchanging pictures and other files. It is running iWork after all.

Having to keep a couple of connectors in your bag really isn't elegant and in truth is going to be downright irritating.
I understand that it's more about content consumption rather than creation but this device is perfect for taking on trips that don't warrant the full laptop paraphernalia. I want to take pictures and share them or update documents and give them to people.
Yes you can email or exchange over Bonjour but that is a whole lot more hassle than transporting on a the now near ubiquitous USB drives.

I'm not sure I'll be able to resist buying one and I will certainly get the camera connection kit but that will be grudgingly and will tarnish the whole experience.

But, I don't think the story ends there.

The iPad is a great alternative to netbooks, despite it missing a couple of slots, but it also sports the biggest multi-touch screen on the market.

Couple that 10 inches of tactile gorgeousness with the ingenuity of the app developers already working on the iPhone platform and some amazing use cases and applications are going to materialise over the coming months.

I wouldn't be surprised if much of the innovation comes out of the enterprise sector. Tablet PCs never took off because they were bulky and still tied to the desktop metaphor.
The iPhone OS is built to touch, couple that with the lightweight portability and suddenly it looks like the team at Apple have delivered on Bill Gate's vision.

I for one am quite excited and devoting offline brain cycles to exploring the possibilities.

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If the tablet is going to redefine how content is being delivered, turning the existing concept of magazines into interactive delights, it would make sense to deliver a purchasing experience.

I read a lot of cycling magazines that contain reviews of wonderful products that I invariably MUST have right at that moment.

What if Apple, as part of a new content platform, enabled purchasing of these items, via the iTunes store.

I could buy that wicked new Chainset or spangly new jacket with my existing iTunes account.

That would be a game changing prospect.

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need a a CNAME mapping to /cloudapp.net as described here: http://blog.smarx.com/posts/custom-domain-names-in-windows-azure

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is to use an environment variable.

The PowerShell Task is a subclassed Executable Task which loads a series of environment variables before the task is executed. You then just need to access those in your PowerShell script via the $Env variable.

In my case
$label = $Env:CCNetLabel

Scroll down to the Notes section of this page http://confluence.public.thoughtworks.org/display/CCNET/Executable%2BTask for a full list of the environment variables that are set.

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One of the pre-requisites I had for using Azure was that it could be deployed automatically as part of an integration and deployment process.

A quick scan through the Labs in the Windows Azure Platform Kit, which by the way have been an excellent resource so far, gave me Windows PowerShell as the option.

It proved pretty easy to get up and running. Here's my quick start guide.

Download PowerShell and the Azure CmdLets

If you're running anything other than Windows 7 you'll need to download and install PowerShell from here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926139.

Next you need the Azure Power Shell CmdLets available here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/azurecmdlets. Once you've downloaded and extracted the scripts, you then just need to execute the startHere script to get them installed.

Script the deployment

I won't regurgitate the full instructions as it's best to read through the Lab Deploying and Monitoring Applications in Windows Azure - Exercise 2 - Using PowerShell to Manage Windows Azure Applications in the Windows Azure Platform Kit.

Is also worth checking reading about them on Ryan Dunn's blog: http://dunnry.com/blog/WindowsAzureServiceManagementCmdLets.aspx

This is the script I ended up with

 
Add-PSSnapin AzureManagementToolsSnapIn

$service = "<service_name>"
$sub = "<subscription_id>"
$cert = Get-Item cert:\CurrentUser\My\"<thumbnail>"
$package = ""<package_file>""
$config = ""<config_file>""

if ($args.Length -eq 1)
{
	$label = $args[0]
} 
else
{
	$label = "unknown"
}

/* 
    If the staging deployment doesn't exist, this will create it
*/
/*
New-Deployment -serviceName $service -subscriptionId $sub -certificate $cert -slot staging -package $package -configuration $config -label $label |
Get-OperationStatus –WaitToComplete
*/

/*
    Upgrade the current staging deployment
*/
Get-HostedService -serviceName $service -subscriptionId $sub -certificate $cert |
Get-Deployment -slot staging |
Set-Deployment -package $package -label $label |
Get-OperationStatus –WaitToComplete

/*
    Set to running
*/
Get-HostedService -serviceName $service -subscriptionId $sub -certificate $cert |
Get-Deployment -slot staging |
Set-DeploymentStatus running |
Get-OperationStatus –WaitToComplete

/*
    Move staging to production, this will actually swap them over
*/
Get-HostedService -serviceName $service -subscriptionId $sub -certificate $cert |
Get-Deployment -slot staging |
Move-Deployment |
Get-OperationStatus –WaitToComplete

You'll note that I have two options for the deployment New-Deployment and Set-Deployment.

When you start off, Azure has nothing in either of the staging or production slots so you have to use New-Deployment.

When you create the first staging deployment then move to production, this empties the staging slot.

When you run through the process again, with New-Deployment, the Move swaps the deployments over so staging then has the first deployment and production the second.

At this point you can then start upgrading the staging deployment with Set-Deployment

You can of course avoid all this by just doing two manual deploys before automating it.

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