As web designers we know this can have a mixed blessing – removing all our hard working banner adverts and promotional links.

However, if a web page isn’t communicating, it isn’t working. The new Readablity enhances this functionality across a number of platforms now.

This short film shows you how…

Readability — Read comfortably anytime, anywhere. from Arc90 on Vimeo.

Having a Readability account is helpful too. You can save pages for later or keep an archive, set to display in your personal format at anytime.

Check out Readability. See a simple idea having grown.

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Readability has changed

Offering users 10Gb of free storage space, with unlimited uploads and downloads and a maximum file size of 2Gb we really like this new service.

The sign on is simple and there are desktop apps, as well as mobile versions and browser extensions. A full suite of alternative methods to access your files, any files, and to share them with others.

This short film shows you the Minus approach…

The access controls from your desktop menu bar work well and you can ‘turn the lights off’ on the file display for stored items to make reading and focus on content easier.

Fast, easy to use and with bags of facilty. If you are looking for a drop and share service online, with the ability to integrate into your existing kit – great if you are on the road, then we really like Minus – the plus storage and sharing solution we think.

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Minus – simple storage and sharing

An impressive set of statistics are offered that show how Microsoft have dramatically reduced energy and water consumption at their data centres. Like Google, Microsoft have used standard shipping containers to bolt together strings of processing packs to enhance an installation, quickly bringing their server racks online.

Where is the cloud? In the Dublin data centre for Microsoft if you are in Europe, very securely guarded and with vast teams around the globe to provide your support.

The film is a little dry in terms of presentation, but very clear in how Microsoft maintain security integrity for your data and how they dedicate time, energy and capital in reducing environmental impact.

That’s how the ‘cloud’ works.

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The Cloud – how does it work?

Google yesterday made public transport information for London available on Google Maps.

You can now use Google Maps to navigate your way around 18,000 bus stops and more than 250 underground stations. If your in town for a conference or just using some spare time to enjoy the city this is a great new feature.

Let’s say you’re at Trafalgar Square, and you want to visit Madame Tussauds. With a simple directions search, you’ll see all the possible public transport connections. In Maps, click “Get directions” in the left-hand panel, and then the train icon to see public transport directions. Enter your departure location next to A, and your destination next to B.

These can be either street addresses or names of popular places, businesses or restaurants. When you’re done, click the “Get directions” button and suggestions for your trip will appear below.

Available on both Google Maps and Google Maps for mobile, Android device users have not been forgotten. Using the new transit Navigation beta service, your device will alert you to get off the bus or train, or when to make any transfers on your journey,

See the Google Maps for Android in the Android Market here.

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Google Maps get on the Underground…

You can zoom, pan and refocus on and around an image, post capture. You can also ‘play’ the functions with one click.

if you think static jpegs on a web site are just the beginning of the digital photography revolution, then Lytro seems to prove your point.

Wherever Lytro go with their technology, then web development and image resources online are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

Have a look at the emerging Lytro web site and see what we mean.

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Liking Lytro

It isn’t new any more, but if you haven’t checked out Think Quarterly from Google UK you should do so.

As a small business with constant pressure on time to service our client base, if we had unlimited resources then Think Quarterly would be the style and content for a pretty near perfect online newsletter/magazine style publication to engage with our user base.

Produced by the Google UK team Think Quarterly offers readers intellectual insights into the latest technological developments, as well as think pieces about change in both infrastructure and the philosophy of the web – beautifully filtered through a mesh of ideas around business and communication.

Our favourite article in the current issue is on Open Data. An article from Nigel Shadbolt highlights the opportunities available to make the word a clearer, better understood place using public data sources.

Not directly focused on technology, but on what analysis can be achieved with it.

He gives a mention to Schooloscope, which enables parents and carers to see how their school is doing by making performance data clear.

Similarly, oh that every local authority should have published its spending data on spotightonspend.

You can flip Think Quarterly pages online, download a copy as a pdf, subscribe by RSS feed, follow the team on Twitter or on your mobile.

Clean, clear thinking and concise. Think Quarterly.

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Think Quarterly – think Google UK

This info-graphic, courtesy of the Android Development Team, stunningly shows how rapid the growth of Google Android technology and hand sets has spread around the globe.

The data in the image sequences shows firstly how global growth emerged, followed by a detailed mapping of the U.S. and then Europe and finally Asia.

It still remains striking, on the global sequence, how under developed the southern hemisphere remains even up to 2010 – despite mobile handsets being the premier web connect utility in this part of the world.

No one can disbelieve the maxim that ‘…mobile is the future’.

You can find the Third Sector Web home page here.

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Android growth!

The World Wildlife Fund has produced a new file format – the WWF file.

This format can be generated by downloading the free software from the WWF site here. This adds a “save as wwf” driver to your printer dialogue window.

You can use the format and open the file in every way similar to pdf’s on your system, but with the proviso that the document cannot be printed.

The WWF also have a great set of guidelines for saving trees.

These are the WWF print golden rules…or rather, the no-print rules. Helping you go green more effectively.

Follow the golden rule: think before you print. Pushing the print button is too easy…and wasteful. So the next time you are about to press that button, ask yourself the golden rule of saving paper: Do I really need to print this?

Use both sides of the sheet of paper. This is a real easy way of reducing your paper consumption by 50%. Set your printer or copier’s defaults to double sided. Select one-sided printing only when really needed.

Avoid printing out single line e-mails or unnecessary copies of documents – again just follow the golden rule and ask yourself whether you really need to the print.

Use technology – as well as the .wwf file format, email, internet, intranets and document scanners can radically reduce paper use, while also saving you time and money. Remember electronic media also has environmental impacts, including the carbon footprint of equipment production and operation. So switch to renewable green electricity.

Recycle the paper you have and ask for recycled paper products. Collect the paper you use and then reuse where possible (print again on the other side if you printed on one side only or use it for note paper). And when you do have to buy new paper make sure it is recycled.

Save paper in your workplace. Reductions of 20% or more are possible in most offices. So ask your office manager what they are doing to reduce paper. Remind them that saving paper isn’t just about protecting the environment; it can also save them a lot of money!

Save as WWF – save a tree.

You can find the home page of Third Sector Web here.

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WWF – a no print file format

If this sounds a bit esoteric, what Simon Harriyott has created is a map which illustrates the growth of the British railway system from 1786 to 2017.

If you visit the geStation page, just press play and let the timeline and location sequence start.

We thought it was interesting that both Ireland and the West Country had quite late development of their rail infrastructure. An effect you can see easily as the map sequence unfolds.

Useful for techies and historians we thought!

You can find the home page of Third Sector Web here.

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Technology and history and railways…

We have always sung the praises of OpenOffice and indeed use this software suite as our default business application across all our sites and services.

A new fork of the OpenOffice.org project is available for download. LibreOffice looks and feels familiar to OpenOffice users, but tempts new users with promises of much lighter code in the back office, with added functionality too.

In LibreOffice you can still export documents to pdf with one click, but can use the import pdf extension to open pdf’s for editing.

The new Calc function can handle a million lines of data, and there are additional functions available across the whole suite. Including the ability to edit SVG files – for those of you who use graphics in the Draw suite regularly.

We have loaded a test version of LibreOffice onto one of our busy laptops and it seems to be functioning well (alongside an existing OpenOffice set up).

It seems to load faster, is still free to download and the new ‘task ribbon’ on the top of the pages is clear and intuitive, we thought.

If you were thinking of making the move to OpenOffice.org perhaps you should try LibreOffice too.

Cleaner code, faster loading and enhanced functionality. What document creation is all about.

You can download LibreOffice here.

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LibreOffice now available